Crafting Vision Statements: A Neurodiverse Entrepreneur's Guide

Welcome to the Overgivers Anonymous Podcast. My name is Angela Mondor, also known as the Geeky Girl. In this podcast, we're going to be talking about some amazing things to help you get over overgiving. Hi, and welcome to this episode of the Overgivers Anonymous Podcast. My name is Angela Mondor. I'm also known as the Geeky Girl. Welcome. I wanted to talk to you today about something lots of people in business believe is important, and I believe it's important as well. I just think that the way that we see this sometimes can be really difficult, especially when it comes to our neurodiverse brains. The concept of having vision and mission statements as a business— if you've worked corporately, you've probably, you know, come across this at some point. Even if you've gone into businesses, it's possible maybe you've seen their big posters on their walls that tells you what their vision and mission statements are and, you know, what they do as a business and those kinds of things. Sometimes it can feel kind of overwhelming to see that or to try to live up to, maybe is more of the idea of living up to this idea of what these things are and how they impact your business. You might think maybe your business is too small for one, or maybe you think that you're not important enough. Whatever it is that's stopping you, I'd like you to get that shit out of the way. Your vision and mission statement, if you just roll it down really succinctly, Your mission is what you're currently doing. What mission are you currently on? What are you currently doing? The vision is where do you want to go? Straightforward. It's like planning, only it gives you something to anchor yourself to, anchor your ideas and ideals to. Think of it like your mission statement could be your word of the year. A lot of us will say, oh, this is my statement of the year, or this is my word of the year. It becomes a guiding truth as to how you want to move forward in your year. And of course, a vision statement is more like, here's where we intend to head. So when we do create these things, when we spend time putting together these ideas or to craft these ideas into images or words and to actually put energy towards them, you bring life to these ideas. So when you do this, you actually empower your own voice, your unique voice. It allows you to align it to who you are, what you do, and where you want your business to grow. The most important thing I think for all of us as neurodiverse human beings is to make sure that we're not trying to do something just because we should. I talk about shoulding on ourselves a lot. There's this idea that, oh, this other business does it that way so I should do it that way, or this is the way the business have to do it so I should do it that way. Instead, because you have a unique way of seeing the world and Whether you're neurodiverse or you're neurotypical, it doesn't matter. Everybody has different experiences they bring to the planet with them. And we evolve these ideas as we learn and grow through the things that happen in our lives. Neurotypical have a little bit of a different edge on this because it's just that we see the world a little differently than perhaps a neurotypical, but there's the same energy that comes to these sorts of ideas. When you are able to craft something that is truly unique to you, where, what your mission is, what direction you're heading, and then of course, you know, where you are moving in the future. When you actually bring this down and make it your own, you can embrace your unique perspective and it can empower you to make decisions based on what you are trying to accomplish. It becomes easier to say, oh, just because they do it doesn't mean to say I should do it that way. It allows you that authenticity inside your own business and your own drive and your own passions. Now, when you translate Passion into purpose. So, we can have a passion for what we do. This drives me every day. This is my mission. This is what I want to do. And then, of course, that whole concept of vision. I want to get there. The passion of those things is different than the actual purpose or creating a system that's actually going to get you to those places. And when you're looking at this vision statement concept of like, where do you want to head? Some people may say you should have a 10-year plan, you should have a 5-year plan. Throw that out because that doesn't matter. What you should do is find out which one makes you most comfortable. You want to be uncomfortable, but not so uncomfortable that it causes you to stop. Have you ever felt like, oh, I have this thing to do and it's so huge and I just can't get it done, it's just massive, and then you finally force yourself to get it done and realize that it was something that only took you 2 minutes? I'm certain that you have, especially if you're neurodiverse. You're with me. This happens. A lot of that is because of the overwhelm. It's not because you're lazy. It's not because, you know, you're, you know, stupid or any of those kinds of things. It's simply an overwhelmed perspective. So you become overwhelmed by the task. If your vision is too overwhelming, it's going to be difficult for you to actually put the actions in place to make it through to the vision. A lot of that comes from the breakdown, putting those things into actionable items so that you can actually accomplish the things. Think about it this way. What's something you do all the time? Maybe, maybe you have a special meal that you make every time and you don't need a recipe for it because you know exactly how to do it. You've done it over and over again and it's really easy. You just make it. But then somebody comes to you and they're like, hey, I would like to learn how to make— oh, I don't know, what's a complicated meal? progies, I don't know, and from scratch. And you're like, oh, I've never done progies from scratch, I don't know what that's about. And they're like, oh, no problem, there's this friend I have and we're all getting together to do progies together, we're going to do it together. And then you don't have to worry about how, you don't have to worry about any of those things, you just need to show up and somebody else is going to show you step by step how to make it happen. That's easier because now you don't have to go, what do I do first, what's the next step, and you don't have to worry about faltering. Now you get together as a group a few times. You've done pierogies a few times. You've written the instructions down. Now you're going to try it at home. Well, you've had the experience. You see what the instructions are from step to step, and maybe it's going to take you longer than you would have if you'd done it with those people because you're doing it on your own. But having those instructions now allow you to make it easier. Okay, and it's step by step. If you just said peel the potatoes and make the pierogies, there's not enough steps in there. It becomes overwhelming. What do I do after I boil the potatoes? So you have to break down these things into smaller, more manageable pieces that allow you to be able to actually take action. So that's the difference, is being able to take your passion and turn it into the pieces so you can actually be purposeful while you're taking action. Okay. Your mission statement. I hope I encourage you to include inclusivity into your mission statement. What is it that you are trying to do, and how is that going to impact the people around you? This mission that you're on, What is it that you are trying to accomplish? You're owning a business. Part of the business is to earn money, sure. But what else is it going to do? How is your work going to impact the world? And what kind of impact are you going to have? Who are you going to impact? What is it going to look like when you impact those people? And how is that going to then ripple effect impact other people? So having these ideas about what your world is impacting, it allows you to reflect your own gifts as well inside here, which is what our neurodiverse brains are. It's a massive space of a lot of gifts. And being able to really hone in on them and say, hey, I can see that I am gifted because when I do this, it's going to impact these people and these people are going to impact these people. And you'll be able to see that impact. Think about like dropping a pebble in the water and you see the ripples go out, right? What is the impact that you're having? And that comes from your mission statement. What am I doing today that I'm— what's my mission? How is it impacting people? And then as I grow as a business, Looking forward now, what is that vision on how I'm going to impact the business and people around me later, right? So, what are you doing today? What does that impact? And then, you know, moving forward, what impact am I going to have with this new vision that I'm trying to accomplish? Your vision, it doesn't have to be grandiose. It doesn't have to be a 10-year or 5-year or 1-year. I would say that it'd be great if you could get yourself to a 1-year. That'd be fantastic. It doesn't have to be so massive though. Just simply, where do I want to go next? What's that next goalpost that I'm going to be looking towards? That's what's really important. And then you want to make sure that you're aligning all of your strategic pieces of your business up with your mission and your vision as well. So when you're aligning these pieces to Your mission specifically, because we're talking short-term with mission. Am I using all of my tools to accomplish the mission I've set out? The tools that I'm using, is it going to impact and help me to reach that vision that I'm also working towards? What action steps am I taking today? How can these action steps impact the way that I provide the impact that my mission is asking me to do, or that I've asked the mission to do? Your neurodiverse brain can see things that so many other people can't. It's important for you to make sure that you're leveraging that when you are building in these things into your business. Don't worry about how somebody else does it. If somebody else does something and you're like, that's cool, is that something I want to do? Ask that question rather than saying, oh, that person's doing it so I have to. Look at it instead and say, oh, that person's doing that, it looks interesting, should I do it that way? Is that something that's going to line up with my mission? Is it going to line up with that vision that I have for later? It's possible that something might come across your desk and you're like, oh, this is really cool. It's interesting. It's fun. It doesn't fit my mission today. But that 3-year plan that I have is my vision. That's something that maybe it'll— maybe I could put that into next year's plan, right? Or the year after's plan. It doesn't all have to be implemented today, which is another piece of our neurodiverse brain. We just think we have to do it all. If only we could— if our minds could continue working while we're sleeping and doing other things, we could get so much more accomplished. It's, it's hard to turn those things off, but it's really important for us to refuel and reenergize. And if we're constantly in a state of work, work, work, or create, create, build, build, create, create, build, build, if we're not resting and we're not looking after ourselves, we're going to burn out. And that's not going to impact that. We're not going to be able to impact the people we want to for our mission. That's certainly not going to help us impact more and more people in terms of where we want to go from a vision perspective. Your story is also important here. Who you are as a human being, why you are where you are today. Not just why, but what is it that you're trying to accomplish? What are the skills that you bring to this situation? And how are you going to take that to impact? There are a lot of different ways to express your story, your business story, your personal story. It comes with your values. When it comes to conveying your story to clients or potential clients, they're going to pick up on it. If you're thinking about these things as you're putting together your marketing documents, or while you're talking to people about why it is you do what you do, these stories, your story, the, the way that you've grown into who you are today, they will be part of that underlying conversation. And it's important to include those things in your mission statement and in your vision statement so that You have something that can anchor that story or anchor that mission. Why is this important to you? One of the things that we do as a family is that Halloween's our favorite holiday, and one of our missions is that we want to help a local charity in town. They're a charity that helps children. Children are very near and dear to my heart. I once went to this community center to see how their operation ran, and I was able to actually see how they are providing assistance to neighborhood and helping children out locally. And from there, it became very, very clear to our— my family. We're like, when we do our big Halloween display, because we do a massive Halloween display, takes us about 3 weeks to put up, about 2 hours to take down. But when we do that, we then also now ask for non-perishable food items as well as we take cash donations. And those items, as well as the money, goes directly to Rosbrook House here in Winnipeg, Manitoba. And that is a mission that my family has. We believe in helping children. We want children to make sure that they have breakfast, they have lunch, they have suppers, they have schooling help, that they have a safe place to land before school and after school. We want to make sure that they have everything they could possibly need, and we're going to do what we can in order to do that. And that's one of the ways that we do that. Now, I build that mission into my business every year because As you can hear, there's a lot to it. There's multiple weeks worth of setup. There's obviously, there's time and attention that needs to be put to the yard. And luckily I work here so I can keep an eye on the yard during the day while I'm working. But there's a lot of energy goes towards the content creation to get the neighborhood to understand what's happening and get them involved as well. So I build that into my business time and that's part of the mission as a family. And of course that mission carries over into the business. So that is important. And that story, the reason why we're involved in that as a family, those ideas on why it's important to us, that's all part of the mission. And our vision as a family is always to try to do more than we did the year before. It's easy. It's not hard. It's not massive. It's not like a 10-year trajectory of how many, how much money we want to do each year, those kinds of ideas. For us, it's simple. Our mission is to do what we can to help them and also have fun while we're doing it. And then every year we hope we do more. That's it. It's the mission and the vision. Okay, so it doesn't have to be elaborate and crazy and big and huge. But like I said, I roll that into the business every year because it takes, it takes energy and time to be able to do it. And I want to make sure I put that time and energy aside in my business years as well. I hope that this makes making a vision statement or a mission statement a little easier for you to chew, and that maybe it's not as scary as you thought it would be, but that I hope that you take this forward And empower yourself to create a vision or mission statement for your business that's going to help you to be able to grow and see the success that you're wanting in your business. I hope you have a fantastic week. I'll talk to you next week. Thank you so much for listening to the Overgivers Anonymous podcast. Your support means the world to me. You can find show notes for this episode and other goodies at overgiversanonymous.ca. And if you enjoyed this episode or you enjoy the podcast And for overgivers in general, why not join us in the Overgivers Anonymous Facebook group where you can connect with overgivers from all over the world? Head on over to geekygirl.ca/group.