107: How To Get Buy-In To Your Mission, Vision & Values

1. Mission, vision, and values are the foundation of a great culture. And it’s OK if those values evolve over time, so don’t be afraid to update them. 

2. If you want your team members to buy into your mission and vision, you need to repeat them. Your team members have so many messages competing for their attention; make sure you’re over-communicating the things that are most important.

3. Guiding principles determine how you live out your values. Outlining those principles can help you turn your values from ideas into action.

Lisa Zeeveld on LinkedIn and Instagram

Tricia Sciortino on LinkedIn and Instagram

(2:57) Tricia and LZ share some of their favorite events and team building activities

(7:30) How do you define culture? 

(12:29) Without a clear mission, vision, and values, you can’t create a great culture

(16:23) How to determine your core values 

(19:02) Tricia gives examples of how BELAY’s core values show up in the organization’s daily practices

(26:17) What are guiding principles, and how does BELAY use them?

(29:28) Tricia shares the mindset that has helped her build BELAY’s culture

(33:14) This week’s download: Get a free copy of our eBook, “Lead Anyone From Anywhere”

Ryan Fitzgerald:

Hey, y’all. Ryan here, and before we get started, I have to tell you about a special, limited-time offer from BELAY. At BELAY, we know that time is money, and now through the end of August, we’re doing something that will allow you to save on both. For the first time ever, we’re offering $300 off your startup cost with a BELAY virtual assistant. $300. All you have to do is book a call with our sales team by August 31st to qualify. There’s no better time than now to accomplish more and juggle less. Head to BELAYSolutions.com to get started.

Tricia Sciortino  :

12 years ago, when this organization was founded, it was really foundational that we wanted to create a different type of place for people to work. We wanted to get out of the corporate, political, cutthroat environments that we were in and create an organization that people can feel really comfortable in, that they could develop in. They could feel honored at, they could have fun at, they could feel gratitude and express gratitude, that they could be collaborative and all of those other corporate-y things could be removed.

Ryan Fitzgerald:

Welcome to One Next Step, the most practical business podcast in the world. You’re now one simple tip, practical tool and small step away from growing your business. One next step is brought to you by BELAY, the incredible 100% remote organization revolutionizing productivity, with virtual assistance, bookkeepers and social media managers. Accomplish more, juggle less. Modern staffing from BELAY. Now, to your hosts.

Lisa Zeeveld :

Welcome to One Next Step, the practical business podcast that helps you run your business so it stops running you. I’m LZ and I’m joined as usual by my amazing co-host, Ryan Fitzgerald.

Ryan Fitzgerald:

Hey, LZ. It’s a awesome day, and I’m so excited to be here with you. Our listeners are in for a real treat today. You and Tricia are getting the band back together, so to speak.

Lisa Zeeveld :

We are. Today, Tricia and I will be talking about building a unique company culture. As a leader, it’s important to keep in mind that a great culture just doesn’t develop on its own. It’s up to you to help your team unite around a shared vision. Tricia and I will explain what culture is, and more importantly, what it’s not. We’ll share some examples of intentional steps we’ve taken to shape BELAY’s culture together over the years.

Ryan Fitzgerald:

I’m so excited to hear this conversation, LZ. BELAY’s company culture is really something special and it’s something that I feel like I get to benefit from for the hard work y’all have put in year over year to really build it into what it is. For those of you that are new to the podcast, BELAY is the incredible 100% remote organization, revolutionizing productivity with our virtual assistant, bookkeepers and social media managers. Accomplish more, juggle less, and get back to what only you can do, growing your business with modern staffing from BELAY. All right, LZ. Let’s dive in.

Lisa Zeeveld :

Hey, it’s Super-G. You are with me today. It’s like the OGs, here we are. The band’s back together, you guys. The band is back together. I love it.

Tricia Sciortino  :

Gosh. Yes. It’s great to talk to you today about all things culture.

Lisa Zeeveld :

I know.

Tricia Sciortino  :

It is an exciting topic. One that is near and dear to our hearts.

Lisa Zeeveld :

Totally. Yes. I mean, I don’t think there’s anybody who is better to speak about culture than you. Again, I can’t believe we actually get to do this together again.

Tricia Sciortino  :

I know.

Lisa Zeeveld :

I’m thrilled. I’m absolutely thrilled. And I want to start it out with a super-fun, question because it just helps our listeners, they just love little fun things about you. The question of today is, what is your favorite team building activity that we do at BELAY?

Tricia Sciortino  :

Yes. Well, we were teasing before we started recording that you would know my answer. My favorite team building activity that we’ve done it a few times now, is a lip sync battle.

Lisa Zeeveld :

Yes.

Tricia Sciortino  :

The first time we did a lip sync battle, we had some team members that were, “OMG. I have to do what?” It was the most fun and hilarious thing we have ever done. From a culture perspective part, we put team members together on lip sync teams that don’t normally work with each other. We’ll take one person from finance, one person from sales. We take one person from each department, stick them all together and say, “Pick a song. Here’s some props, good luck to you.” It is absolutely hilarious. Now, that’s my favorite team building activity. My favorite event that we do is our Christmas party. Because you throw a pretty bad-ass, bleep, Christmas party.

Lisa Zeeveld :

I do love a good party.

Tricia Sciortino  :

Yes. We have to celebrate the year of hard work that we put together. We love a really fun Christmas party. I look forward to them basically all year long.

Lisa Zeeveld :

The one thing I have to say about our lip sync battles that I think is key is that, we give those teams budgets. You mentioned about props and costumes. One of the fun things is, we give them a budget and we allow those teams traditionally to go and buy their own props and costumes. Y’all, that is one of the best things because everybody’s creativity comes out.

Tricia Sciortino  :

They go to town. Yes.

Lisa Zeeveld :

They have a budget, so they’re all spending the same thing. It’s fascinating to see people’s personality in what they choose. We recently, not a lip sync battle, but we recently did a field day. Same thing, we gave every team a small little budget to get some things that were their team color. I was blown away at how they spent their money. I love it. Love that creativity.

Tricia Sciortino  :

Yes. They got to pick a team name, and then they had a team chant or rally cry, and that was hilarious. We had people doing cheers and cartwheels and people dressed up in costumes and it was the best thing ever.

Lisa Zeeveld :

Blow up sharks.

Tricia Sciortino  :

You did a summersault.

Lisa Zeeveld :

I prayed for that.

Tricia Sciortino  :

Literally, I have it. You don’t know, I have it on video. I’m just telling you, I’m holding it in my back pocket.

Lisa Zeeveld :

That’s not the worst dirt you have on me though.

Tricia Sciortino  :

No, but it’s really good to see your CFO do a summersault. It’s awesome.

Lisa Zeeveld :

I’m a team player. I’m a team player.

Tricia Sciortino  :

You are. I mean, I did the limbo and I have a broken back, so you did.

Lisa Zeeveld :

You got down pretty close to the finals, too. I was amazed.

Tricia Sciortino  :

I did. I made it through round four. I’m like, old ladies representing.

Lisa Zeeveld :

Yes. I would have to say one of my favorite events and we have not done it again, just because of location, was the scavenger hunt we did in downtown Atlanta and broke into teams. That was so much fun. Again, we had teams were built up from different departments and watching them work together and laugh. We actually had a photographer who was taking pictures of folks as they ran through the city. I love to look back on those because it’s pure joy in people’s faces as they’re literally running downtown. It was awesome.

Tricia Sciortino  :

That was a really fun time too. I remember that very clearly. It was a great time.

Lisa Zeeveld :

I know. That’s also the time that we did a, it was a Vegas-themed party that night. We had some card games and I think it was a black Jack table. Again, we like costumes here at BELAY, so people got dressed up. I think that’s part of our culture. I think we need to write that in with the fun part, is you must like to dress up in costumes.

Tricia Sciortino  :

Yes, costumes and dress up is our form of fun. Totally.

Lisa Zeeveld :

It is.

Tricia Sciortino  :

Yeah. Well, but that’s not what makes culture.

Lisa Zeeveld :

It is not. No.

Tricia Sciortino  :

Culture is not bred from fun events, necessarily, and games and scavenger hunts, send all those things. I’d love to know what you would say is your definition of what great culture is and what it isn’t.

Lisa Zeeveld :

Well, I mean, I think at its core, it’s about instilling a sense of belonging in your employees and ensuring that they identify with the greater mission and vision and values of the organization. It’s a shared vision. It’s not necessarily like a shared space. That’s what creates culture. I think to your point, back in the 90s, dot com era, people did think it was costumes and parties and all the things that we love, a pool table, beer on tap. Those are all fun things. If you don’t have that shared mission, vision, and values, then you’re not going to want to keep showing up because beer pong, ping pong, costumes, those are all easily replicated within other organizations. Your mission, vision and values is the DNA of your organization. That’s what can’t be replicated. I think, to me, that’s what culture is. How about you?

Tricia Sciortino  :

I would say all that and a place where people feel safe and that they belong and they enjoy the people they’re with. We just had a team event, a team meeting. We have to get our team together in person four times a year, since we’re a remote organization. One of the things that was really cool is we did a Slido on this last team meeting. We asked every team member to scan a QR code and put in the word that what describes this great team? What does it mean to be a great team member? Who is a great team member? What is a great team member? The words that popped up are really, to me, what it is, what it means to have great culture. There were words like collaborative, encouraging, supportive.

Tricia Sciortino  :

Then you create an environment where it’s not cutthroat, where people are genuinely here to help each other, do their jobs better, serve each other. We have team members join and say, “Everybody’s so nice and helpful, but I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop.” It’s our honor to say that we don’t ever drop the other shoe. Is that we create an environment where people can feel like they’re supported by each other at all times through the duration of their time here and that they truly have connection with each other through collaboration and the things that we do to help foster those connections, which are the events that we do.

Tricia Sciortino  :

Those help support the fostering and the bonding of the connections, but ultimately, when we started BELAY 12 years ago now, we said we wanted to create a place that was not political. That people enjoyed showing up to work. That you could have fun at your job and love what you do and love the reason why you do it.

Tricia Sciortino  :

For us, we have the great mission and vision and values that help us love why we do what we do. I think people show up every day, because it’s encouraging. What other way to get the most out of your team, aside from making it a place people want to come to? I think that’s always been the framework that we’ve leveraged to say, “We want to be a place people want to work at.” Because 95% of the other companies, “Eh, it’s just a job.” People just, they’re punching a clock and they have to go. We don’t want to be that guy.

Lisa Zeeveld :

No. I think that it starts from the top down. The leadership here at BELAY, I’m going to speak for myself, but we love being here. We’re passionate about BELAY. We want to have fun. We believe in our mission and values. It’s not just this armor that we put on to go to work. I felt that before in other organizations where, “Okay, I’m going to go check in, I’m the officer of blah, blah, blah. I’m a CFO, I’m a CEO, CMO and I’m just going to go to work today.” They treat it like a check in and check out.

Lisa Zeeveld :

When they do have these fun events, or when they do talk about their mission and vision and values, it feels fake because they’re ultimately not living it out. I think that’s really important for the leaders that are listening is that, if it doesn’t resonate from you, then your team isn’t going to believe it. That’s where culture starts. It starts with you as the leader and how much you believe in it and how much you are willing to show up and model those values that you write down or put on a wall.

Tricia Sciortino  :

Yes, absolutely. You have to embody them.

Lisa Zeeveld :

Yes. If a shared vision and not a shared space, because here at BELAY, we don’t share a space. Creates culture, is it possible to create a culture without guiding principles, things like our mission, vision and values? Could you even imagine somebody trying to create a culture if they’ve never spent time to create those things?

Tricia Sciortino  :

No. Truly, they’re foundational. They are the descriptors of the culture. It’s like, your mission, vision and values are the foundation of your culture. They’re describing the kind of culture you want for your organization. We created them at the beginning. At the beginning, we said, “Our values, we will have core values and they will be gratitude. We will have a core value that will be team. We will have a core value that is fun.” We literally have a core value that is fun. That is why fun shows up in all the silly things we’ve just been talking about. Because we have a value that says, “We will have fun and we will not take ourselves too seriously.” We have a value that’s gratitude and those are all the foundational things.

Tricia Sciortino  :

As a leader, and all of our leadership, we know that our six core values are the things that we must represent daily in the day-to-day. We have to show up representing all six of these values in every instance, in every conversation, in every meeting. Because we are creating the foundation for them to breathe and grow and then they’re modeled and mimicked throughout the organization, ideally. My opinion is, you have to have them at the beginning. They are the building blocks of a great organization and culture.

Lisa Zeeveld :

Yeah, I would agree. I think that sometimes people don’t create them because they don’t know what to say. Like they’re starting an organization, “Well, what do we want to be all about?” I think it’s important to say that we’ve actually gone through exercises where we’ve decided, are these still the right things that matter to us? Originally, we didn’t have fun.

Tricia Sciortino  :

We had fun, we just didn’t have the word fun.

Lisa Zeeveld :

True. Yes. What we started to do when we evaluated our team members’ performance, is we noticed that there was something lacking when we wanted to evaluate whether they were a culture fit or not. There were team members who just weren’t connecting with who we were and we couldn’t figure out why. We would go through, I remember us going through and looking at our values. Well, they’re definitely full of gratitude. Okay, check that one. We’re like, “Wait a second.” They’re the first ones to complain if we ask about a costume or a lip sync battle, or even just something silly as maybe jumping rope or whatever it is. They were the first one who just didn’t embody that.

Lisa Zeeveld :

That’s totally fine for them, but it’s so important for us here at BELAY that we added it. I think it’s a good reminder for those folks out there who are just like, “I don’t know where to start.” Or, “I did this a long time ago and it doesn’t feel like us anymore.” I’m just giving them permission to say, it doesn’t have to be evergreen. You can change it, but have something that in the moment that describes who you are.

Tricia Sciortino  :

Yes, and I think that’s a great point to make because we’ve had people say, “Oh, but is the mission the same? Is the vision the same? Are the values really the same?” I think as an organization, over time, you evolve. That’s the way I like to, that’s the word I choose to use.

Lisa Zeeveld :

Yes, evolve.

Tricia Sciortino  :

We’re not necessarily changing, we’re evolving. We’re a different iteration of ourselves, but we are still the same organization. You evolve to fit the market. You evolve to fit the culture of the country, the world, if you will, the culture of the industry. There’s an evolution that happens. It can and will be very iterative to your point. I’d love to even talk through, for those who’ve maybe never gone through the exercise, how you do begin? That could be a whole another podcast episode, and how to create core values.

Tricia Sciortino  :

We’ve gone through this. We’ve brought in people to help us with that, but truly, taking the most key people on your team and everybody writing words on a wall, do you remember the exercise? Everybody got 10 stick-it notes and you write, “What are the words that you think about when you feel about BELAY? What are the 10 words?” Then people would put all the words on the giant wall of all the post-its. Then we started grouping them together that were like words. We’d have grateful, gratitude, thankful. Like, “Oh, those all go together.” Then we would have visionary, forward thinking. You’d have all these other, and you group those together. Then you just keep netting out those post-it notes and grouping them together and then agreeing and eliminating, agreeing, and eliminating.

Tricia Sciortino  :

Then you get to the place where you have six words, everybody in the room agrees that is us. That’s how we ended up with our core values. We do, we revisit them. We revisited them, because we used to be five core values. We revisited them, did the same exercise again, and then wound up with this whole other grouping of words that equaled fun that were not a core value, and so we decided to add it. We went from five to six core values, because we said, “It’s important to us enough that we have fun at the workplace that we’re going to add it as a value.”

Ryan Fitzgerald:

If you’re loving this podcast, we’ve got an idea for you. Check out the System & Soul podcast. The System & Soul podcast is hosted by longtime entrepreneurs and business coaches, Chris White and Benj Miller. System & Soul is a holistic business framework that helps leadership teams get clear on what’s holding them back and helps them take the right steps to gain control. The System & Soul podcast is your place to hear from business leaders who are sharing their experiences in the struggle. What’s helping them gain clarity and control and what it looks like to reach massive breakthrough.

Ryan Fitzgerald:

They’re serving up conversations with business leaders who not only have valuable expertise in their field, but also believe deeply in building soul into their business. Learn from conversations on doing business without compromising your health. What makes a leader worth following and moving culture from prescribed program to real time practice. You’ll gain practical knowledge on how to run your business better and do it with authenticity, healthy leadership and people at the heart. To listen, search the System & Soul podcast on your favorite podcasting app. Now, let’s get back to today’s episode.

Lisa Zeeveld :

What are some maybe examples of our values, how they actually go into practice? If you think about gratitude, how do we show that? How does that show up in real life?

Tricia Sciortino  :

I think we’ve been very intentional about having ways with which we can define what it looks like in activity. Because we don’t want them to be just words on a wall. For gratitude, we have different things. We have a frugal wow program. We have a gifting program. We believe that we want to give all of our team the opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate other people and share their gratitude by having a frugal wow program, which means you can send somebody a little small gift that BELAY has budgeted for, to thank them for what they’ve done.

Tricia Sciortino  :

That could be a team member, that could be a client, that could be a contractor. We make sure to have dollars available to express gratitude. We also, the other thing that comes to mind for gratitude for me is, we have weekly staffing meetings. Every Monday morning, the entire company gets on Zoom together. Once a month we do at the end of one of those meetings, we do what is called snaps. LZ, I know they’re your favorite.

Lisa Zeeveld :

They are my favorite.

Tricia Sciortino  :

Snaps is like Elle Woods, Legally Blonde. She has a snap cup and it’s the way to positively enforce people. If you haven’t seen the movie, you need to. Snaps is an opportunity for anybody in the organization, in any position or role to just publicly on a weekly staffing meeting acknowledge and thank somebody for something they’ve done for them or for the team. “Oh, I appreciate this other person, because they helped me with this project.” Or, “I appreciate this other person because when I was off on PTO, they handled this situation for me so I could be off.” “Oh, I appreciate this team of people because they serve my team well.”

Tricia Sciortino  :

We allow five, 10 minutes at the end of a weekly staffing meeting once a month for our team to just honor each other. The snaps just go on and on and on and on. It’s a great way for people just, languages of love. Sometimes people just want the words of affirmation and they’re recognized in a public forum for doing great work. That’s another example of how gratitude shows up for BELAY.

Lisa Zeeveld :

It’s infectious. It’s like wild fire. I have to cut it off sometimes. I hate to because I love the snaps, but sometimes I’m like, “I have to cut it off.” It’s just, it breeds. Gratitude is one of those things that when shown it just breeds more gratitude. That’s why I love it so much, is because you can see people light up. We tried, we actually said, “Let’s just do this once a month.” We could tell that our team was like, “No.” Because we’d get to that once-a-month snap, and then all of a sudden, it turned into 20 minutes. Because there was so many to give. We’re like, “This is really important to our team and it does model our core value of gratitude so well.”

Tricia Sciortino  :

Yes, absolutely. Then we have other core values that we represent as well. We already talked about fun, so we won’t go there. Fun shows up in all the things that we do and the activities we do. Vision, of course, is a core value of ours. It’s important, because our organization was started on the foundation that we were very forward thinking. We were entering an industry that never existed back 12 years ago, virtual assistance of remote companies were not so well known, especially the virtual assistant industry. We knew we had to have vision and we had to be forward thinking. We do a very good job at casting vision frequently.

Tricia Sciortino  :

I feel like that’s actually, as an officer and as the CEO of the organization, it is the most important thing I need to do, is remind the team where we’re going, what the future looks like and how we’re going to get there, at frequency. Again, part of our weekly staffing meeting is for me at a cadence that makes sense is to talk about the future of BELAY and to share where we’re going and to share what our vision is and to remind people why that’s our vision and who we’re here to serve. I think that’s an excellent representation of vision. I’d love to hear maybe your perspective on vision or one of our other ones.

Lisa Zeeveld :

I think that vision, we talk about it has to be repeated a lot. When we think about our current culture and all the things that are vying for our attention as an employee, as a human, as a mother, daughter, wife, there’s so many things that want my attention. Magazines, music, our smartphone that sits in our hand. Organizations pay millions, probably billions at this point, of dollars, to advertise and get things in my face over and over again. I will not have a problem repeating the jingle to an insurance company, because I’ve seen it so many times, but I can’t remember the vision or the mission statement for my organization.

Lisa Zeeveld :

As a leader, you need to remember that there are people who are competing for the attention and the memory, the space and the brain of your team members. Sure, you may say, “Well, I’ve already told them. When they started, I told them our mission and vision.” Or, “It’s on the wall. Or, “It’s in the employee handbook.” Many other things have come into their life since then, that you need to treat your mission and vision and values, just like any other thing that you would advertise. You need to keep it in front of them. You need to keep letting them know. That’s one of the things I think that you do a great job of, is that literally on our weekly staffing meeting at all of our events, we constantly talk about it, so that we are also part of what they are remembering.

Lisa Zeeveld :

We ask them to memorize it. Truthfully, we do. That may sound crazy for y’all out there, but we test them to make sure they memorize it. We do that annually to make sure that they have it memorized. It makes all the difference in the world that they have that as part of their brain. Because when they go to work with a client, it’s really easy for them to think, “Hmm, is this really who BELAY is?” They don’t start to insert themselves in who is BELAY. All of a sudden, they know who BELAY is and that’s how they show up. I think that’s what makes a difference in a great culture, but also, ultimately, what makes your product or service great, is that there’s a consistency by how everyone is treated, who comes into contact with your organization.

Tricia Sciortino  :

Yeah, totally agree. If we think through how you convert your guiding principles into everyday practice to create culture, these are the things that we’re talking about, is weaving your mission, vision, and values into all of your events and all your opportunities where you touch your team members. Every weekly staffing meeting, we’re honoring one, if not multiple, of our core values. Then the same thing when we get in-person, every single time we’re in-person, it’s just on the docket. As the CEO, I will get out first and I will talk to the organization and I will hit on our mission, every time. It goes without fail. Because again, you just can’t say it enough.

Lisa Zeeveld :

No. I love that you just touched on guiding principles, because I don’t really think that, that’s not quite as common in organization as a mission, vision, values. Maybe we can just spend a minute giving an example or telling folks about what guiding principles are, because I’m sure that, that’s probably new to a lot of people.

Tricia Sciortino  :

Yes. Guiding principles are something that are newer to organization. We created them, gosh, was it maybe three years ago?

Lisa Zeeveld :

Three years ago, yeah.

Tricia Sciortino  :

We had them in our minds, but we didn’t have them on paper. Guiding principles for us are just, they are the things that are the non-negotiables or the fabric of who we are and how we show up as an organization. They range everywhere from the type of service we want to provide or be known for, to how we represent ourselves in our day-to-day work. We have multitude of guiding principles. I think we’re at about 20, at this point, guiding principles.

Lisa Zeeveld :

It started at 40.

Tricia Sciortino  :

We’re like, “We have a lot of rules around here.” We have guiding principles, they’re just standards of operation that we believe are important for our team and our organization. Off the top of my head, we have one that is, and this is really bred from honestly, personal pet peeves. This one is like, we start our meetings on time and we end them on time. That is a guiding principle. We have a thing, literally we expect our team to be at events and on meetings on time. If the meeting starts at 9:00, everyone is there by 9:00. If you were there at 9:01, you are shamed.

Lisa Zeeveld :

Yes.

Tricia Sciortino  :

We start at 9:00. I’m happy to say, over repetition and years of having this, the guiding principle, every meeting I am ever in and every event and like that, people are on time.

Lisa Zeeveld :

Well, I like to think of it, we talk a lot about expectations. When you think about performance reviews or intentionality, and to me, that’s what they are, is it’s a guide of expectations of how we run our business to make sure that there’s no confusion. It’s like Dave Ramsey says, “It’s almost the roadmap to the party.” You know how to show up, you know what’s expected of you and then you don’t have to guess around about it. I feel like adding that guiding principle piece to the mission and vision and values, completes the picture, so that there’s no ambiguity that comes along with them.

Tricia Sciortino  :

They are the activities that tuck underneath the core values, that are how you show up and represent that core values. One of our core values is God. A guiding principle underneath God is that we pray before all meetings. That’s how God shows up. That’s how it looks in practical application, and that’s how we honor that core value. We have guiding principles for all of our core values that tuck underneath and how they show up in the day-to-day.

Lisa Zeeveld :

I love that. Well, are there any resources that have influenced you think BELAY, or perhaps you, as it relates to the development of culture? Is there something that sticks out and says, “You know what, this was a turning point.” Or, “This was a great resource for us here at BELAY.”

Tricia Sciortino  :

There are so many current great books out there that talk a lot about culture and what it means to have great culture. Outside of the books that you can read, there really is this absolute passion for believing there’s a better way to work. I think that, that is the initial catalyst for what BELAY is founded on, is 12 years ago, when this organization was founded, it was really foundational that we wanted to create a different type of place for people to work. We wanted to get out of the corporate, political cutthroat environments that we were in and create an organization that people can feel really comfortable in, that they could develop in. They could feel honored at, they could have fun at, they could feel gratitude and express gratitude, that they could be collaborative. All of those other corporate-y things could be removed.

Tricia Sciortino  :

Who knew if it was going to work at the time? Truly, over the years, there’s so much information out there now when you look at high-performing teams and successful teams. At the crux of our success is truly the fact that people who love their jobs and enjoy their work and feel purpose and connection to their work, actually show up as higher performers than the person that is just has to go to work and doesn’t like their job and doesn’t like their boss.

Tricia Sciortino  :

The performance you get out of people is so obvious when people enjoy it. That mindset has been the biggest resource at BELAY is like, how do we create an organization, a growing organization where we can keep the foundational ideas that people enjoying being here actually is the most important thing? Because even when you look at it from a business standpoint, it actually equals great return on your investment. You get great return on your employees and investing in them if you do it the right way. That, to me, is the biggest resource, if you will, for our culture. Do you have any others?

Lisa Zeeveld :

I love that. No, you said it beautifully. You said it beautifully.

Tricia Sciortino  :

Thank you.

Lisa Zeeveld :

I think that it’s a great stopping point, because I also think it’s a great teaser because you’ve been kind enough to say that you’re going to stick around and we get to continue this conversation. I’d love for people to subscribe to our bonus content in order to listen to that. Let’s pause here and tease everyone and get them to come over and join us for one more question. How does that sound?

Tricia Sciortino  :

Sounds perfect.

Lisa Zeeveld :

Awesome. Well, guys, in order to hear that clip, you must subscribe to our email list and we will send you a link to all of that bonus content, or you can always visit onenextsteppodcast.com, where you can find a link in our show notes.

Ryan Fitzgerald:

LZ, what a great conversation between you and Tricia, and like any great band that’s coming back together, y’all did exactly what we wanted. You played the hits, and I’m super-grateful for it.

Lisa Zeeveld :

Oh, thank you. Yes. Yes, we did. We are so passionate about our company’s culture, that it’s easy to sit around and to talk about those things. I just love having her on the show with me, together. It just always feels so special. We put a lot of intentionality behind our company’s culture, and hopefully, we shared some good nuggets that our listeners can take away from that. Well, today, we’ve got a One Next Step for our listeners, we have a free download of our brand-new eBook, Lead Anyone from Anywhere. Head out over to the show notes to access it now.

Ryan Fitzgerald:

Well, thank you so much for tuning in for this week’s One Next Step. To make sure you never miss an episode, subscribe on Apple Podcast or follow us on Spotify. If you’re ready to start accomplishing more and juggling less, go to belaysolutions.com.

Lisa Zeeveld :

Join us next time for more practical business tips and tools to help you advance your business one step at a time. For more episodes, show notes and helpful resources, visit onenextsteppodcast.com.

Ryan Fitzgerald:

Join us next week for a fascinating conversation with Monica Allen, an author, entrepreneur and executive here in Atlanta. She’ll be chatting with LZ about her journey as an entrepreneur, some tips and tricks she’s learned starting and growing multiple businesses, some of the most common issues she sees facing entrepreneurs today, and a whole lot more. Here’s a quick preview.

Monica Allen:

So goal setting allows me to set goals for my business, set goals for myself personally when it comes to staying healthy and working out, set goals for my kids’ education, set goals for everything that I do for getting involved with the charter school. All of that is really important to me. And so I write it down. I actually ended up creating a planner around that. Because it’s so important to write down your goals, and then you can break them down even further to actually get them accomplished, and that is what I’ve managed to do.