Culture Course

Today on this episode we are answering one of the most frequently asked questions! It has to do with the Purpose Statement. We talk about how you can create a Unified Purpose that you are creating as a team that not only meets the needs of the clients but also motivates your team so you are heading in the right direction.  Mike Brouwers comes on to the podcast & creates a conversation where we talk through what his mission statement was & makes a completely new one by the time the podcast is finished. 

Vanessa Kimball is one of our Culture Course students. In this episode, she asks some questions about merit-based pay, specifically with a background where a paycheck is the incentive. We talk about how to do merit-based pay, and how to find a way that works for your team. Check it out! 

If you’ve been following me for a while you know that I own many businesses, wrote a best selling book & I am in the process of writing another book, yet I take two months off during the year. How do I take two months off & style manage all of those businesses? In this episode I will give you insight into what those month off times look like and why they are so important. 

When you are starting your business you will take any customer. As you get good at serving your community and finding a need and filling it with excellence, you end up growing. The number of customers gets bigger. The problem is you can’t serve everyone. This episode talks about the ideal customer to work with, and how working with a customer who is different than your usual customers can actually hurt your business in the long run. Check out this podcast to hear why!

If you are a business leader, you know the importance of creating goals. Have you ever created a goal and it never happened? In this episode I talk about some secrets in creating goals. I will also tell you about a language that you should put together when creating goals to make sure that the goal gets met. 

Over the last three episodes we talked about business partnerships. In each of the conversations with my business partners, we talk about Founders Weekend. We have received many questions about what Founders Weekend is! Listen to this episode to learn what it is and why it is so important for our business.   

Have you ever talked with someone and thought, “Wow! I am excited for this persons future!” This is how I feel after talking with today’s guest, Jeremy Powers. He made a huge decision from jumping from a retail business to doing something on his own. This wasn’t easy, but he is thriving! His future is brighter than his past. He asks a few questions about business ownership, & what a new business owner should be thinking about. Listen to this episode to hear the answers to these questions! 

This is the last episode in our three-part series on Business Partnerships. We have a fellow podcaster and special guest, Jeremy Sharp! He is the host of the Defining Stewardship podcast, and one of my business partners. In this episode, he talks about his perspective of being in a business partnership. He shares transparently and candidly some things that may surprise you! Check out this episode to learn from Jeremy. 

This is the second episode in this series with Business Partners! Jake Norton has been my business partner for over five years. I love the relationship I have with Jake. He is very different than my other partners. Tune into this conversation! You will love his perspective especially as it pertains to knowing yourself and knowing your business partnerships to see how well it shaped our partnership. 

We are back with another interview with Brandon Ream! In this episode, we start a new series on Business Partnerships. Should you have a business partner? What should you do and not do to make business partnerships work well? Listen to this episode to learn from Brandon Ream.

This is our last episode in the Hiring You Friends series. Brandon Ream has been with me from the beginning, he is one of my best friends and our families are extremely close. He has a different perspective than the first three episodes. Brandon and I share a lot of the same passions, and our purpose and life was unified when we became business partners.

We are continuing our series on Working with Friends! In this week’s episode, we have a conversation with Mike Zins. Mike has been working for Stewardship off-and-on throughout a decade. I have learned so many things about being a manager and business owner by having Mike as an employee. Check out this episode to hear his perspective! If you missed the first two episodes, make sure to go back and listen to them here! Matt Curtis: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/culturecourse/Episode22_MattCurtis.mp3 Marshall Tague: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/culturecourse/Episode23_MarshallTague.mp3

We are continuing our series on Working with Friends and Hiring Friends. Marshall Tague is a good friend of mine, and the friendship is fairly deep. He’s been working for me for about two years now. Our wives and kids are very close as well. Some people may ask, “Are you sure you want to hire someone who is that close to you? If something goes bad that could all blow up!” Listen to this episode to hear Marshall’s perspective and see some things that have gone well and have not gone well in the working relationship. 

We will be starting a new series about Hiring Your Friends. I will be interviewing my friends who work for me! This first episode is with my friend from college, Matt Curtis. Matt and I were in each other’s weddings, and I recently hired him at Stewardship. In this episode, he talks about what it is like in an environment where your boss is a close friend, and the employees are also friends. Matt talks about one topic throughout this episode, which is Humility. Check out this episode to learn from Matt. 

This is a special episode. This is a short monologue sharing from my heart. Something I am extremely thankful for is the ability to be a business owner, manager and leader. Leading others is one of the greatest privileges. If you are thinking of hiring more employees or managing people, listen to this episode. There is no better way to bless people than to hire them.   

Chris Greene is an amazing leader, and creative in the insurance world. In this episode he talks about emotional connections with his team and clients. Here in the interview with Chris, we have a conversation about questions we get asked about all the time, and it has to do with changing company culture. Chris outlines the transformation that he went though himself in this episode. Listen to it on the Apple Podcast app or on Spotify!

Sam Isner is business owner, leader and a culture course student! Sam asked how he can provide feedback to someone who is asking for it. As humans, we are wired to want to know if we are doing something right. This question turned in to really good conversation about leading and affirming your team, and provides helpful tips that you can learn from! 

Should you pay someone with a W-2 or a 1099? In today’s episode, Joey Vitale shares some simple tips that you can filter through to help answer this question. 

Kimberly Spencer has a unique experience in coaching people, and getting them from point A to point B. She asked to come on this show to talk about celebrating people. In this week’s episode, we talk about how to celebrate your team. The call to action this week is simple. Listen to this episode to feel encouraged and to hear Kim’s perspective! 

Nick Ayers was at a coffee shop. I asked him what he was doing there and he replied with “I needed a change of scenery and work from a different location.” Not everyone can thrive in the exact same work location for every single day. Nick’s insight and feedback about changing location and how it helps him work more was so interesting. Listen to this podcast through the lens of how much freedom am I giving to my team and are we encouraging them to change up the location based on the type of work they are doing so they can thrive? 

We are back with Part 2 of a conversation with Ryan Hanley. In this episode we continue the conversation from last week. This second part is sharing who your first hire should be, no matter what stage of business. Check it out to learn who it should be! 

Ryan Hanley is a new business owner and is an excellent communicator. He wisely and genuinely helps so many people in the independent insurance space. This interview was so good that it is broken up into 2 parts. He talks about a secret on how to build teams. Listen to this episode to see what this secret is, and make sure to listen next Tuesday for Part 2. 

This Hiring Hack is often missed by people. It is this: Ask your prospected employees to ask you questions! Turn the tables in the interview process. It is important because someone who has questions ready, and who asks really great questions is someone who has thought this through. This is the ability to think several steps ahead, and these are the people you want on your team.  Hiring Hack Number 1: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/culturecourse/Episode12_HiringHack1.mp3  Hiring Hack Number 2: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/culturecourse/Episode13_HiringHack2.mp3

This Hack is more about a mindset. This episode teaches that Character is more important than any experience. Experience is helpful, but who they are as a person is way more important. Listen to this episode to learn why character over resume is so important.  If you missed Hiring Hack Number 1, listen here https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/culturecourse/Episode12_HiringHack1.mp3  

For our next three-part series we'll be talking about Hiring Hacks. This is a highly requested topic for the podcast. The hack this week is this: Have your prospected employees send you a video of themselves prior to meeting them. Ask them to record themselves sharing why they should work for you. Listen to this week’s episode to learn why this is important and how it can benefit your company. 

My team broke records while I was out of town for the second year! Many managers feel like they can’t leave the office because they think their employees will not perform. You may be asking, “How are you able to get your team to not only perform but break records while you’re out of town?” It has to do with this: I want my employees to have an ownership mentality, so I treat them like owners or entrepreneurs. Listen to this podcast to see what this looks like. 

Jim Desmarchais is a leader at Gilbert Christian Schools. Jim wanted to revamp what is going on with his team and his culture. He asked the question, “How should I make my mission and core values? Should it be focused on my customers or on my team?” Listen to this episode to hear the answer to this question. 

Travis Weathers is this week's special guest! He leads a team of remote employees. He wants to learn how to engage with his team so they feel like they’re in an office together, and feel connected, but in reality they only get on a video chat once a week. This is a conversation that a lot of people are having now because of the Coronavirus. Listen to this episode to learn what you can do to connect your team of remote employees. If you know someone with a remote team, share this episode with them!

This week’s special guest on the Culture Course show is Beth De La Forest. She is the owner of Inspire Insurance Group. She bought a business through merger and acquisition. She now has two separate cultures and groups of people to lead and manage. Beth and her team were able to grow through a merger and acquisition, and that’s a big deal! But there is more work ahead to make sure the team thrives and makes an impact in the community. To listen to the conversation with Beth, listen to this week’s podcast episode!

I enjoyed my conversation with David so much the first week we decided to continue with another episode addressing David’s second question. This question is about incentivizing your team, compensation structures, and performance results. There is one thing that can be done to make your team change their actions and it may surprise you. While this change is apart of compensation, it doesn’t necessarily have to do with monetary adjustment. Check out this week’s episode with David Archibald now!

This week’s special guest is David Archibald. He is extremely wise and I have nothing but respect for him. He is trying to add more merit-based pay as an incentive to motivate his employees to be able to give their customers more products and services. In this episode he talks about how he pays his employees and asks how to change compensation. Listen to this week’s video to learn how to pay employees and see if merit-based pay is right for your company! 

Mark and Christine Bailey have done a great job at creating a great company culture. They did not want their team to dread going into the office. Their business is known for being a great place to work which attracts people to come work for them! In this episode they asked the questions, “How do you deal with conflict?” “What can you do to give someone an attitude adjustment?” I walk through a three step process on what to do with employees who need that adjustment. Listen here! 

Mike is in a family business. He has been in charge of leading people that have been at the business longer than he has been at the business. This presents its own set of challenges. In this episode he talks about some things he’s done well and the transformation he has been able to make with his team because they focused on the unified purpose. Mike was able to turn things around by showing them that the work they do matters to make an impact on the community.  

Paul Middleton is employed at Sun Valley Community Church. He has taken his team to a new level since Covid 19. In this episode we talk about creating a Sub Purpose for smaller teams. He talks about the importance of relationships and trust within a team. His propensity to let his team know that he really cares about them is one of the reasons why his team has done so well even with Covid. Check out this episode to learn about Sub-Purpose and remember to rate the Podcast! 

Have you ever though “I don’t know how i am going to turn this around. My team is so bad and it seems like an uphill battle. I don’t know how i can make things better.” This week's guest star is Randee Heer. She is amazing. She decided that she was going to make a change, & it paid off for her. She talks about her journey to get her to where she is now. Listen to this podcast to hear the conversations about reprimanding & hiring as well as how to change office culture. 

Brandon Smith is a public speaker, manager and author. He does a great job casting vision. He intentionally creates “Wow Moments” for his team. In this episode, Brandon asked, “How do you create social engagement while the whole team is out of the office at a team meeting?” This is an important aspect of company culture and addresses Opportunity Cost. Check out this episode to learn more and to hear the answer to Brandon’s question. 

This is the last episode on the series on How to Pay Employees. This video we are talking about how to pay employees with Flexibility. Statistics say that graduates with high attractive degree are willing to take up to a 25% pay cut if they know their employer has flexibility. How can you add flexibility where your team can have flexibility in their work life style and encourage it?

We are continuing the talk on How to Pay Employees. In this episode we will talk about how important it is to add Purpose to the income. Autonomy is tied to the Unified Purpose. They need to know that the dollar they receive makes an impact in someone else's life. See how you can implement this into your business this week by listening to this episode

How to pay employees is a popular question among businesses. Pay structure needs to encourage freedom and autonomy.  The call to action this week is to ask yourself, “Does this compensation plan have freedom and autonomy in it?” Watch this video to learn more about how to pay your employees 

As leaders we need to Be Curious. Curious Leaders help create a great company culture. Watch this video to learn how to be a curious leader, but not a nosy leader. Listen to this episode to learn how to be a leader that creates a high performing culture Part 1 of this Podcast is here https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/culturecourse/Episode_8.mp3

It starts with understanding your management style and choosing the right one. There are a few different kinds such as Manager, Pleaser, Supporter and Elevator. Listen to this episode to learn which one is most important and why! 

Should you be giving your employees time off and unlimited vacation time? In this week's episode we will tell you why Stewardship does it, and tell you maybe why you shouldn't. The number one question asked is how Stewardship offers unlimited vacation time. Listen to this podcast to learn that it is not just about vacations. 

One way to be a good leader is to knowing yourself and act on it well.Don't copy exactly what some other company is doing. Know yourself and create a company culture that is authentic to you! Listen to this podcast to see how giving freedom is super important as a leader. 

Every business leader and employee wants to be on a team of people that fights for each other and die for their customer. One mistake is assuming that their team sees the world the same way that the leader does. Listen to this episode to learn how to be a good leader through knowing yourself and know not everyone sees things the way they do. 

The most important words you can say to your employees are “I am with you.” Your Team Need to Hear these from you. “I Am With You” As a leader you should not just be barking commands. Let them know you are there for them. They want to feel supported. They should know that you care about them and that you are with them. 

Supporting your employee’s endeavors outside the office is crucial. Everyone has a life outside of work, and that is okay! Forbes said over 50% of currently employed people have a side hustle. To retain top talent, support the side hustle! Listen to this episode to learn more!

Listening! To move in the direction you want and to collaborate, you need to listen. Check our this video to learn more

Is pay what they want? Motivation is less to do about money, and more about their purpose. Check out this episode to listen some examples!

How do you do that effectively?  It can be awkward, but having an intentional plan can help the disciple be done well. Check this episode out to learn how to discipline well!

Having a great trusted relationship with the team make things happen efficiently, effectively, and in an exceedingly amazing way. How can you earn trust from your employees quickly? Check it out to learn how!

Here Is What Smart Bosses Do— Mindset of encouraging mastery! This is more motivating than money. Check it out!