Pam Ivey (00:00): You’re listening to the Flourish & Grow to CEO Podcast. This is episode 11.

Pam Ivey (00:26): Are you a lady boss making $50-$100,000 in your business and you’re ready to break through that six figure barrier?

Jane Garee (00:33): Have you done a great job of creating a nice life as the ultimate gig master but know your inner CEO is calling you to greater Heights? You’re in the right place if you want to create and implement solid fundamentals in your business – without sacrificing fun.

Pam Ivey (00:48): I’m Pam Ivey, I’m certified in small business management and I concentrate in the areas of training and certifying real estate assistance, coaching and mentoring entrepreneurs in online business, marketing growth and profit acceleration. And I take men and women business owners aged 40 plus two bucket list destinations around the world for a month at a time to work, explore, and live in community.

Jane Garee (01:14): And I’m Jane Garee, known as the sales strategist for the non-salesperson, and I work with business owners who want to increase their conversion rate, shorten their sales cycle and have more impact and influence with the work they do all while having more fun with selling.

Pam Ivey (01:28): Hey, everyone! Welcome back to Flourish & Grow to CEO Podcast. You know, in our past episodes, we talked about the overarching process for growing a business. So that was vision strategy, tactics, implementation, and measurement. And today we’re going to be talking about the first step in that process, which is creating the vision for your business. As cliche as it sounds, it’s so very true. If you don’t know where you’re going, how will you get there? So, a vision statement is a sentence or a short paragraph that concisely describes the goal of your business. It States what you’re trying to build, and it serves as a benchmark for your future actions. A vision statement is sometimes thought of as a picture of your company in the future, but it’s so much more than that. When creating a vision statement, you’re articulating your hopes and dreams for your business.

Pam Ivey (02:27): So, your vision statement is your inspiration, and it’ll definitely serve as a framework for all your strategic planning. The vision statement answers the question, where do we want to go? So once you have one, your vision statement will have a huge influence on your decision making process and the way you allocate your time, your team and your money. For example, bill Gates, we all know him of Microsoft fame. He revealed in 2015 that the company’s original vision statement was a computer on every desk in every home. So the vision statement didn’t address how they’re going to do that or how long it would take them to do that. It just outlined what they wanted to do. Don’t confuse a vision statement with a business plan for your future success. You can think of a vision statement as a rough roadmap, but a vision statement won’t include specific milestones, revenue goals, or strategies for achieving those goals.

Pam Ivey (03:31): It should capture your passion for what you’re trying to do, not your odds of actually achieving it. So they should be really ambitious when crafting yours don’t fall into the trap of only thinking a year or two ahead. So a company’s vision statement also provides a point of focus for your marketing efforts, marketing campaigns and messages can be checked against the vision to ensure that the marketing is in line with the direction you want to go. So it’s really the hopes and dreams for your business. And Jane, we were talking yesterday and you were talking about all kinds of questions that would really help you kind of develop your vision statement.

Jane Garee (04:18): Yeah. So one of the first things that you always want to take a look at before you write the vision statement for your business is take a really good look, introspectively at what is your vision statement for you? And this can be around. What do you love to do? What are you most passionate about? It’s kind of a, another twist on your why without that, it’s going to be difficult to really craft a vision statement for your business because as business owners we’re so wrapped up and they’re so interconnected. So we talk a lot about the interconnectedness of the pillars. This would be an interconnectedness between your vision for your business and the vision that you have for yourself. They’re very, very intertwined and you need your personal vision because it’s going to seep out into, and it’s probably actually one of the motivators for your business.

Jane Garee (05:10): So, let me give you my personal example. My quick story I’ve always been in sales. I was sales manager, sales producer. I’ve always been on the floor producing selling, and, you know, frankly, I was, I was a rock star. You know, they call me the Rainmaker. I could go out and sell like nobody’s business and make things happen and get the revenue generated and lead teams to win. And, and I’m saying all of this, not because I’m bragging, but the next piece of it becomes really important. So the point I’m making here is I was really, really good at it. And I knew that I was really good at it. I had abundant social proof. I had the paychecks, I had the promotions, I had the support of the managers and the leaders and the owners of the companies that I worked for. So you’re talking then about someone who said, Hmm, I’m really great at selling at making things happen when it comes to generation of revenue and client generation.

Jane Garee (06:00): So, when I went self-employed, I thought this is going to be hard work, but I didn’t think the work was going to be hard. And what I realized after crashing and burning in the, in the first few months, that it is a much different thing to go sell your own stuff, because when you become the product, it becomes more personal. So it’s scarier and rejection, which I had never thought of before, because it just didn’t bother me. Now, all of a sudden would just, it was the worst feeling in the world. And I was starting to ask myself things like, is it me? Is this not necessary? What’s happening? So there was such a juxtaposition between the past and the proof that I had, that I was a really good salesperson. And my reality when I went out on my own. So fortunately, because I did have the background and I was a trainer in addition to always being in production, I became my first client and I put myself through my own sales training program that I created, and that’s really what turned everything around.

Jane Garee (07:02): And so here’s the vision part that happened for me. What I realized when my business started to now take off after I had to put myself through my own sales trading. So I was both my coach and my client. What I realized was this overwhelming thought that, Oh my gosh, if I’m somebody who has all this proof of the past, that I can do this successfully. And I came in with all this confidence, knowing the drill, knowing what would be necessary to be successful at selling. And I struggled with it. I can’t imagine that terror and the frustration and the challenge that people who didn’t go into business to be a salesperson are feeling. And I started to think about all of those people who they just went into business to bake the world’s best cookies, or they went into business to provide tech support, to small business owners or whatever it was that they did.

Jane Garee (07:55): They didn’t get up one day and say, I think I’m going to go sell for a living. I actually did do that. And I did not do that well. So my moment, actually, to ensure that anyone who wanted to stay self-employed could afford to do so. And the only way you can afford to do so is if you’re generating revenue, which is just a fancy way of saying your selling stuff. So my vision for my company became the vision was any self-employed person could have sales conversations that felt natural, that felt easy, that were effective. Meaning the conversations turned into clients and they have the confidence around having those sales conversations. So they had an assurance that they would be able to keep their business and grow their business. That was my vision. And then from there I created the mission statement. So my vision for my company, showstopping sales, it was wholly derived from my personal vision for myself, which was, I don’t want to go back and get a corporate job. I want to move into being self-employed and I want to make that company successful. I want to make me successful doing my own thing. That was my vision that I held to.

Pam Ivey (09:14): I love that because you started this story, I’m going, how does this relate to vision? And then you’re getting worried that, Oh my goodness. That’s, that’s really awesome. I really liked that. Something that you said too, it was going, I knew it was going to be hard to start a business, but you didn’t think the work was going to be hard.

Jane Garee (09:34): I thought it was going to be hard work. I didn’t think it, yeah. I thought it was going to be hard work, like long hours, sweat, blood and tears. So I, I knew it was going to be hard work, but I didn’t think it was going to be hard or another way of saying that is I didn’t, I didn’t think it was going to be as difficult and challenging as it actually was

Pam Ivey (09:52): The way you said it was just so perfect. And I thought people embarking on an entrepreneurial career really need to hear that. Yeah. It just, it really struck me. It’s so interesting, but I have some examples of some good vision statements, but you know, something that would be really helpful to you in thinking about Jane had such a great story as to her why and her vision for it. But sometimes we need things that will kind of spark for us. So what I’m going to do is we’re going to have a list of common values with our show notes. And I think that might help you to start to see the vision for your business. If you can choose your top level values. So I know mine and Jane is pretty parallel with me on this. One of our top values is time freedom, because we both love to travel. So if you can work with your values, I think it will make it so much easier to create that vision. But let’s give you some examples. So you can start to think about it. So Walmarts is be the destination for customers to save money. No matter how they want to shop Nike is, is do everything possible to expand human potential. Now that’s lofty vision!

Jane Garee (11:20): Isn’t it?

Pam Ivey (11:23): Kraft foods is to be North America’s best food and beverage company. And we’ll get there by continuing to offer products. Consumers love creating a performance-based culture that motivates and excites employees and becoming the best investment in the industry. Teslas is to create the most compelling car company of the 21st century by driving the world’s trans physician into electric vehicles, blah, they’re pretty, but that’s what we want you to do. We want you to dream big here. What’s your overall vision for your company? Our vision statement here at flourish is to enable women business owners to identify and strategically execute the vision of their business by understanding the fundamentals and how they interplay with one another in order to scale and run their business like a CEO instead of a solar preneur or a gig. So ours isn’t as concise as Tesla does or Microsoft, but that’s okay.

Pam Ivey (12:26): You can have a sentence to a short paragraph. It just has to define your vision. So we were talking about a mission statement as well. Unlike the mission statement, the vision statement is for you and for the other members of your team, it’s not for your customers or your clients. It’s just for you. The purpose of your mission statement is to tell the world what you do and how you do it. So in other words, the vision statement is forward-looking well, the mission statement addresses the here and now the vision statement is the dream. The mission statement is the reality. So I hope that makes a little clearer between the two. For example, your mission statement might call for every customer to receive outstanding service. Your vision statement might aim for your company’s name to become synonymous with outstanding customer service around the world. Well, they’re definitely not the same thing.

Pam Ivey (13:31): They are interconnected. You can, and you should use your mission statement and your core competencies to inform your vision statement. So writing a vision statement without recognizing your current situation is definitely a missed opportunity. So again, a mission statement is a sentence or a short paragraph that defines the existence of your business mission statements, get to the heart of why a company exists rather than how it exists. In other words, a mission statement, isn’t a business plan that explains how the entity will turn a profit. It’s a statement that defines the motivation for trying to turn a profit in the first place. So the mission statement answers the question, who are we? And the vision statement answers the question, where are we going? So if that completely confused, you, here are some examples, Teslas again, Tesla Tesla’s mission is to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.

Pam Ivey (14:38): I love Tesla by the way. Okay. And, um, Nabisco America’s first choice for goodness in snacking, anytime anywhere Nike’s is to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world. And Walmart is to save people money so they can live better. So Walmart’s vision was to be the destination for customers to save money, no matter how they wanted to shop. And their mission statement is to save people money so they can live better. And our mission statement here at flourish is to provide education strategies, accountability, and support for women business owners, looking to cross the a hundred thousand dollars threshold. So they have a clear understanding of how the foundational pillars of a business interact and support each other in order to scale, grow and leverage with ease. So once you have both your vision statement and your mission statement, then you can start working on connecting those two concepts by creating an action plan that detailed step-by-step plan, that’ll help you make the vision. You have your, for your business, a reality.

Jane Garee (15:54): Thanks for all of that, Pam, that was really great. So got a little exercise for everybody. Here’s what I want you to do. And if you’re driving while listening to this, don’t do it now. But when you get home and you can get to a stable place, I want you to pull out a journal, a notebook. I recommend just getting a clean, fresh one. Anytime I start a new project, I know Pam you’re like this too. It’s time for a new journal. Just it’s a blank slate. It’s a whole fresh new energy. So grab one of those in terms of your vision, let’s get a little specific with this. So when you envision what you want for your business and what you want for your life, I want you to be able to write out complete sentences. The more, the better, just let her rip don’t censor yourself.

Jane Garee (16:37): Don’t judge yourself. When it comes to your vision, I want you to answer, what would it be like for each one of these things? What do you want to do? This is personally and professionally, because remember they’re going to be intertwined. So what do you want to do? Who do you want to be? What do you want to have? And how do you want to feel? So I’m going to say those again. What do you want to do? Who do you want to be? What do you want to have? And how do you want to feel all of these are important? And the reason why you want to write them out, both your vision for yourself professionally and personally is remember, you’re going to have driving factors in each one of those categories and they’re going to play on each other. So if you remember the story that I just told, what did I want to do?

Jane Garee (17:28): I wanted to help people have great sales conversations. What did I want to do? I wanted to build a company that would allow me to have the freedom and lifestyle to live the way that I wanted to live. How was I going to do it? Well, now we’re back to, I wanted to help people have really great sales conversations. So I think the really important thing when you’re doing this exercise is just write it. Don’t judge it. Don’t go back and reread it. You’re not looking for grammar here. Don’t censor yourself, which is what happens when you go back and reread something. So there’s a writer’s trick where when you get going on the writing, just write a first draft. You don’t go back and edit it. You don’t judge it. You don’t review it. So I want everybody to stick to that premise. Otherwise you’re going to start getting a little twisted because your brain is going to come in and go, Oh no, that’s not possible.

Jane Garee (18:15): Or we can’t do that. Or who, who am I to think? I could even pull something like that off. So what do you want to do? Who do you want to be? What do you want to have? And how do you want to feel? So you’re going to create that for your vision. That’s your first step. Now in earlier podcast, we talked about the vision comes first. The strategy then supports the vision and the tactics are then going to support your strategy today. The focus is on the vision. So write it, feel it, jump into it, lean into it, embody it because without that vision, you’re really going to struggle to move forward. In fact, one of my favorite verses in the Bible, it says, without a vision, the people will perish and whoomp. There it is. You know, like there you go. We really can’t do anything without a vision.

Jane Garee (19:06): And every day when we get up, we have a vision. Otherwise we would just continue to lie in bed. So the minute your eyes open in the morning, you have a vision which is I’m going to get up out of bed. I’m going to go take a shower and brush my teeth and I’m going to get on with my day. So the vision always has to come first. So work on your vision now in a future podcast, what we’re going to talk about is how you have to have a strategy that supports your vision, a vision without the strategy starts to become a little bit more of a dream who want to make sure that you’re really fully equipped and empowered to turn your vision into a reality. That’s going to require a supportive strategy. And then of course, we’ll break that down so that you have specific tactics to support the strategy, which what supports the vision

Pam Ivey (19:54): Perfect. Because I was just thinking, I remember the first time somebody said, as a small business owner, I should create a vision. I thought isn’t that just for big companies, but Jay, you just explained it so perfectly there. We need that vision in order to drive everything else in our business. It doesn’t matter how big or small we are. It’s not corporate-y it’s for all businesses. So I think you brought up an excellent point there. Super. So you have exercises to do, and that was writing in a brand new, fresh, new energy notebook. I love that idea always because Jane and I are both notebook crazy girls.

Jane Garee (20:38): Yes.

Pam Ivey (20:39): So here are your key takeaways. Your vision statement describes the long-term goals for your company. Vision statements are lofty and they’re ambitious. So remember, don’t sensor yourself when you’re writing in your journal and they don’t contain details or steps for achieving those goals. So they’re lofty and they’re ambitious and vision statements are distinct from your mission statements though. The two may inform one another and you know, being able to craft and articulate a vision is one of the hallmarks of a strong business leader doesn’t matter the size of your business, but we all want to be strong business leaders. So now I think we have a good overview of the vision statement. And again, with the show notes, we’re going to include a list of common values. So I think that’ll help you in starting the journaling process or the writing process that you’re not going to censor once again. And we’ll also include those questions that Jane posed, what do you want, what do you want to have? How do you want to feel? I don’t know if we added how you want to feel, but we’re going to include that and how you want to be great. Anything else to add Jane before we wrap up?

Jane Garee (22:03): No, I’m just excited to see what everybody comes up with and what kind of new awareness you really have around your vision. You know, vision. We can also kind of synonymously use it a little bit with, with purpose, purpose. I think sometimes it feels a bit stressful. So your vision and just lock onto that.

Pam Ivey (22:22): I think that’s a great idea. And if you want, I mean, you should be following us in our Facebook group. We have an amazing community of like-minded peers for you to connect with over there. And if you’d like, you could include your vision statement there and we can all give you some input on it. Maybe help you hone it down or just sharpen it or just say, yay, you, you go, girl, you got it. So that’s over at the Flourish & Grow to CEO Facebook Group. Well, that’s a wrap everyone. Thanks for joining us this week on the flourishing, grow to CEO podcast, be sure to visit our website flourish.biz. That’s F L O U R I S h.biz, where you can subscribe to the shows in iTunes, Stitcher, or via RSS. So you’ll never miss an episode. You can also find our show notes and resources there too. And while you’re at it, if you found value in this show, we’d love for you to leave a rating on iTunes. Or if you’d simply tell a friend about the show that would sure help us out to now get out there and flourish!