How To Redefine your Mission, Vision and Values

Welcome ladies and gentleman to a brand new episode of Raney Day Talks podcast. I’m your host Jennifer Sakowski and this is the first episode of the brand new year 2020 is anyone else as excited as I am?

Probably not because I just come from a team meeting and had the whole team, whether it was coming in via zoom or in the office here at our coworking space in Murrysville and we went through so much of our business and had awesome conversation, awesome brainstorming, set some goals, set some sprints. I mean whew. I had to take 30 just to like regroup myself to get online and record this podcast cause we, we just covered so much and it was awesome. So I’m bringing that level of energy to this podcast because it is the first one of the new year and there’s a question that I keep getting asked about. “Jen, how are you defining your goals? How do you set yourself up daily to show up…” And just a lot of conversation around that and I thought, shoot, let’s, let’s talk about this. So I’m going to share with you my Jen Sakowski suggestions, recommendation, things that you should do for your business and for yourself for the new year. Now we all talk about resolutions and resolutions are fine. I’m all about those goals. I’m about defining what am I going to change to get the results that I’m looking for. I posted on my personal brand about if you…

If you’re choosing, you’re choosing, like if you don’t make a change, then you’re choosing to stay that way. It’s probably a much more eloquent than that, but check it out and it’s so true. Cause if we’re not willing to change, how can we expect change?

How can we expect a new result if we’re not willing to give up something, add something. It makes some adjustments. So that’s what I wanted to break down today. First and foremost we’re going to talk about you boss, business owner, hustler, how you can set yourself up and start defining what habits do I need to want to be the best version of myself and to make progress toward my goals. So what I did, and I, I love me some Brendon Burchard, I love me some Rachel Hollis, I love me some ed, my let, like there’s some heavy hitters that I I eat whatever they put out. So I do a little bit of all of them and this is what works for me. So I’m looking at in front of me, one thing that I had to change last year, I was like, I am not, I have a tablet, I have one of those pencils, the Apple pencils and I had my designer, she made me out just a real basic list that I put into GoodNotes and app that I use.

And I just was like, I’m going to write everything out and I’m going to use Google calendar because we use a scheduler for the business and I need to make sure that I don’t miss anything or not schedule something so that way I don’t double book myself. So I thought, Oh, I’m not gonna duplicate my time and have a written out calendar. If you know me, you know, I have to make lists. I am one that is gets easily excited, easily distracted. I lose focus, any shiny object I have to stay myself focused on leaving software alone that comes out like I have … there’s certain things that I have to do to stay focused. So for me this year is something that I changed was I went back to basics. I bought into, it’s actually Rachel Hollis’s priority planner that she just put out at target and I was like, I’m going to do it.

It’s three months. It still causes me to focus in on using my Google calendar to manage my time and block out project work, block out time, family. It also allows me to write it down. So I bought that and I pulled out my tablet. I have a notebook called Write It Out. And the first thing that I did was I wrote out what it’s, it’s an, it’s an exercise called Destination Happy Place is what I was told when I did this originally and I keep coming back to it. So take out a sheet of paper, a notebook, whatever it is. Or maybe you have a notebook like I do on the tablet and write out… Think 10 years. So right now it’s perfect because it’s 2020 so in 2030 how old are you? What does your life look like? Are you running your business?

Are you traveling? What’s your family life look like? What’s your home look like? Where do you live? What are the things that you like? What? What are you eating? How are you dressing? Just take some time and grab a beverage of choice. Just write it out. This is between you, the paper in the wall. You don’t have to share anybody, but just let your guard down and dream a little. What would you love to have? What would your days look like on a Monday? Are you headed to the gym or are you headed to the office? Maybe you don’t even work on Mondays. Maybe only at work they have a four hour work week. I don’t know. But that’s your first challenge is to write down what your life is like in 10 years. As you go through this exercise, I was surprised on where I was at and I listed out on the left hand side, I put in 10 year vision and I wrote that out on the right hand side.

I did a quick recap of what I did in the last 10 years. Sometimes it’s hard to think that big, but when you look back and see all really that you accomplish. For example, I met my husband, I had two babies, I launched a business. I now have a global team. We updated our house, we, I moved states. I mean there’s so many big life changes that’s happened in 10 years and so I went through and I listed all those out. Then the next thing that I did, I continued journaling what life was like because I wanted to get a good grip on what are those 10 dreams that I could pull from that journaling, that destination happy place. And I listed them out and actually I had 12. I then narrowed myself down to 10. 10 and 10. Now I want you just to pull off the disclaimer right now.

Your 10 goals may change over time. Okay? I know that my goals over the last 10 years, it’s definitely changed. It will change. The goal to this whole podcast is for you to start, I don’t care what you do, but just do something because doing something is causing momentum and momentum is power. Momentum is what gets us the next step. That the next day, the next month, the next task, the next, so on, so forth. Just do something. What I did wrote down to 10 goals, 10 dreams. Then on the next sheet I started with number one. My number one I totally stole this from Rachel Hollis is I want to be an exceptional mama. And I want to be exceptional wife is number two. I wrote down what it could mean for me as Jen Sakowski to be an excellent mama at this time. What I know, and I wrote down, first one was pray for my kids every day and then I just listed items that I thought this would make an impact on their lives.

This, this, this would do something right, hopefully in a positive way. And I went through the second one, wrote down what I thought that I needed to do or I could accomplish to be that [insert your goal here] maintain your goal. And I did that for everyone. I have a financial goal that I want to take. I have goals for things that I want to have, to do for the business. I put everything in business, work, everything. Just put it all in a bucket because as a business owner, as an entrepreneur, as I’ve talked before, I don’t think it’s a balancing act. I think that they should mesh and they should, gel. And sometimes, you know it, it just flows, but it’s not a balancing act. I want it all. And I don’t think that you have to sacrifice one or the other. I think there’s ways to make it work.

After I did that for each one, and that took a little bit of time because as I started brain dumping for each one, I realized that in those items there’s mile markers or milestones along the way to get to that main goal, right? I just threw everything at it. What I thought. There are certain roles that I want to hire in the business and have in 10 years and I brain dumped what would I have to do to have these people in the right roles to accomplish this? Or if I went into the business to make this much in sales, what has to happen? And I just let it all on the paper. That’s, that was the next step from there. That’s when you pick one. Now I understand sometimes you’re working on a couple as it goes, but I want you to pick one that, you know, this is what I’m all in for.

This is what I’m going to hit right now. And that one, that’s what you pull up, all that brainstorming and you start organizing basically into steps that you have to take to get that. So if it’s, let’s say you want to make for easy numbers, $100,000 in your business, okay, so if I want to make $100,000 my business, I need to look at where are my numbers right now and what do I gotta do? What I gotta make up for? Then decide is it, am I selling more products or do I need to launch a new service? Do I need to increase my pricing? What needs to happen? Start putting them down and chunking them down to smaller tasks. Because sometimes we have this grand idea and it’s huge. We have this dream and we might put it on paper, but without some plans in place, actions to take, that’s still always going to be a dream.

Let’s break it down and if you need help with any of this, I would love to hear. So, I can go in even further. How to break down those big goals then. Okay. After you do that, exercise might take a little break. When you come back, I want you to sit and think for you to show up and be your best self every day. If I was going to give extra to accomplish my goals and to be that person that I want to be in 10 years, what do I have to do right now? What are habits that I can change right now? And that’s where we start writing out. What does that look like for me? I want to be healthy for my children. I want to be able to be on 24/7 or at least while I’m not sleeping and while I’m at work and then I don’t want this downtime from when I slip from work to home.

I want to be intentional about every hour of my day. For me, I wrote down what are my non-negotiables that I have to have every day, particularly your morning. Now, if you listen to our other podcasts, you know that morning routines are crucial for higher performers. Checkout Brendon Burchard, I’m telling you, check out Rachel Hollis check. Check out. Anybody that I named before, and it’s all about how you set yourself up every day. Some of mine that I do is I need to get up before everyone else in the house. I’ve got two little ones and an awesome husband who also gets up early, but I have to make sure that I’m up earlier because that way I set myself up to be that exceptional momma and that wife that I’m ready to give to them. So it’s something that you’ll always hear me say, you cannot pour from an empty cup.

I have to focus on me and what are some of the things that I have to do? I need to move my body. My goal is every day to move my body for at least 30 minutes. I go to the gym or I go to the basement to the Peloton, or I do yoga or something every single day. Right now I’m on day 12 or 13 I forget. It’s amazing what shift that has taken, how I feel, my attitude, and obviously my clothes, how they fit. But that’s been a huge impact. The second thing that I make sure that I do is I’m drinking more water.

That’s a no brainer. You have to drink water if you’re not drinking, shoot for half of your body weight in ounces. And that’s what I do. The next thing that I make sure that I do every single day is that I am spending time in my Word. I read my Bible. Right now, I’m going through a Bible in a year plan. I’ve never read the Bible chronological order. Never done it and shoot, now that I’ve put it out there into the world. Dang it, at the end of this year, I’m going to post it. I did it. So I found an awesome plan and that’s what I’m following along. So every morning I count for that. I like to get my juice in of a morning and I set my intentions for the day. So that means that I write out my 10 goals every single day as though they’ve already happened because I am claiming that that is happening because there are power in your words.

I truly believe that if you name it, claim it, you can make happen. I write out my ten goals every single day. I do have a gratitude practice that I’ve started, five things that I’m grateful that’s happened or I’m grateful for it in the last 24 hours and that’s pulled from Rachel Hollis and you can write more. I tend to do five and sometimes it’s God bless coffee or it’s something that’s happened with one of my kiddos or flirting with my husband or you know it, it can be something with the team. Somebody really showed up when I needed them to whatever it may be. I write those out because when you start looking for ways to be thankful to be grateful for, that changes your perspective completely. And that’s my goal because sometimes I do tend to be extreme worst case scenario and negative.

I know it might be surprising, but I have to fight against that. I’m determined that everyday I’m looking for things that I can be grateful for. I got have life, I have breath in my lungs, new day full new and mercies, whatever it may be. But then I also look at what time do I have to go to bed because I’m trying to get up between four and four 30 every day in the morning. Yes. And I cannot stay up till 11:00 PM working online with the team or working on a project or doing something. Working on content and think that I’m going to show up the next day and not be sleepy by 3:00 PM it does not happen. I try it. I can do it for a little while, but that that’s not healthy. That’s not something that I can keep up every day.

So that’s my commitment that I am going to shut down at 9:00 PM and march my little self upstairs. Sometimes I bring a book, sometimes I have my tablet, but at least, that is my intention, I am heading up the steps at 9:00 PM. That’s what I did. I wrote out my non-negotiables every single day. One of them that I didn’t even write down is I prepare for the next day. Of a night I set out the kids’ clothes. I set out my clothes. I try to pack my bag. I set my Bible aside, I set everything that I need, my, Oh my workout clothes. That’s a whole thing in it. Process in itself, I make sure that that’s out. I allow myself, no excuses really to show up. My word for this year is disciplined. My goal is to do this every single day. It might sound boring, but I got goals and that’s what I encourage you is to define where you’re trying to go.

 

What are the steps that you get there? You may not know all of them, but at least you have those mile markers. You’re smart, you have access to internet. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be listening to this. Google it.  Then set your intentions every day. Once I write out what I’m checking off ,what I did in my morning routine, I set up, what are the big three rocks that I’m going to knock out of the park. What are my three tasks that are huge that I’m gonna nail. Sometimes I’m the person that will make all the lists and they’re a mile long, but I have to bring it back in because then I go to bed and I’m like, Ugh, I was so busy but I didn’t accomplish anything that doesn’t help you. So let’s set yourself up for success. Pick three. If you get more than that, great, but let’s, let’s shoot for three.

And then I look at my daily schedule like for the day, and then I map out everything. I write it out from the time my feet hit the floor till the time I go to bed. Kids, naps. What am I accomplishing when they’re sleeping? Lunch, what am I making? I mean all of it. When do I start prepping for dinner? Because that helps me be intentional. If I write it out and I put it in front of me if something happens, cause I have little ones at home. Goodness, I got a two and a half year old with big emotions and something sets her off. I’m, I’m out for a little bit until things calm down. At least by having those intentions, I give myself grace enough to come back to them and come back to my schedule to pick up where I left off. So you, you allow yourself that flexibility because life happens. Sometimes you might have a fire to put out with your client. Sometimes somebody gets sick and you have to go pick up for school, whatever it may be. At least you have that roadmap to come back to.

I hope that is super helpful for you on the personal side. Cause let me tell you, by the time I dropped the kids off and I check in for work, I am ready. And as a boss I want them to feel my energy because if I show up and we use Slack. If I show up and I’m posting videos and if I feel like if I’m not on, they’re going to feel that, right? How I respond to them, how I engage with my team. However it may be, they’ll feel that. I want to lead them, I want to inspire them. How do I set myself up for success? I just told you now the second part of this episode today. That’s the personal side. I want you now to step into your business because there’s something that I did last year that I’m so proud of is that I updated our core values, our mission, and our vision.

Part two.

When’s the last time that you evaluated your business’ mission, vision, and what you stand for? Because for me it was, it was okay, especially our values. They were good, but they weren’t, we weren’t living them. They weren’t something that we talked about. It was, yeah, that’s our general, that’s what we believe in. That’s what we do. But it wasn’t, we weren’t living it and I wanted, because even though I may have started as a freelancer and now have this full agency, I knew way back when that this business was going to be bigger than me. I knew it. And so I feel like I’ve always strived to make it bigger than maybe what we are right now because I know we’re growing into that greatness, right? And for our mission and vision, I wanted to make sure that it aligned to really what we’re doing. At first I was like, Oh, like I need to niche, I need to bring it in. Well, I decided to let that go and for me, I started with What.

What am I trying to accomplish in our business? What problems are we solving? What, what are we actually doing? It’s not something that is up on a wall somewhere. It’s like what? What are we trying?

We believe every small business can use the internet to increase sales with the right strategy in place. That’s our vision. Now, if you didn’t know small business, that’s, if you really go to define that, that’s a huge market. And right now the way that we are working, we haven’t niched ourself down to an industry. It’s small businesses.

We are on a mission to create the strategy to implement the tools needed and make each client successful through lead generation. They need sales. We got the tools to bring new leads in.

Let’s do that. That’s what we’re doing. I started looking at what are the qualities. What do we stand for, what do we believe in, whether it’s inside the business or our clients. I really started looking at the team members that we had, their personalities, who we tended to attract and I got busy writing out our culture/ our values. I believe that your values should be more than a bullet point list of adjectives. Melissa might correct me that later, but I believe that it’s than just one word. Okay. It’s more than just teamwork, communication, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. I think it’s more than that. I’m going to read you our company culture and hopefully that may inspire you to embrace maybe some of these or redefine your own. This is something we go through one of these every time we meet. Every Tuesday morning during our team huddle, we are just ticking them down and then we’re going to circle back around. I asked them, I read it and I say, what does that mean to you? What does that mean for you in the business? And as a person? And we talk, we brainstorm and we make it come to life. And that’s what I love because every one of these, I truly believe that the team that I have in place are actively looking to embrace these.

Our Core Values

Raney Day Design is unique. Just like the individuals that serve here. We stand out amongst the crowded online space of marketers. We will not blend in when we were created to stand out.

We are servant leaders. We empower one another through kindness and respect. We rally behind each other and struggles and celebrate each other’s victories. Our company strives off of serving each other, including the clients who hire us.

we strive to go above and beyond, not just in the tasks we execute but how we show up for one another. We are a team here that trust one another to do what is needed to get the job done. That is how we can be successful as a team and help us to go bigger every day.

We choose joy because negativity will not get us to where we are going. Gratitude is how we accomplish it day in and day out meaning we say thank you a lot.

We pay attention to our clients and one another. Our organization strives off of handling details like a boss.

We strive for growth because we want to be better than yesterday.

We are results driven. Therefore we are on a mission to be intentional in all we do. We may be bold in actions we take but it is not without planning.

We all work hard to live well. We enjoy productive days and when we are checked in and online we crush it when we are offline, we are fully present there.

All are welcome here. We believe anyone can be a part of our team and sit at our table. We serve a diverse audience. Therefore we welcome diversity with open arms.

Okay, This is one of my favorites.

We are good of what we are given and desire to bless others. Therefore we give back 10% of what we make to charities and nonprofits.

I hope that inspires you because every time that I read these and this morning we went through them, it juices me up. Like I get pumped. I wanted to create a place where I enjoy going to every single day. I feel like as a team, this, this is the culture that we’ve created is that each one of us look forward to checking in. And I mean, I can’t speak for the rest of the team, but talking about it, having conversation, brainstorming, bringing in the team and having their ideas put on paper and start to cultivate this. That’s how it’s done.

If you haven’t had time or haven’t even looked at your mission or vision for a very long, I encourage you to do so because let me tell you when it becomes more than just words on the wall or on some poster or on some company handbook. That’s where the magic happens in your team. When your team can start taking ownership in the tasks that they take and how did they show up and that they’re actively looking for ways to better themselves.

Because I tell them all the time, if you like, if you’re not present here, if you’re not here and showing up as your best self, you’re no good to any one of us. So if you’re not striving for that, maybe this is the place to be. We have those conversations. That’s part two of today’s podcast is I want you to evaluate where you’re at, your goals, and how you’re setting yourself up every single day. Then part two, I want you to see how are you setting your team up? How are you setting your business up? Does your mission and visions really lined for where you’re going? And then, dang it, take those company cultures and redefine it to where it comes to life for each of your team members and then talk about it. Don’t just set it aside, don’t just put it in the handbook, talk about it. I encourage you to meet with your team regularly and bring this in and build examples around it. And once you start seeing the shift in your business, I want to hear about it because I want to get excited along with you to see you moving closer to your goals, to set yourself up for success and to showing up better than what you were the day before.

I hope you found this helpful. And if so, take a screenshot, share it on whatever social media that you prefer and tag me and Raney Day Design in. Tag, #RaneyDayTalks is where it’s at. Make sure to message me and let me know if you have any questions. If you’re wanting to dig in a little bit deeper on some of the topics that I talked about today, I want to hear it because this, these topics are things I get excited for if you couldn’t already tell. I love this and I hope that you can find a helpful.

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Thank You To Our Sponsor

A huge thank you to Mark at Mark Levander Productions is for sponsoring season, one of Raney Day Talks Podcast. I’m very particular who we partner with and Mark was a no brainer. Mark does all of our video editing and puts all of the components and pieces together for our YouTube channel and podcast. If you are looking to publish your own YouTube series podcasts or need photography work, please contact Mark through MarkLevanderProductions.com