44. Own your values: brand, company, and personal
SUMMARY
Screw the template, own your values, and amplify your influence. While you may recognize the Flaunt Your Fire catchphrase, have you ever stopped to identify your values? Have you ever taken the time to express them in written form? Of course, the process is easier when you understand the difference between brand values and company values.
Clearly defined values are the foundation for everything you create. They inform how you engage with your team, your clients, your audience - and set standards by which those same entities can hold you accountable. In this solo conversation, India provides a primer on clarifying and communicating brand vs company values with examples and ideas for further exploration.
Listen on your favorite podcast player or keep reading to explore:
Defining the basics - values vs. beliefs
Demonstrating the difference - brand vs. company values
When, where, and how to express both internal and forward-facing values
Words and actions that uphold values-driven decision making
How explicit values help you attract the best fit and hold you accountable
The growing client/consumer demand for transparency and values-informed choices
Examples from FYF’s own values integration
Bringing our whole human self to the values process
QUOTED
INDIA JACKSON
“These values define ideal behaviors of your team members, from the executive and the CEO of the brand to the intern.”
“We never allow our clients to have brand values be a fluffy word or statement.”
“We have moved into an era where consumers want more transparency from those that they're investing their time and their money into.”
“The truth is, in my opinion, we bring all of ourselves when we come to work.”
ARTICLE
Screw the template, own your values, and amplify your influence. That phrase represents the heart and soul of Flaunt Your Fire. There’s a lot going on behind that collection of words. In this discussion, however, India singles out that phrase in the middle: own your values. Three simple words with more layers than your favorite cake. Mmm. Now we want cake! But first, it’s important to unpack what the phrase means. To do that, it’s essential to identify what our values are. Oh, and before you can unravel that question, you must understand the differences between brand values and company values, your values, and the values that you have for your team.
That’s a lot to comprehend - to say nothing of putting those values into practice! - but FYF is keeping it quick this time around with an introduction to the basics. Don’t be fooled, though; this episode is packed with info for everyone. “I can almost guarantee you that you're going to learn something new or open your mind to a new point of view on what brand values are, what company values are, and how that's different than what you've seen other people refer to as well,” says India. She also guarantees that if you were to ask three or four different individuals what brand values are or what company values are all about, you'd probably get three to four different answers.
Values is a word that has been thrown around so much lately and used in so many different ways. It could mean so many different things, even to two people in the same industry that do similar work. “When I say values, I mean, what's important? What matters?” If you were to look up the word value, you’d find myriad definitions. Some explanations even go into visual design, but for today's conversation, we’re specifically looking at the part of values that means what's important, what matters, what's informing your why.
Values Are Different Than Beliefs
India hears people use those words interchangeably: I believe this/I value that. “I think that our values, what matters to us, doesn't change very much throughout life, even our own personal values, “ India explains. “What may change is our beliefs, right? We may find that something is really important to us.” For some, that may be their relationship with God. For others, that might be creating change in the world and making the world a better place. “But our beliefs about God or how we choose to practice our spirituality, or our beliefs about the best ways to create change in the world or our beliefs about what is going to impact our industry the best, that might change throughout our lifetime.” Those shifts can indicate growth, a change in how you’re approaching your practice or work or world view. “The values really are the foundation for all that we do, and the root of our why, because it's what's important to us; it’s what matters.”
The Brand Side of The Equation
We all have personal values, but let’s focus on the brand side of the equation. Brand values and company values matter just as much as individual values. “What I want you to think of when you think of brand values is a little different than most,” India says. For that reason, she’s using FYF and Pause On The Play as examples.
“Brand values are used externally; this communicates with your clients and your customers.” Your brand values are the foundation for everything within your brand. These values address your clientele so they can determine for themselves if they believe in what your organization supports. Your brand values help others decide if you're a good fit and aligned with what they want to invest.
“This is so important as well because as you talk about your brand values publicly, others are making a decision of whether or not, when they make an investment in you, it's supporting the same things that they value, and how your brand is going to use its money - or its access, or its visibility.” Brand values are influenced by all of us working to bring the brand values process together. Specifically, that means that our clients go through our From Implicit to Explicit: Leading Through Your Values masterclass, defining their values amongst other entrepreneurs or intimately, with just their team. Everyone's involved in that process. Either way, it's essential to hold space for and prioritize those you intend to support through your brand and/or your business.
If you have a business, that means your clients; if you have a personal brand, your followers (or podcast listeners, blog readers, or vlog viewers). “When we think about brand values in that way, we can ask ourselves ‘are the values that we've laid out as the front-facing brand values in the greatest service and support to those that we are here to share with, highlight, support, encourage and inspire?’” India says, “not just here, selfishly, for ourselves or what we think we should be saying our values are.”
Once we examine our brand values more closely, we’re better prepared to articulate them. You can choose to share these with others in a way that they can consume on their own. Or, you may decide that your values are best kept internally, acting as a compass, guiding the way for every piece of content, every decision that the company makes. “When we write them,” India says of these values, “we write them in a way that allows someone to quickly evaluate if they are consistent with their own personal values so they can make their own decision.” This documentation allows others to say, “Yay; this is for me, and I am fully on board! Or...Absolutely not! I don't feel like this is aligned, and I'm out!
The beautiful part is those brand values allow you to attract the best fit, to focus entirely on the individuals you want to attract the most. It also signals that every associated activity was designed with them in mind. Note what a different experience that is, to let someone know they’re welcomed in your brand or business environment, to say this was definitely made for you versus you can come on but, you know… In that way, your values-driven decisions allow those who don't feel like you’re the best fit to hop off the ride - or, better yet, not even get on the ride in the first place. Those misaligned clients have the potential to take up a lot of energetic space, especially when you’re forced to navigate challenging conversations around their expectations of support or discover that you disagree with their brand expression. It's a win-win for everyone when we lead through our brand values, and our brand values are created so that they call in more of the people we desire and repel those we don’t.
Internal Values Guide Company Culture
When it comes to company values, think of those more as internal values. “These are the values that guide your company's culture,” India explains. “These values define ideal behaviors of your team members, from the executive and the CEO of the brand to the intern.” It’s so important to take this whole-team approach! “I truly do believe that company culture can be built on checks and balances across the board. And, while every brand has, or every company has different roles and positions - and some may have a higher salary or more decision-making and say so in decisions than others - I think it's important to build a culture where people feel comfortable being honest and vulnerable, but also, people feel comfortable pulling someone to the side and saying, ‘I'm seeing this, you know, and maybe this is misaligned.’”
That’s the high-level version of company culture, an area in which Erica Courdae does fantastic work supporting businesses through Pause On The Play and her own brand as well. India reminds us that we must think of company values as that internal compass. This is why company values are separate from brand values. “The way that we are going to write company values and list them out and lay them out is not for the world to see necessarily,” she says. It has a different purpose. When we think about company values from executive to intern, these are the principles from which they operate.
Ideally, everyone within your organization is making decisions based on a set of clearly-defined company values, showing up in a way that promotes the integrity of the company's values. “It lays out what you will be holding yourself and your team accountable to as a part of your business and brand. These values determine what talent you hire because they're going to be a great fit for your culture, and which talent will not be a great fit when you're in your recruiting process.”
One of the things India loves about company values is that as you integrate your brand values across all of your content, you're integrating those same values into all of your recruiting and hiring processes, into any front-facing information about working with your brand as a team member or contractor. “It's important to do that because, you know, you don't want to waste your time (or anyone else's time) applying for a position or role or bringing on a contractor - or if you are a personal brand, partnering with a product-based business or service-based business as an influencer or an affiliate - that ultimately is misaligned with how you want to do things.”
Do's and Don'ts, Wills and Won'ts
Consider how you’d integrate these values into your job announcements or front-facing information, and work with our team pages on your website. Including tangible actions for each company value is an excellent way for a company to evaluate themselves and their team. This allows businesses to identify what may need adjustment to maintain integrity and alignment with their expressed values.
When India says tangible actions, she means wills and won'ts: we will do this/we won't do that. Or, we’re currently doing this/we currently don't do that. Either way, your actions are in total alignment with a specific communicated value. India also advises brands and businesses to acknowledge what they’ve already done. “Sometimes, we can miss that and just have our eyes on what we need to do next and not honor and celebrate what we're already doing.”
Now, here’s where FYF and POTP differ from many other marketing agencies, branding agencies, design companies, strategists, visibility experts, publicity companies, DEI brands, consultancies, coaching businesses, and online programs - Whew! You name it! - that connect with brand values (and we do want to acknowledge that many other businesses talk about brand values).
“Where we're different is those do's and don'ts, those wills and won'ts,” India says. “We never allow our clients to have brand values be a fluffy word or statement. We absolutely believe that these values should be written in a way - even brand values - written in a way that sets the stage for what you can expect and what you cannot expect from the brand and from the company as someone who is consuming content, investing your dollars, decided to sign up and work with in some way as an employee or contractor.”
Listen, it's one thing to craft beautiful words, to convey an attractive idea; it's another thing to uphold the meaning of those words in all that you do and be held accountable for your actions. “It's important for multiple reasons because we all have areas where we're not completely aware from the inside, looking at our own stuff, where we could do more of something that's going really well and being aligned with our values, but maybe we need to do less of something because it's totally misaligned, and that opens others to keeping us accountable,” explains India, “especially if we built a brand that is open to feedback and has a two-way conversation with people instead of being one-sided.” Sometimes, the people that follow you or work with you are the best people to comment on both your good and not-so-good efforts.
We’d love to see more agencies, coaches, and consultancies look at anchoring values and accountability-based actions in their work. Part of why FYF and POTP have made this shift over the last few years is that we genuinely believe that we’ve moved into an era where consumers want greater transparency from who and what they're investing their time, their money in. They want a way to ensure that their time - if they're listening to your podcast or reading your content, or following you on social media, that’s an expenditure of a precious resource that they can't get back - is invested well. They want a way to ensure that those brands are backing up their words with tangible actions, not just saying nice things. Those do's and don'ts, wills, and won'ts help audiences quickly determine if a brand is living up to its professed values.
One of FYF’s wills and won'ts is: we won't create trash. Whenever and wherever possible, we limit the stress we place on resources because we value the environment. Even though it's not one of our front-facing brand values, it's something that India personally values. Therefore, it’s integrated into our actions. “Whenever possible, we encourage our clients, and we try to hold ourselves accountable to creating things in a way that has the most ease and reusability and creates the least amount of trash possible,” she says.
One of the things we are looking at right now is transitioning from PDFs - which many people have to print out in order to edit or markup - to Google docs because Google docs encourage online accessibility. Our audience is more likely to engage with our free downloadable resources - like the checklist or journal workbook - when they have the option to do so online instead of printing out hard copies, which, let’s face it, kills more trees!
Expressing these internal company values makes it easier for us to hold ourselves accountable. We can quickly review our projects and ask ourselves, okay, well, did we design any trash? Did we design things in a way that were more sustainable? Did we consider our part in the process and the end user’s role?
Final Thoughts
We hope that example is helpful, that breaking down brand values and company values resonates with you. These are the front-facing values. Your values set the foundational stone whether you’re an individual who has a team or you’re a personal brand or influencer who works via partnerships or affiliates. “The truth is, in my opinion, you know, we bring all of ourselves when we come to work,” says India. “We don't become a different person just because our role that we're in has changed from lover or friend or spouse or mom to business owner or influencer; we're still the same human underneath.”
Still the same human...and still hungry for that layer cake.
YOUR ACTIONS FOR THIS EPISODE
Defining your personal values can feel intimidating. Our From Implicit to Explicit: Leading Through Your Values masterclass is an excellent place to engage with the process.
Enroll today at www.pauseontheplay.com/explicit
Enrollment is open! We limit the number of masterclass sessions we offer to foster an intimate experience. We genuinely understand that diving into your values is such a personal exercise; we want you to feel supported in doing so.
When you join, you get to bond and explore value traits together. India Jackson and Erica Courdae guide everyone through the process of defining their personal values. Then, they support attendees in translating those values into appropriate expressions of their brand or business.
This three-hour workshop is also fun! It's so amazing to have all of these things that live in your heart and your head get documented in an impactful way. This is such a helpful process because we’ve all moved through our everyday way of being, wishing we had that outside perspective to remind us of our genius. Here’s your chance to be in the (virtual) room with two incredible professionals to support you in digging deeper.
Get feedback. Give feedback. Offer support. Make a difference. Do something magical for your brand or business.
Register now as our remaining spots each quarter go quickly and we’d love to have you with us!