51. Integrating Brand Values Into Your Professional and Personal lives
SUMMARY
Values. Core beliefs that support every aspect of your brand or business? The code by which you live your personal life? Or vague buzzwords floating around your website?
If you’re struggling to integrate the concept of values in a meaningful way, India and Erica offer expert guidance. Using client anecdotes and experiences from their own lives, they connect the professional with the personal, showing that operating with integrity becomes automatic when you purposefully consider your values.
In this discussion:
Defining the concept of core values
Identifying the intersection of your personal and professional values
Auditing your values and aligning them with your brand or business
Determining your values now, before you’ve built your brand or business
Attracting clients/relationships/partnerships with intentionality
QUOTED
India Jackson
“We all can use the same words, and we all can mean very different things when we say them.”
“If you don't have these values and you're waiting until you already have a team, then you've hired team members that might be misaligned.”
“Brand values: they start out as this fluffy idea of ‘I need to put this on the website’, and then they become your whole life in the most beautiful way.”
Erica Courdae
“When you create this connection between ‘This is how I show up,’ and ‘This is what this concept is, and this is how I define it,’ it's like, ‘Oh! I get why the other things didn't stick; it makes sense now.’”
“There are these words that are just so overused and so under-defined through your lens that it's just really pointless. And this is why I think it's so important to figure out your values even before you think you need to.”
“You network differently, personally and professionally, once you get your values, and then you attract different people.”
ARTICLE
When From Implicit To Explicit first launched, India and Erica geared the masterclass towards brands and business owners. A funny thing happened on the way to helping dozens of professionals identify their core values. Those same professionals unconsciously further integrated their values into their personal lives.
Back Your Values With More Than Words
Citing feedback she’s received from past participants, India notes that “it goes so much further than just actually building out your brand values and having something to slap on your website. It actually translates into so many other areas of aligning and being. We say alignment all the time, but really, it's being in integrity with who you are and ensuring that you are who you say you are and you do what you say you'll do.”
“I think sometimes people can have this misconception when they hear the word values come up,” Erica says, “especially within any kind of professional space that is very like this is a standalone of how I make money and how I do things. And, I think that there was a lot lost in how you, as an individual, operate will inform what you create when you build a brand. Once you have that clarity within this brand––where you're spending a lot of your time and your energy––all of a sudden, it's like, ‘Wait! This is part of me, and I had no idea!’ I think people just are like, ‘Shit; I didn't see that coming.’”
Erica references the Pause On The Play conversation featuring Steve Disselhorst as an example of how the concept of values extends beyond just a brand or business. As a gay dad to two adopted children, Steve’s core beliefs and integrity guide his interactions in business, of course, and how he engages with the staff at his children’s school, the books and programs he promotes to amplify representation of different family units. “This is not just professional; this is also personal. The personal informs the professional,” Erica says.
“I hear you say that a lot, the personal informs the professional,” says India. “It's so true because you don't leave who you are on the shelf when you come to work; you're still the same person inside. Even if there are some pieces that maybe aren't as relevant to your work, you're still the same human underneath all of that.”
“Without having that moment of reconciliation of what your values are and what they look like in action, because I think that's a big piece of it that is missing when people just kind of arbitrarily go in and choose three to five words that sound really cool and are overused,” Erica acknowledges. “When you take those words, and you put them into action, it's like, what does this mean? What does this actually show up as, as far as how you exist? What does this mean for your being? And so, when you create this connection between, ‘This is how I show up,’ and ‘This is what this concept is, and this is how I define it,’ it's like, ‘Oh! I get why the other things didn't stick; it makes sense now.’”
Your Values Exploration Begins Here
So often, we’ve seen folks pick values that sound good––like honesty. “I'm like, I hope so. I hope honesty is there!” Erica says, explaining that most of the time, initial forays into core value identification aren’t tethered to any solid foundation.
Starting strong begins with conducting a values audit, something that India says some folks skip in favor of moving directly to brand strategy, marketing plans, or funnel creation. “But before you can get to that strategy, I believe that you need to audit what you already have because if the person supporting you is not clear on what is already going well and already not going well, then they're building you a strategy out of thin air.”
If you're going to audit, you need values to audit from; otherwise, what are you auditing against? “I'm noting what's happening, but I can't be really clear on if this is what we want to be happening or not if I don't have a guideline to do that with,” India adds, “and the brand values, when you write them in such a way that each value is attached to actions, is attached to things that people will do/won’t do, will say/won’t say, then it becomes so much easier to say, ‘Okay, well, now that we have actions, are we actually doing these actions? Are we within integrity in what we said we will do and won't do, who we are, who we're not? When you don't have those actions, I don't know what to do with that because then I am hoping for the best from my lens, but not from your lens of what that word means to you.”
If you take nothing else away from this conversation, India urges folks to remember this: “We all can use the same words, and we all can mean very different things when we say them.”
“There are these words that are just so overused and so under-defined through your lens that it's just really pointless,” Erica agrees. “And, this is why I think it's so important to figure out your values, even before you think you need to.” Oh, I don't have a team. My business isn't that big. My brand is just me. These are the excuses she hears people use for why they haven’t identified or verbalized their values. “And, I'm like, you just gave all the reasons why you should! And I said should.”
Beyond Your Brand
“Your values go so much further than your brand values,” India says. Sure, there are differences between brand values, company values, and core values, but “at the end of the day, they all come from the same energy,” she points out, even if they’re utilized in different ways. “If you don't have these values here and you're waiting until you already have a team, then you've hired team members that might be misaligned. And so, when we can look at the brighter side of this, doing your values from the beginning as the foundation for everything that you and your brand touch, and I say you and your brand because those are two different things, and this trickles into your everyday life.”
Clarifying the foundational pieces early on in the life of your brand or business allows you to build an aligned team. Yes, you can provide your staff with additional education and training and skills, “but you can't change who they are,” cautions India. “Hire people because they're a values-fit and they are going to fit the culture.” She describes it as, “a beautiful and irreplaceable thing, to hire from that place.”
Those values also inform the partners you bring on and the clients you work with, opting for the best fit and not solely based on how much money they have in their pockets. India notes that she’s witnessed so many cases where, when the brand or business takes the time to set those cornerstone values in place early on, “they finally have businesses that they actually love showing up for and love being a part of and love running!”
Values inform decisions beyond business. “I know for me personally, and definitely for you too, Erica,” says India, “you notice your everyday life actions shift as well.” India’s commitment to living a more eco-conscious life has translated into Flaunt Your Fire choosing to no longer design or purchase single-use items. But then she also chose to look at where she could stop using single-use products in her personal life.
Erica agrees, noting how professional values sneak their way into mundane decisions from where to eat (Is it local? Is it Black-owned? Is it sustainable?) to whom you’re consuming content from. “You network differently personally and professionally, once you set your values, and then you attract different people,” she adds.
Even the act of gift-giving and receiving might shift to become more values-driven. “When I started being very explicit about––caring about the environment, not eating meat––the things that make me, me, you know?” India says, family and friends stopped gifting her with fast-fashion gift cards, for example, and ugly sweaters. Eventually. “[I] got a lot of resistance, and it's been at least a 10-year process,” she admits. Still, the process of fostering intentionality on both sides of the gift exchange has become easier, and led to a more aligned experience.
“That's the value of you valuing people over things,” Erica adds. “ So, there's the place of sharing that this is a value, not just in saying it, but also showcasing it. There's also you valuing what people are telling you and sharing with you about what they want and need, and you valuing that over what your ego said you need to do.”
“Brand values: they start out as this fluffy idea of ‘I need to put this on the website’, and then they become your whole... life in the most beautiful way,” India says.
Erica agrees. “They are your whole life if you just finally recognize that they've been sitting on your couch the whole time.”
CO-HOST CONTACT & BIO
www.pauseontheplay.com/community
Erica Courdae has dedicated her life to expanding how others interact with the world through powerful conversations. As an entrepreneur and certified coach, her work is focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), imperfect allyship, and imposter syndrome. This work has taken her into communities and onto national stages as a speaker and educator at noteworthy industry events like AltSummit, ShePodcasts Live, and Being Boss.
Erica is also the owner of an inclusive beauty salon, Silver Immersion, and the host of Pause on the Play, a podcast that features open dialogue on topics like company culture, visibility, and mindset. She lives in Maryland with her two children.
YOUR ACTIONS FOR THIS EPISODE
Identify your core values, then move your business, brand, and life into true alignment with those beliefs! From Implicit To Explicit: Leading Through Your Values is your opportunity to receive expert real-time guidance from India Jackson and Erica Courdae.
In this small-cohort masterclass, you’ll establish a foundation from which to lead, attracting the team members, clients, and partners who support your vision for the future. Two sessions remaining in 2021: Thursday, September 16 and Thursday, October 13
Let us know what you think about the conversation! Leave us a review at https://ratethispodcast.com/fire.