Higher Up Podcast
A podcast that aims to empower individuals in various aspects of their lives, including business, church, school, and personal growth. The goal is to inspire listeners to make a positive impact on those around them, helping them reach their full potential and strive towards greatness. The show features practical tips, real-life stories, and insightful conversations with experts in their fields, all geared toward lifting others up and creating a world where everyone can thrive.
The hosts, Benji and Brady Wilson, are accomplished entrepreneurs in the business world. Their mission is to empower listeners in every aspect of their lives, from business to personal growth. They seek to inspire others to make a positive impact on the world by sharing their own life experiences and having conversations with other successful guests. Together, they explore living a Higher Up life!
Higher Up Podcast
Ep.024: Core Values | Part One
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Ever feel like your company’s core values are just words on a wall? In this episode, Brady and Benji get real about how their team went from 22 forgettable core values to 7 that actually mean something.
It all started when no one on their leadership team could remember the values. Instead of ignoring the problem, they tore it all up and started over, leading to tough conversations, major self-reflection, and real change.
You’ll hear why values lose impact when there are too many, what it looks like to lead with honesty instead of ego, and how involving your team can totally shift your culture.
If you’re a leader, business owner, or just someone who cares about building a healthy team, this episode is packed with real talk and practical takeaways.
Welcome to Episode 24
Speaker 2all right with benji brady. Welcome in to another episode of the higher up podcast. We are here with episode 24.
Speaker 124 we are 24 getting so close to the quarter century mark.
Speaker 2I can I know?
Speaker 2I was funny. I was thinking this morning I'm like, do we need to like split and take a break and go into season three? Because we just I feel like we've just been these suckers have been coming and uh, but it's been good. We were talking for the show again. We're seeing our seeing numbers. We appreciate everybody listening to us. We were talking about just which episodes have really resonated with our listeners and, brady, your abundancy over scarcity is climbing toward a thousand downloads. I mean, that was your topic, your idea and it's our most listened to.
Speaker 2But now number two is episode one of season one, before you joined us, brady, so people are going back and listening. So it's just again. It's awesome to see we're excited. We're working on some new things, working on getting some guests for you guys, so that way we can kind of improve.
Speaker 1That'll be neat to have. It'll be awesome.
Speaker 2Pull some people on.
Speaker 1But we're excited and, adam, we're going to give the little spill. If you're watching on YouTube, we got some branding and merch coming out soon.
Speaker 3Wait, how come I don't have that? I've got this little cup.
Speaker 2Don't worry, benji, always winds up with the new stuff before we get it, he's like hey, look what I got.
Speaker 1I'm getting it. This is just for our listeners. This is just a coffee mug with the Higher Up Podcast logo. It looks really good. We're going to have them online. You can buy them if you want, no problem. We know what we're going to do with the proceeds, but we're going to save that until we have our guest on. We're going to be talking about that in the next couple episodes, so just stay tuned.
Speaker 2I'm excited for that. I know you've kind of shared a little bit, benji, so listeners just get ready. We got some good guests coming. We're going to start introducing some of those, but today we are diving into a topic that I believe is very important. Brady, you and I have had many conversations in our one-on-one meetings about this.
Speaker 3Many conversations.
Speaker 2Just culture and how that is, and that's something that has always been important to me. I've worked for several different companies and so culture to me has always been important, but culture is not what we're talking about today. We're talking about what creates that culture, and we're diving into core values. What are your core values that you have and I'll let you guys take over and kind of share this more but why are they important? Why do you need to have core values? You know we've talked about how it shapes your company and shows who you are, and it it gives you a goal to shoot for. This is what we work toward every day, not just for our customers, but it's what we work toward every day for us as a team, how we grow and how we be better. So I'm excited about this. Brady, this is, this is what you love.
Introducing Core Values
Speaker 1I mean, like we said, many conversations about core values in the past. Oh yeah, I'll tell you I mean, brady, before you kick us in. I mean we've obviously had. We have a great culture at our company. We have our core values have been strong for years now.
Speaker 1And Brady came to me it's probably, I don't know maybe four or five, six months ago, and he said, hey, we just need to revamp our core values a little bit to give a little fresh air, let's call it a little new kickstart to the team. And I said, hey, is there any way we can kind of shorten them a little bit? He goes well, I mean, that's kind of what I'm thinking, you know, so we're. But where we ended up with our team, I think is really really good. I mean, we, we have and it's not to say that our core values were just all over the place, they were, they were really good. We just wanted something to help our, help, our employees, be able to remember them quickly, you know, be able to, to know what they are. And then Brady goes what if we did that? Not only if we did that, what if we tied it back, which we talked about in the last episode? What if we tied it back to places that people can really benefit from that recognitions and things like that.
Speaker 3So, brady, get us going. Yeah, so I mean, like Adam and Benji said, I mean today's episode is all about getting back to the core. So what we're looking for, and what Benji was kind of alluding to, is, if you're not seeing your core values, if you have core values and we're going to talk about that too but if you're not seeing your core values showing up in your company's behavior, then it's time to do some realignment, it's time to go back and reassess where you're at. So I want to start out with two questions. One is do you have core values? And I know that's kind of an obvious question and listen, if you don't, there's no shame. I mean, there's no shame. There are all kinds of resources out there that you can use. Probably one of the best ones is something and I know you guys know about this but called EOS, and it's the Entrepreneurial Operating System, probably one of the best systems that I've seen. That will walk you through how to do your core values. There's two books out there one called Rocket Fuel, which is kind of the introductory to what EOS is, and then there's another one called Attraction, and traction is really the tactical part of how do you implement. So again, we're not going to dive into those books, but if you need a reference or something like that, then that's a good place to look.
Speaker 3So the second question is if you have core values, then I guess the question behind the question is do your people really know your core values? Number one do they know them, because that's a big thing, all right. And then, number two do they actually follow your core values or are they just words on a page? So I want to take you guys through a little bit of a journey. And Benji and Adam Adam, you were part of this, so help us remember but I think it was about four years ago. I was sitting down with one of my mentors and we were having coffee together and he said Brady, do you have core values? And this was right when I was. You've heard us talk about getting into C12. And it was right in the beginning stages of me getting into that. So he said do you have core values? And I was like, well, yeah, sure, I mean you know.
Speaker 2But they weren't really like yours at the time, right? Weren't they more of like a like they kind of shared with every franchise? Or were they actually like Team Wilson core values, because I remember we had them when I first started.
Speaker 3Well, we had core values, but they were like our corporate office's core values right, yeah yeah.
Do You Really Know Your Core Values?
Speaker 3And so when Russell asked me this question, I was like, well, yeah, we got core values, and he didn't say it exactly like this, but this is the way that I took it. He goes, okay, well, show them to me. And my face just went completely red and he was like you don't have them written down, do you? And I was like nope, Completely red. And he was like you don't have them written down, do you? And I was like nope. And so that began us on a journey of and this was we call it 1.0, and our transition into today's topic is really 2.0. Because the first time we did it and it was okay, adam, I don't know if you remember, but we started with 22 core values I just thought, you know, I thought, hey, the more the merrier you know and the more core values that we have, but it was not good for the team.
Speaker 2It was tough. It was tough for me being in marketing. You're like Adam, I need material, I need you to make me something. And I'm like Brady, I can't fit all these on one single sheet. Like I'm like.
Speaker 1Brady, I can't fit all these on one single sheet.
Speaker 2I'm trying to make it look and you're like figure it out.
Speaker 1I just remember you used to always say figure it out and I'm like there's like 20-something of these suckers.
Speaker 2What?
Speaker 3was that little thing I used to do. Figure it out.
Speaker 2Yeah, you always for our listeners. Every time there would be something creative. I felt like Brady had spirit fingers, or it was like magic dust. He would just put his hand out there and he'd be like you know, do your little creative thing. But yeah, I mean we had a lot and it was tough because I had trouble memorizing all of them.
Speaker 1They were long too.
Speaker 2They were long, but it was a starting point. Like you took what you felt like was the 20 or 25, like, hey, this is who. I feel like we are Right and you were. Just you were and they weren't wrong, but they were, I mean, it was a lot. And some of them we looked at were like, well, that's kind of a given Right, Like some of them were talking about, well, you know, we're in the business to make a profit. Well, yes, every company is that. So we had to find, but we were, and so but, but you gave you, like you said, a one like a one point, a starting point to say, all right, this is what I felt like is important for us. Yeah, Now we need to work through things.
Speaker 3So yeah, I mean, like I said, that was about four years ago and uh, I think about two years into it, we did change it up slightly. You guys fought me on the 22.
Speaker 2Fought is an understatement.
Speaker 1We just went down to 15.
Speaker 3I think we ended up getting down to 10. So, when Benji was talking about the beginning of the episode, we had this conversation and really that's what got us in the process of reevaluating where we're at. And so this is where we started this conversation of we started to see our core values drifting. Okay, yeah, we started seeing them and we started evaluating as a leadership team. We're like okay, why are we not seeing our people embody the core values?
Speaker 2What did you feel like? I mean, before you kind of go further, when you're thinking that way, just from an ownership standpoint, watching these things, you're asking the team and I remember you asking us. But what was going through your mind to say, all right, why are we not like this is who we are, but why are we not embodying these things? Did you? What was your thought process with that? As you're going through that for our listeners to know, maybe they're dealing, with the same thing, Like what are you thinking through in that moment?
Speaker 3No, I think that's a really good question, adam, and for me, and I've actually told our leaders this. But you know sometimes, us as leaders, how often do we have an expectation of our people? We expect them to do certain things right, we expect them to act a certain way, we expect them to get results in certain areas. But then when we look in the mirror, a lot of times we reflect on we didn't communicate it well enough, we didn't embody it ourself well enough. So if we're not doing it, then how can we expect, like number one, if we haven't communicated it often enough, then we haven't done a good job.
Speaker 1We can't expect it of our people, and I would say this too, brady, it's not, you know, have we kind of communicated enough? But if they're not buying into it, that means we haven't communicated it enough. That's right.
Speaker 3And then we also have to look at ourself and look at our current culture and say, okay, what are we doing? And we've said this before, but more is caught than taught. So are we actually embodying these core values? But what we?
Speaker 3What we noticed in our organization, and I think this has been somewhat of a shift I dread kind of going back to 2020, but you know, everybody talks about COVID and all this stuff but we have seen a shift since 2020. And we just noticed we had a lot of complacency in our organization, and it wasn't necessarily the people's fault because, again, we got to look in the mirror. We got to look in the mirror and we had to say, okay, well, if, if our people are complacent, then, um, maybe, maybe, maybe, yeah, maybe we are, maybe there's something that that we need to reevaluate. And so we that's what we said we got to go back to the core values and we and we looked, and maybe it was Adam, your little voice in my head that said, hey, our core values are too long and they're too cumbersome, and we just had to go back and make it simple.
Speaker 2It was funny because I remember, because you talk about Russell with us a lot and just how he mentors you. And I remember when we got to that process of like all right, how do we do these? I remember you and I had a meeting one time and I was like get myself fired for saying this. But I was like brady, like we've like your teams told you there's too many. And I was and you were like no, I think they're good, this is where we are, this is who we are.
From 22 Values to Clarity
Speaker 2And I remember telling you I was like what has russell said to you? And and I knew I was thinking I'm like I'm gonna shoot my shot. I'm like I just felt like I was kind of challenging you and I was like what has Russell told you? And you were like well, russell said that he feels like we have too many. But this is where I feel like, oh, I'm like so you're our mentors and you want us to listen to what you have to say. And I was like this is what we. I walked that meeting. I still have a job. I was like I can't believe I challenged you like that.
Speaker 3So well, I mean it, it it's a. I love this quote by Patrick Lencioni. We've talked about him on the podcast before, but he says when, everything is important then nothing is yeah for sure.
Speaker 3When you have 22 core values and I'm talking to myself right now when you have 22, that's way too many and I just I didn't listen. I thought that you know, the more the merrier, the more that we have, then people would embody them. But it went back to I thought everything was important and then nothing was. So, guys, talk a little bit about because you were part of this process but this whole concept of complexity versus clarity. You've seen the old stuff. You've seen the new stuff. We're going to get into some of the new stuff, but talk about why that's important to have clarity over complexity.
Speaker 2I can tell you, just as somebody that was an employee of you guys, it felt complex when we were looking at how many core values we had. Because, you know, one of the things we talked with is, like, all right, if we're going to get rid of these, I want you to tell me why. Like that was your thing, like all right, I'll open the door, but I want you to tell me why we should get rid of these. And for me it felt very complex, like it felt over the top, like one of our core values is we pursue excellence, and you know, my thought was, you know, when we went through that, I was like but if we're going to be in a top tier serve pro team, like we're talking top 10, top five is our goal, number one is always our goal Then we should. We have to be excellent in all we do. I don't think that should be a core value that should be instilled in our DNA. If we're a top-tier team, we have to be excellent, and so for me, that was one of the things I was looking at the pieces that said all right, what are these core values that really help me as an employee? Say, all right, I believe in this and, like you said, we have to be bought in. If we're going to be the number one team in the nation with Serpro, we've got to have these things instilled in us, and we have to be willing to work for it.
Speaker 2And it was tough too, because I feel like when we started doing these, it was during a season. I feel like, culturally, we've kind of gotten out of that, but I feel like we were in a season, culturally, where I only do what you hire me to do, and I'm not saying that you're expecting people to do way more than you're supposed to and way outside of your pay grade, whatever that is. My point is, though, is that I remember it going around a lot. It was a big time in culture where it was like I'm going to do what I'm paid to do and nothing more. When I'm done, I'm done.
Speaker 2You know that kind of thing, and I'm like the problem is, is that excellence never stops?
Speaker 2You know, excellence means you're continuing to pursue, you're continuing to get better, and I think if you're managing time and you're managing your projects, it's not going to feel like you're doing more than you're supposed to.
Speaker 2It means that you're pursuing that excellence, and so I think that was one of the other times, while we saw that complacency in that it was that season and I just remember seeing on social media I remember it being topics is that you know, this is what I'm paid to do, you know and so and so it did those. But I just felt like, and I don't know how you guys, as owners, were feeling, I just felt like it was confusing because there was so many different things I'm trying to remember, I'm trying to figure out like all right, this is who we are, and it was just trying to develop those because I wanted to be able to state them and say them and share them and believe in them, but they just felt like there was so much. It was almost like you ever been in a situation where you're trying to figure out who you are but you don't really know.
Speaker 1That's what it felt like.
Speaker 2It just felt like we didn't know who we are at the time and we were looking for that and I think having that clarity I'll say this from my perspective before we move to the next, the next segment.
Speaker 1By the way, listeners, we've already determined this is going to be a two-part episode because there's so there's, there's so much done there's a lot to talk about.
Speaker 1Brady's right from we're still in segment one over here, so yeah yeah, and, and we've got four segments to this, but the first two will be the episode one, so just hang with us just a few more minutes. The key for me was the complexity of not that they couldn't be instant, not that people couldn't do the core values, be a part of the core values. But the complexity for me was, if they can't I call it the elevator speech right If they can't do it in 10 seconds or less, then it's really probably too complex. And I think it really hit home for for Brady and I we were doing one of our our, uh, leadership team meetings. We were going through these core values and Brady said all right, let's lay it out on the table. Tell me your top 10 of, of all of our existing, what we had previous. So they did, they went through them and he said, okay I use the old fashioned Adam's going to laugh at this chat GPT. And we took them and we condensed them down. He said all right, which of these top 10 are top 12.? I think it was at the time. We got them down to 10, eventually, then down to seven.
Speaker 1Um, but what we started looking at was we were going well, that one really, that one really goes along with that core value, and why don't we just combine those two? And so, adam, your point is, we had people, and Brady and I have been complacent too, and I'm sure there's other leaders listening that have never been in that situation before. We all get complacent from time to time. We all do right. And the clarity for me was if someone can actually say those seven things that we've come up with and why we ended up at seven.
Speaker 1We thought those were the best seven we could do. We know this. In our mind, seven is the perfect number. Uh, there's another, another story for another day. But, um, seven is the perfect number. And the clarity was, I think our leadership team bought into it because they were simple, they were easy enough to understand, they were easy enough to repeat out, fast enough, and I think once that happens, our people caught on and then our people started buying into this is simpler. So that's what I took out of it being, you know, the complexity versus clarity. That's what I got out of it being.
Complexity vs. Clarity
Speaker 2You know, the complexity versus clarity. That's what I got out of it. Well, and if you're in that situation right now, if any of our listeners are there, what I love that you did with us, brady, is you put all of them on a sheet and you create a sheet and said all right, guys, I want you to go and I want you to tell me what are your top 10. And what was great about that is you split them into the categories they were in. You took the it was 20 or 22 core values, and what was great is we as a team got to see where our leadership all felt like, what were the strongest and what were the ones that didn't, and so we got to see that common thought process about.
Speaker 2Well, this is how I see the team, this is how I feel like we are, and so I think for us, that was a huge part of that process is that it allowed us to, without even seeing everybody filled it on their own, we send it to you, and then you compiled all of them together and you, you put out and said, all right, like 90% of you said this one is this or you know, 90% of you said this one is this, or 90% of you said this one didn't matter, and what was great is that helped us and you're talking about us buying into it as a team, and then it gave us a chance to work on things as a team and have a project that we all worked on together to see where okay and you may not vocalize it, but to be like okay I see that people feel like this is important, like honoring God was the number one across the board, and what was good about that, though, is you also said look for me, I'm going to let you guys know this is a non-negotiable.
Speaker 2Non-negotiable. I'm not taking honoring God off, but I want you guys to be honest and tell me if you don't, but you said from the beginning it's a non-negotiable. You gave us one or two of them that you said I will not move this, but it was nice because the team they bought into it.
Speaker 2They bought into it. They still agreed, whatever it was. So if you're in that position, that was a great part of our process. That really helped us to see that and understand how we got down to where we are now.
Speaker 3Well, and before we get into the next segment, you know I love this John Maxwell quote, but he says that, you know, the first definition of a leader is to define reality.
Speaker 3And so if you're in a position right now as a leader, and let's say that you've got core values right, but your core values are like fading into the background and nobody really knows them, and they're not simple, they're not usable, then you as a leader have to make a decision and say, okay, either there's something wrong with the values and we need to change them, or there's something else you know systemically going on in our organization that needs to change. But maybe start with the core values. And as a leader, we have to say, like you know, nobody wants to, nobody wants for their baby to be called ugly Right, and so for me, the core values were, were my baby, but I, you know, I had to say, okay, we, we got to do something, something else. And Craig Rochelle says this, and I'm still learning this, but he says people would rather follow a leader who's always real than who's always right.
Speaker 1Hey, I want to say something about that too, because a perfect point. You know, a lot of times, us as leaders and Adam said this earlier you know, as the leader, you know we go, you're going to do this and this is how we're going to do things and this is the way we're going to do it. And from an employee's perspective, they go. This is all I'm going to do, this is my role. I'm not going to do anything else, because I think everybody falls in that pattern from time to time, and I think it's good to you know listeners include your team. If you're a leader, if you're a manager, owner, whatever include your team in the decision-making process. It doesn't mean that you're going to actually go with those, but at the same time, you've heard their feedback and if you institute some of that into what you're trying to accomplish, that's where you get the real buy-in from your team.
Speaker 2I mean until the directorship team really came around, I mean I didn't work with you as much as I did. I mean, brady, I always kind of knew you as somebody that scared me to death to walk in the office and even have a meeting with, but it was always because you have have a plan and you did that. And I remember going through a lot of that and what you said about you know people follow, you know they follow a leader who is always real versus always right. That was a big deal, because I felt like we pushed a lot of times to have those core values and when you changed that I was kind of like man, he's, he's okay, so he's listening. Because I knew how much they meant to you. So for you to make that change that allowed me to buy in even more. But I mean, I still feel like you do it now.
Speaker 2I mean even a few weeks ago you and I were filming some video stuff and you kind of explained what you want to use it for and I was like Brady, why don't you just do this? And I was kind of shocked. You're like, all right, I'll do it, do that and I'll send it to you here in a few. And you know, and you did it, and it was those type of small moments that buy in to say, all right, I'm going to make sure I do all of I can to make sure that you're succeeding and I want to put you in the best light that your Wilson brand, your Serpro brand, your personal brand. That allows me, especially in my position as a creator, as someone who's helping you making these forward-facing branding and public relations type things like all right, he's buying into what I'm putting out. Yeah, so I'm going to keep making sure that I I do whatever I can to put you in a successful light.
Speaker 3So, hey, adam I'm, I'm listening, man I'm I'm trying.
Speaker 2I'm trying to learn.
Speaker 3We were taught growing up by our dad. Our dad used to say this all the time. He said look, sons, you got two ears and one mouth. You should be listening twice as much as you speak, and so I'm trying to learn that.
Speaker 2I know that's off topic from core values, but when you mentioned that, I just wanted to make sure listeners like this is a real-life scenario. When you mentioned that I just want to make sure listeners like this is a real life scenario, when, when you did that it it empowered me as an employee and as somebody who I believed all right, I mean, this is your business, this is your money, this is your life. But you allowed us to do it because these changes could affect the bottom line, they can affect the income. So I can tell you, listeners, if you're in that same position, taking that it does as someone who is an employee, that's dealt with. That it it just allows me to see it sees through everything and just put forth that effort that you're saying. There's no complacency. All right, I'm going. You know I'm going to, I'm going to. I'm going to chase down hell with a water pistol.
Speaker 1Whatever we need to do, Well, Brady, before we wrap up this episode, talk quickly about just how we realign the core of what we were trying to do.
Speaker 3And it's not a quick fix, but just-. Yeah. So what I wanna do real quick before we wrap this up, and here's what I wanna tell you Stay tuned, because next episode we're actually gonna give you the core values.
Speaker 1All right, so that's a, that's a teaser for you, and we did have to keep in mind listeners. We had to reflect on where we came from, to show you where we wanted to go.
Speaker 3So so what? What I want to do real quick is take you behind the scenes of of how this process came about and what we did, and and I'll I'll reenact this for you, and and Benji can give you the look on his face when we did this, but we were in a leadership meeting, which we do every single Monday, and we were taking the existing core values and we're asking some of the similar questions, adam, like you were talking about before, and I said, okay, guys, turn the paper over, and who can tell me what the core values are that we currently have? And we got a few, you know, here or there.
Speaker 3We had 10 at the time and, um, I said, okay, that that pretty much confirms what I was thinking. Is we? We as a leadership team don't know all of them, and so what I did was I had them. Like I said okay, now take the sheet of paper. I want you to hold it up in the air and here's what we're going to do. And I held mine up in the air and I said here's what we're going to do. And I ripped it from top to bottom. I'm there.
Speaker 1I had to make the same, as he didn't have the paper.
Speaker 3And I said okay, here's what we're going to do, we're going to start over. And so we began a process of I think Benji took us about 10 hours. We've got 10, 10 leaders, a lot of deep reflection, a lot of I mean when I say real conversation, I mean real conversation.
Including Your Team in the Process
The Realignment Process Begins
Speaker 1Some of our leaders were very passionate about them, and it was good. It was really good, though. Good, good stuff.
Speaker 3It was a, it was a necessary process, but it wasn't necessarily a fun process. Okay, I mean it was, it was a, it was something that had to be done, but I remember there's a guy named James Clear and he's written several books.
Speaker 2Several books.
Speaker 3One of the books, atomic Habits. He says look, you don't rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems, to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems, and, and, and your core values are your system, your operating system for, uh, for your company. So what, what we did is we, we took and and yeah, we used AI to help us kind of form, and you know it didn't do everything for us, adam, but you know we ask it a lot of good questions and what we already had, and, and I will tell you, I mean, I came to that meeting with 10 new core values and my heels Benji can tell you my heels were dug in like hey, listen, if Moses can have the 10 commandments, we can have 10 core values. All right, what a correlation.
Speaker 3And so this really did happen, by the way, and so we started having this conversation and the leaders really challenged me. Going back to what you were talking about earlier, adam, and you know Benji, talking about, well, that one kind of we can combine that one and we can combine that one, and those kind of mean the same thing, and that's what we did, and we settled on seven, which seven in the Bible is a perfect number, and so that's where we ended up. We're going to give those to you next time, wait, wait wait, wait.
Speaker 1Actually, brady, we're going to take right now and we're going to give you the seven. I'm just kidding Listeners out there, if you are.
Speaker 2I thought you were flipping the script on us.
Speaker 1We just want to say thank you all for listening in. We appreciate you guys very much. You can connect on social with us all the platforms. At higher up podcast, you can go to higher up podcastcom. Stay tuned for some new things on there. As always, go out and choose to live a higher up life. See you next time.