Values, Purpose, and Mission. They MATTER! So what the heck are they? What is the difference between the three?

The basic philosophy, spirit, and drive of an organization have far more to do with its achievements than resources, structure, innovation, and timing.

-Thomas J. Watson, Jr.

Former CEO, IBM Corporation

Everything we have accomplished over here at Regal can be attributed to us becoming very clear on our values, purpose, and mission.

We've grown $30 mil in the last 5 years - organically. We used zero outside dollars. More importantly, however, we have impacted lives. We did the easy stuff like increase pay 2x, 3x paid holidays off, and 2x vacation days. I say easy because it's just doing it and playing with numbers.

The hard stuff: building a culture that is authentic, honest, and genuinely cares about it's people. This is what we are most proud of.

This isn't me bragging.

I tell you this because I want to show you that it works.

When you have employees that are happy, the results that follow are typically very impressive.

Now, how did we take a 53 year old company in an antiquated industry and completely turn it around?

We intentionally built it. With values, purpose, and mission at the forefront.

It took a lot of time, energy, and focus.

I want to get into that today because I believe it's the most important thing that holds back companies.

And don't worry if you don't have a company. Even if you have a division, branch, unit, or team - you can do this stuff!

Early on in my career at Regal, when I first took over, I walked into our Austin location for a branch visit. The branch manager at the time, Allen Tyson - had created his own core values! Even though our company didn't even have core values, that didn't stop him! He was like, "well, F this, who cares if the company doesn't have them - we're gonna create our own here for the Austin branch."

Go figure, Allen was a huge part of us turning the company around in those early days. And his branch went from -$200k net to +$200k net in two years.

Also, don't worry if you are not a manager or division head like Allen.

Maybe your job is child care - and you stay at home with the kids. (major full time job!) So what! You can build your family around values and purpose. Guys, this stuff is foundational!

And lastly, and this is very important.

I hear young people all the time talking about how they "demand a whole new way of leading." And that leaders nowadays need to not only provide direction but also explain why - and how the "why" must be more than just profits.

Guys. this is great sentiment and I love that they care about this stuff.

But it's not new!

Purpose beyond profits is foundational. Some of the greatest companies of all time - companies that you and I admire today, were built on values and purpose. Disney, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, Chick-fil-a, Marriot, Nordstrom, Wal-Mart, Southwest Airlines. This list goes on and on. Some of these companies founded in the 1800's.

So don't confuse rare with new.

So lets start getting into it.

People always talk about vision. Well, what is it?

Vision is simply this = Values + Purpose + Mission

If you have one, great. Two? Better. But ALL THREE?! You're ready for blast off.

Please understand how important this is guys, please.

I'm telling you - everything we are and everything we aspire to be - all of the great stuff that has happened to our people and to our company is because we got crystal clear on all three.

Values

This is really where vision begins.

Core values, beliefs, and principles. Think of these like your philosophy on life.

We all have values and these are formed often from a very young age. If you're married you most likely share values with your spouse. This is what attracted you to each other. The same goes for friends. You don't choose friends because they are "tall" or "rich." That would be stupid and superficial. You choose friends based on their heart. Who they are deep inside - their actions (over time) show you who they are. Trust is built based on our ability to live up to our values.

It is no different for a company.

You are attracted to companies because of what they believe.

Look at Chick-fil-A.

They give up $1.2 billion dollars a year being closed on Sundays. Why are they closed Sundays? Because of their beliefs. And no matter what your religion or what you believe - it's admirable. Anyone can just follow more money. Standing for something is beautiful.

Values unify. And a unified group of people is a very wonderful and powerful thing. And there is not one person reading this right now who doesn't think Chick-fil-A is an impressive organization. There are TONS of chicken sandwiches out there - why is the line at their takeout always 3x any others?

Lets take the next step and talk about values and how they help you hire.

I have been very vocal over the years about hiring attitude over resume.

Now, obviously we look at the resume. But we don't prioritize the resume. A persons values and attitude - "who they are" is far more important than what they've done. We have hired this way hardcore since 2017 and it has served us well. We have built the company based on people who own particular values - instead of particular "skill sets."

So, let's say you run a company, branch, or division - and you don't have clear core values?

How do know who to hire?

I would guess you probably just look at the resume and you find the person with the most experience.

You can't build a culture this way. It's just stats. There is no heart.

It's like you meet some new person at the bar and you want to be friends with him - so you ask him about how he has performed as "friend" to all his other friends.

It makes no damn sense.

His friends may not be up to your standards. What if they are all a bunch of losers?

Just because someone can do they job of "friend" doesn't mean they can do the job you need from a friend.

When you hire the values and look into the heart - you can really build a culture. Because roles can be taught.

There is a company in our industry who hires many of the people we let go. They don't look at the person, the attitude, or the heart. They only look at "does this person have plastic experience?" "Can they produce right away?" Our industry is hard to train. It takes a long time. So they take the quick way out and hire people who already know the industry. This is easy. It works fine. But it does not build culture. You just have a random collection of individuals who are there because of their plastics knowledge.

We will crush that all day, and we do. And we will only crush it more and more as the years ago by. Because long term thinking always wins over short term mindset.

Do you see how choosing values is hard? This is the difficult path. And the path least taken because it requires so much more energy and enthusiasm on the people side.

But there are no shortcuts in life. The same goes for business. Take the easy route again and again and your division / branch / company is on its way to mediocracy.

A few more things about values.

They have to come from the heart. You don't ask yourself "what values should we have?"

You ask yourself, "what do we believe deep down inside our hearts?"

You don't create values because of monetary gain. Or because your customers would buy more from you.

Values have to be authentic. They must be believed by the owners, the CEO, the executive team - these values must be like oxygen - the way they live life. To not live within this set of principles would be absurd.

Also note about values - it doesn't matter what your values are. It's that you have values. Chick-fil-A doesn't care if you believe in their values. They believe in their values. They will attract those who share those values. Those who don't are more than happy to shop elsewhere. Again, going back to what I said before - they have to be authentic to you for then to stick

**I want to make it clear here that we are not looking to hire a bunch of the same people. That would be ridiculous. We want diversity. People hold many different values true to their hearts. We are looking for people who share those same three to five values. It's about shared values crucial to the core.

So to make a final point here - you want to make sure you don't have too many values. 10 core values is ridiculous. How do you hold people accountable to 10 of anything? (and yes, you hold folks accountable to values just like you would their job performance) Keep it simple. We have three core values and here they are:

1. All In & Play To Win

2. Courageously Candid

3. Learn, Improve, Grow

At first we had five core values but that was too many. So we dwindled it down during our formation years and now we sit at three and will sit at three forever. We have added two extra values for leadership positions. The following two values we found were absolutely vital for leadership positions in the company. So when we look to promote - we really dive into #4 and #5 as well.

4. Humility

5. Pure Motive

So we hire for values and values only. We also promote based on the values. Our branch managers were not hired because they had experience in management. They had crazy alignment with our values and we hired them and promoted them through the ranks. It worked for us and not doing it this way would be like not breathing in oxygen. It would be ridiculous.

Our CFO was not a "CFO." Our COO was not a "COO." I was never a "CEO." This goes for literally every management position in our company. We hired the attitude and then taught them to be managers / leaders.

I want to make this very clear - our highest achievers are the ones who have the most alignment with our values. There is a direct relationship with our top achievers in terms of values and performance.

Purpose

You gotta believe in something that has nothing to do with making more and more money!

Guys, guess what?!

Your people, they don't care about how much profit you make!!!

PROFIT DOES NOT INSPIRE!!

Yes, it's essential to creating cashflow. It's essential for the business.

But it is not the point of the business.

Check out the following companies and their purpose.

Walt Disney - "To bring happiness to millions"

Merck - "We are in the business of preserving and improving human life."

Johnson & Johnson - "We exist to alleviate pain and disease."

Marriott - "Make people away from home feel that they're among friends"

Nordstrom - "Service the customer above all else."

Wal-Mart - "To make our customers lives better via lower prices and greater selection."

None mention profit. Or maximizing shareholder value.

Guys, purpose is your guiding star. You are on a mission to go somewhere. It's the star that you follow during the journey. It's a belief that you can do something amazing and special. It's Simon Sinek's "WHY." What value are you putting into this world. It comes from the heart!

Look at Walt's passion and purpose - "to bring happiness to millions."

Have you ever been to Disneyland? Disneyworld? IT'S INCREDIBLE!! I went for the first time in 20 years back in 2019 with our then 2 year old, Claire. Man, that place truly spreads happiness. I was inspired. You can still see Walt's vision 70 years later!!!

You have to ask yourself - why do we exist that has nothing to do with money?

Argue, fight, debate - but you gotta figure this out man. We took years to come up with ours. It's like dude, we sell plastic. We argued forever. No one gave a damn about plastic. We weren't making incredible drugs changing lives like Merck. We weren't revolutionizing hospitality like Marriott.

We were a damn plastic company.

But we were passionate about our people. And we all had a horrible job that made us a worse version of ourself. And we hated the person we had become in that horrible job.

So out came "Work Doesn't Have to Suck."

It was unifying the second our COO yelled it one day in frustration. But when he said it, we all looked at each other with a goofy smile. THAT WAS IT! We were passionate about work not sucking. It was pure of heart.

Most importantly, it was bigger than all of us.

I want to make this very clear about your purpose. You can never really attain it. It has to be so inspirational and so far out there that it continues forever. It's a goal so pure of heart you can never really reach it. It's like MLK's I Have a Dream. So unifying, so inspirational. Will racism always exist? Of course, but that dream of his. Wow, was it unifying. And we continue the journey forever to get rid of it.

So let me break down the mindset here at Regal.

Work Doesn't Have to Suck is why we exist.

• Love what you do
• Love who you do it with
• Have a voice
• Make an impact
• Make a really good living
• Have lots of time off for family and friends

We have built our organization around these six themes. And we have set up a blueprint that taps into each one of these. I could tell you the physical mechanisms that we have deployed company wide that align with all six of these work doesn't have to suck concepts.

We have made it our cadence.

More important than anything else is this cadence is the lifeblood of our organization.

Yes, we need to make money. We want to make money. And creating profit is a big deal.

But the profit exists to further the purpose.

Profits give us the opportunity to pay people more, open new branches, and create more opportunities for our amazing people.

You need a guiding star.

It inspires. It unifies. And it has nothing to do with money.

Mission:

What hill are you trying to climb? You have a bunch of folks who are hired because of their values, heart, and attitude. And now you have a guiding star - a purpose that is unifying all these amazing people.

What the heck are you trying to achieve?!

Listen, we all need a big hairy audacious goal. As individuals - we love to pursue things. We love coming together and going after a big objective. Athletes - all you sports lovers out there. You get this! Shoot - I have been watching the Dallas Cowboys try and climb their hill since 1995! As humans, its in our nature - we love to go after that big goal and we love to watch others go after that big goal. Red Sox fans?! Cubs Fans?! You guys get it!

You need one big huge unifying goal!

I was in college when Facebook came out. It blew up and it was amazing.

Honestly, in my lifetime some of the coolest life altering moments have come from Facebook, Apple, and Amazon. I mean these companies changed our lives forever! Think about how much fun it would have been being at Facebook at the very beginning - how unifying. It's like dude, we are about to change the world with social networking. Aaron Sorkin's film "The Social Network" was amazing and you need to see it if you haven't - it gives you that deep look into Facebook when it started.

But there was a very clear Mission - "We need to get this platform up and running everywhere in the world."

How about Kennedy? "We will send someone to the moon this decade." It was unifying! It was inspirational! He put forth that big huge audacious goal and NASA rallied around it. I often think about 1969 and the moon landing. I wish I had been alive to see it. Everyone talks about how unifying it was - and how we all felt "like one" when Armstrong touched down. Man, it gives me goosebumps.

Guys, this is mission.

Your purpose is your guiding star. But you are trying to climb a mountain. What the hell is that mountain? You need to get really crystal clear on this. And you need to communicate it you your people. Again, if people are just showing up to work to sell plastic? I mean what the hell kind of life is that? No one wants to just sell plastic. But if they are trying to climb some big hill - with some very specific date in mind - well that changes everything.

Notice how Kennedy put a time stamp on his big hairy audacious goal of the moon landing. "This decade" he said. NASA and everyone knew - Kennedy said it in 1962!! We didn't land on the moon until the summer of 1969!

Okay so let me get y'all into our Mission or "Big Hairy Audacious Goal" at Regal.

Regal Plastics mission is in 10 years to create 500 Work Doesn't Have to Suck Stories.

That's our big hill. At one point we had this big revenue number. It was $100 million dollars in revenue. But it just kinda felt fake. So we cut it. We just didn't think that $100 million dollars in revenue was all that inspirational. I mean, who really cares how much revenue we have if we aren't fulfilling our purpose of work doesn't have to suck. So we said, aight, we want to create 50 stories a year for 10 years.

50 really impactful stories every single year.

These stories range. I've gotten emails from employees that are 5 pages long. Talking about how nothing changed in their life other than the door they walk through for work every day - and they are the best version of themselves. We don't have an exact calculation for what a "story" is - but we know it when we see it. Right now I have 142 stories. I collect them myself. I don't outsource it to HR. It's me that collects these stories and they are stored in a folder on my PC.

For us - we wanted to connect our words with actions. It was one thing to say work doesn't have to suck. It's another thing completely to have actions behind it.

So the 500 stories became our big hairy audacious goal.

Another thing here - It's really important that we encourage our people to help create the environment for work not to suck. I think that's the biggest thing I work on and see myself having to work on - letting our people know how much of an impact they have on each others happiness. I don't work out of Austin, or Houston, or Miami, or Denver - I can only do so much from Dallas - our executive team can only do so much - It's really about empowering our people to create this incredible environment that enables these stories.

I think this is the thing that I have learned the most in the last few years. Is how much I need to pour into our people. And how much our executive team has to pour into them - and love on them. And encourage them. And support them. Because the more we do the more they feel empowered to make decisions and call people out and really push forward our purpose.

I mean our San Antonio office fired their branch manager. That's a story for another day but it's real. When you open up and really give the business to the leaders at that branch they really take it. So it's important that we give them that trust and let them make it their own - because work not sucking has so much more to do with them locally at their branch than anything we could do from "corporate."

So find that big hill. And go climb it!

In conclusion ill say that this way of running a business, branch, division, team, or unit is so much freaking fun. Its centered on people. Its centered around heart and principles and values and soulfulness. And you may think it's all dumb and that's fine - but I'm telling you - it's changed my life. Nothing has been more rewarding that seeing the 107 people we have become the best versions of themselves. To see them take that next step in their life. To see them accomplish things they never thought they would. We opened our state of the company addresses last quarter with personal "bests" - and everyone shared - we go around in the circle - and it's just inspiring to see what people are doing with their lives. "my husband and i lost 65 pounds." "I ran my first marathon." "I bought my very first house." "I paid off $10k in debt." "My mom got released from the hospital." "we had our first child."

It makes you want to cry. This life, its just so beautiful. And it's not the stuff its the people. The people you meet along the way, and their story. Watching them slowly get better - and improve their lives - it literally just makes you want to effing cry.

I guess what I'm saying is that when you build your business around people you can't help but fall in love. And when you fall in love with the people you work with its as though coming to work is just pure joy. And I know this may sound stupid and I know you guys will hate on me but it's real - it's the truth. I don't know where I would be without all these people in my life that I get to work with everyday.

I have values, and purpose, and mission to thank for that.

I am just so grateful. And so thankful.

I can't believe all these people are in my life.

This can be your story too.

It truly can.

All you have to do is build it the right way.