The Key to Success of Your Business? A Clear Vision! – Mark Villareal

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09/27/2021

Show Notes:

Companies that care together stay together. If you want to build a successful business, you need to know your WHY. Why does your company exist? In this episode of the Think Business With Tyler podcast, our guest is Mark Villareal.

Mark is a business coach, a consultant, and a trainer. His job is to help businesses develop their employees, create strong leadership teams, and build a positive culture. He has spent 35 years in corporate America with more than 20 years at C-level positions. He has also been a VP of $5 million, $50 million, and $500 million a year annual revenue organization. All of this has brought Mark to where he is today, helping companies establish long-term sustainable growth.

According to Mark, company culture is everything. He says it’s what defines who you hire and who you fire.

If you’re looking to grow your company but are not sure about your mission statement, you’ve got to listen to this episode! Today, Mark and I discuss the importance of vision, mission, and values in business growth. We also talk about the impact the leadership teams have on the rest of the company and what it takes to be a strong leader. How to use your company’s vision to attract the right talent and why every employee needs to know the company’s mission as well as understand how it can benefit them.

Guest-At-A-Glance

💡 Name: Mark Villareal

💡 What he does: Mark is a business coach, consultant, and trainer that helps businesses, large and small, develop their employees, create strong leadership teams, and build a positive culture.

💡 Noteworthy: Mark is an International Best-Selling Author with 7-published books. He has been a guest on ABC, NBC. CBS, FOX, and other morning shows, as well as over 70-radio shows and podcasts.

💡 Key Quote: “Everybody no matter what role they are should be able to explain to whoever they’re telling the mission to how it benefits them.”

💡 Where to find Mark: LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook

Key Insights

When evaluating company management, start by assessing the leadership team. As a long-time business coach and consultant, Mark has a lot of boots-on-the-ground experience in management evaluation and assessment. In this episode, he shares some of his most valuable tips for building company culture from scratch. He says you should always start from the top-down and asses the leaders first. One of the most crucial skills that a strong leader should have is problem-solving. “One of the first things I do too is I start assessing the leadership team right away to see who the leaders are and who are not. And to see who understands because I teach people how I problem solve because I want them to understand my mindset, and as a leader, you need to be able to problem-solve, because critical thinking is a huge aspect of leadership.”

Company culture is everything. Company culture defines who you’re going to hire, who you’re going to hire, what decisions you’re going to make, and ultimately, how you do business in general. It’s your company’s personality. It all boils down to our belief system. Mark explains the value of beliefs. “Belief is what changes your attitude which changes your actions. And so if we can get deep into the belief system which is what culture does and mission, vision, and values and it’s why I’m so passionate about those is what really gets everyone believing and going in the same direction.”

The importance of mission, vision, and values in company growth. According to Mark, your mission is your reason for existence and the same goes for companies. Why does your business exist? What values do you live by? You should not only have a clear mission statement, but you should also define it so that every employee in your company knows and understand it. Employees want to work for companies that they believe in, especially millennials. “Sometimes you might have to re-evaluate your mission, vision, and values every three to five years. But every organization even buying a sole proprietor needs to have a mission, vision, and values. I always say I teach that you start with your values. I call that that’s what you’re going to live by, what are you going to live each day and exhibit with your organization, and they’re not just words like integrity and honesty. Those are great values.”

Hire people that share your company’s vision. Finding good employees is hard. According to Mark, the key is to have a clear company vision and hire people who share it. It’s a win-win situation for both you and your employees. You get to reach your business goals and the employees get to come to work every day knowing they’re a part of something bigger. On another hand, if you realize someone’s not right for your company, you should take action as soon as possible. Mark explains why, “Sometimes you have to make hard decisions and that means if you can’t find somebody else, you take over what needs to be done, but if they’re there, they’re not just affecting you, other people they’re infecting, and they start diminishing your culture.”

Top Quotes

[2:35] “The problem with the turnaround specialist is you start getting one going right and then they move on to the next one.”

[7:16] “I always say, ‘I didn’t do it!’ It takes going in there, defining it, and building a culture. Culture is everything.”

[11:00] “The top 10 things that are important to millennials are the same that are the top 10 of myself, I’m a baby boomer, but they’re in a different order. Mine was, tell me that your stability, how much you’re going to pay me, those types of things. For millennials is what’s your reason for existence, what’s the values you’re going to live by, and pay is probably number nine.”

[15:10] “He was driving culture from the top down that eventually it becomes from the bottom up, but great leaders learn ways to not only embrace it but speak to it all the time. […] One of the other dangers is that one person will create the mission, vision, and values instead of involving everybody else. There’s a process, that’s what my book speaks to that who to involve because at the end of the day it’s about accountability and ownership of it as well.”

[20:49] “Confrontation is a benefit. My mom would say you need to confront issues quickly and not let them pile up. And that’s what I teach leaders and it’s not always easy, but you get better as you do it.”

[25:34] “You’ll find people that just aren’t right for your business. You treat them with respect, and I teach that if you do that properly, even when you let them go, they’ll be the people that we refer other employees to you that well.”