Ep. 13 Your Business Non-Negotiables

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SAF 13

[00:00:00] Torie: Shit’s going to hit the fan. It always does. Who would have known this was the fan it was going to hit like, you know, worldwide pandemic, like who knew,

Hey, welcome to Smart AF I’m your host, Torie Mathis. We have got a great show for you today. So let’s get started. So I’m in a lot of advertising groups on Facebook and very interesting stuff goes on there. But what I find most interesting is that there is a difference between marketers, some of these people.

Okay. Let me actually skip back to why I noticed that there’s a really big difference in these groups with all the things going on, racial type things going on right now. A lot of companies. Are trying to figure out whether or not they should publicly and actively support and talk about racial efforts.

There is a ton of discussion. How far do you take it? What do you say? And it’s different for a small company than for a big company that has a lot of people. So any hazy in one of these advertising groups, somebody said, My boss, who is the owner of the company, wants to do something for breast cancer awareness.

So this was, you know, back in like the beginning of September wants to do something from breast cancer awareness, but I think due to what’s happening in the world right now, that would be insensitive because now is not the time to talk about breast cancer. I’m like, what the fuck are you talking about?

Like, it is always important to talk about things like breast cancer or heart disease or sex trafficking or things that are always issues. And really racial equality is always an issue too, but just because there’s one issue, it doesn’t mean that other issues are not still important. That is not the point.

This is not political. The point is, is that I am looking at this breast cancer awareness as the owner of a business. And thinking that when I started my business, I have certain things that are important to me. And those are like my non-negotiable my things, my why, the reason I started my company like there are motivations in there.

That’s why you have your mission statement. You get, you hire people that have the same mission. So I’m looking at it from this owner, obviously has some tie to breast cancer. That is why they are doing it every single year because they said we do something every single year. It’s a big deal. But this year it feels like it’s insensitive.

Whereas those people that are saying that it’s insensitive and the comments were crazy. Everybody’s like, no, don’t say anything about breast cancer. We shouldn’t be talking about this at all this year. That was like, that is wild. But then I realized. These are just employees. They work in a small marketing company or a marketing position in a company they’re not the owner.

Like what a huge difference in perspective it is to look at things from the owner’s perspective and the employee’s perspective. And I talked to you about this. What do you think? 

[00:03:30] Sean: I think that it needs to be, whatever’s important to the owner of that, of. Yeah, like you said, you’re not making anything less important.

You’re just stating what is more important to you for whatever reason. I mean, we don’t know. I mean, her mother may have died from cancer. She may have be a cancer survivor. All those things are super important in shaping how she feels. Assuming it’s a, she was a, she was a guy. I don’t know.

He, so the owner of this company you know, we don’t get into that proves the point right there is we don’t know all the facts. But if they want to do something for whatever is because they’re the owner of that company, they have to do 

[00:04:15] Torie: that. Well, then more than the right to do that, when you become an entrepreneur, when you become a business owner like you have to set these reasons why.

Shit’s going to hit the fan. It always does. Who would have known this was the fan. It was going to hit like, you know, worldwide, real pandemic, like who knew, but whatever it is, something is going to happen in your business. And it’s going to make business hard. It’s going to make your life hard. You’re going to have to make decisions.

And that’s why there is a mission statement. That’s why there are these things that you hold dear to yourself that no matter what you don’t turn around. Yeah. And that’s what keeps a business moving forward. And without any of these things, your business is going to buckle because there’s no backbone in it to hold you up through bad times.

And I was just shocked that these, like, they were like, no, how dare he even think that that’s appropriate to talk about during these times? That’s why it’s important because of these times.

[00:05:20] Sean: When I think the consistency of that is also kind of a factor that you can take into account. Like that’s the that is what that business does on an annual basis. And so just because there’s other things going on right now, doesn’t make what they do on an annual basis, any less. 

[00:05:39] Torie: And the worst part of it too, is that the comments got a little bit heated and it was one of those times where these people were like, screw you, boomer. It’s like, come on now.

Like, you really don’t understand the workings of how businesses run. And this is just because something is a business and it’s a corporation or whatever. The, how the structure of the company. There’s a person behind that. It’s not like, you know, fight the system. And the business is a system that is you know, robot in the background. This is a person’s livelihood, something that they started out of, nothing. And that there are so many things that go into it. I don’t know. 

[00:06:20] Sean: The cancer stuff isn’t relevant to them and they want to do it for something else. There’s nothing stopping them from going out on their own time and doing something for whatever that, that thing is that they want to do. It’s like, go do that. But from a business owner standpoint, the business that the owner wants to do that, that’s what they’re doing.

[00:06:40] Torie: Well, this was somebody in the marketing department of this small business was saying like, they didn’t feel comfortable talking about breast cancer awareness during the month of October. And that people were like, oh yes, you’re right. No, no. 

[00:06:55] Sean: I mean, that’s like let’s not. 

[00:06:58] Torie: Let’s not wear seatbelts because it’s not important anymore.

I don’t know. There’s so many things that you can go through here, but it really just made me realize that. There’s gotta be a way that you get your employees to know what’s going on. And even if they’re your marketing department, like there, if there’s some type of indoctrination that, that people, that work for you understand what’s important, no matter what is going on.

I think that that can be helpful. Like for us, no matter what children, animals, and veterans are important, that’s just, what’s important to us. And no matter what happens, you know, feast or famine, those things are going to be near and dear to our hearts because of who we are. And that doesn’t mean that we’re right or that we’re wrong. But even, in how we do business and things, those are the things that we want to support when we have extra time and money. 

[00:07:51] Sean: So there’s no shortage of things in this world that you can, you, I mean, you, you can’t do everything. So. I picked a few things that are relevant to us in our lives at this current time. I mean, that’s what you gotta do is stick to what, what you, you truly believe. 

[00:08:07] Torie: Absolutely. And if things that are are happening right now, I mean, you can definitely talk about those things as well, but it doesn’t mean that it’s undermining the things that are already near and dear to your heart and important to your business.

[00:08:19] Sean: Yeah. That was it. Like, there’s nothing that says you can’t talk about something else as well, but like you’re doing the same thing every year. Why stopped for something else going on? It’s not like. You’re deeming something else, less relevant. It’s just, it’s not, it’s not part of your core mission. You know, it’s not something that you’ve always done. 

[00:08:45] Torie: Things like a core mission that that’s, that’s the whole reason to have that. Keep you afloat and keep you guided through whatever type of times, because that’s, what’s important. And not to say that those things can’t change, but I don’t think you can let some, some kid in the marketing department make those types of decisions that will steer your business.

You got to stick with what’s important, which feels near in your heart because that’s where you got started.