Episode 24
E24: Making Culture is Your Competitive Advantage [Asset Building] with Lily Smith
As you grow your team, Organizational Culture becomes one of the critical moving pieces in the valuation of your business. I was lucky enough to have a conversation with Lilly Smith, an expert in this subject. Together we talked about what organizational culture means and, more importantly, what it can imply to others as an essential part of your business brand. In this episode, you will learn
· The meaning of Intellectual Capital, which is a vital asset to your business
· How the barrier between internal and external culture has vanished, and why this matters.
· Key indicators that your organizational culture might be suffering
· As a Bonus: when we got Meta, we talked about when to plan an exit strategy from your business
Lilly had some important messages about organizational culture, one of which concerned having systems in place to guide and structure your culture. Guess what? That’s veering into intellectual property territory, so if you have been developing these systems and materials, you may want to contact me to discuss how best to protect them.
Connect with Lily: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lilysmithorigen/
We would love it if you would consider supporting Lily’s charity of choice: https://saltcares.com
Connect with Erin and find the resources mentioned in this episode at hourlytoexit.com/podcast.
Erin's LinkedIn Page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erinaustin/
Think Beyond IP YouTube Page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVztXnDYnZ83oIb-EGX9IGA/videos
Music credit: Yes She Can by Tiny Music
A Podcast Launch Bestie production
Transcript
Hello everyone.
Erin Austin:Welcome to the Hourly to Exit podcast.
Erin Austin:I am so excited to have Lily Smith with us here today.
Erin Austin:Thank you, Lily, for joining me.
Lily Smith:I'm so excited to be here with you and your listeners, Erin.
Lily Smith:Thank you for having me.
Erin Austin:Well, I am very excited about this episode.
Erin Austin:Uh, we have been trying to get together for a while and I'm so glad
Erin Austin:it came together because you have fantastic background that so much
Erin Austin:of it is applicable to our audience.
Erin Austin:We're gonna talk, specifically about organizational culture, but before we
Erin Austin:get into that, I just wanted to make note of something that I noticed on your
Erin Austin:website that you have a .consulting url, and I don't think I'd seen that before.
Erin Austin:When, when did you get that?
Erin Austin:How long have you had it and what did you have before that?
Lily Smith:I think I've had that for least five to eight years.
Lily Smith:And what happened was my website, you know, pretty much hacked and
Lily Smith:uh, the people were trying to send, send me back my website.
Lily Smith:I've had when I URL for 20 years.
Lily Smith:For thousands of dollars and I wasn't gonna buy into it.
Lily Smith:And now what, what's interesting about these new extensions is that you can
Lily Smith:be very specific, you know, so in someone, the consulting, business
Lily Smith:coaching really, you know, they had this extension of consulting and
Lily Smith:there was a way for me to still use my brand name while also specifically
Lily Smith:identifying what it is I offer.
Lily Smith:But yeah, they have a lot of these new, uh, extensions that are, are really very.
Erin Austin:Yeah.
Erin Austin:You know, that's funny.
Erin Austin:You know, I mean that's just another example of time flying
Erin Austin:when you say five to eight years.
Erin Austin:Because I remember when all these new extensions were coming online and it
Erin Austin:seems like it was yesterday, but it probably was, you know, that long ago.
Erin Austin:I love that.
Erin Austin:And it's so easy to remember.
Erin Austin:Cause that's, you know, One of the challenges is someone be able to
Erin Austin:listen to someone mention their website on a podcast and for it
Erin Austin:to be able to stick in their head.
Erin Austin:And, and that's so perfect.
Erin Austin:I love that.
Erin Austin:So, please introduce yourself to our audience.
Lily Smith:Okay, well, I mean, I've got a, a long bio.
Lily Smith:I, I have been a, uh, marketing and branding expert for well over 25
Lily Smith:years, and a business coach for the past decade and I've worked with very
Lily Smith:large enterprise, uh, companies that you, you know, most everyone would
Lily Smith:know about, you know, from in the entertainment field, MTV networks,
Lily Smith:Bristol Myers Squibb, and then kind of folded into being more of a consultant
Lily Smith:for smaller, medium sized businesses.
Lily Smith:And now coaching.
Lily Smith:Right now, I provide a business growth program that is driven by
Lily Smith:organizational culture and accelerated by facilitated mastermind groups
Lily Smith:that I offer business owners.
Erin Austin:That's fantastic.
Erin Austin:So back to organizational culture.
Erin Austin:You know, recently I wrote in my newsletter about how when I first
Erin Austin:started making the pivot from kind of a traditional law practice to one that's
Erin Austin:more strategic in consulting that I was talking about intellectual capital.
Erin Austin:And uh, you know, I confessed that like, almost no one knew what that meant.
Erin Austin:And um, but I wanted to make the point that there are non-tangible assets,
Erin Austin:other than just intellectual property, that are valuable in our businesses.
Erin Austin:And in fact, the name of my business Think Beyond IP was for us to think
Erin Austin:about those assets that you know, we can't touch, but that are very valuable.
Erin Austin:And culture makes that list, but so many people don't understand what culture is
Erin Austin:generally, or organizational culture in particular, so can you help us with that?
Lily Smith:Sure.
Lily Smith:I mean, it is, you know, the concept of, of brand culture can both at
Lily Smith:the same time seem very clear and intuitive, but at the same time it.
Lily Smith:Very elusive when you're actually applying it In reality.
Lily Smith:Culture, to your point, is a source of competitive advantage that's exclusive
Lily Smith:to a business and a brand, and not unlike the exclusivity that you speak about.
Lily Smith:culture is a company's distinctive assets that, provides a very unique
Lily Smith:marketing position, which together, creates a barrier to competition.
Lily Smith:okay, so that, what is , what is that?
Lily Smith:Essentially culture is a competitive advantage that exclusive, as I
Lily Smith:said, to the business and brand, and it's essentially the DNA and
Lily Smith:the brand values of a company.
Lily Smith:And it pretty much governs every brand experience and brand expression,
Lily Smith:from the customer interactions to employees and how they engage and other
Lily Smith:stakeholders, along the company, with every touchpoint along the company.
Lily Smith:One of the things I really love about how you present, your work is the way
Lily Smith:you really narrow in on, um, exclusivity and predictability, which is, Really
Lily Smith:the essence of what makes every business successful and culture really feeds
Lily Smith:into that because it provides just that in terms of it being exclusivity, the
Lily Smith:marketability that it builds, you know, and the marketability being everything
Lily Smith:from really the top being the brand equity, you know, and everything that
Lily Smith:goes into building equities into a brand from positioning, competitive advantage,
Lily Smith:a brand loyalty, the following you have, you know, the web traffic, depending if
Lily Smith:you're an e-commerce site, all that goes into marketability and, and brand equity.
Lily Smith:And, as you know, which is a big part of what you do, brand equity is, a brand's
Lily Smith:value, you know, and it's determined by perception and experiences of that brand.
Lily Smith:And culture has a, a big role in that, at least if it's a properly applied.
Lily Smith:A lot of businesses, I mean, even some really well known companies,
Lily Smith:don't really apply culture.
Lily Smith:And when they do, it just makes a world of a difference in their strategy.
Lily Smith:And I could sit here and take the next half hour and quote so many well known
Lily Smith:executives who have, uh, come around and will preach on that topic, that culture
Lily Smith:eats strategy for lunch is a famous quote, actually,
Erin Austin:Oh, I've never heard that before.
Erin Austin:Well, I, I do want you to provide an example, but in particular, because
Erin Austin:a lot of us think of culture as being something that's internal.
Erin Austin:Like that's the way we, you know, collaborate and the way we train
Erin Austin:our employees and our mission and that it's more kind of internal.
Lily Smith:Hmm.
Erin Austin:to be part of our brand, you know, both in attracting clients
Erin Austin:and in attracting employees in such a competitive market, it has to be
Erin Austin:communicated externally as well.
Erin Austin:So how, does a company make known what their culture is?
Lily Smith:Well actually, you know, first I will say that right now it's Internal
Lily Smith:external branding is one of the same thing, because with all the technology
Lily Smith:that we're using, especially social media and all the transparency that, that then
Lily Smith:creates is really, you know, internal culture is, really the same as external.
Lily Smith:because what your, employees, what your company values are, if it's
Lily Smith:properly done, it's expressed in everything that you do externally.
Lily Smith:and even if you don't want it to be, if you don't have a handle in
Lily Smith:your own culture, It happens anyway because if you don't have a handle
Lily Smith:in your culture, it's the way your employees and their position with, and
Lily Smith:their relationship with your brand.
Lily Smith:It shows in the customer relations, it shows in everything, you know, all the
Lily Smith:external touch points that we're involved with through our employees and otherwise.
Lily Smith:so if you actually embrace culture and, and kind of take the lead on it
Lily Smith:and they'll let it just, you know, let your story be told by others, then
Lily Smith:you really, you know, incorporate and, and identify and are very clear about
Lily Smith:what your, uh, individual culture is.
Lily Smith:And then you make sure that that is expressed in everything
Lily Smith:you do internally and external.
Lily Smith:Once you apply that and you do that properly, you pretty much manages itself.
Lily Smith:And again, there are so many examples of this and so many well known
Lily Smith:companies that, I could bring up, for example, this whole just Do it culture.
Lily Smith:everything they do follows that idea and that concept internally, the way they
Lily Smith:deal with their, employees, the kind of employees that they, and salespeople
Lily Smith:that they employ, and the way they, manage customer service, on the brand,
Lily Smith:their advertising, everything they do is on point with that, brand, model.
Lily Smith:Just.
Lily Smith:And, and that culture of, of being proactive, like that, very
Lily Smith:positive, works well for them.
Lily Smith:Huge.
Lily Smith:Needless to say, I pick that because the huge brand equity and then
Lily Smith:there's Patagonia, for example, that they known, but still, you
Lily Smith:know, another outdoor culture brand.
Lily Smith:one of the things that in terms of culture, being a
Lily Smith:benefit to employer brand.
Lily Smith:They don't even advertise they kind of brag about the fact that they don't
Lily Smith:advertise when they're hiring people so much because there's such a strong culture
Lily Smith:in terms of this outdoor culture that.
Lily Smith:People understand that they're, you know, they're not looking for MBAs.
Lily Smith:They're looking for someone who really knows mountain climbing, who really
Lily Smith:understands dirt biking, you know,
Lily Smith:They don't remember seeing this one ad where they say,
Lily Smith:we're looking for dirt bags,
Erin Austin:That's terrific.
Erin Austin:I was gonna say to the Nike example, just because most people are
Erin Austin:familiar with it and that just do it.
Erin Austin:So when you talk about the way it translates internally, like to, to,
Erin Austin:you know, empower your employees, encourage them to take risks, don't
Erin Austin:punish, false starts, things like that.
Erin Austin:Is that how, basically how Nike used it expresses itself internally at Nike?
Lily Smith:Yes, exactly.
Lily Smith:And that's an easy, example to talk about because as you said,
Lily Smith:everybody knows it and it's pretty clear, it's intuitive, right?
Lily Smith:You don't really need to explain it, do it.
Lily Smith:It just, the, the tagline itself, you know, um, it's well
Lily Smith:known, it's been well promoted.
Lily Smith:The story has been supported in so many.
Lily Smith:So we, we know it.
Erin Austin:You know that, that makes me curious about what came first,
Erin Austin:the tagline or the culture at Nike.
Erin Austin:Do you, do you know?
Lily Smith:I actually, I, I'm not sure of that.
Lily Smith:I would, I would say just thinking about that, that it would've been
Lily Smith:good to know which one came first, you know, uh, I actually don't know.
Lily Smith:It's a good question.
Lily Smith:I'm going to definitely look it up and get back to you.
Lily Smith:My suspicion is that, the culture Was there and then the advertising,
Lily Smith:cause it is such an old, brand and the advertising picked up on it.
Lily Smith:I mean, I've been in advertising so many years that very often that's, you
Lily Smith:know, that's the sequence of things, especially with older brands, you know,
Lily Smith:cause this whole concept of cultural, though it's been around for a really
Lily Smith:long time, it's not been picked up on, uh, as much as it has in more
Lily Smith:recent years in, in the way that it.
Lily Smith:but it also evolved, right?
Lily Smith:It evolved out of relationships from the advertising agencies and
Lily Smith:creative and brand developers.
Erin Austin:Yeah.
Erin Austin:So you also work with small businesses, entrepreneurs.
Erin Austin:How does this translate in the small business?
Lily Smith:I usually launch an engagement around culture with an
Lily Smith:assessment that really is very effective in identifying the existing culture.
Lily Smith:And culture really starts with leadership, right?
Lily Smith:And, but it's also, Cultivated by, by the employees and, and in how they're
Lily Smith:engaging with your, brand and the core values that you share and, and employ
Lily Smith:in your internal, uh, leadership style.
Lily Smith:If it's a larger organization with a large team, we start with a cultural assessment
Lily Smith:system that, uh, I work with, and it very quickly identifies what kind of culture,
Lily Smith:you know, the business is made up of.
Lily Smith:Meaning the assessment is asking all key.
Lily Smith:Leaders within an organization, whether it's all top management or
Lily Smith:middle management, et cetera, to just weigh in and see, well, who are
Lily Smith:these people who, how is it, what is the role in the organization?
Lily Smith:And we start to see a pattern of a certain archetype that is there and
Lily Smith:present, and we assess that with.
Lily Smith:How does that match with their stated values?
Lily Smith:You know, and we, we also have to dig in and really assess what are
Lily Smith:those values and does the culture that has been cultivated match
Lily Smith:those values and why and why not?
Lily Smith:and so, How this starts to be funneled down into, this whole idea of exclusivity
Lily Smith:and predictability is that we funnel that information down into the,
Lily Smith:especially the marketability aspect of
Lily Smith:their business, right?
Lily Smith:So how do the values that are behind this culture?
Lily Smith:How do they match with their brand?
Lily Smith:How, and so we go down the list of everything that, that
Lily Smith:expresses that brand and see what matches, what does and what's off.
Lily Smith:And, We, you know, build a campaign to make the changes that we need.
Lily Smith:And then from an operational perspective, we also look at, you know, well, how
Lily Smith:does that, uh, impact operations?
Lily Smith:How is this also walking the talk within our, the operational side of it?
Lily Smith:and this is where the system side of it, it comes in because, you know,
Lily Smith:in terms of what systems are, as you.
Lily Smith:really the systems is the documentation of processing, that, support
Lily Smith:predictable revenue, uh, positions a company to scale and to operate as
Lily Smith:the owner, independent, uh, operation.
Lily Smith:I know I'm covering a lot, so I'm skipping.
Erin Austin:Yeah.
Erin Austin:That's okay.
Erin Austin:I do have a question about how, the term organizational culture.
Erin Austin:Like if most people don't sit there and go, you know, something's
Erin Austin:not going right in my business.
Erin Austin:I think I need to go get someone to help me with my organizational culture.
Erin Austin:I mean, I imagine that's not the question that they ask when
Erin Austin:they go looking for help.
Erin Austin:Like what?
Erin Austin:What is the question?
Erin Austin:Like how do they recognize that they need help and how do they recognize they
Erin Austin:need your type of help in particular?
Lily Smith:Great question.
Lily Smith:Yes.
Lily Smith:Well, when you see that everything that intuitively things the right thing to
Lily Smith:do, you're offering employees, great benefits but you still, you're not,
Lily Smith:Able to retain your, staff or your team, or there's a morale issue or
Lily Smith:you could tell that there's something about the brand that your, your
Lily Smith:customers are not really, resonating with or it's just, it's a myth, right?
Lily Smith:There's so many clues, from the operational perspective, from a
Lily Smith:financial perspective, from a marketing perspective, fails, it really, you
Lily Smith:know, culture impacts everything.
Lily Smith:So I think it would be helpful to give you an example of a case study.
Erin Austin:Right.
Lily Smith:and that is, now sounds a transportation, you know, it's a
Lily Smith:trucking company and, uh, trucking companies very typically have a
Lily Smith:very high driver turnover rate.
Lily Smith:it's almost a hundred percent annually, which as you know, is extremely expensive.
Lily Smith:And challenging for companies to grow despite whether or not they're really,
Lily Smith:you know, in high demand or not.
Lily Smith:And, um, there was also a very steep competition for a small
Lily Smith:pool of driver candidates.
Lily Smith:And many of them, you know, were hopping from one job to the next because
Lily Smith:of, competitive authors that sign on bonuses, referrals, rewards, et cetera.
Lily Smith:And so they took an assessment and did an organizational culture study.
Lily Smith:And even though that they had very clearly defined values and engaged employee,
Lily Smith:the company who's still not articulating their story to attract new drivers.
Lily Smith:So after doing a cultural assessment, an audit, and also,
Lily Smith:you know, looking at their employer brand, a whole new campaign was.
Lily Smith:Developed that, really resulted in understanding what was the
Lily Smith:underlying drivers of, of the, you know, leadership within the company.
Lily Smith:And that the archetypes that came through were those of.
Lily Smith:Without getting into the explaining of, of the archetypes, but the three
Lily Smith:very specific archetypes that were came through as the driving force behind
Lily Smith:the culture of that organization.
Lily Smith:and which bottom line is, uh, finally that it drove the development of
Lily Smith:the corporate brand and the faith and family recruiting campaign.
Lily Smith:And, because the driver culture.
Lily Smith:resonated very much with that kind of archetype, which I'll say
Lily Smith:it's an innocent hero and explorer getting in, you know, I'm sorry, but
Lily Smith:No, but it's a lot of information that I, I realize it's not, you know, might
Lily Smith:not directly answer, but bottom line is once they did a cultural assessment and
Lily Smith:the campaign was developed to really articulate, you know, what their employer
Lily Smith:brand was about, more specifically, their driver turnover rate dropped, tremendously
Lily Smith:and it was, uh, actually under 30%, uh, afterwards, which as I said before, it was
Lily Smith:typically for the industry, it's nearly a hundred percent turnover every year.
Lily Smith:and then the company was able to grow and double its fleet and,
Lily Smith:um, it was awarded year after.
Lily Smith:For a best seat to drive for.
Lily Smith:So, you know, it kind of sold itself.
Lily Smith:So it solved the problem of, you know, the biggest problem
Lily Smith:being, their, drive to turnover.
Lily Smith:So in that case, culture and the, the identification and very specific
Lily Smith:specific culture and the driving forces in their, particular environment.
Lily Smith:We were able to be very, targeted about how to resolve their challenge.
Lily Smith:It wasn't a leadership issue, it was a more, a messaging issue for them.
Lily Smith:But culture could also be something that could be seen as the leadership issue.
Lily Smith:You know, because if the leaders are not modeling the culture and the core
Lily Smith:values that they really want to, uh, espouse, you know, they might not be
Lily Smith:aware of how they're not doing that.
Lily Smith:So doing a cultural audit, you know, we assess well, how is it that your
Lily Smith:internal operations are not in line with these values that you want to espouse?
Lily Smith:It gets into the, the why, the two fundamental, concepts
Lily Smith:in, brand development.
Lily Smith:And that is, you know, your why, right?
Lily Smith:The source of what, why you exist and your.
Lily Smith:And it really feeds into that.
Lily Smith:And, and leadership, always has to, be a model for that.
Lily Smith:and so identifying a company's, organizational culture can really help you
Lily Smith:tease out where it's not, aligned with.
Erin Austin:So you mentioned a couple of things that what was it again?
Erin Austin:Culture beat strategy every day.
Erin Austin:Is that what it was?
Lily Smith:Yeah, culture eats, stress for lunch,
Erin Austin:There we go, . But when you described the way that you helped this
Erin Austin:client in particular, you talked about strategy, you talked about, operations,
Erin Austin:you talked about leadership, and so culture, I think sometimes is still
Erin Austin:considered kind of a soft skill almost, as opposed to like strategy and leadership
Erin Austin:and operations as being kind of more.
Erin Austin:Harder skills.
Erin Austin:And so how do, do you therefore attract a certain kind of client who's thinking
Erin Austin:about culture how do you communicate that culture will solve your problems?
Erin Austin:Or how people who are.
Erin Austin:Organizational culture consultants, like how they make it clear like
Erin Austin:culture will eat strategy for lunch.
Erin Austin:Like how do you make people understand that, the market understand that?
Lily Smith:well, because you can have best strategies, you
Lily Smith:can buy the book, best practices.
Lily Smith:If your strategies are not aligned with the culture and
Lily Smith:vice versa, it's not sustainable.
Lily Smith:You can say, your brand is all about giving and you care about
Lily Smith:the world and environment, but.
Lily Smith:You know, the products that you, create are not that sustainable.
Lily Smith:Your employees are not informed about the sustainable practices.
Lily Smith:you know, you could see how eventually the story starts to fall apart,
Lily Smith:you know, because if your , sales force is out there and customers
Lily Smith:are asking them about environ.
Lily Smith:Practices or sustainable practices and employees have no clue.
Lily Smith:They've been embraced such a thing.
Lily Smith:And, um, in the case, for example, Patagonia, they're very much
Lily Smith:about being a sustainable brand.
Lily Smith:And if they don't walk their talk, that's not gonna be very sustainable.
Lily Smith:You know?
Lily Smith:No, it's not gonna build credibility and trust that they do have in
Lily Smith:their brand and joy in their brand.
Lily Smith:so.
Lily Smith:Culture helps identify what those core values are, and then we walk through,
Lily Smith:you know, a whole list of, strategies about, well, how is that actually
Lily Smith:expressed in everything the company does.
Lily Smith:And once that is put in place in a very authentic manner, Your whole
Lily Smith:entire team internally, the operation will just follow that, think of
Lily Smith:it like in a peer situation, right?
Lily Smith:You go into a community of like-minded people.
Lily Smith:And the culture is just in the air.
Lily Smith:It's the social cues that are there, the language that is, used the way
Lily Smith:people behave with one another and, it just becomes part of how we do things
Lily Smith:without even having it documented You know, you just kind of pick up.
Lily Smith:Right.
Lily Smith:you can see examples of that in almost any aspect of our lives.
Lily Smith:And then, you know, if you happen to go into some sort of situation where
Lily Smith:there's a toxic culture where, you know, the things being modeled are just not
Lily Smith:respectful or not in line with what we thought we were, you know, signing
Lily Smith:up for, or how we would personally want to be, and then nothing works.
Lily Smith:Everything's falling apart, because there's no consensus.
Lily Smith:Whereas when there is consensus in a, in a very well articulated
Lily Smith:culture or cultivated culture, there's an unspoken consensus that
Lily Smith:takes place and so it manages itself.
Erin Austin:Right, right.
Erin Austin:Well, that kind of brings me to the next place I wanted to go, which is talk about.
Erin Austin:The trends that you're seeing regarding the issues of culture and you know,
Erin Austin:we're in this time of, cancel culture, for lack of a better word, you know,
Erin Austin:where we require brands to take a stand.
Erin Austin:How is that affecting the work that you're doing and, and how do you
Erin Austin:see it, you know, kind of changing things, you know, in the near term.
Lily Smith:well that's actually again, another interesting question,
Lily Smith:because, the current concerns about inclusivity, for example, and,
Lily Smith:you know, uh, identity issues or.
Lily Smith:Um, everything, you know, cancel culture, you know, all that it represents.
Lily Smith:If that's important to an organization, then we identify how is that
Lily Smith:important, how's that being addressed?
Lily Smith:Those are topics that are, you know, more about being aware, and we more fold
Lily Smith:that into, well, what's going on in the current culture within an organization?
Lily Smith:How does that fit in with, where they stand on these issues.
Lily Smith:You know, if you're really, it's important to you to be, uh, inclusive,
Lily Smith:you know, um, but what are you doing?
Lily Smith:How's your culture support that?
Lily Smith:You know, what is the conversation that's being had at the water cooler?
Lily Smith:and what the systems you have in place to support and show your external audiences
Lily Smith:that they can have the confidence that this is, you know, what you are about
Lily Smith:from, how you treat your employees to how you hire, you know, the talent
Lily Smith:that you bring in and your leadership and your operations that support that.
Erin Austin:Are clients kind of more concerned about that than they were
Erin Austin:maybe before the last couple of years?
Lily Smith:I would say there's definite higher awareness.
Erin Austin:Mm-hmm.
Erin Austin:? Lily Smith: Yeah.
Erin Austin:And you know, and the thing about is you wanna be authentic, you know, because you
Erin Austin:don't want to just say, and this is what typically a lot of people say, okay, we're
Erin Austin:going to be inclusive now, so we're gonna show all this diversity in everything
Erin Austin:we do , but you know, One thing everyone can do that it can just mimic that.
Erin Austin:But it's another thing to really understand authentically
Erin Austin:how do you do that?
Erin Austin:You know, what is your particular authentic voice around this topic,
Erin Austin:and how do you want to express that?
Erin Austin:Right.
Erin Austin:So then when you come from a very authentic perspective and well
Erin Austin:considered position, then you're better able to not only be, uh, an integrity
Erin Austin:with yourself, but also with others.
Erin Austin:And then trust is built much more easily that way, as opposed to just some cookie
Erin Austin:cutter formula for being inclusive.
Erin Austin:Right.
Erin Austin:Speaking of cookie cutter, do you have Not that this would be cookie cutter.
Erin Austin:A big fan of Signature Solutions, but do you have a specific way that you work
Erin Austin:with everyone or is it every, client completely unique or maybe a common
Erin Austin:starting point with all your clients?
Lily Smith:I would say common starting point is doing these
Lily Smith:culture audits assessments.
Lily Smith:Uh, they're fabulous and a lot of fun to work with.
Lily Smith:And then from that, I, you know, kind of break it down to what I was
Lily Smith:saying before, just really assessing what their marketability and their
Lily Smith:systems, you know, are assessing that.
Lily Smith:And it really depends on the engagement of the, the client.
Lily Smith:You know, if we're doing a one on one and we're doing a business audit or, or
Lily Smith:a culture audit, then depending on what comes out of that, we'll engage, you
Lily Smith:know, and, you know, maybe reassess their branding, you know, and their message.
Lily Smith:we'll, reasses.
Lily Smith:maybe it's really more in the system side, you know, where they don't have the
Lily Smith:proper systems to support this culture.
Lily Smith:It really starts by identifying what their culture is and then seeing where
Lily Smith:that's off, and then deciding whether or not that falls into the marketability
Lily Smith:buckets or the systems bucket.
Lily Smith:And everything that can unfold as a result of that.
Lily Smith:You know, whether it's a, as I said, it's a marketing issue or leadership issue.
Lily Smith:it could be so many things.
Lily Smith:but the reason I focus on marketability and systems is that, you know, in terms
Lily Smith:of valuation at the end of the day, it could be add up to about 70% of the
Lily Smith:business valuation and, I know that with what you do, you know, you're always with
Lily Smith:an eye on the exit strategy is one of the things that you and I have in common.
Lily Smith:You know, we follow this idea of always begin at the end with mind, because it
Lily Smith:really provides, uh, a clarity and a focus to any, you know, any business.
Lily Smith:And it really helps with the success of a business.
Lily Smith:and so that's why if I was to narrow it down to two things that, you know, every
Lily Smith:business needs to really get clarity on and then have it in proper place,
Lily Smith:is the marketability and their systems of operations and culture really helps,
Lily Smith:really teased out the bigger picture for those two things and helped lead the
Lily Smith:strategy for those in those two area.
Erin Austin:That is amazing.
Erin Austin:I love that.
Erin Austin:So, uh, as we wrap up, as you may know that this is a pretty meta podcast,
Erin Austin:so, um, The lucky recipient of all the wonderful expert advice of the experts
Erin Austin:that, come on the show because I am the, a female founder of an expertise
Erin Austin:based business that I am building, uh, to hopefully be able to sell some day.
Erin Austin:And you are of course, also female founder of an expertise based business.
Erin Austin:So I must ask, are you planning to sell your business someday?
Lily Smith:I do, I probably am about somewhere about five to 10 years.
Erin Austin:Hmm.
Erin Austin:Yeah.
Erin Austin:So you have, uh, yeah.
Erin Austin:All your, pieces in place.
Erin Austin:Yeah.
Erin Austin:I'm glad to hear that.
Erin Austin:I, I do not infrequently hear, oh, I'll never sell my business, but
Erin Austin:you just never know when that next.
Erin Austin:Chapter will come along.
Erin Austin:Uh, that next thing will catch your interest that just, uh, you know, like
Erin Austin:the world is changing all the time.
Erin Austin:There may be something else we wanna do and we wanna make sure that we
Erin Austin:capture all the value in, in the businesses that we're building right now.
Erin Austin:So I'm very glad.
Lily Smith:Yes.
Lily Smith:And one of the things I see too often, and it's very sad, is that
Lily Smith:people don't think about that.
Lily Smith:You know, they come to retire, oh no, I'll never retire.
Lily Smith:Or they don't think about their exit strategy and then all of a sudden they're
Lily Smith:five years away from, you know, cause how we feel when we're at the beginning of
Lily Smith:building a business, you know, in their twenties, thirties, or any point in time.
Lily Smith:Uh, and how we feel about after having been working at, for 20, 30 years, you
Lily Smith:know, very different perspectives,
Erin Austin:like having kids for instance.
Erin Austin:You know, it is, you know, and when they're babies you're not thinking
Erin Austin:about sending 'em to college.
Erin Austin:But there'll become time like, oh my God, when do they go to college?
Erin Austin:And, uh, and so, When, when will that empty nest be?
Erin Austin:And that's not because, you know, the fact that we build children and we build
Erin Austin:businesses that are independent of us and can thrive without us as a success.
Erin Austin:You know, that's not, doesn't make us bad parents.
Erin Austin:Right.
Erin Austin:Um, so yeah, I like to, to make that analogy as well.
Lily Smith:it is so important to really think about your exit strategy
Lily Smith:because it really will guide you in building your business in a much more
Lily Smith:efficient, purposeful way with clarity that will just be less stressful.
Lily Smith:So, whether or not you think, you know, you, you, you wanna think about
Lily Smith:retirement, doesn't, doesn't make you know either way, whatever position you.
Lily Smith:I always say, begin with the end in mind.
Lily Smith:It'll make your whole journey so much more easy.
Lily Smith:and at the end of the day, you're five years out from deciding do you
Lily Smith:wanna retire or transition into some other career or whatever it is, at
Lily Smith:least you will have, uh, things in the proper order so that you can have
Lily Smith:that option of selling your business,
Lily Smith:or transitioning in a manner that really you can optimize the return
Lily Smith:from it from all your effort.
Erin Austin:Absolutely.
Erin Austin:Absolutely.
Erin Austin:So as we wrap up, think beyond ip.
Erin Austin:In great part created because I wanted to help create an
Erin Austin:economy that works for everyone.
Erin Austin:And so is there a personal organization that is doing work
Erin Austin:to create a more equitable society that you'd like to highlight?
Lily Smith:Yes, actually salt is a fabulous, organization that, operates.
Lily Smith:Year, uh, upstate in, in the Catskills where I'm currently
Lily Smith:spending three quarters of my time, I
Lily Smith:split my time to New York City and the Catskills.
Lily Smith:And, I love what they do.
Lily Smith:They're, they're working with families in need and youth in need and really,
Lily Smith:offering enhancement programs, uh, at all levels and they're very inclusive.
Erin Austin:Salt cares.com.
Erin Austin:We'll have that in the show notes as well as where people can find you.
Erin Austin:But if you would share with us as well, where can people find you?
Lily Smith:My website is, www dot origin, that's spelled o r ig, E as
Lily Smith:in elephant, N as in nancy.consulting.
Lily Smith:And what I'm offering your audience is, you know, half hour complimentary
Lily Smith:consultation, uh, and a discount for organizational, culture assessment.
Lily Smith:and also an invitation to join my mastermind group and, um, that can
Lily Smith:go to the intake form on my website and to apply if they're interested
Lily Smith:in, um, being considered one.
Erin Austin:That is fantastic.
Erin Austin:Well, thank you so much for that.
Erin Austin:Thank you again for being here, Lily, and I hope you will have
Erin Austin:another conversation soon.
Lily Smith:Thank you.
Lily Smith:Yes, I hope so too, because I, I think I, there's so much we can
Lily Smith:continue talking about and hope, um, you know, we passed in a lot today.
Erin Austin:Yeah, absolutely.
Erin Austin:Have a great day.
Erin Austin:Thank you all.
Lily Smith:You too.
