Innovation: Why Brand Values are Essential for a Conscious and Caring Business
On this episode of Process to Profitability, I discuss the importance of business values and how to align them with your brand messaging strategy. My guest, Ashlee Sang, works with conscious and caring business owners to help grow their impact and revenue. We talk about the three-step approach to values, making small decisions, and how values may change over time. Ashlee also shares examples of how we can apply our brand values to our business in both marketing and operations. We also chat about and the importance of regularly reflecting on values and seeking outside perspectives. Check out Ashlee’s resources to help tackle different areas of marketing and operations at ashleesang.com/valuesworkbook and ashleesang.com/process.
Timestamps:
[00:06:36] Brand messaging strategy is essential for business.
[00:11:24] Be intentional. You can't be everything to everyone.
[00:15:11] Establish your values through self-reflection and perspective.
[00:19:36] How to apply your brand values in practical ways
[00:22:25] Choosing a tech stack that aligns with your brand values
[00:26:56] Evolving your values with your business, flexibility is key.
[00:30:54] Start small and build momentum.
[00:35:21] Places and ways to showcase your values, including on your website.
Key Topics:
Values as a Content Pillar
Small Decisions, Big Impact
3 Part Approach to Values
Define Company Values
Define Value Meanings
Make Decisions with Values
Brand Values in Marketing and Operations
Building from Small Steps
Business Values Evolution
Regular Reflection on Values
Communication about Change
Resources:
[00:00:00] Samantha Mabe: Thanks for tuning into Process to Profitability. Today I am talking with Ashlee Sang and we are talking about values and how you can make your business more aligned with your values. So we chat about how you can come up with your values, how they might change, and then what that looks like to actually live it out in your business.
[00:00:24] We go into things like your tech that you're using, the way that you host your website, all of these small decisions that make a big impact and really can resonate with the type of clients that you want. We also talk about how you might find that your values grow and shift as you evolve as a human and what that looks like as it plays out in your business.
[00:00:51] So I'm really excited for you to listen today and make sure that you go and check out Ashlee on Instagram and check out her elevator pitch workshop or workbook at the end of the episode.
[00:01:05] Ashlee Sang consults conscious and caring business owners so they can grow their impact and their revenue. She is also the host of Purpose and Progress podcast and equips entrepreneurs to take confident, meaningful action in alignment with their values. She believes that business can feel good and do good when it's rooted in values and propelled by purpose. She does brand messaging strategy, which we talk about in this episode, and marketing consultant for nonprofits, including some NGOs and Habitat for Humanity, and everything she does comes back to sharing messages that matter.
[00:01:46] Hi, Ashlee. Thanks for joining me today.
[00:01:50] Ashlee Sang: Yeah, thanks so much for having me.
[00:01:53] Samantha Mabe: Before we jump into the topic, can you introduce yourself, tell us a little bit about what you do in your business and how you got here today?
Meet Ashlee Sang
[00:02:02] Ashlee Sang: Yeah, so I run Ashlee Sang Consulting. I do values aligned brand messaging strategy, and related marketing consulting all about showing up for something and standing out in a way that feels really good and allows you to do a lot of good through your business.
[00:02:23] So I work with conscious and caring business owners, whether it is solo service providers like you and I or small agency team leaders, or whether it's impact founders in the social entrepreneurship space or nonprofit leaders. Really the common thread for me is people who want to really live out the values that they believe in. And it's such a fun and intimate process to be part of.
[00:02:53] And in terms of, how I got here, it's been very organic. I had zero plans to be, four and a half years into business for myself. I didn't really know that entrepreneurship was in my future.
[00:03:07] I have a background in international development and nonprofit communications, so I have pretty much done or touched or been part of. Every single facet of communications. From the logistics side to the media relations side, to the grant management, internal communications, brand development social media management, which is, now so glad there are other people out there who do that, and I am not that person.
[00:03:37] And yeah, so it's been an organic build, and I've always had a trajectory, but never necessarily a destination, which is really fun for me. Exploration is one of my core values, so I really like that entrepreneurship is this container that allows me to explore while still being really useful at the same time, cuz contribution is also one of my core values.
[00:04:03] And then I guess on a personal note, I'm based in central Illinois also was not the plan. And my husband and I have a toddler and she keeps me on my toes and then some.
[00:04:16] Samantha Mabe: Yeah, I know your your toddler is a little bit younger than my son, but I always see that you are out and about with her all like during the day and you're exploring and having adventures like we are. So I love that part of an entrepreneurship that we. Can take the time to do all of the family stuff.
[00:04:36] Ashlee Sang: Yeah. I feel like lifestyle businesses get a bad rap sometimes, but for so many of us, that is exactly the point. We can be part of something that's, Bigger than ourselves, while also being a core central part of our families, which is the closest thing to ourselves.
[00:04:54] Or even if you don't have a family, maybe it supports the fact that you want to be semi nomadic. Maybe your business supports the fact that you need to care for a chronic illness that you have, whatever it is. I love that I have probably classified as a lifestyle business and it really suits my needs and my family needs and where I am in my journey right now.
[00:05:16] And things can change in the future, which I also love.
[00:05:20] Samantha Mabe: Yeah. So how did you get into messaging specifically? Because what you help with, like the messaging, the big vision, the values, all of that. It's not copywriting, it's not like brand development. So how did you get into that and how do you see it working with all the other elements of business that need to come together?
What brand messsaging is and why it's important
[00:05:45] Ashlee Sang: Yeah, so I'll answer the second question first. I see brand messaging strategy as the foundation of everything. If you have a beautiful brand, visual logo fonts, colors even icons, that sort of thing. If you have a beautiful website like you design, if you have amazing copy on your website, if you have stellar social media, whatever it is, what is it that all of that is trying to emulate?
[00:06:13] What is it that all of that is representing, it's representing your core message. It's representing who you are as a brand, as a founder, and. What's really cool is this runs the gamut from everything from a personal brand. Maybe you're a side hustler and you are wanting to build up some thought leadership. Maybe you are a well established entrepreneur, like most of the people I work with, and you have had success in your business and you finally wanna have a little bit of intention behind how you show up and what you wanna be known for.
[00:06:44] The brand messaging strategy and specifically that alignment between your values and your audience, that is where all the magic happens. That is the jumping off point. So I see brand messaging strategy as being essential for every single business owner to feel like they're rooted in something, to feel like they have some direction to feel like they're able to outsource. And people on the other end will get it feel like they're able to partner with peers, and then of course feel like they're able to connect with the people they actually want to connect with, which is their customers, their clients. So that's how I see it fitting in.
How Ashlee came to focus on brand messaging for her clients
[00:07:19] Ashlee Sang: And then how I came to messaging was, I wanna say just a little bit of fate and openness. I didn't know brand messaging existed before, maybe three years ago. I was doing done for you work so many of us start doing so many of us strategists or consultants we start doing, you know what We know, right? What we did in our nine to fives.
[00:07:40] And so I was taking on, quote unquote gigs or projects anything under the sun that had to do with words or communications or marketing that either I was really good at or I could figure out better than the client. I would take it on. And so I somehow got on a project or two that had brand messaging baked in, and I was the words person. I was the copy person, I was the content person. So it was assigned to me, and I Googled my way through it. And then eventually I realized, Ooh, this is really important. My brain works really well in this strategy level, and all of these people are paying me to write a blog post here or there, or run their social media here or there, or I've built some websites even though I probably should not have so they're hiring me for these tasks, these things. And there was no strategy behind it.
[00:08:37] So they were throwing money at a problem, hiring someone without any, Common threads to connect the dots and that didn't feel good, right? If my goal is to have vicarious impact working with people who are having amazing impact and bolstering up their ability to have that impact, it filters back down to me. So if I can live in this strategy realm and inform all of their future decisions, all of their future outsourcing, make everything they then spend their hard-earned dollars on that much more effective, then that feels really good to me.
[00:09:16] So stumbled upon it, and then I, yeah, just really latched onto it. I built my own framework. And the values element also just came organically, instinctively. It just felt like such an essential element that would be, Utterly missing if I didn't incorporate it. And so from there, I've just had conversation after conversation with amazing business owners who really want to be known for something specific.
Why having clear values as a business is important and impactful
[00:09:47] Samantha Mabe: I love that. And I think the values piece is so important, especially like since the pandemic, I've noticed this big trend of people want to work with people whose values are aligned. They want to clearly know what your values are and like it's okay if you're not a fit for everybody, but you want to stand in what you believe in. Even those bigger brands have owned this part of messaging and strategy because it's so important to us as people.
[00:10:19] Ashlee Sang: Yeah. It's okay to not be everything to everyone, right? In fact, it's impossible, right? Like even if you were the most neutral person ever, that would be, you would repel the extreme people, right?
[00:10:33] Samantha Mabe: Yeah.
[00:10:33] Ashlee Sang: Even if you were the most like well-rounded, let's just say website designer maybe you still aren't awesome with one person shops or startups or huge corporations. There is absolutely no way that you could possibly serve to your maximum ability, every single type of business or personality or especially set of values. So all the better to be really intentional with what you do stand for so that you can be the perfect fit when the right people come along.
[00:11:11] It feels so, so good when you get on a networking call or ideally a sales call or even, cold outrage, a dm, whatever, and someone says, I saw you here, or I heard you talk about this, or someone said this about you and I just knew I had to talk to you.
[00:11:28] Those are the types of conversations we're after and leading with your values, leading with your own thought leadership is the quickest and most effective way to build those really human level connections.
[00:11:42] Samantha Mabe: I've gotten on so many sales calls and usually I have to tell people like my kiddo is downstairs. You might hear him screaming, but every one of them knows that I'm a mom, that I work from home. And so they have no problem with that. Usually they're moms too, so they get it, and we can be aligned in that so that when they have their kiddo pop onto a screen, they know I'm not gonna freak out. I'll just wave and say hello and we'll keep going.
[00:12:07] There is comfort in that sometimes too, to know this person gets it, they understand what is important in my life and what I'm gonna prioritize.
[00:12:19] Ashlee Sang: Yeah. And they don't even have to be a parent to appreciate and respect the fact that you put family first. Maybe family is one of your core values and they, it doesn't have to be top on their list. They just have to understand it. They just have to see it. They just have to respect it.
[00:12:35] You don't wanna be working with people. Who don't understand what is so core and essential to your being, to the way you show up to the way you run your business because it won't feel good on either end.
[00:12:48] And then there's also that power of referrals, so many of us. Either rely on or love getting referrals. And so we want more perfect fit people to be referring people just like them and not, oh, made it work fit people, refer people just like them because it just makes it harder for everyone, right?
[00:13:09] So the faster we can build up a reputation of here's how I operate, here's what I care about. Here are the types of people I love to work with. Then that snowball really grows in the right direction in a way that feels really good.
How to establish your business values
[00:13:23] Samantha Mabe: Yeah. So can you give us just a really quick overview of, How people can find their values, especially for people who might have employees that they're working in an office. So a lot of my clients and listeners have, it's not just them running a creative, an entrepreneur business like we are. Some of them are, some of them aren't. So how do you determine that for your business? As just like a quick, here's how we do it, and then we can dive into what it looks like to actually live those out?
[00:13:57] Ashlee Sang: Yeah. So I have a three part approach to how I think about values and that first step is establishing what the heck they are, right? Sometimes it's so clear because, we live and breathe them, right? Especially if we are one person shops or, very small teams. It's apparent from the get-go. Or it is innately built into the culture of how you show up.
[00:14:21] And yet it's still very valuable to put them on paper. So that first step of establishing your values is deeply self-reflective. Ideally with a combination of outside perspective. So you take the time to reflect on what do I care about? What does get me riled up when I see something? When have I been super proud or deeply mortified? Why did I even start my business in the first place? How has it evolved and how do I feel about that evolution? All of those things should hopefully shed some light on some core ideas, some umbrella concepts, and yeah, tease out some words that come to mind.
[00:15:08] So for example, I actually had freedom as one of my sort of initial core values. So many of us go into entrepreneurship because we're like, we're wanna be free. And yet so many of us don't actually live that outright. I did not feel particularly free. I felt tethered to my computer. Very tethered to my childcare schedule, et cetera. So I actually was not living out freedom very at all.
[00:15:33] And I had an instance where I was so deeply mortified by being out of integrity on accident, but still it happened, right? I said something was free. The system wanted to charge them. I was not doing what I was saying. And so I realized, oh, light bulb moment integrity is so essential to how I show up if I am so mortified. Being out of integrity, that means that is something that is so core to everything I do. And oh yeah, here's how it pops up here and there.
[00:16:06] So freedom got bumped. It got absorbed into my core value of exploration and integrity is now high on the list, right? So think of if you come up with I care about 20 different things, that's awesome. We are multifaceted. Most of us are multi-passionate. Dump the 20 things on a sheet of paper in a notion doc. Chat it through with a business coach, a life partner, a consultant, whoever you need, and then.
[00:16:36] Think of those umbrella categories and really aim for three to five, any fewer than that isn't quite enough to latch onto any more than that. Spreads yourself a little bit too thin. In my opinion there's no hard or fast role, but I aim for three to five with my clients.
[00:16:51] Establishing what they are through deep reflection, and then ideally that outside perspective is that first step.
Defining what your values mean to you
[00:16:57] Ashlee Sang: And then the second step is really defining what those values mean to you and your business and even your clients. Yeah, because the words you, that you use, integrity and exploration might mean something different than to you, than they do to somebody else.
[00:17:16] Which is beautiful like that. There, there is absolutely no value that is, Good or bad. Maybe a sense of belonging is really important to you and your business and the way that you set up your customer experience or your membership or whatever it is. And maybe a sense of exclusivity is actually way more important to you. You don't have any community elements, you don't have any belonging elements. You want someone to feel so special, so custom That's awesome. Neither is good or bad. It's about what you care about delivering and what the people on the receiving end care about receiving.
How to apply your brand values in your business practices
[00:17:51] Samantha Mabe: Yeah. So once you know what those values are, you've done you've got your three to five words that you have put together, what do you do with those? How do you use them?
[00:18:03] Ashlee Sang: Yeah. So establish a step one, define is the overlooked, but very important step two. And then step three is actively applying your brand values. So think, I like to think of the two main buckets as marketing and operations. On the marketing side, that's everything from your website copy to your social content, to the types of workshops you create, the types of podcasts you guessed on or the name of your podcast, right? All of these things really matter and are a direct reflection of the values you have and hold.
[00:18:39] And then even some things, like my favorite example is an email signature, right? Do you have an inspirational quote that reflects your values? Do you explicitly list your values? Do you have a little blurb that says I'm anti hustle culture, it'll be a while before I reply?
[00:18:52] I have, for example, in my email signature that I'm a 1% for the planet member that relates to my core value of contribution. It relates to I care about things that are bigger than myself. But it's a nod, right? It's not, my core value of contribution plays out in this way, right?
Choosing to share your values implicitly or explicitly
[00:19:08] Ashlee Sang: So we can either be explicit or implicit in every way we apply our values, but then I actually think values shine through even more strongly on the operations side. So these are the felt not necessarily seen things.
[00:19:26] So these are things like your pricing, your tech stack, your customer experience, the types of businesses you partner with, the types of affiliations you are part of, whether it's paid or unpaid. These are things that really impact how you run your business, how you make decisions, and having that values framework makes those decisions so much easier.
[00:19:52] Because we know as entrepreneurs, as the CEO of this entity, our whole job is making decisions all day, every day. And if we can make that easier, faster, more efficient, more consistent, all the better, right? It will only bode well as we grow our business.
[00:20:11] Samantha Mabe: Yeah, I think a lot of people can understand, the people you affiliate with or the programs that you're in affiliate for, maybe product, depending on what you do.
[00:20:20] I will not be an affiliate for or share something that I haven't used personally. And that's what I tell anybody when they reach out and they're like, let's, do you wanna be an affiliate for this random thing? No, I would like to actually try it first.
How your tech stack can reflect your values
[00:20:34] Samantha Mabe: How does that look when you're coming to like your text stack? Because I, you've sent some really great emails in your email list that have shown me some new tools. What does that look like for people?
[00:20:45] Ashlee Sang: Yeah, so one example think about if you're hosting an event. There's this, I think new-ish, new to me at least, a platform called Humantics and they basically have a give back model that goes to charity. So you're able to host this event, you're still able to collect fees for the event you're hosting. But whatever fees that you would pay to something like Eventbrite or some other processor, some other host, that money, that processing fee side is going toward charity. So you're able to feel good about it and the people who are buying from you will feel good about it, et cetera. That is a tech stack question.
[00:21:23] Also things like the CRM you use. How much have they invested in access accessibility? How many voices do they share from their own users? Does everyone look and sound the same or do they really run the gamut in terms of industry racial background, sexuality, whatever it is that you care about or whatever way you define diversity or inclusion.
[00:21:46] Even things like Your website hosting, this is something I really need to look into. There is such a thing as green website hosting and basically it's how environmentally sound your website is on the hosting front.
Small choices make a big difference
[00:22:03] Ashlee Sang: These little decisions that actually could make a big difference. Even if the little decisions don't make a big difference, if you make a million little choices, that is a really big impact in the end. And again, it shapes the culture that you have. It shapes the reputation you have. It shapes the mindset you have. So all of these little things really do add up.
[00:22:26] Samantha Mabe: And I think a lot of times it's, you have to do some research for those things. I just found yesterday a search engine that when you use it, they plant trees, so their ad revenue goes to that and I was, I only came across it because somebody had visited my website from that search engine. And I was like, that's so cool. It does the same job as Google, but it's better for the planet and it's better for people. And maybe I don't wanna give all my money to Google.
[00:22:52] Ashlee Sang: And that's what's also awesome is if you work with conscious and caring business owners, you can discover cool things like that simply by looking at your own analytics of how did someone discover me? Like what a beautiful cycle to be part of.
[00:23:07] Samantha Mabe: Yeah. And I love the accessibility piece too, cuz that is, and all of these make smart business sense, but like for me, that is one of the quickest things you can do to improve your business for a variety of people and live out your values. And even search engines want accessible.
[00:23:28] Websites. Like the whole thing is just This benefits you in more than just, I'm living out my values. It actually benefits your bottom line and you get to help people and it's not that hard to start making those steps.
[00:23:42] Ashlee Sang: Yeah, and that's an important point because I feel like ESG or corporate responsibility or values seems like fluff for people who have never considered it, or maybe from a traditional, quote unquote business point of view, but, We own businesses, we run businesses to serve people. If we have no people on the receiving end, we have no business like the better we're able to serve people, the more impact we're able to make, the better our business is and grows and becomes. It is, yes, sometimes a time investment, sometimes a money investment, sometimes an effort investment, but it is an investment.
[00:24:26] Investing in your values does pay off in the long run for sure. And sometimes even in the short run.
What should you do if your values shift?
[00:24:35] Samantha Mabe: So you mentioned that you changed your values. You walked us through that, but what does that look like for people who might be in a transition? How does that maybe play out in their business decisions, especially if it's like a bigger shift? What does that look like for how they show up for people?
[00:24:54] Ashlee Sang: Your values are absolutely guiding principles in your business. They're your gut check, but. Your business will evolve because it is run by humans and it is built for humans, right? And humans evolve. It's important not to be rigid with them, even if they are a firm foundation, they're not completely inflexible.
[00:25:14] As you shift, sometimes it'll be completely organic like mine was, exploration, just absorbed freedom that no one was any the wiser. I didn't make any shifts in my business again, especially because it was like this dead arm already. I wasn't completely living out that freedom element as well as I maybe wanted to or should have, et cetera. And so integrity was more of a realization than like an addition. I was already actively living out the integrity value without having put a name and definition to it.
[00:25:49] So in some cases it's as simple as that, but in some cases we wanna shift our audience, we wanna shift our offer suite. We wanna, maybe we have a baby or we become a caregiver or something, and like we really need to shift our entire model, something like that.
[00:26:04] So then I think it's a question of going back to all three steps. So that self-reflection step of establishing what your brand values are, what is it that you care about here and now? What is it that the people you want to be reaching care about here and now and in the future, right? What is it that you're building toward? Sometimes your values are a little bit aspirational. And that's okay, right? We're building something through and in our business.
[00:26:33] So establishing what they mean and then, or sometimes it might even just be redefining what they mean, right? Maybe you have always had a core value of accessibility, but you've never considered how pricing impacts accessibility. Maybe you did all the nuts and bolts logistics of closed captions and metadata and all of that type of accessibility, but you never considered the pricing element. And oh wow. I've gotten feedback from my audience, or I watched a really impactful workshop, or I follow a really great accessibility leader and she showed me the way, that sort of thing. And so maybe it's simply adapting what what it is accessibility means to you and your business.
[00:27:18] And then of course there's that application phase. So whether or not the values change or the definition change, you could also be changing how you apply them. So it's those decisions that you make.
[00:27:30] So for me, for example, contribution maybe I want to add some other type of monetary contribution on top of the 1% for the planet commitment that I have. Or maybe my contribution is really adhering to only taking on social impact sector clients because I wanna be part of their movements or whatever it is.
[00:27:53] As you evolve again, maybe it's monthly, quarterly, for sure yearly. Take a look at your values and really think about are these the values I want? Is this how I wanna describe them and is this how I want to apply them? And then go from there. And then I highly recommend the outside perspective along the way.
Tips for being more aligned with your values in your business
[00:28:15] Samantha Mabe: So what are some tips you have for being more values aligned in your business?
[00:28:19] I know we've talked about like some of them here and there, but if we could create a list of things people could take away and say, this is what I want to do in my business. How do I start making sure that I'm living those out for my business?
[00:28:36] Ashlee Sang: You could start with the smallest thing possible and scale up from there, really build momentum. You could look at your email signature. You could look at your website headlines only. You don't have to touch the copy. Just look at the headlines. You could Look at your social bios, you could look at any sort of partnerships you have, high level, any ties you need to cut any people you really wanna reach out to, that sort of thing. You could start with the small and then build from there.
[00:29:03] Building from there would be revamping all your website copy, making sure all your social content is now reflecting in some way one of your core values, no matter what it is you're posting about it might be redesigning your entire offer suite or building a whole new membership because you realize that not only a sense of belonging, but also a sense of collaboration is core to how you wanna show up and how you wanna be known. So maybe start small and go from there.
[00:29:29] Maybe the opposite is really useful for you and how you operate. Maybe start with something big is my pricing aligned? Is the name of my business or my podcast aligned? Is the team I have in place, do I need to either fire or hire someone? Maybe it's those big decisions.
[00:29:48] I actually have a workbook called Live Out Your Brand Values and I break the marketing and operations buckets into 12 different areas. And you could, tackle one a week, tackle one a month that sort of thing. You could look at all your content for this month and really make sure everything is in alignment there. The next month you could look at your website, make sure everything is in alignment there. The next month you could look at your pricing.
[00:30:13] It's always going to be an evolution. It's always going to be a work in progress. And yeah, I think as long as you are internalizing those values. If you have a team, making sure they're internalized by the team as well, and as long as you are consistently showing up, it doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to be mindful, intentional, keeping them on your radar, then it will evolve naturally and it will feel really good too.
[00:30:47] That's the whole point, is to run a business that not only feels good, but also does good. And so the more in alignment you are with your values, the better it's gonna feel and the more out of alignment you are, the more you're gonna have that sort of twinge in the back of your head or in your gut and be like, why does this not feel awesome? Ah, okay. Values alignment. And then you can go from there. Course correct.
Thinking about how our values show up in ways we don't expect
[00:31:11] Samantha Mabe: I have had clients, I'm sure we have all had clients where, you see the red flags, but usually, That is comes back to a values alignment. Maybe they want to micromanage your project and that's not how you like to work.
[00:31:24] Maybe the type of business that they're running is just not something that you necessarily feel like you want to support. And so I think we have all experienced this, we've just called it something else in a lot of cases.
[00:31:40] Ashlee Sang: I even had a client once we were doing values work for a full brand messaging strategy. And one client said, oh, so this is really the how. And I was like, yes. This is how you show up. If your audience is the who, your values are absolutely the how, and they connect you to your why, which is your mission, and that connects you to your vision, which is the, what the heck you're showing up for.
[00:32:04] I had another client be like, oh, we've we have these guiding principles. And I said, yes, that is exactly what we're talking about, right? So doesn't matter if you call it values or not. You can call it guiding principles. You can call it core concepts, you can call it whatever it is that you want. As long as you have this framework of things that you care about, things you wanna be known for, and ways you wanna show up. That is what we're talking about at the end of the day.
How and where should you share your values?
[00:32:31] Samantha Mabe: Awesome. So real quick, how do you share your values other than, like you're doing it in small nods here and there, but is there anywhere that somebody can go and see the list of your values? Do you recommend that businesses do that?
[00:32:47] Ashlee Sang: Yes. Okay. Super important question. So thank you. I recommend that yes, you list them explicitly, not only what the values are, but specifically how you define them for you and your business. I recommend you list them either on your about page or your homepage wherever it's most appropriate. I have mine on my about page but they can absolutely show up of other places.
[00:33:08] This is your operations manual, right? This is your calling card. This is how you want to be known. So they absolutely need to be reflected somewhere on your website.
[00:33:21] And then from there it can be implicit or explicit. Values can make a really great content pillar system so they can, if you have, for example, a a core value of transparency, mind map all the ways you can talk about transparency in your business through client testimonials resources you share, et cetera. Transparency could be the pillar, and you could talk about it and its relationship to anything in the world, especially your business, 1,000,001 different ways, right? So it could be implicit and you could talk about how, and this ties back to my core value of transparency, or it could just be felt not necessarily seen.
[00:34:00] Then obviously because I am like the values person, I talk a lot about values in my newsletters. I reference how like this choice or this experience relates to this value or I write blog posts about it. You could absolutely share how decisions you make in your business play out because of the values you have. You can absolutely be explicit in that way.
[00:34:23] And then again, like I mentioned my 1% for the planet membership or the fact that exploration is one of my core values, I come up with kind of a lot of offers. Like most business strategists would probably say, pick a lane, please. And I like to not always be in one lane. And so that is reflected in the fact that I come up with a lot of different ways to work with people because it's fun for me and I wanna see, oh, is there a way I could do this? Better? Is there a way I can be of more service? Will this be more either useful for them or conducive to the lifestyle I want and need so that I can then show up better?
[00:35:00] Yes, they're listed on my website. Yes, I talk about them a lot. But there's sometimes more of a behind the scenes underlying undercurrent element rather than something explicit that, that needs to have a name and a face.
Sharing big changes in your values and how you apply them in your business
[00:35:15] Samantha Mabe: And then my other quick question is, if you are making like those big changes, maybe you're changing your employees, you're revamping your entire website, is that something you announce to people and say I'm making these changes because my values have changed, or I'm just making sure my business is aligned with what I've already valued?
[00:35:37] Ashlee Sang: If it's a big change, you might want to say, Hey, We're going through a big change around here and here's why. So that people aren't confused, so that you don't lose that trust because trust is everything.
[00:35:49] So if all of a sudden you're flipping a switch and you want to retain any of those previous relationships past clients, past followers if you want to retain any of that, then you might want to explain a little bit.
[00:36:01] If you're totally shifting and like you don't care that a totally new audience is gonna be attracted and then therefore repelled, then maybe you don't have to talk about it.
[00:36:10] If it's more subtle you don't necessarily need to say why your prices are going lower or higher. You don't necessarily need to say why you are joining this social platform or leaving this social platform. It could be an internal decision.
[00:36:25] But also, we always need more content ideas, right? I really love the sort of like share as you build business philosophy. I have found it so helpful on the receiving end and very therapeutic on the giving end.
[00:36:40] My newsletter, if you are on the list you know, that I share a lot from behind the scenes because it's really useful for me to process it out loud in public for other people. If it helps them in any way, if it validates them in any way, then that's great. Then I'm contributing, right?
[00:36:56] People will feel the change. People will see the change, but they don't necessarily need to know why you made it as long as you are really firm in why you made it.
Connect with Ashlee
[00:37:04] Samantha Mabe: All right. So let's wrap up and have you share where people can connect with you.
[00:37:09] Ashlee Sang: in terms of social hangout on Instagram at Ashlee Sang consulting or LinkedIn, just under my name, Ashlee Sang.
[00:37:16] I mentioned a live out your Brand Values guide, so that's at Ashlee saying.com/values workbook. That is a paid resource and it goes very in depth through all three phases that we talked about.
[00:37:28] But I also have a free resource called A Visionary Guide to Elevator Pitches. And that is a really fun, quick way to talk about what it is that you do and why it matters to real live humans, right? So avoiding the jargon as best as possible and actually connecting with the real people who would be on the receiving end of this elevator pitch. I have a podcast specific URL for that at ashleesang.com/process. It's a really useful way to start thinking about how do I wanna show up and how do I wanna be known?
[00:38:02] Samantha Mabe: Yeah. And we actually did like a consulting session where you helped me rework my elevator pitch, which was so helpful to like, work through that without having to just do it in my own brain.
[00:38:14] Ashlee Sang: That was such a fun conversation. I work with a lot of marketers. I work with a lot of people who know how to do this stuff, but it is so hard because we're so close to it. Thank you so much for trusting me with that because Yeah, we're, it's just so hard to do this type of thing for yourself.
[00:38:30] Samantha Mabe: Thank you so much for coming on the show today. I'm excited for people to connect and I'm excited to see how they start to live out their values and what tweaks and changes that they make.
