People And Purpose Behind Process

Amy Dardis 0:10

Welcome back to the Building a Clear Authentic Brand Podcast. I'm your host, Amy Dardis. And I spend a lot of time talking about process, process when it comes to hiring people, onboarding, being clear on your brand identity. But really, process all comes back to people and purpose. That really ends up being the core of everything because the process we build, how we build it, why it even matters, it only matters because of its connection to people and purpose. Because at the end of the day, we are all just people, whether we are leaders or entrepreneurs or employees, it doesn't matter our role, it doesn't matter our status, whether we are a stay-at-home mom or an entrepreneur out there trying to build something brand new, stepping out in faith, taking a risk. We are all just people. And we are all given so much time here on earth. We are given specific gifts and abilities. And we're trying to live a life that is worthy of our calling. And it is aligned with how God wants us to live, how God wants us to lead and run our business, and to do something that matters, to do something that has value and impact. And at the end of the day, that's what it all comes back to for me, like why I choose to do this business, how I choose to build this business, all comes back to wanting to obey God's calling and leading on my life. And when I talk about people and process, it's with this heart of wanting people to be in roles that align with their gifting and to be around people and to work for companies that align with those values and there's purpose and intent and alignment behind it. And so I've been thinking about that a

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Hiring That Speaks Life Into People

Speaker 2:18

lot lately. I've been thinking about this idea of story and our story and the importance of story. And I talked about this in the last episode about why we should not ask hypothetical questions because they ask questions about a version of someone that doesn't exist. Like we have an idea of who we are and how we're gonna act, and we think we know how we would respond in a situation, but we never actually know how we're gonna respond until we walk through that situation. And so when we're interviewing people, we are just focused on their story and about what has shaped them, the person that is right there in front of us today. And the version of who we are today is based on what we've lived through, experienced, and what we've believed up until this point. And we don't know what's gonna happen tomorrow that's gonna maybe shift what we believe or how we act or, you know, the experiences that we have. I know I remember when I was called to move to Alaska and called to start this business, that wasn't even a thought. That wasn't even a seed in my mind. It was something that I was just going along thinking my life was going down one path. And then this one moment, this one shift, this one thought completely changed my trajectory. And I never saw it coming. And it has absolutely, fundamentally changed me going through that and whole experience of going back into the entrepreneurial world, uprooting my life and my family and moving to a brand new place, it's brought on all kinds of challenges that have helped me grow and have kind of shaken some old mindsets and old beliefs. But I just remember my life up until that point thinking it was just going in a completely different direction. And so when we're looking at this story idea of who we are as people is just what we have lived through. And who we are as a brand, as a business, is just what we have experienced and lived and specialized in up until that point. And our even our very brand identity as a business is actually intertwined and deeply connected to our own personal identity. I mean, I think we would like to think that it's not that life and business are separate and that our identity isn't wrapped up in our business. And I do think it's important to get to a point where there's a healthy boundary there. But at its core, if you lead a business, what you value in the business is connected to what you value as a person. And that's why every business has a different set of values. They have different environments, they have different work styles because it is directly related to the people that work there, to the people who make the decisions. And how we run our business, the choices we make, that's dependent on what we believe. And it's dependent on what we believe about ourselves, about our worth, about our value, about our calling, about God's place in our life. Everything we do is based off of what we think, which is based off of what we believe about life, about business, about people, about purpose, about process. And so for me, this brand, clear authentic brands, has been a journey of one going through that process myself as I look at my story, as I look at what I believe and how that's going to change how I show up every day. And then it's also been the process of learning how to pull out these brand stories from businesses and from other leaders and entrepreneurs. And then that is actually where we pull out a hiring process from. It always has to start with this clarity piece. And I've talked about this a lot about clarity really being the foundation for so many different things in our life. And then authenticity is then stepping into that and acting on that and embracing that. So when I sit down with anyone, when I sit down to chat with a friend over coffee, when I sit down to talk with another entrepreneur just about life and their business and what they've been going through and what they're trying to build. Or if I'm sitting in an interview and I'm talking to a candidate, all I'm focused on is their story, what's brought them to this point in time, what has shaped them. And I'm looking for patterns and evidence in their story that point to what they believe, what they value, what their behaviors are, what their skill sets are, what their strengths are, what their unique differentiators are. And it doesn't matter if it's a business or if it's a person or if it's a friend or if it's a candidate. The approach is all the same to say what are what are the things about this identity that make them unique? What have they been through that has developed those gifting? What are the actions and experiences that they've chosen to take? And how do I map that back to what is it that they believe about themselves or about their gifting or about their calling that have determined that? And so when I can go through that process and start to pull out these themes and these patterns, that creates the foundation for okay, so how do we bring clarity to that? Kind of put some more firm boundaries around that as far as like, okay, this is this is the essence or the the framework of kind of what makes you up as an individual or what makes you up as a business. And then we start to look at alignment and process. We start to look at, okay, what are the systems that we need to put in that are going to enhance this, that are going to drive more focus, that are going to develop these specific giftings. And sometimes it requires taking some intentional space to dive into our story, to embrace our story, and then to start to build it authentically. And so I want to talk a little bit about that from my own personal standpoint of this journey, clarity and authenticity being the things I am the most passionate about, but also the biggest struggles I have had in my life and this process of seeing how clarity and authenticity in who I am as a person has really led to the path of what I've ended up doing as an entrepreneur, as a business, and then developing those gifts in order to then work with businesses and people and processes to help them be developed in other areas. And so when I say we need space sometimes to dive into our story, like it starts with taking a step back. And for me, I've spent a lot of time reflecting on the last 10 to 15 years of my life, of my entire career, of even back into high school and as a kid. And what I was looking at was what are the things that make me uniquely me? What are the giftings that I have that I've seen develop over time? And what happened was these things that started subconsciously, like patterns and habits that I was doing that I was never even aware of when I was younger. Like this idea of asking questions and being intensely curious about people's stories. That is just ingrained in me. That has been there since I have been a kid, as well as the desire to communicate, to speak, to write. That has been a deep-seated theme in my life throughout English class, throughout high school, throughout, you know, standing in front of a mirror and giving these like pretend, passionate, persuasive, inspiring speeches to an imaginary audience. Like, yes, I absolutely did that. And the apparently that was just directing me towards, I think, a specific calling that God had, like a specific dream and a desire to to speak, to communicate. And it started as a kid. Only at the time I did not have that correlation at all. And even how I approached people and relationships, you know, I was a military kid, and so I moved around all the time, every couple of years, new places. I was a new kid constantly. I was constantly being thrust into situations where I had to build new relationships over and over and over again. And I had to adapt to new situations and be flexible and pick up on social dynamics and people. And I didn't realize what was going on at the time, but those are things that ended up developing me, the gifts inside of me, as well as I think a natural passion and interest for people. And then as I became an adult and I started to enter the job world, being in roles that didn't align with my gifting, even though at the time I didn't know what my gifting was, I just knew that whatever I was doing was not what I wanted to be doing. And that bothered me. And I didn't want to live my life wasting my time. And I didn't want to live my life going to a job that didn't challenge me, that I that I wasn't interested in, that I wasn't passionate about. And this idea of time and gifting became more and more prominent in my life. And so I've continued on, you know, from misaligned roles into an entrepreneurial world and starting a marketing and web design business and going out and having to build up new connections and new relationships with clients and having to put myself out there. And then asking questions came into play and listening for people's stories and helping understand, like, oh, this is what makes you different from your competitor, or this is how you operate that's different than how this other company operates that does the exact same thing, and being fascinated by these nuances. And then seeing those patterns also come into play when I started getting in on the interview process of hiring, of looking at people and being like, oh, you're applying for this job, and this other candidate was applying for this job, but you're motivated by two very different things. And I can ask you the same question and I can get very different responses. And that was fascinating to me. And then having to then navigate, well, what specifically am I looking for? And what are the motivations in an individual that make the most sense for this company, for this role, because it's not everybody, it's not for everybody, and finding the patterns and the elements that really made the difference. And so having this 80-20 or 20-80, however you want to phrase it, where it's like really 20% of your information is going to play into 80% of what you're gonna get. 20% of the questions I ask are gonna give me 80% of what I'm looking for. And this idea of like essentialism and minimalism of knowing that how do I cut out the noise? How do I clear the clutter? How do I get rid of all of the information and the signals that are distracting, that are just noise, and I bring it down into something that truly matters, that truly is going to determine or indicate the path that somebody needs to walk down. And then also making this connection that it wasn't a one-sided conversation. It wasn't a one-sided decision that what we made as a decision for our business was just as important as this decision being the right decision for this individual and how this intersection at this point in time was gonna affect their life and their family and their relationships and their identity and their calling and their ability to develop their gifting and to feel valued and challenged and to go home at night and be able to better contribute as a a member in their family because what was happening at work wasn't eating away at them and causing them all kinds of stress because they were either in the wrong role or they were in the wrong company. And so just seeing like, oh wow, it just comes down to looking at my story as an individual and seeing, like, oh wow, all of these patterns, all of these things, I've gotten to see how they've developed along the way, how they've come out of the woodwork. And looking at that in my own life helped me then to start to see the patterns in other people's life. And so when I sit down with a friend for coffee and we're talking about, you know, her role as a mom or her role in work or her role with her friends, there's always this sense of like wanting to know our purpose and wanting to know what we're good at and wanting to feel valued and significant. And so when I even chat with a friend, I'm listening to the stories she's telling me about her kids or her family or how she grew up or how she feels excited or where she's not feeling excited. And my heart just wants to help her draw out and hone in on her gifting. And it's like, hey, I see this potential in you, I see this gifting in you. And here's areas where I think if you put more awareness and more focus and more attention, I think you are going to get so much blessing out of that. But I think other people are gonna be incredibly blessed by that as well, and just really wanting to help call out greatness inside of people that's aligned with their unique gifting and wiring and helping them develop it in healthy ways. And so whether I'm looking at doing that for a friend, or I'm looking at doing that for a candidate, or I'm looking at doing that for a business, it's all the same heart, it's all the same intent, it's all the same process. And so finding that I was like, okay, at the end of the day, that's really what one, it's my own gifting. Two, I've seen it in my story throughout my life over and over and over again. And then second, like moving into recognizing that one, my story is where I find these patterns and these giftings and these strengths and these unique differentiators. Two, I have to embrace that. I have to recognize that what I have experienced up until this point, what I have lived through up until this point, the gifting that I have inside of me, where I'm at right now in my life, that that's enough. Like today, it's enough. Like I have all that I need today for this season that I'm in, and changing my thoughts and my patterns to embrace that fully. And that's been a journey too of looking around at other people, other entrepreneurs, other businesses, and seeing, like, oh, well, they do it this way and they do it this way, and they do it this way. And it can breed insecurity inside and it can breed this doubt to say, oh, well, I don't do it that way. And I must be missing something, I must not be good enough. And we can do that with competitors. I remember when we were running our web design and marketing agency, looking at what other agencies were doing, and it made us question what we brought to the table. And because of that, we would pivot and we would re strategize and we would try to come up with something different to match what we thought somebody else. Else was doing better when it wasn't authentic or in line with what we were trying to bring to the table. And that was deeply like rooted in our own insecurity and our in our own lack of clarity about what we were good at, about our unique differentiators, about what we brought to the table. And taking the time to really go through that and look at it is step one. But then step two, and this is a process of coming into like an acceptance of that, a confidence in that, like a boldness in that to say, this is who I am, this is what I bring to the table. And it is different than these other people or these other entities or these other industries and competitors. And I recognize that and I'm okay with that. Like I have accept that. And what I'm doing and how I'm doing it is enough for right now, knowing that we're on a journey that doesn't ever end. Like we are continuing to be refined. We are continuing to grow. We are continuing to be molded. So we're never going to be where we're supposed to be, because we're we're never going to get there until the other side of heaven. But it's learning to be at peace with where we're at in the process right now, knowing that we don't stay here. But where I'm at right now, what I'm learning right now, is exactly what I need to be learning. It's exactly what I need to be focusing on. And coming to a place of peace about that. I think peace has been this component that I have been desperate for in my life and in my business for years. And it was only in the last year that I felt like I finally came to this shift in my mind of being like, okay, I can have peace about this right now, regardless of what it looks like, regardless of where I'm at in this process, knowing that like I should have peace about it. I don't need to be anxious about it. I don't need to be comparing myself to what everybody else is doing. I need to be focusing on what makes me who I am, what makes my business what it needs to be. And just start focusing on that. And then that leads us into this authenticity piece of being able to then act on it. So it's like first we recognize the clarity in our own story. Second, we start to believe it. We start to believe that it's enough. We start to believe that how we're wired and the gifts we've had and the experiences that we have are enough and that they're for a purpose. And that purpose is for our good. And then because of what we believe, we start to act differently. We start to build differently, we start to interact with people differently. And sometimes that requires being in a season where we have to intentionally limit those distractions and those outside influences. So for me, I started with really spending time reflecting on my story. And I was writing things out. I was journaling, I was writing in Word docs. I mean, I was writing on notes on my phone. I mean, I was just writing and I was just recalling things that have happened. And then I was pulling out the patterns and the themes and being like, okay, God, like this is very evident to me now that this is these are the gifts you've given me. So now I have focus around this. And then being able to focus my thoughts around that to say that this is a gift. And not only is it a gift and it makes me unique and different, but I'm gonna own that. I'm gonna claim that. And then I actually had to limit social media, books, podcasts, outside influences during this season of going through this process, like seeking the silence, seeking the wilderness, seeking like a level of kind of isolation so that I could really sink my my feet into this, so I could sink my teeth into this, so I could really grow deep roots into this without being distracted and influenced because I recognized in myself I am very easily distracted, very easily influenced by what other people are doing. I would like to think that I'm not, but if I'm being fully honest with myself, I am. So I had to get off social media, I had to take those apps off my phone, I had to get off YouTube, I had to really cancel out all of these outside noises. And I tell you what, man, since doing that, the ideas, the focus, the creativity, the work, the output that has come, the revelation, the ideas, man, it has just been coming at me so fast. And it didn't start that way immediately. I mean, at first it started that way. I canceled everything out, unsubscribed from a bunch of emails, and then it was really, really quiet. Like really quiet. And for a while that was really weird. And I, because I wanted, you know, I wanted that something, I wanted that revelation, I wanted that gratification. And it was actually a few months of of just quiet. But then little by little by little, I started hearing more of God's voice in my life. Like I started paying attention to more of the promptings, more of the leadings, more of what was going on. And I started seeing it like all the time. And then I started really having ideas come to the surface, like not only just promptings and you know, like, hey, you know, text this person or or go and offer to help this person, you know, little things like that just in day-to-day life, but then also like ideas of like work and systems and processes that I wasn't learning from other people. And I needed this time in this space to know this was fully organic, you know, fully just like a grassroots kind of like this is this is what came out of this season. And it was really just kind of between me and God, and then whatever experiences and conversations and influences that he brought in, not that I was allowing in or seeking out through social media or other influencers, and it's it's a season, right? It's like it's not to say that it's forever, but for this building season to know that, okay, I'm not sitting there watching hours and hours of YouTube videos or podcasts, or you know, I'm there comes to be a point where we have to start doing, we have to start creating, we have to start taking action. And so I had to do that intentionally without all of that stuff. And then that's when, you know, through that process, it was like I started to see more and more of my own story come alive, like the confidence of like believing it that it was enough and that it was real, but then starting to act on it, you know, like that's when it really starts to become real. Like when we start to act on what we think and what we believe versus being paralyzed by fear or indecision or insecurity. And that just kind of keeps us trapped. And it's just the power of like how what we believe changes how we show up, it changes what we say we value. And so when we take this time to do this, whether you're a business owner and you're going through a brand identity or strategy session where you're gonna take some time to really look at your story of like, how did you get started? What brought you here? Why, why have you had the success that you've had up until now? What are the things that have driven you? Why have those things driven you at your core? Like, what are you trying to do? And why does that matter in your life? And when you chose the people that you hired, what was it about them that made them thrive in your organization and pulling those out? And so it's like, okay, then how do we then recognize how important and valuable that is? And then we start to build around it once we see what's going on, once we're clear on what's going on, once we understand and we accept it and embrace it and be like, okay, this is who we are as a company. This is who I am as a leader. This is who I am as an individual. This is the type of impact I am going to have on the people who I interact with. This is what I want them to walk away, having thought about me, having experienced in this process. Even having an idea of how candidates feel when they go through a hiring process, if you actually know that ahead of time, you build out your process, you change your conversation, you structure your question so that no matter what happens at the end of that intersection, that candidate walks away with a distinct impression of how they felt about you, how they felt about your company, and then how they feel about themselves as a person. And hopefully they walk away feeling better, encouraged, inspired to know that okay, maybe this company wasn't the right fit, but for the first time, a company actually called out greatness in me. A company actually gave me relevant information, like they guided me in a direction that says, hey, look, I see this in you. It looks like you value this. That doesn't align with what we value, but giving them that clarity of vision and that clarity of purpose to help direct them onto the right path for them. Because at the end of the day, if we do things that are for the good of people, whether it's someone that we interact with for five minutes or five hours or five years, if we act like for the good of those around us, so that you know, we are lifting up, we are encouraging, we are speaking life into them. And if anything, like if you structured your hiring process so that the big takeaway was that anyone who ever went through a process with you, you spoke life into. Do you know what kind of seeds that you would be planting into the people that come into contact with your business, into your employees who end up coming to work for you, into the customers and your brand reputation and your relationships that you have within the community, knowing that we are a company that speaks life into people. That kind of clarity, believing that that's how you operate, that's gonna change everything for you. That's gonna change what you believe, what you think, what you say, how you act, your processes, and your conviction to then follow through on it, knowing that this is what it means to be clear and authentic. And it starts with knowing who are we as an individual? What is it that God is calling us to? What is that purpose? And are we going to step into that with faith, with conviction, knowing that, yeah, the enemy is gonna come and he's gonna want to distract you, he's gonna wanna tempt you, he's gonna wanna confuse you. And all of these messages, it's going to be an attack that says, Are you sure you're doing this right? But you're leaving money on the table. But you could be doing it this way, but you could be faster, you could be more efficient. But at the end of the day, it's like, no, I'm gonna be someone who says, you know what, I honor God. Like I work enthusiastically for God. And when I this is all said and done, I have to look back on my life and I have to look back on the the value that I put out there and the the life that I spoke into people and the love that I was giving, you know, love God, love people. And so it's like, how did I do that in my business? How did I love God, honor him, obey him, surrender to him, and then love and serve people through that process. And it comes back to what do you what do we believe? You know, what do we believe about our identity as people, our identity as a business, and then the people that we impact through that process. That that's all I have for you today. I hope that was encouraging. I will see you next time.