Jonathan, tell me about your vision.
You know, the American workforce is broken
and it's broken for a number of reasons.
There's a lot of toxic work cultures out there today.
And so, my vision is to create cultures of excellence
by interacting with employees, customers,
and our community with genuine care.
One of the most important things we can do as leaders
is really have a clear sense of our purpose,
why we exist and what's the aspirational change
we want to make in the world.
And we have to remain accountable to our vision.
And the other piece of this is really living with core values.
There's so many organizations today that have core values
printed on their walls, right?
But they're empty promises.
Leaders are not walking the walk and talking the talk.
And the only way core values really work inside
of an organization is if you link them to performance,
that they're aligned with your reason for being,
your why, your North Star.
And really to create core values
that become part of your ethos.
You've got to live them to be effective within an organization
and beyond the organization's walls.
And the last piece of that is really building emotional connection
with the people you choose to serve.
What is the value you bring to the table?
What are the problems you solve?
And how can you help people become
the best version of themselves?
You mentioned that the American workforce is broken.
What do you mean by that?
You know, I speak to people every day who tell me
they're disengaged at work.
There's no sense of meaning or purpose in their role.
And people feel alone and excluded.
And it's a huge problem today.
There are so many organizations that focus inward
on how great they are.
Without focusing externally to say, we see you, we hear you,
we understand you, and we exist for you.
So from an employee perspective, you've
got to lead both with purpose and genuine care
for the people you serve.
And that includes the people in leadership.
That includes frontline employees, middle management.
Everything you do as a leader has
got to be cultivating that care in a culture
through having a clear purpose, connecting roles
to that purpose, and providing acknowledgment, reward,
and recognition for the people that are doing the work.
You mentioned the people you talked to,
that they lack a sense of purpose, right?
Yes.
To me, a sense of purpose comes from within,
not from someone outside.
What do you think about that?
Well, 84% of the American workforce
today that are currently looking for roles
are looking for companies that share their purpose
and their purpose.
Companies that share their purpose and beliefs.
So from a recruitment perspective,
you want to attract employees into your organization that
believe in your purpose and share in your core values.
So for example, if you believe in sustainability,
you're going to want to work for an organization
with a corporate social responsibility policy.
From an environmental perspective,
you're going to be motivated to making a difference
because you're making an impact not only on the world,
but making a difference in people's lives.
I understand what you're saying from a purpose perspective.
It comes from within.
But at the same time, as people looking for work or employees
in existing companies, we want to know
that our work has meaning, that what we do
is making a difference.
So from a purpose perspective, if your purpose is,
for example, inclusion because you don't believe in exclusion,
you're going to attract people who share in that belief.
And so it's really important to define
your why and the aspirational change
you want to make in the world.
It's not enough to say we have a purpose,
but what is the meaningful change
you want to make in the world so it becomes a better
place for all of us?
That's really the true power of purpose.
So your vision resonates with companies and employers.
Correct.
And leaders, managers.
One of the most unexpected things from writing a book
is I sort of had this already very narrow focus
on business leaders, business owners, CEOs, entrepreneurs.
But what I'm finding is there's many people who
are reading the book in all levels of leadership.
And the message resonates with them
because they want to be part of something meaningful.
They want to make a difference.
They want to know their work matters.
That's right.
Thank you for sharing that.
Where did this vision, Jonathan, come from?
This journey began some time ago.
And like many entrepreneurs, I started a business.
I was doing all of the typical things entrepreneurs
do in the startup phases and the early stages
of their organization, which is chasing cash.
I was chasing cash.
I was looking for profit.
And it cost my company time and money
because chasing money is a distraction
without a clear sense of purpose.
And then I had a tragedy in my life.
My brother, who lived with anxiety and depression,
committed suicide.
And that really brought things into perspective for me
because I really began to think about what's
truly meaningful in life.
And I shifted my mindset from what I can gain as a CEO
to what I can give.
It was a realignment of why I was here, how I wanted to live,
what my core values were.
And so I started to transform my company
into a purpose-driven organization.
I went through the core values journey
so that they aligned with who we truly were as an organization.
And it really resonated with my team.
And as the business grew, we attracted people
into the organization that believed in our purpose.
And we're committed and motivated to make a difference
in people's lives.
And the business thrived.
We grew internationally, doing business
in over 40 countries around the world,
serving people so that we could create
the best possible version of who they aspired to be.
And that's really what it's all about is true success,
from my perspective, is defined as how can you help people
become the best possible versions of themselves
through products and services.
That's a fascinating story.
How did then the journey from being a successful entrepreneur
to writing a book?
When my business was acquired in 2019,
I stepped onto the executive team of the acquiring company
as their global head of marketing
and their chief experience officer.
And when I became part of this organization,
the first thing that hit me was that this
was a product-driven, product-centric company.
And so I spent a lot of time in one-to-one meetings,
executive team meetings, talking about the influence of purpose
and making a shift to a purpose-driven company.
And after a number of discussions,
the CEO got behind me and said, Jonathan, lead this.
And so I had this amazing opportunity to do what I did
in my previous company, which is really
shift the entire mindset of the organization
from a product-centric sort of vision
to a purpose-driven mindset.
We defined purpose, core values, and it
had an enormous effect on employee engagement.
From a measurement standpoint, I was
able to increase our internal net promoter score
metric from 28 to 60, which is world class in our industry,
because people really understood we're there for something
bigger than ourselves.
We're there to make a meaningful difference in people's lives.
And it had this tremendous effect on mindset and gratitude.
Gratitude is a piece of this, because just
beyond our individual roles, we also
have to be grateful for our team members and colleagues
across the organization and horizontally
across the organization.
So one of the things I did to support our core values
is I implemented a gratitude platform.
And the results were amazing.
We really started to see cross-functional gratitude
and growth in revenue, because everyone understood
they had a role to play in achieving and fulfilling
our purpose.
That's awesome.
It's amazing, I think, to see if an organization can
apply the principles and these core values to their teams,
and people are driven to them, and the growth that can occur
if only too many CEOs thought about this that you do.
I think the culture is changing, though.
The culture is changing from profit product mindset
to purpose-driven mindset, like the way you were talking about.
I think I'm seeing a lot more.
If I'm looking for it a lot more,
I can see the difference myself, at least the people
that come on our show.
There is a shift in mindset happening.
But the challenge we face is that there are so many businesses
out there who don't leverage the value from this widely known
secret.
The research is there.
Purpose-driven companies outperform
non-purpose-driven companies across every key metric,
in terms of revenue generation, profit, employee engagement,
customer loyalty.
We can go on and on in terms of the key metrics.
And they outperform these companies in every key metric.
And yet, many companies are not taking the journey.
Yeah, go ahead.
This metric, though, is it at every stage?
At what stages are we talking about the company?
From early stage to mature companies,
the metrics are there, primarily because they
have clear focus and direction, which
is a challenge for many business owners, as you know.
I mean, they're living through the chaos of daily life.
And they're not thinking about how
to lead their organizations with clarity and direction,
a clear direction forward.
And the other piece of this is we have a leadership problem.
And the leadership problem is we have managers
who are technically competent in their roles.
They get promoted because they're
good at what they do in very specific roles.
But once they come into these positions of leadership,
they don't know how to lead.
They don't have the professional development
that they require to take that next step.
And it's a subtle next step from manager to leader.
And from my perspective, great leaders lead with empathy.
And they also understand their role is of direct support.
We all talk about leadership and direct reports.
And I'd like to flip that notion on its head
and say, as leaders, we should be the direct support.
So how can we, through transparency, empowerment,
effective communication, professional development,
and accountability, accountability
is a big piece of this, help people succeed?
That's really our role as leaders,
to have the vision to help people succeed
and connect their role to the bigger picture.
When we do that, great things happen.
Wow.
I can see.
I knew this problem existed.
But I did not know the stats that there's
a huge disparity between companies
that don't have a structure like that and the companies that do.
Have you read the E-Myth before, Jonathan?
Yes, of course.
Right.
In the book, Michael Gerber talks about how many businesses
are failing, like 96% of them failing.
That's a pretty drastic number for people and businesses
to fail.
Within the first 10 years, so many lives may be destroyed
or courses changed, sometimes good, sometimes not good.
So if companies and new employers and people
can focus on this, that might give them a sense of purpose
and might give them a clear path to not failing and succeeding
and eventually thriving, like you mentioned.
Yeah, you have some thoughts?
I can tell you from, you're exactly right.
I can tell you from personal experience
that purpose was able to guide me
through the tough challenges.
I've met so many people who have had great ideas,
they've started businesses.
And it's a great story in America.
We see this incredible rise of new entrepreneurs
coming into the market.
We've got new technologies like AI
that are creating a boom in the tech sector.
And there's really amazing people doing amazing things.
But the building of business is hard.
It's not easy.
And when you have a clear purpose,
it allows you to push through the dips.
So many people quit just before great things can happen
because there are far too many stressors.
I would lay awake at night in the early stages of my company
worrying about how am I going to make payroll?
I could have very easily thrown in the towel and said,
I can't do this.
But we take the risk.
And with a clear purpose, we are motivated and inspired
to push through the challenges because we're
working on something bigger than ourselves.
Profit is important, but it's not the only metric
we should be leading by.
And that sense of purpose allows us to push through
those tough challenges.
And through that, we build resilience.
We solve problems and challenges.
And we become stronger for it.
And the great thing about this is we adapt and learn
along the way.
And that's really an important piece of this,
is adapting and learning.
Thank you for being here today.
I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.
I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes
continue to move forward.
This is going to get more and more fun.
We'll have more and more engagement as well.
We'll invite people to participate in the show.
And thank you for giving us your time and attention.
Have an excellent time building out your vision
and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.