Episode 68: Creating a Company Culture of Value, Trust and Impact with Trevor Mauch

We all know that flashy and compelling branding has the potential to grab a potential customer’s eye. But let’s take it a step further shall we? It is the culture and mission of a company that drives the new customer to become a long-term customer that you will keep. Today we are diving into how to cultivate and build not just a compelling brand but a business culture and depth that people will relate to. We will look at the importance of not just knowing your values but truly understanding and living out your vision and living by example so your people also live the same mission. Today we are back with our guest, Trevor Mauch, CEO of Carrot, one of Oregon’s fastest-growing software development companies. Trevor is an expert at cultivating a company’s culture. Buckle as we take a deep dive in today’s episode!

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3 Key Takeaways

1. The best way to find what you want is to understand what you don’t want.
2. Great leaders, don’t just give good advice but coach their people to be accountable with actionable solutions.
3. The key to effective branding and company culture is to know your vision and live on mission.

Show Notes

Top three lessons learned from growing up in an entrepreneurial family.

• 1. Know what you don’t want. For Trevor early on, ironically it was never to fill entrepreneur shoes. 
• 2. Go over the top with customer experience. When your customer needs you to go out of your way to serve them and meet their needs above and beyond.
• 3. If you have the opportunity to own a business go all in. After school and realizing that what he aspired to wasn’t in the future, Trevor went all-in on his business ventures.

I decided I would give myself a year to figure out this thing called entrepreneurship. If I truly can’t figure it out then I’ll go and get a day job. But I know I would regret it for the rest of my life if I didn’t try. - Trevor Mauch

Three considerations to bootstrapping your funding rather than capital investment.

• The best type of funding is from your customers. If you can create a product or a service that has high value to your customer, they will pre-pay you for it.
• Sell the product rather than the idea. Create an entry product that solves a problem and offers a solution. Fund future scaling products with the profits taken from the income already coming in. 
• Venture Capital creates unneeded pressure. When you take the loan you are now beholden to the deadline and pressure of the loan holder rather than yourself. 

If I already have profits coming in, why don’t I just invest in my scale with some of my profits and build the same thing that I would’ve with the loan? - Trevor Mauch

Leadership lessons learned from as the CEO of a growing software company.

• Leadership is not static. There are multiple levels of delegation. You can delegate work off your plate to about six people. Once it goes beyond that you need projects with multiple team leaders and have each delegate.
• Delegate your results. It’s easy to delegate your work but it’s harder to give up the results side of projects to other people. 
• Don’t just give advice be a coach. Expect accountability from each player to reach the desired result.
• Offer solutions to team problems. When things fall short you need to have actionable steps for each player to bring it to the next level.

When delegating, don’t just hold people accountable if results aren’t met. Offer actionable steps to ensure that the goals are achieved. - Trevor Mauch

The top three keys to unlocking branding and culture in your business.

• Write out your non-negotiables. One of the best ways to find out what you do want is to write down what you don’t want and do the opposite.
• Focus on the purpose rather than the product. Products come and go each year, what stays the same is your values at the core.
• Who is, where is it and when? Write down who you want to impact, where they are, and when and how you want to reach them. 
• Bring humanity back to your business. Technology and automation are great tools, but you need an atmosphere where people can laugh and converse and relate with one another, and then implement that in your branding and copy.
• Discover true your mission rather than just values. When you truly unlock your mission, you will find yourself talking about regularly, thinking about it constantly, and driving towards it in all that you do.

One of the best ways to find what you want is to find what you don’t want and do the opposite. - Trevor Mauch

Why and how to look at failure as a cause for celebration.

• Behind every successful person is a long list of failures. The key to success is failing and coming back with more gumption the next time.
• Growth happens when you fail. If you take every failure as both a learning experience an opportunity to look at things differently this experience is never wasted.
• Learn from the mistakes of others. There are so many that have gone before you and failed. Learn to watch out for the pitfalls that others have encountered. 
• Don’t be afraid to try and fail. Learning from others can be very valuable, but until you experience something yourself you don’t really get the lesson. 

We’ve all been taught things intellectually, but we can’t make decisions on the fly as fast as we can until we’ve waded through the failures ourselves. - Trevor Mauch

Resources For You:

• Learn more about Trevor's mission at carrot.com/about
• If you need help building (or selling) a valuable business, reach out to Cathedral Consulting at [email protected]
• Questions for Seth? Send us your feedback at [email protected]
• Pick up your copy of Ambition: Leading With Gratitude