Getting Really F*ing Clear
Your B.Print is your Vision.
Your Vision is what you want from life, in total. What you see as YOUR life.
Vision statements are not born in a vacuum. Rather, they first take birth inside your head.
The first step of devising your vision statement is to have a vision.
For the sake of our brains and expansion, I am going to use B.Print and Vision interchangeably moving forward.
Your B.Print is primarily future-based, you must ask yourself some pertinent questions before you get started.
Is your purpose clear to you? Do you have total clarity?
Are you 100% certain about What you want to achieve?
Can you begin to see How your life will transform? ....do you understand it all resides in your actions and belief system.
Many companies and people do not have a longterm vision. They are not operating with a B.Print.
You have seen this: people or companies just going from one big thing to the next, but it is not linear just loud.
A lot of people and companies follow the mainstream or the current fad. They don’t have a long-term vision of what they want to achieve. They do not totally know who they are or what their business is existing to accomplish. Consequently, a loose vision will offer a loose connection to your dreams and goals...to your fulfillment.
You have zero hope conveying to your message to the world when you do not have the image clearly defined in your head. What churns in your brain space comes out as your reality.
100% clarity is necceasry before you can move forward.
This isn't meant to stop you in your tracks. This is meant to finally get you on the right track. The BEST track is one with total vision aligned with your B.Print.
Not sure what your total vision is?
That's okay!
Begin by clarifying some goals, short and longterm. Seeing your goals written down will show you patterns, pathways, and themes. Seeing your thoughts on paper can be your first step to believing in your ultimate vision. Your B.Print comes to life when you know who you are and what you want from finances, career, relationships, health and beyond.
Building Your B.Print from Your Foundation
What Are Your Core Values?
When you know your core values, you can feel engaged and find meaning in your day to day tasks because you know it is aligned with your B.Print.
Your core values rest within your work ethic. Your core values support your Vision.
Core values determine how well you will perform today and in the future. In so far as, you can take them as the guiding light that tells you who to hire, what to work toward, and what decisions to take.
Since core values are a fundamental aspect of your company, it is best to B clear about your core values before you devise your vision statement. Make sure they are values you can commit to in the long term. Stay consistent and transparent about them.
Some of the most common core values companies and brands have are:
Community – This means your company will not be solely driven by profit. Rather, you believe in giving back, working for the greater good, and improving your community. Corporate social responsibility is part of this value.
Balance – This entails creating a culture that promotes a healthy work-life balance in the lives of employees.
Accountability – This means that you believe in taking responsibility for your promises, actions, and policies.
It IS VERY F*ING IMPORTANT to understand and accept that most people within the first 5 years of launching their dream life will be hard up against the work-life balance. Remember, your short term behaviors will be everything to your longterm gains or misses.
Do the work when you need to and be as solid as you can always; show up for your business in it's early years so it can show up for you the rest of your life.
What Will Be Your Target Market in the Next 15 Years?
Some companies start out small but intend to expand globally. Some begin with the purpose of catering to a niche audience. Some believe in becoming pillars of their close community.
While crafting your vision, assess your future plans. Where do you see yourself in the next decade? Do you want to take over the global market? Or would you rather stay local and offer all the benefits that a local business provides to its familiar customer base? Define your target market clearly in the vision statement to ensure that your company goals align with the people you want to reach and the magnitude of impact you wish to create.
My defined target market was broken down based on how I imagined my scalability:
3 years: Pillar to the local community. Servicing most everyone possible. Being the go-to and name in everyones mouth. Multiple retail locations and present at most vending opportunities.(it worked by the way)
5 years: High visibility online. Shift from local sales to large online sales. (yep, it worked, too)
10 years: Create a production team and reduce my personal shop hours for production and management. Online sales only. Expand online courses and in person workshop for Lifestyle Success. (made this happen at year 9)
15 years: Partner with large company (dream is Target) and offer The Leg Warmer Lady direct through that sales channel at minimum. Hands off production and sales team created. My time is spent working with high ticket clients for Lifestyle Success. (work in epic progress!)
What Problems Would You Solve?
This question is linked to the previous one. Do you see in the market you desire to work in? What problem do you intend to solve? For this, identify what your product or service addresses.
In regards to The Leg Warmer Lady, I literally had my own damn problem to solve and turned the solution into a patent-pending product. Problem was my legs were freezing on all my academic and nature endeavors in the midwest. Solution was I invented and created the No Slip Grip leg warmers.
For instance, your digital marketing business might be geared toward small business owners who cannot afford to spend on expensive traditional marketing methods for wider reach, as huge corporations can do easily. In this case, you will have to tailor your vision to focus on the evolving needs of small businesses keeping in mind their budget.
Consider how your plan would change in the next decade or more. Make sure your objectives remain relevant to the target market in the future. You need to be pretty f*ing sure that what you speculate does not go outdated by the time you reach there! Brain power activate!
What Is Your Business or Brand About?
You done f*ed up if your vision includes anti-something to negativity.
Your B.Print should not reflect your rivalry and competition, good gawd not at all. Instead, focus only on what you are all about and your philosophy. Is your business eco friendly or earth conscious? Then talk about it instead of discussing companies that aren’t environmentally friendly. This is not the time to point your fingers at others. Instead, it is time you make your name and purpose take center stage and shine as they should! In your social media marketing you can be a bit more sassy and use your unique voice. You know I f*ing do!
Creating Your Vision [Statement]
Hopefully you noticed that the above sections are prompts to assist you with creating your envisioned B.Print.
Knowing your Core Values is clutch to consistent and adequate forward motion.
It is going to help you say Yes to the right things, and No to all the other things.
What's helpful about your vision, is you can break it up if most helpful for your brain. I life to break mine up as the following two categories:
- General Life and Relationships
- Career and Finances
If you break apart your Vision, be sure it all lines up. You can only have 1 true vision. You can only have 1 B.Print. You have 1 set of eyes that can see 1 thing at a time. This vision is no different.
Once you have compiled your, throw them onto a sheet of paper. If you need to, break each sentence up as it's own line. Create a concise paragraph with this information.
Eliminate and refine. Eventually, you will be able to create 1 concise sentence.
Huzzah, you have created your Vision Statement!
Wait, What the F* is a Mission Statement!?
Unlike your vision statement, which is future-oriented, your mission statement is present-based. In other words, it talks about the actionable steps you will f*ing take consistently in the upcoming years to achieve your envisioned B.Print
.
To craft a mission statement, pick the crucial elements from your vision statement that resonate the loudest with where you stand today.
Now is the time to ask some basic present-focused questions:
Who Do You Serve?
This pertains to your target demographic. Know the ins and outs of the section of society you want to help through your service or product. Know your people.
What Work Do You Perform?
The answer to this question should describe in detail what actions you are taking to implement your mission. For instance, if you are into human development, particularly the health sector, mention the services you offer.
Why Are You Doing the Work You Do?
This is all about pinning down your purpose. Describe your ‘why.’ Why do you care about the work you have taken up? For instance, an NGO that works for female reproductive health in a developing nation would cite women empowerment across the globe as its purpose.
How Are You Doing the Work?
List down the visible steps you are taking to implement your mission. For instance, if you are working in the health sector of developing countries, you might have these as your short- and long-term plan: counseling sessions on health, building model ERs, devising doctor training programs, and creating a telehealth channel.
Where Are You Doing the Work?
Specify the locations you are going to operate in. Some companies look to create a worldwide impact. However, some want to focus on a certain region - be it their community or another. Defining your scope gives a clear idea to you as well as your audience.
If you don't know Who you are talking to, then you won't know what best to say.
Make sure your mission statement is easily understandable. Avoid using jargon or complex words that would force people to refer to a dictionary to make sense of it (they won’t). Short and sweet is the way to go. Take into account how your mission statement will impact the people you will work with.. Think of what it would look like on your website. The mission statement of the company helps sort the architecture of your organizational strategy.
Your Mission Statement not only gives you an implementable long-term plan but also empowers you to make informed day-to-day decisions.
The mission statement is like a living, breathing document for the organization.
Be open to constructive criticism. Criticism is free answers to problems you may not have known you truly had. LISTEN to feedback, listen to your demographic. The people know best what they want to spend their money on. Consider the feedback as important and reassess your mission statement to make any necessary improvements. Don’t just settle for lukewarm responses, as people would not be too polite to give you the real picture. Press them to get legit responses about improvements and changes. Run polls online. Be brave and go get the f*ing truth.
Examples of Vision and Mission Statements of Some Top Companies
I want to point out that the BEST Mission Statements also include the How.
Tesla and Microsoft have super weak statements.
Read IBM's for some solid insight on a substantial statement.
1 - Microsoft
Vision Statement: “To help people and businesses throughout the world realize their full potential.”
Mission Statement: “To empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.”
2 - IBM
Vision Statement: “To be the world’s most successful and important information technology company. Successful in helping out customers apply technology to solve their problems. Successful in introducing this extraordinary technology to new customers. Important, because we will continue to be the basic resource of much of what is invested in this industry.”
Mission Statement: “To lead in the creation, development, and manufacture of the industry’s most advanced information technologies, including computer systems, software, networking systems, storage devices, and microelectronics. And our worldwide network of IBM solutions and services professionals translates these advanced technologies into business value for our customers. We translate these advanced technologies into value for our customers through our professional solutions, services, and consulting businesses worldwide.”
3 - Apple
Vision Statement: “We believe that we are on the face of the earth to make great products and that’s not changing. We are constantly focusing on innovating. We believe in the simple, not the complex. We believe that we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products that we make and participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution. We believe in saying no to thousands of projects so that we can really focus on the few that are truly important and meaningful to us. We believe in deep collaboration and cross-pollination of our groups, which allow us to innovate in a way that others cannot. And frankly, we don’t settle for anything less than excellence in every group in the company, and we have the self-honesty to admit when we’re wrong and the courage to change. And I think regardless of who is in what job those values are so embedded in this company that Apple will do extremely well.”
Mission Statement: “Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork, and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.”
4 - Tesla
Vision Statement: “To create the most compelling car company of the 21st century by driving the world’s transition to electric vehicles.”
Mission Statement: “To accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.”
5 - Nike
Vision Statement: “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.”
Mission Statement: “To do everything possible to expand human potential. We do that by creating groundbreaking sport innovations, by making our products more sustainable, by building a creative and diverse global team, and by making a positive impact in communities where we live and work.”
To F*ing Conclude
I hope you understand how f*ing crucial it is to have a clear and defined vision and mission statements and are well on your way to crafting your separate statements!
To reiterate, your vision statement encapsulates your future aspirations. THE BIG DREAM.
On the other hand, your mission statement is focused on your present actions; it details what, how, and where you work as well as why you do what you do and for whom.
Make sure that both your vision and mission statements reflect in the actions your company takes. Your goals and actions should align with your vision and mission; this is what will help you achieve your objectives as time passes. Alignment is your trajectory to success.
It is safe to say that the survival of any business or organization is not possible without a clear mission and vision statement. If crafted correctly, your vision and mission statement can significantly help you reduce conflict at work and promote productivity, loyalty, and collaboration among your team. Combined, all humans will benefit your business.
You have what it takes to develop clutch vision and mission statements.
All the best today beeb!
YOU F*ING GOT THIS
This is a lifestyle. Join the movement.
- Breezi
