Are You Willing to Invest in Your Core Values?
We spend thousands of dollars a year on what we call “Help First” Zoom/phone calls.
It wasn’t an expense we ever thought we would be budgeting for. But we do it gladly.
Here’s the deal. In our consulting company, one of our Core Values is Help First.
What does that mean exactly?
It means we: a) prioritize helping clients over making money from them, b) say yes to all asks for help whether someone is a client or not, and c) never use these offers of help to further our own economic goals.
What does it look like?
It looks like taking a meeting to talk through somebody’s problem.
It means answering questions without attaching an hourly rate.
It means thinking about the person in front of me, and who I know could help them, and making an introduction.
Help First.
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Our team has heard me talk about Help First for years now. More importantly, they’ve seen me model what I consider Help First behaviors.
And it turns out when the CEO lives the company’s Core Values, it has a meaningful impact on the company culture. (Imagine that.)
I realized this when my leadership team started referring to “Help First Calls.” And at first I honestly had no idea what they were talking about.
And then my entire team started referring to “Help First Calls.”
It’s at the point where, organically, the entire company began to consider Help First Calls as part of their job.
It’s baked into working at Crews & co. You take Help First Calls. You Help First.
This has ended up being a delightful surprise for me.
Less delightful, at first, was when I realized these calls…cost money.
Whether it’s a contractor billing hourly or a team member who could be spending time on something else, there’s a real cost to these calls.
The cost to us for this can be as high as $30,000 in any given year.
And do we get ROI out of the calls? It depends what you consider ROI.
Some Help First Calls turn into new business opportunities, but plenty of them don’t…and remember… they’re not supposed to…
But Help First Calls do bring us closer to achieving our mission: helping entrepreneurs and their teams live their ideal lives.
These calls have come to define who we are as a company, and they have become a symbol of who and what we care most about.
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Most people think of culture investments as professional development courses or team retreats.
Help First Calls, and their associated costs, are an investment in our company culture.
My advice to you: stay open to what an investment in your culture can look like. It might arise organically, like ours did. It might not be the thing you expected.
But if you’re committed to your Core Values, and you lead by example in living them, the investment is always worth it.
PS - Hopefully this article has convinced you these Help First Calls are a real thing that we actually do. They do not cost you money, and there are no strings attached.
If there is something you need help with, let us know. Our team and all our resources are here to support you.
