Path for Growth

Your mission is not what you do, it’s why you exist. In this episode, Alex and Ben discuss Path for Growth’s core mission, and the lessons Alex has learned about creating and sustaining a mission for an impact-driven organization. They also share practical steps for defining your mission, hiring people who align with your culture, and getting back on track if you feel you’ve strayed from your core purpose. Whether you’re building a new business or want to continue leading in alignment with your mission, this episode is packed with useful insights.

Information isn’t the gap between failure and success—action is. Path for Growth’s 1-on-1 coaching helps you create a plan and execute on what matters most for your business. Apply today at pathforgrowth.com/coaching.

Episode Recap:
  • When the leader gets better, everyone wins 
  • Mission is about why we exist, not what we do
  • Why does Path for Growth exist, and how did that mission come about? 
  • Clarifying what you’re for also means clarifying what you’re not for 
  • What steps can a leader take when they’ve strayed from the mission? 
  • How do you hire in alignment with your mission and culture? 
  • How do you establish and sustain a mission?
  • Who should you involve in the mission creation process?
  • How can you test drive your new mission statement?
  • Avoid these mistakes when establishing a mission statement 


If you’re ready to move beyond just gathering information and start executing on what truly matters, Path for Growth’s 1-on-1 coaching can help. Apply now at pathforgrowth.com/coaching.

Resources:
Follow the podcast on Apple or Spotify
Schedule a call to learn more about Path for Growth Coaching and Community
Download the Free Reading Guide
Listen to our episode on building a value-based business

Connect with our Founder Alex Judd on LinkedIn and Instagram

Creators and Guests

Host
Alex Judd
Founder/CEO of Path For Growth
Editor
Podcircle
Premium podcast services for busy people and organizations. Visit Podcircle.com to learn more.

What is Path for Growth?

Path for Growth exists to help impact-driven leaders step into who they were created to be SO THAT others benefit and God is glorified.

https://www.pathforgrowth.com/

Alex Judd:

It was over five years ago now that we had just started the business, and I'll never forget, it coincided with an individual that was seeking one on one coaching. And at this time, I I was the only one on one coach. Praise god. We've grown beyond that now. But, so I was the person he was going to be working with.

Alex Judd:

And he really came to us saying, I want vision for my business. I wanna grow my business. I wanna expand my business. I want vision for my business. And obviously told him, I think we could provide that sold him on the services and the path that we were going to walk through to help him accomplish that.

Alex Judd:

But then was already really convinced that the principle, although I didn't have this language at the time rang true. If you want to put your business in order, start by putting yourself in order. So we started with something back then that we still do today in coaching, which was like a deep dive intensive of let's just basically lift up the hood on your life, your leadership, and your business. I'm just gonna pepper you with questions on the stat the status of things, the health of things, how you think things are going, how other people perceive things are going, and really just get our thumb on the pulse of the vitals. Vitals.

Alex Judd:

It it was a little bit informal back then. Now we have really formalized and mechanized and operationalized ways of doing this. But really, I was just trying to wrap my head around where's this person at? And one of the things that stood out was his business was actually doing well from a profitability standpoint. It wasn't necessarily expanding or growing or moving forward, but it it was stable.

Alex Judd:

But what wasn't stable was he said, I haven't focused on my personal health in a really, really long time. He he said that my marriage is really struggling because there's some unresolved things that we haven't discussed and addressed. He said, I feel a little bit spiritually confused or not not certainly growing. And so all of that stuff was going on at home. And then he also said, I I wanna grow as a leader.

Alex Judd:

Like, I I don't feel like I'm actually leading our business anywhere. And so basically, what we walked through is we said, of kind of working on a plan initially to revamp your entire business, let's take that principle seriously. If you want to put your business in order, start by putting yourself in order. And I said, what if we just applied ourselves first to your morning routine? And he looked at me like, I'm paying you to tell me what time to wake up in the morning.

Alex Judd:

I said, just just trust me. Just trust me. Let's just talk about, like, what would make your mornings better if you did it every single day. And conversely, like, if you were to do that every single day, like, it would have ramifications into everything else you do. And so we focused on things like his wake up time, like his consumption of scripture, like his way of engaging with prayer.

Alex Judd:

The the way, and then beyond that, we started to look at his relationships. We were focused almost entirely on personal, and I'll never forget. I had a feedback call with him and he's like, we he said, it's good. He said, we're spending a lot of time on me. And he said, and I and that's not necessarily why I signed up for coaching.

Alex Judd:

I I said, I understand. Just trust me. And in my mind, I I had just started doing this. I was like, I really hope this works out. So I'm not positive this is gonna work out.

Alex Judd:

And sure enough, he started he started following the process. He started to remake his mornings. He started to make sure he was getting consistent exposure to truth. That started to, make his thoughts and just attitude and approach to his marriage, his finances, his growth healthier. He started to pray a little bit more and connect with the God of the universe and focus on what was good, right, beautiful, and true.

Alex Judd:

And what was crazy is we could look up six months, certainly a year, and he could tell the story, my marriage is healthier. I am training for a marathon. I feel like I'm spiritually alive. And not only that, I have grown as a leader. We've hired people, which we weren't hiring before, and and I'm getting the best people I've ever gotten because I can culturally lead them into a greater vision.

Alex Judd:

And our business has vision and is growing. And that's when I was like, that's why we do what we do.

Ben Loy:

Mhmm.

Alex Judd:

Right? And and so when we talk about mission, I there's so many stories I could tell, but I always think back to one of those core first stories where it's like we focus so hardcore on his personal growth. Why? Because he's a leader. And when a leader gets better, everybody wins.

Alex Judd:

Like there's an overflow effect to that. And ultimately, the process of writing a mission statement was us just saying, how do we capture what happens in interactions like what happened with that gentleman five years ago so that we as a team know deep down, this is the soul of the business. This is why we do what we do, and this is the thing that we absolutely refuse to depart from.

Ben Loy:

Break that story down a little bit. So what what is some evidence that maybe you you either don't have a mission or you had a mission and you're you're now off base from that? Because I feel like that was what what was apparent in in this guy's business and in his life. And then from that breakdown, what does it look like when, just from a higher level, when a business is aligned in their mission, is is being effective, is, you know, that mission has permeated the staff, the culture, and the operation of what they're doing?

Alex Judd:

Yeah. Well, what's interesting is it's like I it's almost like there's two teaching points out of this. I look at it as, like, customer interactions like that is how we discovered our mission.

Ben Loy:

Mhmm.

Alex Judd:

But part of what we do for work is we help other people describe and discover the mission that they're on. Let's clarify some terms real quick. We think that businesses and leaders win when they can answer three questions. Number one is why do we exist? Number two is what do we stand for?

Alex Judd:

And number three is where are we going? And you can and people do call the answer to those questions a multitude of things. You could call it a purpose statement. You can call it a manifesto. Right?

Alex Judd:

There's there's all these, like, disagreements basically about what word you should use. Quite frankly, I don't care what word you use. I will tell you what word we use. The answer to why do we exist is found in your mission.

Ben Loy:

Mhmm.

Alex Judd:

And the the critical distinction that I wanna make sure people hear and understand that we can talk about later in the conversation if we want to is the mission is our answer to why do we exist. That's the thing that is probably most core to the heart and soul of our business. It is not our answer to what do we do. And that's a critical distinction. Right?

Alex Judd:

So in this gentleman's case, if we were to look at his business, really what was going on in his world was the same as what had gone on in our world beforehand is people, I mean, if ever, start a business without some type of mission, without some sense of why. It's way too much work. It's way too much risk. Right? Why would you ever do anything for such a sustained period of time without a reason, without a why?

Alex Judd:

And there are people out there that the reason why they start is strictly personal. It's it's their basically, owner's intent and it doesn't go any further than that. Right? Like, I want to be able to go on as many vacations throughout the year as I want to. Right?

Alex Judd:

I can't work for anyone else. I have this income goal. That is really, like, your personal owner's intent. What we find is that for someone to really be attracted to what we talk about at Path for Growth, you are expanding beyond your owner's intent and you're thinking, is the grander impact that I want to make with this business? Like, there's a deeper calling or sense of why to why you're building what you're building.

Alex Judd:

That's why we always say that we work with impact driven leaders. Right? And so in this gentleman's case, he had started his business with legitimate purpose, with legitimate intent that was personal, but then also, like, legitimate impact for providing opportunities for team members and making sure that people had a place to be able to grow and flourish and to create an impact on the customers that he served. He had all of that in his head. What he didn't have is a codified statement that could remind him, why am I doing this?

Alex Judd:

And that's fine if you're in the first year or two. Right? But what's crazy is if you get a year or two in and with that year or two in, you start to become a little bit successful. What what shows up is distractions that look like opportunities. And you start to get diluted in your effectiveness because you don't have an anchoring statement that says, this is why I'm doing what I'm doing.

Alex Judd:

And that decision should, in the future, operate as a filter for everything moving forward. So in his case and in our case as a business, the process of creating a mission is not saying, I'm in a dream about something that doesn't exist and try to put words to some imaginary statement of purpose. Rather, it's what are the best possible words to describe why I started in the first place and why I'm energized about this thing whenever it's my whenever it's at its absolute best. We're gonna try to put words around the soul of the business so that that soul is never lost.

Ben Loy:

Makes me think of that, you know, the analogy of flying from, like, LA to New York and with the curvature of the earth, the plane always having to continually correct back a few degrees. And it's like, if you start from LA and you're two degrees off course, that's you're gonna be way off course by the time that you get to, well, you know, what you thought was New York. That's right. Kind of the same idea. It's mission is a and, I mean, core values as well, but mission being a, compass to for your business and for your organization.

Alex Judd:

And for founders and owners that are impact driven, I think it's a act of accountability to take your mission seriously. To say, what is the soul of this business? Why does this business exist in our most naive early founder stages? Like, why are we doing this? We're gonna put words to that because in some ways, one of the things that you're saying there is I am radically susceptible to being distracted by inferior reasons.

Alex Judd:

Right? Like, I mean, we talked about this in a recent episode. Like, I am so capable of this thing growing. And suddenly, I started with a really healthy, strong, people oriented, God glorifying mission, but now I've been persuaded by wealth. Now I've been persuaded by fame.

Alex Judd:

Now I've been persuaded by image. And and we we look at all of these figures that we say, oh, man, they started and they were so good, but now they've gotten deviated. A lot of times it's because they never codified that reason and they were never held accountable to that reason. And so of course they went off track because all of the distractions are so tempting and so readily available.

Ben Loy:

So you already stated this, but state those three questions again that, you know, the mission needs to answer.

Alex Judd:

So it's not the mission that needs to answer them. I would say the mission needs to answer why do we exist?

Ben Loy:

Okay.

Alex Judd:

Core values answer what do we stand for? Vision answers where are we going? And so what we're really focused on in this episode is why do we exist?

Ben Loy:

Cool. What is Path for Growth's mission?

Alex Judd:

I'm so glad you asked. And I bet I could ask you the same question. Do you have it memorized, Ben?

Ben Loy:

We exist to help impact driven leaders step into who they were created to be so that others benefit and God is glorified.

Alex Judd:

Okay. Praise God. Yeah. Yeah. You learn as a founder, you're like, man, you're really putting people on the spot when you hope they have it memorized.

Alex Judd:

But you're also putting yourself on the spot because you're like, I tell everyone that our team members have this memorized. I'm gonna look like a fool if he doesn't. So praise God.

Ben Loy:

There you go.

Alex Judd:

That's awesome.

Ben Loy:

We practice what we preach.

Alex Judd:

That's exactly right. So so that's how much I and we care about this is, like, all team members memorize this and keep this memorized. So to Ben's point, I better operate in alignment to our mission that you're gonna hear us talk about a lot today is we exist to help impact driven leaders step into who they were created to be so that others benefit and God is glorified.

Ben Loy:

I mean, I know there's multiple facets to this mission, and you could pro we even said before this, like, could probably break this down word by word as to why you picked the language that you did. How did this mission really come about? I mean, that you shared this story from the beginning. Was that was that really the beginning of Pathrigo's mission or did you already have a grasp of what you wanted that to be before you started the business?

Alex Judd:

It's a good question. I did have a grasp on what I wanted it to be whenever I started the business, but I would tell you that the, like, the extent of that grasp was whenever I was working at Ramsey. Again, we were talking about me having a little bit of a speaking and content creation presence there as a Ramsey personality. We were just in early innings of having those discussions. And they they kept asking me, like, what's the thing that you are, like, just relentlessly passionate about that you want to see come to the world that you're also uniquely qualified to speak on, like, that you have experience in?

Alex Judd:

And what I found is at that time, especially, I wasn't just a business guy. And honestly, just focusing on business was not my, like, my only passion or my primary passion. I love what business can do for people Mhmm. But I'm not the guy that just loves to geek out about business. Right?

Alex Judd:

And so I said business is a part of it, but it's not the only thing. And so then I I really thought, well, what are the other things that I enjoy? I I really love and I'm passionate about people understanding like personal growth and self improvement and and the opportunity that's available to them when they grow and self improve. And so for a while it was like, okay, are you going to talk about business or are going to talk about self improvement and personal growth? And that was a little bit of the question that was going on.

Alex Judd:

And then I said, but wait, there's more. I am also really passionate about leadership. And it was kind of this like three separate things like, am I a leadership person kind of like John Maxwell? Am I a business person that I would actually say Dave Ramsey is more of a traditional business guy or or, you know, you can think of a number. Morgan Housel is more of a traditional business speaker.

Alex Judd:

Right? There's a number of Alex Horn Mosey is a business speaker, right, first. And so I was like, am I more of that? Because there's a lot of money in that, right, to say the least. Or am I more of a a personal growth person?

Alex Judd:

And I started to have these thoughts around, well, I get a little bit of a cringey feeling whenever I just think about self improvement. And one of the things that I realized is I I don't actually get cringey about self improvement. What I get cringey about and what just makes my skin crawl is selfish improvement. It's like all these people out there that are like, me getting better for the sake of me getting better and then making sure all of you know about it. And then one of the things that I started to realize is that there's also a spiritual component to it that if it's if there's not the spiritual side to it for me, then ultimately it falls short or lacks meaning or lacks power.

Alex Judd:

And so what I realized is I'm thinking about all of these things as separate, and what they really are is is almost what I believe to be almost like this flywheel or this three circle Venn diagram of personal growth and self improvement is so critically important. But why are you doing that? Not just so you can get better and everyone knows about it. It's so that others benefit. Right?

Alex Judd:

And and I actually believe that when you personally grow and other people benefit from the overflow of that, well, then that starts to feed into the leadership and business arena. And then on the third circle is like there's a faith and spiritual component to that that makes that all matter. So that was the extent to which I had thought about it, and it was honestly probably more jumbled than that, but I could draw it out on a whiteboard before I started the business. And then I started to see stories like the gentleman I talked about at the beginning, and and really that's just one of a number of stories, of when we did it right. And I also saw times when people paid us and we did something for them, and I was like, well, we provided value there, but that wasn't why the business existed.

Alex Judd:

Like, that wasn't the work that we were uniquely designed and and designated to do or called to do. And and so it was at a certain point there reached a boiling point where we said, okay. We have enough evidence available to us in terms of when we are at our best, when we are most on fire for the work, when our team members are most engaged in what we're doing. Now it's time to put words to these, and that's where it became we exist to help impact driven leaders step into who they were created to be. Personal growth, self improvement.

Alex Judd:

So that that, like, this has to be inextricably linked. The reason why we are investing in personal growth and you being who you are created to be is so that others benefit, right, from the overflow of you stepping into the person God created and then the result of that being the spiritual element, God being glorified. And so it was really finally us just saying, we've got a mounds of evidence of when we are at our best and when we're most passionate. Now let's put words to it.

Ben Loy:

Mhmm. Like, development is great. Personal growth is great. Growth as a leader, obviously, will it will have a cascading effect. Right?

Ben Loy:

It'll be contagious within an organization. But then tacking on a defined purpose at the end, I feel like is what from what I've seen really distinguishes, like, our model for mission and the and and and our mission from a lot of other missions that I see organizations and businesses run with.

Alex Judd:

Yeah. I I mean, it's almost like there's the reason, then there's the reason behind the reason, and I would say in ours, there's the reason behind the reason behind the reason. Right? So it's like, exist to help impact driven leaders step into who they were they were created to be. Like, that is both a statement of what we do and why we do it.

Alex Judd:

Right? Although it doesn't get into the practical elements, like it doesn't say anything about one on one coaching, team trainings, in person experiences, anything of that. Right? We're and we'll get to why mission statements are so crucial for scaling businesses in a bit, but that is a reason why we exist. It's not the full reason though.

Alex Judd:

There's the reason behind the reason that when, an impact driven leader steps into who they were created to be, others benefit. And, like, that's what I'm so stoked about is whenever I'm talking to a room of 45 at our most recent in person experience, I am not talking to 45 people there. Right? I am talking to 45 leaders, which means at minimum, it's not unlikely to assume or it's not unreasonable to assume that I'm actually addressing 450 people. Because, I mean, it seems like a common thing that if someone's part of Path for Growth, they have, like, seven kids or something like that.

Alex Judd:

So so they're at the very least influencing their home. The average is probably three or four in reality, but they're influencing their home. But then beyond that, that, you know, some of these people lead 300 person companies, so they're like, they're reaching all of that. Right? And so the reason behind the reason is that others benefit from the overflow of this impact driven leader stepping into who they were created to be.

Alex Judd:

And then the reason behind the reason behind the reason is, Matthew five sixteen, in the same way, like your light shine before men that may see your good deeds. Right? That they may see your personal growth, your business growth, your leadership growth, the way you treat your team members, the way that you're moving forward in business, that they see all that. They see your good deeds, and they glorify the father in heaven. Right?

Alex Judd:

That when people are so oriented for the right reasons in growing in a healthy way, it it actually so attractive that people can't help but lift their eyes towards heaven and say, man, thank god for that. And and they will actually say that and do that regardless of what they believe. They might even not necessarily overtly say they believe in God, and they will still say, thank God. Right? And that's like, man, God even when people don't realize it, God is being glorified in the work that's being done.

Ben Loy:

So after you established the mission for Path for Growth, what was, like, the most difficult decision that you had to make? Like, was there a time that you you you chose mission over what felt like maybe opportunity or growth in the business or, you know, fill in the blank.

Alex Judd:

Yeah. I mean, anytime you're clarifying what you're for, you're also saying what you're not for, and that means sacrifice. Right? So decision, this is a interesting aside, The word decision comes from the Latin root word that means scissors, and so it's to cut. And so anytime you're making a decision, which I think of this as advanced decision making.

Alex Judd:

Right? It's the one decision that will make thousands of decisions for you again moving forward, then, yeah, you're saying I'm I'm cutting. I'm sacrificing. There's certain things that I'm not going to be able to do. I mean, there's there's a multitude of things, and I I would say there's a multitude of examples, especially in core values.

Alex Judd:

But as it relates to mission, I would say one that I experience most personally is I have ideas all the time about things that we could technically do with the resources that we now have because of the business that we've grown. Like, I have an aspiration one day to start a salsa company. Right? Like, that's something that I I very much want to do. Right?

Alex Judd:

And and I support that. That's good. Praise god. Yeah. So it can be really tempting to be like, well, we've got all these path for growth resources.

Alex Judd:

Like, why can't we shoehorn the salsa company as, like, a side thing that Path for Growth does, make that part of the Path for Growth p and l, and it's just, this side quirky thing. And it's, like, I I could try really hard to make up an answer of how salsa helps people step into who they were created to be so that others benefit and God is glorified. And it's like that that isn't actually tied into the mission. That's that's a little bit of a quirky example, but it's like, I truly have to take one of my personal passions and say, that's a good passion. It's just not a path for growth passion.

Alex Judd:

Mhmm. And it doesn't fall under the path for growth umbrella. And so it means it's either gonna have to be a different thing that's drawing from my personal resources, not Path for Growth resources, or it's going to have to not happen. So I guess the mission causes me to exercise a level of self restraint. And I would also say it's not just self restraint.

Alex Judd:

If I announced to our team, hey, we are starting a salsa company right now, and I need y'all to passionately get behind this and sell this. The the first question they or y'all would have for me is, how does that tie into the mission, Alex? Like, you gotta you gotta connect the dots for me. Not telling me I can't do it, but you gotta connect the dots for me on how that connects to the mission because the thing that I signed up to work for at Path for Growth above all else is the mission, and I didn't sign up to be a salsa purveyor if that doesn't connect to the mission.

Ben Loy:

Yeah. Well, and I think that that just speaks to the the power that it is to, a, have your whole team memorize the mission, but also b, for it to be like a part of the culture and repeated consistently in front of mind at team meetings. Like, I mean, yeah, we we were talking about this. We've well, we've talked about this a little bit. I I would actually like to have more of a conversation about this with non anxious presence and and social media.

Ben Loy:

And, like, how do we, you know, I think that's one of the things that I'm personally wrestling with right now is, like, there are there is a method to get a hook, to engage on social media, to create anxiety, to create anger, to create frustration in a way that, like, keeps people engaged. And then there's the way that we're called to as Christians. And and when you when you factor in Path for Ghost mission, it's like, how how does playing into these strategies that work on social media, how does that weigh into who we are as a business and the value we wanna provide and what we wanna stand for. And so it's been really interesting, like trying to navigate that. Like man, social media and marketing can be so toxic and you could get so off course with it if you were just focused on growth and you didn't have a mission as a sounding board to be like, hey, yeah, we're not going to engage in that way.

Ben Loy:

We're gonna think creatively and we're gonna find up with come up with a different solution. Mhmm.

Alex Judd:

Yes. I love that you brought that up because in the absence of a clearly defined purpose or mission statement, effectiveness and efficiency hacks will always be loud. Mhmm. Right? Like, if I mean, we we actually did work with a social media company for a while and then ended up ending it just because it didn't feel on mission or on brand.

Alex Judd:

And it it was because they were really coaching us on writing scripts that would basically appeal to people's most base level emotions. Right? We're going to say this thing in the absolute most controversial or polarizing way was what they were essentially coaching us on. Like you need to be more controversial. You need to be more polarizing.

Alex Judd:

You need to make sure that if there something that happens that everyone's talking about, you are online within ten minutes giving your hot takes on that.

Ben Loy:

Yeah.

Alex Judd:

And it's like, if if my reason is effectiveness, efficiency, fame, right, then if that's my reason, then I should follow all of those strategies. If I have a higher reason, a higher calling, a higher standard, which has represented our mission, then I'm gonna say I understand that that might be the fastest way to get more views and more followers in the next ten days, but that certainly contradicts some of our core values, and it's not even aligned with our core purpose. So I can't do that right now. And so there's a level of accountability embedded in describing your mission, which is why some people avoid it. It's also why, like, some people are like, oh, I did this, like, twenty minute one pager on write your mission statement for your company, and now I've got it.

Alex Judd:

And I download it as a free download online. Do not do that. Right? Because you if you do this right, you are making a decision now that will affect you for minimum the next ten years. And so it it's worth the time, energy, manpower invested to really get it right.

Ben Loy:

What would you say to maybe a leader or a business owner who is, like, sitting here right now and they're going, man, like, I we have mission or maybe we've never even defined a mission, but, like, I had a mission in mind and we have just gotten so off base. Like, what what is their what is their first step that they would need to take?

Alex Judd:

Recommit yourself to the mission. So if if there is a reason why you started and that reason is still prevalent because I I I think it can shift and change, although I would hold it with a pretty tight grip because oftentimes it doesn't. I I would recommit yourself to that mission, and then I would recommit yourself and hopefully your closest leaders to whatever it takes. Mhmm. Right?

Alex Judd:

We are going to get back to why this business exists and why we started in the first place, and that is going to be difficult. Mhmm. And then from there, from a practical standpoint, this will exist in the core values conversation we have as well. I would start with an apology. Right?

Alex Judd:

You're you're going to have to make some hard decisions if you've deviated because you're basically saying we have gone way off track and we're going have to get back on track. That might mean that we hired some people that we shouldn't have never hired because they weren't mission aligned. We might have launched some things. We might have done some things or said some things. There's a whole multitude of ways you can deviate from your mission.

Alex Judd:

And ultimately, you've got to take responsibility of that was my fault. As a leader, I allowed that to happen. And so I would start with, hey, I just wanna let you all know I am sorry because there's a reason why this business exists and why we started, and it's something that I deeply care about as the owner or leader of this business. And, we have deviated in these ways. And the reason why we've done that is because I've allowed it and tolerated it happening.

Alex Judd:

But what I am going to let you know is this is my and our line in the sand moment. Mhmm. We are going to do things differently moving forward, and we are going to recommit ourselves to this mission. And if you want to be a part of that, then I want you to be a part of this. If you don't want to be a part of that, we can still be friends.

Alex Judd:

I just want you to know that this is why we exist, and this is where we are going, and we are going to realign ourselves to this, and we are not turning around. Right? It has to be a very firm ownership, but then also clear assertive redirection of why the business exists and where we're going.

Ben Loy:

Mhmm. It does make me think of JP from from Austin, right? Five Five Stone. And and I mean, he spoke at our experience and he shared a little bit of that story. I would like to hear way more, like, about it.

Ben Loy:

It's

Alex Judd:

so good. We should include JP did a, value based business podcast for us years ago that we should include in the show notes of this episode, but we need to have him on again.

Ben Loy:

Yeah. And I mean, obviously, like, I that was my first exposure to him and his team, but he had how many p five team members? Six? At the experience.

Alex Judd:

Oh, he had eight team members

Ben Loy:

at the there. And the culture of their team and the the people that were I mean, everyone was just so aligned and grounded and it was it was just so clear that, like, this difficult decision that he had made years prior to realign himself and his business had paid off in dividends.

Alex Judd:

Yeah. I mean, it's pretty fascinating to to look at the graphics behind the business and even to talk to him about his general enjoyment of the business that he owned and stress level associated with the business because he would say we grew to 60. I think it was 60 team members. And then I had this realization, like, we are bigger than we've ever been, but I am enjoying this the least I've ever enjoyed it, and I'm more stressed out than I've ever been. And the reason why is because the team had gotten away from the core reason.

Alex Judd:

Right? And and he would be the first to say, I allowed that to happen. Mhmm. The thing that I freaking love and honestly am inspired by about JP is that when he owns something, he owns it, and he says no more. And they recommitted themselves to mission and core values.

Alex Judd:

The team is now 30 people. Right? And this is years and years and years removed, and it is doing exponentially. This is not an exaggeration. It is doing exponentially more business than they were doing with 60 people.

Alex Judd:

Mhmm. And he would tell you that's the power of having a unified, culturally aligned team where just think about this. The difference that it makes when every single person on your team, especially if it's 30 people, enjoy the people that they're working with. Yeah. Like, I know I get minimum 20% better personally whenever I'm working with people that I I enjoy working with.

Alex Judd:

And that's like a minimum. There there could be evidence where I actually get a 100% better when I'm with people that I enjoy working with. Praise God. You're one of those people. Right?

Alex Judd:

So it's like, I get way better. And then we apply that across every single team member, and it's like, if we're saying people get minimum 20% better when they, like, enjoy the people, feel aligned with the people, or are motivated by the people that they're working with, you have to guard that as a leader. And if you've ever deviated from that, like you've got people that aren't on mission in the building, it is the single most high leverage action you can take to either coach them up or coach them out because cultural alignment is a it has a multiplying effect on your business's performance and impact.

Ben Loy:

Mhmm. It sounds like that's got that's gotten increasingly more important for you in path for growth in the hiring process.

Alex Judd:

For sure. And it's become more clear for us. Mhmm. Like, we're we're engaging with the hiring strategic priority right now, and this is something that I learned from JP is it's like we have now established the standard. We we have the funds to hire someone.

Alex Judd:

We have the work to hire someone. We are establishing the standard of we will not move faster than our ability to get cultural rock stars. Mhmm. And we are going to pray for God to send us great people. Right?

Alex Judd:

And and if there's someone that, man, they would crush the job, but the team is not convinced this is a cultural rock star, I'm not doing it. Like, I that's, like, I've just I've seen enough examples from myself personally, but also the businesses that I work with that it is not worth it. It is not worth it. And you are if you hire a high performer that is a culturally neutral, you are actually hiring a detractor. I actually believe that.

Alex Judd:

And so the thing that is probably worth hitting on here too, the stronger your culture is, the more true that is. If we have a milquetoast culture that we haven't actually defined things that we're unique about, bold about, that differentiate us, things like that, then you and you hire someone that's culturally neutral, it's not going to make that huge of an impact. If you have a remarkable culture and you hire someone that's culturally neutral, it will massively detract. And so we are actively in the process of making it harder for people to work for us because we are actively in the process of making our culture more remarkable. And that's the type of business that I wanna lead, quite frankly.

Alex Judd:

It's the type of business that I wanna be a part of. And so but we're gonna double down, and y'all can check-in in two years and see how it works out for us.

Ben Loy:

And, I mean, what's incredible is it it really does all go back to mission. Right? It goes back to, like, is the team aligned and headed the same direction in yeah. Like, why they're even here, why they're working.

Alex Judd:

Yeah. And let's think about the baseline too. What I don't want working for our team is someone that's like, oh, now that I know that mission at Path for Growth, I could see myself aligning my life to that and, like, being passionate about that. No. I want someone that's like, I finally found a place that exists for the same reason that, like, I love to get out of bed every morning and, like, foaming at the mouth passion of, you're telling me I could get paid to do this work?

Alex Judd:

That's the type of person that, like, we know we've nailed it, and there's already evidence in their life of how they're living it out. Like, every single person on our team right now, we are we are culturally I would put us at the level of culturally exceptional on our team right now, and we haven't always been there. We are there right now. I would say every single person on our team right now, I can point to evidence before they were hired and certainly now of how they were living the mission before they even knew it existed. They were stepping into the man or woman they were created to be so that others benefit and God is glorified.

Alex Judd:

And they were already passionate about it, and now it just turns out that there's a paycheck associated with it.

Ben Loy:

Yeah. Break that down a little bit more, like how having a clear mission helped you identify those things and those individuals.

Alex Judd:

Yeah. Well, the interview process is kind of like dating. Right? And have you ever gone to to a first date, and you're supposed to ask great questions, right, at your first date? And and so you show up to your first date, and you say, oh, I I just I'm so excited about this, right?

Alex Judd:

I I didn't swipe right on you. I I don't know what way you swipe for people like this.

Ben Loy:

I we're off dating apps a long Yeah. Time

Alex Judd:

Good. Praise God. Culturally aligned, right? Only half kidding there. So we're down for our first date and I've been waiting to ask you this question.

Alex Judd:

Who am I? Like, how on earth is the person that you're dating going to answer that question? Right? So many of us expect people to tell us about who we are in the interview process. What you want to do is say, hey, I'm excited to ask you questions, but I also want to let you know this is who I am and this is what I'm passionate about and this is what I stand for.

Alex Judd:

And what we're really trying to figure out here is, does who you are align with who I am? So many people, they don't know who they are. And so they're actually spending 50% of their time in the interview process meandering around who am I and trial and error around who am I. And then they're trying to figure out if this puzzle piece fits into a puzzle piece that they don't even know what it looks like yet. It's it's virtually impossible.

Alex Judd:

Right? And so that's why it's so critical that we do this. Like we spend this time on the front end to say, who am I? Really, what we're saying is who are we? So that really what we're what we've got is a puzzle piece.

Alex Judd:

And then our interview process is oriented around, does this candidate sitting across from me fit into that puzzle or not? And a lot of times, if you're the more clear you are on who you are, the more the wrong people will self select out. They'll say, oh, I'm I'm actually not that passionate about that, and I actually think y'all are kind of weird. And you will say, yes, we are. We are not kind of weird.

Alex Judd:

We are extremely weird and you would hate it here and and you should just check out of the process right now. Right? I think is important to keep in mind.

Ben Loy:

Yeah. I keep thinking of, when we it was you, Michelle, and I flew to Colorado Springs for, what was it, like forty hours or something Yes. To look at our our next experience location for next year. And, I mean, you and

Alex Judd:

I were up at probably four four or 04:30 that morning. Yeah. And I mean, this was still within your first four months of working here or something like that. Yep. And then and Michelle was also up at 4AM that morning.

Alex Judd:

We met her. I think we had a full day. I mean, we we probably did work stuff for twelve hours minimum. For sure. And then we weren't done.

Alex Judd:

No. Like, we were like, okay, from here. And it was, like, genuinely, like, I feel like we made a collective decision. Didn't feel like I was forcing y'all. No.

Alex Judd:

We were like, well, man, our two incline is right down the road. Yeah. What if we go do that? Which is a, to clarify for people, this is a 2,000 foot incline in one mile. I mean, it is the absolute most absurd mile you've ever done.

Alex Judd:

And, we did that that afternoon. So we had, like, a sixteen hour workday. You and I woke up early the next morning and at sunrise went and recorded Worth It Wednesday videos. Then we had intentional business discussion about which property we were going to land on for our next experience. And then within forty hours, we were back on a plane headed home again.

Alex Judd:

And what was the point? I so I just recounted the story.

Ben Loy:

Yeah. Mean, that, like, just the fact alone that a, we we all showed up that Monday and had all woken up super early and collectively we were like, yeah, let's go hike a mountain. Like let's go walk up this endless staircase and like that'll be fun. And it was really fun.

Alex Judd:

Yeah.

Ben Loy:

And like to work at that level and to come to the end of something like that and be like, okay, yes, I'm tired. Like, didn't necessarily sleep the best. Like, we've been running for for forty hours. But, like, man, it was fun and it was so great to see Michelle in person and, like, be and be in another location with you and, like, get the things that we got done done and and I and just the ideation and, like, I was it was very life giving even though we were working, right?

Alex Judd:

And that's cultural alignment, right? So I wanna hit home on that. There's two types of conversations I could have on the back end of a con of a trip like that as an owner. Conversation one is with someone that says, I didn't get paid overtime for that. Like, that was a bit much.

Alex Judd:

Or, like, you just absolutely wore me out and I needed to take, like, five days off because of what we just did. Or, you know, what's in it for me? Essentially, like, all of those conversations. Or you can have the conversations that we actually had is I'm coming home and telling Aspen, man, that was a fast trip, but that was a blast. Like, love that.

Alex Judd:

And then I have my next one on one with you and Michelle both the next week and both of you, it's your highlight or win that trip, and you're telling me how grateful you are, and you're just, like, so much more excited about the next experience because of what we were able to do and everything like that. And and there are so many benefits associated with those latter conversations, but one that people often underestimate is, like, what does that do for my morale? The the thing that I enjoy and love doing as a person is the thing that my my team of the business that I own also loves doing and enjoys doing. Mhmm. And I'm not having to apologize for basically me me being me, essentially.

Alex Judd:

It's like one is a recipe for incredible levels of stress and guilt, and you're just setting yourself up to to just not be in a good place mentally versus this is like, I literally just feel like I got to go on a forty hour trip with friends and we got to do great work and and experience creation, be physically active together, and now we're both just goo goo gagaing over how great it was. Mhmm. Oh my gosh. The the impact of that cannot be measured.

Ben Loy:

Well, and what's incredible and kind of bringing it back to mission and our mission is, like, a month later, we all flew to Austin and we had four days in Austin and man, I enjoyed a, being able being able to scope out a, next year's location got me excited for this coming experience a month later. But then also, yeah, just being in the room with the team, being able to interact with so many of our customers and so much of the community in person in such like a real and raw space. And it just goes to show like our entire team is just so well aligned in, like, this is our purpose, this is why we exist, and then we all show up to the experience. And it's like, this is the time of the year in which, like, is the absolute best we are the best at what we do.

Alex Judd:

Right? Like Super Bowl. It's Christmas. Right? Yeah.

Alex Judd:

It's our finest hour in some way. It's like the concentrated version of what we've been doing for the entire year. Now we're just all in the same place doing it.

Ben Loy:

Yep.

Alex Judd:

Yeah. I mean but one thing I would call attention to with that though is the same mission can apply to different personality types. And so the experience is such a great example. It's like I, you know, I love checking in with our team after the experience because I'll talk to you and Kyle, and I'll be like, how are you doing? You're like, I like really needed to recover with some alone time and like I need to go, like, that was a lot of people time and I loved every bit of it.

Alex Judd:

It was awesome and like I'm so grateful for it wouldn't change a thing, But I need to like go into a dark corner and hide for like three days before I get back into society again. Meanwhile, I called Matt and Matt says, Oh, I'm just so energized. I'm so engaged. I'm just so ready to be around people more. And like, this is everything I live for.

Alex Judd:

He's like, more people. Right? The difference between essentially extroverts versus introverts. Right? Where do you get your energy from?

Alex Judd:

You and Kyle are not any less on mission than Matt is is what I would say because you're both you both love the mission. You're passionate about the mission. You two just happen to be introverted. Matt happens to be extroverted. And so I would just keep that in mind for people is because sometimes if you're not careful, you could over prioritize extraversion because those are the people that are the most vocally or visibly on mission, and that can really, really be a mistake.

Ben Loy:

Yeah. Or often, even sometimes just the most, like, charismatic in an interview process, right? For sure. Let's dive into I know we have so we have a course around this. We're working on hopefully making that even more accessible in the near future.

Ben Loy:

But, yeah, let's dive into, like, what it looks like to practically establish and build and sustain a good mission.

Alex Judd:

Yeah. So it's it's one of our 12 fundamentals for healthy growth, and there's a number of ways that we have done this with companies around the country since we we started our company. The the current way that we do it is people work on their mission statement through one on one coaching, or we also provide team training sessions where we go on-site with your leadership team, and we walk you and your leadership team through a process for really getting the right words to why do we exist as a company and codifying that. But, really, what we're gonna start with is an incredible amount of context gathering on hopefully, if the founder is still around, we wanna talk to the founder. We wanna know why they started.

Alex Judd:

We wanna know what was important to them. We wanna know what they were most excited about at the beginning. And sometimes the founder is like, well, I I started out a necessity. Like, I had to pay the bills. That's not not noteworthy.

Alex Judd:

Right? So, like, even that is noteworthy because paying the bills, like, whose bills? And like, so you provide provision is clearly important for you. Why didn't you go get a job? Right?

Alex Judd:

Why and then why was it important to get into this line of work? And then beyond even just the founding story, we wanna ask a ton of questions around, tell me about the times when you and your business are at your absolute best. Tell me about the when the work is most energizing for you. Tell me about your most ideal customers and the impact that you've made on them. Tell me about the thing that when you see it occur in your business, it's an absolute grand slam for you as an owner or you as a leader.

Alex Judd:

And we could spend more time on this in the podcast if we want to, but it's really important that you craft the right people in the room for the mission. Right? And and the process that you work through to get the right people in the room, to get the right input in the room is really, really critical because this is something you are committed to living with. And so probably the people that are in the room should likely have a level of ownership and staying power because you might be living with them too, right? Is what I would say.

Alex Judd:

And so we're putting all that information in. A lot of times that's where people stop and they just have, you know, a bunch of loosely held together ideas. What we're gonna do is we're going to put all of those up on a whiteboard and we're gonna start distilling and say, are the buckets that these fall into? And it's more art than science, but we're gonna say, you know, which of these have the most umph to them? Which ones feel the most right?

Alex Judd:

Which ones oftentimes when you were talking about it, you spoke with the most passion? I've been in these sessions before and it's like they're they're giving me a lot of answers about why the business exists. And then I'm asking them a bunch of questions and then I get them to tell one story and that story causes them to start crying. And I'm like, you're not a person that cries that right there. Whatever that is, that's what we have to codify.

Alex Judd:

Right? And so what what carries the most emotional resonance within the team? All of those questions, we're going to kind of just isolate our categories. And then based on those categories, we're then going to say, okay, if we were to take these categories of of statements of purpose and to distill them down into a single powerful sentence that is present, portable, and personal. So so present today, this isn't some aspirational mission for the future.

Alex Judd:

There at least has to be seeds of how this is already being played out today. Portable. We need we need to make this sentence memorizable. So it can't be, you know, Paul in the New Testament adding comma, comma, comma, comma. Right?

Alex Judd:

Like, just a run on sentence through and through. Right? We got to make it portable, and then we got to make it personal. How do we choose language that is uniquely yours and uniquely your team's? And how do we do that?

Alex Judd:

Well, oftentimes, it's language that you and your team are already using. And so we're gonna isolate those categories. We're gonna build them into a specific sentence, and then really we get into wordsmithing and word defining till we land on a draft. And then we can talk about what you do with that draft. It's important you don't land on a final statement.

Alex Judd:

You land on a draft because then we have stuff that we can do with that draft. But anything about that process you wanna dive deeper into or you got questions about?

Ben Loy:

Yeah. You talk about this if if you're already established with a team, right, bringing bringing people in on this, what are maybe some guidelines that you would use to decide who's qualified or who should be included in this conversation?

Alex Judd:

Yeah. So, obviously, there's contextual things here. Are we talking about a 300 person team? Are we talking about a 20 person team? I would say all information is valuable is a principle.

Alex Judd:

And so you're about to make decisions. It's really good for you to leverage the whole team to get information. What that could look like is you sending out a a Google form to everyone and just saying, we're doing some work on our organization's purpose. What I want to know from you is when are we at our best? Who are my most ideal customers?

Alex Judd:

And from your experience, like, what are your favorite moments working for this business? The question that you are not putting in that Google form is, what should our mission statement be? Mhmm. Right? And you are also not making any guarantees about anything them that they put into that form will show up in the final mission statement.

Alex Judd:

You're just saying, I'm just getting my film on the pulse of what our people, all 300 of them, think about our company and when we're at our best. And what you'll see is, you know, a lot of times we have leaders do that and the forms are incredibly encouraging and incredibly insightful. Right? But what we don't wanna do is mission statement by committee. Right?

Alex Judd:

Because that it just looks like a jumbled mess if we do that. In terms of the people that are in the room making the decisions of with all the information that we have, all the things that are on the whiteboard, the core themes, the categories, all of that. How what is our statement going to be? I would say most likely is, your leadership team, which we we actually have criteria in our leadership team fundamental for who should be on your leadership team. But these are people that you would say, even though we don't have the mission defined yet, they are already living the mission.

Alex Judd:

And like, you're like, I don't know what it is yet. I just know that they're part of it. Right? You trust their feedback, their pushback, and their advice. Right?

Alex Judd:

They're people that probably either they have some established tenure with the organization or you envision them having tenure with the organization. And it's this is critical. You want them to be a part of the decision. Right? Like, you're like, for multitude of reasons, I really want this person to speak into this decision.

Alex Judd:

Those are just some criteria of who's in that room to make that decision about what the mission statement's going to be. So

Ben Loy:

once you establish a draft, then what yeah. I know you mentioned there are there are things you can do with the draft. What does that look like?

Alex Judd:

So what I what I encourage people and where I see people have the most success is eventually, I think it would actually be very good for you to take the mission statement that you've created and to put it on a concrete block somewhere and then hang that concrete block up. Right? Artifacts are actually part of making culture come to life. So physical objects that represent the culture is actually really, really important.

Ben Loy:

It makes me think of Ted Lasso with the cricket believe sign up on his office.

Alex Judd:

I haven't seen Ted Lasso, but that sounds like a Ted Lasso core value or something like that. Yeah, absolutely. So so I would say that is going to be important. But before you print the T shirts or make the coffee mugs or things like that with the mission, I would say just test drive it for 60 days. And what I want you and your leadership team to do is to to memorize that mission statement and keep it in mind, and then just look for either confirmation or contradiction of did we nail it?

Alex Judd:

Right? Maybe that's confirmation in terms of you're having conversation with someone about the work that they're doing, and they are clearly really enjoying it. And you just ask them, why are you enjoying that so much? And they describe their answer to you, and you're like, oh, that is like they either said word for word the mission statement we just created or they hit on all of the themes that are in the mission statement. Maybe, you know, the organization does shout outs at, at a team meeting or something like that.

Alex Judd:

And the things that people are shouting out that people are clearly most engaged in or things directly related to your mission. Right? Maybe you hear some of the words and you're like, I wasn't even looking for it before, but we're actually using some of these words. Or that's confirmation. Maybe it's contradiction.

Alex Judd:

Maybe you're like, there's a better, simpler way to say this. Or a lot of times what I see is we have like this this three part sentence that we created, and the more I think about it, the more it's like one part of that is actually the mission, and I'm starting to see that these other two parts are just ancillary pieces to why we're most excited about this. And so maybe it's thirty days, maybe it's sixty days. You run a little bit of a test period, and then on the back end of that, you say, okay. We're gonna solidify, finalize, roll out to the whole team, you know, hold the party, launch the cannon, print the t shirts, the whole shebang.

Ben Loy:

Are there any, like, mistakes that people make as it pertains to mission statement that people should be aware of?

Alex Judd:

Yeah. I'm so glad you asked. The first one is just a misconception of what we're actually talking about here. A lot of times people think about their mission statement as marketing collateral, and the reason why they think that is because there's groups out there that teach that. Just let me be very clear.

Alex Judd:

That's not what I slash we at Path4Growth are teaching. Right? Like, your mission statement, from my perspective, is most powerful when you are not thinking about it primarily as marketing collateral. Right? We are thinking about our mission statement as the statement that rallies our team in the building around why we do what we do to serve people outside the building.

Alex Judd:

And when you think of it as marketing collateral, the questions that people are often gonna ask you whenever they think about your mission statement or whenever you're evaluating your mission statement is like, well, what do you do? Right? Like, what like, can you describe it? And, like, it doesn't really describe what you do for people, like, in terms of the service you provide, one on one coaching, team training experiences. That's not what this is for.

Alex Judd:

We do that in other places. It's just not this. And what I often see is people try to make it something that is a cultural element, but also marketing collateral. And in doing so, they reduce and dilute the cultural power of it. Listen, the people on our team do not need me to remind them.

Alex Judd:

Remember, we do one on one coaching. They are very aware of that. The thing that they need me to remind them of is we exist to help impact driven leaders step into who they were created to be so that others benefit and God is glorified. Marketing collateral is a separate conversation. Does it mean that there won't be customers that are deeply attracted to your mission and excited about your mission?

Alex Judd:

No. I actually think customers will be more excited about your mission when you ride it our way than as marketing collateral. I would just say don't don't try to shoehorn both objectives into the same sentence is really, really critically important. The the second one I would say is not being intentional about rollout. Anytime you launch anything this big, I mean, the the quality of adoption often reflects the quality of launch.

Alex Judd:

And you you want people to act like this is a big deal. You have to treat it like a big deal in the way you launch things. And and that doesn't mean you have to throw some massive resource intensive party, but sometimes the best way to convey that something's a big deal is to put it on write in writing and, like, print. Sometimes if I show up to a meeting and I printed stuff, people are like, wow, he's serious about this. Right?

Alex Judd:

Like, he took the time to go find a printer. Right? Or or create coffee mugs with it or like just do something that conveys to people like we are taking this extremely seriously. Right? Maybe it's having customers come in and tell the story of how the mission has impacted them.

Alex Judd:

There's so many multitude of ways. And then the third mistake that people don't make is is they don't have a strategy for launch or they don't have a strategy for sustained adoption. And so ingraining this in your onboarding process, we recommend having a quarterly process of evaluating your mission that we talk about in the path for growth fundamentals. Red, yellow, greening, are we living in alignment with it? Making it a part of your team communication rhythm, regularly referring back to the mission.

Alex Judd:

There's gotta be rhythms associated with this. Otherwise, it will be a dusty piece of paper in a binder that never gets opened again. So so making sure we're not treating it as marketing collateral, making sure that we focus on the launch, and then making sure we create rhythms and systems for continued and sustained adoption.

Ben Loy:

I mean, feel like I've talked to multiple business owners. I've been a part of organizations where that's the case. It's like on onboarding, it's like, here's our mission, here's our core values, you know, here's what we're about. And then it's never mentioned again. Or it's like this it's almost like this joke, you know, that it's like, oh, yeah.

Ben Loy:

Like, this is what we stand for when decisions are made that are just completely not in line with

Alex Judd:

what they say. Yeah. If you are an impact driven leader, that is so sad. Yeah. Like, that should break your heart.

Alex Judd:

The the purpose the theoretical purpose of why your mission exists is now a joke Yep. To your organization. And and a lot of times, why it becomes a joke is because it was never serious to begin with. It was never like Sure. We went through this methodical intensive process, and we invested time and money to define why our organization actually exists.

Alex Judd:

Because if you actually invest all that time and money, you and your organization take it more seriously. Mhmm. It's when we just put something together haphazardly that, of course, we're not actually gonna take it seriously years down the road.

Ben Loy:

In closing, is there anything you'd wanna say about, yeah, sustaining our mission in general?

Alex Judd:

I guess the final word of encouragement that I would give to the leaders that are listening to this podcast is you have to stay zealous about your mission. Right? Like, you have to stay passionate about it personally. And so as you think about rhythms for and systems for sustained adoption and even improvement within your team, I would also ask yourself the question, what's the rhythm that I need to make sure that my heart is still soft to this mission? How do I make sure that, you know, the same way I was bouncing out of bed year one whenever I started this organization because I was just so on fire with with the purpose and the way we were serving people and and the calling that we had to do this.

Alex Judd:

What rhythms do you have in place to to keep making you that person? Because your team needs you to have that level of energy and zeal if they're ever gonna have a comparable level of energy and zeal for the mission. And so make sure you define ways for yourself personally to stay passionate, warm, white hot on the reason why you started the business and why the business exists.

Ben Loy:

And I guess to commend you, like, that's something that I see that you do really well. And I consistently like, I'm always like, Alex is practicing what he preaches, and I just can consistently find myself saying things like that. So, yeah, thanks to you, and and thanks for this conversation.

Alex Judd:

Well, I always love ending on a compliment. You. Appreciate it, Ben. Well, there you have it. Thanks so much for joining us for this episode.

Alex Judd:

If you want any of the information or resources that we mentioned, that's all in the show notes. Hey, before you go, could I ask you for one quick favor? Could you subscribe, rate, and review this podcast episode? Your feedback is what helps our team engage in a sequence of never ending improvement. We wanna amplify what's valuable to you and obviously reduce or even remove the things that aren't.

Alex Judd:

Also, you leaving a positive review is what helps us connect with, build trust with, and serve other leaders around the country. So thanks in advance for helping us out on that front. Are you a leader that wants to grow your business in a healthy way, serve people exceptionally well, and glorify God in the process? Go to pathforgrowth.com to get more information about our community of impact driven leaders and schedule a call with our team. Hey, thank you so much to the Path for Growth team, Kyle Cummings and the crew at Pod Circle, and the remarkable leaders that are actively engaged in the Path for Growth community.

Alex Judd:

Y'all are the people that make this podcast possible. Y'all know this. We're rooting for you. We're praying for you. We wanna see you win.

Alex Judd:

Remember, my strength is not for me. Your strength is not for you. Our strength is for service. Let's go. Let's go.

Alex Judd:

Let's go.