Author: Tracy McCoy
One of the things James and I talk about often is how much easier it is to make decisions when you know what your business actually stands for.
That sounds simple, but it wasn't something we had completely figured out when we started Get Fish Slapped.
In this episode of The Fish Slap Effect Podcast, James and I talked about mission statements, vision statements, and core values. Looking back, this is one of those areas where I can confidently say I wish we'd started sooner.
When we left the corporate world and started our own business, part of the excitement was that we didn't want everything to feel so corporate. We wanted things to feel more creative, more personal, and more like us. What we eventually learned was that some of those things we'd seen in larger organizations existed for a reason.
As our team grew, we needed a way to clearly communicate who we were, where we were going, and what we expected from the people representing our company.
That's when mission, vision, and core values stopped feeling like corporate language and started becoming useful.
Your Mission, Vision, and Values Have Different Jobs
These three things sometimes get grouped together, but I think it's helpful to keep them simple.
Your mission explains what you're here to do right now.
Your vision describes where you're trying to go.
Your core values define how you're going to get there.
For me, that's the easiest way to understand the difference.
Your mission gives your business purpose. Your vision gives you direction. Your values help guide the decisions you make along the way.
The real value isn't in having these statements beautifully written on your website. It's being able to use them when you're making a difficult decision and asking, "Does this actually fit who we say we are?"
I Wish We Had Done This Earlier
When James asked me what I would change if we were starting Get Fish Slapped again, developing our mission and core values earlier was near the top of my list.
When you're a small business with only a few people, everyone tends to understand how things work because you're all sitting close together and figuring it out at the same time.
Then you grow. More people join the team. Clients have different expectations. New opportunities show up. Decisions become more complicated.
Suddenly, what felt obvious to the founders isn't obvious to everyone else. That's where having a clear foundation becomes important. Your team needs something more concrete than "this is how we've always done it." They need to understand why certain things matter and how they're expected to approach their work.
Core Values Have to Be Lived
This might be the most important lesson we've learned about values.
They can't just be words on a wall.
You can print them beautifully, frame them, add them to your website, and put them in every employee handbook you create. None of that matters if your actions contradict them.
Core values become real when they influence decisions. They should affect who you hire, who you keep on the team, which clients you work with, which opportunities you accept, and sometimes which opportunities you're willing to walk away from.
That last one can be uncomfortable. If you say something is important to your business, there eventually comes a moment when living that value costs you something. Maybe it's revenue. Maybe it's a client. Maybe it's a candidate who looks great on paper but isn't right for your culture.
That's when you find out whether it's truly a core value or simply a nice sentence.
It Starts at the Top
Values also have to be modeled by leadership.
I can't expect our team to communicate well if James and I communicate poorly. I can't tell everyone how important it is to love what we do while spending every day complaining about our clients and the work.
People pay attention to what leadership actually does. As business owners, we create culture whether we're intentional about it or not. That means our behavior matters.
When things are busy, stressful, or frustrating, those are often the moments when our values become most important. It's easy to live by them when everything is going well. The challenge is sticking to them when you're tired, under pressure, or facing a difficult decision.
Our Mission Helps Keep Us Focused
At Get Fish Slapped, part of our mission is about making marketing easier for our clients.
We don't believe business owners should have to become marketing experts just to understand what's happening with their own campaigns. Our job is to help streamline that process, explain what we're doing, and make sure our clients understand why we're doing it.
That also means giving people enough information to ask good questions. I never want a client to feel intimidated because we're throwing marketing jargon at them. If we're talking about a strategy, report, or campaign, I want them to understand enough to challenge us and ask why we're recommending something.
That's part of creating confidence. Another important part of our mission is profitability. Marketing ultimately needs to contribute to the business.
That doesn't mean every tactic produces an immediate sale. Some strategies build awareness, credibility, or long-term demand. But we still need to understand what we're trying to accomplish and how it supports the bigger business.
And ultimately, we want to free our clients up to run the businesses they're experts in. I wouldn't try to replace my own roof just because I could watch enough videos online to understand the basics. I'd rather work with someone whose expertise is roofing.
Marketing is the same way. Our clients should be able to focus on what they do best while trusting us to help them grow.
Sometimes Being a Good Partner Means Saying No
One of our core values is that we're consultants for our clients. To me, that means our job isn't simply to sell another service.
Sometimes the best thing we can tell a client is, "I don't think you should spend money on that."
We've had clients interested in platforms or advertising tactics that we've already tested for their business and didn't see strong results from. If another channel is generating a return, it doesn't make sense to pull money away simply because someone heard they "need to be on TikTok" or whatever the latest recommendation happens to be.
That's where values guide decisions. If we're truly consultants, we should be good stewards of our clients' money, even when that means recommending they don't buy something from us.
Communication Is More Than Sending Emails
Another value we take seriously is communication. That means more than replying quickly.
Good communication means understanding how different people want and need to receive information. Some clients want every detail. Others want three bullet points and the bottom line. Some want frequent updates. Others want one clear recap each week.
The goal isn't communicating more for the sake of communicating. It's communicating effectively enough that everyone understands what is happening and what needs to happen next.
That kind of communication creates trust internally with your team and externally with your customers.
Loving What You Do Matters
One of our core values that means a lot to me is that we love what we do. I really believe customers can tell when that's no longer true. You can feel it when someone is simply going through the motions. You can see it in the quality of the work, the way they communicate, and the energy they bring to their team.
We're a small business. The people on our team have a direct impact on our clients, on each other, and on the experience people have with Get Fish Slapped.
That's why I don't think someone should stay somewhere they genuinely don't enjoy being. It doesn't make them a bad person. It may simply mean this isn't the right fit for them.
When people enjoy the work they're doing, that energy spreads. When they're proud of a project or send the team photos from a fun client shoot because everyone had such a great experience, that matters.
Culture is built through those everyday moments.
Start With What's Already Happening in Your Business
If you don't have mission, vision, or core values yet, you don't have to start with a blank page and try to write something profound. Look at your actual business.
Who is one of your best employees? What makes them great?
What behaviors do you wish everyone on the team demonstrated?
Now look at the opposite side.
What is frustrating you most right now?
When we worked through this ourselves, some of our frustrations pointed directly toward the values we needed to clarify. If communication was a constant pain point, communication clearly mattered to us. If people weren't taking ownership, ownership needed to become part of the conversation.
You can also think about a moment when you were incredibly proud of your business.
What happened?
What did your team do to make that possible?
What behaviors were present in that moment?
Those answers are often much more useful than searching online for a list of "10 great core values for businesses."
And this is one area where I wouldn't start by asking AI to write everything for you. Do the thinking first.
Write down what matters to you, what frustrates you, what you're proud of, and the kind of company you're trying to create. Once you know what you actually mean, then technology can help you organize or polish the language. The substance needs to come from you.
The Bigger Picture
Mission statements, vision statements, and core values aren't valuable because they sound impressive. They're valuable because businesses eventually face hard decisions.
You'll have opportunities that look profitable but don't feel right. You'll interview talented people who aren't the right fit. You'll have moments when you're tired and tempted to lower the standard because it would simply be easier.
That's when having a clear foundation matters.
I think about our values almost like a filter. If I'm struggling with a decision, I can run it through what we've already said matters to us.
Does this align with who we are?
Does it move us toward where we're trying to go?
Would we be proud of this decision if our entire team saw it?
When you know what you stand for, the answer becomes a lot clearer.
Watch the Full Episode & Join the Conversation
If your mission statement has been sitting in a file somewhere, or you've never taken the time to define your company's core values, I invite you to watch the full episode of The Fish Slap Effect Podcast. James and I talk about what we've learned building Get Fish Slapped, what we wish we'd done earlier, and why these ideas have become much more than words on a wall for us.
You'll hear the complete conversation and practical insights on defining your mission, creating a vision for where your business is headed, developing meaningful core values, and making sure your actions actually match what you say matters.
Follow The Fish Slap Effect Podcast on your favorite podcast platform or subscribe on YouTube. We release new conversations every week covering marketing, leadership, business growth, and the unexpected lessons that help businesses move forward.
If you enjoy the show, subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with a fellow business owner, entrepreneur, marketer, or leader who's working to build a stronger company culture.
Because the words on the wall don't define your business. The decisions you make when those words are tested do.