Will Power Podcast by Will Humphreys

Why Purpose-Driven Leaders Win Every Time with Will Humphreys

• Will Humphreys • Season 3 • Episode 1

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In this powerful live recording of the Will Power Podcast, Will reveals why culture—not strategy, not systems, not talent—determines the destiny of every business and team. He breaks down the foundation of intentional culture, why emotional connection is the true leadership advantage, and how purpose shapes performance from the inside out. You’ll hear real stories and practical culture strategies from entrepreneurs and leaders who are building movements—not just companies.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode:

  • Why the purpose of a leader is to create other leaders
  • The difference between heart-set vs. mindset in culture
  • Why culture is created by intention or by default
  • The four pillars of culture: Purpose, Mission, Values, Vision
  • How to align culture internally + externally
  • Why storytelling is a cultural tool, not just marketing
  • Real-life examples of culture initiatives that build loyalty
  • How to use social media and PR to amplify your mission
  • The power of charity and social impact as cultural anchors

If this episode challenged your thinking and fired you up, SUBSCRIBE and leave a review. It means the world and helps us reach more purpose-driven leaders around the globe.

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SPEAKER_01:

Today's episode of the Willpower Podcast comes to you from a live speaking engagement. Yeah, I am excited because we're talking about culture. So, real quick, let's do a brief recap of yesterday's presentation than I did 101. What's the purpose of a leader? To create other leaders. That's right. And leadership is love. And love looks like service. Oh God, Jared, I love it. Okay, so from that place now, we can understand that when culture can be described as the feeling or experience, we understand that there's variables that go into this, but there's a heart set and a mindset the culture I want to talk about. The heart set is my favorite part, in case you haven't gotten to know me at all by now. I'm super into this thing called experience and connection. And it's it's the human experience. It's about so much more than business or classification or any of that stuff, because what we're talking about is being with other humans and helping them achieve whatever it is that they're going to achieve. It's such an important part of this. So culture to me is everything. There's a quote that's my all-time favorite quote when it comes to business and life, which is that culture eats strategy for breakfast. Um, I don't know if you know this, but Amy's actually a sister I didn't know I had. Well, actually, both Amy's. From a training perspective, Amy and I, she and I were just like whole timer talking, like, yeah, because we were trained in the same thing. But why do you guys let me start with that? Why do you think culture eats strategy for breakfast? What does that mean to you? What does that sound like to you? Or do you or like I have no idea? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

I just said uh strategy has heeded up by trouble.

SPEAKER_05:

Studied the pattern. Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

I love that. That culture and connection is bigger than any plan, yes.

SPEAKER_02:

And I feel like along with that, the people drive the strategy, so it can go either way, right? If the whatever you take in is what we get out. So if the culture is something that takes in the strategy and then perpetuates it, it's gonna be a great, great strategy. Right? The pitcher is against the strategy, you get it.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. And to use what Simon Sinek said yesterday, going those three circles. Remember this? That Cinema circle was what? Why? He talked about how when you start with this, you're in a position where you dominate because people it they internalize it, it becomes who they are, right? We use terms like putting the cult in culture. I always told my people that, right? I was like, I want this to be a cult, almost a cult, where you guys want to wear the logo because it means something to you personally. This is the greatest joy and the greatest fulfillment of our individual purposes, is to create culture. And this isn't just a culture that like pertains to like the people within our business, it pertains to the people outside of our business. So, do we have a little erasy thing? There we go. So when we look at this thing called culture, there's factors. Let's go into a little bit of the mindset, or excuse me, the yeah, the mind over the heart side of it. When we're looking at culture, there's these two elements, but it's always centered on this overlapping piece of a of a cultural foundation. This is the external and then the internal expressions of culture. Internal, what would you guys guess I'm talking about when I say that? The team, right? Like this is what we do within our companies. And by the way, if you remember what I said yesterday, everything that we learn in business in this bouncy ball is really so we can practice to learn it where? In the home. We can so culture exists whether we intentionally create it or not. It can be created by intention or default. If we don't put language around it, it doesn't mean we don't have a purpose. You probably heard that yesterday. One of you said that with Alexis. Hey, I'm pretty sure I have a purpose. I just never used words before to describe it. So we have these things, they're just, they just exist. But as creators, and in my language, sons and daughters of a God that created the universe, and you have the actual DNA to go and create whatever it is, that's how I see it. No matter how you see it, you're creators. You can put intention into this creation called the experience of being a part of this organization, whether it's a kid in my family or a new entry-level employee in my team, because staff is an infection. So you have the internal and then the external. What do I mean by external when we're looking at from the business perspective? Who am I talking about? Customers. So we create these experiences, and it's all based on this cultural foundation that exists. And I think sometimes we get lost when we talk about culture and these elements, like we have to be in business to understand what this means, right? Again, I'm looking at three of you I know who are currently recreating your new future. And this is the part of this journey that is the most exciting. And I was sharing this recently, but do you guys know the etymology of the word enthusiasm? It's Greek and literally means God within. So when we feel enthusiastic about something, like the most exciting, if we don't know what to do, follow the excitement. What excites me? What's the thing that gets me the most lit up? For me, that's God saying, Hey, do that thing and then explore that as far as it can go. Stay with it and commit to it. So cultural foundations, this is what we talked about yesterday with Alexis. We have purpose. Mission now, I'm gonna throw in there. I actually wasn't one who used a mission statement. I used a purpose statement. I saw those as interchangeable, but it's a Vern harnessed piece. Amy, what are you thinking?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, no, I'm I'm I'm watching the whole thing.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, yeah. Okay, I just not because for me, I always Vern Harnish and Scaling Up talks about how purpose is more of like a more nuanced way of saying mission, but then Alexa separated that out for me. I'm like, that's kind of cool. It's more like my product.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I separated out as well. Uh purpose being a lot more personal. Everything you're you're saying, like what are the things that light you up? Um, those are your garden and guests, those are the bits that you be home. Those are the things that and like the why do you exist?

SPEAKER_01:

Right. And that's that emotional driver. And so I love the idea because for my company Virtual Rockstar, our purpose was to build and strengthen families. You've heard that so many times, you're probably uh able to recall that back to me. But when we're talking about mission, people don't ask me, like, hey, well, what do you do? And then I tell them my purpose. I tell them my mission. And my mission is actually pretty well defined. It's to free up private practice owners with virtual assistance, AI, and playbooks, virtual assistance being the first one. So the purpose, the mission, then we have the values, and then we have the vision. This is the foundation of our culture. And I want you to think about it in a couple different angles. Um, the first is that your purpose comes from your past, and it always has to be from the founder. It's why you exist. And then you know, Alexis was talking about it from a marketing angle yesterday about how you develop a story around it. But here's the power in this. The story is how people psychologically are going to connect to your culture. It's the story of why you started what you're doing, and it's just the authentic truth around it. So, my physical therapy practice, Raj Rehab, started when I fell off a mountain when I was 17 trying to impress a girl rock climbing on a Friday the 13th. That's a good beginning of the story. I fell 50 feet because I wasn't using ropes at 130 pounds. I wanted her to see every one of my skinny muscles. I broke 21 bones, both arms, both legs. That's when my shoes is three inches bigger than the other, because I do this and I don't have shoes on. I had eight surgeries. I still have surgeries. Um, but my physical therapist Connie Clemens came in like a ball of light and hope. Right? This is how I led recruiting stories. This was when I was when I was the only provider. This is what I told my clients. This is why I became a physical therapist. It began in my past. Values, by the way, that's we're gonna talk just briefly about how we can use messaging to create that experience for people, because nothing creates experience more better than a story. But the middle, the values is the present. That's the stand we're taking in the world. Those are the words we use to describe the filter by which all decisions will be made. What do we stand for? And then the future is the vision, right? So another way to look at that for those who are in healthcare is that the purpose is your heart, the emotional heart, the values is your musculoskeletal system because it's what moves you through space and your vision in your eyes, right? And the brain, the leadership that oversees all this. So I understand that culture is not a new concept for you, but I think it's important to hit the foundation of this before we start sharing best practices. I have all sorts of ideas of how to do this, but I understand this is a room of entrepreneurs, leaders, and experts. What are some of the coolest ways that you guys have been able to express your company culture internally and externally? Anything come to mind? Brian?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I mentioned yesterday the diaper program because I couldn't pay for diapers for my kids. We Black February came, so I didn't have enough money. So we started paying for diapers for all of our stack who have children. I'm under two years old. So every month they get a diaper, they get a diaper. It's called the Weekgate program because week date is diaper spelled backward. And so and it's ironic in some ways. Right, so up to you. So we do that, and every month, uh, everybody who has a child under two years old in their company just gets a box of bangers. It's it's sort of like a rainbow in the sky, but I love that.

SPEAKER_01:

And so how did you communicate that? What do you put any PR behind that? Did you sabortize that internally?

SPEAKER_02:

When we when we first pushed it out to the entire company, it was a big kind of like uh Swobber Doik for everybody, and even 90% of the company that are like, oh man, that's not us anymore, and they're like, our company out of this box. Every month you send out emails, and then it's also in the newsletter. So it shows up all the time.

SPEAKER_01:

That's amazing. Why is it important to put PR behind our cultural initiatives? Yeah, man. So that's why all of you want to be on social media. All of you want to be on social media, all of you want to be on social media. Okay? Those of you who are doing it, I've I'm looking at a few that I know, it's like, man, it's a game changer. It is, we are in a period of time, as Gary V says, that has never been better in terms of marketing and public relations because anyone can pick up their phone and just create value from a place of what they're passionate about.

unknown:

Right?

SPEAKER_01:

And passion is that underlying thing around it. So I don't care if you have no idea what you want to do, or you're so clear that you have a million clinics and you're starting 30 other businesses and frankly killing them all. Like, I want all of you to get in the habit of putting it out there. And yeah, it sucks. I've been doing it for a year, and it's been so humbling to see comments like, uh, well, I won't get into them because they're personal and offensive. But for so many on the other side of it, it's this powerful thing of like, wow, that really spoke to me. It's opened doors for me. I can't describe. Real quick example, I started doing this thing on LinkedIn called the gratitude posts. I literally learned this from nobody. I just thought I need more gratitude in my life because things started getting heavier, and gratitude is the greatest thing. So I would just get online and start, who am I grateful for today? And I just start posting about them. I think I posted about you. Yes. Because I'm I worry because I forget who I post. I'm like, I already post about Jared, but I'll just post about it. One day I was posting about a leader that I've never met, Vern Harnish, who wrote Scaling Book, Scaling Up, which is a Bible for me of business books. Very big guy, whatever. And he saw my post. Because I tagged him. I'm not stupid, I'm gonna tag him. But I tagged him and he's like, hey, that was a really touching story. Would you can I feature you in my online magazine? That online magazine opened up a couple of stages that I spoke on and drove drove in over a quarter million dollars of revenue. Because I and I wasn't trying to get the revenue, but I'm just saying social media works. We had another handback here for how you guys have implemented or sorry, I kind of went on a tangent. Anyone else? Yeah, Jared.

SPEAKER_04:

One of the things that we do is starting with why and our purpose and our values and every team meeting to be how we state it, and we sh that we start the meeting. And it's not so much to be so repetitive or overkill, but we sup at that and I highlight every single boy who's my bike I used to spend that last since the last meeting.

unknown:

Every week.

SPEAKER_04:

Every every meeting someone gets uh highlighted on how he gun hire problems the values during another uh assessment of who we're hiring yet and during a uh a creature or cultural alignment ground. We rebbed a b and that is our culture is that we'll be the values and let me hire and higher this little I love that, yes, friend.

SPEAKER_03:

So I had a friend that uh ended up taking his life after surveying Iraq. He's a childhood friend, and um it hurt me pretty bad. And part of our purpose is to identify things that hurt us, right? Like I want to create a change in the world to make sure no veteran ever takes their life again. And that has been an integral part of my business to build our soul-pilled platforms and to build awareness about this terrible thing that's happening. So we've made it a social mission to in ingrain that in our culture. Every clinic we open, social mission, big uh big grand openings, and you raise around ten thousand dollars for Woody Warriors. So we partnered with the Woody Warrior Project. Uh for every patient that graduates to get a little card with a t-shirt with a bow, and it it says on the card that because you sews up, we're gonna donate. And if you refer one of your friends, then we'll donate yeah, X amount more. Yeah. Right? So it's just been part of our culture that that is what we do. We're here to support veterans as well.

SPEAKER_01:

So there's been gold just shared right here. Let me kind of pull it back a little bit and reframe it so that you have some application for each of you that sounds like palatable. Because when you hear a lot of great ideas, it's inspiring, but you're also like, how many great ideas do I have to go back and implement when I come home? You know, that overwhelm is real. But what's really powerful about this is that Simon Senex says start with the why. I'll tell you the why is the foundation of culture. So again, whether you're starting over or you're accelerating a vision that's been around for decades, it doesn't matter. Recentering around the why is always the best place to start. It's always the best place for us to achieve the next level, whatever that is for us. And so when we look at our why, we have our personal purpose or our professional purpose, but more importantly, what does love look like? I said that yesterday. What does service look like? What does it look like to make an impact on people? So pulling it back again, we had three great points. First, Brian talked about having initiatives that really met the employees' personal needs in a way through a professional organization that felt like they were speaking just to them as individuals. There's so many ways to do that. Um, one thing I did recently, by the way, if you're gonna do uh Amy, what did you call bonuses? The because you don't give raises, it was ID spot the discretionary discretionary or spot bonuses. One thing I ripped off from Google, because I do a lot of RD, which doesn't stand for research and development, it's rip-off and duplicate. So I went for ripped off from Google, is I found in one of their programs how they used experiences over money. So one of my employees, uh Kayla, our director of ops, she broke another record. And I was like, should I give her a raise? I'm like, no, let's give her a discretionary bonus. And then I thought, oh, let's do what Google does. And I I knew she was a huge Disney fan. So I took the$2,000 I would have given her and I bought a three-day pass for her, her husband, and her kids. It took a little bit of extra effort. And then I thought, well, how can we make this even better? And I decided, let's let's print out a letter with Mickey. Let's have like, you know, this gold. I found some gold envelopes online. And then I had my son deliver it. Like I was in communication with her husband. I had my son deliver it to her after dinner, right before the girls were getting ready to go to bed, which ruined their night. But they I like, you know, but they were like that. Literally, I got this really cool Marco Polo from them, and they were just like the the little girls or eight and ten are screaming. They're like, ah, thank you, Will. You know, and I was like, and I just got back. I'm like, this is the company, this isn't Will, because I'm always keeping that steward thing because it feels really good when they thank me, but it hurts a lot when they're angry at me. So I keep that distance intentional. Like, well, that's the company, and it's because you earned it. That's what that is. So just like those little cultural pieces are phenomenal. What Jared said that I want to hit really hard is the idea that I don't care if it's your kids or if it's a business, if we don't say our purpose, vision, and values, they won't know or care about our purpose, vision, and values. So if you don't know where to start, write them down. If you don't know where to go from there, repeat them until they make fun of you, andor that they can repeat them verbatim. Because in our company, we would say Rise Rehab's purpose is Jared. Everyone say that every single time, every single week. We'd have it posted in places. And then we, like Jared beautifully does, he highlights people through the values so they become meaningful and real and they have their own stories that they connect to them. And then when they tell their patients, that's how you scale. They have their own story of being the light and hope in the lives of others and how someone in the company or outside does that. And then you build and you build and you build. So step one, create the language. Step two, if we're gonna do this epistemologically or step by step, step two would be to make sure we repeat it and use it and anchor it to things like the diaper initiative or this wonderful thing called the social mission. Here's a hack. This is a thing that transformed our culture that I have been doing over and over again. Is we anchor our culture, our purpose, our greater purpose to a charity the way that Brad didn't.

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Will Humphreys

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