Speaker 1: So if you pick up any business theory book, any magazine that's telling you how to grow your organization, everyone will tell you, you got to focus on the employees. So I don't think this is going to be new information for you. But what's really important about the employee base is not just that they know how to do their job or they know what they're being measured on. What matters really is that they believe, that they actually believe in what it is you're trying to share. So for example, when you think about a faith, it's not just about the symbol of the faith. It's not just about the books that tell the story of the faith. It's about the believers, right? Whether it's the religious leader or the constituents, they all are aligned. They all understand how this should matter, how this should affect the way that they carry themselves, right? Every organization with either one employee or a thousand employees has to ensure that the employee base, the voice of the business are all aligned around the brand and what it believes and what makes it different. Let's take the sales force as a perfect example, right? Now most sales forces are trained on how the utility works, right? It's what we sell and this is how it functionally works or they're really good at negotiation. But what happens when you go into a business meeting and the sales deal is almost done and the potential client says, well, what makes you guys different? I know that the software and the hardware, but really, what is it that you believe? And if that sales person can't come up with an answer that says, well, what we hope is going to happen and what we want the world to know and what we teach all of our employees and what they stand for and what the theme of our holiday party is, is this. The employee base isn't going to be motivated enough. They're not going to know how to say what they do. They're not going to know how to create a connection with the audience that's listening, right? So whenever you're going through this process of constructing your business and then wrapping it in a brand, you cannot stop with the senior executive team because you'll ultimately realize when you get to five employees, a hundred employees, a thousand employees, that the senior executives are running the business. They're not promoting the business. They're not speaking on his behalf. Maybe they give a speech at a conference, but day to day who's on customer service call? Who's greeting people at the front door? Who's responding with emails? Who's writing the brochure copy? Those people are your employee base. Yes. No, they're your representation. They're your spokesfolks. You have to ensure that once you've constructed this brand, you've done the research, you've theorized around the name, you've decided what the portfolio is supposed to look like, you've wrapped it in a visual system. Don't just leave it in a PowerPoint. Don't just leave it in brand guidelines that your designer holds. Teach every employee. Teach them about the research you did. Teach them about what you learned about the competition. Teach them about what you've learned about the consumer, who the buyer is, how they feel, what they believe, where they go, what they do. Doesn't that sound like a recipe for a great high-producing employee? We've also found that employees who believe in the organization they're working for actually know how to articulate it. They're more proud of where they work. They tell their family and friends about it more often. They work harder. They work longer. Why? Because they're not punching a clock anymore. They're not pulling a lever or throwing a dart. They specifically are creating something that goes beyond things that can be measured. If you ever go to a store where you feel like the employees really want to be there, no whip, no whip can ever make an employee love a business. But a reason to believe, a philosophy, a way of seeing the world, all of these things together, that's what people want. That's what a business owes them, and that's why it's called brand alignment.