I’m kicking off a new series on the show where I bring on members of my Accelerator coaching program to teach a short lesson on something they are an expert in that can help you in your own business.

In this quick tip episode of Art of Online Business, Caitlin Mitchell is kicking off this series. She is an incredibly smart CEO and in this episode, she is sharing the missing piece in your business for exponential growth. This is something that we often overlook and Caitlin is sharing how you can leverage it for massive growth in your business.

Caitlin Mitchell is one of the co-founders and CEO of EB Academics, an organization on a mission to provide teachers with engaging and rigorous ELA lessons. Caitlin and her business partner, Jessica, founded EB Academics with the desire to help English teachers find success in their reading and writing curriculum while providing a community of like-minded educators.

Through their online EB Writing Program and monthly membership, The EB Teachers’ Club, they have helped thousands of ELA teachers support their students in mastering standards.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why the mission statement of your company is essential
• Tips for creating a community with a common cause
• How your mission keeps you aligned when things get tough
• How to use your mission statement as a litmus test
• How to write your mission statement

Links & Resources:

• The Art of Online Business website
• DM me on Instagram
• Visit my YouTube channel
• The Art of Online Business clips on YouTube
• Full episodes of The Art of Online Business Podcast on YouTube
• The Art of Online Business Podcast website
• Check out my Accelerator coaching program

*Disclosure: I only recommend products I use and love and all opinions expressed here are my own. This post may contain affiliate links that at no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission.

Caitlin Mitchell’s Links: 

• Follow her on Instagram
• Check out Caitlin’s private podcast Excellence in Leadership

Please support the podcast by giving an honest Rating/Review for the show on iTunes!

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The Evolution of a Multi-Million Dollar Offer

Hey, my friend, real quick, just to remind you that I’ve made some big changes to our accelerator coaching program. So if you’re looking for personalized coaching and mentorship to help guide you to the next level of your business, whatever that next level looks like for you through help with optimizing your sales and marketing, ethical marketing leadership and being the CEO of your business team, building systems and processes, etc.. Go over to Rick Mall Radio.com for Accelerator and fill out the form right there to see if we potentially could work together. All right, Rick, Morty, forward slash accelerator. Now let’s get into today’s episode.

Everything in the success of your business ultimately comes back to one central piece. And I truly believe that that is the mission statement of your company, the mission statement, period. And if you don’t have this, nothing else really matters, quite frankly.

Hey, what’s up, My friend Rick here. Welcome to another quick tip episode here on the podcast, and I’m kicking off a new series here on the show. So this is going to be a little bit of a different quick tip episode here today. This new series is going to be where I invite members of my accelerator coaching program here onto the podcast, and they’re going to teach, teach a short lesson, teach something that they are an expert in. And it’s going to be at about 15 or 20 minutes teaching lesson, which I’ll put from time to time here on the Quick Tip episodes. And kicking off this new series is Caitlin Mitchell. Caitlin is the CEO and co-founder of EB Academics, where they serve middle school English teachers through their IB Teachers Club, which is a monthly membership as well as their IB writing program, as well as some resources. And Caitlin has IB academics is a very successful business and Caitlin is one of the smartest CEOs that I know. She’s brilliant. And she today is going to be sharing with you the missing piece in your business to exponential growth. This is something that we often overlook. And Caitlin is going to be sharing with you here in just a second. Exactly what that is and how you can leverage it for exponential growth in your business. So without further ado, let’s go hear from Caitlin Mitchell.

Well, I just want to start off by saying I am so honored and excited to be featured on Rick’s podcast here with you all. And I really hope that this podcast episode helps you tap into some fundamental things about business that I think really makes the difference between being able to take your business to the next level. And I really relate everything in life to to sports. And I’ve been reading this really interesting book that just talks about the difference between the greats and those who are really good is just the dedication to the fundamentals of the sport, whatever it might be. Basketball, in the case of the greats like Kobe or Steph Curry or what have you. And I think that we also, as business owners get to kind of adopt this mindset ourselves as well, that it comes back to dedication to the basics and the fundamentals of business and keeping keep honing those in over time. That’s going to separate us and our businesses from from others as well. So we’re going to talk about what I believe is the missing piece to exponential growth for your business. And it’s not some sexy little marketing strategy or a slow offer or anything along those lines, not something that you haven’t heard of or tried yet, or some secret or whatever it might be. It is a fundamental aspect of a company that in my mind should be a part of everybody’s business. Whether you’re starting out and it’s just you and you just created your business idea, or you have a team of ten people on your team.

I really believe that if you’re missing this one thing that we’re going to talk about, you’re missing out on an integral piece of the success of your business. And so, again, if you’re literally you have an idea, you want to start with this before you even go down any other path, because it is so essential to to growing to the growth of your company. So before we dive in, though, I’d love to to introduce myself a little bit more. My name is Caitlin Mitchell. I’m the CEO and co-founder of the Academics. It’s a multi million dollar education company as well as the founder of Excellence in Leadership, and that is an intimate mastermind experience for specifically female business owners who are looking to learn how to confidently lead their teams with compassion and strength and grace so that they finally have this space in their life to do only the things that they can do as CEO. Right? Because CEO is so different than the day to day is of customer support or operations or fulfillment or whatever it might be that a lot of us as CEOs get stuck in doing. All right. I’m going to go ahead and dive in. So the missing piece to exponential growth could be, in essence, a million different things, right? It could be discipline in showing up every single day, even when you don’t want to. It could also be consistency in your marketing, in your offers, in your messaging.

It could also be having singularity of focus on one core offer that you just perfect over time that you know delivers for your customers. It could be a million different things, right? But all of those things that I just said and anything else that you could have come up with, everything in the success of your business ultimately comes back to one central piece. And I truly believe that that is the mission statement of your company, the mission statement, period. And if you don’t have this. Nothing else really matters, quite frankly. Mission statements are essential for the success of any business, but especially a small business run by you as an entrepreneur. You need to know your why. Why are you doing this right? And your customers do too. And you need to be aligned to that mission statement at all times. So I want you to keep listening to this episode. Do not turn it off because you’re like, Oh, mission statements. That’s that’s not the thing that’s going to make the difference for my business. Yes, it is. It really, really is. But the mission statement is. Your reason? Why do you have this business to begin with? What is your purpose with this company? Why does it exist? Right. And the language of your mission statement should be so clear that anyone can come to your website immediately. Like immediately. They know exactly what you do. They know who you serve. They know why your company exists.

So I want to talk about three simple ways that you can use your mission statement to have impact on that exponential growth for your company. So you can talk about three ways that you can utilize this mission statement. And if you don’t have a mission statement yet, I’m going to give you some ideas at the end. Questions. Ask yourself for developing a mission statement because after you listen to this episode, don’t go do anything else other than write your mission statement down and put it in on your website and add it into your copy and you’ll see what I’m talking about as we get into it. So, number one, a mission statement. Really, it gets to be a marketing tool for us. So when you have a clear purpose for your business, when you have a compelling why, a compelling why that people want to rally behind, they will get behind the cause of your mission. They’re there to support you and drive that forward with you. Imagine if everybody you, your customers, your team, your contractors, your Vas, whatever, everybody at the same time is working together toward a common goal. Just how powerful that will be for your business and the work that you hope to do in the world. Right when we’re a part of something bigger than ourselves, a mission, a goal, whatever it is. We become so much more attached to that, so much more likely to share about it with others. And so we can do this with our customers as a marketing piece.

We’re going to ultimately help our mission, which ultimately helps our business. So you want to consistently be communicating that mission statement to your stakeholders, to your team, to your contractors, to your customers. And when you share this, you want to make sure that you are consistent in your messaging so that everyone is aligned to your mission statement. They know you’ve academic’s rigorous resources, engaging resources. They know what you stand for, right? That’s not our mission statement. But I’m just saying they immediately know why you’re here, who you are, what you do, and Nike just do it. Whatever brand it is that you are trying to create, you want people to immediately recognize why you are here and why you are doing what you’re doing. And if you can’t, you’re really missing out on an essential way to connect with your audience in a very, very deep values aligned way. So it is invaluable for your messaging to have that mission. That’s consistent because what happens is your messaging in your Facebook ads, on your podcast episodes, in your content or your reels or your YouTube channel, whatever it is that you are creating in your business becomes so much easier when you know your goal, not just your product or your offer, but your why, why this product or offer exists, right? The bigger picture up here because really the why of your business is almost more important than your product or service, especially in today’s day and age.

Consumer is right now and you’re going to know exactly what I’m talking about when I say this. Consumers right now are so much more values aligned than they ever have been, meaning they’re going to put their money where their values are. I know I’m that type of buyer. You probably are that type of buyer to. Right. As soon as Patagonia came out and shared that they were going to be donating all of their sales to help fight climate change, I’m like, I’m in. I’m going to go buy that for my family for Christmas or whatever it might be. I am now aligned because they’re aligned to something that is important to me. And so when we create that common cause, we’re creating community around something bigger than ourselves. People become self motivated if they’re compelled by your why they want to go to the same place you do, and they want to get there by living out that same set of values that your company does. So in order to gain those inspired followers who want to do that with you, you as the leader, as the CEO or the business owner, you need to communicate, communicate, communicate the company’s mission in your marketing. So, number one, so important. A mission statement gets to be a marketing tool for us. Number two, this isn’t just an external thing, right? Mission statements aren’t just that. They aren’t just marketing tools. They are the literal driving force behind what we do.

Think about that. They are the driving force behind why we do what we do. It’s not about how it’s just communicated to our customers, but the internal team as well. How is it communicated to our team, to our contractors, to our employees, to our board? If you have a board of directors, to any of the stakeholders in your business. Why are we all here? Why are we showing up to work each day? Why are we doing the work that we do? It’s our Y, It’s our guiding light. It’s our North Star. We use it to keep us aligned when things get tough. They inevitably do. They will in business like that’s just a part of the game. So we get to use our mission to realign us, to bring us back to what we’re doing here. And so I want to give you an example of this. What this looks like in real life for my team. And you can use this too. Every Monday, when our team meets at academics. We start the meeting with our mission statement and our values. This aligns the meeting to put the most important people at the forefront of our meeting our customers. Why are we having this meeting in the first place? Because it aligns to our mission. Because this is what we’re doing and this puts everything. Into context, right? We’re not just here because we’re talking about numbers or we’re talking about increasing this or increasing that or decrease the churn rate or whatever it might be.

We’re here because all of those numbers impact the ultimate mission. Right. And in the case of academics, that’s serving teachers. So if we lose sight of them, if we lose sight of our teachers, if we lose sight of our company’s mission, if you lose sight of your company’s mission. Then you’re losing sight of your sole purpose. The mission statement needs to be so integral to what you do that every single person on your team should know exactly what it is. They should be able to live it out in their role in the company and be able to recognize when other people on the team are living out that mission and to call them out on it to say, Hey, Brooke, I noticed when you did X, Y and Z, you are really living out the mission of our company. And that’s what you get to do as a leader is recognizing that in others as well as the CEO or as the business owner, as whatever it is that you put yourself in the role of your team. So just like I mentioned above, to with your customers being valued aligned. So too are our teams. So to our our employees, our contractors, when our team is working together toward a common goal, we are creating a purpose for everybody where they all matter, everybody’s contributions matter, no matter how small they might be. Right? They are all every single thing moving the business toward fulfilling the ultimate mission a Facebook post, an email setting, something up in the back end, hooking up Zapier like it brings us back to this isn’t just a job.

It’s not just a job. No one wants to just have a job. People want to be fulfilled. Our team wants to be fulfilled in their roles in life. And we get to give that to them. As a CEO in leading them with our mission. So number two is about using the mission statement as an internal peace, as the driving force behind why you do what you do as a team. Now, the third one, not the third, because it’s the most important or the third because it’s the least important. They are all equally important. Number three, though, is is really helpful for you as a CEO, is that it helps us in our decision making. It’s going to help you in your decision making as a business owner. The mission statement ultimately becomes that litmus test through which everything passes, all decisions in the business from hiring somebody to letting someone go to propelling the vision of the company forward. Are you thinking about doing something else or you want to have another offer, or am I actually going to say yes to this opportunity? This gets to be that litmus test. You go back to this time and time again, because when you have that opportunity on your plate or you are interviewing somebody or you are considering letting someone go, you want to ask yourself, does this decision align to the company’s mission? And it makes decision making a whole heck of a lot easier.

And I’ll give you an example from my own life. Perhaps you’re even thinking of something to where the mission statement would have been really helpful for you in that decision. So I was considering heavily restructuring something in our business, and I kept kind of going back and forth, back and forth. I’m like, Oh, is this the right choice? But then I put it through the litmus test of the company’s mission statement and simply didn’t align for easy decision. And it felt a line. It felt like a good decision that I finally came to. To not move forward with this potential restructure that I was going to do. And at the end of the day, I look back now, it was a good choice. It was the right choice. It was the right decision for our customers, ultimately, which is our ultimate goal and our mission statement. This impact teacher is right. So, you know, as CEOs, a small business owners, we have so many choices on our plate every day, every week, every hour, for goodness sakes. You are constantly making decisions when you are at the helm of your company. So keeping your why at the forefront of what you do, not just your why will I want to leave my 9 to 5? I want to make more money know like the why behind your business? Why does your business exist? Why are you here? What is the purpose of your company that is going to keep you grounded and making the right choices to move your business forward toward your ultimate vision, whatever that might be? It is essential to the growth and success of your business.

It is a fundamental piece of business that I think so many entrepreneurs miss out on because we’re so caught off guard by all these different strategies and secrets, this or whatever, it comes back to the fundamentals and focusing and perfecting and refining and practicing those fundamentals over time. And so if you don’t have a mission statement yet for your business, like I said at the beginning, hopefully you use this as the kick in the butt to go get it done. Like, you know, after I go through these questions, I’m going to give you to help you come up with writing your own. Turn off the episode and go write your mission statement and put it on your website. Right. So I’m going to give you some questions that you can ask yourself to help you start writing. So number one, why does your organization exist? Why do you do what you do right? What problems does your organization solve? What does success look like for your organization? Like, what is the transformation that you’re promising people? Who does your organization serve? How does it serve them? How does your organization make the world a better place for your customer, for your audience? You also want to think about how are you different from others in your field? What’s different about you compared to somebody else? Does your mission statement clearly and simply communicate your message? And how clear is the language that you are using? Okay, So essentially it’s your Y.

And what positive contribution is it going to make to your customers, to your stakeholders, to your employees? Ultimately, the world as a whole. You also want to think about it in terms of being broad, but also short, clear and really powerful. That way you’re not like limiting the future of your company. So I hope you enjoyed this episode. And if you’re interested in learning more from me, I’ve actually put together a private podcast called Excellence in Leadership. I have five episodes focused on what I believe are the five core areas of excellence for a business to thrive under successful leadership. What is successful leadership look like? And those five core areas of excellence excellence really tap into that. So you can check it out by going to podcasts. Caitlin Dash Mitchell. Forward, slash forward slash register. All right. Thank you guys so much for joining me. And thank you again, Rick, for hosting me on today’s podcast episode. I hope you guys found this hugely helpful. And if you did find me over on Instagram at Excellence in Leadership, I would love for you to send me a direct message. You can ask me any questions that you might have. I’m here to support you in anything that you need help with. All right. Thanks again so much for joining me, you guys.