April 14, 2025 • 27 mins
What if the secret to faster revenue growth isn’t a new ad platform or sales funnel… but a coffee break, a chant, or even a moss ball?
In this episode of the Maven Marketing Podcast, Brandon Welch and Caleb Agee break down how rituals and rhythms—those often-overlooked cultural habits—can transform your team’s energy, identity, and yes, even your profit margins.
You’ll learn:
- Why predictable rituals outperform unpredictable "hype"
- How to spot accidental culture—and make it intentional
- Real-world examples (from Chick-fil-A to your local roofer) of rituals that bond teams and boost business
- 3 types of rituals every business needs: Celebration, Clarity, and Connection
- How companies see 19–50% productivity boosts just by implementing rhythms
Want a team that’s engaged, connected, and actually excited for Mondays? This episode is your blueprint.
Featuring research from Gallup, McKinsey, Harvard & more.
Listen, laugh, and level up your leadership with rituals that actually move the needle.
Drop your favorite business ritual in the comments. We might just give it a name.
Subscribe for more real-world marketing wisdom every Maven Monday.
Resources Mentioned:
James Project of Latin America — http://www.jamesprojectinternational.org/Guatemala-Story
FREE MARKETING AUDIT: MavenMarketingAudit.com
Get a copy of our Best-Selling Book, The Maven Marketer, here:
https://a.co/d/1clpm8a
Our Website: https://frankandmaven.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frankandmavenmarketing/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@frankandmaven
Twitter: https://twitter.com/frankandmaven
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/frank-and-maven/
Host: Brandon Welch
Co-Host: Caleb Agee
Executive Producer: Carter Breaux
Audio/Video Producer: Nate the Camera Guy
Do you have a marketing problem you'd like us to help solve? Send it to MavenMonday@FrankandMaven.com!
Get a copy of our Best-Selling Book, The Maven Marketer Here:
https://a.co/d/1clpm8a
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Brandon Welch (00:00):
rituals are the part of your culture that people
can witness and see and like,attach meaning to and say I was
there when they talked aboutthat.
It doesn't have to be these big, well-planned out things.
It possibly is something you'vealready accidentally done, it's
just not repeated at apredictable rhythm.
Caleb Agee (00:15):
If you don't have these, or maybe you feel like
they could be better or moreintentional, we want you to look
around and say what is a partof our culture?
Because it's happening onaccident, so let's make it
happen on purpose.
Brandon Welch (00:33):
Welcome to the Maven Marketing Podcast.
Today is Maven Monday.
I'm your host, brandon Welch,and I'm joined by Caleb,
Guatemala, Agee.
Caleb Agee (00:40):
Hey Guatemala.
Guatemala Tell us aboutguatemala uh well, it is a
country in central america.
Um, I had the pleasure of goingthere a couple years ago now.
Um, my grandma lives there.
Founded an orphanage um gosh 15or 20 years ago, I don't even
(01:01):
know how old it is now.
And she's lived there for a longtime, and so it is the worst
place in the world for women andchildren to live because of
their justice system, and so ifyou're curious about that, it is
James Project of Latin America.
You can go check that out.
I think I don't remember the.
(01:21):
It's the org, but I can'tremember the exact.
Brandon Welch (01:24):
URL yeah, because you are super generous awesome
prosperous folk listening tothis prosperous podcast you're
going to go do that,jamesprojectoflatinamericaorg.
I think so.
Go give some money to thiscause.
I'll let you read more about it.
Caleb Agee (01:42):
Didn't plan on endorsing that today.
Yeah, that was not a plan.
Brandon Welch (01:44):
It is sincerely the Lord's work in its finest.
Caleb Agee (01:47):
Yeah, and it's a very, very cool thing they're
doing.
It's shifted from if we'regoing to sidetrack for a second
it's shifted from more of anorphanage thing to it's actually
more of a foster care model.
Okay, because a lot oforphanages were not a great.
It's just long-term, indefinitecare and so the goal is to get
(02:08):
kids back with an actual adultin their life instead of being
in a big group home and so.
But for those months thatthey're there, they get their
lives changed, which is prettycool, love it.
Brandon Welch (02:19):
Yeah, well, hey, speaking of big things, this is
the place where we help youconquer your big dreams by
eliminating waste andadvertising so you can grow your
business, and then achievingthat big dream.
Caleb Agee (02:30):
You see what I did there.
Brandon Welch (02:31):
It's a big dream.
Caleb Agee (02:33):
That was a B minus transition.
Big dream sandwich right there.
Brandon Welch (02:35):
Big dream sandwich.
But that is why we're here.
That's why we're here everyMonday and we are unpacking the
essence of why small businessesgrow, and we're doing that
through marketing.
We're doing that throughculture.
Today, we're going to talkabout something just slightly
different.
This is a leverage on allthings that you do.
If you do these things we'regoing to talk about today, I
(02:56):
promise you your marketing willwork better like magic.
You won't have to change asingle thing in your budget.
You won't have to change asingle click or platform or ad,
and everything will just workbetter, because it is about
people and there are sometie-ins to marketing.
But we're going to talk aboutrituals and rhythm.
What is the underflowingcurrent in your business?
(03:16):
And these are things you can doas the leader to put your team
in this predictable feel-goodextra output, tying the thing to
a bigger thing than just thework you do.
And I don't care if you arecleaning trash cans for a living
or building orphanages orrunning a ministry or selling
(03:40):
roofs or doing legal services.
This works at all levels andit's borrowed from some of the
highest and best runorganizations in the world.
We're going to talk about somereal studies where, just by
doing these ritualistic thingswe're going to talk about today.
I'm talking 30, 40, 50%increases in profitability.
Caleb Agee (04:00):
Yeah, and I think the-.
Brandon Welch (04:02):
Byproduct, by the way.
Caleb Agee (04:04):
Yeah yeah.
Profitability is a by-product,it is a, it's a bonus, the we'll
talk about the primary product,which is how it affects your
team, your team members.
Um, I think the danger when youlook at these things is that
you can see it as maybe a wasteof time.
You can see these rituals as umboring or annoying.
(04:25):
Hope you're probably doing themwrong.
If that's what it is, there willbe days that you show up for
that ritual and it's like Idon't really want to do this
today, but you need to show upanyways and do it anyways and um
, but they, they change things.
If you think about your ownpersonal life, uh, unless you
eat the right things every day,show up to the gym consistently.
(04:45):
Read the right books or avoidthe right amount of poison or
whatever you won't be a healthyhuman, you won't have progress
toward the things you know, thegrowth you want to see as a
person.
The same is true with your team, with your organization, your
kids, your marriage.
Brandon Welch (04:59):
Yes, your friendships.
Caleb Agee (05:00):
You've got to show up, and you've got to do it on
the regular.
You can't just randomly find it, and so that's what we're going
to talk to you about today.
Brandon Welch (05:08):
On the other end.
If you look at these things ashacks, I think you'll miss the
mark completely.
You'll miss the impact andreally the opportunity to build
something awesome.
So what in the heck are wetalking about with rituals?
What is this?
We have, like you know, robesand essence, or what do they
call those Incense not essenceIncense, the essence of incense,
emerald essence.
Caleb Agee (05:27):
yeah yeah, get a guitar out and play kumbaya
around a fire.
Brandon Welch (05:33):
I mean maybe.
Maybe we may have been known todo that a time or two.
Yeah.
So what the heck are we talkingabout with rituals?
What is a ritual, Mr Caleb Agee?
Yeah.
Caleb Agee (05:42):
So most of the time, I think, when you think of
rituals which is why we made thejoke just a second ago about
kumbaya and-.
Brandon Welch (05:48):
Robes.
Caleb Agee (05:48):
And robes and you get these images in your head
because mostly the definition ofit has to do with religious
procedure.
It's like, if you want a bigword, liturgical, which is the
common practices that you haveinside of maybe a religious
service.
Brandon Welch (06:06):
It's a $13 word.
Yeah, there you go.
You know you can count on Calebfor a $13 word, that's right.
Caleb Agee (06:12):
No more.
I can't give you change foranything else.
But yeah, so some definitionsan established or prescribed
procedure for a religious orother rite, a system or
collection of religious or otherrights, observance of set forms
of public worship.
So that's what we typicallythink about and those are some
of the most common denotationsthe dictionary definition.
Brandon Welch (06:34):
Is that my buddy Webster there?
Caleb Agee (06:36):
That's my buddy dictionarycom.
Dictionarycom the app.
Brandon Welch (06:40):
So I think what we're talking about is more what
Chip Conley.
He was like a hotel founder.
I found this just in my studyof rituals.
He says rituals are theinvisible architecture of brand
loyalty.
When you think about brand, wethink often outward what does
the world see?
But arguably way more importantand way more foundational, I
(07:02):
don't know that you can have ahealthy outward brand if you
don't have a healthy inwardbrand.
He says rituals are theinvisible architecture of brand
loyalty.
Another guy from IBM, ceo of alittle company called IBM, said
culture is not just one aspectof the game, it is the game and
rituals are how culture becomesvisible.
So these guys are connecting itto culture.
(07:25):
And then I think what wedefined it as just writing down
something more practical.
A ritual is a repeatable,intentional action that
reinforces a shared value,belief or identity within a
group.
And the group we're talkingabout is your company, your
organization, your thing thatyou're leading.
Caleb Agee (07:43):
Yeah.
Brandon Welch (07:43):
And so we all do rituals to some degree every day
, right we?
Have you know teeth brushing,that would be a good one.
Caleb Agee (07:50):
Hopefully, yeah.
Brandon Welch (07:52):
Hopefully.
Do you have a ritual with yourwife and kids before you leave
the house?
Caleb Agee (07:56):
Yeah, I mean I always make the coffee first and
then Sierra and I make bagels.
That's the next thing.
Wow, it's whole wheat, bagelsand cream cheese.
And then we split up and haveseparate quiet time.
Oh, love it.
It's kind of I don't know why.
I like the dinner table.
She likes to sit on the couch,so that's like our own little
(08:18):
quiet time.
We try to get up before thekids.
Then the kids wake up, then weget ready.
Not so quiet time.
So not so quiet time.
So, yes, there's a morningroutine, and the same is true in
the evening.
Brandon Welch (08:30):
Yeah.
Caleb Agee (08:30):
There are those set up and tear down of the day to
set you up for it.
Brandon Welch (08:35):
Yeah, love the quiet time.
One Val and I both did the samething in our own ways.
I try to have a meaningfulconversation with each kid
before.
Caleb Agee (08:46):
I leave the house, yeah.
Brandon Welch (08:47):
There's some days that has to be earlier than
they're up, but either you know,either morning or evening we
have some like affirmationstatements.
We read back to them.
Caleb Agee (08:56):
Yeah.
Brandon Welch (08:56):
And that's just a really powerful thing we've
done since before they couldtalk.
Caleb Agee (09:00):
Yeah, I'm not allowed to leave without at
least saying goodbye and givinga hug.
Yeah, everybody could talk.
Yeah, I'm not allowed to leavewithout uh at least saying
goodbye and giving a hug.
Yeah, everybody gets a hug andkiss on the way out, yeah and if
I, if I, if they feel like Ididn't do it properly, um,
they're running out in their pjsthrough the, you know, through
the garage, you know, and likeall right buddy, let's go, you
know yes, and that.
Brandon Welch (09:19):
so in that same way, uh, rituals help people
know who they are and remindthem what they're a part of.
And would there be any moreuseful virtue in your business
than people knowing why they'recoming to work, to give you the
hours of their life?
And that's what we're talkingabout here.
So a lot of people listening tothis podcast, you do a lot of
(09:40):
this stuff, right, yeah, you.
It was either just a byproductof what happened when you were
small and it continued.
You have some regularcelebrations, some regular ways
of doing things.
I think Randy Mays says cultureis the way things are done
around here, and so we're kindof talking about that.
But what if we added just alittle bit more intention to it
(10:01):
and possibly made it a littlemore fun, a little more sticky,
and we're calling that partrhythm, right?
So rituals and rhythm are kindof closely tied.
The ritual is the thing, theact, but the rhythm is how often
you?
Caleb Agee (10:15):
do it right Frequency yep.
Brandon Welch (10:17):
So culture is not what you say, it's what you
repeat.
We're talking about creatingmomentum, reinforcing identity
of your company.
You don't just work somewhere,you belong to a bigger thing.
You are creating clarity aboutwhat's important and then
inversely and like, just as abyproduct of that, when you have
clarity about what's important,that's accountability to what's
(10:37):
socially accepted amongst yourpeers, whether that be five of
them in a small working group or500 of them in a company.
But I want to ask what are yourepeating in your business and
give some examples about youknow, it could be really small
things.
We're going to share some stufffrom our world and then our
(10:59):
clients, but give us some ideasabout what it could be.
Caleb Agee (11:03):
Yeah, this could show up in you, up in a daily,
weekly, monthly ritual.
It could be a quarterly ritual.
I would encourage you to havedefinitely some weekly ones.
But I think at every levelthere are different versions of
a ritual.
So you could have like a dailystand-up meeting in the morning.
Go over your list, like BigRock.
(11:24):
We would have a Big Rockupmeeting in the morning.
Go over your list, like bigrock.
Or we used to have like wewould have a big rock meeting
sometimes in the morning.
Um, you could have a weekly allstaff meeting or um.
You could um a huddle?
Yeah, a little huddle or or sitaround the conference table.
However that works.
Um you know you can have awardsor accolades, so you could, you
could, recognize somebody.
Um, in a know you can haveawards or accolades.
(11:44):
So you could, you couldrecognize somebody um in a
specific week you could have um.
You know, I would encourage youto like give those things names
, like funny names or uh or justyou know, go for that.
So, um, we also have.
We have a, a gong.
Brandon Welch (12:01):
I was literally better mentioned.
I'm looking right out ourstudio window here.
Yeah, we have a gong.
When something big happens,either personally or
professionally, or on the team,or a client had a big win, that
gong is going to ring.
Right that gong is going toring Right, yeah, and people you
know what are are probably morethan our employees that noticed
that Cause it just becomes partof the thing over over a while
Like um, I've heard more clientscome in and say what is that
(12:23):
thing?
Yeah, or, or prospects orpeople.
Caleb Agee (12:26):
A couple of them have copied it and they went and
got their own gong, yeah, soyou really big gong like really
expensive, like a yeah, the fullsize, the big mallet yeah.
Yeah, those guys are huge.
Brandon Welch (12:38):
Ours is like a 22-incher, yeah, so you can do
celebration rituals, you can doclarity rituals, you can do
safety rituals.
If you're in some sort of ahigh-risk environment, you
should always, I think, domissional and visual rituals,
and Nate can show you one ofours right now.
(12:59):
Why are we here today, nate?
Caleb Agee (13:02):
We're here to create a world where entrepreneurs can
confidently grow their businesswithout wasting money on
advertising.
Hey, let's give him a hand.
He got it.
We didn't even know we weregoing to do that.
Yeah.
Brandon Welch (13:10):
But anybody in these four walls, or maybe I
don't know.
We have about 16 walls.
Caleb Agee (13:13):
We have more walls than four, but yeah anybody
could do that here.
Brandon Welch (13:17):
And then we have six core values.
Name a few of them Nate Fillone glass at a time.
Yeah, fill one glass at a time.
Best friendships are forgedaround fires and food.
Best friendships are forgedaround fires and food.
Caleb Agee (13:29):
Your eyes are asking me right now.
Well, the first two should beevident.
Brandon Welch (13:34):
You've heard one of them.
This podcast has a ritual.
Caleb Agee (13:37):
Yep, we believe in saying what needs to be said,
even if you don't want to hearit.
Brandon Welch (13:40):
Yeah.
And the second one is webelieve marketers who can't
teach you why are just a fancylie pulled right from our value
of being a maven right.
And so there are three othersthat we didn't mention, but
those are literally how we startour week.
Those bounce off of our walls.
We hear each other saying itand it goes back to that.
Rituals are the part of yourculture that people can witness
(14:01):
and see and like, attach meaningto and say I was there when
they talked about that, and soit doesn't have to be these big
well-planned out things.
It possibly is something you'vealready accidentally done, it's
just not repeated at apredictable rhythm.
Caleb Agee (14:17):
Yeah, I think there's, and that's the part
that we want to encourage you todo today is look around.
If you don't have these ormaybe you feel like they could
be better or more intentional,we want you to look around and
say what is a part of ourculture?
Because it's happening onaccident, so let's make it
happen on purpose.
Yes, what's a part of ourculture because it's happening
on accident, so let's make ithappen on purpose.
Yes, what's a part of ourculture that reinforces who we
(14:40):
are?
that tells other people who theyare and find a way to bake
those into a regular intervalthat everybody expects.
Everybody knows it's coming andthey're excited about it.
Brandon Welch (14:52):
Yeah.
Most importantly, you don'tknow, I'm going to ask you this,
but can you think of, like, themost visible ritual that
literally probably everybodythis week has seen in their town
from a company that we all knowof, the one I'm thinking of.
Could you guess it?
Oh gosh Promise, you've beenthere.
Caleb Agee (15:11):
I've been there, mm-hmm, this week.
Brandon Welch (15:14):
Mm-hmm, yeah, with you know it's reasonable.
Caleb Agee (15:20):
You'd have been there multiple times this week.
Wow, I don't know, I don't know.
Brandon Welch (15:25):
Maybe, maybe a restaurant this week.
Okay, it has a drive through.
Yeah, okay, I'm like gosh, Idon't know it just immediately
comes to mind as rituals Likeyeah, of I was like gosh, I
don't know it just immediatelycomes to mind as rituals Like,
of course, my pleasure, right,yeah, so, and they have so many
other things in their training.
Caleb Agee (15:40):
I was really counting on Caleb to make he and
I both look like a genius there, yeah.
Brandon Welch (15:44):
He really screwed it up.
Yeah, he just.
But yeah, think of Chick-fil-A.
Think of your favoritecompanies, think of the way
people answer their phones.
These are rituals, right?
We talked about that last week.
Yeah, think of the follow-uptouch points you get.
Think of, I mean, cleanlinessand just the presentation of
your company and the feel andthe look and the smell of it is
(16:06):
a ritual, right yeah.
And what are you doing onpurpose to create an obvious
sense of who you are, so thatyou attract the people you want
to work with?
obvious sense of who you are, sothat you attract the people you
want to work with both side byside in your business and work
with as clients, customers andthe world that you want to just
be a magnet for.
So I know some accountants andI love you accountants, I know
(16:27):
you're going here, but what doesit cost?
Right, Before you ask that, I'mgoing to tell you what it gets
you, right, Because some peopleare adding up.
Well, this takes a lot of time,or this takes paying hourly
employees to be in this room,and we've actually calculated it
up we spend tens of thousandsof dollars in our company every
year on lost time.
Caleb Agee (16:48):
On rituals, essentially On really rituals,
right.
Brandon Welch (16:51):
Yeah, but you might be interested to know that
a research from gallupindicated that teams engaging in
regular celebrations ortraditions of experience have a
19 increase in productivitycompared to those without 19.
How would you like to add 19productivity to your output
without spending any more money?
(17:12):
Wow or a very small amount ofmoney right, that's crazy.
Mckinsey and Company revealedthat organizations with clearly
defined SOPs, which aregenerally can be ritualistic,
outperform their competitors by31%.
I would just like to have a 30%gap on your competitors.
That's crazy.
It'd be wild, wouldn't?
Caleb Agee (17:32):
it yeah.
Brandon Welch (17:34):
Go ahead with the Harvard Business School,
harvard Business.
Caleb Agee (17:36):
School found that performing group bonding
activities, such as regularrituals there's the keyword led
to a 16% increase in howmeaningful employees judge their
work to be.
Brandon Welch (17:48):
And isn't that everything?
Yeah, if you don't believeyou're doing meaningful work,
will you do meaningful work?
Caleb Agee (17:55):
Not on purpose, no, says aye.
Brandon Welch (17:57):
Yeah, University of Toronto a few years back kind
of looked at this from adifferent lens.
The researchers measured thaterror-related negativity, what
they call ERN, which isbasically you're in the rhythm
of doing something, so youcontinue to do it the right way
because it's ritualized.
(18:17):
When that's in place, yourair-reduced negativity, which is
essentially job dissatisfaction, was reduced after subject
performed the rituals.
In other words, participantswere less focused on their
mistakes and that helped themstay closer to the moderate
level of engagement with theirperformance under the
Yerkes-Dodson law.
(18:38):
So give us some other realexamples from we're going to
talk about stuff inside ourcompany and then stuff we see
people we really like and admireand work with.
Caleb Agee (18:46):
Yeah, we already mentioned the gong right, that
one actually it's a ritual butit doesn't have a regular
interval, so that one I wouldsay maybe is an outlier as far
as our rituals go.
Some things we do consistentlyas a team is we always end and
start our week with wins.
So every Friday everybody sendsan email.
(19:09):
We get it like a group email.
Everybody replies with theirwork wins from the week, because
guess what?
The weekend erases your brain?
Um, it's actually sleep thatdoes it.
Brandon Welch (19:20):
Yeah, we started in our Monday morning meeting
and we started in our week.
I love that.
Yeah, yeah.
Caleb Agee (19:24):
And then we, we go over them on Monday, which is
pretty cool.
Um, we have this guy.
This moss ball is uh it's.
We named him Edgar.
He, uh is.
Ha, he has some bald spots.
Now it was literally just apiece of decor that we had a
designer, uh, that you know, wasinterior designing our office
(19:45):
and brought a bunch of orbs.
Brandon Welch (19:47):
I wonder how much we paid for this.
Caleb Agee (19:49):
You know, hobby lobby orb, yeah, and like a
hundred or like hey, we needsomething to acknowledge people,
and so we grabbed it.
And then each week, somebodyacknowledges somebody else they
saw being a solid rock is whatwe call it?
Yep, and why?
Brandon Welch (20:03):
is it a solid rock?
Because this is something Ijust totally improvised.
They were like, why is it amoss ball?
And I'm like, well, it's solidrock and it's moss, because a
rolling stone doesn't collectmoss.
So if it's not, a Rolling Stone.
Caleb Agee (20:15):
It must be solid, right.
It must be covered in moss.
Brandon Welch (20:16):
It's a solid rock award.
It's been a slide in our Mondaymorning presentation, or you
know ritual for seven or eight,nine years maybe, and uh, yeah,
we over, had it last week passesit to the next person and it's
just awesome.
You.
I think, once in a blue moon Iget it.
Caleb Agee (20:33):
Yeah, you got it.
Brandon Welch (20:35):
So some friends of ours do this with a shoe an
old shoe, yeah and they have astory as to why it's a shoe.
I can't even remember what itis.
Yeah, it's an old rusty speaker.
Caleb Agee (20:46):
It's like an old 80s converse or something.
Yeah, we have a quarterlyritual that we try to do which
is called.
We call it Frankenmaven Day,that's that we try to do um
which is called.
We call it Frank and Maven day.
Um, that's where we get away,uh, and have like a team.
Like team building can be aritual.
Brandon Welch (20:59):
Yeah.
Caleb Agee (20:59):
And that's a very intentional.
It's not like we just goofaround and play, but we also
just work.
We talk about how our companycan be better where it's going
and get everybody back inalignment and um.
And then also we spentintentional time together, yeah.
Brandon Welch (21:26):
We have a lot of clients that have a daily text
type ritual with either theirsales teams or something like,
and just, either you could startout the day with an inspiring
quote or an inspiring thought.
I love one that my buddy out ofSt Louis does.
He has, like gosh, he has 14 or15 branches around the US and
they all text in their salesnumbers for the day at like 5
o'clock Like how many peoplethey saw, how many deals they
closed, and it's just.
It creates a little friendlydialogue.
Maybe a little banter, yeah,definitely some accountability.
(21:48):
Yeah, because you don't want tobe the guy showing up on that
text group with goose eggs, yep.
And then it gives the businessowner really good visibility as
to who's happening.
Speaking of that guy, he'scalling me right now.
It's funny, so you don't haveto go religious with this
(22:08):
example, but if you're lookingfor inspiration, do churches do
an awesome job.
At this Life Church that I'm apart of, there's a Every single
message I've been to, whetherthere's a guest speaker or not.
There's just a kind of anaffirmation thing you read back
at the end of every sermon.
There's also a prettyritualistic, I guess, flow to
(22:30):
some of the things that they doin terms of messaging and cues
and things like that.
Caleb Agee (22:34):
Yeah.
Brandon Welch (22:35):
Yeah, but pastors are really good at that.
They should be right.
Caleb Agee (22:39):
Yeah Well, and there is security inside of the
church or outside of the church.
There's security for you as apart of that congregation or
organization that you feel likeyou know what's happening, you
feel a part of it, you knowwhat's coming up next, and not
in a way that it's boring or agiveaway, but it's also like I
(23:02):
know what to expect.
This Monday meeting we're goingto have is going to be a lot
like the one we had last week,but I'm excited about it because
I know what's coming.
I think sometimes team staffmeetings, it's like we have a
joke about family meetings andyou can have those, and it's
like only when we have bad newsor only when we have you know.
(23:24):
It's like, no, that's not thegoal.
The goal is to make sure thatthere is a reason for it and
that there's.
It's good or bad.
We're having this meeting.
Brandon Welch (23:33):
Yes.
Caleb Agee (23:34):
Rain or shine, it's going so.
Brandon Welch (23:37):
And you can create some mystery inside the
time blocks.
You can also throw an Easteregg in there, right yeah?
Sometimes we'll throw in aguest speaker people don't see
coming.
So I think you understand that.
But it's the things you say,it's the things you do.
So let's talk about creatingyour ritual revolution.
I love this idea that you don'tneed more tactics, you just
need more traction, and tractionhappens when you kind of do the
(24:01):
same thing over and over again,right yeah?
So I would encourage you topick one ritual to start this
week either a huddle or a thingyou say and be prepared for it,
not to stick immediately anddon't be one of these.
Well, I tried that.
It didn't work.
It didn't work because youdidn't try it enough.
Caleb Agee (24:19):
You didn't stick with it.
Brandon Welch (24:20):
That's right.
Yeah, give it a name Like callit, we have ours.
It's called the Monday morningmeeting, that's a really
creative name.
Or we have the solid rock, orwe have the ring.
The gong moment or we havefires and food moments.
Right, we had the podcast.
Right yeah, the Maven MarketingPodcast right.
So give it a name or give it arepeatable phrase, and then I
(24:42):
would say these rituals, thelighter they are, the easier
they're going to be to repeat.
So don't try to climb amountain.
Do something small.
Caleb Agee (24:49):
Yeah.
Brandon Welch (24:51):
It could be your own internal secret ritual that
you just say I'm going to give10 compliments before 10 am
today.
Caleb Agee (24:56):
Yeah, that could be great.
Wouldn't that be wild?
Yeah, that'd be great.
Would that be wild?
Yeah, if you have one that thisis really powerful, if you can
do it, if you have somebody inyour organization, um, who is
just on fire about this thing,empower them to lead to lead it.
Or maybe, if you do like a, anaccolade like our moss ball that
empowers whoever had it last tobring it next.
(25:19):
You know, it's like if I got itlast week, I'm going to have to
name somebody next week and youset the tone off the bat, but
also you can empower otherpeople to lead this in a great
way.
Brandon Welch (25:33):
Love that.
So if somebody shadowed yourcompany this week, what would
they say you're about based onthe rituals and rhythm that you
have going on?
Would they even know?
Or would they just be like eh,it's a bunch of people getting
together to do work.
It's not a good observation ifthat were to be the case.
And if you're already doing aritual rhythm that you think
(25:57):
would be beneficial to ouraudience, we would love it if
you would put that in thecomments.
Drop in the comments.
Caleb Agee (26:04):
Or your new ritual.
Oh yeah, what are you going todo?
Instead, throw that ritual inthe comments.
Maybe, if you don't have a namefor it, we'll comment back and
give you some clever names.
Brandon Welch (26:15):
Yes, how about five quotes to close us out?
Caleb Agee (26:18):
All right.
Brandon Welch (26:18):
We grabbed them.
We didn't incorporate themearlier, but very, very smart
men and women, reminding usJames Clear, this is Caleb's
favorite you do not rise to thelevel of your goals, you fall to
the level of your systems.
Caleb Agee (26:32):
Aristotle, we are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
Brandon Welch (26:39):
Steve Covey reminds us that the key is not
to prioritize what's on yourschedule, but to schedule your
priorities.
Caleb Agee (26:45):
This one's really good.
John Maxwell for the win.
You'll never change your lifeuntil you change something you
do daily.
Brandon Welch (26:55):
Or weekly, like listening to this podcast.
Caleb Agee (26:57):
It's a ritual.
You can listen to this podcastevery day if you want to, though
that's pretty much all you needto do.
Brandon Welch (27:01):
Yeah, tony Robbins, of Bring Us Home.
It's not what we do once in awhile that shapes our lives,
it's what we do consistently.
So if you're stuck on that, hey, we'd love to help.
We'd love to find somethingthat if you're going I'm a
recycling company, how do I do aritual?
It's like we can find one.
Caleb Agee (27:20):
Yeah, all my people are in trucks and they drive
away from their house every dayand I don't know how we would
come together for a ritual.
There are ways to do theseremotely, in different ways.
I promise you there's a way.
Brandon Welch (27:31):
So love it.
Hey, we'll be back here everyMonday answering your real life
marketing questions, becausemarketers who can't teach you
why are just a fancy lot.
I heard a ritual there.
Have a great week.
There was another one.
rituals are the part of your culture that people
can witness and see and like,attach meaning to and say I was
there when they talked aboutthat.
It doesn't have to be these big, well-planned out things.
It possibly is something you'vealready accidentally done, it's
just not repeated at apredictable rhythm.
Caleb Agee (00:15):
If you don't have these, or maybe you feel like
they could be better or moreintentional, we want you to look
around and say what is a partof our culture?
Because it's happening onaccident, so let's make it
happen on purpose.
Brandon Welch (00:33):
Welcome to the Maven Marketing Podcast.
Today is Maven Monday.
I'm your host, brandon Welch,and I'm joined by Caleb,
Guatemala, Agee.
Caleb Agee (00:40):
Hey Guatemala.
Guatemala Tell us aboutguatemala uh well, it is a
country in central america.
Um, I had the pleasure of goingthere a couple years ago now.
Um, my grandma lives there.
Founded an orphanage um gosh 15or 20 years ago, I don't even
(01:01):
know how old it is now.
And she's lived there for a longtime, and so it is the worst
place in the world for women andchildren to live because of
their justice system, and so ifyou're curious about that, it is
James Project of Latin America.
You can go check that out.
I think I don't remember the.
(01:21):
It's the org, but I can'tremember the exact.
Brandon Welch (01:24):
URL yeah, because you are super generous awesome
prosperous folk listening tothis prosperous podcast you're
going to go do that,jamesprojectoflatinamericaorg.
I think so.
Go give some money to thiscause.
I'll let you read more about it.
Caleb Agee (01:42):
Didn't plan on endorsing that today.
Yeah, that was not a plan.
Brandon Welch (01:44):
It is sincerely the Lord's work in its finest.
Caleb Agee (01:47):
Yeah, and it's a very, very cool thing they're
doing.
It's shifted from if we'regoing to sidetrack for a second
it's shifted from more of anorphanage thing to it's actually
more of a foster care model.
Okay, because a lot oforphanages were not a great.
It's just long-term, indefinitecare and so the goal is to get
(02:08):
kids back with an actual adultin their life instead of being
in a big group home and so.
But for those months thatthey're there, they get their
lives changed, which is prettycool, love it.
Brandon Welch (02:19):
Yeah, well, hey, speaking of big things, this is
the place where we help youconquer your big dreams by
eliminating waste andadvertising so you can grow your
business, and then achievingthat big dream.
Caleb Agee (02:30):
You see what I did there.
Brandon Welch (02:31):
It's a big dream.
Caleb Agee (02:33):
That was a B minus transition.
Big dream sandwich right there.
Brandon Welch (02:35):
Big dream sandwich.
But that is why we're here.
That's why we're here everyMonday and we are unpacking the
essence of why small businessesgrow, and we're doing that
through marketing.
We're doing that throughculture.
Today, we're going to talkabout something just slightly
different.
This is a leverage on allthings that you do.
If you do these things we'regoing to talk about today, I
(02:56):
promise you your marketing willwork better like magic.
You won't have to change asingle thing in your budget.
You won't have to change asingle click or platform or ad,
and everything will just workbetter, because it is about
people and there are sometie-ins to marketing.
But we're going to talk aboutrituals and rhythm.
What is the underflowingcurrent in your business?
(03:16):
And these are things you can doas the leader to put your team
in this predictable feel-goodextra output, tying the thing to
a bigger thing than just thework you do.
And I don't care if you arecleaning trash cans for a living
or building orphanages orrunning a ministry or selling
(03:40):
roofs or doing legal services.
This works at all levels andit's borrowed from some of the
highest and best runorganizations in the world.
We're going to talk about somereal studies where, just by
doing these ritualistic thingswe're going to talk about today.
I'm talking 30, 40, 50%increases in profitability.
Caleb Agee (04:00):
Yeah, and I think the-.
Brandon Welch (04:02):
Byproduct, by the way.
Caleb Agee (04:04):
Yeah yeah.
Profitability is a by-product,it is a, it's a bonus, the we'll
talk about the primary product,which is how it affects your
team, your team members.
Um, I think the danger when youlook at these things is that
you can see it as maybe a wasteof time.
You can see these rituals as umboring or annoying.
(04:25):
Hope you're probably doing themwrong.
If that's what it is, there willbe days that you show up for
that ritual and it's like Idon't really want to do this
today, but you need to show upanyways and do it anyways and um
, but they, they change things.
If you think about your ownpersonal life, uh, unless you
eat the right things every day,show up to the gym consistently.
(04:45):
Read the right books or avoidthe right amount of poison or
whatever you won't be a healthyhuman, you won't have progress
toward the things you know, thegrowth you want to see as a
person.
The same is true with your team, with your organization, your
kids, your marriage.
Brandon Welch (04:59):
Yes, your friendships.
Caleb Agee (05:00):
You've got to show up, and you've got to do it on
the regular.
You can't just randomly find it, and so that's what we're going
to talk to you about today.
Brandon Welch (05:08):
On the other end.
If you look at these things ashacks, I think you'll miss the
mark completely.
You'll miss the impact andreally the opportunity to build
something awesome.
So what in the heck are wetalking about with rituals?
What is this?
We have, like you know, robesand essence, or what do they
call those Incense not essenceIncense, the essence of incense,
emerald essence.
Caleb Agee (05:27):
yeah yeah, get a guitar out and play kumbaya
around a fire.
Brandon Welch (05:33):
I mean maybe.
Maybe we may have been known todo that a time or two.
Yeah.
So what the heck are we talkingabout with rituals?
What is a ritual, Mr Caleb Agee?
Yeah.
Caleb Agee (05:42):
So most of the time, I think, when you think of
rituals which is why we made thejoke just a second ago about
kumbaya and-.
Brandon Welch (05:48):
Robes.
Caleb Agee (05:48):
And robes and you get these images in your head
because mostly the definition ofit has to do with religious
procedure.
It's like, if you want a bigword, liturgical, which is the
common practices that you haveinside of maybe a religious
service.
Brandon Welch (06:06):
It's a $13 word.
Yeah, there you go.
You know you can count on Calebfor a $13 word, that's right.
Caleb Agee (06:12):
No more.
I can't give you change foranything else.
But yeah, so some definitionsan established or prescribed
procedure for a religious orother rite, a system or
collection of religious or otherrights, observance of set forms
of public worship.
So that's what we typicallythink about and those are some
of the most common denotationsthe dictionary definition.
Brandon Welch (06:34):
Is that my buddy Webster there?
Caleb Agee (06:36):
That's my buddy dictionarycom.
Dictionarycom the app.
Brandon Welch (06:40):
So I think what we're talking about is more what
Chip Conley.
He was like a hotel founder.
I found this just in my studyof rituals.
He says rituals are theinvisible architecture of brand
loyalty.
When you think about brand, wethink often outward what does
the world see?
But arguably way more importantand way more foundational, I
(07:02):
don't know that you can have ahealthy outward brand if you
don't have a healthy inwardbrand.
He says rituals are theinvisible architecture of brand
loyalty.
Another guy from IBM, ceo of alittle company called IBM, said
culture is not just one aspectof the game, it is the game and
rituals are how culture becomesvisible.
So these guys are connecting itto culture.
(07:25):
And then I think what wedefined it as just writing down
something more practical.
A ritual is a repeatable,intentional action that
reinforces a shared value,belief or identity within a
group.
And the group we're talkingabout is your company, your
organization, your thing thatyou're leading.
Caleb Agee (07:43):
Yeah.
Brandon Welch (07:43):
And so we all do rituals to some degree every day
, right we?
Have you know teeth brushing,that would be a good one.
Caleb Agee (07:50):
Hopefully, yeah.
Brandon Welch (07:52):
Hopefully.
Do you have a ritual with yourwife and kids before you leave
the house?
Caleb Agee (07:56):
Yeah, I mean I always make the coffee first and
then Sierra and I make bagels.
That's the next thing.
Wow, it's whole wheat, bagelsand cream cheese.
And then we split up and haveseparate quiet time.
Oh, love it.
It's kind of I don't know why.
I like the dinner table.
She likes to sit on the couch,so that's like our own little
(08:18):
quiet time.
We try to get up before thekids.
Then the kids wake up, then weget ready.
Not so quiet time.
So not so quiet time.
So, yes, there's a morningroutine, and the same is true in
the evening.
Brandon Welch (08:30):
Yeah.
Caleb Agee (08:30):
There are those set up and tear down of the day to
set you up for it.
Brandon Welch (08:35):
Yeah, love the quiet time.
One Val and I both did the samething in our own ways.
I try to have a meaningfulconversation with each kid
before.
Caleb Agee (08:46):
I leave the house, yeah.
Brandon Welch (08:47):
There's some days that has to be earlier than
they're up, but either you know,either morning or evening we
have some like affirmationstatements.
We read back to them.
Caleb Agee (08:56):
Yeah.
Brandon Welch (08:56):
And that's just a really powerful thing we've
done since before they couldtalk.
Caleb Agee (09:00):
Yeah, I'm not allowed to leave without at
least saying goodbye and givinga hug.
Yeah, everybody could talk.
Yeah, I'm not allowed to leavewithout uh at least saying
goodbye and giving a hug.
Yeah, everybody gets a hug andkiss on the way out, yeah and if
I, if I, if they feel like Ididn't do it properly, um,
they're running out in their pjsthrough the, you know, through
the garage, you know, and likeall right buddy, let's go, you
know yes, and that.
Brandon Welch (09:19):
so in that same way, uh, rituals help people
know who they are and remindthem what they're a part of.
And would there be any moreuseful virtue in your business
than people knowing why they'recoming to work, to give you the
hours of their life?
And that's what we're talkingabout here.
So a lot of people listening tothis podcast, you do a lot of
(09:40):
this stuff, right, yeah, you.
It was either just a byproductof what happened when you were
small and it continued.
You have some regularcelebrations, some regular ways
of doing things.
I think Randy Mays says cultureis the way things are done
around here, and so we're kindof talking about that.
But what if we added just alittle bit more intention to it
(10:01):
and possibly made it a littlemore fun, a little more sticky,
and we're calling that partrhythm, right?
So rituals and rhythm are kindof closely tied.
The ritual is the thing, theact, but the rhythm is how often
you?
Caleb Agee (10:15):
do it right Frequency yep.
Brandon Welch (10:17):
So culture is not what you say, it's what you
repeat.
We're talking about creatingmomentum, reinforcing identity
of your company.
You don't just work somewhere,you belong to a bigger thing.
You are creating clarity aboutwhat's important and then
inversely and like, just as abyproduct of that, when you have
clarity about what's important,that's accountability to what's
(10:37):
socially accepted amongst yourpeers, whether that be five of
them in a small working group or500 of them in a company.
But I want to ask what are yourepeating in your business and
give some examples about youknow, it could be really small
things.
We're going to share some stufffrom our world and then our
(10:59):
clients, but give us some ideasabout what it could be.
Caleb Agee (11:03):
Yeah, this could show up in you, up in a daily,
weekly, monthly ritual.
It could be a quarterly ritual.
I would encourage you to havedefinitely some weekly ones.
But I think at every levelthere are different versions of
a ritual.
So you could have like a dailystand-up meeting in the morning.
Go over your list, like BigRock.
(11:24):
We would have a Big Rockupmeeting in the morning.
Go over your list, like bigrock.
Or we used to have like wewould have a big rock meeting
sometimes in the morning.
Um, you could have a weekly allstaff meeting or um.
You could um a huddle?
Yeah, a little huddle or or sitaround the conference table.
However that works.
Um you know you can have awardsor accolades, so you could, you
could, recognize somebody.
Um, in a know you can haveawards or accolades.
(11:44):
So you could, you couldrecognize somebody um in a
specific week you could have um.
You know, I would encourage youto like give those things names
, like funny names or uh or justyou know, go for that.
So, um, we also have.
We have a, a gong.
Brandon Welch (12:01):
I was literally better mentioned.
I'm looking right out ourstudio window here.
Yeah, we have a gong.
When something big happens,either personally or
professionally, or on the team,or a client had a big win, that
gong is going to ring.
Right that gong is going toring Right, yeah, and people you
know what are are probably morethan our employees that noticed
that Cause it just becomes partof the thing over over a while
Like um, I've heard more clientscome in and say what is that
(12:23):
thing?
Yeah, or, or prospects orpeople.
Caleb Agee (12:26):
A couple of them have copied it and they went and
got their own gong, yeah, soyou really big gong like really
expensive, like a yeah, the fullsize, the big mallet yeah.
Yeah, those guys are huge.
Brandon Welch (12:38):
Ours is like a 22-incher, yeah, so you can do
celebration rituals, you can doclarity rituals, you can do
safety rituals.
If you're in some sort of ahigh-risk environment, you
should always, I think, domissional and visual rituals,
and Nate can show you one ofours right now.
(12:59):
Why are we here today, nate?
Caleb Agee (13:02):
We're here to create a world where entrepreneurs can
confidently grow their businesswithout wasting money on
advertising.
Hey, let's give him a hand.
He got it.
We didn't even know we weregoing to do that.
Yeah.
Brandon Welch (13:10):
But anybody in these four walls, or maybe I
don't know.
We have about 16 walls.
Caleb Agee (13:13):
We have more walls than four, but yeah anybody
could do that here.
Brandon Welch (13:17):
And then we have six core values.
Name a few of them Nate Fillone glass at a time.
Yeah, fill one glass at a time.
Best friendships are forgedaround fires and food.
Best friendships are forgedaround fires and food.
Caleb Agee (13:29):
Your eyes are asking me right now.
Well, the first two should beevident.
Brandon Welch (13:34):
You've heard one of them.
This podcast has a ritual.
Caleb Agee (13:37):
Yep, we believe in saying what needs to be said,
even if you don't want to hearit.
Brandon Welch (13:40):
Yeah.
And the second one is webelieve marketers who can't
teach you why are just a fancylie pulled right from our value
of being a maven right.
And so there are three othersthat we didn't mention, but
those are literally how we startour week.
Those bounce off of our walls.
We hear each other saying itand it goes back to that.
Rituals are the part of yourculture that people can witness
(14:01):
and see and like, attach meaningto and say I was there when
they talked about that, and soit doesn't have to be these big
well-planned out things.
It possibly is something you'vealready accidentally done, it's
just not repeated at apredictable rhythm.
Caleb Agee (14:17):
Yeah, I think there's, and that's the part
that we want to encourage you todo today is look around.
If you don't have these ormaybe you feel like they could
be better or more intentional,we want you to look around and
say what is a part of ourculture?
Because it's happening onaccident, so let's make it
happen on purpose.
Yes, what's a part of ourculture because it's happening
on accident, so let's make ithappen on purpose.
Yes, what's a part of ourculture that reinforces who we
(14:40):
are?
that tells other people who theyare and find a way to bake
those into a regular intervalthat everybody expects.
Everybody knows it's coming andthey're excited about it.
Brandon Welch (14:52):
Yeah.
Most importantly, you don'tknow, I'm going to ask you this,
but can you think of, like, themost visible ritual that
literally probably everybodythis week has seen in their town
from a company that we all knowof, the one I'm thinking of.
Could you guess it?
Oh gosh Promise, you've beenthere.
Caleb Agee (15:11):
I've been there, mm-hmm, this week.
Brandon Welch (15:14):
Mm-hmm, yeah, with you know it's reasonable.
Caleb Agee (15:20):
You'd have been there multiple times this week.
Wow, I don't know, I don't know.
Brandon Welch (15:25):
Maybe, maybe a restaurant this week.
Okay, it has a drive through.
Yeah, okay, I'm like gosh, Idon't know it just immediately
comes to mind as rituals Likeyeah, of I was like gosh, I
don't know it just immediatelycomes to mind as rituals Like,
of course, my pleasure, right,yeah, so, and they have so many
other things in their training.
Caleb Agee (15:40):
I was really counting on Caleb to make he and
I both look like a genius there, yeah.
Brandon Welch (15:44):
He really screwed it up.
Yeah, he just.
But yeah, think of Chick-fil-A.
Think of your favoritecompanies, think of the way
people answer their phones.
These are rituals, right?
We talked about that last week.
Yeah, think of the follow-uptouch points you get.
Think of, I mean, cleanlinessand just the presentation of
your company and the feel andthe look and the smell of it is
(16:06):
a ritual, right yeah.
And what are you doing onpurpose to create an obvious
sense of who you are, so thatyou attract the people you want
to work with?
obvious sense of who you are, sothat you attract the people you
want to work with both side byside in your business and work
with as clients, customers andthe world that you want to just
be a magnet for.
So I know some accountants andI love you accountants, I know
(16:27):
you're going here, but what doesit cost?
Right, Before you ask that, I'mgoing to tell you what it gets
you, right, Because some peopleare adding up.
Well, this takes a lot of time,or this takes paying hourly
employees to be in this room,and we've actually calculated it
up we spend tens of thousandsof dollars in our company every
year on lost time.
Caleb Agee (16:48):
On rituals, essentially On really rituals,
right.
Brandon Welch (16:51):
Yeah, but you might be interested to know that
a research from gallupindicated that teams engaging in
regular celebrations ortraditions of experience have a
19 increase in productivitycompared to those without 19.
How would you like to add 19productivity to your output
without spending any more money?
(17:12):
Wow or a very small amount ofmoney right, that's crazy.
Mckinsey and Company revealedthat organizations with clearly
defined SOPs, which aregenerally can be ritualistic,
outperform their competitors by31%.
I would just like to have a 30%gap on your competitors.
That's crazy.
It'd be wild, wouldn't?
Caleb Agee (17:32):
it yeah.
Brandon Welch (17:34):
Go ahead with the Harvard Business School,
harvard Business.
Caleb Agee (17:36):
School found that performing group bonding
activities, such as regularrituals there's the keyword led
to a 16% increase in howmeaningful employees judge their
work to be.
Brandon Welch (17:48):
And isn't that everything?
Yeah, if you don't believeyou're doing meaningful work,
will you do meaningful work?
Caleb Agee (17:55):
Not on purpose, no, says aye.
Brandon Welch (17:57):
Yeah, University of Toronto a few years back kind
of looked at this from adifferent lens.
The researchers measured thaterror-related negativity, what
they call ERN, which isbasically you're in the rhythm
of doing something, so youcontinue to do it the right way
because it's ritualized.
(18:17):
When that's in place, yourair-reduced negativity, which is
essentially job dissatisfaction, was reduced after subject
performed the rituals.
In other words, participantswere less focused on their
mistakes and that helped themstay closer to the moderate
level of engagement with theirperformance under the
Yerkes-Dodson law.
(18:38):
So give us some other realexamples from we're going to
talk about stuff inside ourcompany and then stuff we see
people we really like and admireand work with.
Caleb Agee (18:46):
Yeah, we already mentioned the gong right, that
one actually it's a ritual butit doesn't have a regular
interval, so that one I wouldsay maybe is an outlier as far
as our rituals go.
Some things we do consistentlyas a team is we always end and
start our week with wins.
So every Friday everybody sendsan email.
(19:09):
We get it like a group email.
Everybody replies with theirwork wins from the week, because
guess what?
The weekend erases your brain?
Um, it's actually sleep thatdoes it.
Brandon Welch (19:20):
Yeah, we started in our Monday morning meeting
and we started in our week.
I love that.
Yeah, yeah.
Caleb Agee (19:24):
And then we, we go over them on Monday, which is
pretty cool.
Um, we have this guy.
This moss ball is uh it's.
We named him Edgar.
He, uh is.
Ha, he has some bald spots.
Now it was literally just apiece of decor that we had a
designer, uh, that you know, wasinterior designing our office
(19:45):
and brought a bunch of orbs.
Brandon Welch (19:47):
I wonder how much we paid for this.
Caleb Agee (19:49):
You know, hobby lobby orb, yeah, and like a
hundred or like hey, we needsomething to acknowledge people,
and so we grabbed it.
And then each week, somebodyacknowledges somebody else they
saw being a solid rock is whatwe call it?
Yep, and why?
Brandon Welch (20:03):
is it a solid rock?
Because this is something Ijust totally improvised.
They were like, why is it amoss ball?
And I'm like, well, it's solidrock and it's moss, because a
rolling stone doesn't collectmoss.
So if it's not, a Rolling Stone.
Caleb Agee (20:15):
It must be solid, right.
It must be covered in moss.
Brandon Welch (20:16):
It's a solid rock award.
It's been a slide in our Mondaymorning presentation, or you
know ritual for seven or eight,nine years maybe, and uh, yeah,
we over, had it last week passesit to the next person and it's
just awesome.
You.
I think, once in a blue moon Iget it.
Caleb Agee (20:33):
Yeah, you got it.
Brandon Welch (20:35):
So some friends of ours do this with a shoe an
old shoe, yeah and they have astory as to why it's a shoe.
I can't even remember what itis.
Yeah, it's an old rusty speaker.
Caleb Agee (20:46):
It's like an old 80s converse or something.
Yeah, we have a quarterlyritual that we try to do which
is called.
We call it Frankenmaven Day,that's that we try to do um
which is called.
We call it Frank and Maven day.
Um, that's where we get away,uh, and have like a team.
Like team building can be aritual.
Brandon Welch (20:59):
Yeah.
Caleb Agee (20:59):
And that's a very intentional.
It's not like we just goofaround and play, but we also
just work.
We talk about how our companycan be better where it's going
and get everybody back inalignment and um.
And then also we spentintentional time together, yeah.
Brandon Welch (21:26):
We have a lot of clients that have a daily text
type ritual with either theirsales teams or something like,
and just, either you could startout the day with an inspiring
quote or an inspiring thought.
I love one that my buddy out ofSt Louis does.
He has, like gosh, he has 14 or15 branches around the US and
they all text in their salesnumbers for the day at like 5
o'clock Like how many peoplethey saw, how many deals they
closed, and it's just.
It creates a little friendlydialogue.
Maybe a little banter, yeah,definitely some accountability.
(21:48):
Yeah, because you don't want tobe the guy showing up on that
text group with goose eggs, yep.
And then it gives the businessowner really good visibility as
to who's happening.
Speaking of that guy, he'scalling me right now.
It's funny, so you don't haveto go religious with this
(22:08):
example, but if you're lookingfor inspiration, do churches do
an awesome job.
At this Life Church that I'm apart of, there's a Every single
message I've been to, whetherthere's a guest speaker or not.
There's just a kind of anaffirmation thing you read back
at the end of every sermon.
There's also a prettyritualistic, I guess, flow to
(22:30):
some of the things that they doin terms of messaging and cues
and things like that.
Caleb Agee (22:34):
Yeah.
Brandon Welch (22:35):
Yeah, but pastors are really good at that.
They should be right.
Caleb Agee (22:39):
Yeah Well, and there is security inside of the
church or outside of the church.
There's security for you as apart of that congregation or
organization that you feel likeyou know what's happening, you
feel a part of it, you knowwhat's coming up next, and not
in a way that it's boring or agiveaway, but it's also like I
(23:02):
know what to expect.
This Monday meeting we're goingto have is going to be a lot
like the one we had last week,but I'm excited about it because
I know what's coming.
I think sometimes team staffmeetings, it's like we have a
joke about family meetings andyou can have those, and it's
like only when we have bad newsor only when we have you know.
(23:24):
It's like, no, that's not thegoal.
The goal is to make sure thatthere is a reason for it and
that there's.
It's good or bad.
We're having this meeting.
Brandon Welch (23:33):
Yes.
Caleb Agee (23:34):
Rain or shine, it's going so.
Brandon Welch (23:37):
And you can create some mystery inside the
time blocks.
You can also throw an Easteregg in there, right yeah?
Sometimes we'll throw in aguest speaker people don't see
coming.
So I think you understand that.
But it's the things you say,it's the things you do.
So let's talk about creatingyour ritual revolution.
I love this idea that you don'tneed more tactics, you just
need more traction, and tractionhappens when you kind of do the
(24:01):
same thing over and over again,right yeah?
So I would encourage you topick one ritual to start this
week either a huddle or a thingyou say and be prepared for it,
not to stick immediately anddon't be one of these.
Well, I tried that.
It didn't work.
It didn't work because youdidn't try it enough.
Caleb Agee (24:19):
You didn't stick with it.
Brandon Welch (24:20):
That's right.
Yeah, give it a name Like callit, we have ours.
It's called the Monday morningmeeting, that's a really
creative name.
Or we have the solid rock, orwe have the ring.
The gong moment or we havefires and food moments.
Right, we had the podcast.
Right yeah, the Maven MarketingPodcast right.
So give it a name or give it arepeatable phrase, and then I
(24:42):
would say these rituals, thelighter they are, the easier
they're going to be to repeat.
So don't try to climb amountain.
Do something small.
Caleb Agee (24:49):
Yeah.
Brandon Welch (24:51):
It could be your own internal secret ritual that
you just say I'm going to give10 compliments before 10 am
today.
Caleb Agee (24:56):
Yeah, that could be great.
Wouldn't that be wild?
Yeah, that'd be great.
Would that be wild?
Yeah, if you have one that thisis really powerful, if you can
do it, if you have somebody inyour organization, um, who is
just on fire about this thing,empower them to lead to lead it.
Or maybe, if you do like a, anaccolade like our moss ball that
empowers whoever had it last tobring it next.
(25:19):
You know, it's like if I got itlast week, I'm going to have to
name somebody next week and youset the tone off the bat, but
also you can empower otherpeople to lead this in a great
way.
Brandon Welch (25:33):
Love that.
So if somebody shadowed yourcompany this week, what would
they say you're about based onthe rituals and rhythm that you
have going on?
Would they even know?
Or would they just be like eh,it's a bunch of people getting
together to do work.
It's not a good observation ifthat were to be the case.
And if you're already doing aritual rhythm that you think
(25:57):
would be beneficial to ouraudience, we would love it if
you would put that in thecomments.
Drop in the comments.
Caleb Agee (26:04):
Or your new ritual.
Oh yeah, what are you going todo?
Instead, throw that ritual inthe comments.
Maybe, if you don't have a namefor it, we'll comment back and
give you some clever names.
Brandon Welch (26:15):
Yes, how about five quotes to close us out?
Caleb Agee (26:18):
All right.
Brandon Welch (26:18):
We grabbed them.
We didn't incorporate themearlier, but very, very smart
men and women, reminding usJames Clear, this is Caleb's
favorite you do not rise to thelevel of your goals, you fall to
the level of your systems.
Caleb Agee (26:32):
Aristotle, we are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
Brandon Welch (26:39):
Steve Covey reminds us that the key is not
to prioritize what's on yourschedule, but to schedule your
priorities.
Caleb Agee (26:45):
This one's really good.
John Maxwell for the win.
You'll never change your lifeuntil you change something you
do daily.
Brandon Welch (26:55):
Or weekly, like listening to this podcast.
Caleb Agee (26:57):
It's a ritual.
You can listen to this podcastevery day if you want to, though
that's pretty much all you needto do.
Brandon Welch (27:01):
Yeah, tony Robbins, of Bring Us Home.
It's not what we do once in awhile that shapes our lives,
it's what we do consistently.
So if you're stuck on that, hey, we'd love to help.
We'd love to find somethingthat if you're going I'm a
recycling company, how do I do aritual?
It's like we can find one.
Caleb Agee (27:20):
Yeah, all my people are in trucks and they drive
away from their house every dayand I don't know how we would
come together for a ritual.
There are ways to do theseremotely, in different ways.
I promise you there's a way.
Brandon Welch (27:31):
So love it.
Hey, we'll be back here everyMonday answering your real life
marketing questions, becausemarketers who can't teach you
why are just a fancy lot.
I heard a ritual there.
Have a great week.
There was another one.
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