Building a Company Culture That Lasts From Day One

Culture isn’t something you add later. It starts with you, from the very first day of your business.

In this episode, we dive into how to intentionally build a strong company culture from day one, even if “day one” is just you. Your business is always a reflection of your values, and the earlier you define them and live by them, the easier it becomes to attract the right people, hire the right team, and build something that lasts for generations.

We cover:

• Why your company culture begins with your own values and behavior
• How to define your 3–5 core values and actually live them daily
• Why leading by example is the most powerful culture-building tool you have
• How to use org charts and role descriptions (even when it’s just you) to set expectations
• Why hiring for values and attitude matters more than training for skills
• How one bad hire can undo years of culture-building and how to avoid it

If you want your business to be more than just a short-term success, culture is non-negotiable. This conversation will help you start strong, lead by example, and build a culture that fuels growth now and in the future.

Want to see how your energy and leadership are shaping your culture right now? Take the Energy Leadership Index (ELI) Assessment and book your personalized 90-minute debrief with Anna. You’ll gain a clear view of how you show up as a leader and how to create the culture you truly want.

“Your business will never outgrow you. If you want to grow your company, you must grow yourself first.” – Anna Angelova

Transcript for “How to Build a Strong Company Culture From Day One”

The transcript below was automatically generated. Please ignore any errors or inconsistencies in the text.

Anna Angelova   0:05
Hello and welcome to another episode of More Than Just Task Management, your favorite daily podcast where we help you build a thriving business. I’m Anna Angelova, business coach and consultant and a co-host of this daily podcast and together with me as usual is my fellow co-host and business.
Consultant. Hey, Joris. Good morning.

Jores Minasvand   0:28
Anna, good morning. Happy Wednesday. What is the beautiful topic for today?

Anna Angelova   0:34
The topic for this last Wednesday of August is how to build a strong company culture from day one, and it’s more towards.
The business owners, if you are starting your business, but again, culture is strategy for breakfast as I mentioned yesterday. So even if you have an existing business, you might want to listen for the next 15 minutes or so.
As we tackle culture and you know like as a business owner, especially a small business owner, you know that the business is ultimately an extension of you. The business is ultimately representation of who you are and it it makes sense, right? We all start our businesses because we.

Jores Minasvand   1:10
And this is OK.

Anna Angelova   1:21
We want to create something and a lot of times it’s our values that are reflected in in in the business as we are starting. So whether you do it consciously or subconsciously in a structured way or just it happens naturally.

Jores Minasvand   1:32
3.

Anna Angelova   1:38
Like who you are really, really affects the culture of the business and This is why like for you to build a strong company culture from day one, you actually need to be intentional about it. You really need to be intentional about the Co culture and.

Jores Minasvand   1:44
OK.
It.
Yes.

Anna Angelova   1:54
Not just focus on.

Jores Minasvand   1:55
This phone.

Anna Angelova   1:58
Marketing, sales and all these things, yes, they are important. However, at the same time, even if it’s only you, right? Even if it’s only you, you are the person who does everything. This is one thing that if you have read.

Jores Minasvand   2:03
Over at the same time.
This is one thing that is done.

Anna Angelova   2:13
Michael Gerber, I think was his name, the author of the EMIT. This is one of the things he recommends actually. Especially if you have a partner, it’s so important and even if it’s your only you, it’s also really important.
Create your chart. Create your chart. And what you do is you actually add the role descriptions for every single position. And yes, you are doing everything. You are the salesperson. You are the marketing specialist.
You are the delivery guy, you’re the operations, you are the IT person like we talked about yesterday, right? You are everything in the beginning. So for you to create that amazing culture, starting intentionally with listing all the positions, even if you.
You take care of everything and what’s important, one really, really important as you’re doing this exercise and we have talked about it before as well, is listing the values, like listing the values that you want these people to have.
For and some of the values they need to be the core values that your company has and the other values will and and the other attributes they’ll be specific for the position. Like the other attributes will be specific like for a salesperson you might want certain attributes, something that’s related to.
No outgoing or something like this. And then for 90% you might want a little different attribute, right? Analytical thinking or problem solving or whatever it is, so.
This is really, really important. As I said, when you’re starting your business, even if it’s just you, be intentionable about the culture. And actually, as I was sharing this, I thought that, oh, wait a minute, actually one of the things that you want to do, one of the first things you want to do even before the org chart.
Even before the org chart is deciding what your core values are and these core values, as I said, a lot of times that we don’t do, we do this without realizing it. They represent who we are.
I think if they represent who we are.
So what you actually need to do is being really aware of this and sitting down and doing this work, sit down and say, OK, these are the core values of the company, three to five core values. This is it. These are the core values of the company.
And not just choose them and forget about them. Not just choose them, put them on your website and forget about them, or put them in a document and forget about them. You need to leave them. You need to every single day. In every single role you play in the business, you need to show up and represent these values.
So this is where I’m starting when it comes to strong company culture. At the core of the course company culture are the values, your core values and you want people and the people in your business to have these values, to hold these values and and.
Show up with this value every single day in everything they do, and it all starts with you showing up and getting better and better at really representing these core values.

Jores Minasvand   5:39
100% practice what you preach. I always say that you you do it by example. People will will notice and follow. You won’t even have to repeat it. And it is very important. I can’t you you put it very well and there’s not much I can do I can add.
To it, except for stick to your values at every aspect of it, whether you’re dealing with a $20,000 client or $2,000,000 client, same values, whether you’re dealing with the people who clean your.
Office versus your VP of operations. Same values, same treatment, same everything. You cannot, you cannot pick and choose and then expect the rest people, rest of people to follow your. This is one of those things that it has to be absolute.
And you don’t even have to. To me, I’ve I’ve realized you don’t even have to be intentional. Just do it and then people will see and follow. And then all of a sudden you hear somebody say something, but they’re like, oh wow, actually people saw this. People actually realized it.
You’d be like ding, ding, ding. So absolutely I I culture has to be genuine. It cannot be faked, cannot be copied, it cannot be learned. It has to come from within. And that’s the important part. The fake ones will fade away and there’ll be.
No, it’s it’s you need to be genuine.

Anna Angelova   7:18
Which brings me to actually the next thing that’s really important because of what you said, right? Culture needs to be genuine and your culture is actually shaped by the people within your company. They shape the culture.
And in the beginning, when it’s only you.
You shave the coach, you are it, you are the coach. But then when you start hiring, this is where you really need to be careful. That’s why I mentioned the org chart. That’s why I mentioned for every single position who these people need to be. Not only competencies and skills in terms of technical.
College and all these kind of things, but also as people and this is I’ve shared it before as well and I’ll share it again. I I love this story. Like one of the things again, I think it was Darren Hardy who was talking about it and he was saying how he had a conversation with a manager of.
Hotel and he was saying how everyone in the hotel, from the bellboy to receptionist, the the maids, like everyone was smiling all the time, was so nice all the time. And Darren Harley asked the manager, how do you do this?
How do you train your people to be so happy? And the manager responded. We don’t train people to be happy, we hire happy people. So ultimately, again, I’ve mentioned this one as well before that one of our values is kindness, and this one comes from me. This is one of my superpowers.
And our thing is that we as as we build the team, as we grow the team, we will look for kind people. People who are kind will not teach them kindness. We will find people who.
Are kind. And yes, it might mean that it takes us longer to find a fewer position, but it’s so, so important. This is again, one bad apple spoils the bunch. You don’t want to get a bad apple in your company as you’re growing it.
And I know we’re talking about different things in in the podcast, but culture, your leadership, it’s really so vital for building a successful business, for building a business that thrives not only now, but in the future and even for the next generation.
Making it one of those, you know, imagine this is like you’re with your grandkids and and one of your grandkids. You might be even with your great grandkids and one of your grandkids is actually running the business now if you’ve built something that.
Is now third generation business. So for you to do this culture is so, so important and that’s why today we’re talking about.
Your company culture and it all starts with you like the leader. As the leader, George, you also said something that reminded me of the phrase leading by example. And this is one of the things that as the leader, you always lead by example. It always starts with you, how you show up, who you are and one of the things that we.
Teach in our Launch 360 program where we work with the people who are just starting their businesses is the idea that the business can’t grow more than you grow. The business will never outgrow you.
You as the leader need to grow and the Energy Leadership Index assessment shows you your level, your energy level and can show you what kind of a company like if you’re you’re resonating energy level is level 4.
You can’t be a level 5 company, you can’t be a level 6 company. So really, really important. And the fact that you are showing up here, listening to our podcast every single day, taking note, I hope it already shows that you pay attention to this, that you are willing to grow as a leader, as a business owner.
And this puts you ahead of like 99% of people, even 99% of business owners. So many people don’t know how to be business owners and how to lead and you’re doing something fantastic. So keep it up and if you do want to glimpse and see, understand a little bit more about you, where you’re at.
Where your energy level is and what kind of culture you’re building right now, I highly recommend the ELI assessment. I’ll actually put a link for you to take a look at it and grab one for yourself. It’s.
Very nice present. Like, no, it’s not an expensive thing. It’s a yeah, online assessment. And then you get personalized debrief with me. So like, it’s what, 90 minutes? Yeah, the debrief is 90 minutes.
So would highly recommend check, check the link and if you want to explore your culture a little bit more, the ELI assessment is a unique one-of-a-kind tool that will allow you to see yourself, your company, your culture in a completely different way and would allow you to.
Create the company you really want to have.

Jores Minasvand   12:42
Very well put, Anna. You’re you can can tell you’re very passionate about it and you’re very knowledgeable as well. Thank you so much. And again for the audience, if you want any advice, you want to chat with Anna or myself, just contact us and we’re here for you.

Anna Angelova   13:00
Absolutely. Thank you, Joris. And yeah, no, this is my passion. This is my passion. And tomorrow we are coming back with, oh, monthly financial dashboard. What should it include?

Jores Minasvand   13:03
Thank you, man.
Oh, wow.
It.

Anna Angelova   13:17
So, uh, yes, join us tomorrow, Thursday.

Jores Minasvand   13:17
So uh, yes.

Anna Angelova   13:22
For a conversation about finances.

Jores Minasvand   13:22
Station about finance.
OK.
Thank you, Anna. Bye, bye.

Anna Angelova   13:30
Play George.