EP 186: Agency culture is everything with Tristan White

Every agency has a culture. The question is – is it intentional? And when I say culture, I’m not talking the beer thirty or holiday party aspects of culture. I’m really focusing in on the shared beliefs and agreed upon “rules” of engagement in terms of how we work together, deliver for the client and push towards our goals.

In too many agencies, this is not as intentional as it needs to be. The agency’s vision, mission, and values may exist somewhere, in a file folder, or at best in an employee manual, and then agency owners check off the box, hoping that their team picks up on it. It’s culture by default, not by design.

I’ve become increasingly convinced that culture isn’t just a nice idea. It’s not simply a day out serving the community or a potluck lunch held the first Tuesday of every month. Those things can be good and a part of the culture but the concept goes much deeper than that and it has implications for the bottom line.

In this episode, I talk with Tristan White, who early on in his business realized that intention and methodology were necessary to build a strong and healthy work culture. He soon realized that culture isn’t a distraction. It isn’t peripheral to business. Culture is everything.

Tristan White is the CEO of a company called The Physio Co. in Australia. Its core purpose is to increase the physical wellness and activity levels of seniors to keep them healthier, happier, and more mobile.

In the process of building The Physio Co., Tristan did a lot of learning and a lot of experimenting with respect to culture and its influence on company performance. He ended up writing a book called Culture is Everything. Inside that book, Tristan lays out a system for building a foundational culture inside your organization. We explore that system and dig into why culture is so critical to running a long-term successful business.

What You Will Learn in this Episode:

• Why it’s never too late to grow and foster a healthy work culture
• How to live the corporate values you espouse
• A methodology by which to operate from your core values
• Why culture can equal cash
• How to design a culture that withstands challenging times
• How to develop a culture of substance
• Why a healthy work culture must go beyond a day of service and Taco Tuesdays
• How to bake things like empathetic connection into your culture
• How to interview for alignment with your culture
• Where to start in shaping or reshaping your agency’s vision and values

Ways to Contact Tristan White:

• Content for Listeners of the Podcast: https://www.tristanwhite.com.au/bba
• Culture is Everything Book: https://www.tristanwhite.com.au/product/culture-is-everything-book/