Nov 27, 2018
Joining Kevin today is Jeremiah Smith, the Founder and CEO of Simple Tiger. Simple Tiger is an SEO agency specifically for software companies, helping them drive simple, effective marketing for clients they love. Today, Jeremiah shares the joy of discovering purpose along the way: in business, in life, and how the two intertwine.
A business with a clear set of values
Jeremiah’s company, Simple Tiger, has a clear set of values — simplicity, integrity, and joy — that’s evident as soon as you land on their website. Jeremiah shares the journey behind each of these core values, and how they are brought to life in the company.
Integrity is an especially relevant value in the SEO field. Because it’s so complex and so lucrative, it’s easy to become a snake oil salesman and confuse unsuspecting customers. But by carrying core values into the way we build and run our companies, we can go back to having a solid, healthy, wonderful impact on people.
Humanizing of the workplace
A more human workplace starts with the business owner bringing their whole self to the business. You don’t lead by shouting or yelling or directing: you lead by doing. You lead by example. To have a company made up of people who ascribe to the core values, you must bring that in as a leader and exemplify it yourself.
Jeremiah then shares examples of how these values shape the culture of the workplace: from screening applicants during the recruitment process to brainstorming with the team when it comes to making decisions. This has built an extremely strong, incredible team, which is important because they work remotely and everybody is spread throughout the country. It’s a unique culture with its own unique challenges, so a top concern is always to make sure everyone has a healthy morale, feels good about their work, and is enjoying things.
Discovering personal purpose
Jeremiah shares how his journey of discovery began in church. The more deeply involved he got in his ministry, the more he started growing: becoming someone who was much more patient, much more loving, and able to deal with people much deeper and much better.
Soon this growth found its way back to how he interacted with the team, and it produced massive fruit. The team began to excel, and Jeremiah found himself shifting his personal thinking: maybe I should try to start letting go of things and letting other people run them.
The business now is the means by which Jeremiah could live out his personal life’s purpose, and how he wants his team to have that as well: the realization of their purpose, and to live fulfilling lives. Jeremiah hopes that his company can help them along the way, and shares stories of how this has trickled down to his team.
Final thoughts
Jeremiah challenges anyone who may not be clear on their purpose to focus on something that’s free. You're not guaranteed to get anything tangible out of it right away, and getting that selfishness out of the way helps you to be clear on your life’s purpose.
If you’re on this path of figuring out your purpose, Jeremiah shares the advice his mother gave to him: keep doing whatever you’re doing. Eventually it will find you, and eventually you will figure it out. But what you can’t do is sit down and be bumped. It will show up; you just have to get up and go back to work. And just keep working until it shows up.
Resources
jeremiah@simpletiger.com