300: Core Values – Who We Are and Why We Do What We Do with Bjork Ostrom

Bjork Ostrom: Hey folks, Bjork here. This is actually episode number 304. 99% of you, it’s not going to really be any different than the normal episode that you would listen to, but for the small percentage of you who are mega Food Blogger Pro followers, maybe you’re following us on YouTube, or maybe you’re seeing this on LinkedIn, who knows where this video is going to end up being. But that’s the key word, video.

Bjork Ostrom: We’re actually recording video for this podcast. And it’s going to be a short episode, a celebratory episode of episode number 300, but also a really big change for the podcast coming up. And the reason it’s a really big change is because we’ve been thinking a lot about this idea of 1% Infinity, that’s actually one of the core values that we have at our company, TinyBit.

Bjork Ostrom: And TinyBit is the company over Food Blogger Pro, Pinch of Yum, WP Tasty, Nutrifox, Clariti. These companies that we are running are all under the umbrella of TinyBit. And as you know, we talk a lot about this idea of 1% Infinity, which is all about showing up and getting a tiny bit better every day forever. We stepped back, and we said, “How can we be doing that for the podcast? What are the ways that we can be getting a tiny bit better?” And the thing that we thought of that we kept coming back to was starting to include video.

Bjork Ostrom: Now, for an episode like this, it’s not going to be super helpful, because it’s going to be me talking at the camera and explaining a few things and some of the reasons why we’re going to be including video. But more and more, what you’ll start to see is there will be little snippets, there’ll be segments that it’ll actually be really helpful to have the video. We might be able to do some overlays. We might be able to do some screen-sharing, especially if we’re talking about a concept that’s hard to explain on the podcast.

Bjork Ostrom: You’ve heard me say on the podcast before, if you followed along for a long time now, you’ve heard me say things like, “Yeah, it’s kind of hard to explain on the podcast,” or, “It’s hard to explain without a visual.” Video allows us to have those things to make it easier to explain. So you’ll start to see video pop up a little bit more. And if you find yourself to be somebody who likes to watch something, to see people, and to also maybe see screen shares of concepts that are a little bit more difficult, or text overlays, we’re going to be taking the podcast and chunking that out into different segments, sharing that in different places. And it’s all about this idea of getting a tiny bit better every day forever.

Bjork Ostrom: And part of the reason why I wanted to step back and talk about that is, not only because I wanted you to know like, “Hey, keep an eye out for it,” but also I want us, as a community, to be thinking about that. How can we be thinking about the processes we have, the systems, maybe the framework that we run our business on? And looking for ways to improve it and to optimize or to enhance it all with the purpose of serving our mission.

Bjork Ostrom: And there’s two layers to how we view our mission and our value, really, at TinyBit and Food Blogger Pro, and I want to talk about each one of those. The first is actually 1% Infinity. So this idea of getting a tiny bit better everyday forever, but within that, we call these core values, within that core value of 1% Infinity, there’s actually two parts to it. And I wanted to read through this.

Bjork Ostrom: We have these statements about each one of these core values that we follow for TinyBit, and I’m reading you the one now for 1% Infinity. And it says this, “As a company, our purpose is to help people get a tiny bit better every day forever. This is reflected in the work that we do in two ways.” In the first one here is actually relevant to you, podcast listener, “we are consistently thinking about how the products or services we are creating help to improve someone’s life or business. Our hope for this podcast is that it helps you improve your life or your business.” That’s why we do it.

Bjork Ostrom: It’s also, obviously, tied into Food Blogger Pro, the site, which is a business. It’s a way that we make money as business owners, but we consider it to be a double bottom line. The revenue that we create from Food Blogger Pro memberships allows us to do these things that have a broader reach that aren’t directly revenue-producing, like this podcast. And our hope is that from this that you improve your life or your business.

Bjork Ostrom: The second piece to that 1% Infinity core value is this, “Number two, we are constantly thinking about how we can train, support, empower, and improve the lives of our teammates.” So that’s thinking about us as a team. As TinyBit, how are we thinking about how we individually can get better and can get better as a team? And the rest of the core value statement says this, “We take time to listen, guide and encourage each other and seek ways to understand who our teammates are and what they want to be in the world.” And we hope that to be true for you too. As you follow along with this podcast, our hope is that you get the sense that we want to help you figure out how you can be who you want to be in the world and be better at that.

Bjork Ostrom: So that is TinyBit, it’s getting a tiny bit better everyday forever. The podcast is one of the ways that we do that. And we think that we can do a better job of doing that by starting to include video and syndicating that out into other places. There’s a couple other reasons, some strategy behind that.

Bjork Ostrom: But before I want to talk about the strategy with the including video, I want to talk about a few of the other core values, because I thought people might be interested in who we are, who TinyBit is, and how we view ourselves in terms of what we value. So the first one is 1% Infinity, getting a tiny bit better every day, forever. The second core value is, “Internally motivated and team-focused.” So this is all about who we are as a team and how we work. So, “We are artists, creators, craftspeople who take pride in the work we do. Individually, we seek to be better in order to do better. Better work means greater impact. And collectively, we know that our ability to make an impact is multiplied when working with other individuals who are equally motivated to be better and do better.”

Bjork Ostrom: So as I’m reading through these, one of the things that you might be able to do is think about what are your core values? As you are working on your thing, why are you doing it? What are the things that you most value and that are most important for you? You may not have a team, but that’s okay. You can still think about what your core values are. And you can even borrow some of these, if they feel aligned with what you are and how you work.

Bjork Ostrom: The third core value that we have is, “Energy giving, not taking. We understand that the work we do and the people we do it with is one of the most significant decisions we can make in our life. It’s for this reason that we are building a team of people who are energy givers, not takers. Some common traits of energy givers,” maybe you can relate to this, “include the ability to authentically praise someone else’s work and interest in other’s lives, being fully present and listening well and willingness to laugh, have fun and play. Those are all characteristics that we believe are important for the team that we work with.” And then we call that energy giving.

Bjork Ostrom: Number four core value is, “Do the work.” This is an important one. There’s actually, for those of you who are familiar with the book, The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. He also has a book called Do the Work, all about showing up and doing the work. And that’s one of our core values. So we believe that if something needs to get done, we do it. We’re not above small tasks that need to happen in order to move our mission and purpose forward. At the same time, we’re smart about how we delegate outsource and strategically work with the team to allocate tasks to areas of expertise and, when appropriate, find ways to have someone else take on tasks and responsibilities in a way that allows us to work on our areas of unique ability.

Bjork Ostrom: So we’ve talked about this before on the podcast, this idea of, “Hey, the work that we do there, it’s a grind sometimes, and you have to do the work and you have to show up. Do things that you’re maybe not super excited about in order to move things forward.” But also, you should have some sense of, “These are the things I do. These are the things I don’t do.” We call that the delegate and elevate process. And it’s part of, we’ve talked about EOS before, which is the Entrepreneurial Operating System. It’s how we run TinyBit.

Bjork Ostrom: But one of the things you can do is this delegate and elevate process, where you are constantly looking at, “What are the things that I can delegate in order to elevate to my unique abilities?” And as an entrepreneur, it’s important for you to be thinking about that as well. And you can’t do that right away all the time. Sometimes you have to wait. Sometimes you have to do the grind, you have to do the work that you don’t enjoy. But as soon as you have the bandwidth, either financial or time, to start to think about, “How do I delegate some of this stuff?” I would encourage you to do that, because that’s going to allow you to elevate to your unique ability.

Bjork Ostrom: And we are constantly thinking about that at TinyBit and for Food Blogger Pro. How do we push through and do the hard work when we need to do it and not say, “Not my job.” That’s not who we are. We don’t have this idea of “not my job.” We’re a startup and there’s stuff that we have to do that isn’t our job, but we don’t want to do that forever. We don’t want to get stuck in things that we could delegate and elevate up to the next level.

Bjork Ostrom: And the last core value that we have is this core value that I consider to be one of the most important, which is unsurpassable worth. And it’s this core belief on how we view other people and individuals in the world. And here’s what that core value of unsurpassable worth means. “We believe that every person we interact with, whether a reader, customer, or a teammate, has unsurpassable worth, and we treat them as such. In this way, we are all on the same level. This is true, regardless of race, religion, gender, nationality, sexual orientation, or political affiliation.” And we believe that to be true of you, podcast listener, wherever you are, we believe that you have unsurpassable worth. And I think it’s important that you hear that and that you know that we believe it to be true. Both for anybody listening to this podcast, members of Food Blogger Pro, or the teammates that we work with.

Bjork Ostrom: So those are our core values. But also there’s Food Blogger Pro. That’s for TinyBit, overseeing all of these different companies. What about Food Blogger Pro? If you rewind way back to the first episode ever of the Food Blogger Pro podcast, I talk about this idea of feeding the world. And that’s why we exist. That’s why Food Blogger Pro exists. We want to feed the world, not only in the sense of, “Hey, we want to help you, as creators in the food world, figure out how to create content that literally feeds people.” You’re helping people to put food on the table and understand how to do that and have success with it. But we also want to feed the world in the sense of delivering really solid information, this podcast, the courses that we do, the events, to be things that are feeding you informationally and that help you as an entrepreneur.

Bjork Ostrom: So those are the two ways that we look at Food Blogger Pro in terms of our mission and purpose, that are really important to how we think about the decisions we make, the content that we produce, and the reason behind it. So all of that to say, those are our core values. To zoom back up to that first one, the 1% Infinity, tiny bit better. We thought, “Hey, what better time than the 300th episode to switch things up a little bit to see how we can do things a little bit better?”

Bjork Ostrom: And from a content strategy, it works in a few different ways. Number one, it allows us to syndicate this content different places. So audio works really good for podcast format. That’s how 99% of you are going to be listening at least to this episode. But video is starting to become… Well, it has been for a really long time, but even within the podcast world is starting to become more prevalent. People are recording video. I’m using a new software right now called Squadcast. We’re testing it out. They recently introduced video as one of the things that they can do with their podcast recording software. And it’s because there’s a demand for it. So it allows us to take these conversations that we’re having to divide them up and to syndicate that, to put them into other places to have a broader reach.

Bjork Ostrom: So as you think about the content that you’re creating, where do you normally think of that landing? And are there ways that you could syndicate that, or ways that you could chop it up and deliver it into different places to reach more people? Whether that be a video on Twitter… For us, it’s video on Twitter or LinkedIn or YouTube, Facebook. All of these different places that we can be delivering this content, getting a broader reach because of it. That’s something that’s important to think about. How can you do that? Syndicate your content. It’s also allowing us to figure out how we can get a little bit better, a tiny bit better every day. This software is an example of that. Introducing a new medium as a way to record. And overall, it just allows us to not stagnate.

Bjork Ostrom: So one of the things that can happen, when you do something for a really long period of time, you can get stuck in the way that you’re doing it. And introducing video for the podcast allows us to take a new pass at things. And even as our team has started to think about video, there are new problems that we need to solve, there are new ways that I’m thinking about asking questions. There are new ways that we can communicate now. And all of that comes from us thinking about how do we get a tiny bit better.

Bjork Ostrom: So I wanted to just take a step back in this episode, number 300, to explain a little bit behind that. And if you start to see this pop up here and there across the web in whatever way that we are sharing it, you’ll have a little bit of context behind the why with that. And within that, also encourage you to think about what are the ways that you can have those incremental improvements to get a tiny bit better every day forever.

Bjork Ostrom: It’s a great joy and a privilege and an honor to be able to do these podcasts each and every week. And to now, not only to be able to be in your earbuds, but also to be able to virtually see you is a great honor and privilege and excited to move forward. Maybe another 300 episodes, we’ll see. It’s hard to imagine what episode 600 will look like and what the world will look like at that point. But I would be honored and excited to make that happen if and when we are able to get to that point.

Bjork Ostrom: So that’s all. Thanks for tuning in. Thanks for listening if you’re listening. Thanks for watching if you watched. And thanks for following along. We will be back here next week.