The CEO of Marital Bliss: Creating a Culture Through Core Values with Meredith Monday Schwartz pt. 2
08/18/23 • 38 min
CEO and culture creator Meredith Monday Schwartz is passionate about investing in her employees and building a work environment that feels like family. At her wedding venue company, Here Comes the Guide, she works tirelessly to not only hire the best people for her teams but to create a sense of equality amongst them. According to Meredith, the value of an employee is not measured by how much time they spend working. Through clearly communicated key performance indicators, the leadership team at Here Comes the Guide can easily track an individual’s growth and productivity. With a combination of trust and verification, leadership empowers employees to function at their highest capacity.
Other core values Meredith has built at her female-owned and operated company include investing in the sisterhood, putting relationships before sales, prioritizing work/life balance, and practicing fearless authenticity, especially during conflict. In order to keep drama at bay, she encourages open and honest communication directly with those involved. Through culture-building activities such as company retreats, book clubs, and small group goal setting, she is able to foster a sense of connectivity even though everyone works remotely. By implementing a more human-centered approach, Meredith is building a company that she hopes will be around long after she is gone.
Main Topics
- The shift to running a fully remote company (03:12)
- Operating from core values (04:45)
Hiring the right people (08:45)
- Creating powerful key performance indicators (12:30)
- Profit splitting between employees (16:30)
- Sisterhood first at Here Comes the Guide (18:00)
- Creating culture through core values (22:40)
- Building relationships through conflict resolution (26:35)
- Onboarding processes (31:05)
Episode Links
Go to TheFridayHabit.com to find show notes for this episode. There you can also find links to our websites and ways to get in touch. At the bottom of the page you can download our guide to the Friday Habit system that will show you how to set aside one full day each week dedicated to working on your business instead of in your business.
If you enjoyed this episode please subscribe and leave us a review in the Apple podcasts app.
If you have a question or a topic you’d like us to cover don’t forget to record us a quick voice memo and send it to [email protected]
Thanks for listening to The Friday Habit.
Until next time. Live every day like it’s Friday.
Listen, rate, and subscribe!
CEO and culture creator Meredith Monday Schwartz is passionate about investing in her employees and building a work environment that feels like family. At her wedding venue company, Here Comes the Guide, she works tirelessly to not only hire the best people for her teams but to create a sense of equality amongst them. According to Meredith, the value of an employee is not measured by how much time they spend working. Through clearly communicated key performance indicators, the leadership team at Here Comes the Guide can easily track an individual’s growth and productivity. With a combination of trust and verification, leadership empowers employees to function at their highest capacity.
Other core values Meredith has built at her female-owned and operated company include investing in the sisterhood, putting relationships before sales, prioritizing work/life balance, and practicing fearless authenticity, especially during conflict. In order to keep drama at bay, she encourages open and honest communication directly with those involved. Through culture-building activities such as company retreats, book clubs, and small group goal setting, she is able to foster a sense of connectivity even though everyone works remotely. By implementing a more human-centered approach, Meredith is building a company that she hopes will be around long after she is gone.
Main Topics
- The shift to running a fully remote company (03:12)
- Operating from core values (04:45)
Hiring the right people (08:45)
- Creating powerful key performance indicators (12:30)
- Profit splitting between employees (16:30)
- Sisterhood first at Here Comes the Guide (18:00)
- Creating culture through core values (22:40)
- Building relationships through conflict resolution (26:35)
- Onboarding processes (31:05)
Episode Links
Go to TheFridayHabit.com to find show notes for this episode. There you can also find links to our websites and ways to get in touch. At the bottom of the page you can download our guide to the Friday Habit system that will show you how to set aside one full day each week dedicated to working on your business instead of in your business.
If you enjoyed this episode please subscribe and leave us a review in the Apple podcasts app.
If you have a question or a topic you’d like us to cover don’t forget to record us a quick voice memo and send it to [email protected]
Thanks for listening to The Friday Habit.
Until next time. Live every day like it’s Friday.
Listen, rate, and subscribe!
Previous Episode
The CEO of Marital Bliss: Building a Business Slowly with Meredith Monday Schwartz
Meredith Monday Schwartz began her career at the women-powered wedding venue company Here Comes the Guide in 1997 as their first employee; now she’s the CEO. Before onboarding with the company, she was working in a highly stressful environment at a Top 10 legal firm as a paralegal. Seeking more life/work balance, she joined the fledgling team where she put her problem solving skills to work. In the early days, she played every role and learned how to do all the jobs she would eventually hire people to do. Those years of experience helped her develop the empathy and business savvy required to be the strong leader she is today.
Here Comes the Guide helps couples all across the country find the perfect wedding venue for them. Its business structure is an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, which provides employees with a certain percentage of shareholdings after they’ve worked with the company for one year. This structure creates a sense of buy-in for employees to help the company grow and increase in value. During the global shut down in 2020, possibly one of the greatest challenges for the wedding industry to date, Here Comes the Guide actually flourished. They focused on helping clients navigate the crisis, moved to a four-day work week, and adapted to meet the ever-changing needs of their clientele. Meredith attributes much of the company’s success to their slow growth, grassroots approach that values the culture of the company over any quick profit plan.
Main Topics
- How Meredith came to be a CEO (01:48)
- From paralegal work to a wedding venue start-up (04:15)
- The evolution of her role at Here Comes the Guide (08:35)
- Benefits of knowing how to do every job at the company (12:40)
- Systems and processing as a superpower (14:35)
- Employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) (17:00)
- How the company grew through the pandemic (19:50)
- Transitioning from print to virtual (24:20)
- The value of slow growth (28:40)
- Adopting a four-day work week (30:00)
Episode Links
Go to TheFridayHabit.com to find show notes for this episode. There you can also find links to our websites and ways to get in touch. At the bottom of the page you can download our guide to the Friday Habit system that will show you how to set aside one full day each week dedicated to working on your business instead of in your business.
If you enjoyed this episode please subscribe and leave us a review in the Apple podcasts app.
If you have a question or a topic you’d like us to cover don’t forget to record us a quick voice memo and send it to [email protected]
Thanks for listening to The Friday Habit.
Until next time. Live every day like it’s Friday.
Listen, rate, and subscribe!
Next Episode
The Rising Generation of World-Changing Entrepreneurs with Milan Kordestani
Brandishing his youth as one of his greatest assets, social entrepreneur, inventor, and author Milan Kordestani can’t be contained to a single industry. A business visionary from a young age, Milan began his first financial endeavor in middle school by breeding and selling rare species of turtles. From there he continued following his natural interests which extended into writing and creating space for people to talk about challenging topics. He founded a series of startups including a freelancing site, a publishing company, and a record label. Through these experiences, he gained business knowledge and clarity about his role pertaining to startups— Milan is a small business incubator.
One of Milan’s favorite parts of building a company is getting it off the ground. He enjoys being the boots on the ground, identifying problems he might be able to solve for a specific demographic, and finding the right people to build a dream. As soon as it’s time to talk about scaling the business, he’s usually onto another project. Instead of succumbing to imposter syndrome, Milan chooses to see his youth as a strength. Through his publications, he is passionate about using his voice and unique perspective to make big changes in the world. By combining his love for entrepreneurship and his heart for bringing people together, he stands out as a leader in his generation seeking to make the world a better place.
Main Topics
- Milan’s early entrepreneurial experience as a reptile breeder (02:55)
- The roots of an entrepreneurial spirit (05:30)
- Youth perspective in the agriculture industry (08:45)
- Milan’s love of sharing his perspective through writing (11:45)
- Overcoming imposter syndrome (13:15)
- Milan’s first real company (14:55)
- I’m Just Saying shares tools for active listening and sharing (20:50)
- The process of starting multiple companies (25:10)
- Vetting new ideas (30:00)
Episode Links
Go to TheFridayHabit.com to find show notes for this episode. There you can also find links to our websites and ways to get in touch. At the bottom of the page you can download our guide to the Friday Habit system that will show you how to set aside one full day each week dedicated to working on your business instead of in your business.
If you enjoyed this episode please subscribe and leave us a review in the Apple podcasts app.
If you have a question or a topic you’d like us to cover don’t forget to record us a quick voice memo and send it to [email protected]
Thanks for listening to The Friday Habit.
Until next time. Live every day like it’s Friday.
Listen, rate, and subscribe!
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