How to define your mission, vision & purpose with Julian Parmiter, Co-Founder of Create Academy

As defining your mission, vision and purpose statements is an important step when building a comprehensive brand for your business I was keen to speak to someone who has not only done this successfully but also recently. 

In this episode, I hear from Julian Parmiter, co-founder and CEO of Create Academy. Founded in 2019, Create Academy offers beautifully curated video courses providing unprecedented access to the expertise of today’s best designers, makers, gardeners and chefs - with a mission to help people build their creative confidence.

Having recently evolved Create Academy’s original proposition by launching an annual membership offering, Julian shares his advice on how to define your brand’s mission, vision and purpose and how to remain true to them as you scale. 

Julian’s advice:

• The mission is what you want to do/produce/create
• The vision is where you want to go with it/how you want to see the world changed by what you do/where you want to be in the future/ what will your impact be
• The purpose is your motivation/why you want to do it
• The “what” and the “how” will probably change.  The “why” should stay with you.  It’s the “why” - the purpose - which will bring investors and others with you, will lift you when you’re down.  So take time to articulate this one (even if privately, just to yourself)  early on.  It will represent your personality, your ethos, your creed
• You are the best person to articulate it
• Keep these three things distinguished one from the other
• Understanding your customers will inevitably lead to changing or adapting your vision in time but you need to stay relevant and be flexible
• You have to be able to answer the question: “who cares?”
• Don’t spend too much time and effort at the start on branding
• Find inspiration in other people and other places

You can contact Julian via email on julian@createacademy.com

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Recorded, edited & published by Juliet Fallowfield, 2023 MD & Founder of PR & Communications consultancy for startups Fallow, Field & Mason.

FF&M recommends: 

• LastPass the password-keeping site that syncs between devices.
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• Buzzsprout podcast 'how to' & hosting directory
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MUSIC CREDIT Funk Game Loop by Kevin MacLeod.  Link &  Licence

Chapters

• 0:00 Julian Parmiter podcast edit

Transcript

How to define your mission, vision & purpose with Julian Parmiter, Co-Founder Create Academy

[00:00:00] Welcome to season 10 of How To Start Up, the podcast helping you start and scale your business with advice from entrepreneurs on what to do now, next, or never when scaling your company. This season, we're focusing on all things brand. So you'll hear from a series of amazing entrepreneurs on what they've learned in their own journeys.

hosted by me, Juliet Fallowfield, founder of the B Corp certified PR and communications consultancy, Fallow, Field and Mason. Our mission is to enable you to earn your communications in-House with a long-term view. 

As defining your mission, vision and purpose statements is a really important step when building a comprehensive brand for your business, I was keen to speak to someone who's not only done this successfully but recently.

Founded in 2019 Create Academy offers beautifully curated video courses, providing unprecedented access to the expertise of today's best designers.

Makers, gardeners, and chefs, all with a mission to help people build their creative confidence. 

Having recently evolved Create Academy's original proposition by launching an [00:01:00] annual membership offering, Julian shares his advice on how to go about defining your vision and mission and purpose, and also why it's okay that it can change over time. 

Juliet: thank you, Julian, for your time today on how to start up. I'm very excited to talk to you about all things, vision, mission, and purpose. But before we get into that, I'd love it if you could introduce yourself and a bit about the business that you started.

Julian Parmiter: Sure. Um, thanks for getting me on your brilliant podcast. Um, I'm, I'm very pleased to be here. I'm Julian Parmeter and I'm CEO , uh, and one of the co founders at, um, Create Academy where we're, we're on a mission to help people build their creative confidence and. We do this through beautifully produced video courses, um, 

Juliet: They are stunning. 

Julian Parmiter: oh thank you, this incredible kind of access, really it's all about the, the talent, the instructors we work with, um, incredible designers, makers, gardeners.

Um, and we collaborate them on their courses, um, and really give people through their teaching a kind of a window into the world of these [00:02:00] incredible, um, creators, um, all to help people kind of become more creative and more live more creatively fulfilled lives themselves. And so that's all via our platform, create academy.

com, um, where we want to become the world's leading destination for this kind of creative lifestyle learning. 

Juliet: And I've seen some of your beautiful videos and it's so approachable. I think it's not intimidating at all. Where I saw one on Instagram this morning that said curtain making can be intimidating. And I was like, Oh my goodness. I've watched my mum make curtains all of my life and it looks like a big job, but she does it, other people can do it.

You can learn how to do it. So why did you start Create Academy? 

Julian Parmiter: Yeah, um, I mean there's a bit, there's a bit of a story. My background, kind of a bit about me is my background in actually in TV, television production. Way back in the day, studied art history and architecture, then actually went on to study architecture. So, yeah. psychology, and I didn't really take it past sort of master's level to practice as a psychologist.

Instead, I realized, again, that I was much more interested [00:03:00] in telling people's stories than necessarily always listening to them. And for me, filming makers, and as a production company, we were involved. Really to um, working with other platforms in this kind of long form Format where we could spend time with makers creators in their studios or running around the streets for street photographers and there's something about Spending time with people in their creative process.

They're they're in their flow. They're kind of you know Masters doing their thing and there was something about that, not just as a filmmaker, but also we realized, well, actually this is an incredible way to learn is, is that spending time with people and can we, can we create something? Can we sort of facilitate that space where people feel like they're really spending time with?

incredible creators and kind of within that act of creative flow and in that moment and we like to film people in their studios or in their homes and actually see their lives rather than kind of remove them and put them in a [00:04:00] sort of a black box or a studio um and really that access and the time and inspiration you can get from spending time with people was something that, I mean, personally, I, I felt I was becoming a better creator, a more inspired, um, photographer or filmmaker through spending time with people.

And also realizing that actually, if we can help other people to, you know, kind of get off the starting blocks or at least sort of re remember the creativity that I think everyone has, I thought, you know. My belief is that everyone is creative. We all have that as children. We all play. We all, you know, make stuff.

And we've all got that kind of drive that somewhere in life it's sort of, it kind of disappears, or it gets 

Juliet: Beaten outta us. Yeah.

Julian Parmiter: yeah, beats out of us, or it's like you need to get serious, you need to think about your career, And that, you know, that's right. Life changes. And yet there's something really kind of, um, there is something confidence building of say that curtain making, you know, it looks incredibly complex and there are not many curtain, um, curtain makers anymore.

It's quite hard to find a good [00:05:00] curtain makers. And if you do find one, they're very, very expensive. So, you know, even during the course, and I filmed that beginning to, um, learn some of the basic skills, you realize, wow, I did that. I did that little. Pleat that pencil pleat. That's that's me. That's my work And then when that work goes up on the wall and other people say hey Where did you get your curtains or who made your curtains?

You say? Well, that was that was me If you know, it feels good and that kind of confidence that you can learn in one area And it could be just your pleat and your sewing skills Um, you sort of take on into other areas of life to say well actually no i've set out to do something I hadn't a vision for it.

I achieved it. This is what I made and this is the sort of thing I can do And I think that confidence that you can sort of grow in your pastimes, in your home, and for us it really is all about sort of home, kitchen and garden, sort of creating at home. Then you take that confidence into other areas of life, into your work life, your family life, your professional life, your career, um, and, and really that's sort of all, all that we're about is that kind of creative confidence and then taking that into life.

[00:06:00] Let

Juliet: love that. And given it takes a lot of decisions to get a company live and launched and brand is a super important part of that vision, mission, and purpose is part of your brand at what point in that decision making process? Pre or post launch, did you really sit down and think about your company's vision and mission and purpose?

I say, and purpose as an add on because I know that McKinsey used to talk about vision and mission for the 80s and 90s and 00s and now if you go on McKinsey's or Bain Company's website, you'll see purpose there and purpose is obviously super important today. Um, but yeah, how did you go about it?

Julian Parmiter: It was, it was early on. I think, you know, I think it's easy to get in a bit of a muddle with the kind of mission, vision, purpose, and you sort of read the literature, you speak to people, you start Googling it, and you think, well, I need these as statements, and these need to be quite distinct things, and this is a very, Particular process so it feels quite natural to start with the what you know It's very easy to begin to communicate with other people about [00:07:00] what you're doing or what you want to do And and I think that's valid, you want to know the but, but behind that I think you also need to know why you are doing something.

And with Creative Academy that that why was there quite early. And this idea of helping people build creative confidence, I think sort of grew out of what was probably a mission statement that could fit on the back of a post-It note, which was create more, consume less, and that early memo. Um, with something that I sketched out during during a trip away with the family.

We took a year out of school. We homeschooled for a year. We, we left work, um, dotted, um, projects around the world to, to a bit of voluntary work, a bit of paid work, and then a bit of travel. And during that time, I think as a family, we knew that the times where we felt most fulfilled were the times where we were being more creative.

And so this idea of even just for us as a family, for me personally, how do I in life create more slash consume less? And I think over time that the kind of consume less has become more [00:08:00] implicit within our values, within our brands. We, care for the planet is really important in terms of who we partner with, both the brands and the talent, the kind of subjects that we cover, our areas of interest.

And so that's potentially become more sort of baked into our values, but that, that first kernel of, uh, of a why, of a mission, um, to create more and to help people to create more really hasn't gone away. So that for Create Academy was a really key starting point. Um, Um, yeah.

Juliet: We do a lot of work with our clients on their vision and mission because we know it will help all their decisions, it's not just communications, but coming back to your mission is like, does this fit with our mission?

Is this keeping us on the straight, straight and narrow as it were You can get so distracted when you're starting business. You don't have any boundaries. Did it help you make those decisions at the beginning.

Julian Parmiter: I think it is, like you say, it's really easy to get kind of set on different tracks, um, especially as the business grows, you get a better understanding, not only of your product, but also of your audience. And you, you, you want to be relevant. I think, you know, I'm sure you, you [00:09:00] probably know more about brand than I do being in PR and communications.

I've very much come to this as a founder, as a creator and a, and a, and a storyteller. Um, so for me, that sense of story. And having, having purpose, having your kind of mission, your why baked into that story helps you to keep it on track because I think that that's a really important anchor because the kind of how you tell your story does change over time.

Um, some of the things that you do, the what, you know, do does change over time as you want to meet your audience, and your customers needs you introduce a new product or a new service, and so your, your what changes. And I think those things are inevitable as your, as your team grows, as your market grows, um, and as your brand grows.

But, but that kernel of truth that kind of, I think I was chatting to someone of the other day, they talked about it almost as your soul, the soul of your business. You know, what's, what's, what's that. And that, for Create Academy hasn't changed. Um, and I, and I think there's a, I think we're talking about brands and really it's a way connecting your business or your idea with your market and your [00:10:00] audience and that that connection is relational, it takes empathy. And I think for that, for that empathy to be real, rather than just kind of something you've, I don't know, come up with in a business plan and looks kind of convincing, but something that has, uh, authenticity, it has some reality to it.

You, you know, you actually do believe in what you're doing. Your mission is you're true to it. Um, I think for that, it does have to be a kind of authentic mission. It does have to be a real reason that you believe in. And I think if you carry that through, that kind of authenticity with your, your mission, then everything else you do does make sense.

It does sort of fall into place. And I think that sort of starting place is not necessarily an easy one to start with your why. Um, but I think it's a really important one and probably one that um, I think if I was doing it again, we may have even spent more time trying to define our why rather than just sort of two words create more

Juliet: Well, time, yes, ever the elusive thing, but I think a lot of people have said, you've got to be so sure of what you're doing [00:11:00] and be so passionate about your idea for your business, whatever it might be, because you will hit those tough days and those dark moments where you're like, I am exhausted.

When's it going to get easier? And if you have that. No, this is really important. I have to keep going. I have to keep doing this because, and if you know that it'll help you, it pulls you out of the weeds. 

Julian Parmiter: Yeah, definitely the dark days, you know, you know what you're doing, you know why you're doing it, but also you've got to bring other people along on your journey with you, your, your, your team or your co founders or your investors, or, you know, not necessarily just your audience, although they want to know.

Um, you know, why is it you do what you do? I think that to be able to articulate that tell your story. Um, Really helps with the the whole journey of bringing people along for the for the right Have you heard that simon sinnock talk? There's a there's a ted talk that he talks about And start with why?

And it's a brilliant talk, so he's got this, um, kind of mantra that he keeps repeating through this talk and he says people don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it.

[00:12:00] And it's a really good talk and it's probably about 10 years old and it's really inspiring even, even now, even though the sort of world's moved on, but it's around the importance of, you know, kind of knowing your why, and articulating your why, especially when you think about kind of branding and beginning to articulate your vision and your mission and your purpose.

purpose 

Juliet: also stay on brand and that's a big statement, but I think when you're marketing yourself and ultimately businesses are trying to sell something, whether it be a service or a product, for your client to understand what that is, the clearer and more succinct you can be about that, the better, because then they know what problem you're solving for them.

And less is more. And someone said to me, just do one thing and do it really, really well. You'll get distracted. You'll think, Oh, I could do this. I could do that. I could just do one thing at a time. And it's really hard because you're like, you suddenly are boundary less and you could do a hundred other things, but you don't have time and your client will get confused.

And I think someone else said this, is that if you walk into a room, With a prospective client saying, [00:13:00] I can do a hundred things that will solve hundreds of your problems. They're not going to believe you're good at any of them. But if you walk in with one and do it really well, I think it was Paul Weedon, actually his episode was season one. Yeah, if you come and go, I'm an expert in this tiny niche, which is a problem that you need help with. They're much more likely to believe you. And you can believe yourself. You have confidence in yourself as well. Um, I've just looked up Bain and companies.

statement on this and said a mission statement is a definition of the company's business, who it serves, what it does, its objectives, and its approach to reaching those objectives. So it's much more of a kind of today now thing. And we talked about that. How did you go about your vision?

And just quickly on that there. Statement of this is a vision statement is a description of desired future state of the company An effective vision inspires the team showing them how success will look and feel. So it's much more forward thinking. Have you done some work on that as well with create?

Julian Parmiter: I think we have, and we, as soon as you go out to raise money, and we have, we raised money within the first two years of the business having bootstrapped it initially from our production [00:14:00] company. So, which was a great discipline by the way, to, to bootstrap and then to go out, um, and look for outside investments.

So, you know, this is the area. As soon as you're at that stage in a, in a business they don't just want to know what you do and why you do it and who your customers are It's Where do you want to be in the future? And there's probably two sides for this, you know For us in terms of our vision, we know where we want to be we we do want to be the the leading destination for all this kind of lifestyle learning at home and For us, that's as much about numbers as it is for kind of, kind of, um, influence as well.

We, we, we genuinely believe that creativity is a force for good, um, and the more people that we, uh, can sort of bring into our world of creating and creativity, we We think the world would be a better place. And so I think vision goes both ways. One is where you want to be as the company, where you see yourself, and also where do you see the world with your company in that position?

So, and I've heard, various founders sort of speak on this, but it's, but it's having an imagination of, or, or a vision for, but how's the world going to be [00:15:00] different? If you do become the kind of company that you want to become, what impact is that going to have? Is that a positive?

Is that a negative? You know, who's going to care? And I think that's a really hard question to ask as you're sort of building your own vision values and, and your mission is w who cares? And it's quite helpful and we're, we're three co founders and  um, you know, we, we, we, we trust each other and we can speak very honestly to each other.

But it's also really good to have someone go, well, who cares? Because you can come up with a great idea and this is what we're going to do and this is how we're going to change the world. And I think unless you've got, unless it's got sort of heart and a bit of soul and, and people are going to care about that, um, then it's going to struggle to find a place.

Um in the world for for the long term. So so yeah, I think I think vision works both ways How do you see yourself? But also how do you see the impact that you can have on the world around you? Hmm

Juliet: lot of people default to Instagram engagements.

It's not, it's the loyalty of your client. It's, do they, talk about you, with rave reviews to other people, that word of mouth is the best PR you could possibly imagine. 99. 9 percent of the human population are good people. If you're doing something with [00:16:00] heart and thought to it, and especially today, we became B Corp certified in September.

And it's a really interesting time. And then there's only 1, 500 B Corps in the UK today, obviously much bigger in the U S and 24 of those are communications companies. And someone said to me at the time, it's like, well, why would you bother becoming B Corp, you're tiny and you're a service based business?

Like what impact are you going to make? And I'm so pleased I could come back and be like 78 percent of the UK is SME service based businesses. And if 78 percent of the UK did better, we'd all be better off. And it was a real kind of like. If I'm going to work this hard, it has to be important. It has to matter.

And I love that, that flip side of like, why, why are we doing it? Why is our business doing it? But why does our client benefit from it as well? And why would they believe in it? And do you think that sort of maps in vision and purpose are quite. Intrinsically linked because purpose coming through, I just read Bain's, 

Julian Parmiter: Yeah, go on. Let's have our definition.

Juliet: I know. A purpose statement is an explanation of a company's motivations and reasons for being [00:17:00] and why it works the way it does. And I think vision and purpose are really closely tied. But what would you say on that?

Julian Parmiter: think they are. I think, I mean, like I sort of said, and Jules, I think you're, oh, I just called you Jules because I've

Juliet: That's fine. 

Julian Parmiter: you Jules on a podcast. Are you a Jules?

Juliet: I'm so weird. You say that I was always a Juliet when I was at Chanel and De Beers and the big. Bond Street jobs. And since I've become a self employed, work in a co working place, I'm allowed to wear trainers to work. Everyone calls me Jules. I was like, my work self has now changed quite a lot.

My work identity has definitely changed, but yes, Jules is absolutely fine.

Julian Parmiter: Yeah, I think creative industry. So when I was training as a psychologist, very much Julian, and now at work, I'm also Jules. So I've never introduced myself as Jules, but it just, it's there anyway, we digress. Um, I, you know, my, my sort of basic understanding is that if the mission is much more about the what,

Juliet: Yeah.

Julian Parmiter: you know, kind of what an organization does, the, the, the vision is.

where you want to go, and for me as well, I think sort of how you want to see the world changed by what you do. The purpose is, [00:18:00] is much more around the kind of the why and the motivation, you know, as that, as that Bain statement says, and there is quite a bit of overlap, and I think, you know, it's all sort of the what, the where you want to go, and the why do link in, but it probably is important to distinguish them.

For me particularly, it's this idea that We're often quite defined and it's quite tempting to define ourselves by what, by what we do. And, and the what is interesting. You want to know, and with Create Academy, I think early on, it's, it's like we, you know, thoughtfully, beautifully produced video courses.

And that's, that's what we do because you're in the business of it. So most of your day is taken up with, with the what, I think as soon as you're going for investment and your future planning, your business planning. Forecasting is really important to where and where you want to get to. So this idea of purpose, I think is often the bit that gets slightly left towards the edges, um, It takes a bit of reflection or takes that away day or that retreat or that challenge actually, when you are in the weeds, when things are [00:19:00] going wrong to say, well, 

Why are we doing this? And I think you really want to have, have that down and probably have that down quite early and to be thinking about it. And I do, I do find, I mean, it's great and interesting hearing about businesses and hearing about brands and hearing about what they do and what they want to become.

But it's the why that kind of connects us, I think, 

Juliet: emotionally. Makes you more human. Yeah,

you see the personality behind it.

Julian Parmiter: Absolutely. It's the personality and with brands that are incredible brands that are meaningful and have incredible kind of, you know, world shaping presence, it's, it's that that kind of gets people excited.

It's like, well, how, how, how does this become mine? How am I part of this tribe? And that tribe is not just we'll. Look the same, or do the same, or, or, or want to be the same in the future. There's a kind of a heart and soul of the why, of the purpose that kind of unites it. And I think, I think, so I think the purpose is really important.

Um, and probably on from that, we haven't really talked loads about it, but it's the values. You know, what, what does your purpose in the world actually mean? Like, you know, you've said [00:20:00] about becoming B Corp. We would love to become B Corp. And I think even hearing you say as a small business that you've gone down that road, I've sometimes looked at our business and said, well, we're quite small and have used the same kind of, um, I guess it's an excuse not to kind of put some of the work in, but you know, that's really inspirational.

I think even hearing that from you is something that, Well, the the value that you have is baked into your business.

Juliet: Well, Well, for me, it was very much, I know it's going to be a lot easier to do as a younger company and the bigger you are, the more work it will take and the more things you'll have to potentially change and shifting the Titanic, we're like a little dinghy at the moment. So it's much easier to, to build.

And for me as a new business owner, starter, founder, whatever, I opened my laptop and registered the business at Companies House the day after redundancy and thought, yeah, I'll give this a go. Uh, it's, it was having that third party validation that you are legitimate, you are practicing what you preach, you are validated in this.

Because our, our mission is, I mean, we enable business owners to own their own PR in house. And it was getting it down to one breath to be like, this is what we will help you with. And our [00:21:00] vision is to make sure, nurture the common understanding that PR is best owned in house. Agencies have their place, they serve their purpose, but it's a whole different way of working.

And for us to demystify this world of PR, I was so passionate about because I've had a 20 year career in it. So for me, now we need to do the work on the purpose and our values. And it's the purpose is to make sure that people aren't being rinsed by agencies and being charged exorbitant amounts and not getting any results.

So, but I need to spin that in a much more positive

Julian Parmiter: Yeah, there's something really empowering about that day. I mean, there's an empowerment to that. And even just thinking about us, you know, owning our own PR in house, there's something that we, you know, then we own it, it belongs, and I think there's something, anyway, we could, we could riff off that later,

Juliet: Well, yeah, and it was, it was coming from a place of not anger, but frustration where people had always criticized my career of like, Oh, you're in PR, Oh, you just go in for long lunches. And it was born out of this real determination to fix this problem. And lots of people. It's like, but you should take on loads of retainers.

You'll make loads more money. I'm like, I would have made my life so much easier had I done that. But it's, it's against our vision. It's against our [00:22:00] mission. And it's, it's kept me completely believers. I know I'm doing this for a reason. There's a reason behind this. And that's where we got our B Corp points.

So it, it. It shouldn't be transactionary, but it is that validation, that B Corp validation has really helped me, um, go, yeah, we are, we are on vision and mission and it, and we keeps us on the straight and narrow in terms of our client work and are we questioning our clients? Do they meet our values? Will we say no to that?

Revenue because they're not for us. They don't have the same values as us. So in today is what 2023, just in December, the world is changing. And I think definitely post pandemic businesses want to be better. And that's where B Corp, again, you put people and planet above profit. It really. It's a good thing to try and do.

But the main, main reason is you'll never work harder than when you start a business, you've got to know why you're doing it and I love that you've said that. It's fantastic.

Julian Parmiter: I think so. And I think, I think like you said, it also helps you to know what not to do. And those, those decisions, I mean, they're always going to come up. And, you know, it's as much about embracing and kind of going, going for it with all your passion into in the direction you want to [00:23:00] go with, but there's always going to be opportunities.

to do something slightly different, especially when they've got a revenue upsize and, you know, you want to go for the cash. And I think that those decisions are made much easier when you've kind of got a good firm base to say, well, actually let's hold this up. Is this it, you know, is this going to be, is this us?

And not only us, I think when you're sort of digging into the, why you're understanding the customer, I mean, for you talk about clients, we talk about customers, we talk about our community of learners, you know, the more I think having a. Passion not just for sort of what you're doing, but having a passion customers for your audience.

How are you meeting their needs? How are you serving them? How it's the sort of who cares question again, but you know How are you staying relevant to your to your audience your clients your customers and that that that I think is really important part of holding true to your mission and to your vision and to your values is because you could just go off and do something because you'll get a little bit more revenue and actually your customers say well that's not really what we know you for or what we love you [00:24:00] for or

we might think about going somewhere else and you and you could potentially lose them yeah and I think I think that kind of holding heart and holding firm to your original um kind of yeah vision mission values I think that's yeah it helps to avoid some of that.

Juliet: And it's not to be, it sounds like we're very do goodery at the moment, but it's not all about that because ultimately if you build that foundation and your clients know what you are solving for them, they will then refer you, you'll win future business, your business will grow, you'll have more revenue to make more change and affect more goodness in the world.

It does become full circle. 

Julian Parmiter: Absolutely. And I'm not saying it's sort of, yeah, it's not sort of altruistic. It's to have a strong business. I think I have a strong brand. Um, like you said, it's doing the one thing or the few things really well, um, being known for them being recognized for them. And so when people see or see a bit of content or see your brand name or your logo, they think, Oh yeah, that's, that's them.

That's what they do. Um, and that's for me or it's not for me.

Juliet: I've [00:25:00] completely contradicted it because we started launching a podcast production for clients last year as well, because we can, if you do all the messaging, we can do the technical edit. And so me going, you've got to be able to articulate your business in one breath and we enable businesses to own their PR in house.

And podcasting and it's kind of like, ah, do you, and it's like, someone's like, Oh, it could just be a separate business. And I was like, Oh dear, it makes me laugh cause I know I'm not doing it as clear cut as I could, but with time it will become clearer.

But it's sort of knowing your mistakes, knowing, knowing where you sort of fall down on this as well as really helpful,

Julian Parmiter: Yeah, absolutely. And I sound like I'm some sort of branding expert where I'm really, I'm really not. I'm not a marketeer and I haven't come to this. I think I, you know, I think about brands. I think about mission and vision values really as stories, as the stories that businesses tell to the world. And, you know, and that, that, that I think it does change and, you know, create, create academy.

We're only four years old, so we're a baby business. We're just getting going in the world. Um, and it's, You know, in terms of the future and growth, we, we know that we want to innovate, which means not always just [00:26:00] doing the same thing for the same people. Um, and I think that those are really interesting sort of steps that a, that a business can take.

And yes, we can hold all this and say, yeah, don't change your original vision. At the same time, when we look to the future, we say, well, how do we stay relevant? How do we, um, bring to people? What's what the things that they want and they ask of us and they need. And so, you know, I think the message does get adapted.

The brand does change over time.

Juliet: and your vision can pull your mission forward and it's not to say you can't ever rewrite your mission, but I think having it, questioning it, looking at it, and actually I was going to ask from a practical perspective, what would you advise people to do to get their vision and mission and then purpose down on paper?

Have you had any like good, good advice on how someone could start? Because it can feel overwhelming. Ha

Julian Parmiter: I would love to know, I feel like this is an area where I should be asking you what, how to approach branding and those initial, I think it's really tricky. And I think there's a, there's a lot of noise out there and there's a [00:27:00] lot of pressure to feel like you can get it right. Um, and you become a bit of a wordsmith when you, when you're actually faced with You know, it kind of writes your mission statement or your vision statement And I think that's a really hard place to start to sort of begin to creep it into those fairly sort of You know predefined brackets For me, like I said, you know, i'm i'm drawn to stories.

That was my that was my background and So yeah, have it written down have your have your why am I doing this on a piece of paper? Have your whatever it is your foundational memo that you may never show anyone, it may just be for you. But I think those early days for us, we, talking about it, getting those wise people who, who are the business people or the friends, the family that you respect, that you admire, who are kind, who are encouraging, and Listen to yourself as you're telling your story.

Does this resonate? Is this, is this real? Is this true? Is this an idea? Is this, you know, what is this? And I think you get that feedback quite early on that then begins to [00:28:00] shape that narrative into something that, that does start to look like a business plan, or does start to look like, you know, you can separate off all that.

That's what the future will look like. So that's, that's my vision. Well, this is the kind of what I do. So that's a bit more my mission. And, and this is my purpose here. How can I define, that, that why, why am I doing this? And so I really do think it's a process. And honestly, every time we come to the website, even about the kind of really painful about us section for many years, we had nothing there because we thought, well, we're not very confident with our brands.

Let's just have. A very sort of pared back brand that our instructors can kind of imprint over. Um, one of the, uh, my co founders, Will, is, um, his background's in the music industry. So we, we sort of lifted a bit more of a kind of record label approach to branding, where we had our name and we had some white space, and we felt it was the artist that we were signing would speak more loudly about who we are and who our brand sort of wants to be.

than we could by defining it [00:29:00] with a lovely logo, font, typography, color scheme, and a vision statement. So we, we sort of had a sense of what our brand was, but we really kind of let it take shape through the business over those first few couple of years. Now we're a little bit more confident saying, well, actually, no, we do believe these things.

And people do ask us, well, who, who are you? What do Createcademy believe? What do you stand for? And I think You know, you can start to speak into that much more confidently as your, as your brand grows.

Juliet: But it's, you've made a really good point in the sense that it's new to you too. You don't know all the answers on day one. You have to live with it, breathe with it, and as long as you've got the revenue coming in to keep your head above water, you don't need the immediate answer. You can put something down, test it, and someone once said to me, he said, you have to say your mission statement a hundred times to a hundred different people, and each time you say it, you'll become more succinct, more succinct, more succinct.

And I chuckle now because I meet so many people that we then help them with. There's, but they're like, Oh yeah, we do this and we do that. And they go on for 10 minutes. And I was like, no, if you're talking to your grandmother or bus driver, you've [00:30:00] lost them. They won't be there anymore. And it's so fun when you get it really, really nailed into like one breath and you can say it and people go, I know what you

Julian Parmiter: that's, that's the dream, that's the elevator pitch. I don't know if you've spent time in New York or the

States and I mean, the elevator pitch is just that. You hear, you ask people what they do, it's there. It's very, you know, it's just like ready to come out. And I think in the UK, sometimes we really struggle with over articulating what we do and waffle away.

And you sort of, you know, I can hear myself clanging in certain circles and thinking, no, I just need this in three words, you know. What do I 

Juliet: know. Because you're so passionate about it. And I did find I, you know, my first year I'd be going out for dinners or see friends or go on dates and all I'd talk about was work. I was like, no God, I'm even boring myself. This is ridiculous. I need to get a life, but getting it shorter so you can move on is even another incentive to do it. And not spending too much time and effort on brand at the beginning, because it will change, you're still getting to know it and don't spend money on a logo at the start.

Julian Parmiter: I, I think that's right. It's really tempting to splash cash [00:31:00] at it and have a sort of an agency or someone else come into the business to sort of not, to shape your brand for, for you. And yet they, they, they kind of can only be as good as you know, where you want to go Well, and 

Juliet: as good as the brief. 

Julian Parmiter: really hard as good as the brief.

Juliet: Exactly. And if you can't brief them, they're stuffed and this is, it's not fair on them because they're going to come back with something that's complete and you'll see it and go, no, that's not me, but you still don't know who you are yet.

Julian Parmiter: Yeah. And I, but I think that's a good point there as well, because that it sort of goes back to the confidence thing, because, you know, creating your brand, it does, it does take a sort of a certain amount of that confidence. And I think having the confidence that it's your idea, it's your business, you know, what you want to bring to the world either.

You know, as a, as a company or a service or an individual, and it's kind of on you to begin to articulate. You'll be the best at articulating it. No one else can really do that. I think other people can help you and to ask questions and to draw it out of you. Um, but the idea that you can just sort of pay a fee and someone will come in and give you a world changing brand is, you know, you're, you're just not going to get it out of the box like that.

I [00:32:00] love you for saying this 

Juliet: because 

Julian Parmiter: you've validated our business 

Juliet: model because we say the founder is their own best storyteller and you know your business better than anyone else, but

Julian Parmiter: There we 

Juliet: know that you don't know it at the beginning, you don't. For you to seek inspiration when you're now revisiting your vision and your purpose, it sounds like your mission is pretty steadfast and correct.

How do you go about that? 

Julian Parmiter: It's a really good question. I think it's, you know, I think it's hard because we're sort of four years in and it is quite, you know, what it's like running a business. I mean, you're at the grind and so you're very much in, you're in the problem solving it. You know, sometimes I sort of think about. You know, why, why did I get into this?

Wasn't I happy as a freelancer? I just, I could do a job and go home at the end of the day, you know, in 

Juliet: Hey, annual, leave. Oh

Julian Parmiter: that. So, so, you know, I think, I think a lot of the time it is, you're just in the grind with execution and it's a series, a series of problems to be solved, um, is a lot of the reality of, of, of founding something and growing something.

So I think taking that, that, that time. out to put your [00:33:00] head above the parapet and to look around. I think it really helps when you're not totally alone. I think at the 

leading your business, I think 

Juliet: You've got two co founders, I have

Julian Parmiter: There's three of us, I know, Will Daw and Josh Lee, I mean, I think we, we look at one another when it gets tough and we think, well, thank goodness that we're in this together because you can't always be on form all the time, um, but with three of us generally, two are.

Um, and So, so that I think really helps. But even if you are, you know, you know, you've founding a loan or whatever, having those who are, who are the mentors or who's the advisor or who, or, or even just support, who's the sort of personal support, who's the person that you can rant to because you can't just go ranting to your team.

Um, or you can actually, but

it's not 

Juliet: definitely can't to your clients.

Julian Parmiter: and you can't do your clients. And I think having those people in in place partly who can tell the story back to you. And I think that's helpful when early days you've Cause you are, you know, founders are quite boring to hang out with because they [00:34:00] do just go on about their businesses and you know, that's sort of part of it, like doctors.

Yeah. And, um, you know, you tell people the story, you tell it and you tell it again. And I think having people tell it back to you is, it's really empowering. And so in terms of inspiration, I find, yeah, it's probably people. And then I'd say place, like just get out, travel, um, take that break. It's really tempting not to take any breaks and to work the whole time.

And I don't think that's a healthy way to live. I think you can do it for a while. Yeah, you can, you can get it off the grounds. You can sweat it out, but eventually it's going to come back to you. And if, if you don't take a break, probably, um, your, your body will make you take a break. And, you know, we see, we see that, you see that kind of burnout and stuff.

Juliet: Oh, those physical

forced

handbrakes. For me, I'd lost my voice. It's like, Oh good. The one thing I need to do my job. And my body was 

like, are you going to have to take a break? It's like, fine. I admit defeat. I'll have a holiday.

Julian Parmiter: Yeah, you got to listen to that, you know, yeah, and so I think that's really key. Um, but I think people will find inspiration in different places. I love people's stories. I love [00:35:00] makers. Actually, if I'm feeling a bit like, what are we doing? Then I, I'll, I'll put myself on a shoot and I'll be in the room in a studio and I'll watch someone.

block printing for hours, for example, and that, sort of brings sanity back to me. You know, my brain sort of slows down. I say, Oh yes, this is what, this is what we're bringing into the world. This is a beautiful thing. 

I want to keep doing this. Yeah. 

And I think remembering that, um, is, is, is really, is really key.

Juliet: Amazing. Thank you. Something we've started doing with our guests is we have a question from the previous guest who is Estee LaLonde, who is a social media star and then launched her Mirror Water brand, and it's all about. Doing mirror work, self reflection, self care, taking that time for yourself.

And her question for you was, what really is the dream for your company? And this is the interesting bit of this question. And when do you think, if ever, would you be satisfied with where it is? I would you ever just go, that's enough. I've done enough. 

Julian Parmiter: That is a really interesting question. I think,

I 

mean, instantly. 

Juliet: like?[00:36:00] 

Julian Parmiter: What does enough look like? I don't know if you've watched any of this. The, um, psychotherapist on Netflix who, um, works with Jonah Hill and he's this sort of psychic shrink to the stars in L. A. It makes me think instantly of him because part of his work is working with super successful people, founders, actors, Hollywood stars, and all the rest of it.

He part of his work is to sort of burst their bubble that actually nothing they'll do will ever bring them Satisfaction on the outside. So no house No business. No next film. No financial rewards That stuff just doesn't actually bring you fulfillment. You're kind of your fulfillment needs to come from the inside 

Juliet: Oh, is it along the lines of the more Oscars you win, the more depressed people become? I think 

Julian Parmiter: basically

The most successful people in the world, particularly in Hollywood, are actually miserable and they sort of 

thing

Julian Parmiter: have everything. And so I think it's a really interesting question. I think we have to really, I have to check myself to thinking, Yeah, when I'm at this stage, then I'm going to feel like I've [00:37:00] achieved something.

 I love to think that with Academy, we, I think having that message that., creativity not only kind of helps, humans on an individual level, but also on a kind of a corporate community togetherness level.

And I'd love to feel that that message is kind of going, yeah, pinging around the world and everyone understands that and everyone takes time in their day or their week to create something. And beautiful. I think I'd feel super satisfied, um, with that. 

Juliet: So you'll 

fulfill your vision.

Julian Parmiter: I think it's probably is, is that fulfilling the vision?

When I, when I think about that actually happening, would I be satisfied? I probably would be thinking about the next thing, or what else am I going to do? Or, or I already have started the next thing.

Juliet: Yeah, when you're entrepreneurially minded, you can't help yourself, but be annoyingly proactive and actually you have to rein it in sometimes. And Jo Fairley, who founded Green and Black, she was on the last season. She said, I give my ideas away now. I can't, I don't want 

Julian Parmiter: I heard that. I thought that was brilliant. 

Juliet: Yeah, 

It's like someone else do it. Here's a great idea. Go, go, go. You have it. [00:38:00] Yeah.

Julian Parmiter: these ideas, once you're sort of in it, they, they, they do pop up, either from you or from your team.

Juliet: And what would your question be for the next guest?

Julian Parmiter: Well, I was wondering also about the future. I was, I was wondering to ask someone about how they're innovating for the future. It's something that we think about, and obviously there's lots of technological Changes and people have various thoughts about those changes. Hey, we've done a whole podcast without mentioning AI, which is amazing, but there it is, I mentioned it.

Um, and, uh, especially in our space. I mean, the sort of, you know, education technology space, it's a, it's a really big disruptor and potentially a big opportunity, but not necessarily AI, but I just wonder how that person is innovating for the future.

Juliet: Love it. Thank you very much, Julian. You're a wonderful source of inspiration and creativity, and I think you've given listeners a lot of comfort around the fact that you can do this. And it's worth doing the work on it as well.

Julian Parmiter: Absolutely. Thank you. Thanks for bringing me on. 

Juliet: Well, thank you so much for [00:39:00] your time.

I really hope you've enjoyed this conversation, you can find a recap of all the advice so kindly shared by guests in the show notes, along with our contact details.

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