Hi, I’m Victoria Chemko, Founder of Umami Marketing. When starting Umami Marketing, I did so for the purpose of being able to travel and work remotely, servicing clients to help them reach their digital marketing goals. This helped fulfill my core values, or fundamental beliefs, which in turn became the company’s values from the very start – freedom, flexibility, abundance, growth, and connection. These values drive all of my choices while building and running the company, and living my life in general. 

Creating and living by these shared values has been very helpful through the years, both internally and externally to the company, in the following ways.

Attract Best Fit Team Members

I’m very grateful that I’ve managed to build Umami’s team through referrals and my own network. Our team has been together over the majority of Umami’s years of operation, and this experience has helped to make hiring decisions so much easier when I have a recommendation from someone I trust, or have already worked with the person in some former capacity. These team members have all been contractors who are specialists in their fields, and have also created their own lifestyles that fit in some way within the values of Umami. 

Attract Best Fit Client Partners

We consider a “good partnership” to be one where we have a clear shared vision, clear division of responsibilities and accountability, and a culture of reliability and follow-thru. All members are supportive and enabling of each other and, most importantly, the business and its objectives. As a result, we can grow together and work as a true partnership – with collaboration, transparency, openness, and trust. 

If our organizations have shared values and our teams can work together towards common goals, then we will be much more productive. Clear and honest communication allows issues to be surfaced and addressed, problems to be solved, decisions made, and more to be accomplished efficiently. 

Curate Company Culture

Building and curating a solid company culture has been key to the Umami team’s success. Everyone on our team is able to answer three key questions: Why does Umami exist to do what we do? What are our key values? What is our company vision?

Having shared values and a focus on the same vision leads to better decision-making, increased collaboration, more engagement – both within the team and with client partners – and thus, better productivity, innovation, and performance, which in turn continues the cycle of business success.

Ease Decision-Making

As we are a globally distributed team, with most team members in Vancouver, and some others spread throughout North America and Europe, it’s even more important to have shared core values to help ensure everyone is on the same page. These values act as guidelines for the company, to ease decision-making. 

So for example, one of our shared values is “Flexibility,” so this inspires us to choose tools that increase our ability to work together in a flexible manner, not being tied down to a single place or working during set hours. Thus, we use all cloud-based tools, and no desktop-only versions that make it more difficult to maintain version control or move around freely.

Build Community #achieveitforward

Based on these core values, one key thing that I’m grateful for is the ability to celebrate our wins, and use that success to help #achieveitforward. We have created a dinner series in Vancouver through Umami Journeys, with the purpose of connecting strangers in a socially isolated city, while also giving back to local charities and organizations to continue to help others reach their potential. It’s important for me to be able to share in the ability to create and design a life and company that may not have seemed possible to some, so that others may be inspired to do the same, despite the odds and expectations. 

Summary

To incorporate shared values into every aspect of your team, you need to keep these important tips in mind:

1. Attract Best Fit Team Members
2. Attract Best Fit Client Partners
3. Curate Company Culture
4. Ease Decision-Making
5. Build Community #achieveitforward

Now that you know more about the importance of integrating shared values into your company, please check out our recent blog posts covering useful Inbound Marketing tips. If you liked this video, subscribe to the Umami Marketing YouTube Channel and the monthly Digital Marketing Postcard.

Photo Source: Helena Lopes on Unsplash