Recently, I had the honor to meet Reggie Cochran, the business and special projects manager for Chuck Norris.  He was one of the featured speakers at the Mind Capture Boot Camp in Las Vegas.  I wasn’t sure what I would learn from Reggie but was pleasantly surprised by what he shared during his presentation.  I was secretly hoping he would focus on the Chuck Norris story and tell some great Chuck Norris jokes, because I have been a huge Chuck Norris fan, ever since I saw him fight Bruce Lee.

Jokes aside, we had asked Reggie to share the business side of his role with the Chuck Norris organization, thankfully, Reggie didn’t disappoint. Not only did Reggie share his story of how he became business manager and close friends with Chuck Norris, he also shared how he protects; the Man, the Myth and the Legend of Chuck Norris.

Reggie reviews the hundreds, if not thousands, of requests and offers that Chuck Norris receives.  Each request is reviewed for the overall fit, impact and potential outcomes to the Man, Myth and Legend.  If they do not line up, the request is rejected, no matter how much money or notoriety it could potentially generate.

Amazingly, Chuck Norris incorporates his core belief system into everything he and his organization does.  Chuck is very particular about his Christian beliefs.  He even developed a core belief system to guide and protect his teachings and how is entire organization grows and changes; now and into the future. Here is a brief summary of Chuck’s core belief system.

• I will develop myself to the maximum of my potential in all ways.
• I will forget the mistakes of the past and press on to greater achievements.
• I will continually work at developing love, happiness and loyalty in my family.
• I will look for the good in all people and make them feel worthwhile.
• If I have nothing good to say about a person, I will say nothing.
• I will always be as enthusiastic about the success of others as I am about my own.
• I will maintain an attitude of open-mindedness.
• I will maintain respect for those in authority and demonstrate this respect at all times.
• I will always remain loyal to my God, my country, family and my friends.
• I will remain highly goal-oriented throughout my life because that positive attitude helps my family, my country and myself

I am not suggesting you adopt Chuck’s beliefs; rather, you have your own core belief system that you want to protect, based on your upbringing, your experience and how you want to conduct yourself both personally and professionally. Incorporating these beliefs into your business with the end in mind will help guide your business growth and serve as your ‘business conscience’ that your employees, partners, contractors and successors refer to during the expansion of your business.

As we add employees, contractors, vendors and partners, thousands of decisions are made that may or may not reflect your beliefs in the best possible light.  Sometimes, the people making changes and decisions are unaware of ownership’s wishes, or worse, ownership forgets whom they really serve making decisions and changes that violate their original intent.

This conflict may sound more like a moral issue than a business one.  Amazingly, despite constant change, the temptation of money and fame, and phenomenal growth over the years, the Chuck Norris organization has managed to protect Chuck’s core belief system while entertaining and transforming the lives of millions of people through his teaching, philanthropy, movies and his moral and ethical example.

As Reggie delivered an inspiring presentation, I wondered how a small business owner could incorporate what I call, ‘values based expansion’ into their own plans for business growth.

When your core belief system is the foundation of your expansion plans, there are many benefits.

1. Happier employees. When a business grows, one of the first things to erode is its close knit, family culture.  As we implement formal policies, and add layers of management, it is easy to lose touch with the small company feel many of us love.
2. Happier customers.  When you have happy employees, you get happy customers. Employees who love their jobs take better care of customers.
3. More profits.  Happy, loyal customers stay longer. When you treat customers with genuine care and respect, they stay longer.  If a customer spends, $500 on average, and stays a customer for 3 years, an increase of an additional 2 years is a 167% increase in gross sales!
4. Employees stay longer.  When you take care of and value your employees, they naturally will stay longer.  The labor force is usually the largest cost for most organizations.  The more turnover you have the more it costs to train, recruit and retain employees.
5. Attract good people.  When your business earns a reputation as a great place to work, employees seek you out and literally line up at your door.  This helps to reduce recruiting costs when you do seek new people, attracts a workforce that is seeking more than just a paycheck and makes it easier to train new people.

In a future article, I will share some ideas on how to protect your core belief system as you expand your business.

Getting back to Reggie Cochran, Reggie did share some of his favorite ‘Chuck Norris Facts’ during his presentation, check out the Chuck Norris Facts website for some of his favorites at http://www.chucknorrisfacts.com.

What are the guiding principles in your business and life? I’d love to hear about it.