Painted Picture

You Need to Hire Based on Your Vivid Vision®

September 17, 2021 by admin

Even down to the employee recruiting stage, your company’s Vivid Vision® helps ensure alignment.

That’s why you need to hire based on your Vivid Vision®, but how do you do that?

Also, if you don’t know what a Vivid Vision® is, check out this blog first!

Require a Pre-Interview Vivid Vision® Reading

Have all your potential employees read your Vivid Vision® before their first interview. This way they’ll know if the job/work culture will feel right to them. Ideally, doing this weeds out unqualified candidates.

One bad apple can spoil the whole bunch. You don’t want an employee that doesn’t want to make your Vivid Vision® a reality. Not only will that employee be a drain, but they’ll bring others down, too.

Ensure Everyone Gets a Copy of Your Vivid Vision®

To make sure that everyone does read your Vivid Vision® before their first interview, set up an email auto-reply so that all candidates who send their resumes to your company via email instantly get a response.

This response should say something like, “Thank you for applying to work for us. Please read the attached Vivid Vision® that describes what our company looks and feels like three years out. If this sounds like the kind of company you’d like to help build, send us an email with the words, ‘please interview me’ in the subject line.”

It’s a great system that saves everyone a lot of time by not interviewing candidates that don’t like what the future has in store for them. It also shines a spotlight on candidates who are paying attention and take the time to send a reply back following your directions. Plus, in the interview, you’ll know if they’ve read your Vivid Vision®. The ones who have will stand out!

Come Back to the Vivid Vision® Frequently

It’s important that, even after hiring, you have all of your employees and suppliers re-read your Vivid Vision® every quarter. When every employee reads it, the process of alignment starts taking place.

Every quarter, have each person read the Vivid Vision® quietly and circle keywords or sentences that resonate with them. Then go around the room and have each person read out the areas they like. This provides alignment for the whole team before the brainstorming process takes place. It can also assist in planning and prioritizing future projects.

“It is very important that you share your Vivid Vision with your employees. When your employees know exactly what is envisioned for the company in the next three years, especially all the minor details, they know that their work will have an impact.” – COO Alliance

Your Vivid Vision® should be in use in all aspects of the job, from hiring to being an employee. Everyone involved with your company needs to be familiar with it. If a potential candidate doesn’t bother to get to know it, then their interview isn’t worth your time!

Do you use a Vivid Vision® or something like it when hiring new employees? Let us know in the comments below!

If you have questions or would like more information, I’d be happy to help. Please send an email, and my team will get in touch with you!

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in June 2012 and has been edited for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

A (Vivid) Vision of Your Company

August 18, 2014 by admin

I’ve worked with a lot of young, ambitious entrepreneurs in my time as a business coach and mentor. They are a diverse group, from tech savvy Silicon Valley insiders to CEOs of major blue chip companies. They’ve wanted a lot of different things, from more press to a better corporate culture. But underneath it all, they’ve all really wanted the same thing: to make more money.

It’s a universal desire, and one that I can help them achieve. But to get there, they have to prepare for fast growth. And they’ll never get there without a detailed vision of their future.

This is why I am such a proponent of creating a Vivid Vision. A Vivid Vision, is a detailed, three to four page document that lays out a clear, logical vision of what your company will look like in three years.

When completed, it’s meant to be woven into your company’s culture, guiding your employees decision making and giving all involved clear goals to strive for.

Usually, creating Vivid Visions is a very involved process that can take as long as six months to get right. There’s a lot of back and forth between my clients and me. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time to spend with each of you as you put together your own, but I can offer these tips that will help you get started down the right path in creating the very best Vivid Vision possible. I can also introduce you to the writers and designers all my clients are using to nail theirs. email me at Cameron@CameronHerold.com for intros.

It’s important not to get caught up in the ‘how’ of things. Instead, dream big and worry about the ‘how’ later

You’ll need to be free of the day-to-day worries of running your business. You need freedom to visualize your future

Get out of your office and go somewhere inspiring where you can let your mind wander (I wrote the Vivid Vision for my business from the hammock in my backyard).

Turn off your computer. No matter how much willpower you have, the temptation of email or web surfing will be a distraction

Get out of your comfort zone, think out side the box—choose whatever cliché works for you. Just be creative, even outlandish. You’ll be amazed at what you can come up with. It’s a sure fire way to create a fun, dynamic vision you and your employees will love to strive for.

I’ve helped with hundreds of Vivid Visions in my career, and the ones that really stand out in my mind share a few common traits. They forgo all the mind-numbing corporate double speak and restrictive, creativity-killing metrics and get right to the heart of the exercise:

“What is really possible for my company?”

Check out these DVDs where I talk in more detail about certain aspects of the Vivid Vision process. You can also find a copy of my own Vivid Vision online at CameronHerold.com, To some, it is just a four page document. But to you, it very well may be the most important four pages you ever write. email me at Cameron@CameronHerold.com for coaching around doing your own.

Get Into Your (Dis)comfort Zone

May 14, 2014 by admin

Chances are you’ve built a nice office for yourself. It’s a comfortable space filled with everything you need to get your job done, whether it’s your laptop or pictures of your family when you need a bit of motivation.

It’s the perfect spot to sit down and start mapping out the future of your company and your personal life.

And that’s why I absolutely forbid my clients from working on their Painted Pictures in there.

I tell them to get out of the office and go someplace inspirational. I’ve had clients work by the ocean, in the forest—heck, I wrote my Vivid Vision (formerly Painted Picture) from the hammock in my backyard.

Sure, these places ooze inspiration, but they also lack a lot of the distractions that can be fatal to the Vivid Vision process. Your office is brimming with distractions—emails, phone calls, people popping their heads in the door.

To visualizing your future properly, you need to focus. These interruptions can shatter your flow and drag the process out indefinitely.

Trying to conduct these visualization exercises in places like your office or a boardroom surrounds you with the minutia of the office environment. The hum of a copier, the murmur of phone conversations, even the white noise of the air exchange—these sounds can lock your brain into rigid, business-first thought patterns that will stifle the creativity it takes to really imagine a bright, exciting future.

A lot of my clients are decidedly left-brained. They’ve been successful their whole lives using rational, pragmatic thinking; just the kind of thinking that can sap all the energy and usefulness out of this exercise.

The idea is to dream about ‘where’ you can go without concerning yourself with ‘how’ you’ll get there. It’s easy to get caught up in asking ‘how’ when you are surrounded by sales charts and spreadsheets. Freeing yourself from the office frees your mind from the boundaries of business metrics. You’re able to fantasize without letting reality rain on your parade.

I also discourage you from using your computer when cobbling your Vivid Vision together. First of all, a blank word processor page is far from inspiring. Secondly, the distraction of email, the Internet, Minesweeper or other cyber-diversions is counterproductive.

Instead, use a sketchpad and a good, quality pen. There is something truly inspiring about putting pen to paper. It really is a lost art. And once you get over the hand cramps, you’ll find the tactile feel of the pen irresistible, and the blank sheet will be more like a blank canvas that you’ll quickly fill up with ideas and visions for your future. Then, once you’ve sketched a rough Vivid Vision, you can use your computer to put it all together.

Most of us complain that we spend too much time in the office anyway. So here is the perfect excuse to get out of it. Enjoy the sunshine, breath in the fresh air and visualize your perfect future.

A (Painted) Picture Perfect Future

October 10, 2013 by admin

I’ve worked with a lot of young, ambitious entrepreneurs in my time as a business coach and mentor. They are a diverse group, from tech savvy Silicon Valley insiders to master sommeliers. They’ve wanted a lot of different things, from more press to a better corporate culture. But underneath it all, they’ve all really wanted the same thing: to make more money.

It’s a universal desire, and one that I can help them achieve. But to get there, they have to prepare for fast growth. And they’ll never get there without a detailed vision of their future.

This is why I am such a proponent of creating a Vivid Vision (formerly Painted Picture). It’s a detailed, three to four page document that lays out a clear, logical vision of what your company will look like in three years.

When completed, it’s meant to be woven into your company’s culture, guiding your employees decision making and giving all involved clear goals to strive for.

It’s important not to get caught up in the ‘how’ of things. Instead, dream big and worry about the ‘how’ later

You’ll need to be free of the day-to-day worries of running your business. You need freedom to visualize your future

Get out of your office and go somewhere inspiring where you can let your mind wander (I wrote the Vivid Vision for my business from the hammock in my backyard)

Turn off your computer. No matter how much willpower you have, the temptation of email or web surfing will be a distraction

I’ve helped with dozens of Vivid Visions in my career, and the ones that really stand out in my mind share a few common traits. They forgo all the mind-numbing corporate double speak and restrictive, creativity-killing metrics and get right to the heart of the exercise:

“What is really possible for my company?”

Check out these advice where I talk in more detail about certain aspects of the Vivid Vision/Painted Picture process. You can also find a copy of my own Vivid Vision online at BackPocketCOO.com, To some, it is just a four page document. But to you, it very well may be the most important four pages you ever write. email me at Cameron@BackPocketCOO.com for coaching around doing your own.

Pull Your Employees Into The Future…

May 1, 2013 by admin

Remember when Marty McFly from the movie Back To The Future, got into a time machine and traveled into the future. He looked around at what he saw, then went back to his current day and told everyone what to expect down the road. They were excited.

Well that future was yesterday…

It leads me to think… Have you gone 3 years into the future, looked around, and come back to tell your employees what you see. If you do this, and write a Vivid Vision (formerly Painted Picture), then the employees will be completely inspired to make it happen.

I describe in step-by-step detail here in Chapter 1 of Double Double, just how to write your own Painted Picture. Get a copy of it free here.

AWESOME Tips To Creating Your Vivid Vision !!!

October 18, 2012 by admin

1. Get out of your office. When creating a Vivid Vision (formerly Painted Picture) for your company you must leave your office. If you sit at your desk or ‘hide’ in a boardroom, you’ll get dragged back into your typical routine and your mind can’t wander into the future. Working from an office tends to put specific constraints on your mind, and that’s the antithesis of this exercise. Forget current metrics, daily tasks and obligations, and the looming question of ‘how?’ and simply let your mind wander.

I have found that the best way to start your Vivid Vision is to sit by the ocean, go up into the forest, find a spot in the mountains, or even do what I did when I wrote the Vivid Vision for BackPocketCOO: lay in your backyard in a hammock and just start sketching or writing. Chapter 1 FREE here gives you more tools too…

2. Abandon your computer. In this specific instance, your computer is considered a negative device that will suck you into the vortex of daily emails and tasks. Get a sketch pad with unlined paper. Initially, it was hard for me to think abstractly because I’m so left-brained. I turned the sketch pad sideways so it was in ‘landscape mode’ and I started mind-mapping. I just began writing down my ideas about what my business would look like three years in the future. Once I had put on paper all of the ideas in my head, I was then able to write a three page description of all of my thoughts.

3. Look at the road in front of you. Don’t focus on how you’ll make it happen. Even with 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, I was by choice never a part of the process of creating the Vivid Vision because I was the ‘how’ person. I was able to attract the people and figure out the systems and processes that were scalable for implementation once everyone had conjured up their ideas. In contrast, Brian was the ‘where’ person—he could look at the road ahead and see where he wanted it to go. If I’d been involved in crafting the Vivid Vision for that company, I’d have gotten in the way by constantly thinking about how we’d make it happen.

4. Get Creative – YES YOU ARE! Creating a Vivid Vision requires you to get out of your comfort zone, and I encourage you to do so. Everyone is creative, so don’t even utter those words.

To ensure you’re getting creative, think about crazy stuff—maybe something too outlandish to share at a meeting or really spend too many ‘work hours” thinking about. I like to use a technique called ‘mind mapping,’ which allows you to plop down thoughts on paper without having to provide explanations of strategies for achieving the desired goal. Here’s a good rule: if what you think about during one of these sessions seems bizarre or unlikely, then include it in your Vivid Vision.

5. Enlist support. When you finish your Vivid Vision, share it with your employees, suppliers, bankers and lawyers. You’ll then start to see people align with your goals, and the picture will become a reality. It’s incredibly beneficial for your employees, who will use your Vivid Vision as a means to understand their role in the grand scheme of things. I’ve even seen business areas within a company form their own version of a Vivid Vision that then dovetails into the overarching one. Overall, sharing your Vivid Vision with staff will prompt them to make decisions subconsciously in alignment with your vision. Others with whom you share your Vivid Vision will also consciously help you make it happen because they are energized by the clarity of your vision.

Here’s my Vivid Vision. I don’t care if competitors see it. I want the whole world to see it because then I get everyone working for me for free!

6. Stick to a three year Vivid Vision. Sometimes an entrepreneur I coach shares with me their frustration upon returning from vacation to find that their employees made ‘ridiculous’ or ‘bad’ decisions in their absence. Employees don’t wake up in the morning to make bad decisions. They WANT to do the right thing, but if leaders don’t share company goals, then what do they base their decisions on? Employees can’t read your mind.

In order to create an effective Vivid Vision, you need to keep one foot firmly planted in the present, while the other reaches out and taps on the soil of the future. If you go much further than three years into the future, you’ll lose your balance and fall over. Stay about three years out and then write down what you see.

Chapter 1 FREE here gives you more tools too… Make it happen! The results will change your company and your life.

For more information on this topic, check out: Building a World Class Culture and Leadership at 100MPH.

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