The 3 Beliefs It Takes To Go All In, All The Time

An Article by Crisp CEO Michael Mogill

One of the critical foundations of the culture at Crisp is the core value “All In, All The Time.”

It stems from the belief that in order for us to be a high-performing organization, there must be complete buy-in and alignment – our entire team must buy into our mission, our culture, our values, and our goals.

We can’t just buy into our mission on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Buy-in must happen on all days that end in “y” – 365 days a year.

In fact, if we really want to define our “culture” in the most sophisticated way, Crisp’s culture is simply “how sh*t gets done around here.”

Consider the ’98 Chicago Bulls or the ’04 Boston Red Sox.

What did these organizations have in common? They achieved massive success because they were uncompromising in their focus and had complete buy-in from every member of their organization, from the front office to the guy washing jockstraps in the locker room.

Your company culture and values extend beyond your staff. It also applies to the mindset you have when it comes to any business goal or initiative.

Do you go all-in on your goals and play to win?

Or, do you pull-back and instead play “not to lose”?

Over the years, I’ve found that there are a few key beliefs at play when it comes to going all-in on something (whether it’s your business, a personal goal, or something else entirely):

1. BURN THE SHIPS

If you go into every new initiative with the knowledge that you’ve got an escape clause if it goes off-track, you’re never truly invested.

A little over a year ago I walked into a Tesla dealership and signed a check for a $77,000 Tesla Model S. I had never given away a car before, run a client referral program before, and had certainly never invested that much in something I was going to give away for free.

My colleagues told me I should have given away an Amazon gift card. I knew I had to go bigger, so I stroked a check for the full asking price of the Model S (Tesla doesn’t negotiate) and parked that damn car right in front of our office.

I couldn’t sleep for months. And yet every morning when I drove into the office, I would see a brand new Tesla Model S parked out front that I somehow had to drive a positive ROI from. And we did. This year, we’ll be giving away our third, fourth, and fifth Teslas in November at the Crisp Game Changers Summit.

Paying for the car upfront made it real to me and everyone in our organization. We had to find a way to make this referral program work. There was no Plan B – we had already burned our ships.

So stop looking for a way out, burn the ships upon arrival, and find a way to make things happen.

2. ALIGN YOUR AMBITION WITH YOUR EXECUTION

If you say you want to be the best law firm in your market, what actions are you taking on a daily basis to ensure this actually happens?

Going all-in means you’re continuously investing in developing your team, providing world-class service to your clients, and differentiating yourself from the competition.

Not there yet? Don’t worry, we all start somewhere.

I started with $500 to my name and used to hold client meetings at the nearest Starbucks.

The phrase “fake it til you make it” is actually proven by science: it’s called the Pygmalion Effect. It’s a phenomenon whereby holding yourself to higher standards actually improves your performance. So if you decide to act the part of a top-notch law firm owner with a fast-growing business (and hold yourself to those standards), your performance will improve.

3. TAKE NO HALF-MEASURES

Ever hear the saying that it’s better to whole-a** one thing than to half-a** two things? Well, it’s absolutely true.

You have to ask yourself:

If you’re always looking for the cheap, quick, corner-cutting way of doing things, then what kind of clients will you attract?

I’ll give you a hint: it’s probably the ones you’d prefer to send to your competition.

I’m sure you’re now thinking, “Sounds great Mike! But what does that mean for my law firm?”

Here’s my general rule of thumb:

When it comes to investing in a business initiative, you have to be willing to invest enough time and money to get enough data back to be able to make a logical decision about its efficacy.

You can’t determine the true efficacy of an initiative if there isn’t enough data to support your decision. The time it takes to make those decisions can vary: for a new Facebook ad, a few weeks is all it takes to see if it’s working. For an SEO campaign, it may take several months. The best way to find out how much time and money something should take is to simply ask someone who’s seeing success with that same initiative (and can back it up with good ole fashioned proof).

You always have the option to do things the right way or the wrong way. It may take more time, effort, energy, and resources, but doing things the right way will always secure the best result in the end.