SECRET Company Pillars
Build culture through service, community, relationships, progress, and ownership
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 7
- Confidence
- 99%
Joe Shalaby describes SECRET as five stacked company pillars. Service comes first: employees serve clients, vendor partners, lender partners, and one another wholeheartedly. Community extends that service into belonging, which makes collaboration possible even among hundreds of independent brokers and business owners. Relationships then frame both coworkers and clients as lifelong connections rather than transactions. Ever Forward requires continual progress and evolution. Thumb Pointers closes the system with personal accountability: when something goes wrong, ask what you did wrong before assigning blame. The mechanism depends on reinforcement, not a one-time values exercise. Shalaby repeats the pillars throughout the day and displays their icons on office walls. The acronym turns abstract cultural expectations into a memorable sequence that team members can use in everyday decisions.
Origin
Shalaby explained the five pillars used inside his organisation after Storey praised the office's energy on Coffeez for Closers.
Core principles
- 01Service comes before every other pillar
- 02Community should create collaboration rather than internal competition
- 03Clients and colleagues are long-term relationships
- 04Progress requires continuous evolution
- 05Accountability starts by pointing the thumb at yourself
How to run it
- 1
Lead with service
Make wholehearted service to clients, partners, and coworkers the base of the culture.
Pro tip Name every stakeholder group so service does not stop at the customer.
Watch out Later pillars lose credibility when service is treated as optional.
- 2
Form a community
Treat everyone connected to the organisation as part of a shared community.
Pro tip Encourage members to support one another even when they operate independently.
- 3
Enable collaboration
Use the community to share resources and help peers serve clients without stepping on one another's toes.
Pro tip Make helping another member's client a visible cultural norm.
Watch out Internal competition can undermine the community if cooperation is not explicit.
- 4
Invest in relationships
Approach team members and clients as lifelong relationships rather than short-term transactions.
- 5
Move ever forward
Keep progressing, changing, and evolving instead of allowing the organisation to become static.
- 6
Point the thumb inward
When a mistake occurs, first ask what you did wrong and take ownership of your contribution.
Pro tip Model the behaviour from the top of the organisation.
Watch out Blame erodes the accountability pillar.
- 7
Reinforce the code
Repeat the pillars frequently and make them visible in the physical workplace.
Pro tip Use the SECRET acronym and icons to make recall easy.
Watch out Values that stay in a document will not reliably guide behaviour.
In the wild
Shalaby says members of the organisation sometimes encounter a client already working with another member. Instead of taking the business, they affirm the existing relationship and help the client get information to the original broker quickly.
→ Independent operators collaborate and protect trust rather than competing for the same client.
Common mistakes
Posting values without preaching them
Shalaby combines wall displays with constant verbal reinforcement. Visibility alone is not the operating mechanism.
Blaming before self-examination
The thumb-pointer pillar requires asking what you did wrong before directing fault at someone else.
Is it for you?
Best for
Organisations that need independent team members to cooperate around a shared culture.
Not ideal for
Leaders unwilling to model accountability or reinforce stated values through daily behaviour.
From the transcript
“service Community relationships ever forward thumb pointers”
“you screw up it's your fault you don't you don't go his fault no no it's my fault”
“our number one pillar is service number one”
From the episode
Miracle Maker Tim Storey