Most company websites have a tab on the navigation bar that says What We Do.
I don’t want a What We Do tab. I want a Why I do what I do tab. What is my purpose, what do I believe? What is my cause? What does my work mean to myself and others? Why did I decide to be a guy who helps people develop and deliver better speeches and presentations? I’m having trouble articulating the Why.
I know companies that talk about the Why before they talk about the what have more distinct cultures. They are a tribe unlike any other tribe in the neighborhood. They are more saturated cultures, more cult-like. They have perhaps carved out a niche, and there are, or so I hear, riches in niches.
Because of this stronger, more distinctive identity, Why companies attract like-minded people to their cause, and repel those who don’t share the same interests. That’s a double benefit. The like-minded clients arrive at the doorstep of the Why company and think they have found heaven, while the disinterested prospects go elsewhere, which is good. Those non-believers are likely to be the dreaded clients from hell.
Why companies offer to their potential colleagues and clients a belief system, a set of values, by which the customer experience and the employee experience can be elevated from something routine and generic to something meaningful.
For instance, Newman’s Own gives 100% of the after-tax profits from the sale of its products to Newman’s Own Foundation (a private non-profit foundation) which in turn, gives the money to various educational and charitable organizations. Why is Newman’s Own a successful business? I suppose because people loved Paul Newman as an actor and/or they liked his business model. He was an eleemosynary packaged goods tycoon.
Because Why companies attract people who agree with the values the companies promulgate, the companies are more likely to develop a community of trust, inside and perhaps even outside the walls of the enterprise. Word of mouth, after all, is the best advertising.
Now in my case, I am first of all asking why I strapped myself to the public speaking wheel.
And then secondly, why have I not yet found the right words to explain why I did so.
I’m hoping this interrogation will bring me closer to an answer to these two questions.
And I invite you to ask yourself WHY you do what you do, because people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.