How to use valuable content to escape the clutches of the Why paralysis
Simon Sinek and his Golden Circles have a lot to answer for. Knowing your ‘why’ has become the holy grail of marketing. Every business on earth knows what they do, but very few drill down to discover why they do it, he tells us. People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it has been drummed into us. Uncover your why, and your brand will become magnetic, pulling people towards it like moths to the proverbial flame.
He doesn’t actually say that, but the implication is there.
And of course, I’m not saying that the why doesn’t matter. It really does. It’s your purpose, your mission, your North Star. The bigger the organization, the more important it is to capture it so that you can share it with your people and your audience.
But for a solo business owner, or a micro business, capturing the ‘why’ can become a stumbling block.
When your why becomes a roadblock
I had a couple of conversations last week with business owners who have been wrestling with the question of ‘why’ and feeling frustrated that they can’t articulate it in a soundbite. More damaging than the feeling of frustration, is the fact that they aren’t taking action until they’ve nailed it.
And I can tell from talking to them that they’re clear enough to move forward. They’re 80% there - clear on their niche, clear on their clients challenges, clear on the kind of work they want. A good writer could help them tie all that into a memorable nugget that can live on the website and in pitch documents.
But somehow that doesn’t feel good enough. Somewhere along the way the ‘why’ has been elevated into a soul-searching exercise. It’s become a test of character in which answering ‘to make a profit’ or ‘to deliver a great service’ to the question ‘why are you in business?’ isn’t good enough. Instead people need to articulate some kind of greater calling, and that makes them feel either that they’re lacking something or just plain stuck.
As one of Sonja’s clients said the other day ‘We’re engineers, we’re not Swampy!’
So how can you get out of the Why paralysis?
Taking your attention away from your why, and putting it onto the content you’re going to create for your ideal clients can be a good way to wriggle out round a Why block. Ironically, the work you do in plotting out what you’re going to say helps you get clearer on the why as well. It helps you see it from a different perspective and to make decisions. Most importantly of all it gets you to take action, and the place your ‘why’ really matters is in what you do and not what you say.
Think big picture first
Your clients get a sense of who you are through the words that you share. And it’s the words that you regularly share - your social media updates, your blogs, your email newsletters, your podcasts - that they’ll experience you.
Your canvas is much bigger than a Why statement. They might read that statement on your website once or twice, but it’s through your everyday living breathing content that you’ll strike up a relationship or start to build a community.
So don’t think in terms of creating the perfect sentence, think in terms of creating a welcoming library. Not twenty carefully crafted words in a glass case but hundreds of conversations on a comfortable sofa.
Start before you’re ready
So how do you do that? In truth, you probably start before you’re ready.
It will come as you write, speak, and test your ideas with people.
It’s a challenge we wrestled with for many years at Valuable Content. It’s only in our new School of Valuable Content guise that we have a Why statement that we’re happy with.
Free your ideas. Change the world.
That’s our ‘why.’ We've had several iterations of that statement - and only now have it clear in six simple words. It snuck up on us when we were writing the new website, and that’s the way it often happens. Try and do it in isolation and you’ll struggle. But you’ll find you’ll feel your way into it when you’re doing other work.
An exercise to help you get moving
If you’ve ground to a halt, try writing yourself towards clarity from a different angle. Plotting a new website, creating a newsletter, planning a series of blogs that you’ll share on social media - all these activities will help you think about what matters to you and what you want to say to the world. All of them will make you think about both your goals and your client’s goals. All of them will help you get your ideal client in mind.
You'll know it when you've found your Why. But don't let the lack of it hold you back.
Plan what you want to write for them and you’ll almost certainly find you’ve inched closer to uncovering your why. And even if you haven’t, you’ll have written something that you can share with people, and maybe the conversation that blog sparks will make things clearer for you. Or maybe the next one you write will be the one. Or maybe, like for us, it will take you years. But they’ll be years in which you’ll have deepened your expertise, helped your ideal clients to find you, and built a business that serves them.
The act of writing and sharing valuable content will open things up for you.
Action creates opportunities.
Start now!
P.S. Here’s Simon Sinek’s iconic Start with the Why. I do think it’s brilliant - just don’t get stuck trying to figure yours out!
P.P.S. If you want help working out what to say, and you’d like to create a content plan to help you attract more of the right clients, check out the School of Valuable Content’s Planning Course.
