8 8 SOMETIMES WHAT YOU have to say and how you say it matter less than why you’re communicating in the first place. Your job then becomes to identify why and clearly relay it to your audience to compel them to take some kind of action.
Consider the following two calls for funding:
1. The American Red Cross provides services in five key areas: disaster relief, support for America’s military families, blood donations, health and safety training, and international humanitarian work. Donate today to sustain the vital work that we do.
or
2. The American Red Cross exists to provide compassionate care to those in need. Our network of generous donors, volunteers, and employees share a mission of preventing and relieving suffering, here at home and around the world, through five key service areas. With your help, we will work toward a world in which everyone can live a full, healthy, and vibrant life.
Which one makes you reach for your wallet?
Number 1 is nothing if not informative. Reading it gives you a solid overview of the Red Cross’s program areas. If you already care deeply about any of these areas or if you’re already a longtime Red Cross donor, this could motivate you to make a donation.
However, most readers will find Number 2 infinitely more compelling. The language is richer—phrases such as “compassionate care,” “preventing and relieving suffering,” and “full, healthy, and vibrant life” grab you on an emotional level. Emotionally charged language can go a long way in establishing connections to potential donors.
Number 2’s real power, though, is rooted in something deeper than word choice.
Whereas Number 1 tells the reader what the Red Cross does, Number 2 talks about why the Red Cross exists. And building your message around the why is absolutely vital for effective communication. As Simon Sinek explains in his fantastic TEDx Talk, “How Great Leaders Inspire Action,” “People don’t buy what you do; people buy why you do it.”1
Sinek represents this concept with a simple visual diagram.2 He draws three concentric circles. The outermost ring he labels the what: What do you do? What kind of products do you sell? What services do you provide? The second ring is the how: How do you do this? How do you create and deliver your products or services?
The innermost ring—which Sinek calls the golden circle—is the why: Why do you exist? What purpose do you serve? What do you believe in?
Clearly, the what and the how are important. Without a well-executed and accessible product, you won’t be able to compete. That’s why plenty of companies attempt to win over consumers by presenting their product or service as the best on the market. After all, doesn’t the best always win out in the end?
This is logical, but it’s misguided. Sinek argues that the what is merely a product of the why. You don’t exist exclusively to make the product; you make the product because it is a manifestation of your core purpose. So even if you do have the best product on the market, starting with the what will severely restrict the connection your audience can make to your brand. You’re effectively saying to your customers, “By consuming our product, you’re engaging in the deepest possible relationship with our brand.”
Therefore, in communicating with your audience, it’s crucial that you start with why rather than what. By centering your why, you are opening up the core of your being to the world. You are inviting people to forge a fundamental human connection to your purpose and vision. You’re saying to your audience, “Together, we can create something radically meaningful.”
The choice to open this chapter with an example from the nonprofit world is an intentional one.
Ask a random sampling of private sector executives why their companies exist, and most will tell you that their core purpose is to maximize shareholder wealth. As I’ve already explained, this is a fundamental misunderstanding of the concept of core purpose, and it’s to blame for a lot of ill in the world. When profit is your primary and exclusive motivation, you’re capable of doing some terrible things.
The nonprofit sector, in contrast, is explicitly cause-driven. NGOs link their existence to their missions and visions. That’s why many executive directors will tell you that their goal is to put themselves out of a job because that would mean that the organization had fulfilled everything it existed to do.
This selfless focus on purpose is at the core of great communication. When you center the why, you aren’t pushing a sales agenda onto your audience; rather, you’re engaging your reader in a way that aligns with your mission.
Unfortunately, this is rare. According to one study, 75 percent of marketers use product mentions as a regular component of their content strategies.3 This means that the vast majority of marketers still see content as a platform for brazen self-promotion rather than as a vehicle for establishing meaningful connections with the audience.
To treat content like traditional advertising is to start from the what because it privileges your company’s desire to sell its products over your readers’ desire to learn something meaningful. But at least with advertising, consumers know they’re being sold to—if your content is overly promotional, your audience will likely feel that you are trying to trick them.
That’s not to say that any time you mention your product you’re subjecting your audience to a ruthless sales pitch. In fact, there are times when a well-placed mention can be relevant, appropriate, and beneficial to the story you’re telling.
So where is the line between the what and the why in content? It can be a tough one to figure out. There are a few dead giveaways, however. Content that begins with a pitch, focuses primarily on the features of a product that the author is selling, and generates minimal social shares is probably what-driven. Nobody is going to spend valuable time reading this kind of content.
Here’s a quick checklist for identifying content built around the why:
1. Does it offer substantive insight into issues and topics other than the highlights of your product?
2. Does it provide the reader actionable tips and analysis?
If the answer to both is yes, good—you’re probably not stuck in the what. Unfortunately, that doesn’t guarantee that you’re in the why.
In his TEDx Talk, Sinek points to Apple as an example of a company that starts from the why:
If Apple were like everyone else, a marketing message from them might sound like this: “We make great computers. They’re beautifully designed, simple to use, and user-friendly. Want to buy one?”
To which you, the consumer, might respond: “Yeah, maybe. But there are so many companies designing beautiful computers out there, I’m going to have to do some major research and get back to you.”
Sinek continues:
Here’s how Apple actually communicates. “Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently. The way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use, and user-friendly. We just happen to make great computers. Want to buy one?”
Now, for people who are apathetic about (or happy with) the status quo, the above statement won’t have much resonance. However, if you believe yourself to be a critical thinker—someone who lives life with intention rather than just accepting that things have to be the way they always have been—hearing this statement will be immensely validating. Here is a company that shares the values and beliefs that you hold dear. The invitation is clear: You want to change the world, and so does Apple. Together, you may just be able to.
This is the power of starting from the why in your content. By foregrounding your core purpose, you can activate the deeply held beliefs and values of your target audience. This fosters a deep, identity-driven connection between your audience and your brand. When your why motivates your content, you’re taking a principled stand—and you’re inviting your audience to stand right next to you. And that kind of connection is what truly engages your audience.
To create why-driven content, there is a simple (if obvious) starting point. Why? (It’s a loaded question, as we’ll soon see.) Specifically, apply that why to the following questions: Why am I creating this content? Why does my company exist? And, most important, why do I do what I do?
In her post “5 Powerful Rules for Women Entrepreneurs to Live By,” Sumi Krishnan, the founder of K4 Solutions, says this:
When I became an entrepreneur, I was motivated by one thing: freedom. I wanted the flexibility to follow my dream. Entrepreneurship allowed me to do work that was engaging and empowering. … But there’s no magic formula for entrepreneurial success, of course. Stepping into the unknown is scary—and many women doubt their abilities, feeling like impostors. “I believe that no matter how thoroughly prepared a woman might be, she will feel unprepared, whereas a man will feel even more prepared than he really is,” [CEO of Pearl Aqua LLC Linda] Shesto says. Unfortunately, research supports this notion. Here, then, are five strategies to help you crush these types of entrepreneurial fears and succeed even as you step into the unknown.4
Why did Krishnan create this content? Her purpose is crystal clear: to equip her fellow women entrepreneurs with strategies for conquering their most common fears. She knows her audience and is speaking directly to them on both an emotional and a practical level. Notice that Krishnan shifts the spotlight, making room for voices other than her own. By sharing lessons gained from personal experience—both from her life and from the lives of other women entrepreneurs—Krishnan’s fundamental message to her reader is “Don’t worry. You’re not the only one struggling with fear. As women, we can understand, support, and nurture each other, because we’re all in this together.”
Krishnan is a thoughtful, emotionally intelligent writer who clearly cares about the needs of her audience. Her sense of purpose shines through in her content, and it clearly resonates with her readers. By writing to enhance the lives of her audience, Krishnan earns their trust—and for many of them, she will likely become top of mind.
Yvon Chouinard is the founder of iconic outdoor apparel company Patagonia. His reflective piece “On Corporate Responsibility for Planet Earth” opens:
As an alpinist who set out to make gear for my friends and never thought of myself as a “businessman” until long after I became one, I’ve wrestled the demons of corporate responsibility for some time. Who are businesses really responsible to? Their shareholders? Their customers? Their employees? None of the above, I have finally come to believe. Fundamentally, businesses are responsible to their resource base. Without a healthy planet there are no shareholders, no customers, no employees. As the conservationist David Brower liked to say, “There is no business to be done on a dead planet.”
But what does behaving responsibly to the environment mean? It took me nearly 25 years in business to learn how to ask that question. It has taken another 15 years of trial and error to uncover the process that Patagonia—or any environmentally minded company—has to go through in pursuit of answers. I think I know how to break that process down to five steps. These steps apply to individuals as well as to companies who want to reduce the harm they do and make a difference.
Reading this piece, it’s immediately clear that Patagonia is, first and foremost, a group of people devoted to mitigating the impact that humans have on the natural world—they just happen to do this by selling environmentally sustainable outdoor gear. However, the piece explains that business is just one avenue for creating positive change: Chouinard argues that any company striving to be sustainable must not only reduce its environmental costs, it must also nurture civil democracy by giving direct support to frontline activists, as well as lobbying for industrywide changes toward fairness and sustainability.
Patagonia’s purpose serves as an invitation for readers who are passionate about the environment to join the company in fighting for the Earth.
My friend Dustin McKissen is the founder of McKissen + Company and one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices in Management and Culture. Hilarious, devastating, and enlightening, Dustin’s writing demonstrates the power of knowing yourself and your purpose. Consider this excerpt from “Five Reasons Why I’m Not Sleeping in My Car Anymore”:
When I was 18 I could no longer live under the same roof with my dad (who, at the time, was mutually deciding with my mom that they could no longer live under the same roof together). I moved out with no money, no place to go, and no plan.
I moved into my Geo Tracker.
Living in a Geo Tracker is nothing if not an adventure. … I would often sleep in the parking lot of a gym I belonged to. I could wake up, work out, and shower. One night I forgot to lock my car and woke up because my door was open, and a man was just watching me sleep. It was alarming.
So, while I recognize the absurdity of a guy who is just a normal person writing a “How I Got Where I am Today” post, it’s a long way from these stories to where I am now. …
This year I’ll spend Thanksgiving at home for the first time in a couple of years, and that’s awesome too. I’ll spend it with—all due respect to Seth Godin—the only tribe that really matters to me.
I met my wife when I was 22, we got married two months later, and by 26 I had three kids, one of which was her daughter that I adopted when we got married.
Even when stuff goes seriously wrong in my career, I know the basics like love and having a home are taken care of. And by home, I don’t mean our literal home (though I like having a bed). I mean a place to call home. Five people would be a lot to fit in a Geo Tracker, but even if we have to do that one day, it will still be a home in the way that my prior Geo Tracker wasn’t.5
Why does Dustin work? Why does he write? Why does he do what he does?
“My main motivation for work, my writing, and my career choices is a desire to be heard,” Dustin recently told me over e-mail. “At one point growing up my mom supported us by working at McDonald’s and earning the minimum wage, for a time we received food stamps, and at one point we lived in a tent. I know what it’s like to not be heard, and that motivates why I write, and what I write about.
“And I know what I’m doing is working, and I know it because last week my son (who is 10) wrote a letter to his elementary school’s administration about the lack of sportsmanship on the soccer field. He offered some solutions, and I was proud of him for caring about others and demonstrating empathy, even for the kids who were being ‘bad sports.’ But I was even prouder that my son felt like he had an opinion someone should listen to. He wanted to be heard, and believed he should be heard—and he beat me to that realization by 20 years.”
I find Dustin’s clarity and conviction inspiring. Reflecting on my own purpose, I realize that everything I do—in terms of content, leadership, and all other aspects of my life—I do for my family. My family is my purpose and my foundation, and my role as provider goes deeper (much deeper) than simply bringing home an income. I want to help my kids live up to their full potential as learners and doers, and I want to help my wife live with satisfaction and joy. I work to nurture the bonds that connect all of us to each other so that each of us knows we are part of something bigger than ourselves.
Clearly, starting from the why is not only a strategy for creating effective content. When you live with a sense of purpose, everything you do is infused with meaning. You’re able to keep challenges in perspective, and you make intentional choices. Success becomes something intensely personal. You become connected to what matters.
It also keeps you on top of people’s minds—in the right way. How do you want people to think of you when you’re top of mind for them? Do you want to live in the shallow end, driven more by the what? Or do you agree that being top of mind in a way that clearly communicates who you are and why you do what you do is more important?
Obviously, factors such as familiarity and likability play into how people think of you. But don’t for a minute think that they’re not also considering your why when you’re on top of their minds.
I’m reminded of an introduction I once got from one industry influencer to another. When he introduced me, he didn’t just say, “Here’s John. You should talk to him.” Instead, he said that my team and I are the best at what we do: helping clients build industry influence and authority by working with them to create and distribute content.
It was something I’d struggled with myself, so I knew how important it was, and I’m committed to helping others overcome those barriers, too. And I had content out there that dived deep into who I am and why I lead this company. Together, those elements reflect my why and help me earn top-of-mind space.
Finding your purpose is your life’s work, and it never ends. The search makes you the best person you can be, and communicating it to your audience can put you top of mind.