We start with this question:
How do you connect with your audience in a way that evokes emotion and a sense of being part of something bigger?
Now, that’s a super heavy question. Why bother asking it?
Sigh.
- Get them to notice you
- Get them to pay attention to you
- Get them to trust you
- Convert that trust into money
So again, if you could connect with your audience in a way that evokes emotion and a sense of being part of something bigger, don’t you think the System of Business happens a lot easier?
Don’t you think MAKING MONEY (it’s okay, I know why you’re here) is a lot easier?
You’re over here thinking that you just wanted to start a craft blog, you aren’t sure about this whole evoking emotion mess.
But I promise you, every single person that runs an online business where people consistently buy from them over and over and over again, have found a way to pull out emotion from their audience.
I’m not talking about the people that spend millions on FB ads and get people to buy a course one time and then those people never think of them again.
I’m talking about the people that have seemingly built strong brands out of nothing.
Think about everything that you have a strong emotional pull towards. You don’t let those things go easily.
I love Apple products because of what they represent to me. Apple’s Why resonates with me and so when an Apple product comes out, there is a 100% chance that I’ll consider buying it.
The same can be said about the company I buy fish tanks from.
Or my favorite soccer team.
Each of them is built around a purpose that resonates with me on an emotional level so deep that to pull me away from them would require the brand to screw up in such a major way that it seems to be unfathomable.
Again, this may sound totally crazy for you if you are just planning on creating something small, but this works even more for the small things.
I’ve created multiple businesses that make good money but there is always a difference between the ones that I love and the ones that are just there.
The Why.
I’ve created businesses without a Why and they made decent money. They didn’t build any tribes (because I didn’t target a Hero) and so each month was a scramble to ensure I continued to make money through new people.
This is the life that most bloggers and YouTubers live. Always chasing bigger numbers. It’s scary and dangerous.
I’ve also created businesses that were focused around a Why and a Hero and I never worried about traffic numbers with those businesses. I always woke up happy to work on those businesses.
And those businesses made BANK.
It doesn’t matter to us how many random people decide to read this handbook. It could get a million page views a month but those would be meaningless if we aren’t getting the Right people to read it and the right people to resonate with what we’re talking about.
Faking It
A Why is just as important for you as it is for your audience and by now you can probably tell that you can’t fake a Why.
People that come to your site will know if you’re faking it.
How many courses have you purchased where the sales funnel talks about helping you achieve success and all of these wonderful things but once you buy the course, the person is no longer around?
The Small Things
Whenever you buy an Odd Noodle product we invite you into our Slack Community.
This gives you an opportunity to talk to use and the community at large to get whatever help you need.
To us, it isn’t a big deal because we love to do it, but it goes a long way.
yay! This is the first course I’ve ever done where I got to talk to the expert/creator! How cool!
As long as we don’t screw things up, then we might have a customer for life.
We wanted to have an online community where people could interact with us because it made sense to our Why. It’s our North Star and it’s the direction it was pointing.
So how do you come up with the Why?
It’s not the easiest thing in the world, especially considering you want it to be the guiding light of your business.
The Structure
All of our Whys follow a similar structure.
I believe that someone can/should/will achieve an outcome if they take some action.
Let’s break this down.
The Person
Your Why should target someone (your Hero). You know that already and the more specific you can be the better.
But it doesn’t mean it always has to be specific.
For example, when I worked with a web hosting company, I established the following Why:
We believe that everyone should have the ability to share their ideas with the world.
In this case, my someone is everybody which is…ummm…everybody.
Okay, maybe not everybody in the world, but everybody that wanted to be able to share their idea with the world and continued to run into obstacles.
However, in this case, it makes sense because we didn’t have a very specific person that hosted with us. Don’t get me wrong, it definitely would’ve been better if it was:
We believe that creatives…
That would’ve targeted any person that considered themselves a creative but when you’re working for a company that makes millions a month, it’s hard to tell them to focus on a specific audience.
Maybe if they started with that Why things would’ve been easier.
The Outcome (the Transformation)
What is the final result that the person is looking for?
To build a tribe of your own you have to help them go from Point A to Point B.
Point B is the outcome.
Where are you going to take them?
The Action (the Plan)
What action is required to get to Point B? Now, not every Why needs this because it will be included in the Promise (we will talk about that later).
However, it can help to have your Why and Promise together if you really want to get the message across to your audience.
As you can see in my Web Hosting Why, there is no Action and this was mainly because we already had a ton of products.
You’ll need to know the action your tribe needs to take to get to Point B, but that doesn’t mean you have to clarify it within your Why.
Diving Deeper
If you want to dive deeper into uncovering your Why, then you should check out the book behind the creator of the whole concept.
Find Your Why by Simon Sinek does a much deeper dive into helping you uncover your Why.
Why, Not How
When coming up with a Why many people make the mistake of using their What or How instead of an actual Why.
For example, they might say “I help people find happiness through pets“.
That’s not a Why, that’s a What.
While some people in your audience will love your What, nobody gets emotionally attached to a What which means they can bounce to another brand that has the same What.
Oh, this brand has the same What, but they are cheaper so I’ll go with them.
With a strong Why you’re never competing on price. Never.
Remember, your Why has an emotional element to it. It should make you excited to work on your business.
When others see it they should get excited to follow you.