Let’s try to simplify things. Nobody wants to follow a complicated framework.
So let’s look at what we know so far.
We know that business is nothing more than an audience and an offer. It’s not anymore complicated than that.
We know to get the right audience to the right offer we need to follow the system of business which is:
- Get them to notice you
- Get them to pay attention to you
- Get them to trust you
- Convert that trust into money
We also know that getting people to go through each of these steps requires us to provide them with things that are transformative. That’s where your value lies.
So looking at a traditional story framework you have the following:
- A Hero. This is the audience.
- A Transformation. Who they want to become.
- A Problem. The thing(s) preventing them from achieving the Transformation.
- A Guide. You.
- A Journey. The steps they need to take to achieve the Transformation.
There are some other smaller things, but in general, here is your story framework. Everything that you create for your business has to keep this framework in mind.
Let’s pretend you have a YouTube channel.
With every video you want to make sure the Hero knows you’re talking to them. You want them to know that you understand their problems and that you’re the guide that’s going to take them on a Journey to achieve the Transformation that they want.
Now, I know this sounds pretty grand, but every Transformation isn’t huge.
Think about a video that compares two chairs. The Hero coming to you is someone who can’t decide which chair to buy. You’re the Guide that’s going to show them which chair is perfect for them by talking about their problems and how the chair is going to solve it. By the end of the video, they’ll know exactly what chair to buy and that is their Transformation.
They went from someone that was confused to someone who knew exactly what action to take.
There is a problem here though. It’s easy to look at this Framework and then apply it and still not get any traction with anything. The reason why is because it’s very easy to be robotic and follow this structure.
This Handbook for example could be very dry if I wanted it to be, but then it wouldn’t help our Why.
Why?
If you hang around here long enough you’ll hear me talking about your Why.
A lot.
So what is your Why?
Your Why is your North Star.
It’s what is going to guide you throughout your own journey and it is deep down what is going to make people attracted to your brand.
When people think about starting a business they tend to think in terms of what and how.
What am I going to do?
How am I going to do it?
The problem is, every single person can do that. In fact, it’s why many companies seem like the exact same company.
What separates all of the national pizza chains? Nothing really.
They have different tastes and usually, you go with the one that you absolutely love or whichever one sends you a coupon in the mail.
You don’t want your brand to fall into the same trap.
You don’t want people coming to your site and the only differentiator between you and the competition is price or features.
That just means you’ll continue to lower your price while adding more things.
That’s kind of backward.
So what do you do?
You make sure you have a Why.
Having a Why is kind of difficult to explain because it’s never really put front and center of your brand materials.
You don’t see it in a headline on the homepage.
However, it oozes through everything that you do to the point that when people interact with your brand they feel the Why.
If I tell you our Why is that we believe everyone deserves the opportunity to pursue the lifestyle of their dreams, would you believe that is the case with the work that goes into Odd Noodle?
Hopefully.
Making this handbook public and freely available to all backs up our Why.
Why wouldn’t we create something like this for the world to enjoy if we didn’t believe in our Why?
Also, notice what that Why does.
It gives us flexibility.
What happens when you start with a What? You lock yourself down.
What do you do?
I teach people how to get the most out of Pinterest. Once you say that, you’re locked.
What do you do?
I teach people how to get the most out of Pinterest and oh, now I also teach bullet journaling.
Kind of strange.
However, with a Why, you have flexibility.
Instead of having to always specify something that we do, we get to find all of the different things that we can do that will reinforce the Why.
We believe that everyone deserves the opportunity to pursue the lifestyle of their dreams.
How do we do that?
By providing you with the resources needed to find your potential.
What do we do?
We help you unlock the value that you possess so that you can live the life that you want.
That means we get to create courses on a ton of things. Write emails that provide value. Create guides. Frameworks. Blog posts. Podcasts. Videos. Webinars. Conferences.
We also get to create free resources like:
- Blog Simple Framework’s Pinterest Traffic Study
- The Blog Simple Guide
- Bogoten: A 6-Month Case Study
- This Handbook
It’s endless.
Whenever you’re thinking about things you should write about, you get to look at your Why to see if they fit.
Same with any other decision you make for your brand.
The Why prevents you from getting lost.
Motivation
I’m not big on motivation but if you can unlock a Why you really don’t need motivation.
Your Why has such a strong emotional pull because you believe it to your core, that when you say it out loud, you want to get back to working on it.
Making money is a nice goal but you’ll find that oftentimes it doesn’t push you to work.
Your Why reminds you what you’re in this for.