Several months ago a friend on Facebook shared this
TED video of Simon Sinek talking about how great leaders inspire action. This message happened arrived into my life around the same time I was reading
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell (if you missed that blog post be sure to read about Gladwell's ideas by clicking
here).
Using the teachings from both
Simon Sinek's book
Start with Why and
Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point, I decided to clarify the business of selling charms at
Hint Jewelry. Watching the video above is must, but in a nutshell
Simon Sinek proposes that companies often forget to communicate the message of
why someone might want to engage in a business relationship. In his approach the "Why?" is at the core of the exchange and the other questions answered like "How?" and "What?" move out from the center.
WHY
Why are you motivated to connect with my business (an intangible belief)?
HOW
How can you engage in my business so as to realize the why (specific actions)?
WHAT
What will manifest for you by relating to my business (results of actions)?
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Hmmmm...it seemed easy enough, but this task took me at least a month to get straight in my head and then another couple weeks to refine the language. Going into this writing assignment, I was already fully aware that
Hint Jewelry is not about the concept of selling charms. For me,
Hint Jewelry is all about facilitating an experience of self-discovery through the medium of personal adornment.
Here is an example of one of my first drafts:
Why (belief)?
I truly believe that when you connect with your personal symbols, you activate your purpose and form a creative collaboration with your spirit.
How? (action)
Using Hint charms you will build your personalized story necklace, celebrating and honoring past, present, and future symbols – messages from your spirit – and create a guide for awakening your purpose.
What? (results)
By designing and wearing this necklace you will gain new insights, answers to questions, feelings of comfort and peace, inner strength, focus and vision, and plan for your next steps.
After many edits here is my final statement:
Connecting with personal symbols is a collaboration between you and the universe to activate your purpose. A personalized charm story necklace from Hint Jewelry celebrates your past, present, and future symbols and awakens the deeper meaning behind your life. By designing and wearing your unique memory necklace, you will gain new insights, re-imagine your future, and develop faith in your process.
***********
The impact this statement has had on me and
Hint Jewelry is still unfolding, but what I've learned from doing the internal search for answers and communicating my message through a well-crafted statement is that people (including myself) are now greeted with clear intentions when they interact with
Hint Jewelry. I know why I'm here and people know why they've shown up at my shop.
If you don't know why you're doing what you're doing, then many times people won't know why they are going to want to enter into a relationship with your business and what value you can add to their lives. Getting clear on the
true purpose of your business seems like something that should have been well thought out in the beginning, but from this experience I realized that it took three years for me to fully understand what I'm doing and why I want to be doing it.
I hope you find that it's never to late to rediscover the real
Why behind your business!
