December in the financial services business, perhaps all businesses, always provides for a time of reflection.
If you’re like me, you are looking ahead to 2011 and also reflecting on the successes (or challenges) of 2010.
Last month Hank Schulthesz was giving his opening comments at Connect ’10 and he referenced a TED talk by Simon Sinek entitled “How Great Leaders Inspire Action.”
Sinek created what he calls The Golden Circle and it looks like this:
His theory is that most companies/people formulate their message from the outside in – from the ‘what’ back to the ‘why’ – versus the inside out.
Simply put, he says that “people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”
Take Apple Computers.
If they had a marketing message like most others it would say: We make computers that are beautifully designed, simple to use, and user friendly. Want to buy one?
However, Apple approached their message from the ‘why’ out: For everything we do we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently. The way we challenge the status quo is that our products are beautifully designed, simple to use, and user friendly.
We happen to make great computers – want to buy one?
Apple is so passionate about their ‘why’ that they formed a ‘Think Different’ ad campaign around it in the late 1990’s. Their message about the Crazy Ones says it all.
So it’s time to ask you: What is your why?
To help clients get to their financial destinations?
To make a difference?
To leave a legacy?
To be esteemed?
To make a boatload of money?
To be liked?
To express your creativity?
As you spend the next few weeks in a much less frenetic work state than normal, why not let the thought of “what’s my why” soak a bit?
Just ruminate on it for a while if you don’t have an immediate answer to the question.
Once you’ve dialed in a why, start planning for your message of 2011 to be delivered from the inside out.
Happy Holidays to you and yours from all of us at shorespeak, Wholesaler Masterminds and I Carry The Bag.