Early in my work as a freelance writer I was lucky enough to be introduced to Simon Sinek and his incredible TED talk – How Great Leaders Inspire Action. Everything that Simon advocates looks at the importance of starting from a place of passion – then using the reason why you are in business as a driving factor in building your brand.

the aim is not to do business with everyone who needs the thing you have; but to do business with everyone who believes what you believe.

So do you understand the passion that drives you in your business journey? Are you using this to develop engaging and inspiring narratives in your marketing plan?

Sometimes we can feel wary of sharing personal thoughts in our marketing content. Many business mentors will warn you of the perils of alienating potential customers because they don’t share your world view. The old dinner party adage of avoiding politics and religion in polite company is probably sound advice, but there is a happy medium between shouting about politics with a large ‘P’ and sending out bland, faceless content that rocks nobodies boat and gets you nowhere.

As Bernadette Jiwa states in her excellent book ‘The Fortune Cookie Principle’ –

Product – Meaning = Commodity

Product + Meaning = Brand

Perhaps a fruitless search for a particular product led you to develop one of your own. Maybe you provide volunteering opportunities to ex service men and women after a friend struggled to find work on civvy street. In each of these cases your why directly influences your how and what.

To use myself as an example, I have a policy of providing a free space to a start up or charity on my monthly copywriting workshops. I spent years feeling isolated and unproductive due to chronic heart failure before finally regaining my health through a heart transplant in 2009. Because of this I care about building a business that has a greater focus than simply making money – leaving a positive and lasting legacy on my local community. I hope to eventually be in a position where I can help others re-enter the workplace after illness or injury by providing an apprenticeship scheme. This is just one of the motivating factors that keeps me getting up and out no matter how difficult the work feels.

So, as Simon Sinek says, work out your Why and then find ways to shout about it. If you can communicate it in an engaging manner then you are well on the way to building a meaningful brand that customers can’t wait to be part of.

This piece was written by Claire Davies: The Greedy Wordsmith. I am a freelance business writer helping business create meaningful conversations through the written and spoken word. Support is provided by means of copywriting, editing packages, 121 sessions and small group workshops.