Purpose = Remarkable with Guest Ian Chamandy

Monica Pitts 0:09 Hello again. And welcome back to marketing with purpose. My name is Monica Pitts, and I get to be your host today and with me today I have guest in Chemin de owner of blueprint business architecture and for 20 years, and has been helping companies to find their purpose, using his three step blueprint printing process that starts with defining the one thing that makes their organization uniquely remarkable in get this seven words or less, and I watched a video about it the other day, and after watching the video, I was like, I really want one of those, like, I want it, okay, because it just seemed so comprehensive and so simple. And once that purpose is defined, it's used to design, how it will be managed, and how the company will communicate. And I'm really excited to learn about the process today. My company MayeCreate has actually been working through a very similar process this year to understand our why we've probably all heard of that, like Simon Sinek, why thing. And it's been really incredible to learn about why we do what we do. And it's also been really insightful and help us learn about each other. As a team. Our senior team is kind of always known in our gut, why we do what we do and what our purpose is as a business. And as we bring on new team members, it's not always as easy to get them kind of on the same page, and really understanding and seeing it, they just see the processes, they don't always have that same feel good feeling behind it all. So we're excited to have a documented why. And now we're going to ask Ian 10,000 questions about his journey, and probably want to go back and revise it all once we're done. So Ian, why don't you go ahead and start us off by defining some vocabulary explained to us how do you define purpose? Because I think some people consider it a mission or a vision? Or like, are they the same thing? Tell me about this. Ian Chamandy 2:14 Sure. And thank you very much for having me, Monica, I love talking to you about this stuff. And I'm excited to talk to you about it. So it was actually a Pablo Picasso, who was my inspiration for the definition of purpose. He said, The meaning of life is to find your gift. Your purpose is to share it with the world. So if you just rephrase that a little bit, your purpose is to find your gift and share it with the world. So what's your gift as a person, your gift is that one thing as you said at the beginning of the show, there's one thing at your core at your essence, that makes you uniquely remarkable. And that is your purpose. That's your gift. So, you know, if you follow Picasso's advice, find your purpose, find what makes you uniquely remarkable, and share that with the world. And everybody has something that makes them special. Right? What purpose is, you know, if you accept that the definition of purpose is what makes you uniquely remarkable. Its components are your beliefs, the things you want, and your talents, whether you know, it's a talent that you were born with a beautiful singing voice, or a talent that you develop over time. But those are the components of purpose, your beliefs, your wants, and your talents. And so when you define your purpose, when you define that one thing that makes you uniquely remarkable, and you let that guide your life, then what you're doing is you're making sure that all the decisions that you make are aligned, totally aligned with your beliefs, wants and talents. And so to me, that's, you know, the beauty of purpose. Monica Pitts 4:15 And love that and I feel like at MayeCreate One of the things that we always have said is that if everybody just gave a little bit of what they were good at into the world, the world would be an even better place. And so like as we go about our day to day and annual functions that may create we always make sure that we're giving back our talents to nonprofits and other organizations that are also giving their talents back to the community. And we're like, you know, while we may not be contributing $100,000 check we are contributing what we're really good at and in that way they can actually earn more with our talents than if we were to just give them money and so I really I love that that thought so tell me like how As a business or as an organization, because we do have a lot of nonprofit listeners, why do we need to know our purpose? Like what happens if we don't know it? Ian Chamandy 5:09 Okay, so I just want to, I just want to start out by saying I don't make the distinction between a business and a not for profit or charity. Because they're all in the business of sales. Yeah, donation is just a pretty name for sales. When you are, you know, if you're like the Heart and Stroke Foundation or something like that, and you're out soliciting donations you're selling, and you're hoping that people will buy. So it makes no difference to me whether you're a charity, or you're a business or not for profit. So I just have this belief that as a business, your single most important strategic asset is knowing what makes you uniquely remarkable as a business that one thing. And the reason that I believe that is because then you're grounded in what makes you uniquely remarkable. And you can use that to guide everything you do and say, as a business, right? So there's basically two buckets of stuff that you do as a business. There's all of your day to day machinations in order to make the business go. And then there's what you say to the outside world in order to sell, you know, or what you say to your employees, or what you say to your board, but there's your communications. And there's your operations. And when you know what it is that makes you uniquely remarkable, that can constantly guide those two things, right? They can, everything that you do and say, is predicated on what makes you uniquely remarkable. And when that's the case, that's what makes you uniquely remarkable company. So if you don't know what it is, that makes you uniquely remarkable, the alternative is really throwing spaghetti against the wall and seeing what sticks. Now, it's not quite that arbitrary. Because the people who are throwing the spaghetti against the wall have lots of experience and lots of intelligence, and they can have that 100 strands of spaghetti that they're throwing against the wall. They can recognize the 10 or 15 that are really, you know, possibilities. But it's still spaghetti sticking to the wall, you know, seeing what sticks. It's an educated guess, when you know what makes you uniquely remarkable. And you use that to guide every decision you make and every action you take, then then you're then you're acting with clarity, and intentionality. And that gives you confidence. And so so so I believe that the single most important strategic strategic asset, yes is this is knowing the one thing that makes you uniquely remarkable. And then our standard for defining it is, is that you have to do it in seven words or less. And by the way, it's usually two or three or four words, I'll give you an example CNC, you can see, but the reason for that is, if you can describe your you know that, you know, the old expression i Who's the who's the author of Tom Sawyer, Monica Pitts 8:25 Mark Twain. Ian Chamandy 8:26 Thank you very much. The Mark Monica Pitts 8:29 Twain and I know that is because Mark Twain is from Missouri. Right, right, right. Yeah. Ian Chamandy 8:36 So, you know, he, he said, I wrote a long letter, because I didn't take the time to write a short letter. And in the blueprint process with a company, we take the time to write a short letter. So if you're allowed three paragraphs or three pear pages to define what makes you uniquely remarkable, you're gonna throw in everything but the kitchen sink, or maybe include that. When your real estate is seven words or less. You there's a rigor to the process that you go through where you have to hone and hone and hone. And I'll tell you at some point in my process, a phrase pops out, you go, Oh my God, that's it. Right? You just know, it just becomes self evident, that this is who you are, and this is this is what you have to be going forward. So So seven, part of the reason why it's such an impactful statement is you take the rigor, I if you know, the Toronto International Film Festival, Tiff. We did the process with them and they said, Oh, we've been through strategic processes before but you took us about six layers deeper. And that's because you have to answer it in seven words or less. And when you take it six layers deeper, it becomes much more sustainable. It has much more integrity. It's true to you and you know, it's long term. And then the other reason why it's seven words or less, as I call it the three easy's right it's easy to understand. So you take it in, it's easy to remember. So it stays there. And then it's easy for you to repeat. So you become an evangelist, right? If you tell me what your your company's purpose is, in seven words or less, I go, Oh, well, that makes sense. Now I can go to someone else. And I can say, let me tell you about Monica's company. And I tell it, you know, with accuracy and enthusiasm, I evangelize it. Because it's so easy to understand. And it's so self evident, and so powerful. Monica Pitts 10:39 They already want to go back and revisit my, my, my why. And my purpose I already do. I've already I'm already sold. I love. I love short and simple. And it is actually it's so tricky, though. Like I was just designing an ad yesterday. And I had a very concise amount of real estate for the ad. And I had so many things that I was supposed to fit on it. Luckily, I had the artistic flexibility to be able to keep deleting things, which I did until I got down to where I was like someone might actually read this, right. But if we want to put all the stuff on that, because we think it's all important. But I understand as an art director and as a graphic designer, that that's not, it's not going to resonate with, with my audience, it's not going to resonate with the people that read it. And so I have to get just the most important things there. But you have like this emotional attachment to all the other crap. We're like Hoarders of information, marketing, and it just makes it hard to find anything in it, because we've hoarded all this crap into it. So I love the seven word, strategy. I love it. And so no, go ahead. Ian Chamandy 11:53 I was just gonna say, your conundrum, is that when you're coming from the perspective of what you're selling, right, you were you were making an ad, you wanted to sell something. So you're coming from the perspective of, I want to sell you something. So you're trying to figure out how to sell. The thing is, there's a fundamental difference between what you're selling, and what your customer is buying. Yeah, 98% of the companies in the world don't know that. So they, their communications is all focused on what they're selling. What a blueprint process does is it completely reorients your company, around what the customer is buy. That's much more focused. So let me give you an example. And you in your, when you were talking there, you talk about things like emotion and, and that and inspiration and that sort of thing. And a purpose statement only works when it resonates on a deep emotional level. Let me give you an example. This company came to us. It's a retail shelving company, right Home Depot builds a box, they go in and they put up all the rack shelving. And when they're done, the store opens. So I was having breakfast with the CEO. This is when we first met. And he was explaining his situation. He said, I know there's a magic to my company. But every time I open my mouth to talk about it, it sounds so generic, so banal. So like anything anybody else can say. And I said, John, it's because you don't know what business you're really in. And he said, You're right. To his credit. He was credit. He said, You're right. I don't know what business I really am. Now, John knew that he was in the category of retail shelving. What he didn't know is what space he owned, inside that category. Right. So we decided to do a blueprint. Now, just as an aside, the process for a blueprint is there is up to four key decision makers on the draft team. So this is just the draft team. And the CEO has to be one of them, because it's the CEOs project. Right? So we have 10 sessions, two hours, each on Zoom, with this draft team, and that's how we come up with a blueprint. So as we're having the conversation, right there talking about your story, where the conversation with them gets interesting is when they start talking about how they have been in business for three generations, right? Not three decades, three generations. And because of that longevity, they had developed techniques and systems and processes and procedures that allowed them to get finished significantly faster. And so you can imagine if they get on Home Depot done a month faster there than their competitors. The store opens a month sooner, and they get a month of retail sales that they didn't anticipate. And that's, you know, that's like $2 million a week for Home Depot. So that's real money in my world. And so, as we're having this conversation about getting finished faster, one of his VPS says, as a joke, he says, you know, what are signs where it says opening soon? I want ours to say opening sooner spent, oh, my god, that is brilliant. That is brilliant. That became their purpose statement that became the articulation of what made this company uniquely remarkable, because unbeknownst to it, it had channeled all of its resources and expertise into getting finished faster. And it did this because that purpose was always in their driving their behavior, they just didn't know it. Once you reveal it, then you can use it by design, rather than you know, it's showing up whenever it feels like. So the reason that opening sooner became so powerful for them as their purpose statement, as the definition of what makes them uniquely remarkable. It all has to do with the emotional context of the buyer. And this is a really important point, the emotional context of the buyer, is a really important point to understanding what the buyer is buying versus what you're selling, right. So the VP of construction has to or two things that he or she cares about. One is staying on budget, one staying on time, staying on budget, they're accountable to the CEO and the CFO staying on time, they're accountable to the CEO, the CFO, and the CEO and the new store manager and all the construction teams and and and and and all these people who have project management timelines going into that opening day, you've got to delay that. Now you've got hundreds or 1000s of people ticked off at you rather than just the CEO and the CFO. So it's arguable that staying on time causes even more gray hair than staying on budget. When you walk in, to that VP of construction, and your story opens with, we're all about opening sooner. The CEO, the VP of construction says, you can just imagine, they're, you know, they're their exhale of relief. It's like, Oh, my God, you understand me, you understand my job, you understand my anxieties. Tell me more. Right? You've got them leaning in. Now. When you get to the telling me more stage, that's when you talk about what you're selling. Because what they're buying is just one thing, opening sooner. But when you but once you sort of established that as the context, they were opening sooner, like a listening filter on their ears. So when they say tell me more, tell me more about this opening sooner thing and how you do that. And you say, well, we have a special hiring process that gets us only the best people. And you're you're sitting there and you say, listening to I get how that contributes to opening sooner. Yeah. And we've got we've, we've over the, you know, the past decades, we developed a training process that allows us to get, you know, Oh, I get how that contributes to opening sooner. And we've got our own project management process, it's much more streamlined, I get how that contributes to opening sooner. So you can see that in the absence of your, your purpose, leading the way your sales process, what you're selling is a laundry list of features and benefits. And they have power. Sure, because look at how many businesses 98% of the businesses in the world are selling on the basis of features and benefits and they're doing okay. But the companies who are doing really well. Apple Computer, who who gets you to gleefully paid twice as much free computer as you were as you would from oh, gosh, I can't remember the guys Dell. You know, that's a company that understands the power of of its purpose, right. So when you start rhyming off those Bunnell features and benefits because they're being listened to through a filter through listening filter of opening sooner If it elevates their power and their substance in their credibility, they come to mean something now. And so in the first instance, by leading with opening sooner, John is leading with what the customer is buying and hooking them. And they're hooking them because that purpose resonates on a deep emotional level. Because of the gray hair things, right? Yeah, yeah, getting rid of anxiety Monica Pitts 20:31 on it. Like, it's a lot like the concept of the why that we were with Simon Sinek, but it's simpler. So it's the same, it's the same, but his was longer yours. Oh, yeah. So it's like the same thing. But like it more concise, which I think is pretty powerful. Because of the same things that we just said earlier, like, like having to go through all and filter through it all. What where instead, when you lead with your purpose, so you are you like a simplified why you are wearing that purpose? Like the How did you say you said that the listener is wearing their purpose, like a filter? I love that. And it is it is super complicated, though. Because even just thinking about websites, right? So we build websites a very specific way. Because we understand all the problems that are going to happen if they're not built the right way, right. But our clients don't think about any of that. They don't they're like, is it pretty? I'm like anybody can make it pretty. We make it work. Like it's like the difference. And so but they but I went back to my designers just like a month or two ago. And I was like, friends, friends, friends, you guys are incredible. And my developers too. I'm like, but our development process is not sexy to these people. They want to buy something else, they're buying something else. And so we have to, like talk about it a little differently sometimes with them, because what they care about is, does it show up online? Did it get done on time? Is it easy to use? Like, but does it show up? When people try to find me that's like it. Really, right? And so anyway, it's just, it's just hard to like, get that all out. Ian Chamandy 22:25 thing, here's the thing. Every company has something that makes makes it uniquely remarkable. And when you discover that, it's incredible the confidence it gives you and the power it gives you to move forward. Now when I say every company has started for the same reason people say, Don't be ridiculous. But it's true. Every company was started because a person or a group of people said, I know a better way to do this. Right? They had worked in the business. They had been an employee, they learned. They said, Oh, I like this, that they're teaching me and they say, Oh, I wouldn't do it like that. I do it differently. And they get to the point, this individual or this group of people, where they've got an idea of what their vision is, it's murky, and they go into business. And they do a murky execution, what their what their brilliant idea is. And then that's where a blueprint comes along, because I transform it from murky, to clear and compelling. And, and when I do that, they feel reborn, I swear to God, I swear to God, I know it sounds weird. I was sitting in front of the board of one of the most exclusive golf clubs in Toronto. And all of the board members were McKinsey and KPMG and Deloitte and the NY. And the chair says to me, what is it that's intriguing about you, in getting us as a client, like, if you do is it that if you do a good job with us, you can go out and pitch other clubs. And I just looked at him and I said, no, no. It's how we change the people. That's what I love. They think about their business fundamentally different after a blueprint than they did before. They think to themselves oh my god, I knew a fraction of the value of this horse I was writing. Now I know the full value and oh my god, get out of my way. Because I'm gonna ride this baby to the finish line. And they had never felt that way about the business before. Right like you can imagine I when I was telling you about the retail shelving company Like, until I got an actuarial firm as a client. That was my retail shelving was my least sexy client, John and I joke about that. So it's not insulting, right? But here's the thing. There's not too many businesses that are as unsexy as retail shelving. And yet, when you present it as opening sooner, all of a sudden, it's really sexy. Yeah, we Monica Pitts 25:27 work on construction and paving. So I get it. I'm like, because you're paving companies are coming to me. And they're like, I don't really know what you can do this and I'm like, Oh, buddy, I can make asphalt look so sexy. You don't even know. Really, because this is we love it. We're like, this is so cool. Because we are so behind it. Like we just we feel so privileged to be able to help the companies that our country drivable, like that's incredible, right? Yeah. And so they're like, oh, okay, cool. I mean, if you think asphalt sexy, I mean, we like it. Ian Chamandy 26:04 Okay, okay. Look at it this way. Look at it this way. And I know, I know you're here already. But let's say the asphalt is being laid in a driveway. Right, a couple moves into a new home. And it's maybe 3040 years old, and the driveway is all pockmark, right, and they've got a budget to make it, you know, to renovate it and make it a new home. Well, this is the foundation of your castle. Red Carpet. It's the red carpet. And so if you take a before and after, you're gonna go Whoa, that looks way better. That's what you're doing. You're not paving a driveway, you're going, Oh, my God, look at how beautiful this place looks. And they may not even know that they're taking the driveway into account in that opinion. They are. And that's what you're contributing to Apple, right? Everybody thinks, oh my god, Apple, the sexiest company alive. So good every but think of every other technology company. Right? They're not nearly as sexy. Not even remotely. Technology was the was the field that created the term that is the antithesis of sexy, which is geek. And yet in a field that defined what is, is unsexy. Apple is like the sexiest company on the planet. And they Monica Pitts 27:46 created they know what you want. You know, they know Ian Chamandy 27:49 who they are. I'm gonna say they know who they are. And because they know who they are, they produce what you want. Yes. And if you remember cynic, well, let's let's loop back to cynic for a moment, because you've mentioned him a number of times and you are absolutely bang on cynic cynic and I play in the same sandbox, right? And there are two differences between cynic and AI. One is like you said, I define your y or your purpose in seven words or less, they're the same thing. You're why your purpose what makes you uniquely remarkable. They're all the same thing. I define it in seven words or less, that's a difference. But also when I went in to pitch my book in New York to his editor is editor said, What's the difference between you and Simon? And I said, Hey, Simon is the leader in our area. And he's a great evangelist for the notion of the why. But he's got no methodology to get you there. And it's sort of an insulting thing to say to the editor. And by the way, cynic walked into his office with the notion of the why No book, no book proposal, they developed it together. So here's the guy who was a part of the birth of the why revolution, and I'm sitting there saying to him, no methodology and he said, You're right, no methodology. No, Monica Pitts 29:07 we haven't make up our own. Like, I thought to myself, Okay. It's work. And I thought, okay, so I felt like we would have like this reason why we do things, the way that we do them for our own personal benefit. And then we would have a reason why we do them. That's like, external. And then somehow it all kind of rolled into the same thing. And so like I had to make up the activity to do my team. Ian Chamandy 29:34 There's no step by step methodology to get you there. That's the point and in my book, so my the title of my book is called, Why should I choose you answering the single most important question in business in seven words or less? Because the answer is your purpose? Why should I choose you, Mr. Retail shelving company opening sooner? Why should I choose You missed your blueprints? Well, my seven words or less is transforming confusion into clarity. And so before when I said to take you from a murky notion of what your business is, to clear, concise and compelling. That's what my, that's what my secret sauce is. That's what my superpower is. Monica Pitts 30:23 That's what I'm okay. So I have to like maybe four directions. I even want to take this conversation. First. I love you. First, I want to understand, like, what brought you here a lot of the times. And I don't mean on the marketing of purpose podcast, I mean, like, a lot of the times we have to fail before we find these answers. So like, where, where did this idea come from? How was it born? Ian Chamandy 30:52 failure, failure. So, um, you and I talked before the podcast and I talked to you about the fact that I had been an entrepreneur since I was in grade two. So that was, you know, that's part of where it is. When I finished university, my first job was as a copywriter in an advertising agency, and I would sit down at my typewriter, my typewriter, and straight. And I would type the worst, most Bunnell cliche driven copy. And I'd be typing it out, and I'd be watching the words appear on the page, and I go, this is terrible. This is terrible. What do I do? So I got one piece of paper, and I got an art director to put in big letters on this piece, eight and a half by 11. Piece of paper. The question, is this true? And I, I take that to the wall behind my typewriter. So that as I'm typing, I had to constantly ask myself, Is this true? Is this true? Because what I was typing seem to have, it seemed to be like cliches that had nothing to do with the brand. There was no integrity, there was no nothing. So I was on the right direction and putting the sign up to ask, is that true? Does this have integrity, I was never successful at that time and becoming a writer who could do that. So anyway, go through the years. And, and I ended up about 20 years ago, starting this business with a business partner who sadly died three and a half years ago. But it was it was the same thing. We had a conversation in a coffee shop, where where we both realized we had the same passion for strategic planning, and the same distain for how it's done. Defining mission, vision and values, show me a company that actually runs according to its mission, vision and values. So we said, you know, we can either train people the proper way to do mission, vision and values. Or we can just create something new. And the thought of stepping into the stream, and standing in front of a stampede of fish going downstream, and putting our hands and saying, Stop, stop, all the real food is upstream wasn't appealing to us. So over time, we knit it together, what became a very, I call it a meat grinder now, right? Like a meat grinder doesn't ask you, how do you want the sausage to be made, it just makes it doesn't care what sausage you put through, that's what I have, I have a meat grinder, you don't change as a client, you don't change the meat grinder. You come here. And you go through the meat grinder. And it produces different sausage every time because what goes in is unique. So now I have rather than a service of a product, and you buy that product. And it started, you know, we picked up little pieces of it along the way. We were working with a PR company, who said, You know what, like, all your phrases are in seven words or less. And we went, Oh, yeah, you're right. Why don't we just make that a standard? And then we were talking to a personal coach who gave us the this notion of defining what makes you uniquely remarkable. So we just started knitting all these pieces in, I had a client who said, I need I need some help with this, what should I do? And I came up with a series of five questions. And when it was done, I turned to my business partner and I said, these five questions have to be an integral part of our process, even though I was creating them for a client. So it slowly you know, solidified and crystallized and it became a set piece. And that's what it is now. And but but when you think about where my story started, Is that true? I'm still in that business. Right? So your business? What is actually true about your business? Not? What are you saying is true? Not what people think is true or not, what are you behaving true is, is behaving true. But what is really true. And when you get that, oh my god that's so empowering, and exciting and inspiring. And whether you do it as an individual, right? I know my seven words or less, or you do it as a company, opening sooner, it's the same thing. And that's why I said, you know, to that to the board at that golf club, it's how we change the people. That I love to Monica Pitts 35:44 Okay, hi, what my listeners are thinking right now is they're like, Okay, great. So how do I make a purpose? How do I do that? So like, tell me a little bit about. You said, there's three steps in the process of blueprinting. How, how do you do this? I know, I know, you don't have to give away the farm here, but, and they can buy the book and the whole thing, but give me like the big picture overview for those kind of like, folks that are really needing this information right now. Okay, Ian Chamandy 36:18 so let me just describe the process in a little bit more detail. And then and then I'll answer your question more specifically. So the first thing that we do, and that probably takes half the time, is we dig in, we dig and we dig until we figure out what it is that makes you uniquely remarkable. And you asked me, I can tell you how I do it. So my tool is deconstruction. Right? So you say I say to you, tell me about your business? What makes your business you know, what makes your business different. And you talk. And you'll say a bunch of things that will be laden with meaning. And I'll say, what does that mean? What does that mean? What does that what does that mean? And that creates the process of deconstruction, because at the high end, at the startup of deconstruction, you have a very complex problem to solve. But the more you deconstruct into its component parts, the lower you get in the deconstruction process, the more simple things become. And at some point, the answer pops out, you deconstruct enough that the answer pops out. And when it pops out, it's like opening sooner. We all just looked around and we felt like we were struck with a bolt of lightning. That's it. That's it. No, no conversation. No rationalization. That's it. Right. So that's the thing. When you're up here at the complex level, and you're trying to figure out solutions, it's hard to see whether it's right or it's wrong, because there's so many moving parts, when you can deconstruct down to simplicity, and it pops out. Part of the reason that you know is so right is because you immediately see how it addresses the complex. Right, you Monica Pitts 38:15 start off? What does your business do? And then you're going to pick out all those little things. And what does that mean? What does that mean? What does that mean? Okay, that's right, eventually, down to something way simpler. Ian Chamandy 38:28 I'll give you a specific example of that. Right? So a lot of people when they initially described their business, we sit, they say, We are a customer centered business. And I say, what does that mean? And so they go, Oh, no, no one's ever asked us that before. I just intuitively know what customer centered means I care about the customer says, Don't tell me what customer centered me. And now they got to start thinking about that. And I'm going to challenge as they start saying, Well, it means this. And it means that and it means that and I'm going to say stuff like, show me where you do that. You do that. And if you do awesome, but if you don't now, you see the inconsistency between the words that you're communicating to the outside world, and what you're actually doing, and we have to eliminate that gap. Right. So that's to say, just to be you could complete you could moderate 50% of a blueprint. Right now. Just by every time someone says something, you say you pick a piece of it, and you say what does that mean? What does that mean? What does that mean? Monica Pitts 39:42 Then I can step? It, that's the first step. Oh, Ian Chamandy 39:46 sure. Sure. So that's how you come up with your purpose statement, your seven words or less. Okay, great. Once you've got that, then you're at the starting line, because a pretty statement by itself doesn't really do anything for you. Yeah. So the first thing we do is we say, Okay, what is this statement mean? What does opening sooner mean? And there are five questions that we ask to answer that question, those five questions or sorry, those five answers. Become the guide for how you communicate about the company. Okay? Not a script. It is something not to memorize, internalize, yes, but not memorize. It's not a script, just internalize those points. And then talk about yourself. And you'll be shocked at how inspiring your communication style is about the company. So we decided we sorry, we did design what we call the purpose story, these five questions. If I were to ask you any one of those five questions now, any one of them would take you 20 minutes to answer. Whatever they Monica Pitts 41:08 were, like, you asked me them. Yeah. Ian Chamandy 41:11 So sure. So the five questions are, imagine that you've got your purpose statement opening sooner. At the top question, what is what does that mean? Question two, is? Why are you qualified to do that? Okay. Question three is, oh, my God. You put me on the spot. And I've done this for 20 years, and I'm gapping on this. Monica Pitts 41:47 What does that mean? Why are you qualified? What? Ian Chamandy 41:49 Yeah, so what does that mean? Oh, you do this? Oh, you build bridges? Where are you qualified to build bridges, right? Oh, well, I went to engineering school. And I did this. And I did that. I did the other thing. Oh, great. Okay, so now I have the confidence that you have the technical expertise. What are the what are the beliefs that have led you to this place? And you may say, Well, I thought you didn't like mission, vision and values. It's like, yeah, there's a difference between values and beliefs. If you say to me, these are the four values that guide my company. First of all, I don't believe you, because almost no company is actually guided by their values. But the other thing is, I would say, Okay, let's take value number one. What does that mean? Here's that question again. And they'll say something like, Well, we believe this, we believe that we believe the other thing, and I take those three things. And I say, great. They're one step below values. And they're more tangible. And because they're more tangible, they guide behavior more effectively. So I'll give you an example. One of my values is sorry, one of my beliefs is, is that the traditional tools of business that were designed and developed postwar in schools, like Harvard, and Stanford, and Kellogg, and in companies like IBM and General Motors and Ford and stuff like that, they're no longer enough. Right? And so they're, they're anachronistic. And what that so that's my belief. Now, if I come to you and say, That's my belief, and now I'm going to lead you through a process of mission, vision and values, you'd say, your belief and your practice are out of sync. Right. So what that belief forces me to do is constantly look for new and better ways to do things and not rely on the old traditional ways, because they don't work anymore. Monica Pitts 44:04 They're out of date. Right? Great. There's the woman who's trying to transition her team to a four day workweek, like Yeah, right, right. Yeah. Not working for me. The beliefs that lead us there, what do we ask ourselves next? Ian Chamandy 44:24 Okay, here's the killer, what's your methodology? You have a unique methodology. You won't know what that unique methodology is until you know your purpose, because you have to know what the thing is that your methodology is taking you to. Okay, right. So what is your unique methodology? And the interesting thing about this question is that your methodology is the substance of the organization, all of the substance of you is because of how you do what you do. And Monica Pitts 45:03 that I think people are trying to sell all the time, but that other people aren't necessarily like, they needed to hear the purpose. And what we're trying to sell is the methodology, because that's me centered. Right? And that's not externally focused. And that's not the right way to tackle it. That's what I'm hearing. But we still need to know it, right? It's still important. Ian Chamandy 45:29 Yeah, don't need to know it. It's like you need to know features and benefits. Because at some point, someone's gonna say to me, Wow, I really liked your story. How do you do that? Right, hopefully, then your methodology becomes, again, a proof point for your purpose. And that makes it much more powerful. So here's the thing is that, by the way, saying, we sit down with you, we listen to what your challenges are, we put our heads together and come up with a great solution, we present that to you. And then we execute it. That's not a methodology. That is the standard way that a supplier of a service relates to a customer, it is not a methodology. Here's the methodology. Step one, define your purpose. Step two, create the story of your purpose. Step three, use your purpose to design how you operate. That's the blueprint methodology. So it's not complex, you just have to know what it is. And that is the source of the substance of what I do those three things. If those don't exist, then I'm just all pretty words. Right? So that's question four, what is your methodology? And when your methodology is presented, presented within the context of your purpose, it's very powerful. Then the next question, the last question is, oh, if you're about this opening, sooner thing, or if you're about this transforming confusion into clarity thing, what do I get? As a as a material stakeholder of yours? Right? So we already said, so here's the thing. Your purpose statement has to resonate on a deep emotional level with all your stakeholders, not just your customers, we always discover it by talking about the relationship between the company and the customer. But then we look around and we say, Does this also resonate on a deep emotional level with employees? Because it absolutely must. So when you think of opening sooner, we said, it resonates with the buyer, the VP of construction, because it alleviates their anxiety and makes them a hero. The employee, none of that matters to them. What matters to them? Is it they're the ones who get finished first. Were the opening sooner people? This these are our bragging rights. Right? So so then what we do is we say we've got one story. Right. But we have to understand how it resonates on a deep emotional level with each stakeholder group, because it's no Monica Pitts 48:34 different my sense that far off when I planned out my stuff, because I said it has like, what it How does it work for us internally? How does it work? For our clients? It wasn't I'm not I wasn't in the right mind frame yet. But I can see what I'm feeling. Actually, I'm feeling very smarter. I'm like, Oh, my gosh, I'm thinking through all this stuff. And I'm like, okay, oh, my gosh, and I, we did some of this. We didn't do all of it. Yeah, but this is awesome. Yeah. Okay, so Ian Chamandy 49:08 Okay, so, let me let me let me tell you about that, though. Right. So okay, so when we get to the last question, what do I get from that as a stakeholder? First thing we do is we list all your material stakeholders, it's usually you know, 356 kind of thing. Customers, obviously, employees, obviously, your board is probably going to be a material stakeholder as well. So we list them all out. And then we have to identify, although we've already said, Yeah, you know, we've come up with a purpose that resonates on a deep emotional level. We then how have to identify for each stakeholder group, how specifically it resonates on a deep emotional level. So opening sooner, how does it resonate for the buyer? Well, it alleviates alleviates anxiety Add an emotion. And it makes them a hero and emotion. Right? How does it resonate with, with employees, they're the studs male or female doesn't matter, they are the ones opening sooner they're the fastest, right? So it's an ego. And we do that with all stakeholder groups. And what that allows you to do is once you know your story, which we've just constructed, you can then customize it to each group. By focusing on this one or two line description that we've come up with that says, This is how it resonates on a deep emotional level with these people. So that takes care of the story. And that guides, your branding, your marketing, your sales, your investor relations, employee relations, board relations, government relations, all that stuff. Then the last thing we do is we say, let's look at every part of your business, every material part of your business, let's say there's four or five, six parts of your business. We look at them one at a time, and we say is this part aligned with your purpose, opening sooner, and if it is awesome. And if it isn't, we come up with just one or two lines that say, here's how it has to change. And now you've got clear direction. For all the parts of the organization, what they have to do, in order to get working in lockstep towards a common goal, which is the holy grail of any CEO, right is to have that is to have that organization running like a well oiled machine. Well, the way you do it, is you get every part to be committed to the same thing, which is your purpose. Now the blueprints done. Monica Pitts 51:48 That's awesome. And I really love the way that you said that you customize that story for each stakeholder group, because I think that's the thing that a lot of companies miss is that they don't understand that not everybody cares about that. They all care about your purpose, right? They don't care about it for the same reasons. And so like, having a different conversation with each person, like with each stakeholder group is important. And I really think that you're right, like having it with your employees. And the board is super, super important. Because I think one of the biggest challenges in some of the businesses I work with are getting those employees, keeping them around like make because they're, they understand that without them, they couldn't run their business. But they're you don't quite know how to talk to them yet about what it is. And it's not it's not the benefits. It's not the 401 K match. It's not what Ian Chamandy 52:50 I know why, you know why it's not those things. Tell me it's the wrong part of your brain. And that's right, yes, you remember? Well, actually, when you're dealing with features and benefits, you're dealing with your cerebral cortex, right, the rational part of your brain, when you hear the little person in your brain talking to you, or weighing the pros and cons, you think that that's you thinking and decision making, right? It's not that decision was already made in your cerebral cortex, or sorry, in your in your limbic system, which is the home of feelings and emotions because all decisions are made on an emotional basis first. And then your cerebral cortex says to your limbic system, Oh, I see, you've just made a decision. brief me on that so I know how to communicate it to the outside world. And there's a struggle there. What because your your limbic system has no capacity for language. So your you know, your your cerebral cerebral cortex is sort of trying to read the sign language and the hand gestures of your limbic system to understand how it came to that decision. Right. So so no the facts and figures don't resonate. emotional appeals resonate Monica Pitts 54:18 I love this. I love it all this has been awesome. Thank you so much for sharing all this information and I'm like, Oh my gosh, I'm gonna have to go buy this book. But after read it I actually it's really interesting whenever I have authors come on the podcast, I often go buy their books and read them because I'm like, Oh awesome. I just got I know we just got a tip of the iceberg here. So tell people how they can find you and learn more and you know, what was your books called? Why Why would I buy this Ian Chamandy 54:49 book yeah close. Why should I choose you? Monica Pitts 54:52 Why should I choose you? Oh, look, I wrote it down and then I and then I just answering the single Ian Chamandy 54:55 most important question. So I don't I don't know if you're a reader or a listener of books, I don't think you'll be able to read it because I think it's sold it, but you can look on Amazon. But the audio book, the audio book is there. Okay, good. And then it's just go to my website, and it is the number seven words, right where it's in a book, W O rd s.bi Z. And to be very careful there to say that in the American way, because if you were Canadian, I would have said bi Zed. So yeah, be seven words.bi Z, you can go there you can, I've got a million videos on my blog, all about the strategic, the individual strategic benefits of purpose, the sales, benefits of purpose, all that sort of stuff. And of course, you can contact me there as well. Well, Monica Pitts 55:49 thank you so much for your time today. And thank you, everybody, for hanging out. With us today, I hope that you were taking notes. And if not, just know that you can go out to mayecreate.com. That's ma y ECREA t.com. I will have links to Ian's contact information. And also you'll get the transcript over there. So that way you can kind of search and find what you want to find in here. So if you subscribe to the podcast, yay, then you will be notified about next week's episode two. Next week, we're going to talk about what to blog about. Yes, we're going to go from this big picture thing to a much more specific topic. Focus on blogging. So I'm going to give you some post ideas to get your creative juices flowing. And I might even like you know, give you some ideas of posts that you can dream up that are all around your company's purpose because that's pretty powerful. We need to be educating people so that way when they come to us, they're ready to buy. Okay, so friends, subscribe so you don't miss anything. And until next time, go forth and mark it with purpose. Transcribed by https://otter.ai