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Identify Your Why

Identifying your why ok sounds a little like what is that all about? But when you think about your email newsletter the way you're going to guide the content that's going to go in there the way you're going to make that choice as to what content you're going to include is going to be driven by what you're why is what is motivating you overall what is your big goal so you can take the step back and think about that right now about your own business sort of what is the big question? What is the big motivation your underlying motivation for your whole business or what is the driving force and what do you want to be known for? You know, do you want to be known as somebody who can draw illustrations of news events? Do you want to be known as somebody who can write funny, you know content on a weekly basis on a daily basis you want to be known if somebody who can teach quilting nationally, what do you want to be known for? Who are you sort of? What is the driving force but behind your whole ...

business? Are you somebody who can d'oh make up really well what what is it? What are you sort of all about and that's going to pick help you pick what you're going to put in your newsletter so why are you in business why are you making the products that you are selling and what you really believe, like what's most important and use that? Why teo teo help you as you're choosing, so you you sort of have a whole lot of different kinds of content to choose from, but you're why is going to help you pick among those? And when I'm going through all of these different content choices each week, I think about my own, why? And I use that to cite. Nope, this doesn't really serve that, so I'm not going to include it or yes, it does serve it, and I am going to included that that's how I figure it out, his identifying your why like, why are you in business? What is it for obviously it's to make money that's why you have a business but there's also some other motivation that's making you do this, you know you want women to feel confident you want women to look naturally beautiful or whatever your why is like, what is it? Because I'm going to share with you my y and maybe you can think about yours, and maybe someone will be brave enough to share sort of what it is that they're really all about so here's my wife, I want creative women to have the tools and information they need to six seed in the craft and selling industry so that why drives everything and my business is sort of divergent there's a lot of parts of it like I said, I have a podcast on myself sewing patterns I do a lot of different things but underlying all of it is this why so I write sewing patterns that's one of the things that people buy from me that's one of my income generators and those sewing patterns give people the tools that they need and the information that they need to make something that they can then sell I allow look people and encourage people to sell what they make from my patterns and I have many women on at sea who sell toys that they make from my patterns and earn an income that way so that is part of giving people the tools that they need to succeed and the craft and sewing industry are the patterns I hav e books same situation the books are business to business e books and they serve that same function the podcast serves the same function as well I interview creative entrepreneurs and we talk about their companies and how they built them and how they got to where they are now and pull out sort of what their business looks like from the inside and it is to be able to spread that information and an audio contact two other women who are working in a similar field and want that information and need that information to be able to succeed. So really everything that I do the block content. Same thing whether it's a sewing tutorial or whether it's about examining, you know how much fabric designers earn or whatever it's, all and that serves that same. Why? What is behind it all? It serves that same. Why? And the newsletter does too. The newsletter is really the same. It serves that same function. So it's blogged, driving traffic to my site through these excerpts of block posts, and then it's below that. And we'll look at mine in a little bit. But it's curated links from what's happening in the craft and sewing industry that week. But I'm curating for you, thanks to my shop and then an editorial. That's what my newsletter looks like and all serves the why so that it's like, uh, it's like a mission statement? Almost. And I it's like a beacon. And I think it's important to think about that because otherwise you can true stuff that goes in there that kind of diverges from your message or eyes a distraction or, you know, some people say, well, why would you link out in your newsletter to other people's content? Rage and it all just go to yours, but if it serves this, why, then it makes sense to slink out to what's happening. You know, what is the sea I p s? Well, people need to know what that's about because it serves this why it might not serve your why for yours and that might be a distraction or ill relevant. So so I really feel like you need to guide your content with a y so just anyone brave enough and you doesn't have to be fully formed, formulated or beautifully phrased or anything like that, but I have a few sort of thoughts or ideas about what motivates their business. What what's there, why take a stab? So I think mine is to help people become either the knitter or the designer that they want to be so it to me there's some level of personal growth in there, which might be a lot of education, a lot of trying new things, um, but then also having giving them the permission to do kind of what works for them instead of necessarily what works for me, that's a terrific why I love it. I've been thinking about it very nicely, but it's that's a good one and I think it's broad enough that it's not so narrow that is really only going toe limits like what you can include on a week to week basis it's kind of be big enough that as you changes, the industry changes this ideas shift it's still cannot fit under that umbrella. Um, there's a lot of good choices to make underneath that that's. Excellent. Yeah, anyone else have a pick, establish or why go for it? I'm bronwyn mark and I have a small jewelry company called tireless hearts, which began when I was a middle school teacher and, um, began to evolve at the time when my father was very, really had a bad heart, and as I would make my little hearts, I often felt that it was sort of symbolic of what was going on in my life at the time and how everybody has difficult paths to walk, and sometimes they're more rocky than others, and that no matter how difficult your life is, your heart keeps pumping. You know, even if you don't want to be alive, it still keeps going. And that was part of the the idea that through what I make, I want people to get in touch with that sense of resiliency and, um, inner depths and strength that they have that they may not even be aware of and to to pull forward anyway, and pushed through the difficulties anyway and find the beauty in the difficulties that is a terrific why really like it's like it's touching but also you know there's so much that you can go from there you know but it it also excludes a whole lot of things that aren't going to be relevant that so it's it's like a boundary uh defining boundary that's going to set you up to include what you're going to include and you could use that to guide so many things not just the newsletter but also product choices block content it really got it's like the guiding force andi think just generally in business is helpful to have that force why were you there who does this for you know, because also the other part of this is that we all have bad days you know, when stuff sort of you send out the newsletter a lot of people in subscribe and people criticizing your spelling and all this stuff and it's like what is it all about? It took me forever to put that thing together and they don't even like it and you feel but when you have that to hang on to you know like that's what it's for me it's just it's always really keeps you going especially if your business of one and it's just you there's nobody there to be like to just say it out loud and then just kind of get it off your chest and keep going because there's just you so I think that's really helpful right? Was there somebody else you wanted to share? Why go for it? Ellen met easy designer and blogger juvenile hall design dot com I love this question because I think for a very long time I did so many different things and it was very hard for me to pull it all together I would design for children and then I designed for adults that were whimsical like children or had fantasies like children it was very hard to pull together and I think what I finally realized was my goal is to offer people art and home to core that they can surround themselves with that validates on exemplifies their identity no matter how unique that is if it's ironic it's quirky but that's really the core it's not just about an age or certain style it's about surrounding offering the the idea of surrounding yourself with things that exemplify your identity and who you are that's perfect are really good it's great and can you see how these wise are the war what's going to help you? I mean this is really like this is the foundations like the roots of the tree and then everything comes from there and you know the other thing with business besides having the hard days it's also it's also hard to know sometimes what to say yes you when what say no to so as you get more followers and your business grows new offers and ideas come to you you know people email you and ask you will you do this well you appear at this conference when you do this speaking engagement will you write this article where you design this collaboration? All of these things start to come and it's wonderful and exciting in the beginning it's like yes yes, yes but at a certain point you have to start to say no or you'll never do your own work on dh you can kind of get sidetracked on everybody else's project and sometimes they don't pay all that well and it seems like a distraction and so these this why is not only good for newsletters but it's also just good for choosing what to say yes you on what to say no to it's like is it in the end going to fulfill the why ok then it might be worth considering but if it's not then it's a no and it makes it so much easier to just have the rules set up in in place before that stuff happens. Yeah abby, I think you just answered sort of this question which was is the why of your newsletter the same as the why of your business should there be a distinction? I don't think so I think the wise really the way of your business and your newsletter is like what is a marketing tool for business and for me I mean it's, the main marketing tool and it's one of the best things I do on a weekly basis for my business, but it is just one piece of it on dh it's, one piece of a larger strategy and it's not necessarily it's not really the product, you know, people don't pay to subscribe to the newsletter there are people who have a paid newsletter, so in that way the product is their newsletter I don't charge for the newsletter so it's not really a product. It's really a marketing tool so why's a bigger why that drives the whole business? Yeah, that's a good question and one final question that any couple tips if you are just struggling with finding that, why finding out the why? Yeah, I mean, I think you can keep asking yourself why? So you can let you khun list sort of the first thing that comes to your mind like, you know, I make jewelry with wire and then you can say, but why, you know and so you can keep asking why? Until you get down to the core, the more wise you ask after three or four you sort of get like because I want people to feel beautiful or what you know, you sort of get down to the for a bit, but it could take some thought process, and I also think it's completely ok for to shift over time. This was not my wine, two thousand five in any way, shape or form on it wasn't even my y in two thousand eight. I mean, it's changed over time on day one of the great things about being your own boss, and you can change over time. You don't have tio apply for a new position or wait for a raise, you know, it's you. So if it turns out that you know that product line was no fun anymore, you can face it out and try a new product line. Or, you know, if you want to shift from offering products offering services, you can make that shift or include both, you know. So you have that power, which is wonderful on dso. Allowing yourself to sort of let it change, I think, is the only way to keep it healthy.