1455: Why 'Start With Why' Is Bad Advice by Margo Aaron of That Seems Important on Entrepreneurship

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_00]: This is Optimal Work Daily. Why Start With Why Is Bad Advice by Margo Aaron of That Seems Important.com?

[00:00:10] [SPEAKER_00]: Have you ever asked a teenage girl what quality she wants in a husband? I have, and the list is curious.

[00:00:16] [SPEAKER_00]: This is, quote, I mean obviously he has to be taller than me and he needs to be into the same stuff as me because like if he's not it'll be a problem.

[00:00:24] [SPEAKER_00]: He has to like to linty, see salt caramel, duh, and our first date will be at Smith's house but he has to bring flowers.

[00:00:30] [SPEAKER_00]: And quote, 20 years later and she's married to a short guy who hates ice cream and can't get his soft-the-couch on Sundays because football.

[00:00:38] [SPEAKER_00]: And her list is in the trash. You think that was sad based on how I wrote that paragraph except this teenager's marriage is actually wonderful.

[00:00:45] [SPEAKER_00]: Turns out she loves football and her office is right there with his on that couch.

[00:00:49] [SPEAKER_00]: The lesson? It's really dumb to ask a teenager what she wants in a husband.

[00:00:54] [SPEAKER_00]: Because when you're a teenager, you don't know what you want. You've dated like three people and that's a lot.

[00:00:59] [SPEAKER_00]: You have no idea who you are, what you need or what a healthy relationship looks like.

[00:01:03] [SPEAKER_00]: The same is true for business. Until you've been in business for more than a few years, you have no idea what your business is, what it stands for and what success looks like.

[00:01:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Which is why asking someone to start with why is like asking a teenager what qualities their dream husband will have.

[00:01:19] [SPEAKER_00]: Why you shouldn't start with why?

[00:01:22] [SPEAKER_00]: Quick refresher, start with why is the powerful little edict that decries, quote, people don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it and quote.

[00:01:31] [SPEAKER_00]: Simon Sinek coined it during his 2009 TED Talk and then followed it up with a best-selling book after the talk went viral.

[00:01:38] [SPEAKER_00]: The philosophy set the business world of blaze with people asking themselves, what is my why?

[00:01:43] [SPEAKER_00]: In their attempts to stand out in a crowded market. Knowing your why is a valid and useful branding exercise.

[00:01:49] [SPEAKER_00]: It's not the problem. It's asking people to start with this exercise, that's the problem.

[00:01:54] [SPEAKER_00]: Going back to my teenager metaphor, teenage girls spend a lot of time dreaming of hypotheticals.

[00:02:00] [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, based on my analysis, they spend 79% of their time in this state.

[00:02:04] [SPEAKER_00]: The other 21% is spent discussing, debating and deliberating over said hypotheticals.

[00:02:10] [SPEAKER_00]: Will he ask me out? Will he ask me out this way? What if he does it that way? How will I respond? What if I'm wearing this shirt?

[00:02:16] [SPEAKER_00]: Sure, yeah, roll your eyes, but you're doing it too if you're starting with why.

[00:02:20] [SPEAKER_00]: Starting with why causes entrepreneurs to go into daydream mode, thinking journaling, wondering which is all fine and dandy until it leads to pontificating panic and paralytic anxiety.

[00:02:31] [SPEAKER_00]: If I had a dollar for every one of you who's emailed me about your existential crisis brought on by this exercise,

[00:02:37] [SPEAKER_00]: I wouldn't need to be in business anymore. People say, I can't move forward because I don't know my why.

[00:02:43] [SPEAKER_00]: See the problem? When you don't know your why, you feel stuck and because the instructions are to start with it,

[00:02:48] [SPEAKER_00]: Starting with why becomes a convenient excuse for inaction.

[00:02:51] [SPEAKER_00]: And like the teenager who thinks she can dream up her perfect husband, you think you can dream up the perfect why that will lead to your perfect business.

[00:02:58] [SPEAKER_00]: False. You can have a perfectly profitable and healthy business without a clear and strong why. I know I know sacralage, but hear me out.

[00:03:08] [SPEAKER_00]: Starting with why is a helpful framework for branding, not business.

[00:03:12] [SPEAKER_00]: A brand is the set of impressions someone has about you in their mind.

[00:03:16] [SPEAKER_00]: As the old adage goes, when you leave a room what do people say about you? That's your brand.

[00:03:21] [SPEAKER_00]: A brand is arrived at by two things. One, what you tell people about who you are.

[00:03:26] [SPEAKER_00]: This is what you pay agencies to do and what we call brand foundation or voice or visual assets or style guide or core values,

[00:03:35] [SPEAKER_00]: And you pay a pretty penny for these things. Two, people's subjective experience with you.

[00:03:41] [SPEAKER_00]: This part you can't really control. Branding experts, not me, will tell you you can, but you can.

[00:03:47] [SPEAKER_00]: When you start a business it's really really, really stupid to start with number one, which is what most businesses do,

[00:03:53] [SPEAKER_00]: but they don't realize that's what they're doing because it sounds like this. I need a logo and I can't start until my business has a website with that logo.

[00:04:01] [SPEAKER_00]: Ah, yeah, no, you don't need a logo. It's like dessert after dinner. You got to eat your green beans first.

[00:04:08] [SPEAKER_00]: You can have a logo after you've sold a few things. To real customers you don't know. Friends and family don't count.

[00:04:15] [SPEAKER_00]: Otherwise you're just like everyone else on the internet, gorgeous website, but still living at home in the basement because you can't make ends meet.

[00:04:21] [SPEAKER_00]: You cannot start with branding until you have a real business because branding requires that you know who you are, what you sell, what you stand for and who it's for.

[00:04:31] [SPEAKER_00]: And like the teenager dreaming up her ideal husband, you don't have the answer to these things until you've been in the game for a few years.

[00:04:38] [SPEAKER_00]: It's only through being in business that you discover who you are as a business or put another way you're freaking why.

[00:04:45] [SPEAKER_00]: One more thing before I let you go.

[00:04:47] [SPEAKER_00]: I know a guy who makes $600,000 a year shoveling driveways in the suburbs. It's not sexy, but it's a good business. Like all good businesses he's solving a real problem.

[00:04:57] [SPEAKER_00]: His why? I need money. This seems like a good way to make some.

[00:05:02] [SPEAKER_00]: Stop judging him. That's not a bad why. You don't know if he's an egotistical, tol or if his daughter has leukemia and the hospital costs alone eating to all his profits.

[00:05:11] [SPEAKER_00]: You also have no clue if 600k is revenue or profit. Stop judging the wise.

[00:05:16] [SPEAKER_00]: This is what trips us up and gives us the analysis paralysis we discussed earlier. You believe your why has to be profound.

[00:05:24] [SPEAKER_00]: Your why doesn't have to be profound. I need money to x, y, z is as good a y as we care about the environment or I want to change the world.

[00:05:33] [SPEAKER_00]: Sidebar, I want to change the world is as selfish as any other desire by the way. It's super self-envolved since it's about what you want and it doesn't imply that that change is good.

[00:05:44] [SPEAKER_00]: AIDS changed the world, so did cigarettes and polio and war. Be specific in your why's.

[00:05:50] [SPEAKER_00]: And rant. The point is, you're simple desire to rise above your circumstances, be a better mom and make a little money is why enough to keep you going.

[00:05:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Simple wise are often the real ones.

[00:06:02] [SPEAKER_00]: Start with a business, not a y.

[00:06:05] [SPEAKER_00]: Starting with why has become a convenient excuse for inaction. This obsession with knowing exactly who you are and what you're about when you first start out

[00:06:13] [SPEAKER_00]: is what's keeping people from jumping into the arena which ironically is where the answers are.

[00:06:18] [SPEAKER_00]: So if you're less than two years into your business or if you're five plus years in but you've pivoted every year, then yeah don't start with why.

[00:06:26] [SPEAKER_00]: Start with having a business, a real one. Not a website with your logo and mission to change the world.

[00:06:32] [SPEAKER_00]: Start with making something people want and will pay for. Your business y comes later when you're ready to start with branding.

[00:06:42] [SPEAKER_00]: You just listen to the post titled why start with why is bad advice by Margo Aeron of that seems important dot com.

[00:06:51] [SPEAKER_00]: This show is sponsored by Better Help. We're all marveled at how quickly kids learn and that sense of wonderment they have well doing it, but as adults sometimes we lose that curiosity.

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[00:07:38] [SPEAKER_00]: Read Discover Your Curiosity with Better Help. Visit BetterHelp.com slash work daily today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp.

[00:07:48] [SPEAKER_00]: H-E-L-P dot com slash work daily.

[00:07:53] [SPEAKER_00]: And thanks to Margo for letting us read her content here on the show, come by that seems important dot com to read a lot more from her and check out her bookstore.

[00:08:02] [SPEAKER_00]: There's some great ones on there if you're looking for ideas.

[00:08:06] [SPEAKER_00]: So Margo Erin is a proud graduate of Emory University where she got a BA Columbia University where she received an MA and

[00:08:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Alt MBA where she earned the prestigious Walker Award. She began her career as a psychological researcher for a prestigious mental health clinic,

[00:08:23] [SPEAKER_00]: accidentally ended up in marketing, and today she's co-host of the internet talk show, Hillary and Margo yell at websites.

[00:08:30] [SPEAKER_00]: She's also a regular contributor to Inc and founder of the most popular internet newsletter you've never heard of.

[00:08:38] [SPEAKER_00]: Again, you can find her at that seemsimportant dot com.

[00:08:42] [SPEAKER_00]: And that'll do it for another edition of Optimal Startup Daily. Hope you're enjoying the content here, and I'll see you back here tomorrow for the Wednesday show where your optimal life awaits.