Finola Howard 0:03
I'm Finola Howard, intuitive marketer, your host and founder of how great marketing works. I believe that every business has a story to tell, because that's how the market decides whether to buy or not, and your story has to resonate with who you are and with the people you want to serve. And this podcast is about helping you reach the market in a way that feels right to you. So if you're an entrepreneur with a dream you want to make real, then this is the podcast for you, because great marketing is your truth shared. And in this episode, I'm exploring the question around why purpose, mission and vision matter, and I share with you the statistics that reveal the level of growth that's possible when you have a clearly stated purpose, mission and vision. I hope you enjoy. I'm bringing you another solo episode, okay, because of some of the conversations I've had with clients more recently, and it just sparked my desire to actually share something I'm very passionate about, which is the idea of purpose, mission and vision. And this kind of builds on the whole idea that we talked about in episode 23 when we were talking about the typical roller coaster rider that is the entrepreneurial journey. And I wanted to dig a bit more deeply into that, as I said, specifically around purpose, mission and vision, and the impact that clarity around these three elements has on the growth of your business. It's actually the first thing I work on with clients, and it's often the one that gets glossed over until we pay real attention to it. And yet, when we pay real attention to it, businesses are proven to grow at a faster and more sustainable rate. It is a true ingredient for the success of your business and the scalability of your business. And what I found is that the secret to doing this really well lies in the language that you use to define each of these things, to define purpose, mission and vision, because there's a lot of shoulds and conventions around what can be stated in your purpose, mission and vision, and I see it all the time, this tendency towards speaking in corporate speak like that, official sounding language that we think lends us gravitas, where in Reality, it just makes all our eyes glaze over. We assume we have to speak like we should speak in order to be taken seriously. And the reality is, we need to speak from a higher place than that, with purpose. We need to speak from the essence of why we started our businesses, from the difference we want to make in the world, and yes, I am saying the difference we want to make in the world. It's not a lofty goal, it's a very pragmatic goal, and it motivates and moves business. We need to be brave enough to speak from that place where our dreams were born, to break the status quo to use language that connects and inspires. I was watching an interview with Jacinda Ardern, who served as the New Zealand Prime Minister up until 2023 and it was this Netflix series called Live to lead. And in it, she talked about bringing kindness and empathy to her role as leader of the country, and that's the opposite of what we hear from so many other politicians, and it has marked her out as being truly different as someone we respect and look Up to. She has brought her premiership to higher place, a purposeful place, and we automatically connect and resonate with that, because that's what we need more of. And that applies to politics and to business and purpose. And here is my opinion, purpose in business is even more important than in politics, because it has the potential to have greater longevity, build greater traction. And let me give you a couple of examples of that, okay? And they are bigger examples. They're not localized examples, because I want you to see the bigness of them so and the impact that they've had. So Mary Kay Cosmetics their purpose, and it evolves over time as well, and gets, you know, a little bit longer and stuff. But Mary Kay Cosmetics has the purpose of to give unlimited opportunity to women. So it's not. About being a makeup company, it's something bigger than that that actually opens up much more possibilities for where a company can take itself, and it is as brand expert Martin Neumeier, who, you know, I've interviewed on this podcast, and he said it so truly and so rightly, that purpose is the reason we are here beyond making money. That doesn't mean we stop ourselves from making money or being really commercial, but it's beyond that. Here's another one, and this would be familiar, Patagonia. Patagonia's purpose is we're in business to save our home planet. That's not about being a clothing company. It's about something more. The clothing is simply the vehicle to achieve something greater. It's a clear statement of purpose. And when we have a clear statement of purpose changes the rules by how you play the game. Purpose helps you think bigger. It raises your game. It like that's an inescapable fact. It raises your game, it automatically points to difference, and that helps you stand out in the marketplace. True purpose, mission and vision is about not being afraid to have your dreams be seen, actioned and realized, and it's why I share these stories on your truth shared. I want you to have permission and the space to tell your truth, your story, your dream, so it can be shared and inspire others to do the same. A common challenge I come across with businesses is truly understanding the difference between purpose, mission and vision, and it's surprising how confusing it can be for so many. Let me share with you a way to differentiate them. And as I said, Marty Neumeier explained best. So here's how he did it. Purpose is the reason, as I've said, You exist beyond making money. Okay? So if you sat and you thought about, why are you here? Why is your business here? What is the reason we're here? Beyond making money, it has an inherent expansiveness in it. Ask yourself that question. Second mission. Mission is your master plan for creating value. It's the how it is for between the five and 20 year mark. It's the master plan for creating value. Okay? Vision is a shared picture of what success looks like. You have to be able to see it to truly see where you're taking that business, so that you know what success looks like, and that also is five to 20 years. And then your goals are the short term objectives that support your mission and your vision, which are one to five years. That's where we, you know, be operationally focused and focus on the actions and the deliverables. Okay, so purpose and mission are the ones that get mixed up most often in my experience. So really simply, purpose is the why and mission is the how. How will you achieve purpose? The tendency, particularly with entrepreneurs, is to go straight to mission, thinking it's purpose, because it comes from our tendency to want to fix things and problem solve. We just love to fix things and find a solution, but then it can bring us into the weeds and miss the point. And this is why we need to raise it to a higher level, to really bring purpose strongly into the business purpose is the stuff you feel in your heart. It's where you make your difference. And yes, I've said heart, okay, it's that dream piece that peace you share with others that know you and you resonate with you whisper it because you feel it so deeply. You hold it close because it means so much. The thing is, we need these dreams to be more than whispers. The world needs us to be brave enough to share the part we are willing to play in making the world a better place. I started my business in 1999
Finola Howard 9:53
and coming up to 25 years in business shortly, and I had worked in marketing consultancy for several years before. That too, helping businesses grow. Then I went out on my own, and very quickly, I realized that there was a pattern to the entrepreneurial journey that everyone hit the same walls at the same point, and unless they overcame that wall, they'd stay stuck for years, unable to move forward. I saw the pain experienced by so many entrepreneurs because they were stuck and they didn't know why they thought they were the only ones who were experiencing what they were experiencing, and they weren't. I had so many meetings where I'd be reassuring people that this was all normal. And I also saw businesses folding because they couldn't access the help they needed for where they were on the journey they simply didn't know what to ask for, and nobody was offering it either. The idea that their pain didn't have to exist struck me deeply. That entrepreneurship could be smoother, could be easier, could be more successful if everyone knew the journey before they took it. And that's where my purpose was born. I wanted that light that that I saw in the eyes of so many business owners to shine brightly that they could dream of a solution where they could make their difference in the world and not be worn down by it. I wanted to make it easier for businesses to succeed so many more could. And the way I was going to do that was to show them the journey before they took it, so they wouldn't get sidetracked by the usual pitfalls. And the vision realized would be that my clients dreamed bigger, got there faster and with greater ease. Let me leave you with this thought. Ernst and Young and Harvard Business Review co authored a research project recently which reveals that 58% of companies that are truly purpose driven report 10% growth or more over the last three years, versus 42% of companies that don't have a fully embedded purpose reporting a lack or even decline of growth in the same period. It is the game changer, the difference between growth or decline. So the fact is, purpose, mission and vision are levers by which you can achieve more, reach more and make that difference that prompted you to start in the first place, give them the attention they deserve if you'd like to find out more about how to position your business with purpose. Click on the link in the show notes for my free webinar of the same name that's coming up shortly. I'd like you to see the difference it can make to your business. I hope you enjoyed that episode. It was an important one for me. I'm really passionate about this area of purpose, mission and vision, and the impact it can have on a business. Reach out and share your thoughts or your experiences of purpose, mission and vision in your own business. I'd love to hear them, and if you'd like to support the show, please leave a five star rating and review on Apple podcast. It truly does help people find it, and we'll be back as usual next week, and until then, take care you.
