Seanwes Tv 056 - What → why → whats

Hey, it's Sean McCabe with seanwes tv. Today, I want to talk about your why. Essentially, the reason for what you do. What is your why? Maybe you enjoy what you do, maybe you enjoy your work, but what is your greater purpose? What is the reason for the things that you do? I think it's really important to take a step back and really think about these things. Take a step back and reflect on the reason that you're doing what you do. Maybe that looks like a vacation, maybe that looks like a sabbatical, or just simply setting aside a weekend where you're not filling it with activities, where you can just really think and reflect on the reason for what you're doing. I believe it's super important, not just for your career but for your life as a whole. The goal is to get people on board with your why. You want them to buy into your why and get what you're about. Not only is that going to have a positive impact on sales, or increase revenue, I think it will but more importantly, it helps build community around what you're doing. It helps people understand the greater purpose for it. For me, my why would be helping people make a living with their passion. I don't want people to just hate their job and show up to spend a third of their life doing something that they're not looking forward to and they really begrudge. I want them to be passionate about it but I also want them to make a living from doing what they're passionate about. I was talking to Cory, before we started recording here, about his why—what did you say your why was, Cory? - Story telling through film. - Story telling! Cory is passionate about story telling through film. He wants to create stories that people feel like they can relate to—they understand, they're not alone in this world, and they have other people that know their feelings and know their thought. But all of these things—all of these whys—are really intangible. The way I think of it is, they're essentially a mist. It's kind of this fog—a why or a reason or a purpose. It's not something you can hold or grasp and so it's really difficult to get people on board with that directly. That's why I have this What, Why, Whats concept. I know that sounds kinda weird but bear with me. Essentially, in order to get people on board with this why, you want to bring them on through an initial what. What I like to say is: you want to currate what you share. What I see a lot of people doing, is they project everything they can do. They're really skilled at a bunch of things, they enjoy doing a bunch of things, so they project all of that. The problem is—the way I like to put it is—people can't process your awesomeness. You may be great at a bunch of things, you may be able to do a bunch of things, but people can't process that. It's too complex. There's too many people will all these different layers to their personality—people can't process all of that so they're going to put you in a box. That's something we talked about in tv episode 28. They're going to put you in a box just out of necessity. That's not something you can control or prevent, but what you can do is you can define the kind of box they put you in. The way you do that is by projecting a single thing—currating your what. What—this is something that's tangible. A mist—that's not something that's tangible. People can't understand that. They can't understand a why. They have to come on board with a what. The what is something tangible. It's an intially projecting thing. For me, that was lettering. I did lettering and people were able to get that I was a lettering guy. All I put out was lettering. I could do a bunch of different things—I was a designer. I did user interface, icons, branding, all of these different things, but I decided I was only going to currate the lettering stuff. That's all I put out. Hopefully, that's why the whiteboard looks somewhat decent here. I'm a letterer but I was afraid that if I only put out lettering, people wouldn't be able to process everything that I did. If I wasn't sharing all of that, they didn't know that I could do all of these other things. I thought, "What if I want to eventually write about business? What if I want to make music? What if I want to podcast, or do videos? I'm only putting out the lettering." But the beauty of it is, the tangible thing that you put out—that initial single thing—that's serving a purpose. It's actually working as a handle for people. It's giving something to grasp. They can get that. It's a simplified, single thing that they get. It's something they hold onto and it brings them on board with your why. That's the step #2 here—you want to bring people on board. You can't do that first, you can't do that initially. You have to bring them on board through the what. Now, here's the beautiful part: the why here— that's really just the beginning. Once you get people on board with the why, they're going to follow you to the next thing. I was afraid people are only going to know me for lettering, they're not going to follow me to the next thing. But they do! Once they understand what you're about—which this is telling them—they understand through that initial thing, what you're about. Then they know, "Ok, this guy's about quality. He's about helping people. He's about spreading messages of positivity," so when I go and do something else, all of these other whats—the things that you enjoy doing, remember those things that you're good at but I said sacrifice it now?—just share one of them, you can eventually do those things. You don't have to put them off forever—they're not gone forever! People are going to follow you to that. All of these other whats—people know are an embodiment of this why and that's where you want to be. If you want your why to matter—if you want people to get what this is about, if you want it to matter to the people who have heard about you—you have to start projecting a single what. That's the only way you're going to become known. It's the only way you're going to get this why to resonate with people, so how much do you care about your why? Is it important to you enough to sacrifice for now all the things you want to do, and start by currating what you share and giving people that single what?