Your Why. Your What. Your Wow.
Forbes released an article recently that suggested that most Americans are inundated with somewhere between 4000-10,000 ads every day. Think about how massive that number is! That doesn’t include another everyday obstacle — the fact that you never get a consumer’s undivided attention.
If you’re like most, your message isn’t just competing with competition. Your message is competing with your very own mind:
Is that meeting happening with my boss today?
What time do I have to pick up my kids later?
Where are we going to eat dinner tonight?
When you are not there to defend your idea, how does it stand out from the crowd? If we’re not careful, our content will fall on deaf ears. Often, because it was so perfectly on strategy, but lacked the necessary luster to stop you in your tracks while you’re living your very busy life to discover more. Perhaps the below will help.
I call this:
Your Why. Your What. Your Wow.
YOUR WHY. I think it’s safe to suggest that we’ve talked to death about knowing our why. There’s no doubt that it’s hard to be a lighthouse leader if you haven’t landed on (what I refer to as) your “rally cry in your why” (a rally cry that moves employees and consumers). In this spirit of crafting great content, it starts with context. Your why is your insightful permission slip that grants you access to enter a consumer’s life at the moment you have. What is that undeniable truth and/or useful reason that allows you to now show up in someone’s busy schedule?
YOUR WHAT. Once you have your why… your what is a clear idea that articulates your why. Does the idea have enough depth to it where it can be both big and small? Often the vessel an idea lives in today sits in our pocket now. Big ideas are easily right-sized to live in the smallest of places ideas now need to dance. TV. Digital. Cell phone. Podcast. Now it comes down to the spit & polish execution…
YOUR WOW. What gets left behind often for many leadership teams who spend most of their day living on the left side of their brain is your wow. It doesn’t matter if it’s an idea for internal or external, people are people. How are you going to short-circuit whoever comes into contact with your idea where they actually stop what they are doing to pay attention to you? To consider you? It needs that special sauce that’s comprised of a dash of urgency and a splash of emotion. What is the wow factor that will move people to learn or discover more about your brand? No wow factor, no way your brand breaks through those 4000-10,000 messages a day.
On the consulting side of Courageous, we articulate ourselves as a “Special Forces that helps you pinpoint your special.”
And to unlock your special is to unleash your wow.
Don’t have time or budget for Courageous?
Start by adding “What’s Our Wow” to your briefs.
