Why Not What

Last week I was honored to present at the Chamber of Commerce Executives of Ohio (CCEO) Winter Conference in Columbus, OH. My friend, Dan Yahaus, Executive Director of the Bryan Area Chamber of Commerce, was the chair of the conference and last summer he had asked me if I would be willing to be the morning keynote presenter.

Talk about pressure. Dan had been in a session where we had talked about how the answer to "Why I do what I do" is a very important marketing piece. Now I love working with people in SMALL groups to help them to figure out the answer to that question, but I didn't know how it would translate to a presentation to a very LARGE group.

Well, from feedback that I received, it worked. Not everyone got the chance to talk with me one-to-one, but I demonstrated it in front of the group with just one person, Doug Johnson, the Executive Director of the Twinsburg Chamber of Commerce. If you want to hear his "why" statement, you should use this link at the chamber to get his email address. (Doug is on the left)

At lunch I was standing in line with Mike McNeil, owner of Hampton Publishing. (Mike is on the right.) Like most people I talk with on this subject, Mike wanted to tell me WHAT he does, rather that WHY he does it. As we stood there chatting, he told me that he really wants to provide the best of the best for his clients. I asked him, "Mike, when did you start to always want the best." He shared that he always had felt that way, in fact as a teenager, he wanted quality (expensive) clothes, because of the confidence and successful feeling they lent to him. He asked me, "Do you remember the Gant (brand name) shirts?" I certainly did! Mike had this major light bulb moment. He now knows that he wants to provide the best for his clients to give them the confidence and feeling of success, just like the Gant shirt did for him.

Neat, huh?

Why do you do what you do?