Sheesh! What a mess. But like most messes, crises and mucking fuddles, there’s an opportunity in amongst the commercial carnage. Or at least the seed of an opportunity. You just need to be in the right headspace to find it and take advantage of it. Which brings me to your purpose.
Without gazing at your navel, why are you here?
Your purpose is your reason for being. It’s why you got into your profession or business in the first place. It’s what drives you. It’s why you continue wading through the knee-deep treacle of the COVID crisis.
And if you get your purpose statement right, it’ll help you come out the other side swinging.
Is your purpose statement a straitjacket?
When we help clients write their purpose or vision statements, the discussion can get bogged down in services, benefits, deliverables and the like. The what or how, not the why.
Instead of an inspiring rallying call or aspirational statement of intent, it can become narrow and restrictive. A straitjacket.
It’s easy to see why this happens. A lofty purpose or vision statement can feel unrealistic or whimsical. But that misses the very practical point of your purpose statement.
Think of your purpose statement as an umbrella.
If you think of your purpose statement as an umbrella under which you do your thing, then the bigger your umbrella, the more space you have to play in. ‘Your thing’ can grow and evolve.
This ability - the ability to evolve yet stay focused and motivated - will be vital as we work through and emerge from the COVID shizshow.
Using yours truly as an example.
I’m a copywriter (allegedly). Am I here to write marketing copy? Or to tell inspiring brand stories?
Both statements are true, but the latter opens the door for me to be a journalist or a ghost writer or a speechwriter or a film producer or a global Tony Robbins-like motivational speaker evangelising to stadiums full of weak-kneed converts (I won’t, I don’t have the necessary chin or charisma).
In other words, a broader umbrella allows me to pivot and reinvent myself. And so, when we don’t know what will happen next week, let alone on the other side of the pandemic, now’s the time to take another look at your purpose and vision messaging.
Remember, it's darkest before the dawn (or when you’re blindfolded and bundled into the boot of a car). So, don’t get down. Get ready for when the sun rises (or the blindfold is ripped off). Ask our copywriters in Perth to audit your purpose statement and messaging platform.