Finding Your Deepest Purpose As An Entrepreneur

Purpose holds the key to expansion and growth and how you can step into a much bigger vision of your purpose and know why YOU are exactly the right person to lead this purpose.

What I hope you will get from this talk is: To discover how you can carve out a unique place in your field and attract perfect-fit clients who get you; To deepen your understanding of your purpose and how it can expand your business potential; To elevate your vision for your business and your leadership capacity.

Transcript

In this talk,

I will share how purpose holds the key to expansion and growth,

And how you can step into a much bigger vision of your purpose and know why you are exactly the right person to lead this purpose.

What I hope you will get from this talk is to discover how you can carve out a unique place in your field and attract perfect fit clients who just get you.

Deepen your understanding of your purpose and how it can expand your business potential.

And elevate your vision for your business and your leadership capacity.

Before I get underway,

I had better tell you a little bit about me and what I do.

I am a business design mentor,

And if you aren't familiar with business design,

Because most people aren't,

It's creating a business designed to deliver a particular outcome.

Typically,

It's approached with problem solving and a lot of data.

My approach is different.

I work with energy and intuition to design business around an entrepreneur and their purpose.

And I've developed my approach by weaving together my own interests,

Skills and style with my background in marketing and management.

And I worked in charities for a long time,

So the notion of purpose has always been central to my ethos.

So when I set up my own business,

That translated into my how and has become a core focus of my client mentoring.

I now concentrate on helping my clients find their purpose and design unique business solutions to bring their visions to life.

I wanted to put this talk into a little bit of context.

Health,

Wealth and relationships have been the epicentre of business for a long time.

And I want to show you why these are not the only three things that sell or the only market your business can operate in.

And indeed,

How confining yourself to this framework is keeping you from your deepest purpose.

Recently,

I was applying for a directory listing and the options to categorise my business were health,

Wealth,

Relationships or don't know.

There was no other category.

Now,

My business just doesn't fit into this framework and it left me scratching my head a bit.

It's so limiting and it leaves little scope for innovation,

As well as tying you down to some old dynamics,

Which stall purpose-led innovation.

So I want to look at why this framework is outdated.

And I'd like to take you back to what I like to think of as 20 years ago,

But is now more like 40.

If we go back to the 1980s and consider what health,

Wealth and relationships meant then.

Health was feel the burn,

Eat a salad,

Look good.

And I know I'm oversimplifying,

But there was a dominant narrative about how you looked to others.

Wealth was about accumulating as much as possible for the sake of having as much as possible.

Again,

It was about how you were perceived and received by others.

And relationships were about what looked good on the outside.

Now,

If we jump forward to today,

The picture is different.

Health is now understood to be more holistic.

Mental,

Physical and spiritual health go hand in hand.

And we know that it's not just the isolated individual,

But the health of the space around them that matters.

So environmental and social health is impacting the individual too.

The narrative has shifted and so has collective social consciousness.

Because of the shift to incorporate mental and spiritual aspects of health,

The concept of self and sense of identity has surged as an area of focus.

Wealth has shifted slowly,

But it has.

So now the notion that wealth needs a reason for being is rising.

The purpose needs a strong sense of identity to become understandable and put into action.

And that's led to wealth moving towards focusing on creating a positive,

And relationships has shifted from how you relate to other people to having a healthy relationship with yourself,

First and foremost.

Healthy relationships with others are always dependent upon a healthy relationship with yourself.

To have a healthy relationship with yourself,

You have to know who you are and be comfortable with that.

So you need a strong sense of identity.

And relationships have shifted from how you relate to others to having a healthy relationship with yourself.

So underpinning these three areas of health,

Wealth and relationships are two others.

Self and purpose.

To have a purpose,

You have to know yourself.

And you have to feel excited by that purpose.

Collective consciousness has shifted,

And yet the framework for business has not.

Purpose has been quietly and irrevocably taking centre stage.

It has become central to what you need as an entrepreneur,

And it has become central to what your clients need to find fulfilment in their lives.

Whole new markets have been opening up,

While the language and focus of business has stayed the same.

Slowly,

The narrative is changing in business,

But not as fast as consciousness is.

Identity and purpose are now a driving force in how we experience and understand life in all its shapes,

Forms and expressions.

There is a phrase widely used in business that you will have heard.

What is your why?

Who hasn't heard it?

The standard bearer answers to this question are things like freedom,

Flexibility,

Control,

Choice.

And these are great reasons to start a business.

They are not the reason to start your business.

What is your why is the wrong question.

Many years ago,

I would talk about the why behind the why behind the why.

Nowadays,

I approach it with less of a tongue twister,

But the principle is the same.

If you follow your why far enough,

You will discover that it scratches the surface of your purpose as you know it now.

Go far enough,

And you will get back to the big bang moment of your business.

In that moment,

You had perfect clarity about the potential and purpose of your business.

It was total clarity.

It was a pure moment.

Then your brain kicked in.

Noise kicked in.

Life kicked in.

The clarity faded.

The feeling is still there,

But the translation gets harder.

In all the years that I have been doing this,

One thing has been absolutely constant.

How people talk about their purpose is a fraction of its truth.

I can guarantee that you are underplaying it in your business and missing out on the potential it holds.

Do you have an introductory statement that goes,

I help X to do Y so they can Z?

Most people do.

Most people have been told that they need one.

But they're not that helpful,

Because your purpose is not what you do,

It's why you do it.

And we have to go deeper than these statements to anchor into that possibility.

So an exercise I want to do with you today is a simple one.

Starting with what you do.

What is the impact of what you do for the individual or group you do it for or with?

So what is the impact of what you do on the individual or group that you do it for or with?

Now,

You probably know that really easily.

But how does that impact upon that individual or group impact their immediate circle,

Their friends,

Their family,

Their colleagues?

And then how does that ripple out to their communities?

How does that go even further to impact regional culture?

And a shifting regional culture begins to affect and impact global culture.

Shifting global culture leads to a shift in collective consciousness.

Now,

If you can follow it out here,

You'll understand that your actions through your business has a very specific meaning for the well-being of life on Earth.

Your purpose is not to help people achieve x,

Y or z.

It is bigger than that.

And knowing that has a huge implication for how you position your business.

If you have a product or a transaction-based business,

That might feel a little vague after the first few steps.

But consider your philosophy,

Your ethos,

Your unique take,

And you will be able to better understand how you position your business.

And if you can't follow it all the way out,

Don't worry.

Even going a few steps on this is going to transform your concept of purpose.

Deep purpose puts you in a position of leadership.

It hands you the keys to vitality for your business.

And it's a key to your success.

And it's a key to your success.

It hands you the keys to vitality for your business.

Let's explore the principles of conventional business for a moment.

If you can imagine,

Or even draw,

A circle on a piece of paper,

And put a dot in the centre of it.

The outer edge of the circle is the market.

The centre is the purpose that binds the market together.

Now,

Convention states that your goal is to dominate your market,

To get the largest possible slice of pie.

And this means the biggest possible arc on the outer edge.

And that outer edge is the how,

And the inner is the why.

Now,

If you take that arc towards the centre,

The closer it gets,

The less relevant it becomes,

And the less people it speaks to.

On the other hand,

Depth of engagement in a very narrow piece of the outer becomes more relevant the deeper you go towards the centre,

And it speaks more directly to people who are already there.

In other words,

The more focused you are on your purpose,

The more deeply you can engage with people on the same path,

And your market opens up.

On the outer edge of the circle,

Life is focused on competition and competitive advantage.

But a purpose-focused approach values diversity of perspective.

For example,

Let's say you have 15 yoga teachers with a similar purpose.

Every single one of them will have a different perspective on the role and benefits of yoga.

Some may feel that yoga needs to return to its roots,

Some that it needs to adapt to the changing norms of the body,

Some that it needs to broaden its horizons.

All of these are valid perspectives,

And have value for different people in different moments.

But they have the same purpose that binds them.

In fact,

That purpose is only achievable when all the perspectives are working together,

Because the whole is never whole if you are only looking at a tiny piece of it.

So that makes you a vital part too.

Your piece of the puzzle is essential,

And the clearer you can be on what that is,

The faster you're going to create impact.

In this model,

We can make space for others and know that we are strengthened by others being on the same path as us.

A purpose-driven approach naturally leads to collaboration and circles of support when you let down the guard of competition,

Which is great for your mental and emotional well-being.

When you focus on the outer edge of the market,

You need to label what you do to make it relevant.

But there is a problem with labels.

They keep you stuck.

They keep you trying to be relevant to the outer circle of the wider,

Broadly uninformed market.

The closer you move to your purpose,

The less the label matters.

It also means you get to focus on your zone of genius.

Appealing to the broader market keeps you in your zone of excellence.

Zones of excellence are comfort zones which offer little or no personal or business growth.

The more you focus on your purpose,

The more your genius grows,

The faster you evolve and the quicker your business expands.

Income,

Impact,

Audience and more.

You have a unique path to purpose which means you can speak to people in such a specific way that you can speed up your progress.

We've all been badgered to niche to get really specific.

But those niches are presented as external realities like women between the ages of 35 and 40 with twins who drive a Volvo.

This tells you nothing of value if you are offering transformational services or products.

Nothing.

Instead of thinking of your niche as a physical set of indicators,

Consider it as an internal experience of a situation.

Inside that situation is a bundle of challenges and emotions that are far more precise for you to develop communications,

Services and products that really speak to your future clients and customers.

Your niche is not the problem,

But the experience of the problem.

Your solution to the problem is the way you hold the experience of navigating it.

Everyone needs a different style of approach.

Your niche is your style and solution combined.

And that helps your future clients navigate the key milestones of transformation that you know about.

You know how life or situations are going to trip them up or present specific issues.

And you know how they will react to those.

That's your niche.

It is directly linked to your purpose because you know where you are taking them.

Generally,

Business advisors will ask you to define your niche before you understand your purpose deeply enough.

And that's why it's one of the trickiest,

Thorniest problems for entrepreneurs.

What I want to do now is take you through another exercise to dig deeper into your style of approach and the specific angle you can offer to move towards a deeper collective purpose.

This exercise is one that will continue to bubble away in the background for some weeks to come.

Please don't feel that you need to nail it now because you won't,

But we can begin to get a picture.

Grab yourself a piece of paper and divide it into six blocks or sections,

However you want to lay it out.

I created this process of essence mapping years ago and have always been inspired by how people approach it.

The beauty of this is that you can use whatever speaks to you to create an overall picture of who you are.

The important thing with this exercise is to have all the sections on one page so that it is all in front of you.

In the first section,

Let's consider who you were as a child.

What lit you up?

What were you good at?

What mattered to you?

Don't overthink this.

Whatever springs to mind is right.

Inevitably,

You're going to think about some of the things that negatively impacted you,

But try to focus on where you felt most yourself.

In the second section,

Let's look at you as an adult.

What are your passions?

What do you excel at in all areas of your life?

Don't limit this to work.

And what are your values?

In the third section,

Experiences and situations that have shaped you.

What have been your triumphs and your tragedies?

How did you respond?

And what did you learn?

It's in the living of life and experience that we learn who we are by how we respond.

And there will be a theme for you that shines a light on some of your core qualities.

In the fourth section,

Let's turn to the echoes of life that stay with you.

What are the memories that are always there?

And what do they tell you about who you are and have become?

Memories are often things that we need to see about ourselves or situations and can tell you a huge amount about your purpose.

In the fifth section,

Write down or represent your core.

What is your vision of possibility?

What are your passions?

What do you fervently believe in creating?

Not just inside your business.

What do you want to see in the world?

In the final section,

I want you to see what others see in you.

You see life and situations with a unique perspective.

There are things that come naturally to you that others don't have.

This is an important part of your purpose.

How do you see the world,

Life and situations differently?

What exactly is it that you see that you don't see others seeing?

And finally,

Wherever it makes sense to you,

I want you to identify your biggest challenge in life.

The lesson or situation that keeps recurring.

The one you think is your biggest weakness.

This is actually potentially your biggest strength and gift in business.

In my experience,

We give ourselves a label and exclude all the parts of ourselves that need to be expressed through our businesses.

This map of you will show you the pieces you have been excluding that speak to your purpose,

Style and perspective.

They are your hidden gold.

So what do you do with all of this?

You create the foundations of your business.

You turn this into a business focused on purpose.

Now there's no complicated process to follow here.

Reflection is your friend,

Space your ally.

Pieces will come together if you don't force them.

The questions you need to ask yourself are simple but powerful.

Who are you and what makes you,

You?

What does this equip you to bring to others through your business?

How is your work different?

How does your vision and perspective set you apart?

Who do you want to be to your clients and community?

How do you want to create a path for others?

And where will you lead them?

These simple questions will help you turn your vision,

Purpose and perspective into strong foundations for your business and open up the gates to expansion.

Reviews

You, my dear, are a genius and an angel, arriving into my world at the most opportune moment imaginable. Thank you.

Wow, Polly, I found your talk fascinating! Thank you so much for this thought provoking gem. 🙏❤️