We’re continuing our journey into the heart of brand purpose—and things get deep (in a good way).
If you’ve ever struggled to clearly define why your brand exists beyond making money, this is the conversation you’ve been waiting for.
We explore how your brand purpose acts like a lens—helping you see both the big picture and the tiny details that matter most when building a magnetic business.
I also walk you through Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle and reverse-engineer your “Why” using 7 thought-provoking questions to help uncover the clarity that’s already within you.
If you’ve ever squinted at a business decision and thought, “Am I doing this right?”, then this episode is your prescription.
Because when you’re in focus, you’re leading with intention.
Tune in now:
🛠 Resources & Mentions:
- Simon Sinek Golden Circle
- Blog post: Brand Purpose: How to Find Your Why With 7 Powerful Questions
- Donald Miller’s StoryBrand book
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Stay Brilliant. ⚡
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“Once you’ve got that purpose defined, you’ll feel it. Decisions get easier. Marketing becomes more magnetic. And your audience, they start seeing themselves in your mission. It’s like finally putting those glasses on. Everything gets sharper.”
Episode 3 Transcription
Well, hello, Brilliant One. Welcome back to The Brilliant Brand Podcast. So happy you’re here again. How are you?
I’m doing great, and I’m excited to record again in the WC Studios. That’s Walk-in Closet in case you were wondering.
But I actually love my setup. I’ve got a tiny corner here with a little desk and foam panels up against two of the walls. It’s pretty sweet. I want for nothing in here but to talk to you… maybe a little space for my wardrobe.
So let’s get into it. Today, we’re continuing on the topic of brand purpose.
In the last episode, episode two, we talked about what it actually is and why it’s so important for brand building.
I compare having a purpose to wearing glasses.
I wake up every day not being able to see. Everything’s blurry and fuzzy with my prescription. If you know, know.
Without putting on my glasses or contacts, I’m at a disadvantage. I stumble around with my nearsightedness, and texting is super frustrating because of my farsightedness.
So you want to think of your purpose as a lens that gives you a lot of clarity in being able to see distance out into the future and also details up close.
The point is: you don’t want to have to squint at making any decisions in your business.
Seeing is believing.
When you’re in focus, you’re leading with intention. You’re not reacting, you’re not guessing. And with your purpose, everything sharpens. You know where you’re going, how to get there, and how to bring your audience with you.
I want to dive into discovering that clarity today – how to define your Brand Why, and how to use it to make brilliant decisions across your business.
We can start with a very simple tool called the Golden Circle. This is Simon Sinek’s model for getting to the core of purpose.
He is the ‘Start with Why’ guy after all!
So I want you to think of three concentric circles in the shape of a target.
The outer ring is your What. This is the actual products or services that you offer.
The middle ring is your How. This is your secret sauce. It’s really what makes you different than the competition.
And at the center is Why. The reason you exist, what you believe, and why anyone should really care.
Here’s the kicker. As Simon explains it so well, most businesses are stuck in that outer ring.
Everyone says, here’s what we do.
Some of them may say, here’s how we do it better.
But it’s rare that they explain, here’s why we care. And, here’s why you should too. That’s where the magic lives.
Now let’s think about Apple, the world’s most valuable brand (based on the data at the time of this recording).
They don’t just sell products, they sell a purpose: to empower creative exploration and self-expression. It’s in everything they do.
It’s in their sleek design to their naming conventions.
I mean, think about all their products… iPhone, iPad, iTunes, iOS. All of these things begin with “I”, the individual, having the power of these things in their hands to explore their own creative mind and self-expression.
Apple makes us the hero of the story.
And that’s what purpose-driven branding does. It creates alignment. It builds trust. And it moves people.
It makes them stand in line for hours to get the next best thing, regardless of features or specs. So you have to think on a deeper level about what it means for people to do business with you, to buy what you’re selling, literally and figuratively.
How are we gonna do that when it feels so complicated?
Well, let’s not start with why.
I know, I just quoted Simon Sinek and now I’m flipping the script, but hear me out.
If diving straight into your why feels overwhelming, we’re gonna reverse engineer it, starting with what you already know. And here’s how to do it.
Go back to the three circles. Start with WHAT. What do you actually do? What do you sell to people? Is it energy drinks, coaching, yoga mats, architectural design? Whatever it is, write it down. You know this like the back of your hand.
Next step, move inward to the HOW, the center circle. What makes you different from the hundreds (or thousands) of other people or companies that do the same thing? Is it your process? Is it how you approach it? What about your energy? Or the entire experience of doing business with you? This is the thing or the things that make you stand out. It makes you more valuable and more memorable.
Okay, we’re drilling down to the core now.
Instead of asking what is your WHY, we’re gonna get into some questions to help tap into your deeper purpose. We’re gonna get these juicy thoughts out and get ready to take notes.
I’m going straight into a therapy session question with something that we rarely consider when thinking about our purpose as an adult.
And that is:
1. What kind of child were you?
Yep, that’s question number one, record screech.
Don’t overthink this, but do try to think back to what behaviors, characteristics, and personality you had growing up.
What ideas did you have on life back then? What did you absolutely love to do?
What brought you the most joy?
And even more thought provoking – have you changed? Have you suppressed those things since being a child without knowing it?
Hmm, interesting.
That was kind of a heavy one. Now that it’s out of the way, question number two.
2. What led you to start your business?
This could be something that impacted you from the past, a positive or a negative experience. Maybe you had a realization, or maybe there was a problem needing to be solved. Think about the things that brought you to where you are today in your business. What led you to that?
And hot tip, “I need to make money” should not be the answer.
On to question number three.
3. What are your unique strengths?
In order to stand out as a brand, you have to differentiate. To answer this question, you want to outline how your business is not the same as competitors or other options out there.
And strengths could be something proprietary. It could be your abilities or your process, as I mentioned before. It could be the experience. Just remember, unique and different.
The next question helping to find your purpose is –
4. What do you want to be known for?
Have you actually thought about this before? A great way to contemplate this one is to write out what your ideal customer or client would say in a very detailed, glowing testimonial. I’m talking details.
What would they say? What would you want them to say about you or your business?
After you do this, look over what you wrote and choose the most impactful ideas that you feel capture your brand. Then take it one step further and distill it down to one idea, the one thing you want to be known for, that others cannot compete with you on.
And if you’re having trouble determining this, you might have to think more about what you can do to elevate your business so that there isn’t something that someone can compete with you on, that one thing, that one idea.
We’re at question number five. Breezing through this exercise. Well done if you made it this far. This is a straightforward one.
5. What problem are you trying to solve?
But I want you to get underneath the surface on this one, because there are different types of problems that people have. And if you haven’t read it yet, this idea comes from Donald Miller’s book, Story Brand, which is also now a very effective framework for creating marketing messages and stories. I’ll link it in the show notes.
In the Story Brand framework, problems exist in three levels.
The first one is external, that is the actual thing you sell.
The second type is internal. This is an emotional struggle that your product or service addresses.
And then the third level is philosophical. So this is way deeper. It’s sort of a moral issue that your product or service helps solve or helps combat.
So think about how you do, what you do hits all three of these levels for the consumer, the external, the internal, and the philosophical.
Question number six:
6. What do you want to change about the world?
There’s likely a problem in the world that exists for you to solve with what you do. So we want you to describe what you bring to the table to help alleviate this problem.
If you could solve this problem for all of your ideal customers or clients, what does that look like? How does that change the situation in the world?
And finally, question number seven is similar to question number six, and that is-
7. What do you want to change about your industry?
Maybe there wasn’t a solution that existed and you’re making a change in that way. Maybe the current companies are providing solutions that are not hitting the mark. Maybe they’re not being as much of a leader as they need to be.
So I want you to describe how you would make the industry change if you could snap your fingers with what you do.
Okay, we made it through all the questions.
Before you say it, I will.
That was hard!
But I’m certain that it’s opened up ideas to give you more clarity – ideas that were already inside you.
And here’s a little secret: even the most brilliant minds struggle to articulate their own purpose. Why is that? It’s because we’re inside our heads all the time. We can’t see what makes us different because to us, it’s normal.
That’s where brand strategy workshops or someone’s outside perspective or working with someone like me and my team can help. Sometimes it just takes someone asking the right questions and follow-up questions to crack things wide open.
Because once you’ve got that purpose defined, you’ll feel it. Decisions get easier. Marketing becomes more magnetic. And your audience, they start seeing themselves in your mission.
It’s like finally putting those glasses on. Everything gets sharper.
In the next episode, I’m gonna give you some simple formulas to take the ideas you’ve put together and develop a purpose statement. Plus, we’ll talk about examples of real brands that use purpose to guide their business decisions and marketing campaigns.
I thought I’d get to that in this episode, but that’s actually all the time we have.
So that’s a wrap on this episode of The Brilliant Brand Podcast. Today, we got a little deep and hopefully a whole lot clearer. If this episode helped you think differently about your brand purpose, share it with someone you know and spread the clarity.
And hey, if you’re still squinting, maybe it’s time for a strategy session. Contact me at freshsparks.com or slide into my DMs over on Instagram at freshsparks.
Please rate, review, and subscribe so you never miss an episode and so that the algorithm gods and goddesses know this podcast is worthy. ❤️
I will talk to you next time and stay brilliant. ⚡
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Use our step-by-step workbook with tips, templates and guidance to start building a brand for your business! Develop your purpose, define your ideal audience, research competitors…and much more.
