The end of the year and beginning of a new one is when many entrepreneurs think deeply about where they want to take their brand in the future. For the next six weeks, I will be sharing posts helping you add value to your brand, reach the right people and share the right message. Stay tuned!

‘People don’t buy what you do, they buy WHY you do it’ – Simon Sinek

Essentially, we’re all out there doing the same thing – we’re writing blog posts, trying to sell our services and trying to be different than every other brand. You’re most likely not the only person who makes or does what you do. So what sets you apart? It’s your dreams and the passion behind why you decided to start your business.

Sharing the reason why you started your business or blog with your readers will help them form a connection with your dreams, goals, fears, and excitements. The people that connect most with your story will be the people who have the same types of dreams and goals that you do.

Instead of telling your readers what you do in your business and showing them a bunch of shots of your products, share with them why your business exists. Do you exist to change the way people think about party planning? Do you exist to help small businesses grow through a beautifully designed logo and website? When you share why you started your business, you’re providing a way for your readers to connect with you.

BHLDN does an amazing job of sharing their reason why they started.  ‘We want, more than anything, to help a woman create an event that reflects her own unique perspective… to a tee.’ Further down on the page they say ‘There are no checkboxes. No fill in the blanks. On the contrary, we think a moment should be as layered and dimensional as the woman standing within it.’ They have since removed the entire passage from their website, but they painted such a beautiful image of how they came to be and what their dreams are.

It’s hard not to connect with a brand that shares your same desires, and that’s why sharing them is so important in growing your brand.

How to Figure Out Why You Started Your Business

You may know the top-level reasons why you started your blog or business – maybe so you could work from home or so you could have a place to document your projects – but there is a deep-down passionate reason why you decided to start your own brand, and to find it you just have to take a little bit of time to write it out.

Take 30 to 45 minutes to sit down and write the story of how you got started – where your passion for your craft began, why you do it every day, what you’ve overcome to get you to where you are now and what excitements and fears you have about starting your own business.

Once you get started writing it out, you’ll start to dig down deep, pulling up the emotions around why you began. You’ll be able to pull phrases out of your story that explains why you started your business.

After you’ve figured out why you started, share your story on your about page, talk about it in your blog posts and make sure that your readers know why you get up and write, design or craft for them every day. Once they know where you come from and where you want to go, it will be hard for them not to form a strong connection with you and your brand.

Why did you start your business? Why are you so passionate about what you do? Share it in the comments section below.

Want to learn more about your brand and how to launch forward in 2020? Join Maggie from Iron and Lace Photography and me for Brand+Lab on Friday, January 17^th! Learn more here.