Why do you get up in the morning?
Right now, millions of parents are at dinner without their kids. They’ve spent the time and money to hire a babysitter who is getting paid to eat the parents’ food, watch the parents’ TV, and sit on the parents’ couch.
And it’s totally worth it, because babysitters aren’t giving parents dinner at a restaurant. They are giving parents a chance to privately reconnect while knowing their kids are safe.
Successful businesses likewise earn trust with customers and clients by providing value which is far deeper than their value proposition. On the surface, banks compete on free checking accounts and interest-bearing savings accounts. But their real value is that they are keeping your money safe, and they have more money should you need it for a loan. And a deeper value is being a financial engine for their community.
When telling your story to target markets, you must go deeper than what you offer. The best bankers aren’t loan facilities; they are business partners and community incubators. The babysitter isn’t a caretaker; she’s facilitating marriage therapy.
Create powerful stories
We help our clients create these powerful stories to reach and influence target audiences. It’s less about their products and services, and far more about revealing their deeper mission and purpose.
One client, the Kabari Wellness Institute, is a comprehensive health and wellness company in Seneca Falls, New York. In a lot of ways, it looks like a high-end fitness facility with weights, aerobics equipment, and other exercise accessories. But this sleek gym developed out of the chiropractic and muscle activation practice of founder Dr. Kingsley Kabari, a Nigerian immigrant who came to America speaking no English as a 15-year-old refugee.
In 2020, at the height of Covid-19 related business closures, Dr. Kabari renovated a 33,000 square foot building to create a one-stop healing facility alongside his gym. By the end of the year, 13 businesses from psychotherapists to physical therapists to a medical spa were renting space from the Institute. While Dr. Kabrari may be a successful chiropractor and landlord, his business model fulfills a deeper purpose – it’s a small business incubator which provides one-stop-shop health and wellness to small towns which have never had this opportunity before.
We’ve also worked with a software company that creates technology for professional evaluation and testing. Like every other business, this company faced trade show-based sales drying up overnight during pandemic-era lockdowns. However, company leadership seized the opportunity to develop an industry-leading platform that helped professionals take industry exams and get into the workforce.
On the surface, this company is just another software firm. Their bigger story, however, is that they were a lifeline for industry professionals at a time of great need. And their mission isn’t technology – it’s helping put qualified professionals into the field time and time again.
Turning mission into great stories
Even the best missions can be blunted by bad storytelling. A bank that cares for its community but boasts about its savings and checking accounts is drowning the real value it brings to the community.
That’s why Kabari Wellness Institute brought us on board as they expand into new geographic regions, and why the software company wanted us as part of the team when launching a new partnership. They wanted their mission, value, and message to be one and the same.