Podcast episode 19 | January 18 - 2024

00:00:08:03 – 00:00:37:18

Sylvia Wong

Over 10 million people have watched the TED Talk that Simon Sinek did around, “Start with why.” He talks about this concept of the Golden Circle and we definitely use that concept a lot with our digital marketing clients where there is a what, a how and why in the center. Most businesses know what their what is, they know what they’re selling, how is maybe how they do it a little bit differently than their competitors or how they’re differentiating themselves in the market. But very, very few know the why.

00:00:37:18 – 00:01:08:02

Sylvia Wong

So I’m joined today by George, and we’re going to talk about why for our business here, as well as why we ask that of our clients. I think it’s so important for us to kind of dig down to the bottom of that golden circle for ourselves and for our clients every single time because it tells us so, so much about motivations, the directions that clients are going to want us to take them and to see if they’re even a fit with us. Right?

00:01:08:02 – 00:01:38:08

Sylvia Wong

So let’s start with the why. I think one of the things that you did a video on a long time ago was asking clients why and asking them like five times five arbitrarily. Right. But it’s it’s kind of like when they come to you and they say, Hey, can you do SEO? Hey, I want a website. You’re asking why to get to there. Why? Tell me what, Like on average, you’re discovering when a client comes to you and they’ve kind of got that tactical thinking going on and you’re trying to dig down to the center?

00:01:38:08 – 00:01:51:03

George Arabian

Yeah, I think most of the time, even when as much as we poke and prod the the focus is still primarily to drive revenue.

00:01:51:03 – 00:02:25:00

George Arabian

Like that is the the motivating factor of why they’re why they’re coming to us. Because they ultimately want visibility or awareness or bottom line growth or whatever. I think where you really, truly appreciate the why and I think it’s helped define our why is when we start building relationships with our clients on a longer term period where you get to know their personal, why not the why of their business? Because the the impact of somebody’s personal why has a direct correlation on their businesses why?

00:02:25:00 – 00:02:39:15

George Arabian

So I think that’s the it’s hard to appreciate getting even for us when we started having this conversation early. It’s like why do you do what why why do we do what we do? And it was really hard to define it.

00:02:39:15 – 00:03:01:10

George Arabian

But as you start thinking about it more granularly and you start really realizing what is the impact of what you do, what is the purpose of what you do, I think you really start to clarify it. So face value, initial conversations is like, Why are you here? Why do you need NVISION? Why do you need our digital marketing team why do you need our design team?

00:03:01:10 – 00:03:20:05

George Arabian

And it’s like well my site sucks or I’m not getting enough revenue, but a year will pass with our clients and a lot of our clients because they’re long term with us. Two years pass and you start to get to know them on a more personal level. And then you can really identify their why? Like, what is their motivation?

00:03:20:05 – 00:03:33:21

George Arabian

Harder to do in a large corp, because it’s driven by numerous people of different whys. Usually the corp may have a definition of it, but I love working with the individual and knowing their persuasions and their purpose. 

00:03:33:21 – 00:03:56:12

Sylvia Wong

Yeah, I think like very founder centric businesses, like it’s it’s almost easy to get down to the why at times because it’s so driven by the founders still because they’re, they’re connected right? Like when you’re saying it’s a large corporation, you see the same core values often come out. And I think being in an agency, we’re able to spot patterns really quickly because like the number of clients we’ve worked with over a long time. 

00:03:56:12 – 00:04:33:02

George Arabian

Yeah, and I think there’s a challenge in getting somebody’s why out of them because you have to have a certain vulnerability. I think like based on everything I’ve observed and in having many conversations with many founders or businesses, it’s challenging because you almost it it’s almost too simple. Sometimes like the answer seems like too rudimentary to say, I do this because I love it or I do this because I want to help X, or I do this because of whatever purpose or reason the person has.

00:04:33:02 – 00:04:55:22

George Arabian

And sometimes that’s all it is. It’s it doesn’t have to be so deeply rooted in some crazy philosophical finding. You know, it could be pretty straight forward like, you know so but you don’t get to that in an initial meeting or the initial few meetings takes time to build that relationship where that vulnerability may start to come out.

00:04:55:22 – 00:05:17:06

George Arabian

And it may at first glance sound too easy to be like, That cannot be your why, but sometimes the simplest, wiser, just as powerful as something that a conglomerate of people have sat there and thought of for months and years to make it perfect. Right?

00:05:17:06 – 00:05:28:10

Sylvia Wong

Yeah, at this given time for NVISION what do you identify as like our why our raison d’etre like our you know reason for being around for 20 years?

00:05:28:10 – 00:06:19:04

George Arabian

We’re here to change the trajectory of your business because of what we say on our website. Which I think is really what drives my passion in this space where you can see literal impacts of the work that we do on individual businesses, where I take it a step further, which gets me the highest sense of gratification is when I talk to the founder and the business owner or an individual within the organizations that we’re servicing, and they tell me how impactful we’ve been for their personal life, how impactful we’ve been by growing, helping them grow their business, what they’ve been able to do for their children or their partner or their kids, or this new shiny thing that they’ve just purchased because we’ve been helping them grow their business. 

00:06:19:04 – 00:06:42:12

George Arabian

There’s something really, really deeply rooted in that feedback that really satisfies me that I’ve I threw first and foremost selling them on us, then them trusting us and our team to deliver results that have helped impact their personal life.

00:06:42:12 – 00:07:06:04

Unknown

I mean, what better gratification is there than that? To me, that’s the ultimate sense of, like, thank you. Like, thank you for trusting us. Thank you for allowing us to do the work we do. And thank you for sharing the fact that we’ve had an impact on your life. And I’ve heard these stories. Having done this 20 years, I can’t count the number of times clients have come and shared stories like that with me.

00:07:06:04 – 00:07:27:17

George Arabian

And I’m like, Shit, That’s why I love what I do. Not because of the monthly retainer or the amount of the project value. It’s great. That keeps the lights on. That keeps us happy and satisfied. But the stories, we had an incident today after our meeting this morning. How good was that?

00:07:27:17 – 00:07:40:06

George Arabian

How good is that when you hear a client say, we had tremendous growth last year, you made certain projections of where we can take this if we spend a certain dollar amount and you did it, you got it done for us. 

00:07:40:06 – 00:07:52:07

Sylvia Wong

It was very specific to it said you, George, said that if we spend in this specific segment, you will grow this segment by 18%. And we met it.

00:07:52:07 –  00:08:26:17

George Arabian

And we met it. But I didn’t meet it. We met it, you know. So, yeah, he used me as a reference because I, through leveraging the skills that are here, the people who are intelligent, who put in the hours, who study this stuff, who I work with to say, can you help me build a model? Will this model work for this client? Those folks get me the data, we interpret it, then we present it. We get buy in, execution, and then we deliver.

00:08:26:17 – 00:08:41:18

George Arabian 

Fuck, man, that is like, the best. Not only is the satisfaction of like hearing it from the client, but knowing you have this wealth of intelligence that are there to support you because they they trust you and they can be honest with you.

00:08:41:18 – 00:09:10:10

George Arabian

Like I’ve had many of those instances with clients that I haven’t pitched on because the staff here have said it’s not doable. It’s not achievable George. And I love that that that we’re even impacting our own. We’re navigating like the way we converse with one another and that trust in transparency within our own organization. I don’t know. All of that is so satisfying to me. But we had it today. It was it was brilliant.

00:09:10:10 – 00:09:12:03

Sylvia Wong 

Yeah. Shout out to the paid team.

00:09:12:03 – 00:09:14:18

George Arabian 

Shout out to paid advertising. Yeah. 

00:09:14:18 –  00:09:30:14

Sylvia Wong

Yeah. I also am realizing in your answer around like, you know, the framing of this talk today is like we’re revisiting our why and in asking you about the why, I am like having this flashback to last time we talked about this, in which I was like, George, like, why?

00:09:30:14 – 00:09:59:00

Sylvia Wong 

Like we’re kind of navigating like, what it really meant to you to define the core values, to figure out what the essence of the business is. And I feel like now you say all of this with confidence and conviction and revisiting that is I mean, I think it’s just like giving the chance to like, stew on the ideas around it for a while, to say, like, what is the purpose in the day by day to day? Like, it’s hard when you’re in the business to constantly think about it, but it’s in the back of your mind, right?

00:09:59:00 – 00:10:26:10

George Arabian

Always. And it’s not so much changing to the trajectory of just the business and just the people outside of the business that are the founders and the owners. I want I get a lot of gratification. And we’re going to go back to you for a second of how do I help change the trajectory of those who have trusted this agency and trusted me to be part of this?

00:10:26:12 – 00:10:48:07

George Arabian

And I go back to a conversation you and I had not too long ago when I said, What do you want in life? And I think you remember this conversation. Yes, because we got emotional. And to me, that was a really important moment in my relationship with you, because we’ve been working together a long time, and you’ve always challenged me.

00:10:48:07 – 00:11:09:18

George Arabian

I felt ahh for once, I’m challenging her now, like, I’m like, I got it. I got. I got her back. But it was really good because it’s like hearing what you want is just as important to me because I value the staff here so tremendously. And without you guys, none of this happens. Like, I’m not naive to the fact that George can do this on his own.

00:11:09:18 – 00:11:35:23

George Arabian

It’s impossible what we’ve built. It’s you got you are all doing this. And my my responsibility here is to ensure I give back. I, I contribute everything I can to try to help you and whoever else. If I can change your trajectory. And that could mean as simple as the answer that you gave me at the time, and I won’t divulge it to the world.

00:11:36:01 – 00:11:39:13

Sylvia Wong 

You want to expose my answer because you said it to the whole company the other day. 

00:11:39:13 – 00:11:40:17

George Arabin

I said it to the company.

00:11:40:17 – 00:11:44:19

Sylvia Wong

It was the I just always want to have good food at all times. 

00:11:44:19 – 00:11:49:08

George Arabian

Sylvia always, her answer was I always want to have good food at all times. I’m like, awesome.

00:11:49:08 – 00:11:53:00

Sylvia Wong

Always. I want to have like the best food for every single meal.

00:11:53:00 – 00:12:15:11

George Arabian

So my immediate takeaway is how do we make that happen for her? That’s what goes in my head. Like, how do I make this happen for her? And I know how and I’m doing it. It’s I got I got to continue to contribute to the the bottom line of this business and bringing in clients that are aligned with our why and and aligned with our chemistry and how we operate.

00:12:15:11 – 00:12:30:17

George Arabian

Respect us as individuals. Respect us as human beings. And I want to do that. So it’s beyond just the exterior of the walls here, like the clients. It’s the people here too, that I really give me a great sense of satisfaction. 

00:12:30:17 – 00:12:43:09

Sylvia Wong

Yeah, I think like one question when we’re trying to dig down to clients, why is we ask it like almost every time when we do a Q&A, like a discovery with clients as we’ll always, it’s the same phrasing.

00:12:43:09 – 00:13:11:00

Sylvia Wong

What does success look like to you? And when we say that to clients, like it’s almost always met with like the ha, like good question and like they’re kind of taken aback because of we were talking about this earlier in working in the world of marketing and, you know, trying to drive sales all the time. We are smart and wise to how narratives are created for you to show you like what success should look like.

00:13:11:00 – 00:13:34:10

Sylvia Wong

You know, house with a picket fence, car, 2 and a half kids, all of that stuff. But like, what does success look like to our clients is like a big one for determining for us like what some of them will go in the direction of like these are the metrics I want to see. And in this much time or like, this is the amount of dollars I want to see and stuff, But if they do get a bit more vulnerable with us, like we can learn a ton about our clients.

00:13:34:10 – 00:13:54:08

Sylvia Wong

I don’t know that like we ask it of ourselves because like when you think about that, why, I think when you stop and ask the what does success look like to us, then if that’s the why that we’re working towards, The question is, are we consistently meeting the why and the purpose of it on a day to day basis?

00:13:54:08 – 00:13:56:15

George Arabian

Gosh, I mean, for ourselves?

00:13:56:15 – 00:14:06:12

Sylvia Wong

I think I feel like I don’t know. I feel like when I say like, what does success look like for us framed around the why?

00:14:06:12 – 00:14:23:02

Sylvia Wong

Like, in my mind, I’m thinking of the fact that a why to some extent, when you say we want to foster clients growth, we want to foster our growth and stuff, there’s probably like in the same way that we say there’s a target demographic like who are you for?

00:14:23:02 – 00:14:51:15

Sylvia Wong

Who are you not for? There are like the nots in a whty to like, what do we not wanting to achieve? What are we avoiding in this? Like the not working with assholes or continuing to do our to continue to foster our growth but without exploiting anyone right. Like, I think there’s like things that are unstated in that that we could probably talk through and develop because like, they’re unstated, but it’s like we don’t work in shady businesses, we don’t exploit people as an agency.

00:14:51:15 – 00:15:09:01

Sylvia Wong

Interestingly, like we really do avoid like contracting out subcontracting and stuff and we like bring people in-house and try and do everything like within, you know, our team. But a lot of those things are like undefined in like how they attribute to the why, which I think they do like in our values and everything. 

00:15:09:01 – 00:15:22:12

George Arabian

Yeah, I think it’s, I think it’s multi-phased. I think in the sense that like it is in near impossible to understand and appreciate every element of the consumer journey with us

00:15:22:12 – 00:15:39:20

George Arabian

to get them to do our why’s align do our personality types align. Are we on the same path or trajectory? It always starts. And you know, this just as I do, you know, when you first meet, it’s like tactical. Tactical.

00:15:39:20 – 00:16:01:23

George Arabian

I need X, I need result Y. It’s like, okay, great. And then you start, they start to warm up. So we’re dating, you know, those first initial dates. We’re going to know we’re going to like each other and become longstanding partners or friends, or if it’s just not going to work out, you know, having done this as long as you and I have, we know that almost within the first couple of months.

00:16:01:23 – 00:16:33:12

George Arabian

So the phases to me are always like we can ask what are we going to be celebrating or what is success look like? And it’s always 99.9% of the time. It’s always like the number. Yeah, I need x dollar result per month. I need X number of clients per month. Okay, great. And that that kind of phasing or repetition happens for quite a while, but you’re getting to know them on a more personal level.

00:16:33:12 – 00:16:55:22

George Arabian

Now you’re starting to understand that they have pets and kids and parents and they live here and they like warm climates versus skiing and whatever. So you start to build this relationship and then ultimately, as you start maturing this relationship with one another, you start to realize this person has purpose. They’re deeper than the number. There’s more to them than that.

00:16:55:22 – 00:17:23:19

George Arabian

And those are the ones that I think we just I know for me, I just fall in love with. I’m just like, I want more of this person in my life. Because we’re seeing beyond just the numeric metrics, we’re seeing life and, and the purpose. And I don’t know if that also has something to do that has a direct correlation with where that where that person is or those or those organizations are in their in their life span.

00:17:23:19 – 00:17:45:17

George Arabian

I hate to put put this in an age perspective, but when I was young in my twenties, I was like, drive business, business, business. And I’m like, I want to grow this thing because I didn’t know my why at the time. I didn’t know my purpose at the time. I just knew that I wanted to go with my buddies and in order to go out to a restaurant or a bar on a weekend, I needed a few bucks in my jeans.

00:17:45:17 – 00:18:03:11

George Arabian

So you work and you just do it. And now you start as you get older and you get maybe wiser. Maybe get I won’t say I’m getting wiser, but you just start to see the world differently and you appreciate things differently. So I don’t know. It takes time, I think is what I’m getting on. It’s a phase.

00:18:03:11 – 00:18:17:22

George Arabian

You just we could be saying, what are we celebrating or what? What is success look like today as that same client that question in five years and if we’ve been working on them for five years. I think we need a very different answer. Just takes time to forge that bond and relationship. 

00:18:17:22 – 00:18:35:20

Sylvia Wong

Yeah, I think it’s so interesting that being, well, older, well, just being in an industry for a longer or being and we, we talked about like we, we went into like the working world where there wasn’t necessarily emailing even right.

00:18:35:20 – 00:19:01:08

Sylvia Wong

So being older there has always been like professionalism where like you don’t talk a lot about religion, politics, what’s the other one, religion and politics. Those are the two. You don’t talk about it. And so professionalism is a lot about almost like hiding your personal self or not really talking too much about who you really are.

00:19:01:08 – 00:19:28:12

Sylvia Wong

Don’t don’t bring your whole self to work sort of situation. And it’s it’s interesting hearing you you talk about clients and wanting to really get behind the beyond professional like what is it that you strive for and what is that you want and what are what are your internal whys and wanting to know that? Because I think at some industries, like, I don’t know, this is maybe a weird industry that we’re in where it’s like marketing and feelings and psychology.

00:19:28:12 – 00:19:34:12

Sylvia Wong

It’s like very taboo to talk about those things, right? It’s like you shouldn’t you shouldn’t know anything about each other. 

00:19:34:12 – 00:19:35:19

George Arabian

Yeah, isn’t that weird? 

00:19:35:19 – 00:19:46:02

Sylvia Wong

I think it’s really weird. I also think, like, there’s a sense in, like, people management where, like, you do want to know more about your stuff or you do want to know more about them as people.

00:19:46:02 – 00:20:09:02

Sylvia Wong

But then there are kind of boundaries there of like and limitations of like, you shouldn’t ask certain things or like in a professional setting, you don’t want to like just say you are negotiating a raise that you’re, you know, wanting to make more money and saying, I want to change the trajectory. It’s like in a traditional business sense, like you’re taught not to be like, Well, I really want to buy that house or like, I really want to send my kid to college.

00:20:09:02 – 00:20:16:05

Sylvia Wong

Like you’re not supposed to bring the personal into it because you’re supposed to frame it as like, Here’s how we can help your business. You know? 

00:20:16:05 – 00:20:30:50

George Arabian

I think if you have a genuine fascination with humans, which I do, I have a genuine fascination with people. I don’t know why, but I do. I just I’m curious of all cultures, different perspectives.

00:20:30:50 – 00:21:10:12

George Arabian

I’m open to having many different kinds of conversation. I think you get very dialed in to words that they use to describe things. Then you get very dialed in on the way they have a position on a certain subject or topic. So I think when you start to hone in on certain repetitive types of conversations or certain words, the nomenclature, I think you start to understand the person and whether or not that person is going to be somebody you’re going to gravitate to want more conversation with or somebody’s going to try to avoid, right?

00:21:10:12 – 00:21:17:16

George Arabian

I think there’s the obvious outliers instantaneously.

00:21:17:16 – 00:21:45:07

George Arabian

You know, this is this ain’t for me. And then there are those ones that are worth investing in, worth putting in the effort to learn about. Worth asking them lots of question. I would say no different than an employee employer relationship. The people you are that you value, the you want to invest in are the ones you’re going to ask a lot of questions.

00:21:45:07 – 00:21:52:04

George Arabian

You’re going to be open to criticism from them. You’re going to be open for them to ask you a lot of questions that you’re not sure about or you’re uncomfortable with.

00:21:52:04 – 00:22:06:15

Sylvia Wong

You know, in all these questions, like I’m asking about the why I’m asking that of our clients and stuff, but I feel like there’s what I’m sensing is like you tend to go back to like how, almost like how you choose clients and understanding their whys.

00:22:06:15 – 00:22:28:04

Sylvia Wong

What this is kind of like putting a lightbulb off in my head about is like, I almost get the sense that like you’ve stayed in like the sales role for so long or like that you first, I know that’s like your area of genius. You love doing it, love closing the sale. You’re very well adapted to exactly the services that we offer and can sell best here.

00:22:28:04 – 00:22:44:09

Sylvia Wong

But I think that, you know, that our culture and the way that our brand will be driven will be heavily impacted by who you’re bringing in as clients and who you don’t. Because it seems like you’re always looking for the sense of like, do they fit with us or not?

00:22:44:09 – 00:22:51:22

George Arabian

I have the fear of God in every conversation that I have with a new lead.

00:22:51:22 – 00:22:54:23

Sylvia Wong

Why? Because we’re going to be like, George this is awful.

00:22:54:23 – 00:23:09:11

George Arabian

Are the staff here going to be okay with working with us. Just kidding. Yeah. You know, it is a our culture is paramount to all of our success.

00:23:09:11 – 00:23:40:03

George Arabian

If our culture is fractured, if we have a bad strawberry, client, it could have negative impacts on all of us. So I take it very personally when we are evaluating clients now, the one thing I always say to clients, it’s kind of part of the script, if you will, and but I say it very authentically is there are a few factors you’re going to need to consider to work with NVISION

00:23:40:03 – 00:24:02:14

George Arabian

One, the investment, the no brainer. Two, do the timelines work with your timelines as a business because sometimes they just don’t. You know, you have an event or you have a major thing coming up and something has to be done. So investment, timeline. And the third thing I always say to clients is you have to like me. 

00:24:02:14 – 00:24:04:06

Sylvia Wong

Do you actually say that to them? 

00:24:04:06 – 00:24:07:03

George Arabian

All the time. Read the transcripts

00:24:07:03 – 00:24:30:16

George Arabian

You have to have chemistry with me, because if we don’t have chemistry, this is marketing. We’re going have lots of conversations. When I ask you a lot of questions and if you don’t like what you’re hearing here, then don’t work with us. And it’s literally part of the conversation every single time. So, I mean, I set the groundwork to say this is NVISION.

00:24:30:16 – 00:24:41:00

George Arabian

And I think through osmosis, most of us work very similarly. Yeah, you know, we’ve just gotten to know each other well. So if they don’t like me, what I’m saying,

00:24:41:00 – 00:24:49:13

George Arabian

there’s a high probability that they’re not going to like the rest of us, I think. Or the odd chance that I’m not seeing eye to eye. But you guys might.

00:24:49:13 – 00:25:03:11

George Arabian

Those are the rare ones I find, but I always bring that up. It’s a real important factor that people respect what we’re saying, trust what we’re saying, and they have a good vibe. Like there’s got to be good mutual energy. 

00:25:03:11 – 00:25:09:01

Sylvia Wong

Yeah, the vibes. I think you’ve picked up on that from our staff or like sometimes a good vibe, sometimes there’s bad vibes.

00:25:09:01 – 00:25:35:22

George Arabian

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And most of the time they’re good. We’re fortunate in that we’ve established that foundation, you know, where if there are bad vibes, we have conversations about them. They’re not muted. We’re here to listen. We’re here to, we’re here to support whatever perspective people have. Good writer or different, good, bad or indifferent. We’re here. We’re humans.

00:25:35:22 – 00:25:45:21

George Arabian

Like we don’t all have every answer. So it’s a really important aspect for me is just having good, good vibes, good chemistry.

00:25:45:21 – 00:26:00:01

Sylvia Wong

Okay. In terms of advice for our clients, anyone that’s listening, if someone is looking for their why in their business what’s your advice on some questions to ask yourself or some reflections that have helped you?

00:26:00:01 – 00:26:20:06

George Arabian

Yeah. So first I would say don’t be hard on yourself if you don’t know the answer, because it is hard to figure it out. I mean, it took it’s just now that I’m starting to really hone in on it. It’s taken years, 20 years into the business, right? Like it just it’s not to say that it was it’s there.

00:26:20:06 – 00:26:23:11

George Arabian

It’s deeply rooted. Somewhere inside your being. It exists. 

00:26:23:11 – 00:26:27:09

Sylvia Wong

Everyone in the business knows it. They just don’t know it in words, right? 

00:26:27:09 – 00:26:44:01

George Arabian

Correct. So it’s no different than when we had, you know, our initial meeting. And it’s like, what are your values? They weren’t terrible, the ones I told you, but they were like, there’s more. There’s more meat on that, you know, like there’s more to it.

00:26:44:01 – 00:27:05:10

George Arabian

I appreciate like, you had the conversation with that one dev client, you know, transparency. What does that mean for you? Right. So I would say advice is they’re there. Don’t be hard on yourself if you don’t know them, but think about it. Like critically think about what it is. Why do you do what you do? What is that driving force?

00:27:05:10 – 00:27:10:08

George Arabian

And it cannot be money. It cannot solely be money.

00:27:10:08 – 00:27:18:20

George Arabian

And if it is, I don’t know what to tell you, but there is something deeply, more deeply rooted than just the money.

00:27:18:20 – 00:27:24:13

George Arabian

And the third thing is, if you can’t wrap your head around it, talk to others.

00:27:24:13 – 00:27:51:07

George Arabian

Ask them why they do what they do, because it might shed some light on to your why? Because something will stand out amongst some of those leaders. Or it doesn’t even have to be a leader. Just somebody who’s just like, I’m passionate about this because of this and I do this because of X and that made you start to get that the wheels spinning.

00:27:51:07 – 00:27:58:22

George Arabian

So that would be my advice. Don’t be hard on yourself. Think deeply and ask. Talk to others.

00:27:58:22 – 00:28:14:12

George Arabian

and it’s not something that’s going to happen overnight. I Just don’t think it is. I just having gone through it for so many years of conversations. But it’s beautiful when you hear others and they have clarity or they’re close to their why, but it just needs a little bit of refinement.

00:28:14:12 – 00:28:26:07

George Arabian

But it’s their why. Like figure out your why. Why do you exist? What is your purpose in there? It’s so deeply rooted to our satisfaction in life. 

00:28:26:07 – 00:28:54:02

Sylvia Wong

Yeah. Okay. I framed that last one is the last question. It wasn’t because I’ve won more. Yeah. Last one this time. Last one. Last one. For real. What’s the what’s been the results of finding your wy like have you, have you seen like not saying our why like what are the results or like what, what has been the effect over the x amount of time that you’ve really figured out that you think you understand where this internal why is for you and the business?

00:28:54:02 – 00:29:11:10

George Arabian

You just have so much more clarity when you know what you’re working towards. It’s not this cluster of things that you’re you’re grabbing for when you see when you know you’re why you’re doing what you’re doing, you also know what you’re looking for. So that clarity is there.

00:29:11:10 – 00:29:27:02

George Arabian

So that’s definitely the biggest the biggest motivator of why I wanted to define or get clarity on our why, because now not only am I clear on my mission,

00:29:27:02 – 00:29:41:17

George Arabian

of being able to obtain the sorts of things I want to obtain for all of us, because I’m here to change the trajectory of the business, our lives, our lives, my life.

00:29:41:17 – 00:30:08:03

George Arabian

But I also have it provides you with a sense of confidence. Like I know what I want, and if it doesn’t align with what I want, I’m okay to walk away with it. I’m confident enough that I will find another new client. I can find another opportunity. I can help you with whatever I need to do because I have that confidence, because I have clarity.

00:30:08:05 – 00:30:11:17

Sylvia Wong

Yeah, that’s great. So you got that abundance mindset right now? 

00:30:11:17 – 00:30:26:23

George Arabian

Yeah. Yeah. It’s it’s a it’s a very worthwhile exercise to find your why, your why, and your company’s why, and then everything else just kind of builds up from that.

00:30:26:23 – 00:30:36:09

Sylvia Wong

Yeah. Thanks, Michael, for making us re-film this. Probably gonna have to do it once every, every year, every six months, every year or so, and revisit on the why.

00:30:36:09 – 00:30:51:22

George Arabian

It’s a fun topic it’s a challenging topic. It’s it’s a lot easier to talk about analytics and numbers and how to structure content and all that stuff. When you’re talking like this is a pretty deeply rooted conversation, you know? 

00:30:51:22 – 00:31:05:07

Sylvia Wong

Well that’s the thing with the Golden circle that makes things so clear for everyone is that like the what and the how everyone figures out the how’s are always the think, you know, like we got to do SEO, we got to have a website, we got to have these things in place.

00:31:05:07 – 00:31:27:21

Sylvia Wong

But that ultimately, like the why, I feel like if you approach someone with it when they’re not ready, they’ve they feel like the concept is like flaky and woo woo almost right. Cause they’re like, how is this going to drive any, you know, drive any direction when ultimately like it’s the be all end all for all of our clients that we’ve ever had, you know.

00:31:27:21 – 00:31:43:17

George Arabian

Well, listen, if, if, if you live your life without purpose, if your business lives without a purpose, then what are you doing any of it for? Like you have to have there has to be meaning in what you’re doing. The why is that meaning. 

00:31:43:17 – 00:31:57:02

Sylvia Wong

Yeah. And unfortunately it’s often it’s the dollar value and that’s that’s essentially probably a huge contributing factor to the number of businesses that fail in like a year or so. It’s like you see endless amounts of them where it’s simply the dollars. 

00:31:57:02 – 00:32:21:04

George Arabian

Yeah, and it just can’t be just the dollar, you know? So I think there’s just so much more to it. But yeah, I mean, we could talk about this forever because it is, it is a great topic and I would encourage all business owners, all businesses to sit and really reflect on why they do what they do and go beyond the bottom line.

00:32:21:04 – 00:32:37:02

George Arabian

You know, there are going to be businesses who are just like, Fuck off, we’re here to make money. Like we don’t care. No problem. But again, going back to what it’s done for us. Well, if that is your if that is your attitude coming into this agency, we’re not the right agency for you.

00:32:37:02 – 00:32:43:17

George Arabian

It gives us clarity and confidence to say thanks, but no thanks. You know, there’s more to it than that.

00:32:43:17 – 00:32:56:01

Sylvia Wong

Great conclusion. Think you’ve heard it here a million times. We love to talk about our core values. We love to talk about our why. Thank you so much for joining us bye!