How to Create a Purpose-Driven Business Fueled by Your True Passions
Running a purpose-driven business goes beyond engaging in corporate social responsibility and crafting a thoughtful mission statement. Imbuing your brand with a sense of purpose helps increase employee engagement and align your work with the values of your target audience.
Whether you’ve been in business for decades or are just starting out, there is a simple way to inject purpose into your brand strategy. Based on Ikigai, a Japanese philosophy that helps you find your purpose in life, we created a brand framework to help guide your business to its highest purpose. It begins with discovering your passions, followed by understanding how the content you create can contribute to your niche, engaging in commerce that provides value to your target audience, and finding your tribe on the platforms they use to share their stories with the world.
Let’s dive into purpose-driven brand marketing by understanding why discovering your brand’s purpose is more important today than ever. After that, we will walk you through the four spheres that make up our purpose-driven brand framework, including the pitfalls you want to avoid along the way. Like a compass, this framework is designed to help you navigate toward your North Star, where your passions and purpose align with the needs and values of your target audience.
Where to Start: Connecting People with Purpose
Turning your passions into a purpose-driven brand starts with discovering your niche and ends with finding your tribe. At the intersection of your passions, platforms, content, and commerce activities, you will find your brand’s ultimate purpose. There are some pitfalls you should avoid along the way, so proceed with caution.
Why begin with passion instead of purpose?
Because passion is the jet fuel that will keep you motivated. It’s what makes you unique and connects you to others. So we start here and end with a comprehensive understanding of your purpose that is spread throughout all areas of your business.
Why Create a Purpose-Driven Brand?
Finding your purpose is more than just a motivational exercise. It’s a way to connect your brand with what matters most to your audience.
According to Kantar’s Purpose Study, purpose-led brands had seen their valuation surge by 175% over the past 12 years, versus a growth rate of just 70% for listless brands uncertain of their role. (Kantar 2018).
In addition to that, 64% of global consumers find brands that actively communicate their purpose more attractive. 62% of people want companies to take a stand on issues they are passionate about, and 52% say they are more attracted to buy from certain brands over others if these brands stand for something bigger than just the products and services it sells, which aligns with their personal values. (Accenture 2018).
Let Your True Passions Guide You to Your Purpose-Driven Business
When you’re passionate about something, you’ll make personal sacrifices for it. For example, we usually have no problem waking up early to take an exciting trip but tend to hit the snooze button five times before getting ready for work on a weekday.
Most of us have been conditioned to compartmentalize our hobbies, careers, income, and personal interests. And that worked for most people before the information age. But now, there’s a constant need for subject-matter experts, enthusiasts, experimenters, curators, and teachers across digital platforms. So, corporate America isn’t your only option anymore.
In fact, there are many examples of people who have turned their passions into successful careers.
How Do You Discover What You’re Passionate About?
Discovering what you’re truly passionate about begins with exploring what you’re curious about. We live in a data-driven world, so a great place to start is to dive deeply into the content you consume on social media platforms. Every influencer or hashtag you follow can be a gateway to your inner passions.
Even if the only thing you can think of at the moment is making pancakes on the weekend, there could be something there. Maybe home cooking could be a niche for you to explore. You could write the ultimate guide to fluffy pancakes. You could offer pancake-flipping workshops or create how-to videos for YouTube.
If you’re still unsure where to start, check out our blog, where we break down how to discover your passions and interests into four easy steps.
And while discovering your passions sounds like fun, you might be wondering how to take something from a passion project to a brand that can make you money, help support your family, and maybe even help you change the world.
To demystify purpose-driven brand marketing and help marketers, entrepreneurs, and executives navigate through the digital wilderness, we created a framework that serves as a compass to help you find your North Star.
The Purpose-Driven Brand Framework
The four main spheres of our brand framework represent the four main components of a 21st-century brand and include the pitfalls you can experience along the way when you are deficient in one area. It also shows the relation between the spheres, with your purpose in the center, created by locking all four spheres into place.
Your passions are your true north, that magnetic pull that keeps your compass pointing in the right direction. They are the key to unlocking your niche and finding your tribe.
Creating content is how you contribute to your niche and generate value for your audience.
Focusing solely on money can veer you off the path, but not engaging in commerce at all can stop you in your tracks. Monetization and marketing are how you sustain a brand over time.
Platforms are both where you find your tribe and how you share your wisdom with the world. They are also the mechanisms for monetization.
Running a purpose-driven brand is where you want to end up. The purpose-driven brand framework is your guide to finding your way through the digital wilderness.
Sphere 1 - Passion
Passion is like a magnet.
In the same way that a compass uses the earth’s magnetic field to help you along your way in the wilderness, your passions create a similar pull that can guide you to your true purpose.
We naturally gravitate toward certain things in life, and sometimes our passions call pull us away from our work. You can see that as something to remedy, but it would be much more productive to lean into your passions.
Instead of resisting the urge to find your joy, leverage that magnetic pull to attract others to what you love. Why be a mediocre account manager when you can be a creative force in the fashion world?
“Instead of making a huge career change, you can try my approach: look for opportunities to do what you love in the life you already have. You never know where it might lead. Leonardo DiCaprio hasn’t given up acting or producing, yet he also directs significant energy toward environmental advocacy because it’s part of his dharma. A corporate assistant might volunteer to do design work; a bartender can run a trivia contest… find a way to bring the energy of your dharma into the workplace, or look for ways to bring it into other aspects of your life,” says Jay Shetty in his book Think Like a Monk.
Even if it’s something as simple as the foods you love to eat or the clothes you love to wear, let your passion be your guide.
Intersection 1 - Niche
The intersection between passion and content is where you find your niche. The reason finding your niche is so important is that you want to prime the algorithms of the various platforms you will be working on to drive organic traffic to your content based on the most opportunistic keywords.
In the beginning, it’s more about exploring different interests and figuring out what brings you closer to the audience you're looking for. Then, over time, you will have enough data from analytics to zero in on what people want from you.
The most important thing to focus on here is specificity. The more general your keywords and audience, the more difficult it is to break through the noise. You have to be strategic and opportunistic when it comes to penetrating a market or industry.
So, go deep within your passion and figure out how to create unique and specific content, even if it’s for a smaller audience at first.
Sphere 2 - Content
Creating content is how you contribute to your niche and share your story with the world.
Today we have more platforms than ever, creating a need for quality content in every area of life. The idea here isn’t to promote yourself but to contribute positively to your market or industry.
You can be the best baker in the world, but how will you let people know if you don’t tell your own story? Content strategy is why some brands rise to the top of search engine results, and others get lost in the shuffle.
It takes a significant amount of organic content to get your point across to your target audience. And search engines like Google use content (and pages linking to that content) to determine the value of your website. So, the more substantive your content, the easier it will be to market and monetize your brand.
Intersection 2 - Marketing
You’ve discovered your passion and started creating content to share your story with the world.
Now what?
If you have spare time and income, this may be as far as you want to go. But if you want to create a brand, you need a financial component.
To create commerce around your passion and content, you want to start with a marketing plan. This component still requires content but takes it a step further. The goal of marketers is to bring members of your target audience into the sales funnel to convert them into customers.
Content marketing, influencer marketing, affiliate marketing, and social media marketing offer new inroads for brands to increase market share and generate more leads. They are also great ways to generate data that provide you with insights about your target audience.
If you aren’t marketing your brand effectively, you may never be able to turn your passion into a business or achieve your ultimate purpose.
Sphere 3 - Commerce
If you’re not engaging in commerce, you’re not running a business.
To generate income from your brand, you need to offer potential customers a product or service that will add value to their lives. Commerce shouldn’t be your sole focus, but it’s what makes your brand sustainable over time. And it’s also what will help you gain market share.
There are various ways to monetize a brand. You don’t have to strictly sell a product or service to generate income, but you do need to focus on covering your costs and generating enough revenue to support your growth.
What can you do for your target audience that can satisfy their needs or desires in a way that your competitors can’t? Begin with a solid value proposition, and you will ensure that your commerce goals will be met with success.
Intersection 3 - Monetization
The rise of digital platforms has ushered in new ways to generate revenue for a business. Platform and content monetization provides a new income stream for brands to supplement their commerce activities and cover their bottom line.
To achieve monetization, you have to engage on platforms and find your tribe. Influencer marketing is born from this sphere, and even if you are not an influencer yourself, you can still use content and engagement to create passive income for your brand.
It takes time and a good amount of content to execute an effective monetization strategy, but it’s worth the effort. If you have a hobby or interest that costs you money, that might be a good place to start considering monetization. This is where many side hustles are born.
Sphere 4 - Platforms
Platforms are the gateway to connection.
The most significant difference in the way we do business now versus fifty years ago is the platforms we use to engage in commerce and social activities.
For many, what happens on social media and digital platforms is the basis of their reality. That’s why maintaining, optimizing, and utilizing your platforms properly is a huge part of creating a successful brand.
Take Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as an example. Though he makes most of his income as a movie star, he leverages his activity on social media platforms to market his movies. He told Forbes, “Social media has become the most critical element of marketing a movie for me. I have established a social media equity with an audience around the world that there's a value in what I'm delivering to them.”
That’s a great example of the power of platforms and how they intersect with both the commerce sphere and finding your tribe.
Intersection 4 - Tribe
Finding your tribe and keeping them happy creates brand loyalty that can last a lifetime, even generations.
This is something that happens over time. It is based on connecting with like-minded individuals across platforms and based on your shared passions or interests.
Your tribe is also your audience, so it’s always important to nurture that relationship with your content, products, services, and overall activities.
Sharing your story is a great way to make that initial connection with your tribe. This is also why brand values, your mission statement, and your messaging pillars are so crucial to the growth of your brand. They are the mechanisms to make your relationship with your audience grow.
Pitfall 1 - Love But No Cash
When your brand is deficient in one of the main spheres, pitfalls appear that can get in the way of your progress.
The first pitfall is finding love but no income with your brand.
Sometimes we confuse being purpose-driven with doing everything for free. But as most of us know, time is money and there is a limited amount of time the average person can spend on a passion when it doesn’t bring them any income.
So, to turn your passion into a brand and avoid this pitfall, you need to engage in commerce. This effort will make your brand sustainable.
Pitfall 2- Cash But No Following
Some companies have been in business for years but haven’t developed a following on digital platforms.
As a result, you might be creating income but have no audience. That can work for a while, but to build long-term success, you need to increase your following.
Pitfall 3 - Cash But No Motivation
If you’ve ever sat in bed when your alarm clock went off and wondered what you are doing with your life, the chances are that you lack motivation.
Injecting your passion into what you do to earn an income is the key to avoiding this pitfall.
Pitfall 4 - Fans But No Substance
Simply engaging on platforms isn’t enough. You can build a following on social media, email, or your website without necessarily creating content tied to your passion.
The problem here is that your audience will become starved for substance. Dancing on TikTok is entertaining, but what are you doing with your following that will help you move the needle with your brand?
Avoid the Pitfalls and Find Your North Star
If you use this brand framework to find your purpose, it will lead you to your North Star. Doing business in the information age can feel overwhelming; with platform data and insights that seem to be guiding you in so many directions, it can leave your head spinning.
The critical thing to remember is that your purpose should always be at the center of your brand marketing activities. This will not only give you direction, but it will help you find your tribe along the way. And the best part of all is that once you have all of these spheres in alignment and avoid the pitfalls along the way, the sky is the limit to the success you can find in your career.
