What do YOU Wonder? And why it's relevant in your brand messaging
I think a lot.
I mean, a LOT, a lot.
In this day and age where there is so much to keep us stimulated, many of us are doing a lot of thinking.
And know what?
The thoughts that you think are 100% unique to you.
The things you wonder about, are things YOU uniquely wonder about; based on your knowledge, experience and passions.
All of us are wondering unique thoughts during the work day. Things that could make our jobs more effective. Things that could make better connections with people. Things that demonstrate our expertise.
But most people WON'T show that to anyone.
The majority of people, especially those working for someone else, just keep these thoughts to themselves. It could be due to psychological safety in the workplace. I could be due to their own self-talk about the value of their contributions. It could be a variety of things.
But at the end of the day, what your people WONDER is the access point to their greatest contribution. So what if we talked about it more?
Where did Wonder go?
When we're kids, we all have an innate sense of wonder. We're just in the process of figuring out how the world works, and we're curious. We push the boundaries of rules. We push the boundaries of our own bodies. And as a result, we learn at a genius pace until we're about 4.
And then, we start to get taught what the world expects of us. And we lose some of that wonder.
Then we go to school, and we start to get taught only certain things that someone else decided we should learn, and we lose a little more,
Then we go to college, and someone teaches us how we need to be to be "successful" in life, and we lose a little more.
Then we enter the corporate work space, where there's legitimately NO SPACE for wonder. There's only space for doing tasks that someone else told you to do in return for a paycheck.
We end up running out of time to wonder. So, we just let that part of us go.
But it doesn't REALLY go away. We still think and wonder about the things that we're innately curious about. So, what we're talking about is bringing it back to life.
And specifically, let's look at it's relevance in Marketing (and maybe a bit in sales as well).
How Wonder contributes in Marketing
Marketing is all about showing other people what you're all about, so they can figure out if hanging out with you (aka. buying your product) is beneficial to them.
So where does Wonder come in?
Your brand was created on specific principles. Whether you call them brand pillars, brand values, a mission, a vision; there's a reason your company exists. And it's based on something that the Founder originally wondered.
Walt Disney wondered why there was no place where families could go to experience magic together.
Steve Jobs wondered why people couldn't have computers in their homes.
Howard Schultz wondered why Starbucks couldn't have an Italian coffeehouse experience instead of just being a bean roaster.
I wondered why people were constantly sucked into the same marketing experiences, even if they didn't promote their brands well.
Founders wonder. And then companies are born.
In essence, your entire company is based on wonder. So why wouldn't you want your marketing to show that off?
What it looks like to bring Wonder to Marketing
The activities we're looking at here are two-fold:
Getting back to the wondrous nature of your business, and
Tapping into the unique wonder it ignites in your employees.
For the sake of this article, we'll keep it to Marketing employees, but honestly, EVERYONE in your organization has a unique wonder that adds more dimension to your brand 💡
Getting back to the Founder's Wonder, as we spoke about above, is part one. And then the fun begins.
With the Founder's Wonder defined, space and intention are all that's required to ignite the team's wonder. What do they wonder about your industry? How can they see themselves making an impact? What do they want the world to know about what you do?
If you're looking for a facilitated workshop of this nature, check out the What Do You Wonder Workshops at TLB Coaching & Events.
The next step is to give them PERMISSION to tell that story. But that's for another article.
Sales can play the Wonder game too
I know I said that I was keeping this just to Marketing, but let's be honest...if Marketing is doing it's job, then the next step is for Sales to come to the party. And if Marketing and Sales are aligned, well...BAM.
What if you're salespeople were empowered to use their unique perspectives on your industry to create their connections? To help people? To actually build trust with prospects as a Trusted Advisor instead of just "selling"?
When they can connect to their Wonder and find the ways that allow them to bring it to life in their work...talk about something that makes the sales cycle shorter 😉
Bringing Wonder back to the workplace
People are wondering all the time. What if that action had them wondering about how they can create the next stand-out social media post, or the next brand-building experience, instead of wondering how many minutes until the work day is done?
It's doable with intention. Let's talk about it :)
