Beware the Squarespace(ification) of Entrepreneurship
You are more interesting than your brand. So why aren’t you telling your story?
Jordan Rubin was the first and probably the finest entrepreneur I have ever met. Growing up, he had the debilitating, and little understood, condition now known as Crohn’s Disease. The disease made his life unpleasant enough that he dropped out of college and moved to California, where he’d heard about some people working on substances and techniques that could help him fix his condition.
When we met in the late 1990s, he and his wife and a small handful of others were selling little bags of black powder out of Rubin’s house. This powder, formulated from the substances to which Jordan was introduced in California, were among the first shelf-stable probiotics to reach the market. Effectively creating the category of probiotics, Jordan was selling about $2 million worth of the little bags a year.
Jordan exemplified three qualities that most great entrepreneurs share.
First, he could inspire others. He made the story of regaining his health in spectacular fashion the centerpiece of his company’s messaging. During the time I worked with him, he told his story over and over again, honing it down to its essence so he could recite it in an elevator or in front of 500 people at a conference.
Number two, he was courageous. He staked everything he had in this company.
Finally, he was smart. He knew that inspiration and courage could only get him so far. He needed help scaling his company around a strategy, so he hired me to help him write a three-year business plan to get to $15 million. Three years later (almost to the day!) he accomplished that goal. Then hired me as his CEO to work with him to first draw up a plan, and then later to help him attain the next three-year goal of $60 million.
The company actually went on to sell to Nestle for a boatload of money and is now helping millions of people around the globe. But none of this would have come to fruition had he not had this hugely personal and relatable story and vision that kept his team rowing together and moving everything forward.
But here’s the rub. I think today’s CPG entrepreneurs are still courageous, but I’m not sure I’m seeing many Jordans anymore. Today’s entrepreneurs seem generally less bold about telling their personal stories and making their companies about something much bigger than their products or categories.
And I have a theory as to why this is so: I call it the Squarespaceification of entrepreneurship. (Thanks to Emily Kanter of Cambridge Naturals for help putting a name on it!) The term refers to the use of templated web sites that make brands practically indistinguishable from each other. The pages contain product shots, logos, retailers, “order now” buttons, testimonials . . . all different but all basically the same.
Technology has lowered the barrier to innovation, which can be a good thing. But it’s also dumbed us down a bit, which is not. I’m particularly dismayed by what has happened to the “About Us” tab, which is typically downplayed and sometimes hard to find.
I believe the opposite should be true: there’s a fine line between letting your brand do the talking and allowing your own voice and storytelling to shine through. The problem with keeping yourself out of the spotlight is that your brand is probably less distinctive than you are. If your customer has a choice of buying three different probiotics, and once upon a time, one of them saved its founder’s life, which one will stand out?
The challenge, of course, is to find your story. I often use the storytelling techniques I learned from Bo Eason, an ex-NFL player and current motivational speaker who developed an exercise centered around four deep dives in which you ask yourself:
What are the 10 coolest things about me? This is a time to drop the modesty and take pride in who you’ve become. Think about why you are cool and try to link it to a defining moment.
What captures my defining moment? Dig deep to identify a moment or period that powerfully influenced your life, then
What connects this moment to my business? How did my defining moment lead me to develop the “super powers” needed to launch my company?
How can I tell this story? What is it about my company and me that should inspire others to buy my products?
Working your way through these questions in a logical, detailed fashion can help you break out of the tyranny of the online template and give customers, employees, investors, and other stakeholders a reason to love your company.
Let me know how you are inspiring your customers with your change-the-world company.
Sincerely,
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All credit to my ghostwriting partner, Dave Moore, who is instrumental in getting my thoughts out in a coherent manner & into these blogs. Thanks Dave!