Hack #7: How Would Gwen Stefani Rewrite Your Crappy Mission Statement?
Enough with the business buzzwords. Channel your inner Gwen Stefani to find your voice and mend your mission statement.
Welcome to the 7th post in our #Hacks series where we provide you with all the tools you need to solve your most stubborn challenges in 2 hours (or less).
A while ago I was working with a really dynamic founder of a marketing agency. They were in the process of restructuring their organization and wanted to wrap everything up in a powerful mission statement. Sadly, their mission statement was packed full of corporate mumbo jumbo. More troubling, it didn’t reflect the vibrant and dynamic personality of the founder.
I’ve paraphrased the mission statement below (to protect the innocent), but we’ve all seen something like this.
Our mission is to create insightful marketing campaigns that help our clients stand out from the crowd, compete and deliver exceptional value to their stakeholders.
What the hell is that? Why would anyone ever dream up such a statement? The answer’s simple. It’s because business is serious (or so we think). We feel we need to play it safe, so we don’t turn people off. The truth is though, unless you’re a very serious person, you’ll end up creating a disconnect between your personality and your mission. In other words, you’ll lose your voice — and trust me that will turn way more people off.
The next time you’re struggling to find your voice, steal somebody else’s. That seems odd, right? We’re always told to be authentic, so why would we ever pretend to be someone else? The secret is that you’re not trying to be someone else. You’re simply seeking permission to be you. Choose somebody who reflects your personality, someone who doesn’t seek permission to be themselves. Look to fields where personality is paramount. Musical artists are a great place to start. Think of them as your personal ghostwriter.
Channel Your Inner Gwen Stefani
During that session, I asked the founder a very simple question. “Who’s your favorite music artist?” She answered instantly, “Gwen Stefani!” Why do people like Gwen or any music star for that matter? Is it simply because we like their music? No — try and think of an artist where you like their music, but you don’t relate to them. It’s tough, right? It’s way more than the music. These are people we relate to, but they have the creative freedom to express themselves. They say what they want to say. You should to.
Let’s go back to that initial mission statement and ask, “What Would Gwen Do?”. To do this, we just started pulling up Gwen Stefani lyrics on our iPhones to find the alternative vocabulary we needed to breathe personality into our mission statement. To be honest, we could have stopped at Hollaback Girl, but here are some lyrics that we felt represented the founder’s personality and the company’s mission.
Hollaback Girl
- “Uh huh, this my shit. All the girls stomp your feet like this”.
- “People hear you talking like that, getting everybody fired up”.
- “So I’m ready to attack, gonna lead the pack”.
- “Gonna get a touchdown, gonna take you out”.
- “Both of us want to be the winner, but there can only be one”.
- “So I’m gonna fight, gonna give it my all”.
- “Gonna make you fall, gonna sock it to you”.
- “That’s right I’m the last one standing, another one bites the dust”.
Other Lyrics
Here are some others we liked:
- “Destroyed and overwrought” — World Go Round.
- “I like the way that you are, I am your biggest fan” — Harajuku Girls
- “Harajuku Girls you got the wicked style” — Harajuku Girls
- “Now let me blow ya mind” — Let Me Blow Ya Mind
- “It’s pure perfection” — Luxurious
Breathing Life
Bringing it back now, we can use our new vocabulary to breathe life and personality into our original mission statement. Check out these alternatives:
- “Insightful marketing campaigns” — “fierce campaigns”.
- “Stand out from the crowd” — “attack convention”.
- “Compete” — “destroy the competition”.
- “Deliver Exceptional Value to Stakeholders” — “fire up fans”.
Putting it all together, here’s what we have now:
We create fierce campaigns that attack convention, destroy the competition and fire up fans.
We’ve gone from a bunch of boring business buzzwords, to something that screams personality and brand identity. Your clients now know that you’re not a sleepy marketing agency. They know you’re edgy and aggressive. They know that your work will help them “sock it” to the competition and “lead the pack”.
Don’t Relate to Gwen….How About These….
Not everybody relates to Gwen Stefani. Sure, she has a personality that can help your mission pop (sorry for the pun), but there are infinite possibilities. It doesn’t need to be song lyrics. Steal vocabulary from movie stars that you relate to, or characters from fiction…. non-fiction works too. Need a daring mission statement? — check out Fifty Shades of Grey. Need it to be cheeky? — check out Sarah Silverman.
Wrapping Up
Next time there’s a disconnect between your personality and your mission statement (or business buzzwords in general), channel your inner Gwen Stefani. It may seem counterintuitive, but the quickest way to find your voice is often stealing somebody else’s.
