What do you stand for?

This is a question I’ve been asking myself a lot lately.  It came up early in the stages of deciding to rebrand our company and change the focus of what we do. I did some research and realized that what I was looking for was a clear statement of my intentions in working with clients. Oxford defines this as a “manifesto”. Whoa – I’m not sure I’m ready for that. Let’s just call it a statement of principles.

I decided to walk my own talk, and use the same process I use whenever I work with clients who need help getting out of their own way:

• Take a great big step back to think about the purpose of what you’re doing, what you hope to achieve and who you need to tell.
•  Put the customers first. It should always be about them.
•  Stay focused on the end goal and how you’re going to get there.
•  Break down the main messages, thinking about what you want to say but also, how to leverage those words into results.

As I did this for MightyWrite, my intentions took on a bigger life. They felt almost grand, like something that could truly guide us as we moved ahead. How could I describe this in a way that wasn’t just about me? How could I make it more of a declaration to clients of how we would work with them, our intentions and what they could expect from us in the way of values, motives and views?

I was starting to knock the walls out of the way, and then I listened to a couple of TED Talks that helped crystalize for me what it would take to contribute to our clients’ stories in a meaningful and mighty way. One of the talks featured Seth Godin on how to get your ideas to spread.

Here’s what it all means to MightyWrite and what guides us in working with clients:

• We listen, teach and lead as we collaborate with you to gather information about your business audiences, needs and goals.
• Our work focuses on producing long-term sustainable results for your business driven by increased visibility, traffic and sales.
• We will be accountable and expect the same from our clients and colleagues. This rests on a clear process that honours the terms of our working relationship as well as the responsibilities of everyone involved.
• We understand the value of being flexible to changing project needs. We will speak up when we have concerns.
• We always do what we say we’ll do – and we do it with passion, dedication, integrity and creativity.
• Building an audience that builds your business is our most important work.

That’s “write” for our business. What principles guide you?