Guest blog by Cristi McMurdie

“I was driving the bus backwards and making people enter the bus through the rear emergency exit!  Once I discovered my WHY, I became aware that my WHY has and does drive how I think, feel, and make decisions. I immediately made better decisions that pertain to ALL of my client and company interactions.”
– T. Thomsen, Business Owner, Throughpoint Security Solutions

Mr. Thomsen did not have to go through a year of excruciating personality testing or spend thousands of dollars on business retreats.  It happened in 30 minutes.  Mr. Thomsen discovered that his WHY is Building Relationships Based Upon Trust. After discovering his WHY, he re-branded his company’s proposals and marketing materials so there was a crystal clear focus of who his company best serves and who his best clients are.  Before his WHY discovery, it was just simply too murky.

As a WHY certified coach, I have seen Mr. Thomsen’s response duplicated over and over with business clients.  I have the amazing privilege of witnessing how the WHY discovery process takes a person from not knowing their WHY to where they can clearly see right through their WHY and understand why they have done what they have done in life.  When people discover their WHY, their choices in their professions, their clients, and their most trusted relationships become instantly obvious.  They also become aware where they have fallen short and how to embrace a new way of dealing with that.

Current brain science teaches that your WHY is located in your limbic brain, the feeling brain, and it secretly runs all of your decision-making and your values.  Your WHY is not accessible in your neo cortex brain, the thinking brain, where your language, math and analysis is located.  You may already be aware of your values and tendencies as explained through a neo cortex analysis with coaching and training. Until you go through a genuine WHY discovery process, you will only be guessing what your WHY is.

This is beyond Simon Sinek’s theory in his seminal work, Start with WHY.  Our KNOW YOUR WHY™ instant application process reveals so much that you discover more about yourself years after your initial discovery session.

[adToAppearHere]

If you have the trust WHY, trust means everything to you. You believe that trust is the driving characteristic behind all that you stand for and will work hard to create it. You will go to great lengths to demonstrate that you are trustworthy and do such things as becoming an expert so that you can demonstrate your expertise and thereby establish that you can be trusted. You want others to know that you can be counted on and will go the extra mile to demonstrate that with your actions, your words and your deeds. “Trust folks” (People with this WHY) are wonderful to do business with and are very sensitive to creating trust; in fact, when their trust is violated, to them it is tantamount to being “kicked in the gut.”  If you have this WHY, once you discover that you can and should be open about this fundamentally important value that lies in the deep center of your limbic brain, you will be empowered to create the businesses and lives of your dreams.

Simon Sinek taught us that “the goal is not to do business with everybody who needs what you have. The goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe.” But how do we target the clients who believe what we believe?  How do we do that?  You have to start, as Mr. Thomsen did, with KNOWING YOUR WHY.

Successful business people know what to do with what they know.  It is what they don’t know that gets in the way. 

Two very different business professionals as described below immediately accessed helpful new skills upon discovering their WHY – are building relationships based upon trust.

Susan Miller, a Keller Williams top ten% international producer 2012-14, stated after discovering her WHY is also Building Relationships Based Upon Trust, “Now I am far more selective when it comes to entering a business relationship for a listing contract.  My potential clients have to be trustworthy and trust me as a professional or I do not work with them.  I am happier and have more success with relationships built on trust.”

Mark Salcido, a seasoned trainer/presenter with Spartan Business & Technology stated, “Now I know what I have to do to operate at my full potency and to build success into my business or personal life.  If I can build trust and show that I am trustworthy, from my perspective that is success. Knowing the end result that I want is trust, I work more efficiently by staying focused without distraction and keeping the end result in mind.  Armed with this self-awareness, my efforts are streamlined as never before. Shortly after I started applying my insights at work, I was promoted because I established trust in my commitment and mastery over my assigned scope of work.”

What practices can you immediately implement once you know your WHY?  Here is the catch: You cannot know for sure until you KNOW YOUR WHY! All you have to do for now is get your WHY discovered!

Stay tuned for my next WHY article – The 6th WHY -Thinking Different!

Bio: Cristi McMurdie is a licensed Arizona attorney since 1993, actively practicing Mediator, and Certified Adler Coach since 2004, Certified Dream Coach since 2006, and Certified WHY coach since July 2014.  Cristi is the only mediator in the entire world that offers the WHY discovery prior to engaging in professional dispute resolution mediation to expedite the conflict resolution process.  For your business or personal disputes or WHY coaching contact Cristi at [email protected] or visit her website at WhyMediate.Solutions.

 

[adToAppearHere]