EPISODE #2.1:

Brand Purpose: Your Key to Business Success During the Pandemic and Beyond 

Or listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts.

So who hasn’t heard about companies with purpose over the past year.  Yet this hot topic lost steam during our current pandemic crisis, right?  

Wrong! Purpose-driven brands outperform their counterparts. And they aren’t abandoning their values just because times are tough. 

According to my guest, Denise Roberson, Chief Purpose Officer of advertising agency, TBWA/Chiat/Day, the brands guided by purpose reacted the quickest, and are providing the most value to the market.

Brands with purpose will come out of this mess stronger, and more resilient. 

So what? No matter who you are or what your role, in this episode, Denise provides you with valuable tips as she talks about why and how purpose drives resilience. 

And couldn’t we all use more resilience these days? 

Denise knows what she is talking about. During the pandemic, she has been studying the behavior of companies such as SAP, Intuit, Nike and Louis Vuitton as they “turned on a dime,” to address the needs that seemed to crop up overnight. She says they were able to hold up a mirror and say, “We have this purpose, we believe in it strongly,” and they followed it to carry out actions that consumers will remember for a very long time.  

Purpose makes us nimble and resilient when we follow it like our north star.

Here is a snapshot of a few topics we cover in this podcast…..

• How purpose becomes the battle cry within a company when times are tough 
• Ways company culture and brand come together to drive success
• How evidence and emotion supersoniced companies to rally around a common cause during the pandemic 
• How companies can find their brand purpose – and the same methods can help us as individuals find and follow a purpose!

If you are interested in more information, here are some additional links and resources related to this episode: 

Here is a paper and job aid on how to use purpose to make brands thrive.

About Denise Roberson

In her role as Chief Purpose Officer, Denise Roberson is leading some of the biggest brands in the world to actuate their business case for purpose, through focusing on a scalable, differentiated, and business goals oriented approach. TBWA\Chiat\Day has worked with Fortune 500 and world-class brands around the world, such as Apple, Gatorade, Google Cloud, McDonalds, Intuit’s QuickBooks, Principal Financial Group, and the Grammy’s.

Denise is a marketing professor for Pepperdine University’s Presidents & Key Executives MBA program, and is also a trusted board member, speaker, moderator, keynote, and host for top-tier events.

Finally, Denise is pursuing her doctoral degree in Switzerland and exploring the use of technology in connecting a corporation’s sustainable efforts to brand value and researching the frameworks and models necessary to implement these initiatives and integrating purpose as a core component of future brands. 

Connect with Denise on LinkedIn.

EPISODE #2.1 TRANSCRIPT

Kathy Miller Perkins:

Welcome to the Conscious Culture Cafe, the podcast that explores how you can lean into your purpose, live your values, and enhance your social impact through your work. I’m your host, Kathy Miller Perkins.

Kathy Miller Perkins:

Welcome back to the conscious culture cafe. All of us are dealing with the world that we wouldn’t have recognized just a few short weeks ago. This pandemic crisis has created conditions that are unpredictable and downright scary. Well, I’ve been thrilled though, to see how many companies and brands have stepped up to help our world address these unprecedented challenges. My guests today has some colorful stories to share based on her work as the Chief Purpose Officer of advertising agency, TBWA\Chiat\Day. Welcome Denise Roberson. Let’s hear more about your job and your work with brands with purpose.

Denise Roberson:

Hi, Kathy. Thank you so much for having me. Well, I actually think I may have one of the best jobs in the world and Omnicom, which is one of the largest holding companies in the advertising agency. And one of the verticals I work with, which is TBWA\Chiat\Day, and this is the agency that works with Apple and Gatorade and Intuit and Blue Diamond and McDonald’s and Google. They allowed me to use my pretty interesting background and that’s 20 plus years in advertising, a professorship teaching business school, MBA students through Pepperdine Graziadio Business School, in the Marketing and Purpose arena and doctoral research that I’m doing to build the business case for brand purpose. A lot of people in the US see purpose as philanthropy or environmentalism, but purpose when it’s done properly and authentically is actually a robust framework to achieve business goals and to create value. So purpose drives against things like increased customer, trust, brand loyalty, lifetime value, along with strong differentiation and competitive advantage. It also allows brands to be seen as part of the solution in this crazy crisis that’s upon us.

Kathy Miller Perkins:

A number of our listeners are corporate social responsibility people, and they are many of them moving or attempting to move their companies from a philanthropy standpoint to a more strategic standpoint like you’re talking about. So this is right on target for our audience.

Denise Roberson:

Well, I think the exciting part of that is that a lot of us have been in purpose for years, but it wasn’t until recently that we have incredible and robust research. I mean, everything from the Business Roundtable forward to Kantar, and HBR, Forbes, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, The New York times.I think we had cover stories on purpose, that grace the cover of just about all of those journals and publications.

Kathy Miller Perkins:

Why? What led to that in your opinion? What is it that it was a tipping point of some sort, what happened to make this all of a sudden, such a big deal?

Denise Roberson:

You know, I don’t think there’s one simple answer, but I do believe there was a tipping point. I think for years, people had started to connect the dots between purpose-driven organizations and outcomes. So if we look at things like the S&P and we juxtapose them against how the purpose-driven group is doing, we see incredible performance in our purpose organizations. And now we can measure that and we’ve got robust research that documents that, things like differentiation. But where I really think this starts to sing is on the employee side. When we get to the employee side and we look at this new era, we’ve got things like attracting top talent, employee turnover, increasing trust, empowerment, and productivity increases. We’re proving the business case beyond just sort of the soft sciences.

Kathy Miller Perkins:

Yeah, one of the projects that my company has been involved with over the last year is on business activism. And part of that has been on employee activism. And I’ve talked to a number of millennials, some of whom have left their jobs because they felt like their companies weren’t purpose-driven enough or were saying that they were purpose-driven, but weren’t doing anything. Have you had that experience? What was your take on millennials and their role in all of this?

Denise Roberson:

Well, I’m going to go back to research because I think it’s a profound way to not talk about what we think or feel, but look at what the numbers are actually telling us. And Gartner’s most recent research shows two thirds of consumers today, believe it’s the role of business to take the lead and solving problems that face our society. I mean, that is a massive and compelling data point. And if we look at what consumers want, and we look at the fact that it’s also shifting with their demand, that purpose based companies also protect their employees better, that’s coming up very high in what consumers want to see right now. I think we see something interesting, but I also see this activism as coming from within, from companies that maybe don’t have the best track record with purpose.

Denise Roberson:

We’ve got some of the Amazons and the Instacarts of the world where their employees were really willing to stand up and use their voices to say, “We’re in danger. This isn’t a safe environment. This isn’t safe for the end consumer and they don’t even know it.” So I think that sort of organic and authentic activism that’s coming from within cultures that may not support them in the way. And I think that’s a loud statement that organizations should be paying attention to.

Kathy Miller Perkins:

Now you’re talking about during the pandemic, you’re talking about activism during the pandemic, correct?

Denise Roberson:

Yes. I am.

Kathy Miller Perkins:

Because some of these employees and especially like the Amazon employees became activists before the pandemic.

Denise Roberson:

Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think this is just one of those moments in time where people are listening a little different. We had so much noise and clutter in our marketplace, and then all of a sudden our lives depend on it. So the level of attention and the level of scrutiny, we’re also seeing this on the brand side. So we’ve got brands that were less authentic than others in leading with their brand voice and being purpose-driven and the market has responded aggressively.

Kathy Miller Perkins:

So what do you mean by leading with the brand voice? What is brand purpose? Can you give me some examples of what that looks like?

Denise Roberson:

Sure. So when we look at the notion that most companies that exist manifest themselves and communicate what represents them, they’re visual and written communications, along with the stories that comprise their brand. We look at that in this instance, it’s important that the brand stands for something greater than profit. It’s reason for existing, it’s sort of North Star.

Denise Roberson:

So actuating this and making it attainable to all the stakeholders employees included in a really authentic way to bring this unique business offering to life. And that’s how we start driving against the business goals we just talked about. And I think some amazing pre COVID examples of a purpose led brand, Patagonia. Patagonia is a very well known brand that’s purpose based. We know their products exist to help protect land and the planets. And this has been executed in some really creative ways, like taking out a full page Wall Street Journal ad telling people not to buy their jackets-

Kathy Miller Perkins:

That was very interesting.

Denise Roberson:

… [crosstalk 00:08:13] which was really a commentary on the natural resources wasted to make a new jacket. So then they extended it and they sent buses out around the country to fix people’s jacket and to fix their clothing only to see an increase in sales. So it was very interesting that by authenticating their purpose, their consumers were willing to vote with their dollars to say, “We believe in what you’re doing”

Kathy Miller Perkins:

Yeah, absolutely.

Denise Roberson:

And I think Paul Polman did this in a really different way at Unilever. And I believe it was a beautiful way to activate their purpose. It’s something to the just had been iterated a thousand times of making every household sustainable. But I think the gift that he gave was to increase the time horizon for investors. So they got rid of quarterly earnings calls, they pushed their investors out for a year to start realizing a different type of value. And though that may not be initially perceived as part of a brand, it has become an indelible part of what Unilever stands for as a brand. So it can really come about in very unique ways. It isn’t just a picture or an ad or a TV commercial. It can really start coming out. The brand can start manifesting in very tangible business ways.

Kathy Miller Perkins:

So do consumers like to be associated with those brands or is it that they want to support those brands? Or is it a little bit of both? How does this interaction, how does this relationship between purpose-driven brands and consumers? What’s it look like?

Denise Roberson:

I think that’s the tipping point we finally reached. I think we’ve always had some very traditional ways to measure some of these things and it had something to do with price and value. So we would measure on those two axis. I think with this new consumer becoming quite large and quite powerful in our markets each day, they started voting on something a little different with their dollars, and that was, they wanted to be associated with brands that had a true purpose and they wanted to feel like they were supporting those brands and a part of that purpose. So it’s really, like you said, it’s twofold. And it was sort of an engagement point where all of a sudden that mattered. Transparency mattered to them. What they were executing behind the scenes of a company in terms of their supply chain mattered to them.

Kathy Miller Perkins:

Mm-hmm (affirmative) So is it a certain age group of consumers or is it across the board? What’s the research say about that?

Denise Roberson:

Research right now shows that from millennials down to Gen Z, it’s unstoppable. It’s not only a part of their buying trends, but it’s also a part of their employment trends. So across the board we see this as coming up, and a lot of times more important than salary, more important than cost, more important than factors that have traditionally been up at the top of that leaderboard. But now we’re starting to see this, and I think this is where any true tipping point comes into play, we’re seeing Gen X show up, we’re seeing Boomer show up, we’re seeing other categories show up and realize, “I don’t want to put my hard earned dollars behind an organization that isn’t doing good things. I have too many options now to vote for the company that I know is doing good things.”

Kathy Miller Perkins:

So it’s not just the millennials anymore in your opinion.

Denise Roberson:

It’s not. It has absolutely grown.

Kathy Miller Perkins:

It’s encouraging.

Denise Roberson:

Yeah. Some of the bigger clients that we work with at Chiat\Day, they are not millennial based. Their consumers are not millennials and we’re seeing time and time again, the purpose offerings are winning and that’s just sheerly because people believe in what they’re doing.

Kathy Miller Perkins:

Very interesting. And you know, you and I have talked about this over the years that we’ve been associated with each other, that there’s a relationship, I believe between the culture of the organization and the consumer’s beliefs about the organization or commitment to the organization. Let’s talk about that briefly. You said that the brands attract employees, they attract talent in addition to attracting consumers. Tell me about that. How does that impact culture? Does the company have to have a specific kind of culture in order for that talent to be attracted to it, or is purpose enough for them to be attracted, apart from culture?

Denise Roberson:

I think purpose and culture are inextricably tied. I think if you try and pull those two things apart, the purpose will fail. In any good purpose offering I believe, and this is just personally for me, I believe it has to start internally. I believe in my heart and soul, that when you’re building your company’s core purpose offering, first of all, it has to be vast and wide. It has to be inclusive of everything and everyone, but it has to represent the company’s core services and products. The worst failures I’ve seen is when a company decouples from what they actually do. What happens is you’re in essence saying, “I’m decoupling from everything that represents who we are.” The best laid plans when it comes to culture, you start with a purpose inside the culture.

You build that, well, you articulate your purpose statement, you make it authentic, but then you make sure every single level of that organization is able to embody that purpose. They should be able to see what it looks like to represent that purpose, to act with that purpose and I’m a huge believer in feedback loops and reward systems. So we actually know as employees that we’re doing this in a way that’s authentic and reflective of the brand purpose. It’s the promise we’re making to organizations. And I think if you try and decouple those things, you’re destined for the purpose to go flat.

Kathy Miller Perkins:

That’s an excellent point. And one of the things that I’ve noticed in my work over the years is that sometimes companies do have the best intentions around purpose, and they do want to build it from the inside out, but they struggle with how to do that. And they especially struggle with how to tie each employee to that purpose. Now, with some jobs it’s easier with others, but I’ve gotten so many questions over the years about, “how do you make sure that every employee understands the contribution they make to the purpose?” Do you have any thoughts on that?

Denise Roberson:

I do. I think once you’ve really articulated your purpose statement, that’s when the modeling begins and regardless of where that starts in the organization, I would fully hope that the leadership team adopts it completely and then begins to really show people what it looks like. What does it look like to embody that purpose? And I think one of the most exciting things is there’s a crossover and there’s a moment between the company’s purpose and the individual purpose. And you allow people the opportunity to start finding their way with this purpose and overlaying their personal purpose, that’s where the magic happens.

Kathy Miller Perkins:

So is that through conversations, how does that happen?

Denise Roberson:

I believe that can be through conversation and focus groups. I think surveys are one of the most powerful things we can do. I think really getting that kind of assessment to find where the gaps are. I cannot tell you how many leadership teams I’ve spoken to that would have sworn up and down that they knew 100% exactly what their people understood and exactly at what level they were able to embrace this only come to find out they were either dead wrong or a vast majority was wrong. And they [inaudible 00:16:20]. What gets fascinating is how this extends to brand. So if we’re looking at culture and we haven’t gotten that clearly delineated, and we don’t have our own organization buttoned up with that, how in the world are we going to take this externally and expect our consumers and the rest of our stakeholder wheel to embrace our purpose?

It’s impossible. It starts to break down across the entire stakeholder group. It’s interesting, when we do purpose offerings, we are brought in for three different situations. One situation is a company simply doesn’t have a purpose. They’re starting off, it could be a legacy company, it could be a startup, but they don’t feel like they have a well articulated purpose. In which instance we go in, we help them actually create that. But I would say the majority of them believe they have a purpose, but for whatever reason, it’s simply not working. So that’s where I think surveys and audits come in very, very handy because we identify gaps and we’re able to talk about where the breakdown is and the connection between the consumer and the purpose. We can actually see where that fail happens. And a lot of times we’re going to go right back to culture. It happens internally, their own group doesn’t quite understand the purpose. So the way it’s manifesting externally is convolute and confusing.

Kathy Miller Perkins:

Yeah, that’s an excellent point. And, and sometimes consumers can pick up on that indirectly, I think, but sometimes employees just right out say, “Our company is not doing what they say we should be doing,” which has been interesting to me in looking at employee activism and what employees are willing to say about their companies. And as a consumer, I believe the employees, I believe the employees more than I believe the advertising that the company [inaudible 00:18:13] .

Denise Roberson:

Absolutely. And I think one of the things that’s really interesting where we find ourselves today in 2020, brands are no longer singularly created. We can’t sit in a war room or a board room and sketch out what way do you believe a brand to be. They are now co-created across the entire stakeholder group, whether we want the feedback and the input or not. And that scares people tremendously. I mean, it’s such a terrifying feeling, but what it also does is it really pushes on authenticity. So the folks who do this authentically, they’re willing to own it. And whether that’s a mistake or whether that’s a huge triumph, it allows us all to have that voice that makes it better and stronger. It’s an amplification. And I think that it’s exciting to build a brand today because we’re so interconnected at such lightspeed, we get instant feedback.

And if we’re willing to listen, we can grow and create new offerings and new platforms and move into places. Like right now in this crisis, I think the brands that were able to react the quickest, that had the most value to give to the market were the purpose based brands. They were able to hold up a mirror and say, “We have this purpose, we believe in it strongly,” and they were able to use that to communicate internally, but actually to be very nimble in how they were able to restructure things and it was everything. They were able to restructure IP and technology. They were able to restructure their people. They were able to restructure offerings and there were some huge, incredible success stories that came out of this that I have to say, I, as a consumer will remember for a very long time.

Kathy Miller Perkins:

Do you have any examples?

Denise Roberson:

Yes I do. So I had this wonderful opportunity to speak to the chief marketing officer of SAP. And they’ve always been known to be a very purpose-driven organization.

Kathy Miller Perkins:

Oh yes, definitely.

Denise Roberson:

And she was saying that very early on, within the first week they were talking about what is the biggest impact they could have. So they decided to open their proprietary technology, that they charge a lot of money for customers to have, they opened it up to the market. They gave it away. And what happened within the first, I think she said 48 hours was in New York, there was a contractor tasked with building temporary hospitals that were desperately needed. They were a non-SAP clients and they needed 500 hospital beds that were literally impossible to get. So by opening SAP’s technology another company that was not an SAP client, was able to supply those beds in a matter of hours. And they have helped countless lives as a result of it. So that was [crosstalk 00:21:05] beautiful way of just pivoting on a dime and really leading with their purpose.

We saw Louis Vuitton came out and used their manufacturing to make hand sanitizers and Nike and New Balance transition, not only their manufacturing, but their people to make PPE equipment. So we’ve seen time and time again, that it’s very possible. Another story that I have to say I was really moved by, was Intuit. So Intuit was able to create a partnership with the government to enter into their PPP program through QuickBooks.

Kathy Miller Perkins:

Really, how so?

Denise Roberson:

They realized they were not a traditional bank, but they had the resources and the access to provide PPP loans. They felt like small business was tremendously underserved and that the small businesses that critically need the help were not getting the funding. And the last conversation I had on friday, QuickBooks is responsible for already helping to save a hundred thousand jobs for small businesses.

Kathy Miller Perkins:

Oh my goodness. That’s incredible.

Denise Roberson:

That is just such incredible impact for a service they don’t offer. So they were able to really transition quickly and effectively and do something that really served their purpose, which is being a champion for small business.

Kathy Miller Perkins:

Right, exactly.

Denise Roberson:

Yeah, that level of flexibility, that level of heart, I know that there were people that were working 24 hours a day, there were no weekends, but their commitment to that purpose was just unsurpassed. And it was really their guiding light, it’s what got them through. Because they believed this was one way they could help those small businesses authentically, bring real value.

Kathy Miller Perkins:

You know, as I listen to your stories, what it appears to me, it appears to me that there’s something about purpose that is related to the ability to be creative. And like you said, a minute ago, agile and flexible, what’s that relationship all about do you think? What is it about purpose or is it the creativity that comes first? How does that work? What causes what here in terms of agility and flexibility and creativity that these companies are showing?

Denise Roberson:

I will tell you the feedback that I’ve gotten from a lot of large companies that I’ve either worked with in the last couple of months, spoken to in the last couple of months or added some kind of guidance or counsel to, and what I’m hearing time and time again, is that the purpose is a lens, and it’s a lens that allows them a lot of flexibility because they already have their guiding light. They have their North star. So everything they’re doing, they’re holding up against this purpose and saying, “Are we actually weighting our purpose? Are we furthering our purpose? Or is this taking us further away from our purpose?” And because we already have buy-in across the entire organization, they were able to activate a lot of champions much faster and give them autonomy to really run and to explore different ways they could activate against this predetermined purpose.

Denise Roberson:

The great thing with that is it doesn’t have to be predetermined. It can be a purpose you settle on. This is something that, and I don’t mean settle as in, “Oh, we’ll take the sloppy seconds.” But during this time, a lot of organizations have leaned into the country of origin they come from. I’ve seen a lot of folks from Asia who have a different community mindset than we do, they were able to really lean into that. Nissan was able to do some wonderful things. And a lot of that had to do with their Japanese heritage and culture. They believed strongly in that. So I think you don’t have to have this perfectly articulated purpose statement, but once you get buy-in from the organization and once people are supporting it, it really does give you a magnificent lens to view all of these opportunities through and to build platforms that won’t only have value today, but that you can leverage into whatever new normal we’ve begin to create.

Kathy Miller Perkins:

Yeah, that’s very interesting. And one of the things that you had mentioned previously in a conversation we had is that in addition to the companies that already have a purpose and use that as a lens, what you’re finding during the pandemic is more companies are jumping into their purpose, or looking for a purpose, or finding a purpose so that these are not necessarily the companies that are known for being purpose-driven. Tell me more about that.

Denise Roberson:

I think one of the most interesting things that you and I had discussed is that you cannot tell which organization is going to rise to the challenge.[crosstalk 00:00:26:02] It’s really impossible. We can speculate, we can speculate that it’s one part leadership and another part purpose and another part financial reserves, but it isn’t until you are making decisions that are genuinely critical to your bottom line, that we get to see how dedicated people are to that purpose. So one of the things that I’ve found really beautiful throughout this pandemic, are the amount of organizations that had it on their wishlist, it was on their to do list. Maybe they heard the business round table announcement, perhaps they read some of these. What major magazine wasn’t it on the cover of? But something caught their attention. You know, it was like the shot that rang around the world.

Kathy Miller Perkins:

Yeah, exactly.

Denise Roberson:

Lot of people had it in the boardroom or at the executive leadership team level where it was on their to do list. And maybe that was six months from now, maybe that was two years from now. But this pandemic really launched that desire. And it really kind of supersoniced their ability to really rally behind a common cause and to lead their teams and to lead their organization to really at the end of the day, create value. Customers are scared. All of us, universally, as humans are scared, we’re all struggling with the same thing right now. And there’s been so much change in such a short amount of time. That is life threatening, that’s been job threatening, that’s been threatening in so many different ways that it’s amazing to be able to come together with a common purpose, to bring value to communities that desperately need it. And I think purpose allows you to do that.

Kathy Miller Perkins:

There’s something about the crisis that’s tapped something very human in all of us, I think, and also brought to our awareness, the interconnectedness of us in ways that we probably have known intellectually, but haven’t really felt at a deep level until now. And to me, that’s part of what’s bringing companies to the table in terms of going back to their purpose, or finding their purpose and acting on their purpose because they have an emotional realization that we really haven’t had before.

Denise Roberson:

I couldn’t agree more. I think up until recent times, we were very focused on our differences and whatever has happened throughout this crisis, whether you’ve had a loss in the family, whether that be your business family or your literal family, everyone has been affected in some way, whether it be financial, whether it be human loss, devastating losses that are considered catastrophic crises. And I think that it’s really leveled the playing field. All of a sudden, we’re all humans fighting for the same thing. And it really allows people to put aside our differences and really focus on the commonality of this, getting through this together. And I think it’s a tragedy and I would never wish it on anyone, but I also think [crosstalk 00:29:02] beautiful moments that are coming that are so human and so connected. I think the global connectivity is higher than I’ve ever experienced it.

Kathy Miller Perkins:

I agree. I agree. And at the same time, one of the things that goes through my mind that I think about a lot is how can we honor differences while recognizing what we have in common at the same time? They’re not necessarily either/or, although I’ve seen people make it either/or, either we’re different and therefore we can’t connect or we’re all the same so let’s overlook those differences. And I think that’s a mistake. We have to accept both. And I’m wondering how that’s going to play out over the next few months.

Denise Roberson:

I think it’s one of the most interesting thing that’s coming up in just about every conversation. I think there’s a desperate need right now. And companies feel like, “No, no, we, we have to encompass everyone.” But I think the way to do that authentically is not to cater to everyone, but to provide a version of your purpose that everyone can engage with at their will, as they wish to the level they want to. And I think a lot of brands are getting that wrong right now, in thinking it has to be so broad, and so vast, and so wide that everyone can buy-in and I think that’s really not what purpose is about. Purpose is about articulating what makes your organization special, your people special and why it cannot be replaced, that special magic that you have, and then allowing people to engage with it on their terms.

Kathy Miller Perkins:

Well, this is such an interesting conversation. What I’d like to do as we wrap up is ask you, as you think about what you’d like to leave with the listeners, can you provide one or two or more points that you really want the listeners to take away with today?

Denise Roberson:

Oh, there are so many points.

Kathy Miller Perkins:

Oh, I know.

Denise Roberson:

We have a profound ability to think differently today, and I think one of the lenses, it’s a Venn diagram that we’ve been using quite a bit to sort of guide the way is this notion of brand needs, world needs and brand assets. And if you put those three rings over the top of each other, that concentric circle in the middle, that is a purpose led brand strategy. And I think it’s very hard for most people in normal times to consider thinking from the outside in to start with the world needs, start with what the world needs right now, and identify a few things that you feel like you are well suited to talk to and approach and bring some value.

Denise Roberson:

Once you do that, think about your brand assets, what are the assets that your brand has and that could be leadership, it could be IP, it could be partnerships, it could be products and services. I mean, really go through your list of what you have and then talk about brand needs. And I think once you start overlaying those things, a very unique opportunity starts to emerge that your organization alone is uniquely qualified to address. And it’s a different way of thinking about this and it confuses people at first and blows their minds. But if you lead authentically from the outside in, and really look at the world needs first, it’s amazing how pointed what you have becomes.

Kathy Miller Perkins:

That’s perfect. That’s wonderful. And I would think that companies could do some of this on their own, but if they need help, they could call you. Right?

Denise Roberson:

Absolutely. We’ve put out a white paper that breaks through the steps because we feel like this is the time to share and this is the time to encourage and sort of foster all of this. We’ve been giving away 30 to 60 minute sessions just to give people ideas starters on, I’d say the first question we get asked is, “Where do we start?” And that [inaudible 00:33:16] overwhelming. So just having these frameworks in place and having access to them, we can post this white paper in your section just to give readers or listeners the ability to engage with this and start pondering some different questions. We’ve got a six step format. There’s just areas to start activating your purpose and where to start. I think that’s really important. And most of all, it’s encouraging people not to wait until tomorrow. If you feel like you’ve got something that could really add value to the world today, don’t wait.

Kathy Miller Perkins:

Good way to end this session I would say and for listeners, please look at the show notes on our website because Denise has just promised lots of resources for you in our show notes. So Denise, thank you so much for being with us today. It’s a fascinating conversation in a very interesting time. I’ll have to say, I think in a couple months from now, we should get together again and talk and see what’s happened in the interim.

Denise Roberson:

I would love that Kathy. We always have a magical way of combining our two disciplines and I am excited to see where this story goes.

Kathy Miller Perkins:

Yes, me too. Thank you, Denise.

Denise Roberson:

Thank you, Kathy. Bye-bye.

Kathy Miller Perkins:

Thanks for listening to the Conscious Culture Cafe. If you liked what you heard, connect with us at millerconsultants.com. You can access the show notes and receive our free materials. See you next episode.