Good brands are bought, great brands are joined.
Over the last few months, I’ve interviewed fifteen presidents of fifteen organizations with amazing culture. And upon revisiting each of those conversations, I’ve realized a key insight about belonging.
If you want more people to join your brand, you have to understand the human implications of why we join things in the first place.
People join where they can belong, make meaning and enjoy the company of others. They join to participate in a venture, a crusade that accomplishes much more than they ever could individually. They join to come alive in the role that was designed for them. And they join to do what they love in an environment that wants them to do it.
People join where their craziness and uniqueness will be embraced. They join where they will be understood. They join where they can pillage the playground of their minds and put their fingerprints on the things they love. And they join where reality is as big as their imaginations allow it to be.
People join where their real self can exist. They join where what they do is what makes them feel most beautiful. They join where they can use their own creativity to solve problems. They join where they’re not in competition for the right to be treated decently. And they join where they can be serious about their talent and their obligation to use it.
Build that, and they will come.
