Your Story And Your Enterprise
The majority of social enterprises are started by passionate individuals, usually people with a strong personal link to a particular cause.
They are usually formidable, who feel a clear and urgent calling to create change.
They are drawn to social enterprise as a way of making that change both large and sustainable.
It’s a good idea, but hard to get right.
That’s because there is a natural tension between the entrepreneur and the business they create, but when a personal identity and backstory are involved it becomes more complicated.
Origin Stories Are Powerful
The founder’s origin story, the path that led them to where they are today, is a valuable communication tool and source of clarity for them and their enterprise.
It can become a decent portion of your public speaking and interviews, it can help you discern what to say yes and no to, and it’s their actual life.
This is also a minefield.
Origin stories aren’t written like brand identities, they can’t be conveniently edited and reshaped to suit the times.
Sometimes they are built on past trauma, painful memories or relationships, or an ongoing challenge.
Sometimes there is a victim or a perpetrator, and sometimes these people are still around.
For this reason, the founder’s origin story and the social enterprise’s origin story need to be different, even if only slightly.
You vs The Team
Social enterprises can’t be run by one person.
They can be led by one person, for a time, but they ultimately need a team of managers to run the business and tell good stories.
If you’re working on a substantial problem, your team will need to be in multiple places each day, and that means there will be multiple people telling the brand’s story at the same time.
For that reason, it’s worth setting a clear mission for the enterprise from the beginning.
This can be a “Big Hairy Audacious Goal”, or a Theory of Change, or a compelling vision of the world you want to see in twenty years’ time.
Four Complicated Factors
This gets tricky, because what works for you in the early days often becomes unsustainable as you grow.
Here are four factors to consider:
1. Your story is your fuel
It drives you to overcome inertia and make something new.
It keeps you going even in times of disappointment and failure.
It gets you up in the morning.
It helps you persevere.
2. Your story bring credibility and connection
It clarifies the three initial questions; why this, why me, why now.
It explains why you decided to take action.
It shows that you have a complex and genuine understanding of the issues faced today, as opposed to being a clumsy but ignorant outsider.
3. Your story creates a dependency on you
The enterprise benefits from your story, so you’ll need to be in the spotlight as you fight for customer/donor/industry attention.
That gets tough, especially when you want/need to change how you spend your time in the organisation.
It gets even harder if you want/need to leave.
4. You have an emotional battery
Talking about yourself, your beliefs and your story becomes exhausting.
If you’ve ever had the same conversation five times in one day, even a fun conversation, you’ll have felt a mini version of what I’m talking about.
There will be times when you don’t like talking about your past connection/frustration/trauma, or when your personal circumstances make you want to step out of the spotlight for a little while.
That emotional battery needs to be monitored and defended, to ensure that your work is sustainable.
Those first two factors are powerful, but we don’t want to build a system that imposes on those last two.
What Are My Options?
The most important thing to do now is to deliberately design a model that doesn’t burn you out or threaten your work.
Here are some options for you to consider:
1. Apprentice with the problem
Pamela Hartigan talked about the need for changemakers to start with an “apprenticeship”, where they learn from other seasoned professionals, explore all facets of the problem/industry and try their hand at different types of work.
This gives you a sophisticated understanding of why these problems still exist, what still needs to be done, where that can make a contribution and who they can work with to create a better result than they’d get on their own.
2. Build a brand that’s bigger than you
Your name and your story are powerful, but the cause might need a name that won’t come undone if you get yourself into mischief in the future.
It’s easier to replace the host of The Tonight Show than to replace the host of Ellen.
3. Use other voices to do some of the heavy lifting
There are other people in your field who bring their own flair, story and perspective.
My suggestion is to make good use of them.
One person can be criticised, but a chorus of voices is harder to silence.
You won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but if you can bring in several different types of tea you’re more likely to keep people satisfied.
These voices might come from your team, your peers, your mentors or the community you’re serving.
4. Guard your emotional battery
Your personal story is not an asset that can be rolled out by just anyone, especially when it’s being edited and amplified in the media.
Your story is liable to be skewed by the press and critiqued on social media.
Your peers will disagree with you on certain things, either from their own perspectives, out of jealousy or out of scarcity.
Personally, I think that’s too much risk, especially when your story is emotionally charged.
A founder will need to actively guard and restore their emotional battery, or risk burnout.
5. Plan a workload based on the days where you’re feeling flat
There is a temptation amongst founders to sign themselves up for the “best case scenario day” every day.
Just because you have time for eight meetings doesn’t mean you have to take eight meetings.
A better approach is to base your assumptions off of your flat days, and structure extra work as a “bonus” when things are good.
The alternative is that you run yourself into the ground, or become cold and desensitised to the mission.
6. Create assets that work without you in the conversation
Technology can be wonderful – it lets you capture and distribute your story in a way that you can edit and control.
This might be a TED-style talk, a video series, a book, a podcast, etc.
You can send people your story without needed to always be in every meeting, saving yourself for the conversations that require a genuine dialogue.
7. Identify where and when it needs to be you
Sometimes you can send a team member, sometimes it needs to be you.
I have no set rules for this, but you’ll want a simple system for you and your team to flag when you are necessary and where you are a lovely bonus.
8. Partner with others
Nobody asked you to do this work alone.
Make the most of the strengths, stories and talents that are working towards the same goals as you.
These people will keep you on track, offer genuine support and help you design the future path of your enterprise.
fightmnd.org.au
A Modern Case Study
Neale Daniher is a former AFL footballer and AFL coach.
In 2014, he revealed he had been diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease (MND), a horrible condition which he refers to as “The Beast”.
While most people react to the grief of this prognosis, Neale got to work.
He decided to share his story with the world and raise funds for MND research – the disease has no known cure, and no cure is likely to emerge in his lifetime.
Neale was told the average life expectancy is 27 months from diagnosis, but Neale is still standing seven years later.
Here’s what’s really impressive: Neale knew his condition would worsen over time, so he set up an organisation to raise funds in partnership with the AFL – FightMND.
They have a strong board and a team of 12 staff, each with their own story and their own connection to the cause.
In recent years, Neale has become less and less able to speak, so he’s brought in his daughter Bec Daniher to talk alongside him at their events and in their campaigns.
fightmnd.org.au
What impresses me most is that Neale has built something bigger than himself.
His story is powerful, but more powerful is the FightMND team and brand, which this week raised over $2m in a single day.
The organisation has been able to contribute tens of millions of dollars towards groundbreaking MND research, and will continue to do so even after Neale isn’t able to attend all of the events.
Neale gets the credit, but the cause will live on beyond him: in his name, but with a talented team, a great cause and a compelling voice.
