Introduction

The Most Valuable Real Estate on Earth

It’s the best advertisement I’ve ever seen.

When I first saw it, I thought to myself, “I don’t know who’s responsible for this, but I need to give them a hug.” The TV commercial wasn’t impressive because of any fancy special effects or in-your-face messaging. What made it remarkable was an incredibly simple and all-too-rare phenomenon:

The company prioritized their core beliefs and then shouted them, loudly, throughout the entire commercial.

Here, let me paint a picture for you:

The year was 2014, and Subaru had just rolled out its new marketing and advertising campaign for their fully redesigned Forester model. The commercial I saw was an integral part of that campaign. The one-minute spot is called “Backseat Anthem,” and, let me tell you, it lives up to its name.

“Backseat Anthem” begins just like every other car commercial: with shots of a beautiful car quickly snaking down a curvy forest road (remember the name: Forester). Then the scene cuts to the empty backseat of the car with trees zipping by in the background.

A deep, reassuring voice cuts through the quiet din of the uplifting music. “The humble backseat,” the voice says. “It’s the first place most of us ever sat. The place we trust to hold our most precious cargo.”

The next shots are of grandparents and children buckling themselves into the backseat, a father putting his newborn baby into a car seat, and a dog sitting in the back with his eyes glued to the great outdoors.

Then we hear the line that is the crux of the campaign and what makes me admire the commercial so much:

“We believe the backseat can be the most valuable real estate on Earth. That’s why we designed our newest Subaru from the backseat, forward.”

The whole commercial lasts all of one minute. But in that short amount of time, Subaru shows what feels like the entire spectrum of human experience, from birth to old age, all taking place in the comfort and safety of the backseat of a Forester. The commercial is designed to make the Forester look and feel like a protective bubble. And Subaru creates this experience by focusing on their core beliefs, not facts and figures.

At no point during “Backseat Anthem” does Subaru mention the Forester’s cost, estimated gas mileage, torque-to-wheel ratio, the variety of colors it comes in, the softness of the interior leather, or even the new features that make the car safer than its predecessors. Subaru doesn’t say, “The Forester is only $28,000.” Instead, they say, “We believe the backseat can be the most valuable real estate on Earth.”

Do you feel the difference?

Now, if you’re in the market for a new car, and you believe in protecting your loved ones, you know for a fact that your beliefs match up with Subaru’s. You hear their message and think, “You know what? Maybe I should check out this new Subaru Forester, no matter the cost.”

Core Beliefs: The Heart of Your Organization

Core beliefs are at the heart of every organization, whether those organizations realize it or not. Subaru did what most organizations won’t: They not only discovered their core beliefs, but also shouted them out loud in a profound way that’s easy to communicate and even easier to understand. They stand for something. The process they executed so effectively in their new campaign is the heart of what connects people to companies.

And it’s what will make people fall in love with yours.

I don’t care what kind of organization you run. Whether it’s a nonprofit, huge global enterprise, small private company, or even a government agency, if humans built it, there was a reason they put it together. That reason is the heart of the organization. It’s more than a vision for the future, and it’s certainly more than a mission statement. It’s a core belief, and it’s why your company exists.

Imagine a business that people are almost magically attracted to. A business where people line up for your latest products, regardless of price, feature, or service. Imagine reading cover letters from job applicants begging to work with you because the company spoke to them on a level they’ve never experienced before. Imagine selling your services even though you barely mention who does the work, how it’s done, what it costs, or what your experience is.

That’s the power of knowing your core beliefs.

The brands that people love the most, including Nike, Disney, and Apple, have the most concretely defined core beliefs of any companies in existence.

Core beliefs are how we align ourselves not only to the companies we work for and run, but also to the companies we buy from (and even the political parties we associate with).

Yet most companies don’t nail down their core beliefs. In fact, most companies don’t even realize they should. They don’t inspire customers, employees, or anyone else for that matter. Nobody hears these companies’ names and says, “I love them.” Still, there is a reason these companies exist, and their founders did believe in something when they first started them. The problem is that these companies’ core beliefs aren’t clearly defined. Nobody has put them into words.

And if they’re not put into concrete, relatable words, then the core beliefs don’t exist.

The most loved companies stand for something—and they shout it out over and over again. Subaru nailed it with “Backseat Anthem.” And so can you.

We Believe in Making Waves

The company I spend the most time at, SquarePlanet, is smack dab in the middle of the Arizona desert. We don’t have a preponderance of water, so you won’t see many waves anytime soon. At least not of the aquatic variety. Yet our core belief is “making waves.”

The waves we make involve helping our clients discover their core beliefs and then elevating them, so people can remember and act on them. When people act from their core beliefs, it almost always causes trouble and disrupts their industry. That’s how they create waves. At SquarePlanet, we’ve helped all kinds of people, including executives from Google, United Airlines, Citibank, Coca-Cola, Northern Trust, and Jim Beam, as well as eight successful Shark Tank contestant teams, define their core beliefs and create waves in the process.

Here’s the secret, though: Nobody cares what you or any of those major companies actually do. In fact, when people ask you what you do, and you answer by actually saying what you do—such as IT consultant, sales leader, or carpet cleaner—you are being selfish. Seriously! When you answer in this way, you’re thinking about yourself and how you appear. But people don’t connect with what you do. They connect with why you do it.

This is why when people ask me what I do, I tell them: “I make waves.”

We’re wired to answer the question of what we do by explaining only what our work entails, but my goal with this book is to help you see that why you do what you do is what truly connects people to you and your company.

Heard over the Herd

Maybe one exists, but I’ve never heard of someone teaching a class on how to find your company’s core belief. No one forces you to fill it out on your tax forms or include it in your firm’s marketing materials. That’s why I wrote this book: to help you see how important it is to find your company’s core belief and actually stand for something.

I want you to have an actual purpose for waking up every day, rather than just putting one foot in front of the other, like a herd animal.

In fact, for millennia, humans have taken advantage of this herd mentality in other animals. One of the best examples is located in what is now known as Buffalo Jump State Park in Gallatin County, Montana. For at least 2,000 years, Native American tribes flocked to that river valley for one purpose: buffalo hunting.

The tribes strategically lured herds of buffalo toward the cliffs of the valley by planting vegetation all the way to the edge. Then, when the time was right, designated runners worked the herd into a frenzied stampede, directing them toward the deadly precipice. One by one, the frightened buffalo would follow the...