How to Be a Successful Socialpreneur (The Ultimate Guide)
WHAT’S THE SECRET TO BE A SUCCESSFUL SOCIALPRENEUR?
Most of us so fully believe in the good we’re doing that we genuinely feel like we’d do literally anything to be a successful socialpreneur who’s able to change the world for the better.
In reality, however, even the most well-intentioned socialpreneurs among us are doing the exact opposite right now and consistently limiting success. Without even realizing it, valuable time and energy goes into attempting to make people care about something that doesn’t matter to them.
The “secret” to be a successful socialpreneur is building everything around a sense of “we-ness” - where care naturally exists for all involved - and consistently acting in service of that shared agenda.
By using that same time and energy to ignite four areas where care naturally exists for all the people involved - yourself included - you can make the brand feel irresistible and attract the crowd all this goodness deserves.
Before you can build a powerful shared agenda, you first need to understand what’s actually happening now that has you and the people you’re trying to engage unknowingly stuck in a never ending battle.
When you understand the battle, you can change it, prevent it from ever happening, and (finally) be a successful socialpreneur who does some serious good in the world.
BECAUSE, MOST PEOPLE AREN’T FEELING IT RIGHT NOW
Even though you’re working hard to do good in the world, people aren’t going to automatically care (except your mom...she probably cares...even if she doesn’t totally get what you’re up to).
That’s because most of the people you’d like to engage don't feel that the work you’re doing affects their lives.
So, you’ve probably been trying to explain what you do, why it’s so important, and how people are being impacted so they’ll care and get involved. Maybe you’ve even used stories to try to tug at their heartstrings or shared data and charts to make the facts clear.
So why isn’t it working? Why aren’t tons of people responding? Why don’t they care?
Psychologists say that humans are genetically wired to respond to tangible threats - like a house fire or gun. When faced with something like that, we feel its urgency and act FAST.
But, when the threat feels more abstract or distant - like growing climate change, increasing gender inequality, declining cohesion of downtowns, or dwindling funding for education - the problem seems far less urgent than the things staring us in the face...like figuring out what’s for dinner tonight so we don’t go hungry.
When something fails to connect with our emotions, experiences, and memories, our gut just doesn’t feel it.
IT SEEMS TOO FAR OFF AND IMPERSONAL
Cognitive psychologists say that’s because people have two different systems for processing threats. One system is analytical and works like a calculator. The other system is emotional and draws on our past experiences.
It’s this emotional system that processes a threat and converts it into a feeling. In other words, the emotional system is what makes a situation feel personal and immediate - or not.
The two systems seem to be most effective when they interact and reach the same conclusion. But, when they reach different conclusions - like the analytical side determines climate change is important but the emotional side doesn’t feel like it’s that big of a deal right now - the emotional side wins...even if the emotional side is wrong (true story).
So, if people don’t care about the threat you’re helping to address, it ultimately means they aren’t feeling it in their gut - even if they’ve analyzed the facts and their analytical side knows it’s important.
But, why isn’t that heartstring-tugging story doing the trick?
SOCIALPRENUERS HAVE LOST SIGHT OF “US”
If people aren’t feeling it - even that heartstring tugging story you so carefully crafted - then the cause or community feels too distant and impersonal to them. In other words, it seems like something you do or care about - not something that “we” naturally care about together.
It’s why why people don’t understand, don’t notice, or - worse - completely ignore your efforts...like that heartstring tugging story you spent so much time writing.
It’s also why many socialpreneurs give up. They feel like they lack the support and momentum needed to be a successful socialpreneur who really changes things.
So, if you want to be a successful socialpreneur, first you have to come to terms with the fact that, right now, there’s you and what you’re doing...and somewhere out there are the people you feel should care about it.
There’s no “us” yet.
You haven’t built everything around a sense that “we’re” all in this together so there’s no reason for people - including you - to genuinely care for the long haul.
To get the kind of results you want as a socialpreneur - to actually help solve one of the world’s social or environmental problems in a sustained, meaningful way - you need to develop a community that helps change the culture. Even though you’re selling a service or fundraising for a cause, you’re not a merchant who’s looking to get people to buy from them once or twice.
That’s an important distinction because communities think and act collectively towards a common purpose. They’re the result of a joint dynamic, a “we” instead of merely a “me.”
Even when the work you’re doing matters, and the facts support the urgency of the good you’re doing, if people aren’t feeling it right now, that’s a sign you’ve lost sight of “us.”
IT TOTALLY MAKES SENSE
Confronted with lackluster engagement numbers, two different systems get to work assessing the severity of the threat.
Emotionally, it doesn’t seem that serious right now that lots of people don’t care because we deeply feel the cause or community is urgent and important...so surely other people will, too. They should, right?
So, even when our analytical side sees evidence that the cause, institution, or town isn’t sparking the desired sense of belonging (or results), our emotional system concludes it’s not a big deal - and wins.
We continue to feel that it’s not a big deal because people should care...even though we know they currently don’t.
So, faced with low engagement numbers, most socialpreneurs get into the habit of looking for rational reasons to justify their feeling that people should care.
Often, we list studies or statistics that validate the importance of what we’re doing, which makes us feel more certain that we’re right that this issue matters and that people should care...the data supports the feeling we have.
That justification leads us to continue accepting and operating from this feeling that people should care...without ever recognizing we haven’t activated a common reason to care.
WE’VE LET OUR EMOTIONAL SYSTEM WIN...
...even though it’s wrong…
Even though the numbers tell us a different story, we don’t feel there’s a problem.
We believe people should care - and will care - because we feel the cause or community is important, and there’s data to back it up.
So, confident that the purpose of our work matters, the real threat seems to be that we haven’t gotten in front of enough people or provided them with the right content. We begin to look for reasons that will justify why people haven’t yet seen what we’re doing or realized that it matters:
What aren’t we producing? (we’re not telling enough stories, we don’t have a strategic plan, we aren’t sending enough news releases),
What can we produce? (we could make a brochure, we could start making videos, we could create an Instagram channel), and
How can we improve what we produce? (we could send better emails if we had a better email marketing system, we could make reading stories easier with a new website, we could share more content with a new social platform).
And just like that, we start focusing on making our point - either louder or longer - in an effort to get people to care about it...only to see the same lackluster results.
Rather than operating from a sense of why “we” all care, our emotional system got us side-tracked trying to get people to add feelings where they naturally don’t have them….to care about something that matters to us but not them.
AND, THEIR REACTION MAKES SENSE
People rarely stick around when a relationship feels one-sided. If, for example, a friendship, marriage, or working relationship stops being mutually beneficial, trust begins to erode.
At some point, stung by disappointment, you’ve probably complained about that friend who is always talking about herself, never asking you about your life, or always assuming you’ll come visit (again) even though she rarely (if ever) makes the trip to come see you. Or, maybe it’s been those toxic colleagues at work who bark orders without letting you bring your expertise.
At first, you might be willing to accommodate interactions like these that feel one-directional. But, it’s a whole other story when those disappointing interactions start to feel like an entirely one-directional relationship. It begins to feel threatening to your sense of well-being.
When we feel like something’s threatening our well-being, both systems kick in to assess because what we anticipated isn’t matching what we’re experiencing. I thought it’d be different… I thought we would… But, we always agreed that… Is it always going to be this way? Has it always been this way?
How threatening or unhealthy it feels wins even if the analytical side comes to a different conclusion. And, if both sides reach the same conclusion, the reaction is even more powerful.
Why are they treating me this way? Have I done something wrong? How can someone who is supposed to care about me show so little empathy for my feelings and experiences? Why don’t they care about what I have to say? Why am I prioritizing someone who doesn’t seem to care about me? Why did I sacrifice so much for this? How can I protect myself?
It’s the kind of stuff that causes someone to quit work they love, make the tough call to give up on the future they envisioned and get divorced, break up with their friend, or ignore your efforts.
THERE’S NO SHARED POINT OF VIEW
The more you each go with your gut, the less likely you are to consider the other person’s viewpoint, which means you’re creating distance not togetherness.
When we, as socialpreneuers, get into the habit of talking about what we’re doing, asking others to help us reach our goal, or expecting them to read the heartstring-tugging story we wrote, we’re trying to get them to care about something that matters to us.
The cause or community is not a shared point of view or purpose. It’s part of what matters to us - not them...it’s our viewpoint.
It might not be our intention, but we’ve become so focused on advancing our own viewpoint that we’ve stopped trying to understand their point of view.
When that happens, it can feel to them like we’re behaving like we know better than they do - or even like they know better than we do about what’s really important.
In fact, feelings of belonging and trust crumble (or never have a chance to exist) when it feels like there’s relative superiority - when someone overestimates the importance of their viewpoint or underestimates the importance of someone else’s.
SO, THEY DON’T HAVE A REASON TO CARE
When your viewpoint fails to resonate with them, their emotional system wins.
They don’t care...or don’t care enough to act now.
Since most people don’t want to feel like a jerk for not caring, they start looking for rational reasons to justify it’s okay that they don’t care about this particular cause or community. So, maybe they tell themselves there are bigger problems in the world, that they don’t have time for this right now, that they’ve already demonstrated they’re a caring person by supporting other causes or communities, or that there’s something more pressing at this moment that needs their attention...
And then…
...they delete emails, throw out brochures, ignore social ads, and eventually distance themselves entirely from all the good you’re doing…
Because, their emotional system has won, just like yours.
In fact, they’re in what researchers like Robert Weiss and John Gottman call negative sentiment override, which is when their overarching perception of the relationship is negative. That means, even positive and neutral experiences feel negative to them.
THE GOOD NEWS IS THERE’S AN ANTIDOTE
It's all about building everything around a simple, emotionally compelling reason for coming together...something that engages the emotional system by igniting four areas where care naturally exists for all the people involved - yourself included.
It’s called a shared agenda - or “brand heading.” It’s a place of emotional overlap - or “we-ness” - and it’s what makes a brand feel irresistible.
If you think of the brand as a plane and yourself as one of the pilots, the shared agenda is like the heading of the plane.
In flight, the heading of an aircraft is the compass direction the plane is pointing. It’s what enables pilots to stay on course to their final destination, fly in all sorts of weather, and even find their way back on course should they ever get lost.
Irresistible brands have a heading, too. It’s called a shared agenda. To be a successful socialpreneur, you need to have a well defined shared agenda or sense of which way to point your efforts to stay on course.
WHAT IS A SHARED AGENDA?
Built on what makes a brand naturally feel noticeable, desirable, memorable, and valuable to all involved, a shared agenda is a common motivator that serves as an orienting point. It’s a mutually beneficial, joint commitment to actively pursue a common aspiration. Like the heading of a plane, the shared agenda (or brand heading) always points towards what matters to everyone involved. It’s what creates belonging and togetherness.
It’s what makes it possible to shift focus away from advancing “my” viewpoint and, instead, turn attention to who “we” are and what “we” do together.
Having a shared agenda can help you identify new opportunities, stay on course during turbulent times, and even recalibrate should you ever need.
Although frequently unspoken, a shared agenda defines why the relationship exists - why, together, “we’re so us...” It highlights what’s mutual and speaks to the coordinated effort of creating a “we” - rather than merely a “you” and a “me” (or an “us” and a “them”).
It’s aspirational and in service to a life dream, but the shared agenda can’t be pure fiction or wishful thinking. It has to authenticity connect to the heritage of the organization and to the deeply personal emotions, experiences, and memories of those involved.
Most socialpreneurs mistake their mission, beliefs, or the cause itself as the shared agenda, but these set a course for “me-ness.” They tend to only reflect internal priorities, making them one-sided.
In contrast, a shared agenda applies to the needs and desires of everyone involved (not just the staff) and speaks to the meaning you’re all creating together as a community - the “we-ness.”
WHAT DOES A SHARED AGENDA LOOK LIKE?
Very simply, a shared agenda is a way to complete the sentence:
“As ________________, we always _______________.”
The first part of the shared agenda identifies who’s part of this community.
The second part of the shared agenda defines how “we” aspire to be together.
And, whatever the specifics of the shared agenda:
“we” means everyone involved in the relationship (not just you and the people who work for the organization)
“we always” means there’s evidence we have done this in the past, that we’re doing it now, and that we have plans or intentions to do so in the future.
No two shared agendas are the same because each relationship has special significance. Thinking about more familiar relationships, for a moment, the shared agenda you have with one friend, for example, will be different from the agenda you share with another friend. The agenda one pair of spouses shares will be different than the agenda of another couple.
Each relationship has a shared agenda as unique as the people in it.
So, just as every familiar relationship (like a friendship) has a unique shared agenda, the same is true for every brand.
HOW CAN SOCIALPRENEURS DEVELOP A SHARED AGENDA?
The shared agenda - or brand heading - is the result of an irresistible 4-point positioning strategy that ignites four areas where care naturally exists for everyone involved. These four irresistible points - not the cause or community itself - are the focus of the brand and the building blocks of “we-ness.”
Remember, a brand is a relationship between an organization and people, and an irresistible brand people will love has that “It” Factor that makes it noticeable, desirable, memorable, and valuable.
You’ll derive the shared agenda from this brand alignment.
To complete the first part of the shared agenda (“As ________________…”), look at the four irresistible points you’ve defined.
What do these points tell you about:
Who’s part of the community?
Who are we all?
What life story do we share?
What brings us together or unites us all?
How are we equals?
Remember, in a healthy “we,” nobody is subordinated to the other. “We’re” all in it together. Typically, this first portion of the shared agenda speaks to the Flight Crew and at least one other dimension. Aim to complete the blank with two words - an adjective followed by a noun.
To complete the second part of the shared agenda (“...we always ________________.”), look again at the four irresistible points you’ve defined.
What do these points tell you about:
How do “we” behave?
What do we believe?
What’s the life dream that’s attainable together?
What’s our priority?
Aim to complete this blank with no more than seven words to keep it simple.
Thesaurus.com, Vocabulary.com, VisualThesaurus.com, and image results for words and phrases can be super helpful in finding the right words to condense those four points into a concise expression of what “we’re” all about.
THE SHARED AGENDA REFLECTS ALL 4 IRRESISTIBLE POINTS
For example, Urgently Good:
Unites people using their expertise as a force for good (Flight Crew)
Helps all involved transform from overwhelmingly busy to productively advancing more good (Desired Destination)
Flies in the face of the common notion that some “thing” - some expensive design, strung together megaphone marketing, or new craze - is what’s going to get people to care (Strong Headwind)
Helps advance more social impact in the world (Forward Motion)
The brand heading for Urgently Good is: As eager progressives, we always advance more of what matters.
Notice, there’s no mention of branding, which is what Urgently Good does. It’s about our shared identity and viewpoint.
A great way to double check your work for the presence of all four points is to write a brief narrative that explains how the shared agenda connects to each of them.
For Urgently Good, here’s why it works...
Everyone involved wants to change the world for the better, and they’re not just sitting around dreaming about it. They’re so eager to do it that it’s their job. (Flight Crew). That’s what progressive people are - interested in change and progress, often developing new approaches to create the change they envision. The internal team only works with leaders of causes and communities working to unite others in support of progress. That means, together, everyone involved priorities what matters - the well-being of people and/or the planet - above just making money (Forward Motion). Advancing what matters, rather than a fad (Strong Headwind) helps everyone involved transform from overwhelmingly busy to productively advancing more good (Desired Destination).
Once you’ve developed a shared agenda, sleep on it and come back to it a day or two later to ensure it still resonates. Check to ensure you included all four emotionally charged dimensions in the shared agenda.
BASE EVERYTHING ON THE SHARED AGENDA
When you know what agenda you share, it’s time to communicate it and reinforce it through every word, decision, and experience.
Center all activity around this shared agenda to ignite and affirm care where it naturally exists:
Determine the brand’s vibe, voice, and story (Route)
Use that “route” to design the brand’s identity, including name, tagline, fonts, and colors (Passport)
Identify a chain reaction of 3-6 core activities that feed off and grow from one another so you have an organizational strategy that creates unstoppable momentum and keeps all that goodness moving forward (Propellor)
Based on that “propellor,” develop a semi-fictional representation (marketing persona - also known as a buyer persona or customer avatar) of the ideal person you’d like to engage now (Co-Pilot)
Figure out the organization’s expert process, approach, method, or system to solving the “co-pilot’s” problem (Flight System), and use the steps in the “flight system” to productize what the organization offers into all inclusive packages that have a defined scope and fee/gift amount that directly ties revenue to operating costs, profits, etc.
Create a strategy to attract the “co-pilot” and deepen engagement with them one step at a time through the “flight system” (Jet Stream)
Design the brand ecosystem - all the tangible materials and experiences outlined in the marketing “jet stream” so you’re ready for all this good take off - FAST (Auto Pilot)
Use the shared agenda as the basis for choosing the right:
people to hire or contract
way to decorate office space
uniforms staff wear
business cards to carry
music to play
materials to use
way to answer the phone
Be about it, and live the shared agenda.
Regularly ask: What will this choice communicate? How does that compare to the agenda we’re supposed to share?
BE CONSISTENT ABOUT IT
To be a successful socialpreneur, you need more than a shared agenda...you need to consistently operate from this place of “we-ness.”
For example, thinking about the shared agenda for Urgently Good:
Someone who is eager is anxious to get going. So, what can the Urgently Good staff do and offer to help folks in a hurry - both internally and externally? What could that mean for how staff collaborate? What could that mean for how to staff collaborate with partners? What could that mean for a business card?
Progressive people focus on well-being, promote change, and innovate. As progressive people, how can the Urgently Good team not just say they have those values but actually demonstrate those values? What could that mean for office supplies, how the team works with partners, and the communities and associations the team joins?
Advancing more of what matters means some things don’t matter. How can the Urgently Good staff use their expertise to advance more well-being and be ready and comfortable to say no when asked to work on projects that don’t fit this description? What could this mean for how the team might help partners prioritize and figure out what matters most? What could this mean for how the internal team sets and tracks priorities?
Consistently acting in service of the shared agenda is what breaks the standoff of viewpoints. There’s no reason to disagree because the shared agenda is all about furthering the viewpoint and care you all share. It’s the basis for mutual trust, respect, empathy, and validation. It also helps you avoid ever getting into a battle or doom cycle because the shared agenda ensures you operate from a place of why “we” all care.
You’ve totally got this!
And, if you ever feel stuck on the tarmac or find yourself facing an emergency landing, Urgently Good can help you be a successful socialpreneur who takes a bold idea and makes the world better.
Share this goodness…