Chapter 4 – Where our “Why?” lives

Why’s hard.

I’ve enjoyed writing these.

I probably don’t spend enough time reflecting on where we’ve been and what we’ve done, but with Janno occupying the past 10 years of my life, I should take a breath more often for exercises like this.

As the title of this mini-blog series suggests, the journey through how to do what we do has inevitably brought us to the question of “Why?” we do what we do.

Truth is, our “Why?” was something I’d been ignoring.

For the longest time I saw it as an annoyance.  A blue-bottle in my brain that didn’t serve any purpose for the day-to-day of getting the job done.

I tried.

I read (listened to) Start with Why, by Simon Sinek.

That didn’t help, particularly as I’d already started.…

I developed an unhealthy relationship with the question “Why?”

I started to regard business owners that knew the answer with the same disdain that portly men in red trousers regard vegans.

“Ignore it”, I thought.

But, you can’t ignore it.

So, I attacked it in a different way, making use of the wider team to ponder our own existence, and employing the services of consultants (and clients), Ignium to help with the ongoing scaling-up conundrum.

Until, in January of this year, a routine browse through my LinkedIn newsfeed threw the answer at me.

Back in 2018 we were commissioned by long-term clients CMS to produce a film for them as part of the This Is Me campaign from the Lord Mayor’s Appeal.

It was a project that I remember being particularly proud to be involved with, but that (until this LinkedIn moment) had gradually – and regretfully – faded from prominence in my mind.

CMS Partner Vanessa Whitman had led on the project, and with the film going on to be recognised as a great success for the campaign and the firm, she had been invited to speak at the Lord Mayor’s Appeal Impact Reception.

Vanessa posted a video of her speech to LinkedIn, and therein lay the answer to our “Why?”

[The link to watch the video can be found at the end of this article.]

It goes without saying, that we’re in no way responsible for the unbelievable bravery shown by all of Vanessa’s colleagues that contributed to that special piece of content.  It’s their stories alone that make that video the impactful and successful piece of content that it is.

Nor can we in any way be credited with the incredible mission and aims of the This Is Me campaign.

Our small role in helping to share those stories though, is where our “Why?” lives.

Because we believe that great content has the power to create impactful and positive change for lives and society.

This is why we do what we do.

It’s not always obvious, but it’s there, in every project, with every client that we choose to work with.  Across video, podcasts, live-streams and photography.  Our “Why”? can be answered.

This is what I’d been getting wrong.

The answer to “Why?” isn’t concerned with where Janno Media as a business is going.  It’s about the purpose of the things we create while we’re here.  To engage, inform and inspire.  And to create positive change for lives and society.

You can watch the Lord Mayor’s Appeal video of Vanessa Whitman here.