what he was asked what's the most
difficult thing in life this response
was the most difficult thing in life is
to know yourself what do you think he
said was the easiest the easiest to give
advice ok so let's look at Maslow's
pyramid you guys are familiar with
Maslow's hierarchy of needs right so at
the bottom is food water shelter
clothing sleep then there's safety and
security in the form of the job home
social structure next comes love and
belonging that comes from friendship
intimacy and forming connections
self-esteem self-confidence achievement
the desire to be a unique person at the
very top of the pyramid the most
important thing a couple thousand years
ago self-actualization
self-realization which comes from being
creative having meaning and purpose so
what makes them more valuable not the
experience portfolio awards education
staff or studio size which is oftentimes
the answer I get when I ask this
question it's their ability to help
others find their meaning and purpose
because if that's the most difficult
thing is to know yourself if you can
help somebody know themselves I would
think that that's pretty valuable and
this can come in any form like if you
guys make podcasts if you produce video
or animations you can tell their story
you can help them to get to know
themselves and tell that story it can
come in the form of an identity system
some people refer to that also as
branding it can be expressed digitally
as in a website or maybe on social media
how do you help somebody know themselves
it's through asking questions so here's
the first bit I want to drop on you your
value is determined by the quality of
the questions that you ask let me say
this another way the questions that you
ask demonstrate your knowledge
experience confidence and therefore your
expertise so let's figure out what are
some low value questions and some high
value questions so quantitative
fact-based questions like what does it
look like when is it due
what's the budget they're all important
for getting that job done but tend to be
the lower value questions these are the
kind of questions I asked as I was
embarking on my career I just wanted to
know the facts okay this will lead to
checklist and those of you guys that
were part of the session yesterday these
are helpful but it can be pedantic which
is the word I was looking for like
overly concerned with the details so
let's go a level up so this is my value
scale there so at the bottom is the
minus sign at the top is the highest or
we're moving above middle right now
qualitative questions tend to be higher
value they are like how did you come up
with this idea describe how this looks
in your mind and how will you judge if
this is successful these are open to any
questions and they invite the client to
collaborate and participate with you it
also starts to change the dynamic that
you have with your client because the
first set of questions the what the the
detailed questions make you an
order-taker like you want fries with
that like you want to read you you want
it to be read what what shade of red do
you want how big should the type base be
should it be 68 points there's 72 points
right so we've all maybe have had
experience one one point in our life if
you haven't you're blessed to have a
client want to sit down next to you or
move the camera for you or whatever it
else that it is that you're doing so
this is how they see you as hands for
creative work so those are pretty good
questions can we do better think so the
high high value questions get to purpose
and they cut they tend to cause people
to be more reflective like the kind of
questions I've been asking you guys so
if somebody asks you to do something ask
them why is this important why do you
believe that to be true and the mother
of all questions is beyond money why do
you exist why does this corporation
company exist when companies lose their
way
because the CEO is no longer connected
to the founders I should say the
founders were no longer connected to
running the company they lose their way
they become profit driven they need to
report to their shareholders and they
mess up this is why often times when the
owner or the founder leaves they bring
them back or they hire large management
consultancies to come back in to tell
them what they're about again which
sounds like a strange idea that you
would pay a lot of money for somebody to
come back and tell you who you are to
bring you back to your roots your
purpose so if we look at it on a let's
say my animation here okay at the
outside of the of the circle this
structure I I drew here are the symptoms
this is typically what the clients tell
you you know I need this I need that
they start to tell you what it is but if
you keep asking the kinds of questions
that I'm talking about to drive towards
purpose you can maybe find the cause of
the symptom we need a new website well
why do you need a new website because
customers are complaining about a
website and you keep diving into you get
to the core this is where the true
solutions live so we ask questions to
surface deeper meaning okay so here's my
little analogy of the onion which is
very popular to use at the center is the
core the purpose in the meaning what we
want to do is we want to keep peeling
back the layers but what happens if you
do what does that look like this is
something that we refer to as discovery
and we charge money to do this it's a
framework of questions designed to
surface deeper meaning and here's the
results of one we help the client figure
out that they exist to create a safe and
supportive environment for individuals
who have felt ostracized by society so
that they can form meaningful
connections how does that sound that
gets towards purpose so are you guys
asking these kinds of questions are you
getting these kinds of answers what do
you think this is worth and what would
you pay to find out
purpose
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