Lead with We with Simon Mainwaring, Episode #242

In this episode of The Power Producers Podcast, David Carothers and co-host Kyle Houck interview Simon Mainwaring, bestselling author of Lead With We & We First and the host of the We First podcast. Simon shares his insights on the importance of having a positive social impact as a business and how businesses can effectively brand and market their impact.

Episode Highlights:

• Simon discusses how his experience as the Worldwide Creative Director at Olgivy, working on campaigns with big brands, including Nike and Adidas, shaped his first and second books. (2:55)
• Simon explains that the reality of the society we live in requires businesses to have a positive impact, and you have to communicate that story, which is what people will react to. (9:20)
• David believes that there’s a lot to be learned from the big brands from a marketing standpoint. (15:38)
• Simon mentions that to avoid greenwashing, companies should establish a purpose, create a relational dynamic with customers, align their products with customer values, and regularly check in with customers to offer products that meet their changing needs. (17:32)
• Simon discusses the importance of building trust and understanding customers’ values and pain points to reverse engineer offerings and products, which leads to increased sales and customer loyalty. (23:12)
• Simon explains that in order to build a business by doing good, it is important to communicate in a collaborative way, using language that emphasizes mutual benefit, and to switch between self-directed signals and a collaborative sales process, as outlined in the book “Lead with We”. (28:50) 
• David discusses the importance of ingraining a consistent culture throughout an organization, which should be adopted by everyone from top to bottom and align with the organization’s core values, rather than just being implemented for the sake of increasing sales or profitability. (38:05)
• Simon mentions that aligning personal values with professional life can enhance personal well-being and improve business, leading to deeper connections, integrity, and authenticity in sales. (44:22)

Tweetable Quotes:

• “It’s not just about making money for money’s sake, it’s also about being sustainable and creating this sort of regenerative future.” – Simon Mainwaring
• “It’s really about sales and it’s really about doing homework on the companies or the customers you’re talking to and really understanding where their pain points are. And reverse engineering out of that, you’ll get a completely different result, you’ll book a lot more business and they’ll stay with you a lot longer because they like who you are and how you’re showing up in the world.” – Simon Mainwaring
• “The book that I just came out with called “Lead with We”, was designed to equip us with the language that will allow you to communicate the right way, and to build your business by doing good.” – Simon Mainwaring

Resources Mentioned:

• Simon Mainwaring LinkedIn
• Book: Lead With We
• Book: We First
• We First podcast
• David Carothers
• Kyle Houck
• Florida Risk Partners
• The Extra 2 Minutes