It’s ironic, isn’t it?

In a format that is all about belief, few stations ever share what they believe.

Not a doctrinal statement, but a brand position. A flag in ground. A line in the sand. A reason to be on the air.

Chick-fil-A has one. Proof? Your money is no good there on Sunday.

Apple. Proof? So easy there are no instructions.

Coca-Cola. BMW. Harley-Davidson, my favorite example that I talk every time I’m asking to speak.

Even people that don’t own a Harley want to be identified with the brand. We can’t even get our own listeners to put a bumper sticker on their car.

In his TED talk, How Great Leaders Inspire Action, Simon Sinek says,

“People don’t buy what you do; they buy WHY you do it. If you don’t know why you do what you do, and people respond to why you do what you do, then how will you ever get people to vote for you, or buy something from you, or, more importantly, be loyal and want to be a part of what it is that you do?……

Dr. King wasn’t the only man in America who was a great orator. He wasn’t the only man in America who suffered in a pre-civil rights America. He didn’t go around telling people what needed to change in America. He went around and told people what he believed.

‘I believe, I believe, I believe,’ he told people. And people who believed what he believed took his cause, and they made it their own, and they told people. And lo and behold, 250,000 people showed up on the right day at the right time to hear him speak.

How many of them showed up for him? Zero. They showed up for themselves. And it wasn’t about black versus white: 25 percent of the audience was white. We followed, not for him, but for ourselves. And, by the way, he gave the ‘I have a dream’ speech, not the ‘I have a plan’ speech.”