Build a Startup That Reflects Your True Purpose | Eleftheria Egel's 4-Step Blueprint

What is the way to strike a balance of passion versus practicality as a founder in your business, so as to still keep objectivity in decision-making while running the business efficiently? So she's asking about the balance to how to stay passionate about the business and be practical in decision-making to avoid emotions or personal attachments cloud the judgments and everything.

Yes, uh, I think that one thing we need to understand is that ULP is not about emotions. The ULP is really, and that's why I tried really to, let's say, to ground it, to create these steps. It is actually about who you are.

Hello everyone, welcome to today's event with Funpowder Institute. This is Sanae, I'm from the marketing team, and I'm very happy to be your host for today's session. So today's topic is a bit unique. It's something new. We have a lot of signups for this event. So we're kind of excited for this one. So we all know that what makes startup truly stand out isn't just the product or the marketing, it's the founder core purpose. And today we have a unique opportunity to dive deep on how to, that purpose can shape your business your success. And we have a very special speaker, but I will introduce her later on. I just want to go very quickly through how to use this platform, how to respect each other on Airmeet and everything. So the agenda first is going to be, uh, our speaker will present the workshop today, which we will do it later on in the networking lounge. So I really recommend that you stay for networking, especially for this kind of events. So for Airmeet, uh, Please, if you have any questions, put them in the Q&A section, which is like just beneath the chat section. If you'd like to connect with us, tell us from where you're joining today in the chat. We'd love to know from what part of the world you're joining today. Put them in the chat. In the Q&A, put all your questions. We will line them up at the end of the session after the speaker's presentation. And if you'd like also to interact with the speaker, use the emojis, which is like on the bottom, on the bar at the bottom of the screen. Without any further ado, I'd like to introduce Ella. She's the CEO and founder of Navigating Transformation and co-founder of EOS Academy. She's here to guide us through how to leverage your unique life proposition, which the personal values, the strengths, and many other interesting topics. So hello, Ella.

Well, hi, Sana. Thank you. Thank you. It's a pleasure being here. I don't know if you can see me or not.

Can see you? Yeah, we can see you.

So I can hear you also, perfect.

So Ella, I will leave you to it. Make sure you enjoy the session. I will be in the background. I'll jump again to help you with the questions at the end. So please put all your questions in the Q&A, guys, not in the chat. See you later, bye.

Thank you, thank you very much. So welcome everyone, welcome to today's webinar. And as Sanna very well introduced it, our topic today is about how embracing who you are as a person can help you build a more authentic and resilient business advantage. I will skip the introduction of myself because Sanna did it, and then please, we can connect in LinkedIn and then we can talk later. So I'll start with— I think it's a good trigger to start. It is this quote by Mark Twain, this American author and humorist, because I think it is very relevant. Mark Twain wrote that the two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why. Um, this quote perfectly highlights the importance of understanding our why in our life, that is, discover our purpose, because it is our purpose, whether we understand it or not, that shapes our decisions, our lifestyle, and overall our sense of fulfillment or not in life. And in the context of our webinar, finding our why Finding your WHY today will influence the type of startup you choose to create as well as the energy you dedicate to its success. So this is the outline. So we will start by discovering what this ULP is, that is why it is important, and also give— I'll give you some practical ways to discover your own. And then what is the most important thing for us here today, it is how to take it and transform it into a strategic advantage. And I will give you examples and exercises on that. And finally, we will check some real-life examples of startups and companies that have successfully aligned their business strategies with, with their founders' ULP. So let's start. So this is your unique life proposition, as I call it. I use this term, maybe I've even coined it, and I like the term because it rhymes with the USP that we will see afterwards. And with this term, I want to capture what makes each one of us truly unique, that is, it is the combination of our core values, the things that matter most to us, our deep-seated motivations, which include our passions, that is, what excites us, and also our purpose, what drives us, and finally, our innate strengths, what we are naturally good at, be it skills or traits. Together, I call them the personal DNA, our personal DNA, because together these elements shape an authentic and very distinctive expression of who we are. It is actually the power to embrace our own individuality. And I don't know if in your journey as a founder, if for those of you who are founders here, if you have discovered that the more let's say you develop your business idea, your startup idea, the more actually you discover about yourself and you become, you embrace better your individuality. We should always remember that we all share common traits with others because we're all human, but not two people are exactly the same. And that uniqueness is what we bring to our work, to our relationships, and to our communities. And this is what truly sets us apart. So I think you will get also the slides afterwards, so just remember these things. I try to create them as simple as possible, even with pictograms, so that you will remember what it is about. And as I said, the ULP, I think it rhymes very well with the USP, which is a unique selling proposition. What makes your product or service stand out from the competition. It is the unique selling proposition, is the one thing that clearly tells the customers why they should buy your, from you, and not from, from your competitors. And of course, a strong USP highlights a specific benefit that solves a problem or meets a need or delivers something unique. It is your business differentiator. If you can see here in the slides, these elements, that is what customers want or need and what competitors lack, these are the two elements of usually of the USP. And I added here your, your ULP, that is who you are, and that for two reasons. First of all, if, if our product or our service is in a crowded market then it's often not just about the product, it's about the person who is behind it. That is, it's about you, the founder, because it is your unique story and presence that really connects with people and makes the sale. But even, second, even in cases when your product has a unique position, it is your unique life proposition that helps you communicate your unique selling proposition more effectively because your passion, your authenticity makes the message stronger and more relatable. I hope it makes sense. If you have any questions, please add them in the chat and then we check them afterwards. So, and why does it matter? Why does it matter? Why does your USP matter? Here I chose just a few reasons. The first, first of all, recognizing and first of all, why does it matter to recognize and embrace your uniqueness as an entrepreneur? First of all, when we are, you are true to yourself, you are confident and resilient, and confidence and resilience are two qualities that you really, really need when you navigate the ups and downs of the startup world of entrepreneurship. When you are clear on who you are and what you stand for, then you tend to make better choices that align with your vision, with your values, and with your long-term goals. And I want to give you a simple example for that. Let's say that you, you are very much focused on sustainability. Sustainability is one of your values, and you have a startup and a company, and you are deciding You need to decide between an eco-friendly but expensive supplier and the cheaper but less sustainable one. If you follow your ULP, for sure, if you align your ULP with your business value, for sure you will choose the eco-friendly but expensive supplier and you will try to save somewhere else. And we have also seen that a lot of startups fail because the founders lose interest or feel disconnected from what they are doing. If the mission— because mostly because the mission of the company does not reflect who they really are. So then it is also easy to burn out, it is easy to change direction without a plan, or they give up too soon. So this is the first reason, this is the first, the first actually part, that is, it's more the personal part, that the founder and the, as a person and their business, which is about them. And then coming to the second part about the investors, and I will take a very simple example of pitching. Of course you will pitch better when when you genuinely believe in what you're doing. That is, your passion and personal connection will make your pitch feel real. When you have a powerful story to share, your pitch becomes more emotionally engaging. And also, a founder with a ULP also has a vision for the future. So this is very reassuring for investors that you will be there for a long time and then it is worth, you are worth investing on. I want here to give an example that we see nowadays. We see more and more founders that they jump on trends like AI or crypto just because they are very hot. So these founders often struggle to get to stay committed when there is a challenge there. And what I want though to clarify is that even though your, your ULP is important, when it comes to the, to the value that your startup brings, the ULP shouldn't overshadow it. That is, the essentials need to be there You need to have a clear value proposition, you need to have market opportunity, there needs to be a market opportunity, you need to have a business model and proof that your idea works. So your ULP should add depth to this. So actually, and this applies for the whole presentation today, for the whole workshop, the ULP is there to add value to the essentials. it does not replace them. So this is, let's say, if it is something to keep from this webinar, please keep that on. So what does your ULP bring to your team? If you are clear, when you are clear about your ULP, then you attract team members who share your vision and your values, and this is how you build a strong and purpose-driven culture. And within that, I will talk about also the founder, how the co-founder, how to choose the right co-founder, because my experience with them, with startup founders, usually tech startup founders, they, they, they are looking for a co-founder who aligns with them in the sense of they bring in the business, probably development skills that they don't have. Which is very important to balance skills and to be complementary in skills. However, one shouldn't really not include the value alignment because it is the value alignment, it is the ULP, that is the alignment of both ULPs, that will show you if this co-founder is the right person to move ahead or not. And of course, within this value, within the ULP, you will see also the cultural element through the values. You will see also whether you share the same cultural approach and you share the same values that you want your company to be built on. And of course, customer loyalty. This is the last part. It makes sense because people, at the end of the day, they buy from businesses that reflect their own values and beliefs. So when you are clear about your ULP, you are more likely to attract loyal customers. So I want to show you, this is a process that I have created and I personally use when working with founders, and I can confidently say that it is tried, it has been tried, it has been tested, and it has been refined over time. And if you apply it correctly, I can even guarantee that you will have positive results. I call it the 4-step blueprint. So as you see here, there are 4 parts, but the first part is, is a bit separate. So the first part is actually about you as a person, that is how you can understand your, who you are, whereas the other three parts is how do you bring who you are within your business practice. So starting by this ULP, usually the ULP it is something that is very close into your heart as we said, is it the passion, it is challenge, or it might be a unique experience. And that passion, that personal connection, it is that makes your business more than just a job. It turns it into a very meaningful expression of your own journey. And when your business reflects your journey, your story, it is not just a professional endeavor and achievement. It becomes a true reflection of your purpose. So we will see, I have then afterwards exercises that we can see how you can do it. So we go now to the second part, as I said. So how do we bring these things into a business? So the first part is, because if you remember, the ULP is actually, it's got 3 parts. One part is about your deep motivations, which is your purpose and your passions. The second part is your values, and then it is your strengths. So let's start by the purpose. So the purpose, your personal purpose, is your why, as we said, the core reason why we do what you do. And the mission, if we leave it at the personal level, it is how you put the purpose into action. But here we're not interested so much in the personal mission. Here we're interested in how you bring this purpose, your personal why, in— how do you put it in action into your company? And this is the mission. And I'll give you here an example. I suppose that everybody knows Patagonia, and then the founder of Patagonia is Yvon Chouinard, who is an avid outdoorsman and a rock climber. With a deep lifelong commitment to nature and conservation. So he has got this personal passion about protecting the environment, and this personal passion, his personal why actually, shaped also Patagonia's business purpose. That is why the business purpose is why does the business exist. And the way he translated it into a mission is as follows: the mission of Patagonia is to build the best product while causing no unnecessary harm and using business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis. Then if we take the second element from the ULP, which is the values, we infuse it, we, we need to turn it into this, into the values, into our business values. Which the business values actually like your business DNA because they shape everything you do. So the trick here is to take these abstract ideas like values, like honesty, like creativity, and turn them into concrete actions. For example, let's say if one of your values is, core values, is respect, What you need, personal value, what you need to do is to outline, and you want to bring it into the, into your business, you need to outline specific ways that your team will show respect during customer interactions, so that the values are lived and not, they're not just listed somewhere in the wall. And continuing with the example of the founder of Patagonia, His personal values are environmental stewardship, simplicity, and responsibility. So to give you an example, let's take simplicity. In his personal lifestyle, simplicity for him means to use high-quality products that last. In Patagonia, how did he translate this value into a business value? So this business value translates as follows. He focuses it on longevity and quality. That is, the company does not follow fashion trends. It designs functional, durable garments. And also in a program that is more practical approach, he created, they created in Patagonia the Worn Wear program which encourages customers to repair and reuse their clothes rather than buying new ones. And I go to the last part, which is also your strengths. That is, how can your strengths become strategic advantage in your startup? And here is also where we see that many startup founders have a problem because they do everything And here also we see that they have problem with their co-founders because they are afraid to leave responsibilities because they are afraid they will be left out. So here what we need to do, actually what you need to do here, is you have to think about what you are naturally good at and what you genuinely enjoy. Because when you know your strengths That will help you identify where you can thrive and where you need support. As a, as a founder, for example, let's say that you're very good at starting relationships with people. So maybe this strength then in your business will be that you are responsible for partnership building. But on the other hand, if you don't have, let's say, if you don't, if you're an introvert and you don't like so much communicating with people, then of course partnership, the creation, the building of partnerships is not something that you should try. Then you have to find the right people who are there to complete the puzzle of what you need. And this is, I just, I always want to say that for me this is a very important point in the sense that I see many, many founders that they have not done their homework when they start with, start setting up a startup. They start working and doing everything, so then they lose, they waste time, they get overwhelmed and actually they cannot focus on building strategically or being innovative. They are lost in this micromanagement. And of course then we should always remember that it is different. Manager is something else and a leader is something else. So I go on. So this is the thing, this 4-step blueprint is what we will see now. So let me— okay, so let's find out how it works. We will start here. I, I have created for every step, I have created one different exercise for every part of it. I would suggest the following because I know then we have the breakout rooms then where we can meet and we can discuss further, but I would suggest the the following. I will give you an example of the exercise. For each exercise, I tried to choose this, the same example, the same story actually. But then it would be nice if you have a piece of paper, or you can write somewhere, or even if you want to add your, your, um, the answers in the chat, it's perfectly fine with me. Whatever you think will help you understanding better the process. So then if you want to do it on your own, you will be able to do it. So let's start with identify your ULP. So we start with the first one: what motivates me? We want to find our deep motivations. Here, one exercise here is ask why is that important to me 5 times. And there, I just want to say, there are so many exercises. I just chose the simplest ones because I know we don't have the time. So by asking why 5 times, you always go deeper and maybe you come closer to your motivation. I'll give you an example. So I created this scenario, um, we have: you are involved in volunteering at the local animal shelter. So this is our story. So I am a volunteer at the local an animal shelter. So I want to find out why, why did I do it, what is my why. So first question might be: why is volunteering at the shelter important to me? An answer could be: because I want to help animals in need and give them a better chance at finding loving homes. Of course, I prepared the questions and the answers before, so that's why they seem so easy, but they actually take some time. Okay, so with the first question, the first why, I got somewhere. The second why: why do I want to help animals in need? In a sense, you take a part of your answer on the first why and then you make it a question. So why do I want to help animals in need? Because I've always felt a deep empathy for animals. They don't have a voice to advocate for themselves, and I feel it's my responsibility to help them. So the third why: why do I feel responsible for helping them? I grew up with animals and they were always there for me. I formed deep emotional connections with them and I feel a strong sense of gratitude for how they have enriched my life. Fourth why: why did my pets have such a big impact on me? They provided unconditional love and companionship. Their presence gave me comfort during difficult times and taught me valuable lessons in care, patience, and empathy. And fifth why— of course, you can go 5, 6, 7, 10, um— why does it matter to me to show love and care to others, especially animals? Because I believe that kindness and compassion are the foundations of a meaningful life. Helping those who can't help themselves feels like a way to give back and make the world a kinder place. So through this exercise, we came deeper and we discovered that you as a volunteer, you have this, you're driven by these core values of kindness, compassion, and gratitude. I can give you— I don't know what is the best way, maybe Sanna can guide us— give you 2 or 3 minutes to go through this exercise on your own, very simple, or to move on and then we can check it during the chat, during when we meet afterwards. Sanna, can you give us some advice?

Yeah, I think the best way is to— for the audience is to write these notes down and then when we go to the to the networking lounge, you will be— we will do the exercise there. And you can move from one table to another to moderate and to monitor how the discussion goes.

Right. So I move on then now, huh?

Yes. But make sure everyone to take screenshot or like take notes of this screen before we move on.

Of course, later if you want, I can even share this example. It's not— it's this example exercise. I can share it for all the steps. So let's go to the what values, the second part, what values matter most to me. And here an exercise is that you list your top core values. And values, let's remember, these are the principles that guide our decisions and actions. And I mentioned already examples of values are honesty, creativity, freedom, service. We found from the exercise before that you as a volunteer that one of your values is kindness. Of course, it's not enough just to say kindness because a word means a thousand things to many people. When you say kindness, when you want to, you need to describe your value. That is, kindness is my core value. It is at the heart of everything I do. I always strive to make others feel valued, heard, and appreciated. Or every day I choose kindness, knowing that my actions make others feel valued, heard, and appreciated. This is just an example, but then you go also, how do you actually express your value in your life? If it is kindness, how do you express it? Then the third part is what excites and fulfills me. It's about more about your passion. The exercise I chose here is that you think about your activities, work or causes or hobbies that leave you feeling energized and fulfilled. That is, when you do these things, you feel the time flies. And you need to write down a list of these activities, 2 or 3, for example, I don't know, when you write music or when you go for a walk or when you Of course, we try to be more close to business. For example, when you plan something, you feel excited, or when you make a deal, you feel excited. So it's up to you. And then finally, what are my strengths? An exercise to find your strengths is to reflect on one occasion where you were successful. Questions to ask there would be something like, okay, what did you do? Let's say you succeeded in solving a problem that no one could solve. So, what skills did you use to solve it? How did you feel when you were successful at the moment? So these are— I just chose one example, but then the examples can be more complex and this will show actually what are your strengths. So this is about the ULP and remember these 4 things we will use them, these 4 parts we will use them for our business now. So how will we do it? We said for you as a volunteer that actually your purpose We need to translate it into a business mission and your purpose is as a volunteer that you feel kindness, you want kindness, you feel kindness and you love the animals because they are part of your, they have been part of the best moments in your life and they have been there to give you comfort. So the exercise here to find out how you will use it in your business offering. It is called the "Why, How, and What" exercise. Why? What is my personal purpose? And then the answer is simple, it's only one sentence: to create, to enhance, to improve.

How?

How am I going to achieve it? And then what? What does my business offer What does my business offer do to make it happen? I forgot to do here, okay. So let me find where I have, I have this exercise we said about the volunteer, about the scenario. So why, what is my why, what is my personal purpose? My why is I want to help animals in need and give them a better chance at finding loving homes. How does that translate into a business mission? The second part. The mission could focus on creating a compassionate and supportive environment for animals in need, connecting them with loving homes while promoting kindness, compassion, and gratitude towards every life we touch. And then finally, the what, which is actually the business. Actually, my what could be a platform which offers adopting opportunities for animal lovers and for my animals. I hope it makes sense, so we'll see it afterwards. It is a process. So why, what is my personal purpose, how will I, how I'm going to put it, how am I going to translate it into the mission of my business, and then what offering, would it be a service, would it be a product, am I going to use to realize this a mission that I have. Then step 3, how we infuse our values into the startup culture. Again, we take the values that you have found out about in your, in your TLP, the top 5 personal values, and then we try to translate each value into a business practice and we create a values map. I want to give you the example because it's the easiest thing. Let's say these— you have as the volunteer, we found that to an animal sanctuary, we found out that your personal, one of your personal values is kindness. So the business value, how do you translate it? The business value can be we treat every animal customer and partner with kindness, ensuring that everyone feels valued and respected. And then of course you need to make it practical, well, the steps that you take to do it. So how do you do it? That is, how do you make sure that you treat your customers with kindness? How do you make sure that you treat every animal with kindness? And so on. And at the end, that's why I added in this create a value map. You need, you create something like a value map, or you can create even a table with two columns. And the first column is the personal value and then the business value. And as I said, the business value might be the same, kindness here and kindness there, but what is important in the business value It is what does it mean practically for the business? How do you practice it? How do you implement it for your customers, for your partners, and for your suppliers, and so on? And then for this final 4, how do you leverage your unique talents for strategic advantage? I chose here an exercise which is called strengths and talents assessment. What you do, you make a list of activities or tasks that you naturally excel at, and you write there which tasks of these do you feel that, that, that they don't feel like work because they are the most enjoyable in the sense, or the easiest ones. It is actually, they will show you where you excel and where you have passion, and then how they can help you drive your startup forward. You need to write it and then create a strengths map. Simply here, if one of my personal strengths is easy communication, as I said, in my business I should probably focus on customer engagement and relationship building, and maybe I should delegate accounting or team management. And let's say for the lady that started the volunteering at the animal shelter, for you here, and she continued. So you started, you volunteered as a volunteer, you went, you have to see the whole circle. As a volunteer, you loved animals, you volunteered, and this purpose and this love for the animals guided you to create a platform for animal adoption. And then if a communication skill is one of your strengths, this could be an asset when you connect with potential pet adopters. So this is the circle, and I hope it makes sense. I would like to share a real example because I think that I have also business examples that were successful businesses, but I would like to share an example from a startup who is one of us, who a startup of the Founder Institute in Berlin, Remutation, and actually how we have applied this 4-step blueprint. That is, the, the founder is an Iranian gentleman who has migrated to Germany, and then of course in his life he faced had many challenges, not only to send money across borders, either for education or for health reasons, but also when he came to Germany, he was not able— he had to carry money with him, which was frightful because it is very dangerous. So this is part— this was actually his personal experience and actually his idea that that, okay, I want to do something to solve. Here there is a problem, and this problem has touched, has touched me very deeply and many around me. So I have a passion about to solve this problem. So what did he do in his startup, Remediation, which is a fintech startup? How did he align this personal purpose with his business mission. His mission, if you go to his website, it is to democratize cross-border payments through secure, low-cost solutions for underserved communities. Because in the sense, he— all the things, all the difficulties he has lived, that he has seen, he wanted to solve them and then He created then the ecosystem to make financial transactions easy and money transfer easy for underserved communities and for cross-border who have problems to send when they are, for example, when they are traveling, when they leave and work in a European country, they have a problem to send money back home to the family. So he created the platform to solve this problem. And then what were his personal values? What did he translate? What did he infuse his business culture with? His personal value was that other such platforms, they are very expensive because they focus more on the profit side, whereas for him He's got a customer-first mentality, transparent pricing, multilingual support because the people that will use his services come from places probably that they don't speak German or they don't speak English, and also financial literacy programs because many of these people who really need this service, they are not able actually they don't know how to use it. And what are his— how he leveraged his talents? He has got fintech expertise, blockchain expertise, knowledge, and then he brought all these things into the business. And then he surrounded himself with people who have— collaborators who have expertise in different areas. So I think it can be a role model for many of you who are starting now. I don't know where you are, but we're starting your startup journey. But here I want also to give you 3 other examples of companies that have made it, but they have applied this process one way or the other. I mentioned here this Khan Academy. Khan Academy, actually, the personal story, it was Salman Khan. Actually, he was a hedge fund manager, I think, who started the platform, and he started it from a very personal and humble beginning because his— I think he had his cousin or his niece, she was not good in math, maths and he wanted to help her understand. And of course it was very— as they didn't live in the same place, they couldn't communicate. So he started through using Yahoo Doodle, Notepad, and phone calls to teach her remotely. And through his approach, of course, her skills improved significantly. And little by little then, He came to the idea, well, there are so many young people in the world that need help with their school, but they cannot afford to pay. So in a sense, he created Khan Academy, which is very— he innovated. It was very innovative because he chose a population that was not serviced at the time. And also he created a model of teaching that was very simple. Then if we go to TOMS, probably you all know TOMS with the shoes, that is one for one, that is if you buy one shoe, sorry, one pair of shoes, then we will offer as a gift the second pair of shoes. And the founder, Blake Mizoski, he was moved by the lack of footwear that he saw during a trip to Argentina. And that's how this idea came to his head, this personal experience, and then create this one-for-one model. And about this Warbyparker.com, which they sell glasses, cheap and good glasses, Actually, the founders, I think there are 4, they're American, they didn't personally struggle with vision problems, but they were frustrated by the prices and the lack of transparency that you see in the eyewear industry. And what they did, they made it a personal mission to create a solution that was both affordable and accessible. And of course they offer nowadays in many places in the world where the people could not buy glasses before, they offer stylish high-quality eyewear and they give back to them, to those in need. So these are 3, I think, very well-known examples that can be inspiring for you. And this is my small call to action. I just started from— you can start whichever way you want. But I invite you to, in order to create a distinctive brand, first of all to develop your USP rooted in your ULP, as we just did, as this webinar showed you how you can do it. And then it is very important, in the sense, you need to promote your personal brand by becoming a thought leader in your space. If you have a personal story within your startup, you can certainly tell your story, and this is very important. You shouldn't lose any opportunity. And also, this personal experience of yours, you can be sure that it offers a different aspect, a different perspective on a problem. And then use this personal story, use, use your ULP To create strategic alliances, because our investors and also our partners need to be there for a long time, and usually we attract people who resonate with who we are. Businesses are made by people. And finally, as I said, you know, you can innovate based on your personal insights, use your unique experiences to uncover market opportunities. Nobody else, and I'm sure, has solved the problem the same way that you have solved it, or that you can solve it, because nobody else can have experienced it in the same way. So, and this is my message, what I want you to take away, that is: your weakness is your greatest asset. Embrace it, build with it, and succeed with it. Thank you very much for your time. So I'm open— well, Sanna, tell us what we will do now.

Yeah, thank you so much, Ella. I just need to stop presenting, and I think we do have some time for some questions from the audience, and then we will jump to the networking lounge. I do recommend everybody stays through the networking to do the workshop together. So Ella will be moderating the workshop. She will be jumping from one table to another to make sure everything follows the structure that she provided in the presentation. So let's take the first question here from Freya from Berlin. She's asking, what is the way to strike a balance of passion versus practicality as a founder in your business? So as to still keep objectivity in decision-making while running the business efficiently? So she's asking about the balance to how to stay passionate about the business and be practical in decision-making to avoid emotions or personal attachments cloud the judgments and everything.

Yes, I think that one thing we need to understand is that ULP is not about emotions. The ULP is really, and that's why I tried really to, let's say, to ground it, to create these steps. It is actually about who you are. Emotions are usually, if they are not values and if they are not reflected in our values or the outcome of our values or the outcome of our purpose, usually emotions are, I would call them, reactions to what is happening in that sense. So the balance should be between who we are, that is the values, our purpose, what we want to achieve within our business, that is the fundamentals of the business, with our personal approach, And the business itself, because as I said, the ULB is a competitive advantage, is a plus. It is not because we have— and we see it many times, I'm in social entrepreneurship and we see it especially with social entrepreneurs, and I understand because in Germany, where I also live, we have so many passionate, especially women, passionate founders that they want to make it. But then the passion is one thing, business fundamentals is the other. The business fundamentals, they need to be there. And then our passion, our purpose, etc., it is, let's say, it is what initiates our business idea, what keeps us going. But then we need to be pragmatic that the business is a business. And as I said, this is the simple example that if we are in for sustainability, and then we have two suppliers to choose, one cheap but not sustainable and then the other more expensive but sustainable, if we are close to our values, we will choose the one who is sustainable. And it makes sense because there are things that are not negotiable. And then we will find nevertheless commercial ways to make sure that we can still pay for the sustainable solution. I don't know if I answer your question or how well I answer it.

Yeah, it should be good. Thank you, Ella. So let's take another question from Deborah here from the US. She's asking, uh, what about profit? Values are important, but where does profit fit as an entrepreneur?

I think profit is extremely important. There needs to be— I think this is a continuation of the previous question. There needs to be a balance: what is negotiable and what is not negotiable. You have to see the values and the purpose as, let's say, as your north star, what is guiding you. A business is not a business if it doesn't make profit, because it will not survive.

Definitely.

Then that is the quality, let's say, it is like a fine game between, okay, how much should I give in and how much should I keep grounded? And this, and it's the purpose that decides that. Cool.

Thank you. There's another question actually from Deborah, which is, I like it. She's asking, what's, what if my strengths conflict with my larger life plan? I work best in person, leading teams are not working. But I want to be working remotely so I can travel the world educating my children while they are young.

So I think you should really check more your ULP because of course maybe with the years it might change because here we talked about how you can apply it into business, but maybe at this stage it is not having a business is not that important as having this family life or the freedom. So this is, I think, this is the first thing that you have to decide, what is more important, because there needs to be a priority. And all choices are very good, but you need to be clear with yourself, otherwise you will be in personal conflict, and then this will be detrimental for you, for your mental health, also decision-taking, but also for the business then. Okay, thanks, Ella.

So we have a question here from Leo from London. He's asking, what's the difference— what is difference between ULP versus personal story versus vision, mission, and value?

ULP is the combination, you can say, of all, because when we talk about vision, mission, and values, I suppose you talk about the personal ones, and these, and these are within, for example, the vision, the personal vision, and the personal mission Personal mission is the outcome of the personal purpose, of my why, why I do something. And the vision, of course, it is, wow, I have this purpose, well, how far do I want to go? Where, where, which star do I, do I want to reach? Then I don't remember the rest. The purpose, vision, mission, and then the values. Actually, it is, they are your principles, that is How will you move in this? If it is, let's say, to, I don't know, to create a— let's find an example. In your personal life, if your personal purpose is to live fully, let's put it simply, we'll keep it there, to live fully by traveling all over the world, let's say this is the purpose, I live fully, how will I do it? My mission is I want to travel all over the world and have an adventurous life. This is the mission. That is how you will do it. And then your vision is, at the end of my life, I want to have visited 258 countries. And then the values within that is, okay, so that means that what? How, how will I make this mission reality? That is, we Let's say, will I be hardworking to do that? Will I sell my house to do that? Will I work? Will I take a backpack? All this shows our values, that is how we see ourselves moving on in life. And I just chose a personal example. If we take this, an example, and then we talk about the vision of the company, And we talk about how the personal, as we said, the personal purpose becomes a business purpose and then a business mission. The idea, the vision is the same, is where we want to go, which star do we want to end up to. And then the values, again, everything starts from the individual. If there are small businesses and startups, that's why usually with, with small, especially we see here, and I've seen also, I've done some research also in the US, but also here in Germany. I've seen that family businesses, for example, that are grounded on the values of the owner or of the family, they are, let's say, more aligned also with the culture of the place. They give more to the community. The issue starts usually when we have corporations where we don't have a founder. So this element has been lost. Yeah, I don't know, then we can discuss it more in the, in the—

Yeah, thank you, Ella. A lot of people are asking how they can connect with you directly to, uh, for like a private— oh yes, for like a private, uh, conversation. So we sent their, uh, the LinkedIn in the chat, uh, if you could just maybe, uh, they You, you can go to her LinkedIn and send her a message. Just when you send a connect, maybe put like a note that you met during the event, and I think Ella would be happy to answer you.

Perfect. Absolutely, absolutely. Great.

And also one last question before we close the main session. Someone is asking, Nether is asking, um, like the ULP exercise, is it better to conduct it alone or in group brainstorming?

I think I made them seem very simple, but usually, of course, if there is somebody guiding or if it is a group, let's say a peer exchange, of course it is easier because many times we are challenged, so we can go a bit deeper and understand better ourselves. Okay.

Well answered. Thank you, everyone. So I think this is all for the main session. We still have the networking. Don't leave yet. Ella will be jumping from one table to another to let you know how to do the workshop and share all this, like to moderate how the workshop goes and everything. So please stay, stick around for the networking. Thank you all for being here. This was a nice event. Thank you, Ella, for the amazing insights and for all the— for the workshop you provided. I'm sure she will be happy to answer you all privately. So feel free to reach out to her on LinkedIn. Feel free also to reach out to me on LinkedIn if you have any questions about Founder Institute or so on. We do have these kind of events. We run these kind of events like on a weekly basis, like Mondays and Wednesdays. Make sure you keep an eye on our landing page. We have a lot of interesting events. Our team will share in the chat our next event coming up next week. So thank you all for being here. You will receive the recording of this event in 24 hours from now. As long as you registered at the main link, like the URL, the global URL link. So without any further ado, I will leave you to the networking. You start the workshop now. So this is now where the real work begins. Ella was just sharing some theoretical, like the theory of this workshop, but you really need to practice this during the networking lounge. Thank you so much, everyone, and see you next time.

Bye, Sanna. Thank you.

Bye.