hello my name is Dave Schoeneck and I'm

the CEO and co-founder of soapbox I

first want to say that it's a humbling

honor to be here and today I want to

talk about why great leaders need

authenticity specifically why some

movements fail and those with soul

succeed a little bit about soapbox to

understand why I'm standing here I think

about authenticity every day and I

actually get paid to think about

authenticity and the reason why I think

about this topic so much is because we

founded a company based on authenticity

see soapbox is a buy one give one

company and what that means is that

every time someone buys one of our bars

of soap or liquid hand soaps or body

washes we donate a bar soap to local

homeless shelters or food pantries all

across the United States and we also

work abroad in over 50 different

countries through various different NGOs

of where we have local makers actually

make the soap to not damage the local

economies that we seek to serve every

time someone buys one of our shampoos or

conditioners or lotions we do a month of

clean water development through our

amazing charity partner splash so

authenticity means everything to us

because without it we couldn't speak to

our consumers in that authentic way so I

think about these type of things often

and in order to dive into what I want to

talk about today we need to establish a

framework there are three different case

studies that I think about often when

trying to think of why leaders need

authenticity and the first one is about

TOMS shoes

Blake Mackowski started TOMS shoes back

in 2006 and it's a similar one for one

company but what amazes me is how in

such a competitive environment they were

able to have such astronomical success

a counter example of this is it

fascinates me why discount airlines like

spirit air or Ryanair in Europe are some

of the most hated brands by far yet

there are some of the most traveled and

profitable airline companies in the

whole industry and finally through this

framework I want to dive into how Nelson

Mandela after working with African

National Congress as well as the sitting

president at the time was able to

abolish apartheid and keep the country

from tearing itself apart so in order to

do that I want to use a former TED talk

so behind me is a gentleman named simon

Sinek that's Simon and during his talk

in 2009 he went over the golden circle

and that's the circle the golden circle

to paraphrase for those who haven't seen

it or those who need a refresher has

boiled down to this consumers don't buy

what you do they buy why you do it

I'll say it again they don't buy what

you do they buy why you do it and to go

over his talk briefly I want to dissect

each of the lovers levels so starting

with what every company knows what he

argues what they make what services they

provide this is full stop

businesses at least know what they

provide few companies understand the how

and by how he means well how are they

different what's their unique selling

proposition what makes them different

from their competitors but very little

almost none he argues understand the why

and buy why he means well companies why

should be to make profit that's not what

he's talking about it's why get out of

bed in the morning why if we were to use

an example of widget makers should

company X exists and company Y exists

why does that company have a purpose and

why should it be there and as I thought

about all these things

especially when it comes to authenticity

it was an amazing framework and it's one

of the reasons we started so box

something as simple as a bar of soap as

simple as a bar so one of the most

commoditized products in the history of

marketing we chose the name soap box

because it used to be door-to-door

salesmen that sold soap it was actually

one of the first masse commercialized

products and then soap operas actually

come from soap companies used to

advertise on radio programs daytime

drama to the head of the household that

they were hoping would buy their wares

soap operas we thought that we could

start a company that had a really

genuine why and actually changed the

emotional relationship with something as

simple as a bar soap so Simon's talk had

a profound impact on me but as I

continued to grow soap box and as the

years have passed I've noticed that why

is not enough it's not and this isn't a

critique it's more of an amendment I

want to walk through a very stark

example of this and that is a couple

years ago KFC franchise owner in Utah

had a family member that had type 1

diabetes and they wanted to do something

about it so they basically looked at

their menu found one of the most high

profit margin items on there and said

you know what every time someone buys

this item we're gonna donate $1 to the

Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation it

was an absolute failure and the reason

being is the item that they used to

raise money for the Juvenile Diabetes

Research Foundation was a half-gallon

800 calories 56 spoonfuls of sugar drink

obviously there's some irony here help

save type one diabetes by potentially

giving yourself type two diabetes

it didn't resonate it didn't work and

although the Y was there the Y made

sense why are they selling this item

because gosh darn it people with type 1

diabetes should not

be born into that life that makes sense

that why resonates but the problem here

is that it wasn't authentic I want to

walk through another example Lamborghini

one of the nicest cars ever made

it's a status symbol what if Lamborghini

today said we make such an amazing car

we make such a quality product that's

starting today every time you buy one

we're here to donate one to a child

that wouldn't stick it wouldn't make

sense that probably at best it would

hurt the brand and the reason being is

because it doesn't make sense we know

somewhere in a gut feeling when brands

are lying to us or they're trying to be

fake or inauthentic so I want to add an

amendment to the golden circle that was

a delayed click yes it's true that

people don't buy what you do they buy

why you do it but they only buy it and

they only believe in that why if it is

actually authentic so in the years of

running soap box and the years of seeing

the marketplace of different companies

or leaders come out and put out their

plans and put out their proposals and

talk about the real purpose of why they

believe and what they believe I've

noticed that without an arrow guiding

them it doesn't connect so I want to go

through Simon cynics Golden Circle by

offering an arrow that leads to the

bullseye of why and that is we start

with quality this is the base of the

arrow every company out there believes

that they make quality products we make

it with the finest ingredients we make

it with quality craftsmanship we have

the most skilled laborers assembling

this beautiful product for you most

everyone says that few companies

actually are transparent about that what

makes them different and in the age of

Yelp reviews and Amazon reviews and

Glassdoor reviews on how employees treat

or employers treat their employees this

is becoming increasingly important

radically transparent companies are

winning this battle and finally the tip

of that arrow is authenticity and you

can't have why without authenticity and

the reason being is because authenticity

is legitimacy and legitimacy leads to

why because without actually having

authenticity the arrow is pointless see

what I did there

the magic of clickers this comes down to

using the golden circle and using an

arrow this kind of looks like a target

and the reason why we use an arrow is

because the only way you get to the

bullseye of Y is through the authentic

care of so to quote a much wiser man

than myself as Shakespeare once said to

thine own self be true

same to brands be truthful to your brand

I don't want to walk through a couple

case studies TOMS shoes started by Blake

Mycoskie back in 2006 he was a

successful entrepreneur he goes down to

Argentina in a cafe a woman stops by

collecting shoes and he goes why are you

collecting shoes she goes well there are

children who can't afford shoes and they

can't go to school without shoes and

like Bob goes off and he goes wait I

should start a non-for-profit getting

shoes from America to Argentina this is

a great idea although he's a successful

entrepreneur and goes wait there might

be a more sustainable way of doing this

and starts TOMS shoes TOMS shoes has had

astronomical success in a wildly

competitive environment and the reason

being is because they follow the

authentic arrow better than anyone else

quality they were one of the first

people to actually introduce this type

of Argentine this alpha' raghava shoe to

the marketplace transparency they used

to bring people or then they still do

their customers along giving trips so

they could see it face to face so that

they could be a part of that how and

finally the authenticity is both the tip

but then also the result of building up

through this arrow and getting to why

and that is that every year they do one

day without shoes they get thousands of

college students across the country in

order to take off their shoes and walk

around campus without shoes Nike Adidas

New Balance they're not able to do that

and the reason being is because they

didn't start with that mission it's not

authentic to their brand but that's

pretty amazing when people are willing

to put themselves through discomfort for

a whole day in order to live

authenticity so it's not just an offense

strategy in business it's a defensive

strategy

Skechers looking at Toms success in 2010

launches Bob's I'm not kidding this is

literally what they did I want to be in

that board meeting where they're just

like if we can't do Tom's and we can't

do Tim's Bob what do you got Bob's I

like I think literally that's exactly

how the meeting win but I think about

this and I'm just like this how and even

though Skechers continues to make Bob's

this one line is nowhere near successful

as TOMS shoes let's take it a step

further air walk actually released their

air walk hope shoes and once again

nowhere near the success of Tom's having

authenticity with your brand is almost

creating a moat that the bigger

strategics can't cross because it is

your brand you're speaking from a place

of why and the reason why consumers

believe in that why is because you have

the authenticity and legitimacy to say

it but with every business Tom's ran

into trouble in 2012 and 2013 there were

growing amounts of criticism saying that

maybe they're one for one model actually

was hurting certain communities than

helping because what if they were

actually overloading certain economies

with free goods instead of actually

having local shoe makers make those

shoes more importantly what if they were

actually teaching dependence within the

communities in which they were serving

this these are great criticisms and the

way that Tom's responded to that is

basically by saying look we understand

that our transparency is being

threatened and without going from

quality to transparency to authenticity

if you lose one part of the arrow you

can't get to authenticity so they were

in trouble and Blake and his team

thankfully responded to that in 2013

2014 and 2015

their biggest metric as stated by Blake

himself was I want to see how many shoes

are actually made in the countries we

serve and they switched it over to

making where they give why is

authenticity important

well in this growing age of where

Millennials are looking at what their

friends are talking about with your

brand with other competitors brands and

even Harvard Business study said that

out of yelps five stars if you move just

one star over a business can expect a

five to nine percent increase in sales

just one star and with over 41% of

product searches starting on Amazon

first brands can't not afford to be

authentic because we're sharing it

anyways and a lot of friends say that I

look like a hipster and some of my

friends actually looked like this which

I think takes it a step further than

what I look like but hipsters and

Millennials are kind of interesting

breed being one myself

when I've noticed is that we're yearning

for authenticity from our brands the

reason we want free-range chicken and

organic this an organic thought and some

of us even look like we're churning

butter in our backyards and some of us

are is because we want something that's

real we've been over marketed to and we

don't believe fake social causes anymore

it needs to be from here so I want to

use a counter example when people fly

spirit and Ryanair in Europe they hate

it

like literally look at any type of

review on these Airlines and you're

going to see be PPP PPP and be PPP PPP

play it's Morris code and when we look

at this it's go how could these brands

be authentic it's because they're

nothing that they're not and they're

everything that they are they even

advertise that you are going to have a

bad experience fly us it will be the

cheapest option and you will hate it

that is what they say and it's so

interesting because if you look at the

authentic era once again the quality is

not the quality of service the quality

is the price people know exactly what

they're getting or hopefully right like

someone's not on kayaking like this

looks nice and then all of a sudden oh

my god

my life I guess that has happened to me

but anyways the point is that the

transparency comes into how they

advertise the quality is the price and

finally the authenticity is Michael

O'Leary the CEO of Ryanair a couple

years ago jokingly told in the press

conference that they were gonna start

charging people to use the toilet on the

plane

within hours everyone started reporting

that Ryanair was gonna start charging

people to use the toilet and that that

is true authenticity when you as a joke

be like hey you can't go to the bath you

can't poo on a plane you got to pay me

and then all of a sudden everyone goes

yep they're gonna do it that means you

hit the brand the brand is the fact that

people believe you're not gonna allow

them to go to the bathroom without

giving them a couple dollars which would

leave some really interesting playing

Fiasco's without change been bailed as

a-- basically the former CEO of a spirit

once said no one walks into McDonald's

and gets disappointed when they don't

see flaming out of the menu it's the

same thing with them they are who they

are and they don't try to be what

they're not finally a personal hero of

mine it's not like I knew him it's not

like he was like out my fave five I was

like hey Nelson I wish is Nelson Mandela

and to take this out of the corporate

world and to extrapolate over - why all

leaders need to be authentic I find this

example to be really interesting Nelson

Mandela spent 27 years in prison he was

the greatest single threat to the white

Afrikaner government or the National

Party and he was put in prison because

he had such a powerful message now

what's really interesting is that in the

years that he spent in prison he

basically when he was released said when

I walked out of prison that was my

mission to liberate both the oppressed

and the oppressor both the authenticity

that he was able to have allowed for

Union to actually come together because

one of the most important things

Nelson Mandela did is when he got out of

prison he didn't go to actually take

away everything that the Afrikaner had

yes he wanted dismantle apartheid but

one of the things that he fought against

his whole party the African National

Congress or was the fact that they

wanted to dismantle pretty much

everything including the sports leagues

and Nelson Mandela knew how important

these sports leagues were for the

Afrikaners or the the the ancestral

German or Dutch individuals that

actually forced apartheid on the

majority of blacks within South Africa

he knew how important it was and even

though he was giving pressure from all

the people within his party that said

why are you allowing these people to

have their sports and their

organizations as long as they weren't

continuing to push forward apartheid but

why were you allowing these things to

exist and the reason being is because he

knew that in order to get people to come

together to not have it tip Tara

something tear itself apart was that

there's some institutions that had to

remain when you look at the authenticity

that he had the quality was that he

could speak more than anyone else about

the time that he spent in prison he

could look at other members in the

Anne's he and say look what time have

you put in have you born a larger cross

and I have and the transparency was in

how he talked to other people and what

he said he was able to communicate

through both speech and written letter

to the Afrikaners that yes I am one day

get to be President I know that's wildly

presumptuous for me to believe that he

thought that but yes we are going to win

probably this election in 1995 or

1994-95 but we can come together and

finally the authenticity is he more than

any leader had that authenticity to say

you know I understand the rage and the

desire from the ancy party members as

well as the people who were put down

under apartheid to

rip apart the institutions but there are

some that need to stay because we need a

united South Africa it is true that

people don't buy what you do they buy

why you do it but they only believe in

the why if you have the authenticity

behind it I'm a firm firm believer in

the fact that all businesses can be

better and all businesses can do good

but that good must be authentic because

without authenticity we're left

wondering why thank you