What makes people believe in a leader, remain loyal to a business, or support a brand when they have countless other choices?
According to leadership expert Simon Sinek, the answer often begins with one question: Why?
As part of our Customer Experience course at Washtenaw Community College, we watched Simon Sinek’s TED Talk, How Great Leaders Inspire Action. His message gave us a valuable opportunity to think about leadership, marketing, customer loyalty, and the purpose behind our own mother-daughter business, Dee & Dee Brown LLC.
Understanding Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle
Sinek presents a leadership framework called the Golden Circle, which contains three levels:
Why: The purpose, cause, or belief behind the organization
How: The methods or values that make the organization different
What: The products, services, or results the organization provides
Most businesses communicate from the outside of the circle inward. They begin by explaining what they sell and how they operate. Purpose-driven leaders reverse that order. They begin with why the organization exists before explaining how the work is accomplished or what is being sold.
Sinek’s central idea is that people are more likely to connect with an organization when they understand and believe in its purpose. His well-known examples include Apple, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the Wright brothers. Each example demonstrates how a meaningful purpose can inspire people to participate in something larger than a transaction.
Our Why at Dee & Dee Brown LLC
At Dee & Dee Brown LLC, our work includes reselling clothing and merchandise, creating educational content, sharing our entrepreneurial journey, and building new opportunities for our family. However, those activities explain what we do—not why we do it.
Our deeper purpose is to show that people can continue learning, rebuilding, and creating opportunities at any stage of life.
We are a veteran-owned, mother-daughter business built through resilience, education, teamwork, and lived experience. Donnetta returned to college after more than 40 years while managing health and mobility challenges. Dominique contributes her engineering background, creativity, caregiving experience, and problem-solving abilities. Together, we are turning our individual strengths into a shared business vision.
Our “why” is not simply to sell products. It is to create greater independence, build something meaningful as a family, and encourage other people who may believe it is too late to start again.
Why Purpose Matters in Customer Experience
Customer experience involves more than completing a sale. Customers form opinions based on every interaction they have with a company, including its communication, reliability, values, service, packaging, responsiveness, and willingness to solve problems.
When a company has a clearly defined purpose, that purpose can guide the entire customer journey.
For Dee & Dee Brown LLC, leading with purpose means treating customers as people rather than order numbers. It means presenting products honestly, responding respectfully, shipping purchases carefully, and learning from customer feedback. These actions help customers understand what they can expect when they conduct business with us.
A strong “why” also helps a business remain consistent. When difficult decisions arise, leaders can ask:
Does this decision reflect our purpose?
Will it strengthen or damage the customer’s trust?
Are we solving a real problem for the people we serve?
Does this opportunity move the business toward its long-term vision?
Purpose becomes a standard for decision-making—not merely a statement placed on a website.
Two Generations, One Shared Purpose
As a mother-daughter team, we sometimes approach challenges from different perspectives. That difference is one of our strengths.
Donnetta’s perspective is shaped by military service, decades of professional experience, returning to college, and rebuilding after major life and health changes. Her leadership emphasizes perseverance, organization, responsibility, and the belief that age should never determine whether someone can pursue a new goal.
Dominique brings a perspective grounded in engineering, technology, caregiving, research, and creative problem-solving. She often looks for the systems and tools that can make an idea more efficient, accessible, or sustainable.
Our experiences are different, but our purpose brings them together. We want to build a company that reflects both our abilities while creating something that can grow beyond a single resale platform.
This shared “why” helps us decide which opportunities truly belong within the future of Dee & Dee Brown LLC.
Turning Our Why Into Action
A purpose only becomes meaningful when people can see it in a company’s actions.
For our business, starting with why means:
Sharing our authentic story.
We want customers to understand the real people, challenges, and goals behind our business.Creating a dependable customer experience.
Our listings, communication, packaging, and service should consistently reflect professionalism and care.Using education as a growth strategy.
What we learn in college, entrepreneurship programs, and business-development workshops should improve how we operate.Expanding beyond reselling.
We are exploring digital products, educational resources, content creation, veteran-business opportunities, and other income streams aligned with our mission.Encouraging other people.
By sharing both our progress and our setbacks, we can help other families, veterans, caregivers, returning students, and aspiring entrepreneurs see new possibilities for themselves.
What Great Leadership Looks Like to Us
Sinek’s message reminds us that leadership is not limited to a title or executive position. Leadership appears whenever someone communicates a clear purpose, earns trust, and helps others believe that meaningful progress is possible.
For a small business, this can mean being honest when a mistake occurs, listening when a customer expresses concern, making decisions based on long-term trust instead of immediate profit, and remaining committed when growth takes longer than expected.
Great leaders do not simply tell people what to do. They give people a reason to care.
Our Most Important Lesson
The most important lesson we took from How Great Leaders Inspire Action is that a business must understand its own purpose before it can clearly communicate that purpose to customers.
Products may change. Platforms may change. Technology and customer expectations will continue to change. A meaningful purpose provides the foundation that allows a business to grow without losing its identity.
At Dee & Dee Brown LLC, we are still developing our business, but our direction is becoming clearer. We are building more than a store. We are building a story of resilience, reinvention, family partnership, education, and entrepreneurship.
That is our why—and it will continue guiding what we build next.
What Is Your Why?
Whether you are starting a business, returning to school, changing careers, or rebuilding after a difficult season, consider asking yourself:
Why does this goal matter to me, and who could be positively affected if I achieve it?
The answer may become the foundation you need to keep moving forward.
Learn more: Watch Simon Sinek’s How Great Leaders Inspire Action and explore the official explanation of The Golden Circle.
About Dee & Dee Brown LLC: Dee & Dee Brown LLC is a veteran-owned mother-daughter business focused on resale, entrepreneurship, education, digital content, and creating new opportunities through resilience and lifelong learning.
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