Simon Sinek's Golden Circle Applied to Your Advisory Practice

Most advisors start with what they do. Some get as far as how they do it. Almost none start with why.

And that’s exactly why most advisory practices stay stuck — competing on methodology, credentials, and price — instead of attracting the clients who genuinely need what only they can offer.

Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle changed how I think about positioning. Not just for businesses, but for individuals. For people like you and me, who have built real expertise and want to build something meaningful around it.

What the Golden Circle Actually Says

The model is simple. Three rings. What, how, why.

Most people communicate from the outside in: here’s what I do, here’s how I do it, here’s why you should care. Sinek’s insight is that the most compelling communicators — the ones who build movements, not just client lists — work from the inside out. They start with why.

Why do you do this work? Not the polished answer. The real one. The thing that drives you when a project gets hard, when a client pushes back, when the revenue dips and you wonder if it’s worth it.

For me, it’s this: I believe most people are living well below their potential — not because they lack talent or experience, but because no one has helped them see clearly what they actually stand for. That’s what gets me out of bed. That’s what Reignite is built on.

When I lead with that, the right people immediately recognize themselves in it. The wrong people self-select out. Both outcomes are exactly what I want.

The Advisor Who Leads With What

I see this pattern constantly. Experienced professionals — 15, 20 years of genuine expertise — trying to build an advisory practice by describing their services.

“I help companies with change management.”

“I provide CRM strategy and implementation.”

“I offer executive coaching for senior leaders.”

These are perfectly accurate descriptions. They’re also completely forgettable. Because they answer what, and the market already has thousands of people who can say the same thing.

When you compete on what, you compete on price. When you compete on how, you’re one methodology among many. When you lead with why — when you articulate the belief that drives everything you do — you stop competing entirely. You become something specific that the right people have been looking for.

How to Find Your Why

This is the part Sinek’s books describe but don’t fully walk you through. The WHY Discovery process goes deeper.

Your why isn’t a mission statement you write in a workshop. It’s something you uncover through your own story — specifically through the moments that energized you most, where you did your best work, where you felt most alive.

The through-line is usually there. It just takes someone asking the right questions, in the right order, to help you see it.

Once you can articulate it — clearly, in your own words, without the corporate language — everything else in your advisory practice becomes simpler. How you position yourself. How you write. How you sell. How you choose clients. How you show up in a room.

The Practical Application

Start here: write down five moments in your career where you did work that genuinely mattered to you. Not the biggest deals. Not the most impressive projects. The ones that felt most like you.

Look for the pattern. What were you actually doing in those moments, underneath the job title? Who were you serving? What problem were you solving that went beyond the deliverable?

That pattern is your why — or at least the beginning of it.

The Golden Circle works because it tells the truth. Your clients aren’t just buying your expertise. They’re buying into why you do what you do. Make sure they know what that is.

Ready to find your WHY and build your advisory practice around it? Book a WHY Discovery →

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Steven Tshakatumba is the founder of Reignite Advisors and a certified WHY Coach. Work with Steven →