#82: The Secret to Building a Cult-Like Following for Your Brand (SUMMER REPLAY)

0:00Your brand needs to be against something. It doesn't need to try to be everybody's friend. What are you against? What does your brand stand for? When you do that, people will defend you. And then those who defend you and voice their defense of you, create a tribe. Hey, podcast producer Bobby Richards here. And this summer, we're bringing back a few of our most valuable StoryBrand podcast episodes, the ones we believe are worth hearing more than once. Let's jump right in. You're listening to the StoryBrand podcast based on Donald Miller's bestselling book, Building a StoryBrand. The StoryBrand framework is made up of seven key elements, all of them anchored in one powerful idea.

0:44Your customer is the hero and you are their guide. Each week on the podcast, you'll get exactly what you need to craft clear messaging that connects with more customers and grows your business. Now let's dive in with your host, Donald Miller.

1:03Let's talk about how to turn your customer base into a cult following. I worry about this topic because it sounds manipulative. It sounds like how do you be manipulative and make people loyally follow you and march to their death if you want them to. I truly don't mean it that way. What I am talking about is actually studying this devotion and loyalty people have towards certain brands, toward certain leaders and trying to dissect it, deconstruct it, understand it, figure out what are the positive elements of that and how we can use them for our brand and how we can use them to actually improve our brand and improve our customer satisfaction.

1:50People like being loyal to certain brands. Let me give you an example. I bought a Milwaukee drill, a cordless drill. I don't want to throw a DeWalt under the bus. I've had a DeWalt drill. I had a DeWalt cordless leaf blower, and both of them, I struggled with them. They didn't work super well. And so I ended up looking at some YouTube videos, and somebody was very passionate about Milwaukee, and I replaced my DeWalt drill with a Milwaukee drill. I freaking love my Milwaukee drill. I love it so much that I got a Milwaukee chainsaw, but I needed a chainsaw. I love that chainsaw so much, I got a Milwaukee blower for my front porch.

2:37Just put it in the closet, pull it out, blow things off. I got a hammer drill from Milwaukee. I ended up getting, and then I discovered that Milwaukee has something that many of you probably knew about well before me. Milwaukee has a toolbox system called the Packout Toolbox, Milwaukee Packout. This is the adult version of Legos. That's what this is. And you get hooked on it, you get addicted on it. And I have spent$800 on the boxes that hold my tools. I freaking love this thing. And if you go onto YouTube, people are ridiculously passionate. They are 3D printing their own stuff that gets connected to the tool.

3:24They're more passionate about building their toolbox than they are using the tools to build something else. And I'm one of them. I'm a cult follower of Milwaukee. Now, does that make me bad? Are they trying to kill me? Are they taking advantage of me? No. They have such a great product. They have such a great product, and it is so fun to play with and so fun to use that I've become an evangelist of that product. Another product, Double RL Clothing Line. I'm wearing it. This is a Double RL suit. If you're watching on YouTube, you can see I'm wearing a suit right now. It's a Double RL suit. They make timeless clothes, extremely well-made, designed to last for your entire lifetime once you buy them.

4:09Everything they make is designed that way. And if you watch some old Western movie, they are probably wearing double RL. Like anything shot in the 40s, but also like in the 1800s in the Old West, they're designed to be sort of timeless and also have this sort of nostalgic feel to them. and they're just ridiculously well made. My friend Spencer started the RRL brand or was instrumental in starting the RRL brand 30 years ago. I didn't know this. I'd been fishing with Spencer like three or four times. I knew he worked with Ralph Lauren, and it turns out he's the guy who helped start RRL. I am a cult follower of RRL, and there are a few reasons for that.

4:55They make the best clothes, I think, on the planet for men. They're timeless. They look great. They happen to fit me pretty well. And probably another reason is Spencer will not give me a discount and will not give me anything for free. And he also, he makes like sweaters that he'll make like 500 of them and he won't make any more. Their catalog has pictures of models, I guess, looks like a catalog from the Old West wearing their clothes. And they don't even talk about what the clothes are or put prices on them. It's just pictures of people wearing their clothes, and you've got to freaking figure it out yourself.

5:34What it is about this brand, I can't exactly, but I am a cult follower of that brand. Almost every day, I go on eBay and see what double RL clothes are available because you pretty much can't get them new, or you have a very, very limited time that you can get them because Spencer doesn't care about making money. So what is it about these brands though that are making us, giving us that identity of I'm a cult follower of this brand? I think there's a few things I'm going to try to diagnose it. One is they are for something. Both Milwaukee and RRL are for something. Milwaukee is for extremely high quality.

6:18These are great tools. They work great. They feel tough. Even though they're plastic, there's some kind of weird plastic that just feels extremely durable. Double RL, you literally like their T-shirts have like not, you know, like a normal T-shirt would have on the cuff like two little threads that sew it together. On a Double RL shirt, that could be 12. They could literally just be 12 of them. The buttons are made of metal, not plastic on a lot of their stuff. The sweaters are hand-woven. Very few people in the world can even make this stuff. How they're having it made, I don't know. It's high quality.

6:59What this tells me is they're against something. They're against cheap crap. and I think it is and they're also against using customers for money especially Double RL they're not interested they're against selling out Post Malone did a song recently where he mentioned Double RL and my text chain has Spencer on it the guy who helped found this and I literally jokingly said to the text chain Spencer promptly files defamation lawsuit against Post Malone for mentioning his clothes because he's so anti any form of promotion. Of course, joking there. But you like somebody like that. You like somebody with a backbone who doesn't care, who's nonconventional, who's superior.

7:49You identify with somebody who is superior. And part of being superior is being willing to state what you're against, even indirectly. So be against something, have a superior product. This creates another element of a cult-like following, and that's a tribe. We are the sort of people who use Milwaukee tools. We are the sort of people who wear double RL clothes. It's creating an identity around a tribe. This is who I am. I am like this. So let's talk about why being against something. We're going to put all this together. Why being against something, why having a tribe calls this instinct of loyalty in our following?

8:39All right, I'm going to get into politics here. I'm going to talk about a Democrat. I'm going to talk about a Republican. I'm going to talk about a celebrity who have cult-like followings. Bernie Sanders, cult-like following. Donald Trump, cult-like following. Love or hate are these guys, cult-like following. Taylor Swift, cult-like following. What do the three of them have in common? They have in common everything that I just said. They take strong stands against, very strong stands. Bernie Sanders is against rampant capitalism and the abuses of capitalism and the wealth gap and the unfairness of these practices.

9:31And Donald Trump is against woke liberalism. Ultimately, Donald Trump is against anybody who's against him. I mean, that's just true. He's against anybody who's against him, bottom line. But what this creates is a loyal following. Taylor Swift will tell you who she doesn't like and will attack them. You write a bad review of her record and she's going to write a song about you and she's going to go after you. She's against. It's very strong against feeling. And so with every sort of cult following, you have strong for and strong against. People either love Starbucks or they hate it. People either love Taylor Swift or they hate her.

10:17People either love Donald Trump or they hate him. People either love Bernie Sanders or they hate him. Your brand, here's the lesson for you. You want to create a cult-like following. Your brand needs to be against something. And it doesn't need to try to be everybody's friend. It doesn't need to be, please like me. If you've ever struggled to explain what your business does or you felt like your marketing should be converting better, then join us for StoryBrand Your Business Live. It's a two-day workshop here in Nashville. It's happening September 1st through 2nd, where Donald Miller himself will teach you how to build clear messaging that works.

10:56And at the event, you'll also get direct feedback from StoryBrand certified guides. So your message finally connects with customers. All of this year's workshops have sold out, so don't miss your chance. Register for the StoryBrand Your Business live event happening September 1st through 2nd at storybrand.com slash live. In the opening pages of building a story brand, I say marketers will rip you off. They will take your money, do something creative and clever, go win an award from their fellow marketers, and you will lose money because they were trying to win an award, not grow your business.

11:36And I think that's a crime and I am fundamentally against them. I'm fundamentally opposed to them. I think they're con artists. I think they're criminals. And that book took off. And StoryBrand has a minor cult-like following. So question number one, who are you against? What are you against? What does your brand stand for? Part of creating a cult-like following. When you do that, people will defend you, and then those who defend you and voice their defense of you create a tribe. Here's a rule Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, and Taylor Swift follow to a T. They will adamantly defend the people who defend them, and they will attack the people who are against them.

12:24If you will defend your people and your tribe and go to bat for them and sacrifice for them, you'll create a cult-like following as a leader, and your brand will as well. We are this sort of people. We are opposed to this sort of people. If you are with us, we protect you. We love you. We are loyal to you. I will sacrifice for you. That's the ethos. That creates a cult and a tribe. Why? Here's why. What you're actually selling is security. The human brain wants security, longs for security, demands security. Most of your worries, most of the concerns that you have, the anxiety that you feel, is because at least in perception, your security is being threatened.

13:08So if you want people to love your brand or love your product, make it an asset that will protect them and provide them security. Let me give you one tip, one strategy on creating a cult-like following. We all know about vision and value statements. What's the vision for your company? What's your mission statement? What are your core values? List those out in an internal document that you share with the team so that you realize your identity. We all know what those are, but have you ever thought about creating a vision and value statement, not for an internal document, defining who you are, but a vision and value statement defining who your customer is?

13:51I did this recently, and it was extremely helpful. At StoryBrand, we have something called the StoryBrand Certified Guide Community. These are freelance marketers who agree that clarity is everything, and we agree that we should be making our clients money instead of trying to win marketing awards. It's not that we're against cute and clever, but we are against cute and clever if it interferes with clarity. We believe the simplest way to state it is how we should state it and that you should be making your customer money. And I decided, you know what, we have to define who we are as a group and agree on that.

14:26And so I created a vision statement for our guide community. And it is this, to support a global network of the most trusted marketing professionals in the world, StoryBrand Guides, who help small businesses grow through clear, effective, story-driven marketing. When a business owner works with a StoryBrand certified guide, they don't just get marketing collateral, they get a committed partner who helps them win. That's our vision. Our values. Clear. Clear beats clever. We believe confusion costs money and clarity creates customers. While we appreciate creativity, we never sacrifice clarity for cleverness.

15:01We create simple, straightforward, narrative-driven campaigns that actually work. Our clients shouldn't have to think hard to understand what we've created. They should immediately see how it helps them grow. Effective. Storybrain guides are effective. Outcomes over outputs. Our clients don't pay us for websites, emails, or social media posts. They pay us for results. We are committed to growing our clients' businesses, not just delivering assets and moving on. When campaigns underperform, we follow up, adjust, and keep working until we get them wins. We measure success by client growth, not project completion.

15:37Generous, community over competition. We do not see other guides as competition. We see them as collaborators, allies, and friends. We share what we've learned, how we price, how we deliver, how we win. We refer business to each other. We celebrate each other's wins. We believe there is more than enough business to go around, and we support fellow guides, even at personal cost, trusting that generosity creates opportunity for everyone. We are driven, motivated to grow. Marketing is always evolving, and so are we. We are committed to continuous learning and constant improvement. We stay sharp, we study what works, and we push ourselves to the absolute best at what we can do.

16:15Our clients deserve guides who are not just certified but exceptional. Positivity over cynicism. We are optimistic. We fight cynicism and negativity. We choose optimism, encouragement, and constructive problem solving. When we have concerns, we address them privately and professionally. We protect this community by refusing to let negativity take root. The guide program is a family, and families show up for each other with respect and support. And then I go on to talk about our commitment to each other by joining the StoryBrand Certified Guide Program, I commit to upholding these values and contributing to a culture of trust, excellence, and mutual support.

16:52I want a group of people who's for me. I want a group of people who are optimistic. I want to be against marketing that doesn't deliver results. I want a tribe, a tribe that's going to succeed. And by the way, we radically defend the people who are in our cohort. We radically defend our StoryBrand Certified Guides. That's how you create a family, a tribe. Why do families and tribes exist? They exist because they are survival assets. We are safer if we are together, if we are with each other. We are safer. We are more secure. And when you actually take the next step and say, our tribe will help each other survive with generosity, with optimism, with sacrifice, by being against something that is a threat to ourselves and to our customers.

17:48That's who we are. I think you contribute to creating a cult-like following. This has been a semi-lengthy rant. I hope it's been helpful to you. I think it is good for you to create a cult-like following. If you have created a cult-like following, and you're not a cult, and you're not full of lies and deception, you've probably got a great product, and you've probably got great customers, and you probably have a backbone, and you take a stand. People like that create tribes. You will create loyal evangelists as a customer base when you are willing to sacrifice for them, when you are willing to define their enemy, when you are willing to go after their enemy, when you are willing to protect them.

18:30That's how you create a cult like that. Thanks for listening to the StoryBrand podcast. No matter where you are in your marketing and messaging journey, get the tools, the training, and the support you need to start clarifying that message at storybrand.com. And don't forget to follow and subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss an episode. And if you're watching on YouTube, hit that subscribe button and then leave a comment letting us know what resonated with you and what we can unpack to help your business grow in a future episode. Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next week.