#85: The Way You're Talking about Your Business Isn't Working (SUMMER REPLAY)

0:00The way most people talk about their businesses, it isn't working. Most companies, if I go to your website, I cannot tell what problem you solve. You're talking about a bunch of stuff I don't care about. You're making a lot of mistakes. And so listen, this is the key to phenomenal growth in your business. By the end of the next hour, I want to give you a framework. You're going to invite customers into a story in which they use your product to win the day in their life. And you are going to help the hero win. 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.

0:42Let'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. Your 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.

1:16If you have a great product and you have really good people and you've got really great procedures to sell those products, but you're capped, you're stalled. You need the fourth P. The fourth P is positioning. How have you positioned your product in the marketplace so that people understand why they need it? Are the words you are using giving value to the products that you sell? Here's the reality. People buy products after they hear or read words that make them want to buy those products. It's all about the words. Now think about the last thing that you bought on, say, amazon.com. Probably almost everybody watching this has bought something in the last week.

2:04I bought something today on Amazon. I had to buy a little, an RCA connector to go and do a headphone jack. And what I did was I went, they had 25 different versions of it. I read a review of the one, I checked the price, Amazon said overall pick, and so I bought it. Now notice, I read the review, I read the price, I read the words overall pick, and I bought it. It was the words that I read that made me want to buy it. When we think about branding, we often think about our color scheme, our logo, our tagline, things like that. I promise you, it's the words that you use. In fact, Amazon.com everybody here has bought something on Amazon probably today if not this week that is an ugly website with ugly colors so we've just proven that it doesn't have to be beautiful in order for you to make money in order for you to do well in business it's the words that you use so I want to introduce you to a framework that is going to help you use short simple repeatable sound bites in order to take market share in whatever it is that you do.

3:12It doesn't matter if you're business to business. It doesn't matter if you're business to consumer. It doesn't matter if you're a nonprofit. The words that you will use will help your business grow. All right, before we get into the framework, let me explain why the StoryBrand framework works so well. Building a StoryBrand sold over a million copies. The new version, Building a StoryBrand 2.0, came out into the world. It's doing very well, but that many people have bought that book because that book helped them come up with seven short sound bites that grew their business. We've heard 10x, we've heard 100x increase in sales when people started using the right words.

3:54So we want to use the right words. Now why does the framework work? Why are people so attracted to the right words? Well here's why. There's two things that the human brain is always trying to do. The first thing that the human brain is always trying to do is survive and thrive. That is the job of the human brain. It is to survive and thrive. Your job, your brain's job, is to keep you alive and keep you on the planet. When you go to cross the street, your brain says, look left and right, because a bus could be coming, right? Well, all the time, your brain is scanning the environment for threats, and it's trying to mitigate those threats and navigate the world in such a way that you stay alive first.

4:40Now in a first world country, we have food and shelter. We have all that kind of stuff. So your brain moves to more sophisticated realms in terms of survival. It'll look for people to associate with. It'll look for products that give me more comfort, peace of mind. I'm looking for better sleep. I'm looking for better health. I'm looking for better connection with my children. I'm looking for a better marriage. I'm looking for really good friends. I'm looking for things that deal with my emotional health, my psychological health, my physical health, much higher levels of survival. But your brain is always looking for the next level of survival.

5:15Always. That is the job of the human brain. Now, why do you need to know that to stay in business? This is why. The only reason people buy things is to survive, to somehow increase their chance of survival. Again, in a first world country, it's not all about living and staying alive, it's about thriving and having more, having more resources in order to stay alive, in order to mitigate threats or defend myself against threats. And so what you have to do in order to sell your products, this is very, very, very important, associate your product with the survival of your customer. Associate your product with the survival of your customer.

5:58We're going to talk about how to nuance that and get into it no matter what you sell later in this hour. Now, the second thing that the human brain is always trying to do after you help people survive and thrive, the second thing that the human brain is always trying to do is conserve calories. Your brain does not want to spend a lot of calories thinking. In fact, your brain really doesn't want to think at all. And here's why. You burn between six and 800 calories a day just Just processing the information out in the world. Just taking in information saying, should I turn left and right? Where am I going?

6:32And I got to enter this in the GPS and I don't like this radio station. I want to listen to this. And oh, I got a call from my daughter. I got to remember to go by the bakery on the way home. Six to 800 calories just processing the day. So you don't have a whole lot of time to think about anything. And your brain says, you know what? So much information is being thrown at us. So many people want our attention. Over 5 ,000 commercial messages a day are being thrown at the average American. That's incredible. So tons and tons of calories. And when you think about this, when you think about this, when you think about this, so a brain that needs to survive is going to say one thing.

7:09I need to know what to think about and what not to think about. And so automatically you have a filter. It's a subconscious filter in your brain that says, I want you to think about this. I don't want you to think about that. Now, hear me out. If you did not have this filter, your life would be entirely and completely unmanageable. What do I mean by that? You would have walked into a Starbucks this morning. You would have picked up a pound of coffee. And you would have said, this is kind of interesting. It feels like metal, but it moves around with the texture of paper. And look, I think it may be glued on the top.

7:42That's a glue seal. No, maybe that's a stitch seal. I don't know. Oh, it's got these metal things. If you put them up, they kind of look like a cat. I wonder if this was shipped on a boat from somewhere. I wonder, you would be thinking about things that you don't need to think about. But instead, that is not how you walked into Starbucks. You walked into Starbucks, you avoided the coffee because you don't need that, and you walked up to the county, you placed an order, you waited until they called your name, and you went up to the cup with your misspelled name on it. You walked out the door and you got some caffeine, which you need to give you a boost of mental focus so you could go to work and make money that day.

8:16In other words, of all the things that you could pay attention to in Starbucks, you paid attention to only the things that help you survive. So you see what I'm getting at. If I go to your website, if I go to your landing page, if you send me a text message, if you email me, if you're giving a keynote presentation at a workshop, if you're doing a live stream or a webinar, if you're talking to somebody on the phone as a sales rep trying to sell your product, The people that you're talking to are wondering one thing and one thing alone. How will you help me survive? And that's it. And you need to answer that question fast.

8:59When you do, you will find that people lean in. Tell me more about that. Wait, wait, wait, hold on. You said that this could actually, you know, remove the wrinkles from around my eyes, making me look younger and more vibrant so that people are more drawn to me, which is a way that I can survive better? Oh, that's amazing. Wait, you said that I could get better sleep and be able to focus better and be a better parent and be less moody? Better sleep sounds good. That could help me survive. But that's not how most of us talk. When we talk about our businesses, that's not what we do. When people say, what do you do?

9:35We say, well, you know, it's complicated. Wait, think about what you just said. Well, it's complicated. You know what you might as well have told me? Well, you're going to have to burn a ton of calories to understand what I'm about to say. And by the way, you don't even know if it's connected to your survival or not. So why don't you give me 200 of those calories that you don't want to use today so that I can say a bunch of gibberish about how my grandmother started this company 75 years ago? No, not interested. So whenever somebody says, tell me about your company and your business, Here's what I want you to do.

10:13Now, if you have to go to sleep, remember this. This is the one thing I want you to remember. If somebody asks about your business, I want you to say, you know, I got tired of seeing people struggle with X. I got tired of seeing people struggle with X. I knew it was hurting them. I knew it was crushing them. So I created Y. And I sell them Y in order to solve that problem. And what have you just said? You've just said, I am somebody who helps people survive. And if people are struggling with this and it's it's sapping their survival, I come in and I stop that. People who help us survive are very important to us.

11:00People who tell us about their lives, we can give or take that. We can pass it. it doesn't matter. We value people who help us solve problems so that we can survive. Therefore, because the brain is always trying to survive and thrive and always trying to conserve calories, what you need to do is create a framework of messages which you talk about your products, short, simple sound bites that help people understand how you help them survive, And you need to do so in such a way they don't have to burn any calories to understand. We have a mantra around my office, and it's this. If you confuse, you will lose.

11:48If you confuse people, you will lose. Never, ever confuse them. Now, listen, I've met some people who I would consider amateur business marketers and messengers. And they say, Don, you know, I like being mysterious. I like making people curious about what I do. And I like it when they ask me and they want to know. And you know what I say to them? You must also like being poor. You must also like bankruptcy. Because if you confuse, you will lose. It happens every time. People cannot be confused about what you do. You must explain it very clearly. All right. Now you understand how the mind works.

12:31So let's introduce a framework that helps you come up with the sound bites that will help people understand how you can help them win the day. And in order to do that, we're going to use an age-old formula that comes from story. Story structure. Now, before we get into it, story is very formulaic. Screenwriters, novelists, they've been using stories for ages, for ages, in order to invite people into an entertaining day. You know, what's the last movie you saw in the theater? What's the last movie that you saw? Last night, I watched that old Walt Disney movie, Miracle, about the 1980, I think it was 1980, Olympic team, the hockey team that won the gold medal and beat the Soviets.

13:19Great movie. And I thought, no, I'm not going to go to sleep. I mean, I am going to go to sleep. I'm just going to watch 10 minutes of it. But the story sucked me in. Right. And I ended up staying up a little later than I wanted to finishing this movie. You know, here's the here's what's interesting about the power of narrative structures and the power of story. The average brain burns 800 calories, right? But it also spends 30 % of its time daydreaming. The average brain spends 30 % of its time daydreaming, unless you sit down and watch a movie or you open a book called Harry Potter. When you do that, your brain does not daydream.

14:03It just pays attention and it'll pay attention for hours. In fact, it will keep you up later than you want to be up because you want to know how this story ends. Story is the only tool known to man that can get a person to not daydream for a long period of time. That's why those of you who've ever been to church and you're daydreaming and you have no idea what that guy up there is saying. as soon as he says, let me tell you a story about how this affected me and my wife, you start paying attention. The second that somebody starts telling a story, everybody clues in. And so what we want to do is we want to say, okay, what are these formulas that these screenwriters have been using for centuries in order to compel people?

14:51Screenwriters haven't been using them for centuries, but novelists have, storytellers have, playwrights like Shakespeare. Centuries and centuries have been captivating people with these stories. So let's ask ourselves, what are these formulas? How do they work? And how can we use them to get people to pay attention to us? All right. Now, one caveat that's going to happen. I'm going to explain to you how stories work. And this is what's going to happen to you for the rest of your life. You're going to see it. You're going to be watching a movie and you're going to say, oh, my word, that's what the hero wants.

15:22And that guy's the guide. And that guy's the villain. And he's leading people to believe they have an external problem, which causes an internal problem, which causes a philosophical problem. And in Act 2, Part 3, this is the climactic scene, which leads to the result, either a tragedy. You're going to see it all now that I explain to you how story works. Let me show you an ancient story structure that has never, ever, ever stopped working. And we're talking about thousands of years. Since Plato wrote Poetics, right this this structure has been working all right here we go the first thing that you got to have if you want to tell a story is a character a hero has to show up on screen and that hero has to want something they have to want something and it has to be crystal clear and defined what it is that they want.

16:17If we're writing a rom-com, that hero walked into a coffee shop, met a young woman, maybe he spilled his coffee. There was all sorts of chemistry between them. Everybody in the movie-going audience says, this is the cutest couple ever. They've got to get together. And now we know what this movie is about. This movie is about that guy and that girl getting together and somehow getting married or something because we know that's what they want. Now listen, there are two mistakes that amateur screenwriters make, and they're big, giant mistakes that will sink a movie and cause the audience to stop paying attention.

16:57These same two mistakes are the same two mistakes that business owners and business leaders make when they talk about their companies, when they talk about their products. Mistake number one, you're too vague. If what the movie is about is vague and what the hero wants is vague, you are causing me to burn too many calories to follow this plot. For instance, if I said, hey, let's not watch the rest of my lecture. It's kind of boring. I want to show you a new movie that I saw about a guy looking for fulfillment. Are you interested in that movie? No, you're not interested. Why? Because a guy looking for fulfillment is too elusive and vague for me to get my head around what the entertainment offer actually is.

17:50But if I said to you, hey, I want to show you a new movie. Another one of Liam Neeson's daughters has been kidnapped. All of a sudden you're going, oh, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, I've seen this before. I understand. This is going to be entertaining. Maybe you're in. When your customer can't quite understand how you can change their lives, they're going to do business with somebody else. You cannot be vague. If I go and analyze your website, if I look at your website, and on the top header of the website is something like, trust is the commodity we exchange. Right? Trust is the commodity we exchange.

18:32I'm not going to do business with you. That sounds really professional. It sounds kind of poetic. It sounds like something nice about your brand, but it doesn't help me understand what problem you solve for me. People do not want to know about your brand. They want to know what problem you solve for me. That's what they want to know. You want to talk about yourself. I want you to talk about the customer's problem because that's the hook. So we can't make mistakes like that. And I see it all over the place, all over the place. There's literally a billboard across the street from my studio. And the billboard says, sitting on the fence, call a cowboy.

19:26and the word cowboy is spelled with a K. And then there's a picture of a guy with a cowboy hat on. That's it. Sitting on the fence, call a cowboy with the word cowboy misspelled and a guy with a cowboy hat. Now, what in God's name is that billboard trying to sell? Well, it turns out it's a company that can put up a fence around your backyard. But what they did with that billboard is they tried to get cute. Sitting the fence, oh, that's cute, you know, not sure who to hire to build your fence. And then there's a picture of a cowboy, and then call a cowboy, and then there's a phone number. Do you realize how much money they're losing with that stupid billboard that says nothing?

20:13They literally think people are going to pull their car over, get out, sit on the hood, and study that billboard like it's a puzzle, and then they're going to call them to buy the fence. I guarantee you that that billboard has sold zero fences. Now, let's change that. Let's make it really clear, right? Let's get that cowboy out there with a cowboy hat. Let's be cute. We'll do the cowboy theme. I'm with you there. And have him out there working really hard on a fence. And then it just said, hire a cowboy to build your fence with the phone number. That's it. Hire a cowboy to build your fence with the phone number does not make people think.

20:57Listen to me. I love you. I want your business to grow. You got to listen to me on this. It's really important. Stop making people think. please stop making people think but we got a problem and here's the problem you are so close to your products and services there's so much about them that you understand that you are projecting your knowledge onto people who know nothing and so you are speaking in what feels very like very clear language to you because you've done this all your life you've done this a million times you know the product inside and out. You're speaking, you think you're speaking clearly, but nobody understands what you're talking about.

21:41You got to go all the way back and come up with sound bites. The first mistake that people make in creating their brand message is they are too vague and elusive at explaining, at offering people something that they want. They haven't defined something really, really clear that people want, that people can understand. Need a new fence? Hire a cowboy. How many calories did you have to burn to figure out what I was trying to say? None. None. So don't be vague. Don't be elusive. Don't be cute. Don't be clever. Be clear. Be clear. I believe you can do it. In fact, often when I'm talking to somebody about their business, they'll tell me about their business, and then I'll say this little magical question.

22:30I'll say, what did you mean by that? And then the next words out of their mouth will be crystal clear. And I'm like, say the clear part, not the clever part, and you'll do more business. All right, first mistake people make when they're talking about their brands, they're too vague, they're too elusive. Second mistake people make, they talk about too many things. They make the story about too many things. Now, this is a little complicated, but I want to explain it to you because I think it's worth it. Your brand can be known for one thing, and that's it. Your brand will not be known for two things.

23:05Your brand will not be known for three things. Now, the further you get from your brand, the more true what I just said is, right? Right. If you know, your brand is about five or seven things, your spouse knows it's about three or four things. Your good friends know it's about two things and everybody outside of them only knows you for one thing. And so what you want to do is you want to figure out the one thing that your brand is known for and make that the whole thing. Right. If I said to you, what is Chick-fil-A known for? You might say, eat more chicken. They're known for chicken. They own chicken.

23:48They dominate chicken. They don't do anything else. It's just chicken. That is really, really smart. Really, really smart. If you can get your brand to be known for one thing, I think it's great. Now, you say, Don, we don't just sell one thing. Okay. Apple's probably known for really cool user-friendly devices, phones, you know, computers, iPads. They're known for really cool, easy-to-use technology. All right. So they own that. On and on and on. I am known for creating clear messages. And I've known that way because for seven or eight years now, I've talked about it endlessly. endlessly, it's almost all I'll talk about if you put a camera on me, right?

24:38If I'm walking down the street and the news comes up and says, man, what do you think of this snowstorm coming? Are you prepared? I'll say, yeah, I'm prepared for the snowstorm because I clarified my message and it's really important that you clarify your message. So call me. My name is Don Miller. I can help you clarify your message. Good luck with the snowstorm. I mean, I'm just like, I got my soundbites down and I repeat them over and over and I don't care who I'm talking to and that's how you do it. Every good marketing effort is an exercise in memorization. And what I mean by that is once you have your sound bites down, you need to say them so clearly, so effectively and repeat them so often that everybody you talk to can memorize them and repeat them back to you.

25:19You don't need to use different kind of language. You know, I remember going and visiting a presidential candidate. Presidential candidate was the front runner in the presidential election. This is probably, oh gosh, eight years ago, more than eight years ago. Frontrunner in the presidential election in the primaries. And he was losing ground. He was losing ground to the other primary candidates. They were all starting to pass him up. He had$112 million in his super PAC. He had$14 million in the general campaign fund. And they called me and they said, why are we literally diving in the polls when we have all this money, we have all this brand awareness.

25:59And I said, you got to come up with soundbites and repeat them. And his team literally said to me, our candidate won't do that. He's a scholar. He wants to be in town hall answering questions honestly. He will not repeat soundbites. He's not a fake, inauthentic guy. And I said, well, you have to understand if that's true, your candidate will never be president. Never. It will never, ever happen. Because not a single voter is sitting there pouring a glass of scotch trying to study the nuance of your candidate. In fact, it's an incredibly arrogant thing for him to not serve the voter by simplifying his message.

26:38It's very narcissistic. I'm not going to simplify my message. I am so important that you need to sit down and spend hours trying to understand what I can do for you. How cocky and arrogant is that? You can't do that as a business owner. Don't expect people just to sit down and try. Let's come up with some beautiful, short sound bites that you can repeat and serve them by not making them think. It's the altruistic thing to do. It's the kind thing to do. and it's what you're going to do and it's also going to be incredibly, incredibly effective for you. Okay, don't be vague and don't be about too many things.

27:21If your brand is about too many things, that's great. Now, listen, if your brand is about too many things, you need to come up with one umbrella thing that you're all about. My friend Dave Ramsey works down the street. He's known for financial peace. He's going to help you achieve financial peace. Let me just tell you what you already know about Dave Ramsey. He wants you to have financial peace. He's against debt. So now we know what he's for and what he's against. And we know that because he's on a radio show every day repeating it. And he's been repeating it for 25 years. And he never changes his message.

27:57And he makes about$300 million a year with that message. And you can do the same thing. What is the one thing that your brand offers. It doesn't mean you can only sell one product, but all the products that you need, that you sell need to help deliver on that one promise, whether it's better sleep, more peace, better community, better health, better plunger to unclog your toilet quicker, better cat litter. You know, my wife and daughter, who I love more than any two people I've ever known in my entire life, lobbied me for close to a year to get a cat. And I thought, guys, we have a dog. We can't add a cat.

28:43But they, like some women are capable of doing, melted me down until I gave in. And now we have two cats and a dog. That's how much of a backbone I have against these ladies. I've actually just fallen in love with these cats. But what I noticed the other the day is I was changing the cat litter. Listen to me. I never wanted a cat. Now I'm changing cat litter. That cat litter is really heavy. I mean, it's, I'm like, you gotta be kidding me. It comes from Amazon, sits on my front porch. I lift it up. I'm like, this is like 40 pounds of cat litter. I'll take it into the laundry room and change cat litter.

29:17I see an ad and the ad says, tired of heavy cat litter? Our cat litter doesn't weigh very much. And I thought, brilliant. That is a brilliant ad, and it is aimed directly at me and directly at somebody who had experienced that problem. Does that make sense? They didn't lead with our cat litter name is this and our brand colors are this. What they led with was if you have experienced this problem, we have solved it. So buy our cat litter. And you know what we did? We bought their cat litter. I don't even know the name of the brand, but I know the problem that they solve. And because I had that problem, I bought their product.

29:59You have been hiding in your marketing and messaging strategy, you've been hiding the gold. You've been hiding the hook that catches the fish. The hook that catches the fish is the problem. So now that we've identified what our customer wants and we're not being vague and we're not listing too many things, we've got to define a problem that they are struggling with. That's the next part of the framework. You've got what the character wants, and then you've got the problem. And that's our second soundbite. And I want to challenge you, the most important thing I'm going to say tonight is this. You need to own a problem.

30:37You need to own it. If you own a problem, you own the market. If you own a problem, you own the market. Now you say, Don, I've got 10 competitors who sell the same thing I sell. Let me just ask you this. Are they talking about the problem? If they aren't talking about the problem, you have an opportunity to dominate all 10 competitors, to dominate them and put them out of business. And I'm just saying that I don't want you to put them out of business. I don't want anybody to go out of business. But if you start talking about the problem and they don't, you're going to dominate. Because that's the only reason people separate with their money.

31:17They only separate with their money. They only place orders to solve a problem. So you need a soundbite. And by the way, if you read Building a Story Brand 2.0, there are three sections of problems, external, internal, philosophical. You need three soundbites that speak to the problems, the physical, the emotional, and the philosophical problem that your customers are dealing with. And then you need to talk about those problems endlessly, endlessly. I want you to talk about those problems. In fact, if I go to your website and I print out a physical copy of your website on a piece of paper, and I took a Sharpie and I circled everywhere that you talk about your customers' problems and how painful those problems are and what a struggle that is, and then you position your product as the solution to those problems, I want at least 10 circles on that page.

32:11Now, just ask yourself that. If I printed off your website, could I circle 10 different places where you're talking about your customers' problems? If not, I would say you've got an amazing opportunity. All you've got to do is add some language about their problem, and you are going to see sales go up. Listen, I have a small group of mastermind guys. I have a friend who has a supplement company. He's in my mastermind. I went through, all I did was went through and rewrote the product descriptions for each of his supplements. Just gave him some, hey, let's start with the problem. Let's talk more about the problem.

32:48You're talking about how you dehydrate broccoli and put it into a pill. That's wonderful. But I want to talk about gut rot and how it makes you tired and how it does this. And so I rewrote that. He went from$9 million to$18 million. dollars just rewriting product descriptions in two years. He did that. You know, people only part with their money to solve a problem. So we've got to get the language right when we're talking about our customer's problem. All right, the next thing that we've got to do now that we've talked about the problem, we've got to position ourselves as the guide in their story.

33:27They are the hero who has a problem, we are the guide helping them win the day. What do I mean by guide? Well, in stories, you have heroic characters trying to win the day, and then you have guide characters trying to help them. You also have victim characters that need rescuing, and you have villain characters who are opposing the hero and trying to hurt the victim. Those are the four major characters in almost every story that you have ever seen. Those are the four major characters. Now, those characters exist, I believe, because out there in the world, we all play heroes. We all play victims.

34:07We all play villains. We all play guides. You catch me stuck in traffic, and I'm probably going to have a lot of villain personality boiling through my brain, my whatever, right? You catch me with my daughter trying to help her figure out how to kick a soccer ball. I'm about to be an assistant soccer coach. I'm nervous as I could possibly be with a three and a half year old. I know I actually can't wait. But who am I trying to help my daughter in the backyard learn to kick a soccer ball? I am the guide trying to help the hero win. So these four characters exist in stories because these four characters exist in us and they exist in everybody that we know.

34:42However, when it comes to doing business, people are not looking for another hero. They're looking for a guide. They're looking for somebody to enter into their story and help them win. They are not looking for another hero. Do not position yourself as the hero in your customer's story. Position yourself as the guide in your customer's story. Luke Skywalker is a hero. Obi-Wan Kenobi is a guide. Luke Skywalker is a hero. Yoda is a guide. Katniss in Hunger Games is a hero. Woody from Cheers is a guide. You see what I'm saying? you have a guide and you have a hero in almost every story that you can think of.

35:24And your customers, they identify as a hero in a story, and they're looking for a guide to help them win the day. Now, there are two reasons you never want to play the hero. The first is the hero is weak. The hero, until the last nine minutes of the story, the hero is actually very, very weak. They are ill-equipped, they are afraid, they're filled with self-doubt, they don't know what to do, and they're in desperate need of help. Why would you ever want to position yourself as a hero in the story when a hero is a weak character? That's the first reason you don't want to position yourself as a hero, because if you do, you're positioning yourself as a weak person.

36:01The second reason you don't want to position yourself as the hero in the story, or make the story about you, is because when you do so, you remove yourself from your customer's story. If I woke up in the morning and I identify as a single protagonist in a narrative structure and you come to me and say, you know, I'm trying to build my company and we're trying to make a great places to work metric and we're trying to whatever. I see you as a hero in a story. So if I'm a hero in a story and you are a hero in a story, we are in separate stories. Do you ever wonder why some marketing instantly grabs your attention while other marketing you just ignore?

36:38It's not about luck. It's not about a bigger budget. It's that the marketing that works actually follows just a few simple principles that actually makes it easier to understand, makes it memorable, and most important, impossible to overlook. That's why StoryBrand has a free guide, the four rules of messaging that will teach you those principles. In just a few minutes, you'll have a simple framework for evaluating every message you create, from your website and emails to your ads and sales conversations. Download your free copy of those four rules today by clicking the link in the show notes. All right, how do you position yourself as a guide?

37:16Two more soundbites. The first is an empathetic soundbite. I want you to demonstrate with words that you care about your customer. If you are struggling with this, we feel your pain. We understand. We care about you. Empathy matters. So I want to be able to circle on your website or your emails or in your YouTube videos or whatever. I want to be able to circle the places where you have demonstrated empathy for me. If you do not know how to talk about your company in order to get the attention that you need, I understand. I feel your pain. I know it can be hard. So empathy is very important. The next thing that you need to do to position yourself as a guide is come up with sound bites that demonstrate competency.

38:07Competency. That I feel your pain and I understand your pain and I know what I'm doing when it comes to get you out. my product will solve your problem full stop period I'm not apologizing for it it will do it I am tired of seeing you suffer I don't want you to suffer anymore so I'm gonna help you out and I've done this for a lot of people and I'm gonna do it for you we borrow your confidence that your solution actually works so you've got to have empathy a giant loving heart toward your customer and and big old muscles to solve their problem. That's what we need from you and your product. Empathy and authority.

38:48So I need an empathetic soundbite, and I need a soundbite that demonstrates competency. I'm going to give you some really good examples of what I'm talking about in a minute. The next thing that we need, I need a plan. I need, because I really want to buy your product now. However, it's complicated, it's confusing, I'm a little bit scared I might lose my money. So what I want you to do is I want you to give me a three-step plan. Give me a three-step plan that builds a bridge from your problem to my solution. So it could be as easy as, you know, let's say you're a financial advisor. You might say something like, you know, step one is we do an intake session where we understand your risk tolerance.

39:34We understand your vision, your hope for the future, what you would actually need to retire. We do an intake session. Step two is I give you a custom report on everything that I think you should be doing with your money. And then step three, if you want, I'll hold your hand and help you execute that for a retainer fee for the next 20 or 30 years. Step one, step two, step three. You will find, especially if what you sell is a little bit confusing and a little bit nuanced, and it takes time for people to understand, What you'll find is that three-step plan those three baby steps that you give them Dramatically increase the amount of engagement that you get because they don't have to predict the future They know the future is step one step two step three It it lifts the fog and the cognitive dissonance that is keeping them from doing business with you three steps is very important The next thing that you need as a soundbite is a call to action you need to tell the customer it is time to do business together.

40:33It's time for us to do business. And you need to be bold in your call to action. Sometimes I go to some of your websites and it says things like learn more. Well, learn more is a pretty passive way to ask for somebody to move. Right. If I met you at a cocktail party and I said, learn more, are you remotely interested in continuing to talk to me or you think that's weird? If it's weird at a cocktail party, it's weird on your website. Don't say learn more. Say buy now. Say schedule a call. Ask them directly for the money. You got to challenge them and say it is time to buy. Right? Now, I learned how to do this.

41:11I'm not a natural ask for the money guy. I don't like asking for the money. But I had to learn to do it in order to stay in business. And I discovered the way to do it is actually not really to ask for the money, but basically to say, if you are struggling with this problem, my product will solve it. I think you should buy it. Now, I want you to write that down for me. Some of you are taking notes. Write this down. If you are struggling with X, you should buy Y. Would you like to buy it? If you are struggling with the inability to sleep, you should buy my meditation app would you like to buy it so all you got to do is if you're struggling with this problem you should buy this product why do I say that because most people are wondering whether buying your product is the right move I'm wondering is this the right move or not and as soon as you say that magical sentence if you are struggling with X buying Y is the right move they go oh okay that's what i was wondering and then they hand you their credit card so instead of saying would you like to buy it or would you like to learn more or god forbid you would ever say listen if you're interested give me a call i mean you just gave them all the power you made them do a bunch of work if you're ever interested give me a you know they don't want to do that they want to buy it right now but only after they know it will solve their problem so the only way they're going to know that you're going to solve their problem is if you tell them i'm going to solve your problem and they'll pull out their credit card.

42:43So next time I want you to just do that. Do that for the next 60 days. Just instead of saying, whenever it's time to ask for the sale, say, if you're struggling with X, I think you should buy Y. Would you like to buy it now? Just write that down for the next 60 days. Use that magic phrase over and over and watch what happens to your sales. They will go up. I guarantee it. They will go up. All right. That's how you call people to action, but we need two more sound bites. The two more sound bites that we need are going to complete the story. The first sound bite that we need of the last two is a success sound bite.

43:22We need a sound bite that lets everybody know exactly what's going to happen if they buy your product. This is the happy ever-ending, happy ever-ending life that they're going to have. no more leaky roof, no more sleepless nights, no more inability to do a pull-up, no more, you know, whatever it is, no more dog barking at the door, no more lifting heavy kitty litter off the porch and taking it back to the laundry room. It's over. That part of your life is over. We're going to solve that problem. You need to give me a vision of a better future. Now, these are called stakes in a story. What can be won or lost based on whether or not I buy your product?

44:06The next soundbite that you need is the opposite of the success. You need a failure soundbite. You need a soundbite that tells me what horrible, no good thing is going to happen if I don't buy your product. By the way, if you don't buy our kitty litter, you're going to break your back someday trying to get that kitty litter back to the laundry room. You're going to keep lifting that stuff and having to tote. You ever noticed how much commercials exaggerate how awful life is if you don't use their product? I mean, you watch a dish soap commercial and somebody is doing the dishes and it's like they're just cry out to God.

44:43Why do I have to struggle with this terrible dish soap? They're being really melodramatic about the problem because they know the problem is what causes people to buy. And so we would actually say, your life could look really wonderful, but it does not. Your life could look really great, but it doesn't. It looks like this. Remind people of how terrible their life looks without solving the problem that you solved, and how great life looks if it does. So these are seven sound bites, or seven categories of sound bites. And I'm going to give you some examples from two really good sources here in just a minute.

45:18But let me summarize exactly what these sound bites are. The first soundbite, I need a soundbite that defines what your customers want. Give me very short, simple language. Two, what problem is your customer experiencing? I actually need internal, external, and philosophical, so three soundbites on that. I'll demonstrate that in a second. I need you to position yourself as the guide that the hero trusts to help them solve their problem, which is an empathy soundbite and an authority or competency soundbite. Next, I need you to create a clear three-step plan that will help me win the day. Then, call me to action.

46:04If you are struggling with X, buying Y is the right move. Would you like to buy it? And then give me two more soundbites. Explain what life will look like if I solve the problem and explain what life will look like if I don't. Okay, let's leave this up on the screen. If you want to take a screen grab of this, those are the sound bites that you need. These sound bites have worked for 2 ,500 years to compel a human brain, and they are going to work to make people interested in your business or your products. Let me show you the sound bites that I use for my business, StoryBrand. All right. The controlling idea soundbite that we didn't talk about is the soundbite that gives me the filter that I filter all my messaging through.

46:56So the controlling idea for my company is transform your business story into clear messages that resonate and drive success. Let's look at the character soundbite. What does my character want? My hero customer? Small business owners seeking clarity in their message. So I'm going to use that. Think about that. Somebody says, Don, what sort of people do you work with? I'm going to say small business owners seeking clarity in their message. Now I've defined exactly what my customer wants or at least artificial intelligence did. And I think it did a pretty good job with a problem external. They struggle to articulate their brand's message clearly.

47:32The internal problem is they feel frustrated and overwhelmed by unclear messaging. The philosophical problem, it's unfair that great businesses falter due to communication issues. All right, let's position ourselves as the guide. Empathy. We understand the pressure of communicating clearly in a competitive market. Competency and authority. Our framework has helped over a million businesses clarify their message with 700 certified coaches ready to assist you. Who gives them a plan? Three-step plan. Again, read our book to understand the StoryBrand framework, create your brand script with our easy-to-follow guide, and enjoy the confidence of a clear message that resonates with your audience.

48:14Calls them to action. Now, the affirmation call to action is the one that I was telling you about. If you're struggling to communicate your message, embracing StoryBrand is the right step for you. Do you see that? If you're dealing with this problem, this is the solution. This is the right solution. Direct, start your journey today. Marketing, subscribe now. I talk about the three different calls to action in my book. Success, experience clarity, engaging storytelling, and growing customer connections. Failure, continue to confuse your audience, and miss growth opportunities. And then there's another category in the brand script called identity transformation.

48:56Before they felt lost in their messaging, now they confidently attract the right customers. These are the seven categories of soundbites that you need. And then you actually take these soundbites and you put them all over your websites, your keynote presentations, your emails, put some of them on the back of your business card. You don't have to use all seven of them every time, but the more you use, the better. Certainly every one of those soundbites should be on your website. The chief of staff for Metro Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority was at my house for a couple days, and we're talking about messaging for MARTA, giant organization, 4 ,500 employees, hundreds of millions of dollars passing through Metro Atlanta Rapid Transit.

49:37Let's look at their brand script. Metro or MARTA helps you travel around Atlanta easily, giving you the freedom to explore your city. What do they want? People wanting to move around Atlanta easily. What's their problem? They need reliable transportation options. Internal, they feel frustrated and struck. and stuck. Philosophical, you shouldn't have to struggle to get around your city. Empathy. We understand how frustrating it can be to navigate Atlanta without a car. Competency and authority. MARTA has been awarded Transit Authority of the Year and employs 4 ,500 dedicated professionals. Who gives them a plan?

50:17Buy a Breeze card or download the app. Two, board a bus, train, or streetcar. Three, enjoy smooth travel around the city. Call to action. If you are looking for reliable transit options, MARTA is your answer. That's the affirmation. Direct. Get your Breeze card today. Marketing. Join MARTA. Success. Traveling becomes stress-free, allowing you to explore Atlanta while saving time and money. Failure. You risk missing out on opportunities, feeling trapped and losing valuable time stuck in traffic. And then the identity transformation that you're helping your customers experience is from frustrated commuter to empowered city explorer.

51:02So that is called a StoryBrand brand script. And when you come up with those seven messages, and StoryBrand.ai will give you those for free that you can use as a rough draft. And you can edit those or revise those because they're hard to come up with. But they will be incredibly effective to populate all of your marketing collateral. Listen, the reality is this. If you confuse, you will lose. If you confuse, you will lose. I want you to clarify your message. Clarify your talking points, clarify your message, and you are going to win. All right. I want to take you through an exercise. I'm going to take you through an exercise and help you write not seven sound bites, but one sentence.

51:43I want to help you write one sentence that you can repeat over and over to make more money and grow your business. I call that, this sentence, the one-liner. A one-liner is one sentence that you can use, but it's a very formulaic sentence. Then, by the way, you're going to use this sentence anytime somebody asks, what do you do? The first part of the sentence is the problem. You're going to identify what problem that you solve. Next, you're going to position your product as the solution to that problem and after that you're going to talk about the result that your customer will experience if they use your solution to solve their problem it's one sentence let me give you an example let's say that you're at a cocktail party and you run into two people who do the exact same thing they have the same business starts to charge the same price offer the same value same quality all of it is exactly the same you're talking to the first one and you say hey what do you do?

52:43And they say, well, I'm an at-home chef. I come to your house and cook. You're going to say, that's very interesting. Where did you go to culinary school? What's your favorite thing to cook? What are your favorite restaurants in town? How do you make a good hollandaise sauce? You're going to make casual conversation. Now, an hour later, you're across the room, you're talking to somebody else, and you say, what do you do? Now, they are also an at-home chef, but that's not how they answer the question. When you say, what do you do? They say, well, you know how most families don't eat together anymore and when they do they don't eat healthy i'm an at-home chef i come to your house and cook and when i come to your house and cook you sit down you eat a great meal and you connect with your family finally because you're not worried about cooking or cleaning up wow who's going to do more business chef one or chef two who's going to do more business okay i've given this talk 750 million times and nobody has ever answered chef number one everybody has always answered chef number two we feel it in our bones chef number two is going to do all the business why the reason is they used a one-liner instead of saying well i'm an at-home chef which is just the product all you did was talk about the product open with the problem you know how most families don't eat together anymore when they do they don't eat healthy i'm an at-home chef when somebody asks what you do and you start talking about the problem first, the product suddenly is infinitely more valuable.

54:13If somebody says, by the way, if I'm on an airplane and somebody asks me what I do, I don't use a one-liner. Because if I use a one-liner, they are so interested in clarifying their message that I basically have to do hours of free consulting. So I just try to avoid the question. No. I mean, it is that powerful to get people to say, wait, wait, wait a second. And by the way, if they don't have the problem you solve, their aunt does, their uncle does, their nephew does, their sister does, and they're trying to get your business card to give it to the person who has the problem. But if you just tell them what they do, you didn't increase the value of your product or your service by starting with the problem.

54:54So the problem is very important. Let's break this down. Now, we just made up a company. The company is an e-bike, an electric bike company. this company doesn't exist but let me give you a fictional one-liner first state the problem with 110 people moving to nashville every day people are wasting more and more time sitting in traffic so that's the the problem part of the one-liner okay what we're going to do is i'm going to have you write a one-liner right here in this session i want you to take this is an important exercise I want you to take three minutes, three minutes, and write the first part of your one-liner.

55:36Don't write the second or third part. Just write the problem. We've seen a lot of people who are struggling with, a lot of people experience this and can't stand it. A lot of people have sleepless nights because I want you to get to the problem really, really quickly. Hey, it's podcast producer Bobby Richards chiming in. in this live event that we're pulling from for this episode, Don actually gave the audience some time to execute on this, and we want to give you that same opportunity. So you don't have to pause the show. We're going to give you some space right here. We're even going to play some music to help keep you on track.

56:11If you need more time, though, all you got to do is hit pause on the podcast. All right, go ahead and get started.

56:31Thank you.

56:57Thank you.

57:33Thank you.

57:58Thank you.

58:34Thank you.

59:17Next thing that you've got to do is part two, position the product as the solution to the problem so for our e-bike company that i made up with a circuit e-bike fitted just for you and that's it you don't have to talk about your product tell me what the product is now now there is one part to this that i really want once you understand if you've opened up a story loop about a problem it needs to be very obvious that your solution will solve that problem for instance if you say restlessness and anxiety can ruin your life. We've created a sleep mask that will help you sleep. Well, wait a second.

1:00:08You opened up a story loop about restlessness and anxiety, and you closed a story loop about sleep. Those are two different stories. One story is about restlessness and anxiety. The other story loop is about sleep. So you got to change one of them. Either change the product to make it about something that solves restlessness and anxiety. But I would actually prefer you change the story loop so it's about sleep. If you have had problems sleeping, it might be because you need a sleep mask that we have created. Right? So open a story loop. The product closes the story loop. All right, I'm going to give you three minutes, three minutes now to write the solution part of your one liner.

1:00:52You have three minutes to write the solution part of your one liner.

1:01:18Thank you.

1:01:50Thank you.

1:02:21Thank you.

1:02:45Thank you.

1:03:18Thank you.

1:03:57So you've got the problem, which is the, honestly, that's the most important part. You've positioned your product as the solution to the problem. We're going to do one more soundbite, and that is the result. So the result, the problem, product, and result all go together. So let me give you an example from our e-bike company. you'll get to work faster and you'll add hours back to your day. All right. So give me the result that your product will cause to happen in my life and add that to the end of this one liner. Now, I said one sentence earlier. I don't actually care if you use two or three sentences as long as it is a short, succinct phrase or statement that includes the problem, the product, and the result that the customer will experience.

1:04:46This, by the way, is the happy ending, right? It's the happily ever after. If I buy your product, I'll have a clear message and my business will grow. So, you know, you need to get that sound bite in there. Three minutes.

1:05:17Thank you.

1:05:52Thank you.

1:06:22Thank you.

1:06:44Thank you.

1:07:15Thank you.

1:07:57Okay, let me just show you an example of when we put all three parts of the one-liner together. So we put it all together with 110 people moving to Nashville every day. People are wasting more and more time sitting in traffic. With the Circuit E-Bite fitted just for you, you'll get to work faster and add hours back to your day. That's a one-liner. Our chef, by the way, you know how most families don't eat together anymore? When they do, they don't eat healthy? I'm an at-home chef. I come to your house and cook so your family can connect with each other around the dinner table rather than having to cook and clean up after dinner.

1:08:34That's a one-liner. It's super easy to write it, to memorize it, and to say it. And just the one-liner will grow your business. All those seven sound bites in your brand script, they'll grow your business. But your one-liner will also grow your business. We need to think a lot. We've thought a lot about our product. We've thought a lot about our customers. We haven't thought about the words we are using to describe the product. Listen to me. The words that you use got you married. The words that you use got you a job. The words that you use will get you elected president. The words that you use will grow your business.

1:09:15So think about the words you use. Make them short, simple, easy to understand, and repeat them often. I have enormous hope for you. I have enormous hope for your business. I have enormous hope that you will connect with more customers and transform more lives. and it has been a great honor to serve you tonight. 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.

1:09:53And 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.