#94: How to Tell Your Customer's Story, Not Yours

0:00The topic of today's episode is quite controversial. I don't think it's controversial. I don't think it's controversial at all. But the topic is this. Don't tell the story of your business. Nobody cares about the story of your business. They only care about themselves. Now, I do believe that you need to tell your brand story, but it's not what you think. It's actually when somebody asks, hey, tell me the story of your business. you're going to tell a story that is all about them having a problem solved by your company. You're not going to tell your story. In other words, you're not going to say that my grandfather started a company however many years ago.

0:35You're not going to say that this business got started based on a bet. You're not going to say any of that stuff. In fact, I'm going to give you two stories from two extremely successful brands that you might point to and say, Don, you're wrong. Look at these guys. These guys tell their story. They actually don't. They trick you into thinking that they tell your story. Instead, they're actually inviting you into a story. That is what I'm going to teach you to do. 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.

1:13Your 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.

1:32Let me give you two examples. One is Glycine watches. I recently bought a Glycine watch. You've never heard of the brand, but they actually do sell a lot of watches. Glycine watches are a watch that has basically 24 hours instead of 12 hours on the dial. So imagine a watch that moves half as fast and it goes through all 24 hours of the day. That's shtick number one. The second is it's got a rotating dial where you can actually tell the time in two different time zones. So you tell the time that the watch already says, but without having to reset the watch, you can actually turn the dial so that the 24 is where the three normally is or whatever if you're three time zones off.

2:17Don, why are you telling the story of glycine watches? because when Glycine is asked, how'd you build this watch? What they don't say is something like, we were trying to make an American version of Swiss componentry and blah, blah, blah. What they actually say is a pilot, an airline pilot came to us and said, can you make a watch that makes it easier for me to tell time in multiple time zones? Therefore, we created the Glycine, I think it's called the Pilot Watch, and that's why this exists. Did they really tell the story of the company? No. What they did was they told the story of a customer who had a problem and they created a product that solves their problem so they could live happily ever after.

3:02That's not glycine's story. That's the customer's story. Do you see the difference? They didn't tell their story. You don't know who founded it. You don't know how old they are. You don't know where they got their components. You don't know if they're trying to compete with Switzerland. You don't know any of that because none of that matters to you. So listen carefully when you hear the stories of how companies started, unless it's a multi-billion dollar brand. At that point, we're all familiar with it. We don't have to be sold on anymore. We know what problem they solve. At that point, sure, go ahead and tell your story.

3:32It doesn't matter. It actually adds a depth to the brand that Steve Jobs started Apple in his garage, right? But you didn't care about Steve Jobs starting a company in his garage until after you already bought the product. People haven't bought your product yet, so change how you tell your story. Another one is that I really like is Ineos Grenadier. Here's the story that they tell. A guy who had an oil and gas company, has an oil and gas company, named Ineos, that's the oil and gas company, not the car, was sitting around in his British pub, and all his friends and he were complaining about the new Land Rover Defender and how it just doesn't look or feel like the old trucks that built Britain, the old trucks that they use as farm trucks.

4:17He wanted it. They're going to bring back the Defender. It ought to look like the old ones. It ought to function like the old ones. It ought to be simple. Instead, we've got all this new technology and the new Defender. Now, actually, my wife has a Defender. She loves it. This is nothing against Land Rover Defender. But his buddies at the pub said, you're a billionaire. You got all this oil and gas money. Why don't you create the Defender that you actually wanted them to create? Thus was born the Ineos Grenadier. Grenadier is the name of the pub where they had that conversation. Ineos is the oil and gas company.

4:52And you've got a successful truck that looks like the old Defender. And several lawsuits later from Land Rover, and that truck actually exists. I've actually driven around in a friend of mine's. It's a really cool truck. Did he tell the story of why they built it? Sort of. but actually what he really told was the story of a customer who had a problem. They didn't like the new Defender. They wanted it to feel and look and operate like the old truck that built the farming communities in Great Britain. So they actually created one and named it after the pub so you could buy one and live happily ever after.

5:29They didn't tell their brand story. They told their customer story and they gave them a product to solve their problem. That is what I'm going to teach you to do. Now, there's going to be comments because everybody thinks they need to tell their story and there's tons of money being made by helping you tell a story that nobody cares about except for you. That is not what this video is about. There's a place for that. Listen to me. After somebody buys your product, they really fall in love with your brand, they may want to know the history of the brand, but not until they buy your product. And they don't buy your product based on your story.

6:03They buy your product based on you being invited into a story. The customer wants to be invited into a story in which you have created a product that solves their problem. That is the story and the formula I'm going to teach you to do in this episode. So it's really important that you know how to tell your brand story in such a way that people pay attention. Why? Because the average consumer experiences 4 ,000 ads a day and they only pay attention to 100 of them. So if we aren't writing our story well, you will be ignored. The question is, how do we get that attention? How do we actually tell our story in such a way people want to pay attention?

6:43Well, your brand story is one component of the story brand messaging canvas. This is an incredibly powerful tool. If you have struggled to get your entire messaging and marketing campaign on one sheet of paper, we have solved your problem for you. You fill out a messaging and marketing canvas and you can see the entire campaign on one sheet of paper. one sheet of paper. It's yours for free. Just go to messagingcanvas.com. Your messaging canvas looks like this, and the brand story is a part of it. You've got the four rules of messaging at the top of the canvas, and then we get into your five foundational sound bites that you will use to talk about your brand.

7:19You use those sound bites to create your three cornerstone tools, your tagline, your elevator pitch, and your brand story, and we're going to get to your brand story in a second. The three cornerstone tools are your tagline, which are the controlling idea of your organization. Your elevator pitch is what you say when somebody asks what you do. And your brand story is that paragraph that invites the customer into a story that we've been talking about. Let's look at cornerstone tool number three, your brand story. How do you create a brand story? Well, here's how. You always start with your problem soundbite.

7:54The problem is the hook. You always start your brand story by saying, you know, people aren't very happy with the new Land Rover Defender. They want it to look like the old one. You always say pilots are constantly having to change their watch when they go from time zone to time zone. You start with the problem because the problem is the hook. The problem makes me interested in your story. Negativity is more interesting than positivity when telling a story. That's why Harry Potter never has 25 pages of a really good day. It's always conflict, conflict, conflict. Conflict is what makes it interesting.

8:28Start with the suffering that is taking place and the reason your brand exists. Next is your empathy soundbite. Your empathy soundbite is where you say, you know, we felt like pilots shouldn't have to deal with that. Or we felt like the Land Rover Defender shouldn't have to die, like it should actually exist in the way it used to exist, just updated and modernized. You make the empathy soundbite toward the problem. People who struggle with this shouldn't have to struggle with this anymore. This does a couple things. It presents you as a caring person that cares about the customer's problem. As soon as you express empathy and care, you are perceived as a survival asset, and people are more interested in buying from you.

9:12Human beings want to buy from people who help them survive. Your empathy soundbite positions you that way. Finally, your answer soundbite. Your answer, soundbite, is therefore we created the Ineos Grenadier. Therefore, we created the Glycine Watch. It solves this problem. You don't have to elaborate. You don't have to say really how it solves the problem. Just say we've solved the problem. Part four, your change soundbite. Now, this is where you actually add value to your product by saying not only have we solved your problem, we have transformed you so that you are a more competent, capable pilot, so that you can drive around in a truck that built Great Britain, so that you can have a truck that a hardworking person like you deserves.

9:59You're actually affirming the identity transformation of the customer after they buy your product. Now, they've got a solution to the problem. That's your product. And you've offered to transform them into a better version of themselves. That's called value stacking. Not only are we solving your problem, We're adding value by transforming who you are. Do you ever wonder why some marketing instantly grabs your attention while other marketing you just ignore? It'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.

10:38That'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. Let's say I was like a dog trainer and I'm a young dog trainer and I'm trying to get more business. I would never say I'm a dog trainer. What I would say is, you know, I noticed that a lot of dogs bark incessantly when somebody knocks at the door.

11:14I just don't think a family should have to suffer with a pet that they love barking every time somebody knocks at the door. Therefore, I created a three-part system that teaches dogs not to bark when somebody is at the door. Because I train your dog, you get to be the master of the house, right? and then finally the end result sound bite so that when somebody knocks at the door your dog sits by your side and greets them warmly everybody feels welcome and he doesn't drive the family crazy that is my brand story if i'm a dog trainer in one two three four five parts the problem sound bite the empathy sound bite the answer sound bite the change sound bite and the end result sound bite what does this look like when we put it all together all right here's an example of a company that decided it's a paint company and it decided to pick a specific problem as it relates to buying paint.

12:12Most people paint a room twice. That's a problem. The color looked right on a two-inch chip under store lights and wrong on the wall by Sunday afternoon. We're going to make the problem worse, so problem statement there. We've watched enough people lose a weekend to a color they ended up hating. That's the empathy soundbite. So every hearth order shifts with a peel and stick sample the size of a placemat. That's the solution, the answer soundbite. You put it on your wall and live with it for three days. Again, the solution. You'll be choosing color like a professional designer. That's the change soundbite.

12:47You paint the room once and you'll be happy with it for years to come. That is the end result soundbite. All five soundbites stitched together, turned into a bit of prose, and it works fantastically to introduce people to your brand. Notice zero cognitive load makes the customer the hero, link to survival, memorable and repeatable. It's all right there. All four rules obeyed in this one brand story. All right. Let's talk about where to use your brand story after you write it. Anytime you want to tell the story of your company, you actually tell this story. You can put it as your About Us page.

13:26You know the About Us page on your website? A lot of people read that. Make it your brand story. Just below the hero section on your home page. Just have a few sentences of it and then click read more and let it unfold. It's doing a job of a salesperson at that point. Put it in your brochure, your sales one sheet or the leave behind sheet, the opening of your pitch deck, the first email in your nurture sequence, your 60 second brand video script, the opening of a sales conversation, your LinkedIn and other company profiles, put it in your press or your media kit, also in new employee onboarding.

14:02You can use your brand story so many places. This is just the beginning. Listen, if you need a brand story, if you need to write one, it starts with the five foundational soundbites that obey the four rules. Then you write your tagline, elevator pitch, and finally your brand story. And then you put that brand story into campaign collateral on your campaign map. It sounds like a lot, but we've made it incredibly simple. Just go to messagingcanvas.com and download the StoryBrand Messaging Canvas. You can get your entire messaging and marketing campaign on one sheet of paper. Again, it's at messagingcanvas.com.

14:39I know you want to tell the story of your brand. You can work on that later. Tell that story. It's really important to do so, but after people have become customers. That's what creates a depth and a relationship with your brand that really does matter. However, tell your brand story will not get you new customers. It will not help you sell anything. What you need to do is invite customers into a story by using this formula to tell your brand story. If you want to learn to do that, again, just go to messagingcanvas.com. Thanks for listening to the Story Brand 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.

15:23And 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.

15:44Thank you.