StoryBrand Podcast #38: BIG NEWS—Introducing The StoryBrand Podcast

Summary

Podcast Summary: Introducing The StoryBrand Podcast

Podcast: Marketing Made Simple
Episode: #38: BIG NEWS—Introducing The StoryBrand Podcast
Host: Donald Miller (StoryBrand.com), Co-host, and Producer Bobby Richards
Date: September 24, 2025

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Episode Overview

This inaugural episode of the (newly rebranded) StoryBrand Podcast sets the foundation for a series that focuses on helping businesses craft clear, effective messaging using the StoryBrand Framework. Donald Miller takes listeners on an in-depth exploration of why most marketing misses the mark and reveals his step-by-step method for communicating your value in a way that customers instantly understand and act upon.

The episode is a combination of live talk, workshop instruction, and real-world examples. Miller demonstrates how business owners can position themselves as guides, clarify their messaging, and connect with customers—unlocking growth and confidence by placing customers at the center of their company story.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Fundamental Problem: Confusing Messaging (00:00–04:00)

• Most businesses fail because they are unclear:
  "The way most people talk about their businesses, it isn't working." —Donald Miller (00:00)
  “Most companies, if I go to your website, I cannot tell what problem you solve.” —Co-host (00:04)
• Customers are bombarded with irrelevant or confusing information:
  If you don’t clearly state the problem you solve, customers simply move on.

2. The “Fourth P” of Marketing: Positioning (03:55–08:00)

• Beyond Product, People, and Process—positioning is crucial:
  Positioning your offering so its value is obvious to customers underpins business growth.
• It’s not about logos or color schemes—it's about WORDS.
  Even an “ugly” website like Amazon succeeds because “the words you use” make the difference.

3. The Human Brain: Survival and Calorie Conservation (08:00–15:17)

• People buy for survival, comfort, or emotional connection—and want quick answers:
  “Associate your product with the survival of your customer.” —Donald Miller (08:00)
• “If you confuse, you will lose.”
  simplicity is essential: “Never, ever confuse them.” —Donald Miller (14:19)

4. The Power of Story Structure in Messaging (15:18–20:15)

• Story is ancient and captivating:
  Narrative structure forces us to pay attention and keeps the brain engaged, not distracted.
• All great stories have formulas—businesses must use these to “invite” customers in as the hero.

5. Two Deadly Mistakes in Messaging (20:16–26:36)

• Mistake 1: Vagueness
  “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.” —Donald Miller (20:16)
  • Example: Billboards with clever phrases that don't clearly say what is being sold are wasted money ([22:12]–[23:00]).
• Mistake 2: Too Many Things
  “Your brand can be known for one thing and that's it.” —Donald Miller (26:09)
  • Find the “one thing” your brand is about and repeat it endlessly.

6. Framework for Effective Messaging: The StoryBrand 7 Sound Bites (33:02–47:16)

• The 7 Essential Messaging Elements:

  1. What the customer (“hero”) wants
  2. The problem (external, internal, philosophical)
  3. Position yourself as the guide (with empathy and competency)
  4. A simple three-step plan
  5. A clear call to action
  6. The positive outcome (success)
  7. The negative outcome (failure to act)
  • “If you own a problem, you own the market.” —Donald Miller (33:14)
  • “Give your customer a vision of a better future and a warning about what happens if they do nothing.”

7. Real-world Brand Script Examples (48:52–53:21)

• StoryBrand and MARTA examples:
  Shows how each sound bite appears as a simple line or phrase in all their messaging (see timestamps [49:11]–[53:08]).
  • For StoryBrand, the character wants “clarity in their message,” their internal problem: they feel “frustrated and overwhelmed,” etc.
  • For MARTA: “Empowering frustrated commuters to explore Atlanta with ease.”

8. The “One-Liner” Formula (53:47–70:10)

• How to craft a clear, concise sentence to describe your business:

  1. State the problem.
  2. Position the product as the solution.
  3. Describe the positive result.
  • Example E-bike one-liner:
    “With 110 people moving to Nashville every day, people are wasting more and more time sitting in traffic. With a circuit ebike fitted just for you, you'll get to work faster and add hours back to your day.” ([70:10])
  • Example Chef one-liner:
    “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, so your family can connect with each other around the dinner table.”

• Opening with the problem grabs attention.
  “When somebody asks what you do and you start with the problem first, the product suddenly is infinitely more valuable.” —Donald Miller (56:25)

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• “If you confuse, you will lose.” —Donald Miller (14:19, 53:36)
• “Associate your product with the survival of your customer.” —Donald Miller (08:00)
• “Story is the only tool known to man that can get a person to not daydream for a long period of time.” —Donald Miller (16:17)
• “Stop making people think. Please stop making people think.” —Donald Miller (23:45)
• “Your brand can be known for one thing and that's it.” —Donald Miller (26:09)
• “If you own a problem, you own the market.” —Donald Miller (33:14)
• “Customers identify as the hero. They are looking for a guide.” —Donald Miller (36:15)
• “Show empathy and authority—big heart, big muscles.” —Donald Miller (39:13, 39:44)
• “Every good marketing effort is an exercise in memorization.” —Donald Miller (27:02)
• “The words you use got you married, got you a job, will get you elected president, and will grow your business.” —Donald Miller (70:10)

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Notable Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:00–04:00 – Why most business messaging fails
• 03:55–08:00 – Importance of positioning and the power of words
• 08:00–15:17 – How the human brain processes messages (survival & calorie conservation)
• 15:18–20:15 – The role of story structure in marketing
• 20:16–26:36 – Two fatal mistakes in business messaging (vagueness, too many things)
• 33:02–47:16 – The seven StoryBrand messaging elements (with explanations and examples)
• 48:52–53:21 – Brand script examples from StoryBrand and MARTA
• 53:47–70:10 – The “one-liner” workshop: how to craft and use it effectively
• 70:10–end – Encouragement and practical applications

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Actionable Takeaways

• Clarify your messaging. Avoid cleverness, cuteness, and information overload—state plainly what problem you solve.
• Use story structure. Speak to the customer’s desires, problems, and outcomes; cast yourself as the guide.
• Repeat, repeat, repeat. Memorability trumps novelty in marketing—make your key phrases and one-liners known and used everywhere.
• Test your messaging. Print your website, circle everywhere you address customers’ problems; there should be at least ten such spots.
• Craft your one-liner. Lead with the problem, introduce your solution, and state the positive outcome—use it in all conversations about your business.

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Episode Tone

Direct, energizing, practical, and a bit humorous—Donald Miller’s delivery is conversational, filled with stories, and always laser-focused on clarity and simplicity.

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For Listeners Who Haven’t Tuned In

This episode is an absolute must for any business owner, entrepreneur, or marketer who has ever struggled to communicate what they do in a way that turns listeners into buyers. Donald Miller not only explains why most messaging fails but also gives you the exact words, scripts, and formulas to transform your website, conversations, and campaigns into clear, irresistible invitations for your customers to win the day—with you as their trusted guide.

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“Clarify your message and you are going to win.” —Donald Miller (53:36)

Transcript

[Donald Miller]

The way most people talk about their businesses, it isn't working.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Most companies, if I go to your website, I cannot tell what problem you solve.

[Donald Miller]

You're talking about a bunch of stuff.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

I don't care about. You're making a lot of mistakes.

[Donald Miller]

And so listen, this is the key.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

To phenomenal growth in your business.

[Donald Miller]

By the end of the next hour, I want to give you a framework.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

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 you.

[Bobby Richards]

Hey, it's podcast producer Bobby Richards and I've got a quick question for you. When it comes to your marketing, is it actually cutting through all the noise or is it just adding to it? I ask this because if it's not clearly telling your customers how you can solve their problem, they will not buy from you. But don't worry, because this is exactly why we created StoryBrand your business. It's a brand new hands on live marketing workshop taught by Donald Miller himself, happening January 28th and 29th here in Nashville, Tennessee. At the event, Don will personally teach you the proven story brand framework that's helped thousands of businesses clarify their message, plus his brand new messaging campaign framework that's designed to help you compete in today's AI driven market. And you won't just learn the frameworks, you'll learn how to implement them into your business right away. You'll craft a controlling idea that drives every piece of your marketing, create survival sound bites your customers actually remember, and build a complete messaging campaign that works. And throughout it all, you won't be doing it alone. You'll be of a small group of business owners just like you and receive live coaching from storybrand certified guides who are in the room with you. But tickets are limited, so Register [e-mail] you don't have to stay stuck trying to figure out how to make your marketing and messaging work for your business. Join us at the Story Brand your Business Live event with Donald Miller and walk away with a clear message and a plan you can immediately implement to grow your business. We can't wait to see you there. So go register right now@story storybrandyourbusiness.com.

[Kyle Reed]

Kyle Reed here and welcome to the very first episode of the new StoryBrand podcast. If you've been listening and following us through why that worked. First off, thank you so much. Don and I loved unpacking what made ideas, messages and viral moments stick while other ideas seemed to fade away. But here's the thing. On each episode, as Don and I would dig deeper into why something worked, we we kept coming back to the same thing. Clear messaging wins. Confusing messaging loses. It really all came back to the storybrand framework. That's why it isn't just a name change for us. It's a reset. This is returning back to the thing that actually works. And that's exactly what the Story Brand Podcast is here to help you do Master the most important skills in your business. Inviting customers into a story where they're the hero and you're the guide. All while building marketing and messaging around how your product or service clearly solves their problem. So in this inaugural episode, we're providing you with what might be the most complete deep dive of the Story Brand framework from Donald Miller himself. This is pulled from a talk he gave earlier in the year where he goes deep into the Story Brand framework and gives you a master overview of every single step. If you've ever felt stuck explaining what you do or frustrated that your marketing just isn't landing, this is your reset. Don and I could not be more excited to walk with you through what's next, because when your messaging is clear, everything else starts falling into place. This isn't just a podcast about why things work. This is a podcast that helps you create messaging that works, all so you can grow your business with clarity and confidence. Welcome to the new Story Brand Podcast.

[Donald Miller]

Let's get started.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

If 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. I bought something today on Amazon. I had to buy a little an RCA connector to go into 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. It 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. Alright, before we get into the framework, let me explain why the Story Brand framework works so well. Building of storybrand sold over a million copies. The new version, Building of story brand 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. So 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. 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. Now, 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. And always that is the job of the human brain. Now why do you need to know that to stay in business?

[Donald Miller]

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 important. Associate your product with the survival of your customer. Associate your product with the survival of your customer. We'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.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

To think at all.

[Donald Miller]

And here's why. You burn between 6 and 800 calories a day just processing the information out in the world, just taking in information.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Saying, should I turn left and right? Where am I going? And I got to enter this in.

[Donald Miller]

The gps and I don't like this radio station.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

I want to listen to this and.

[Donald Miller]

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.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Lot of time to think about anything.

[Donald Miller]

And your brain says, you know what?

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

So much information is being thrown at us.

[Donald Miller]

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 will you think about this? Will you think about this? Will you think about this? So a brain that needs to survive is going to say one thing. I need to know what to think.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

About and what not to think about.

[Donald Miller]

And so automatically you have a filter. It's a subconscious filter in your brain that says, I want you to think about this.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

I don't want you to think about that.

[Donald Miller]

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.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

A pound of coffee and you would.

[Donald Miller]

Have said, this is kind of interesting. It feels like metal, but it moves around with the texture of paper.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

And look, I think it may be glued on the top. That's a glue seal. No, maybe that's a stitch seal.

[Donald Miller]

I don't know.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Oh, it's got these metal things. Well, if you put them up, they kind of look like a cat.

[Donald Miller]

I wonder if this was shipped on a boat from somewhere.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

I wonder.

[Donald Miller]

You would be thinking about things that.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

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 the counter, you.

[Donald Miller]

Placed an order, you waited till they.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Called your name, and you went up to the cup with your misspelled name on it. You walked up 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.

[Donald Miller]

Make money that day.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

In other words, of all the things that you could pay attention to in Starbucks, the. 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.

[Donald Miller]

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. When you do, you will find that people lean in. Tell me more about that.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Wait, wait, wait.

[Donald Miller]

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, but 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? We 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. Now, 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 why and I sell them why 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 sapping their survival, I come in and I stop that. People who help us survive are very important to us. People 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.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

To survive and thrive and always trying.

[Donald Miller]

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.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

How you help them survive.

[Donald Miller]

And you need to do so in.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Such a way they don't have to burn any calories to understand.

[Donald Miller]

We have a mantra around my office, and it's this. If you confuse, you will lose. If 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.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

And you know what I say to them?

[Donald Miller]

You must also like being poor.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

You must also like bankruptcy.

[Donald Miller]

Because if you confuse, you will lose. It happens every time.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

People cannot be confused about what you do. You must explain it very clearly.

[Donald Miller]

All right, now you understand how the mind works.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

So 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.

[Donald Miller]

And in order to do that, we're.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

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. Great movie. And I thought, 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 what's interesting about the power of narrative structures and the power of story.

[Donald Miller]

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. It 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? Screenwriters 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. And that guy's the guide, and that guy's the villain. And. 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. If 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. These 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?

[Sam (Audience Member or Participant)]

No.

[Donald Miller]

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. But 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, 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.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Right?

[Donald Miller]

Trust is the commodity we exchange. I'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. 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.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

There's literally a billboard across the street from my studio. And the billboard says, sitting on the fence, call a cowboy. And the cowboy. The word cowboy is spelled with a K. And then there's a picture of a guy with a cowboy hat on.

[Donald Miller]

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?

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Well, it turns out it's a company.

[Donald Miller]

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? They 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.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

To buy the fence.

[Donald Miller]

I guarantee you that that billboard has sold zero fences. Now, let's change that.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Let's make it really clear, right?

[Donald Miller]

Let's get that cowboy out there with the cowboy hat. Let's be cute.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

We'll do the cowboy theme.

[Donald Miller]

I'm with you there. And have him out there working really.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Hard on a fence. Then it just said, hire a cowboy.

[Donald Miller]

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, listen 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.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Please stop making people think.

[Donald Miller]

But we got a problem.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

And here's the problem.

[Donald Miller]

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 like very clear language to you. Because you've done this all your life. You've done this a million times.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

You know the product inside.

[Donald Miller]

Now you're speaking. You think you're speaking clearly, but nobody.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Understands what you're talking about.

[Donald Miller]

You got to go all the way.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

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.

[Donald Miller]

Something really, really clear that people want, that people can understand. Need a new fence?

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Hire a cowboy?

[Donald Miller]

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. I'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. Alright? 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. Your 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. 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.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

You for one thing. And so what you want to do.

[Donald Miller]

Is you want to figure out the.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

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, they dominate chicken. They don't do anything else. It's just chicken. That is really, really smart. Really, really smart.

[Donald Miller]

If you can get your brand to.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Be known for one thing, I think it's great. Now you say Dom, 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, alright? So they own that on and on and on.

[Donald Miller]

I am known for creating clear messages and I'm 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? If I'm walking down the street and the news comes up 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 sound bites 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. You don't need to use different kind of language. You know, I remember going and visiting a presidential candidate. Presidential candidate was the frontrunner 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? And I said, you got to come up with sound bites and repeat them. And his team literally said to me, I, 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. It'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. If 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, we repeating it. And he's been repeating it for 25 years. And he never changes his message. And 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 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. But 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 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 got to be kidding me. It comes from Amazon, sits on my front porch. I lift it up like, this is like 40 pounds of cat litter. I take it into the laundry room. I change cat litter. I 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. You have been hiding 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.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

You've got what the character wants, and.

[Donald Miller]

Then you've got the problem. And that's our second sound bite. And I want you. I want to challenge you. The most important thing I'm going to.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Say tonight is this.

[Donald Miller]

You need to own a problem. You 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. They only separate with their money. They only place orders to solve a problem. So you need a sound bite. 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 sound bites 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.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

About your customers problems and how painful.

[Donald Miller]

Those problems are and what a struggle that is, and then you position your.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Product as the solution to those problems.

[Donald Miller]

I want at least 10 circles on that page. Now 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.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Are going to see sales go up.

[Donald Miller]

Listen, I have a small group of mastermind guys. I have a friend who has a supplement company.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

He's in my mastermind.

[Donald Miller]

I went through, all I did was, went through and rewrote the product descriptions for each of his supplements.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Just gave him some, hey, let's start with the problem.

[Donald Miller]

Let's talk more about the problem.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

You'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 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. They are the hero who has a problem. We are the guide helping them win the day. What do I mean by guide?

[Donald Miller]

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, we 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 boiled in 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. However, 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. And 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. The 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.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Trying to build my company and we're.

[Donald Miller]

Trying to make a great place 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. All right.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

How do you position yourself as a guide?

[Donald Miller]

Two more sound bites. The first is an empathetic sound bite. 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 in 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. Competency 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 the 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 going to help you out. And I've done this for a lot of people and I'm going to 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 big old muscles to solve their problem. That's what we need from you and your product, Empathy and authority. So I need an empathetic sound bite, and I need a sound bite 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, we understand your vision, your. 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.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

The next 20 or 30 years. Step one, step two, step three.

[Donald Miller]

You will find, especially if what you sell is a little bit confusing and a little bit nuanced and it takes.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Time for people to understand.

[Donald Miller]

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 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.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

A sound bite is a call to action.

[Donald Miller]

You need to tell the customer it.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Is time to do business together. It's time for us to do business.

[Donald Miller]

And you need to be bold in.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

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. I'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?

[Donald Miller]

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.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Should buy this product.

[Donald Miller]

Why do I say that? Because most people are wondering whether buying.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Your product is the right move.

[Donald Miller]

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.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Listen, if you're interested, give me a call.

[Donald Miller]

I mean, you just gave them all the power. You made them do a bunch of work. If you're ever interested in giving, 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.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

So the only way they're going to.

[Donald Miller]

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. So next time I want you to just do that, do that for the next 60 days. Just instead of saying whenever it's time.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

To ask for the sale, say, if.

[Donald Miller]

You'Re struggling with X, I think you should buy Y.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Would you like to buy it? Now just write that down for the.

[Donald Miller]

Next 60 days, use that magic phrase.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Over and over and watch what happens to your sales.

[Donald Miller]

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. There's the two more sound bites that.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

We need are going to complete the story.

[Donald Miller]

The first sound bite that we need.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Of the last two is a success sound bite. We need a sound bite that lets everybody know exactly what's going to happen if they buy your product.

[Donald Miller]

This is the happy, ever ending, happy.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Ever ending life that they're going to have. No more leaky roof.

[Donald Miller]

No more sleepless nights.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

No more inability to do a pull up.

[Donald Miller]

No more, you know, whatever it is.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

No more dog barking at the door.

[Donald Miller]

No more lifting heavy kitty litter off.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

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.

[Donald Miller]

Now, these are called stakes in a story.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

What can be won or lost based on whether or not I buy your product. The next sound bite that you need is the opposite of the success. You need a failure sound bite. You need a sound bite that tells me what horrible, no good thing is going to happen if I don't buy your product.

[Donald Miller]

By the way, if you don't buy our kitty litter, you're going to break.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Your back someday trying to get that.

[Donald Miller]

Kitty litter back to the laundry room.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

You're going to keep lifting that stuff and having to. 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's doing the dishes and it's like they're just cry out to God. Why 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 solve 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.

[Donald Miller]

But let me summarize exactly what these sound bites are. The first sound bite, I need a sound bite 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 sound bites 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. If you are struggling with X, buying Y is the right move. Would you like to buy it and then give me two more sound bites. 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. Okay. We created something called Storybrand AI and it will actually generate sound bites for you. Let me show you the sound bites that I use for my business, StoryBrand. All right.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

The controlling idea soundbyte that we didn't talk about is the sound bite that gives me the filter that I filter all my messaging through. So 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 sound bite.

[Donald Miller]

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.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

And I think it did a pretty.

[Donald Miller]

Good job with a problem External they.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Struggle to articulate their brand's message clearly.

[Donald Miller]

The internal problem is they feel frustrated.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

And overwhelmed by unclear messaging. The philosophical problem?

[Donald Miller]

It's unfair that great businesses falter due to communication issues.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

All right, let's position ourselves as the guide.

[Donald Miller]

Empathy.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

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 Read our book to understand the story. Brand Framework Create your brand script with our easy to follow guide and enjoy the confidence of a clear message that resonates with your audience.

[Donald Miller]

Calls them to action.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Now the affirmation call to action is the one that I was telling you about. If you are struggling to communicate your message, embracing storybrain 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. Before, they felt lost in their messaging. Now they confidently attract the right customers. These are the seven categories of sound bites that you need. And then you actually take these sound bites 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 sound bites should be on your website. Let me look. Let's look at another one.

[Donald Miller]

This is one that I just did.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Storybrand AI did this for us. The chief of staff for Metro Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority was at my house.

[Donald Miller]

For a couple of days and we.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Were talking about messaging for MARTA.

[Donald Miller]

Giant organization, 4,500 employees, hundreds of millions.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Of dollars passing through metro Atlanta Rapid Transit. Let's look at their brand script. Metro 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 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 Buy a Breeze card or download the app.

[Donald Miller]

2.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Board a bus, train or streetcard.

[Donald Miller]

3. Enjoy smooth travel around the city. Call to action if you are looking for reliable transit options, MARTA is your answer.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

That's the affirmation.

[Donald Miller]

Direct get your Breeze card today.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Marketing Join MARTA Success.

[Donald Miller]

Traveling becomes stress free, allowing you to.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Explore Atlanta while saving time and money.

[Donald Miller]

Failure.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

You risk missing out on opportunities, feeling trapped and losing value.

[Donald Miller]

Valuable time stuck in traffic and then.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

The identity transformation that you are helping.

[Donald Miller]

Your customers experience is from frustrated commuter to empowered city. Explore so that is called a storybrand brand script. And when you come up with those.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

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.

[Donald Miller]

Those because they're hard to come up with. But they will be incredibly effective to.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Populate all of your marketing collateral.

[Donald Miller]

Listen, the reality is this.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

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.

[Donald Miller]

All right, I want to take you.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Through an exercise I'm going to take.

[Donald Miller]

You through an exercise and help you.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Write not seven sound bites, but one sentence. I 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, by the way.

[Donald Miller]

You're going to use this sentence anytime.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

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.

[Donald Miller]

Next.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

You're going to position your product as the solution to that problem.

[Donald Miller]

And after that you're going to talk.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

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, charge the same price, offer the same value, same quality. All of it is exactly the same.

[Donald Miller]

You're talking to the first one.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

And you say, hey, what do you do? And they say, well, I'm an at home chef. I come to your house and cook.

[Donald Miller]

You're going to say, that's very interesting. Where did you go to culinary school?

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

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.

[Donald Miller]

You say, what do you do?

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Now they are also an at home chef, but that's not how they answer the question.

[Donald Miller]

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.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

I come to your house and cook.

[Donald Miller]

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.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Why?

[Donald Miller]

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.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

The product suddenly is infinitely more valuable.

[Donald Miller]

Right? If 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.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Hours of free consulting.

[Donald Miller]

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.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

To the person who has the problem.

[Donald Miller]

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.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

So the problem is very Important.

[Donald Miller]

Let's break this down now. We just made up a company.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

The company is an E bike, an electric bike company. This company doesn't exist.

[Donald Miller]

But let me give you a fictional one liner first.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

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 problem part of the one liner.

[Donald Miller]

Okay, what we're going to do is.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

I'm going to have you ride a one liner right here in this session. I want you to take. It's an important exercise. I want you to take 3 minutes, 3 minutes and write the first part of your one liner. Don'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.

[Bobby Richards]

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

[Sam (Audience Member or Participant)]

Sam. Sa it, Sam.

[Donald Miller]

Next thing that you've got to DO is part 2. 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, there is one part to this that I really want you to 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.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Anxiety can ruin your life.

[Donald Miller]

We'Ve created a sleep mask that will help you sleep. Well, wait a second. You opened up a story loop about restlessness and anxiety and you closed a.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Story loop about sleep.

[Donald Miller]

Those are two different stories. One story is about restlessness and anxiety. The other story loop is about sleep.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

So you got to change one of them. Either change the product to make it about something that solves restlessness and anxiety or. But I would actually prefer you change the story loop so that it's about sleep.

[Donald Miller]

If you have had problems sleeping, it might Be because you need a sleep mask that we have created, right?

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

So open a story loop. The product closes the story loop.

[Donald Miller]

All right, I'm going to give you three minutes.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Three minutes now to write the solution part of your one liner.

[Donald Miller]

You have three minutes to write the.

[Donald Miller's Co-host or Assistant]

Solution part of your one liner.

[Sam (Audience Member or Participant)]

Sa.

[Donald Miller]

So you've got the problem, which is 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 sound bite and that is the result. So the result, the problem, product and result all go together. So let's give me, 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. This, 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.

[Sam (Audience Member or Participant)]

Sa Sa. Sam Sa.

[Donald Miller]

Okay, let me just show you an example of when we put all three parts of the one liner together. So when 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 ebike 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. And rather than having to cook and clean up after dinner, that'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. So 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. God bless.