Donald Miller, a New York Times bestselling author, shares his journey of growing his business from scratch to nearly $20 million. He emphasizes the importance of effective marketing, focusing on clear messaging over aesthetics. By positioning businesses as guides rather than heroes, leaders can connect better with customers' needs. He also highlights the essential role of profit for sustainability and offers practical insights for small businesses and nonprofits to thrive.
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volunteer_activism ADVICE
Prioritize Message Clarity
Prioritize what your marketing says over how it looks.
Focus on clear messaging that resonates with customers.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Crucial Catch Campaign
Donald Miller saw a confusing ad campaign for "crucial catch" during an NFL game.
He initially misinterpreted it as a camera ad, highlighting the importance of clear messaging.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Focus on Customer Needs
Focus on how your product helps customers survive and thrive.
Identify your customer's problems and position your product as the solution.
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In this book, Donald Miller presents the StoryBrand Framework, a proven system to help businesses effectively communicate with their customers. The framework is based on the seven universal elements of powerful stories, which include identifying the customer's desires, problems, and the role of the guide who provides a plan and calls to action. Miller emphasizes the importance of simplifying brand messages, creating clear and compelling marketing materials, and positioning the brand as a guide rather than a hero. This approach has helped numerous businesses, from small startups to large corporations, to significantly improve their customer engagement and revenue.
How to Grow Your Small Business
A 6-Step Plan to Help Your Business Take Off
Donald Miller
In 'How to Grow Your Small Business', Donald Miller offers a step-by-step playbook for growing a small business. The book outlines six critical steps: casting a vision for the company, clarifying the marketing message, installing a sales framework that makes customers the hero, optimizing the product offering, running a management and productivity playbook, and managing cash flow using five checking accounts. Miller shares his personal experience of growing his business from a basement operation to a $15 million dollar enterprise, providing actionable advice for entrepreneurs to achieve growth and freedom in their businesses.
Business Made Simple
Donald Miller
Business Made Simple by Donald Miller offers a comprehensive 60-day guide to understanding and mastering essential business skills such as leadership, marketing, sales, and personal productivity. The book provides practical advice and insights into the unspoken rules of business, helping readers grow their careers and build successful businesses. It emphasizes the importance of character, clear messaging, and effective execution in achieving business success.
Donald Miller: How to Grow Your Small Business
Donald Miller is The New York Times bestselling author of Building a StoryBrand and Business Made Simple. He has helped thousands of businesses grow with his powerful framework. In 2010, Don started the business he’d always dreamed of. Although his business was doing ok, he quickly realized it wasn’t what he thought it would be. Everything depended on him, and he was drowning in the mundane day-to-day.
For years, his business struggled to produce dependable, predictable results. Over years of fits and false starts, Don grew his business from nothing to nearly $20 million. In the end, he realized there were six key parts of a business, and if they were managed well, the business would fly far and fast. He’s captured those lessons in his book How to Grow Your Small Business: A 6-Step Plan to Help Your Business Take Off*.
A huge percentage of businesses fail before they have any significant success. One key trigger is failure to market the business effectively. In this conversation Donald and I discuss how to power the marketing engine of your business by using the key elements of the StoryBrand framework.
Key Points
Most small businesses think more about how their marketing will look rather than what their marketing will say.
People are attracted to what helps them survive and thrive…and it helps to communicate those message simply.
People buy products and services to solve problems, not because they care that much about the business.
The customer is the hero. Never play the hero; always play the guide.
People who are insecure talk about themselves. People who are confident talk about others. Talk about yourself only in the context of how it helps the customer.
Resources Mentioned
How to Grow Your Small Business: A 6-Step Plan to Help Your Business Take Off* by Donald Miller
Interview Notes
Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required).
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