{"id":11627,"date":"2018-07-17T16:13:09","date_gmt":"2018-07-17T21:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/?p=11627"},"modified":"2018-07-17T16:13:09","modified_gmt":"2018-07-17T21:13:09","slug":"book-review-building-a-storybrand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/?p=11627","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Building a StoryBrand"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Building-StoryBrand-Clarify-Message-Customers-ebook\/dp\/B06XFJ2JGR\/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1531861644&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=donald+miller&amp;dpID=41TRnujborL&amp;preST=_SY445_QL70_&amp;dpSrc=srch\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11628\" src=\"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/9780718074326.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1050\" height=\"1050\" srcset=\"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/9780718074326.jpg 1050w, https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/9780718074326-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/9780718074326-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/9780718074326-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/9780718074326-1024x1024.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1050px) 100vw, 1050px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I really enjoy <a href=\"https:\/\/buildingastorybrand.com\/\">Donald Miller<\/a> as a writer\u2026he is one of my favorites for sure! \u00a0I was so excited to see <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Building-StoryBrand-Clarify-Message-Customers-ebook\/dp\/B06XFJ2JGR\/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1531861644&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=donald+miller&amp;dpID=41TRnujborL&amp;preST=_SY445_QL70_&amp;dpSrc=srch\">Building a StoryBrand<\/a><\/em> pop up in Amazon as something I\u2019d be interested in. They were write\u2026I loved this book! \u00a0I read it poolside on vacation and it was really helpful! \u00a0In my role as a high school principal in a private Christian school, we have\u00a0the privilege of helping kids and families learn more about\u00a0the story that God is writing over their lives. \u00a0This book was a huge help in clarifying for me where we can really serve our families well. \u00a0Rather than trying to provide all the\u00a0answers, Miller really focuses on helping make sure that we are first asking the right questions. \u00a0Fantastic read for people in all different areas of life!<\/p>\n<p>I highlighted several things while reading and have posted those notes below&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Your customer should be the hero of the story, not your brand. This is the secret every phenomenally successful business understands.\u00a0Location: 257<\/li>\n<li>The fact is, pretty websites don\u2019t sell things. Words sell things. And if we haven\u2019t clarified our message, our customers won\u2019t listen.\u00a0Location: 282<\/li>\n<li>So what\u2019s your message? Can you say it easily? Is it simple, relevant, and repeatable? Can your entire team repeat your company\u2019s message in such a way that it is compelling? Have new hires been given talking points they can use to describe what the company offers and why every potential customer should buy it?\u00a0Location: 300<\/li>\n<li>The more simple and predictable the communication, the easier it is for the brain to digest.\u00a0Location: 315<\/li>\n<li>The first mistake brands make is they fail to focus on the aspects of their offer that will help people survive and thrive.\u00a0Location: 333<\/li>\n<li>The second mistake brands make is they cause their customers to burn too many calories in an effort to understand their offer.\u00a0Location: 348<\/li>\n<li>In a story, audiences must always know who the hero is, what the hero wants, who the hero has to defeat to get what they want, what tragic thing will happen if the hero doesn\u2019t win, and what wonderful thing will happen if they do.\u00a0Location: 383<\/li>\n<li>If we want to connect with customers, we have to stop blasting them with noise.\u00a0Location: 418<\/li>\n<li>Story is atomic. It is perpetual energy and can power a city. Story is the one thing that can hold a human being\u2019s attention for hours.\u00a0Location: 435<\/li>\n<li>Here is nearly every story you see or hear in a nutshell: A CHARACTER who wants something encounters a PROBLEM before they can get it. At the peak of their despair, a GUIDE steps into their lives, gives them a PLAN, and CALLS THEM TO ACTION. That action helps them avoid FAILURE and ends in a SUCCESS.\u00a0Location: 497<\/li>\n<li>Remember, the greatest enemy our business faces is the same enemy that good stories face: noise. At no point should we be able to pause a movie and be unable to answer three questions:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0What does the hero want?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a02.\u00a0\u00a0Who or what is opposing the hero getting what she wants?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a03.\u00a0\u00a0What will the hero\u2019s life look like if she does (or does not) get what she wants?\u00a0Location: 529<\/li>\n<li>Just like there are three questions audiences must be able to answer to engage in a story, there are three questions potential customers must answer if we expect them to engage with our brand. And they should be able to answer these questions within five seconds of looking at our website or marketing material:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a02.\u00a0\u00a0How will it make my life better?<\/li>\n<li>3.\u00a0\u00a0What do I need to do to buy it?\u00a0Location: 543<\/li>\n<li>1.\u00a0\u00a0What do you offer?<\/li>\n<li>Alfred Hitchcock defined a good story as \u201clife with the dull parts taken out.\u201d\u00a0Location: 571|<\/li>\n<li>STORYBRAND PRINCIPLE ONE: THE CUSTOMER IS THE HERO, NOT YOUR BRAND.\u00a0Location: 592<\/li>\n<li>Once we identify who our customer is, we have to ask ourselves what they want as it relates to our brand. The catalyst for any story is that the hero wants something. The rest of the story is a journey about discovering whether the hero will get what they want.\u00a0Location: 601<\/li>\n<li>STORYBRAND PRINCIPLE TWO: COMPANIES TEND TO SELL SOLUTIONS TO EXTERNAL PROBLEMS, BUT CUSTOMERS BUY SOLUTIONS TO INTERNAL PROBLEMS.\u00a0Location: 606<\/li>\n<li>STORYBRAND PRINCIPLE THREE: CUSTOMERS AREN\u2019T LOOKING FOR ANOTHER HERO; THEY\u2019RE LOOKING FOR A GUIDE.\u00a0Location: 625<\/li>\n<li>It\u2019s no accident that guides show up in almost every movie. Nearly every human being is looking for a guide (or guides) to help them win the day.\u00a0Location: 635<\/li>\n<li>STORYBRAND PRINCIPLE FOUR: CUSTOMERS TRUST A GUIDE WHO HAS A PLAN.\u00a0Location: 645<\/li>\n<li>STORYBRAND PRINCIPLE FIVE: CUSTOMERS DO NOT TAKE ACTION UNLESS THEY ARE CHALLENGED TO TAKE ACTION.\u00a0\u00a0Location: 658<\/li>\n<li>Characters only take action after they are challenged by an outside force.\u00a0Location: 664<\/li>\n<li>STORYBRAND PRINCIPLE SIX: EVERY HUMAN BEING IS TRYING TO AVOID A TRAGIC ENDING.\u00a0Location: 674<\/li>\n<li>Stories live and die on a single question: What\u2019s at stake? If nothing can be gained or lost, nobody cares. Will the hero disarm the bomb, or will people be killed? Will the guy get the girl, or will he be lonely and filled with self-doubt? These are the kinds of questions in the minds of a story-hungry audience.\u00a0Location: 676<\/li>\n<li>STORYBRAND PRINCIPLE SEVEN: NEVER ASSUME PEOPLE UNDERSTAND HOW YOUR BRAND CAN CHANGE THEIR LIVES. TELL THEM.\u00a0Location: 692<\/li>\n<li>If a hero solves her own problem in a story, the audience will tune out. Why? Because we intuitively know if she could solve her own problem, she wouldn\u2019t have gotten into trouble in the first place. Storytellers use the guide character to encourage the hero and equip them to win the day. You\u2019ve seen the guide in nearly every story you\u2019ve read, listened to, or watched: Frodo has Gandalf, Katniss has Haymitch, and Luke Skywalker has Yoda. Hamlet was \u201cguided\u201d by his father\u2019s ghost, and Romeo was taught the ways of love by Juliet.\u00a0Location: 1,148<\/li>\n<li>The guide, not the hero, is the one with the most authority. Still, the story is rarely about the guide. The guide simply plays a role. The story must always be focused on the hero, and if a storyteller (or business leader) forgets this, the audience will get confused about who the story is really about and they will lose interest. This is true in business, in politics, and even in your own family. People are looking for a guide to help them, not another hero.\u00a0Location: 1,183<\/li>\n<li>The guide must have this precise one-two punch of empathy and authority in order to move the hero and the story along. These are the characteristics the hero is looking for, and when she senses them, she knows she\u2019s found her guide.\u00a0Location: 1,201<\/li>\n<li>Empathetic statements start with words like, \u201cWe understand how it feels to\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u201d or \u201cNobody should have to experience\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u201d or \u201cLike you, we are frustrated by\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u201d or, in the case of one Toyota commercial inviting Toyota owners to engage their local Toyota service center, simply, \u201cWe care about your Toyota.\u201d\u00a0Location: 1,213<\/li>\n<li>The reason characters have to be challenged to take action is because everybody sitting in the dark theater knows human beings do not make major life decisions unless something challenges them to do so.\u00a0Location: 1,425<\/li>\n<li>The moral of the story is people don\u2019t have ESP. They can\u2019t read our minds and they don\u2019t know what we want, even if it seems obvious. We have to clearly invite customers to take a journey with us or they won\u2019t.\u00a0Location: 1,453<\/li>\n<li>Successful brands, like successful leaders, make it clear what life will look like if somebody engages their products or services.\u00a0Location: 1,718<\/li>\n<li>A few important questions we have to ask ourselves when we\u2019re representing our brand are: Who does our customer want to become? What kind of person do they want to be? What is their aspirational identity?\u00a0Location: 1,886<\/li>\n<li>Playing the guide is more than a marketing strategy; it\u2019s a position of the heart. When a brand commits itself to their customers\u2019 journey, to helping resolve their external, internal, and philosophical problems, and then inspires them with an aspirational identity, they do more than sell products\u2014they change lives. And leaders who care more about changing lives than they do about selling products tend to do a good bit of both.\u00a0Location: 1,932<\/li>\n<li>The number one job of an executive is to remind the stakeholders what the mission is, over and over. And yet most executives can\u2019t really explain the overall narrative of the organization. Here\u2019s the problem: if an executive can\u2019t explain the story, team members will never know where or why they fit.\u00a0Location: 2,280<\/li>\n<li>When your culture tells a great story, everybody wins.\u00a0Location: 2,283<\/li>\n<li>Is your organization on a mission? Does every stakeholder you interact with understand the story of your customer and what role the organization plays in that story? And do they understand their personal role in this important narrative? If not, building your company around a compelling story may be the first step in a turnaround. Not just for the company, but for your customers, your team members, and even you. Where there\u2019s no story, there\u2019s no engagement.\u00a0Location: 2,326<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I really enjoy Donald Miller as a writer\u2026he is one of my favorites for sure! \u00a0I was so excited to see Building a StoryBrand pop up in Amazon as something I\u2019d be interested in. They were write\u2026I loved this book! \u00a0I read it poolside on vacation and it was really helpful! \u00a0In my role as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,35,25,23,28,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-review","category-creative","category-education","category-generosity","category-integrity","category-leadership"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11627\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}