Episode 259: Clarifying Your Brand Message with Don Miller

Hi there, my friends. I'm speaking at the lifehack summit, which is for entrepreneurs who want to upgrade their productivity, improve the company's systems, and just live life on your own terms. It's online, and you can log in from anywhere. And for a limited time, you will get a free ticket from. All you need to do is go to lifehackbootcamp.com Mike. That was lifehackbootcamp.com Mike. This year, there's going to be coaching from JJ Virgin, Michael Gerber, Chris Ducker.

My.

My boy will be there. And of course, I'll be speaking along with dozens of others, bestselling authors and leaders. Grab your ticket today for free from me. Lifehackbootcamp.com Mike. All the dates, all the details are right there. All right, my dear friends, the words are in my hands. So strap on your glittery muffin, because you're about to hear from the man himself of storybrand. This is gonna be a game changer for your business. You're about to hear that and so much more on today's episode of entrepreneurship Elev. Yeah. All right. Kels. Hey, Kels, you came in specially for today's episode.

I did.

I appreciate it. And you know why you came in?

Why?

So we can talk business later on. Because now you dropped like a bomb on me of something that you think may help us elevate our own game here. So I can't wait to hear it. Well, guys, you're gonna learn all these wonderful stories about elevating your business on today's episode. My name is Mike Michalowicz. I'm the author of Profit First, Clockwork, and a couple other books you may have heard. And I'm on a mission, very clear mission, to eradicate entrepreneurial po. You know, the world thinks you're wildly successful when you're struggling inside, but we fix that on this show and every show. And I'm joined in studio by my dear friend, Kelsey Ayers.

Hello, friend. You can find us on itunes. Stitcher, TuneIn Radio, EntrepreneurshipElevatedPodcast.com or Spotify or iHeartRadio, any podcast or anywhere.

What have you been up to, Kelsey? Anything exciting?

Yeah, I mean, it's exciting for me. I'm going on a trip in two months, so it's just been like preparing, but it's the fun preparing. So it's things I want to pack, and here it's about getting our team ready, which has been amazing. It's just getting the team ready process. Yeah.

Yeah. So we hired two people and recently, like Jenna and Tina, right?

Yeah.

And you got Tina coming up to speed on scheduling. I was talking to her today, and, Jen, Jenna came to me today. She's like, I want to work more. I just want to work more. I said, oh. I said, we got tons of stuff for you. Come in more.

And, you know, a great thing that happened in this process. So I had her. I was starting to train her to do your itineraries and your travel, and then when Tina came on board and I felt that it was more congruent with what she was doing, I moved that over to her. And out of that process, I found out that Jenna's dyslexic, and it's really hard for her to create those itineraries and feel confident about it.

Oh.

So it's one of those things that, you know, evolved out of this process that I think is really great.

Yeah. That's amazing, the learning that's going on. And the group is ready to step up. Amy was here too. She's like, we're ready. But she didn't say it that way. Then she said, I'm sorry. She gets confident for one second, and she has to do her sorry stuff.

Yeah. She's my biggest need for empowerment. She's got the intelligence. She has the capability. It's just.

Yeah. I think if she would get out of her own headspace, she would be. She is extraordinary.

She is.

Yeah, she is extraordinary.

She just doubts she would cruise.

Yeah. She dashes up, so she slows down and resteps things that she doesn't need to do. So we have. And she says sorry all the time.

Yeah.

So we have this foam stick here. We call it the ass. It stands for the Amy sorry stick. A s, S. And anytime she says sorry, we hit her with it.

Yeah.

And recently, I hit her hard enough on the back with the ass.

No, you hit her with your fist in the arm three times in a row.

Oh. Because I didn't have the stick. I punched her. I punched her. She swatted me. Chasta was so funny. It scared the hell out of me. Now, let it be known I didn't, like, really hurt her.

Really hurt her.

Oh, be careful.

Be careful. I'm just kidding. Just kidding, guys.

Yeah, be careful.

Geez.

So do we have any listener mail or anything that's come in?

Yeah, we do.

What we got.

Well, this comes from. Okay, so this is a shout out from rail fever on itunes.

Mm.

They write, I've often looked at business money the same way. It's been described here. How Much is in my account and can I spend it on something? We have taken a ride on this wave for far too long, and I'm excited to learn how profit first can change our course. Great content, incredible stories.

They deserve a glittery muffin.

Yeah, everybody deserves a glittery muffin.

Oh, yeah. That's awesome. Thank you for that wonderful shout out. You know, a little later on, we also have some listener mail that came in. We'll answer some questions, but let's get right to the guest at hand. Yeah, I am jacked.

Me too.

Usually I don't rush through the beginning, but I want to get to our guest so badly. So he is the author of storybrand. We, you and I, Paul from the office. Billy Ann went down and, oh, he's listening in right now. We are all going to visit his company in about a month, not even.

Less than April 22nd.

And I think there's like, when I say all of us, I think there's like seven or eight of us going down. So Don, be ready for us. We're rolling in like, like, we're rolling in on motorcycles like Hell's Angels.

And mine will be like a little.

Scooter, but more of a scooter. And we're going to roll in to learn. We were so impressed by the story brand experience. We spent two days there. We're revamping our websites, we're redoing literature because this guy, his name is Don Miller. If you, if you haven't heard of Don Miller, what is the rock you are living under? Let's remove that. Don Miller is the CEO of StoryBrand. Every year he helps more than 3,000 businesses, business leaders clarify their brand message in workshops. We've been there. I have to tell you, if there's two workshops to sign up for the profit first workshop, or you're saying, should I go there or storybrand? Go to storybrand. I mean, that's how much I believe in it. Don is considered one of the world's leading experts on the subject of story. His audiences are challenged to lean into, into their own story, creatively develop and execute the story of their team and understand the story of their customers so they can serve them with passion. What you're about to discover, my friends, get you. Grab, grab your pen and paper.

Get your, grab your, grab your, grab.

Your pen and paper because you're about to discover how to bring story to life in your business and change everything forever. Don, welcome to the show.

Welcome, Don.

I'm really grateful to be here. And please bring your scooters and your motorcycle. We would love to have you.

We should have a battle like the two companies, like. Like a dodgeball game or something.

Oh, that'd be fun.

Yeah, yeah. They'd kick our butts.

Yeah, of course.

And they'd be telling stories about how they kicked our butts. So, Don, when I came to your event, right away you started talking about Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker, and I was enamored by what you're saying. And you were saying this translates into business. Could you revisit that with me right now?

Well, we're talking about heroes and villains, right? And one of the big paradigm shifts at the story been framework teaches is never play the hero in the story. Always play the guide. The guide is a character in the story that helps the hero win. And so really what that amounts to is, you know, most of us think we need to get our story out. We need to tell our story. Our story is so special. That's a great way to go out of business. What you really want to do is not tell your story. You want to invite your customer into a story. Your customer gets to be the hero of the story that overcomes a problem and experiences a climactic scene.

And.

And the tool they need to overcome that problem and experience that climactic scene, which is the resolution of their problem, is your product. And you are the guide helping them win the day. So you are, you know, it could be Yoda, it could be Obi Wan Kenobi, could be Gandalf. Mary Poppins was the guide. There is a guide in almost every story that's helping the hero win. There are two reasons you never want to play the hero in the story. The first is you remove yourself from your customer's story when you play the hero because they woke up thinking of themselves as a hero. And if they find out you're a hero, then you must be a hero in a separate story. So you've left their story when you play the hero. That's why Hillary Clinton lost the election. I'm with her was her tagline. Jeb Bush is the front runner. Bowed out of the election with 3% in the polls. What was his tagline? Jeb can fix it. If you play the hero in the story, you're not going to win. You people aren't looking for another hero. They're looking for somebody to help their story win in the end. And that's the guide. The guide is Gandalf, who's helping Frodo destroy the ring and get to where he needs to go. The guide is Yoda helping Luke Skywalker destroy the Death Star. The guide is the strongest character in the story. The guide has already defeated the hero's villain, usually in the past. They've already become the person that the hero wants to become in their future. The guide has no transformation in the story. They usually don't have a weakness. They may have a backstory of pain, but currently they are strong. So you don't want to do that. The hero is the one of the weakest characters in the story. They don't know what they're doing. They're ill equipped, they're unwilling to take action. They're afraid and they need help. Why would you ever want to position yourself as the hero in the story? Position yourself as the guy. But here's the real thing. When you position yourself as the guide, all your customers say you, that's the person I've been looking for. That's the person who can get me out of this. So understanding story is really understanding life. And there are roles we play in life. And the guide is the one who helps people win and gets people to experience a climactic scene.

Gosh, I love this. I already have a challenge, though. I don't know my customer's name per se. They're coming to my website. How do I say, you, don, are a hero and I'm here to guide you?

Well, it's all in the language that you use on the website. We're in the same boat. But you still position your customer as the hero in the story. So you would say things like, and you do this all the time, Mike, we're here to overcome entrepreneurial poverty. Help you overcome entrepreneurial poverty. Right. That is an invitation into a story. You're actually saying we can help you experience something great. Now there's another way. You could say, you could say, we are the world's leading experts on entrepreneurialism and organizational efficiency. Well, that's about you, right? You are now telling me how great you are rather than inviting me to experience something. The difference between that language is massive. Let me give you an example. We have thousands of clients we've worked with. There's a client in Iowa called Reed's Dairy. Alan Reed owns a dairy and it's a great boutique dairy farm. He literally still has door to door milkmen who go and deliver milk to your door the beginning of every year. He, he issues a coupon book. You can get, I think, 20 gallons of milk. You can buy your milk for basically, you know, most of the year, and they'll deliver it to your door. And you buy this coupon book. He sends out emails every year. He gets usually about the highest he ever got. It's only open for one day. You can only buy these coupon books for one day, and he sells about $3,000 worth of them. He changed the language from positioning themselves as the hero to positioning themselves as the guide. Sent out the email to the same list he's always sent it to. Got $52,000 worth of orders. That's the difference. It's just a massive difference. Because one, if you're positioning yourself as a hero, you're positioning yourself as somebody who is weak, and you're positioning yourself as somebody who is outside of your customer story. If you're positioning yourself as the guide, you are positioning yourself as somebody who can help the hero win. So what they see, the value of their relationship with you is that you are going to help me win in the end. And that makes you useful in your brand. Useful to me. And you've got a very clear narrative, actually, Mike, you help people overcome entrepreneurial poverty. This, this idea that you're an entrepreneur and you're making money, but you live as though you're in poverty because you're emotionally bankrupt, right? You're exhausted and all these kinds of things. And so that's a, that's a great climactic scene. You know, a friend of mine, Dave Ramsey, is here in town and Dave and I become friends. He has something called the debt free scream on his radio show where he has, you've heard it. People come on, they say, we, we, you know, paid off $70,000 in debt in three years. You know, I'm debt free. It's a debt free scream. That is the climactic scene in that person's story. And he features it on his radio show every day. And he says, wow, smart couple, great couple, way to go. Job well done. He is the guide who gave them a way to win and then celebrated their climactic scene. Well, what's the power of that? You have 3 million other listeners listening to that radio show who are in being, who are being invited into a story in which they can experience the same climactic scene. Now. There are hundreds of thousands of financial advisors. Thousands of them have written books. Hundreds if not thousands of them have podcasts or radio shows. And you walk out of the street of your office, you say, hey, name a financial advisor. And they will say, dave Ramsey. Why is he the only one? He's the only one because he's one of the only ones who plays the guide instead of the hero. And he's had such a clear narrative that people can follow and jump into. And we've seen it in every kind of business, whether you're a plumber, a financial advisor, a health coach, a real estate agent. It just doesn't matter. If you sell something and you position yourself as the guide instead of the hero, you're going to win.

Hey, Kelsey, there's something going on in Nashville. Like, think about all the superstars out there. You got. Seriously, you got Michael Hyatt. I remember I had lunch with him recently. Dinner. Don Miller, Dave Ramsey, Aaron Walker. Big A's down there. Robin Robbins. These companies are mega. What, Don, what are you guys drinking down there? Or maybe you're not drinking.

I don't know. I don't know. We occasionally for dinner. And Michael Heidt calls it the Nashville Mafia.

It's unbelievable.

But I think what we're saying. I think the tea leaves are telling you, Mike, you got to move to Nashville.

Yeah, well, no, you don't want to Pollock down there.

Trust me.

So the brand script. So we went through the workshop. Kelsey. We went through the brand script. There's six significant steps I want to walk through it. The last one's kind of a split step. The success, failure. But let's start off with defining the character in the brand script. Don, this is the first step. Can you walk us through this?

Yeah. So the reason that you want to invite people into a story and you want to communicate very simple messages that invite them into a story is because story is the number one tool to compel a human brain. We are at a race to get people's attention, especially today, because the average consumer encounters about 3,000 commercial messages a day. They are being bombarded with information. And usually our marketing campaigns, we try to be cute and clever to get attention. Cute and clever do not get attention anymore. What gets attention is clarity. Clarity. So we got to start at the beginning. I've got to say this. A marketing effort. A marketing campaign should do one thing. It should guide your potential customers through an exercise in memorization. That's what marketing should do. So you've got to come up with lines that you are going to repeat over and over to get people to memorize your offer. And then when it comes to buy, whatever it is you sell, they will remember you because you've caused them to memorize it. Let me give you an example. Jeb Bush went around the country and did all sorts of town hall meetings. But I've been in front of hundreds of thousands of people in the last year, and I've asked every one of them, what did Jeb Bush want to do with America? Nobody has ever answered that question. Because he answered it. He answered it very nuanced ways. He used different language. He answered on a number of issues. And he got to 3% in the polls, by the way, with $114 million in the right to rise super PAC, $12 million in the general money will not get you out of this problem. Donald Trump goes around the country and he teaches people to memorize, Make America great again and build a wall. Two lines. That's it.

Yeah.

And drain the swamp. So you got a villain, the swamp, you got a climactic scene, Make America great again and you've got an actual physical thing on immigration called Build a wall. And he caused the country to memorize that. Now, like him or not, this isn't a political discussion. Like him or not, you have to understand that when people went to the polls, they voted for what they recognized. They voted for the familiar. The answer to confusion is always no, always. If somebody and I just had a friend who's trying to sell a medical clinic. He's actually a wonderful, wonderful guy. He's been trying to sell his medical clinic for three years. He wants to retire. And we talk probably once a quarter about how's it going, what are you doing, all these kinds of things. And finally he's got buyers on the line, but then they back out. And finally we just sat down maybe a week ago, and I said, tell me, how are these pitch meetings going? And he says, well, I just explained all the options. There's 10 different things they can do. And I said, oh, that's the problem. The problem is they're confused about the story you were inviting them into in which they own a medical clinic. So what you need to do is you need to paint. This is what life looks like if you own this medical clinic. And then you need to show them the P and L and mark out everything that they won't have to pay if they buy the clinic, for instance, they're going to consolidate their real estate, they're going to have a pharmacy that these people will be able to go to, blah, blah, and your P and L is going to start looking a lot better when they see, oh, I don't have to buy this. In other words, invite them into a story in which it's obvious they are going to win. Right. He took that and he took it to the people who had rejected the clinic, who didn't want the clinic, he had a meeting with them, and he said, hey, can we meet again? I want to explain this in such a way I think you'll understand it. And at the table, they asked for a letter of intent. The only thing that changed was the words he was using. That's it. And here's the beautiful thing, Mike. Words are free. They don't cost anything. Right. So the words that get you elected president don't cost you anything. Right. The words that confuse everybody are also free. It just depends on which words you use. So even before we get into the story brand framework, that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to create a message system that one, gets people to pay attention and two, causes them to memorize our offer.

Yeah.

And so the seven part framework that I created helps you come up with seven essential lines that you use over and over that effectively invite people into a story in which your product sets them free from whatever trouble they're having and gives them a positive, happy ending resolution to their story. That's the importance of it. So I'll go through real quick what the framework is and we can talk about it piece by piece. One, you have a character, right? That character wants something. That character experiences a problem. They don't get what they want, or the. Or the fact that they don't have what they want is causing pain in their life. You enter their story as a guide to help them win the day. You give them a plan that offers them a resolution to that. If they do these three steps, you call them to action. And that call to action is going to end in either a success or a failure. That's the seven stop part plan. That's the actual formula you will see in every single movie that you go see in the theater. It's just that a character has a problem, meets a guide who gives them a plan and calls them to action that overcomes their conflict and gives them a happy ending. That's it. Now, that formula is used in every single movie you will go see. And it also has been used in nearly every story you've heard for 2,500 years, since a guy named Aristotle wrote a book called Poetics. So this is a 2,500-year-old framework. The average brain spends about 30% of its time daydreaming. But when you encounter a story, you stop daydreaming. It. It lures you in. It compels your attention. The other day, Betsy and I were watching A Netflix movie that just came out. It's a really good movie. I'm sitting in the leather chair in the living room. She's sitting on the couch. At some point during the movie, I move over and I sit next to her on the couch. We're literally touching each other on the couch. And about 20 minutes after I move over there, she looks at me and she says, when did you move over here? She was literally that glued. Now, wouldn't you love it if in a world of complete distraction, that many people were paying that close attention to what your brand is doing? Apple's done it. Coca Cola has done. Has done it. Home Depot has done it. Southwest Airlines has done it. And you can do it, too. And the key is understanding this framework. Doesn't.

Doesn't your wife Betsy also say you're allows a movie date because you're like saying, oh, here's what's going to happen next?

She absolutely does, because at some point, I elbow hurt. Pardon me? At some point, I elbow her and say, look, this guy's gonna die in 31 minutes.

Because 31 secrets.

Yeah, these things are unbelievably formulaic. I mean, they really are.

But it works.

It's just the exact. It works. I mean, I can tell you the Act 2, Act 3 transition. There's going to be a confession. Somebody's going to sit down, and they're going to say, you know, life used to be so great, and it's so hard now. And this. I remember a story from my childhood that's going to happen in the Act 2, Act 3 confession. Right before the climactic scene, there's going to be an all is lost moment where everything, everything is going to be lost, and there's no way this is going to turn out well. Right after that, there's going to be a deos ex machina moment. That's Latin for God in the machine, in which something miraculous happens and suddenly closes that story gap and then allows the climactic scene to take place so that the hero can win and resolve all their problems. So, of course, you know, in Karate Kid, Daniel's gonna get his leg swept and the all is lost moment happens, and then the deus ex machina scene happens, and suddenly he wins the tournament miraculously, and that's the climax. Well, how does this translate to business? Well, you just try an email campaign. You say you have 24 hours and you're about to miss your opportunity to buy this product. That's the all is lost moment. And then you send another Email and you say, not only can you get this in the nick of time, but we're actually adding this bonus. That's the deus ex machina moment. And then they click buy now and all their problems are resolved because they now have the product they need. That is the obligatory climactic scene. You're literally emulating the story framework inside of your marketing campaign because that, that is not just a road that exists in your customer's brain. It's a 10 lane highway. And when you put your products on that 10 lane highway, there's a lot more people who are going to go down it rather than the buried path through the forest and hills that they're having to smell their way through to buy your product. And everything is just really, really clear. So you do an enormous amount more business and it doesn't cost anything. It's literally just the words that you use.

Unbelievable. That is so formulaic, but it feels so new. Every single movie, every single time. So, Don, we have about 10, 15 minutes. I want to get through each of these steps. So let's go back to character. You said this is, you know, you have to know what they want. Can you tell me a little more about what that means?

Yeah. So there's two mistakes that, that storytellers make and a lot of business leaders make when they define what their character wants. And the first mistake is they def. Vague language. So if I were to invite you to a movie about a guy who wants fulfillment in life, your next question would be, okay, Dom, like what kind of fulfillment? And you're asking questions. Right. That's the equivalent of me going to a website and seeing the header on your website say something like, trust is the commodity we exchange. That doesn't mean anything. It sounds cute, it sounds clever. But if you actually said a locksmith, that will finish in half the time for half the price and give you greater value. Right? Well, now I know what's in it. I'm gonna save money, I'm gonna save time, and I'm not gonna skimp on quality. That's a story that you're inviting me into. That's extremely clear. So I can invite you to a story about a guy who's looking for fulfillment. Or I can say, Mike, you won't believe this. Another one of Liam Neeson's daughters has been kidnapped. Right? And you know exactly what that movie is about. We don't like things that are unfamiliar. That's why there are so many sequels, because we've already got all the categories in our mind. Filled out. There's no mystery as to what we're going to see. We want to move into things that are familiar. So the first lesson is clearly define something that your customer gets by doing business with you. And it's got to be one thing. And that's the second lesson. If you define too many things that your customer wants, you are causing them to burn too many mental calories and they will shut down as a survival mechanism and stop paying attention to you. So if I go to a movie and Jason Bourne wants to know who he really is, but he also wants to lose 30 pounds and he wants to marry the girl and he's thinking about adopting a cat, but he wants to do it ethically, so he's researching that because he travels a lot. That's too many things.

You just described Kelsey's situation.

It's too much like real life. Right. I want it to be clear. So here's the lesson. Define one thing that your character wants and become known for it. Dave Ramsey is known for financial peace. I'm known for helping you clarify your message. You're known for helping you overcome entrepreneurial poverty. You've got to be known for something, and it has to be really clear. And it has to be. Unfortunately, it has to be one thing. And you may have 27 revenue streams, but you've got to figure out the one thing that you're known for. I just helped a company that helps people give away $1.7 billion a year. They're a giving company, and really what they sell is a deferred fund where you can put money into it and give it away later. It's a tax shelter. However, they didn't realize what they actually. The deferred fund is actually very complicated and hard to understand. It's too elusive, it's too vague. What they really do, though, is help you figure out your giving or your charitable strategy. And their deferred fund is part of that. And so they're going to become the organization that helps you come up with your giving or charitable strategy. And when I ask you, Mike, have you ever sat down and filled out a 10 page book so you know your giving strategy? You don't. Right. So that creates a vacuum. And now you go to this company to do that. That one move we would expect them to, instead of giving away 1.7 billion in this collective DAF, we would expect that to double in the next 24 months. So literally more than $3 billion will be given away because they stop talking about their deferred fund. And they start talking about, what is your giving strategy?

Unbelievable.

It's just the language. Yes. The structurally just the language that you use. Except now everybody understands what's in it. For me, I'm going to have a giving strategy that's going to give me a sense of peace, and my giving is going to have more impact and I'm going to pay less in taxes. You've got to find that singular in that one thing that gets people into your company. And then you got to repeat that over and over and get them to memorize.

Tell me about the problem. So now we have the character defined. You say he face a problem.

Yeah. There are three levels of problems. And I talk about that. We don't have time to get into it right now. But here's the idea that you need to understand. Everybody needs to understand. The only reason anybody's coming in to you to do business is because they're trying to solve a problem. And if you actually talk about that problem, more people come. It's the magnetism that draws them to you is the problem. You know, if it's. It's. Opening a story loop is really what it is. The reason on the nightly news, if they say, will there be ice on the roads during your commute tomorrow? Stay tuned after the commercial and we will tell you.

Yeah. Yeah.

Well, it was a yes or no question. You literally could have just said, yes.

Broccoli's killing your kids.

Is broccoli killing your kids? And are your kids gonna die? Yeah. So the idea is you open a story loop and make wait around to get the answer. I was just working with a pro golfer this last week, and he said, donna, I've got to give a talk. I don't know how to start or what to do. And I said, oh, it's easy. You walk to the middle of the stage and you say, I had a 12 foot putt at the Honda Open, and if I sank it, I got a million dollars. And then don't tell them whether you sank the putt until the last thing that you say.

Yeah, I'm hooked.

Open up with a story question. By the way, he did sync.

Oh, yeah. Thanks for closing the loop.

Yeah. So, you know, you open with a story question, you don't close it till the end. Your business should be doing the same thing. What is the problem that your customer faces? Right. What's the problem that your customer faces? Is your home as secure as it should be? You know, are you getting the best out of your retirement? Or are people sneaking fees and Percentages out of it. So you're not going to have that million dollars when you retire. That's a story question that I've got to do business with you in order to answer. The problem is the motivator. And then you're ready to enter their life as the guy.

Tell me about this.

Your role now matters, right? Because they've got a problem, and you as the guide, need to do two things, empathize with them. I feel your pain. I understand. Many of my clients have had this. In fact, I used to have this problem, but now I don't. And then the next part is competency. You have to demonstrate that you can get them out of this problem. So the one, two punch, that will position you as the guide in their subconscious and make them brand evangelists forever and ever and do business with you until their kids do business with you. The one, two punch is I care about you. I feel your pain, and I can get you out. I know how to solve this. I care about you, and I feel your pain, and I can get you out, and I know how to solve this. If your brand just starts communicating that you will grow.

You know, it's funny, I try to do a cheesy Bill Clinton invitation because on stage, when you were talking about this, you mentioned you talk a lot about the presidential candidates because we as Americans were exposed to them constantly. Bill Clinton, the great empathizer, right?

Yep. I feel your pain. Remember, his thumb went up and said, I feel your pain. In fact, a lot of people think that's how he won the election. There was a debate between he, Ross perot and George H.W. bush. And it was a town hall meeting, and a woman stood up and she said, can you tell me how the national debt, why it matters? And George H.W. bush was. The question was to him, and he wanted to sound smart. So he said, well, what aspect of the national debt? Clarify your question. Well, this made her feel stupid and she didn't understand it. And it really was a bad moment for George H.W. bush, who was an otherwise very compassionate man, or was very compassionate man. And Bill Clinton said, hey, can I answer this? And he said. He said, ma' am, do you know anybody who's out of work? And she said, yes. And he said, it's painful, isn't it? I mean, you watch their life and maybe it's even you. It's painful to watch this. And the national debt is actually directly connected to the employment rates. And so that's. That's how it's connected. Reality Is national debt isn't connected to employment rates at all. It's just our credit card debt.

You hear Ross Perot's response. He's like, let me tell you here, I got a chart that'll point to this house. I got a chart right here. Chart, chart, chart.

What George H.W. bush said was, I'm really smart and you're really dumb. And what Bill Clinton says was, I care about you. And who won the race?

Clinton.

By a long shot. Yeah. By launch empathy. And Marsh, bro, was a part of that, too.

It's interesting, though, because what I'm hearing, what Bush did was the authority thing. Like, you know, he wanted to demonstrate his knowledge, but he didn't start off with empathy.

What he said was, I'm smart. Not. Here's how I can get you out.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So I'm smart is not actually the authoritative part. It's. It's, you know, he should have said, well, first of all, let me just compliment you. That's a very advanced question. And really, a lot of very intelligent people are asking that question. And it directly relates to the future of our company and our company's country's health. Right. If we are printing money, you don't have to go get a loan. And what that really relates to is government overspending. And the Democrats want to spend a ton of money, and they're driving up this debt. And that means your kids and your kids. Kids are going to have a massive unemployment rate because people are going to call in this day. And it also gives us. It gives leverage to China and to Saudi Arabia. We now can't call them on important issues like human rights issues because we owe them so much money. So it directly causes people in the world to suffer because of this national debt. And that's why we want to do something about it. And your question was wonderful. Thank you for bringing that up. That's how you.

That was so freaking compelling. I want to vote for you now. That was good.

I wish I were running, but I'm not.

So tell me about the next stage. It's about the plan itself. Give me more details.

The plan. Yeah. And this is where a lot of your listeners can make a lot of money. You know, nobody walks into confusion. The answer to confusion is no. And a lot of us, it's very clear to us how to do business with us. It's not clear to the customer. And so if I say, you know, I'm a financial advisor, I can really help you with your retirement, you should bring your checkbook and meet with me next Thursday. Not a lot of people are going to take advantage of that. But if I say, listen to how subtle this is. If I say I'm a financial advisor, I can really help you with retirement. I do that in three phases. First, I listen to you and I assess your goals. Second, I give you a custom strategy. And then third, I help you execute that strategy if you so choose. It's a really easy process, but it's going to be going to give you a lot of peace of mind in your finances. Well, which person are most people going to go with? They're going to go with number two. And the reason is you've explained in very short language how it works and where we will go. So it'd be the difference between me calling you and saying, hey, Mike, I want to go on a road trip. Can I pick you up tomorrow and let's go on a road trip or Mike, I want to go on a road trip in which both our families go to Disneyland or Disney World. I think we should stop here, here, and then finally be at Disney World. The kids are going to love it. Let's go. You're going to say, you get. It's much more likely that you'll say yes to the next road trip because you understand where it's going. And so a plan is really just a three step process. If you can break down the way people do business with you into three steps and explain that clearly, they will sense a lot of clarity in their mind. And they almost always move toward clarity. If it's something that they're interested in, it's funny. And then once you deliver the.

Yeah, I'm thinking back in the college days, I did have a friend like, hey man, let's go on a road trip. And, I don't know, won't come back. And they're, they're the crazy free spirits. They're actually the dangerous one because they don't have a plan. It was a guy who said, hey man, why don't we go for a trip for two weeks cross country? We're gonna go from west coast to east coast. I want to visit these three spots. That's a guy I actually literally went on the trip with. It's kind of funny, right? There's no plan, there's danger.

Nobody wants to just drive around in a circle, right? We want to go somewhere, we want to know how we're going to get there. Am I safe? Is it secure? Is this a waste of my time? You're asking those questions in A three step. If you walk into any carmax in the country, if you want to sell your car, it's right there on their giant wall, right painted. Here's the three steps to sell it. If you want to buy a car, here's the three steps to buy it. If you want to finance a car, here's the three steps to finance it. And they are the behemoth in the used car industry with 8.75 billion in sales every year. Why they're making the buying a car process much, much easier digestible.

Let's move on because we're almost out of time. I want to know the calls to action.

Yeah. So a lot of us on our websites, we have really passive calls to action. We're saying get started, learn more. What we really need to say is buy now or schedule an appointment. We need to ask for the sale and we don't do it. We're passive aggressive in our, you know, we assume people know we want them to buy from us. They don't know, you know. And also you need to tell me what to do first. You know, we've got a deferred action fund that are a fund that you can, you can put money in and give it away later. It's a great tax shelter. Or fill out this giving strategy book and let's talk and talk to your financial advisor about your giving strategies. Do you have a giving strategy? One is here's the product that we have and I've got to do the math and try to figure out whether or not I need that product. And the second is a really easy first step that's going to get me in the door. And so if you don't have a buy now button or schedule an appointment button on the top right of your website, I promise you, you're losing money. People can't read your mind. You've got to tell them what to do. People are only take action when they are challenged to take action. And it has to be really, really clear. If I'm a politician and I say, here's where I am on education, here's where I am on taxes, here's where I am on debt, those kinds of things. It was great talking to you. I'm gonna get way less votes than if I say, hey, here's my plan on taxes, here's my plan on debt. I need you to show up on November 2nd or whatever and I need you to vote for me. I need you to actually punch my name on that card and vote for me. Your votes will go up by a significant percentage because you actually told people to vote for you, even though it's assumed. Never, ever think that your people are gonna do anything. You know, I did this thing, Mike. I didn't do it at your workshop. I did it maybe two workshops before. I took 250 people in the audience or 250 business leaders at the workshop. And I said, hey, I want to tell you something really, really important. Maybe the best business advice I've ever given, but I'm going to tell you on the curb outside of this room. And I just walked out. And 250 people got up and they walked out right across from the Ryman Auditorium in downtown Nashville. They all gathered around me. My staff had put together a little box there, and I stood up on the box with a bullhorn and I said this. I said, the one thing I wanted to tell you is this. People will go where you tell them to go. Okay, let's go back inside. And then we just all. And it was a confidence exercise for the group to understand. If you don't tell people to buy your product, they're just not going to do it. They're just not going to do it. And you've got to say, look, I've got a solution to your problem. I want you to buy it. Here's how you're going to buy it. You buy my book, or you buy my course, or you buy my whatever. You got to buy it. And that's going to be the resolution. Don't think people are going to figure it out. And the other thing is, if you don't directly say, I want you to buy this, what that's actually communicating to your customers that you don't believe in your product?

Yeah.

You're literally saying, I don't think it's going to solve your problem. I don't think it's going to make your life better. But I've got a mortgage. Will you please give me some money?

So we got about a minute left. Why don't you tell me about the fat phone? Success versus failure.

You've got to explain to people what's in it for them, what their life will look like if they buy your product and what's not. What's in it for them if they don't? Right. This thing has to end in a happy ending or a tragic ending. And you got to explain, look, if you don't use my locksmith services, you're going to get junky doorknobs and people are going to break in your house. If you do use my locksmith service, you're going to get the best technology, and the locks are going to keep you safe. There have to be stakes in the story for the story to be dramatic and interesting. And so the sixth and seventh thing we got to do is tell people, here's what life looks like. You're going to be debt free. You're going to have peace. Or here's what life looks like. You're going to be burdened by credit card and a slave to credit cards for the rest of your life. That's Dave Ramsey's invitation, and it's making him $200 million a year.

Don, this stuff is amazing. Absolutely fabulous. And I insist, everyone listening right now. You got to go to Don's workshop. There's no if and or but. That's the call to action. That's the buy now, right? Go to his workshop. Don, where can people sign for your workshop and learn more about you?

It's storybrand.com and, you know, I actually don't shrink away from inviting people to the workshop. Just heard a story about cauliflower foods. She was losing a quarter million dollars a year. She came to Storybrand. She did $6 million the next year and $20 million last year. And all she did was change the language that she was using. And we hear that story over and over and over again. So go to storybrand.com, register, and we'd love to see you, Don Miller.

Don, thank you so much for joining us.

You done?

I will say this because you open the. Let me just add this. You open by saying, if you go to profit first or story brand, go to story brand. I would actually say go to profit first and get your books in order. Because if you blow up your company with revenue and you waste the money, what's the point? So I think we're in disagreement about the only thing I think they go to.

That's very kind of you. All right. Dime. Well, just hang tight. We have something we're gonna bring you back on for. But thanks for joining us this afternoon.

Great.

All right, Kelsey, so here's the deal. You know the routine. We gotta recap what we learned. We got to do a little trivia question, and we gotta do one more thing. Oh, I love that music. We gotta thank our corporate partners. Nextiva voice over IP it's amazing. Jeremy called me and he left me a message. He goes, mike, I'm calling on my true voice nextiva phone. And he says, it probably sounds like me. And he's like, I have the brand new color black for my phone.

So our bookkeeper Nina did the same thing the other day. She called and she was like, your voice. It sounds so true.

Yeah. So next team is wonderful. They are actually sponsoring our mastery meetup we do only for our mastery members at Profit First Professionals. We're going to Savannah, Georgia to go see the Savannah Bananas play a baseball game, get some behind the scenes access. They're a wonderful supporter of ours and they're a wonderful technology. We use them all the time. It's a high end phone system at the price of a cup of coffee or something. So get a nextiva phone system. I gotta interrupt the show just real quick. I mean for something real special, because I'm telling you, you gotta be at the lifehack summit this year. I want to let you know about this amazing productivity event that I'm speaking at. It's all about driving your business forward and your lifestyle forward. 25 of the best thought leaders and me. So 25 of the best thought leaders and Mike and others are going to be speaking at this event. You can hear from all of them for free. I have a free ticket for you and it's virtual so you can listen in from your own home or workplace. Grab your free ticket now at lifehackbootcamp. Lifebootcamp.com Mike that was lifehackbootcamp.com Mike. The event's hosted by my friends Demir and Cary Bentley. And their speakers will provide so much value about increasing productivity building systems for both your business and your life. Just optimizing your life overall. This year's coaches include experts like JJ Virgin, Michael Gerber, Chris Ducker. So many great people. And I snuck in there somehow too. So get your ticket for free on me. Go to lifehackbootcamp.com Mike that's lifehackbootcamp.com Mike. All the dates, all the details are right there. I'll see you online. All right, Kels, I want to know one more punch. I want to know what you learned today from Don.

Oh, I love this so much. I have to say, I feel like of all the folks we've encountered since I've worked for you, this has been my favorite concept overall. It just makes sense. It's one of those things where it seems obvious and then but you actually look into it and it's mind blowing. Yeah, it's like so smart that you haven't been doing it all along. And I think I previously always took for granted that language didn't matter that much, particularly when doing like email copy. I mean, it mattered, but I just wanted to be more compelling and to the point, but not necessarily looking at the reader or customer as the hero and us as the guide. Right. And so I love this where it just makes me a lot more thoughtful about everything. And I think to that point, when you do it as a team, it makes the team more cohesive and congruent, that we all understand who we are as the guide and what we're trying to do and help in our customers.

Right, Agreed. Agreed. And I think the conversation we've had subsequent to the story brand training has been much more, to your point, aligned, cohesive, and by the time this podcast goes live, I think our new website for the Mike Michalowicz brand will be out for sure. That's. That's being in development right now, under development. And the PFP brand is also being revised. Yeah. Amazing. My takeaway was a couple things. Cute and clever does not get attention.

Yeah.

Clarity does. Right, Right. And one of my weaknesses is the cute and clever. I will put. Put preference to that, and it kind of has awakened me. You can still be clever and unique and fun, but that can't be your core message.

Right. That's kind of the.

Maybe that's the. The glitter on the muffin. Right. I love that marketing is about memorization, like you're teaching people to memorize. And the. The example with Donald Trump is a perfect example. Like, everyone love him or hate him remembers Make America great again. Absolute marketing genius. The answer to confusion is always no. I mean, I can just go on and on. Yeah. The. We're attracted to what we're familiar with. Yeah.

Yeah. I feel like it's like macro and micro. Like, on a macro level, it's, like, so intelligent just to communicate as a story. Obviously, it's the most compelling thing in their lives, but you don't think about it. And on a micro level, it's like all those kind of stuff, psychological triggers and. And way to really brand yourself consistently over time, you know?

Yeah. Yeah. So, dear listeners, we want to know what you learned from Don Miller. So go onto our. Whatever podcast you're listening on and definitely rate and review us and share your comments about Don. Now, we do have a little game we're gonna play.

Is this a new one?

It's not a new one. Don, are you still with us? Cause I got a little game for us still here. So there's five quotes. These are five quotes we call the cheese quotes. Now, what they are is we. We mix in real established Quotes. And you got to pick out which one is a Chinese fortune and which one is actually my own quote. But there's other famous people listening here. And so I'm going to read off the quotes. And then in no particular order, you got to pick which one's my quote and which one's the Chinese quote.

And then some of them are. Some of them are other people.

Yeah, they're legit. They're all famous. You'll recognize every name. They're all famous.

Mike McCall is.

Okay, so here we go. Number one. The usefulness of a cup is in its emptiness. The usefulness of a cup is in its emptiness. That's already makes you think that's. Quote 1. Quote 2. The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. Sometimes I do the cheesy voice. Like, the way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing quote number four. Three. I'm sorry. Three.

Three.

Don't worry about making mistakes. In fact, the more mistakes you make, the more progress you are making. Just don't repeat the same mistakes. QUOTE 4. If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time. Quote 5. And this is the final one. Nearly every human being is looking for a guide to help them win the day. So there's your five cheesy quotes. Which. Which one? Don, do you need to hear any of them again?

Yeah. Can you do them all again?

Yeah, I need to hear four.

I'm gonna go through all of them, and I'll repeat them before, but I'll go through them in order. Quote 1. The usefulness of a cup is in its emptiness. Quote 2. The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. Quote 3. Don't worry about making mistakes. In fact, the more mistakes you make, the more progress you are making. Just don't repeat the same mistakes. QUOTE 4. If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time. And quote 5. Nearly every human being is looking for a guide to help them win the day. So, Don.

Okay, I'm eliminating five.

Son of a bitch. That would trick you. I tried stumbling you.

And I'm also going to say, because two could be the fortune, but I don't think it's Mike McCallo. It's because you talk in your book about we need to stop doing and we need to start delegating and then designing and moving up from doing so. I'm gonna eliminate that sort of carefully. But it also sounds like we do need to take action. Okay, so then. Then you've got number four, success over A long time. I think that that quote could be Warren Buffet. It could be kind of anybody. And so I'm going to eliminate that one. Although that could also be the fortune. Here's my guess. The thing about the cup does sound fortune cookie esque. But now your responses made me wonder. I. I'm going to go three is Mike Michalowicz. And then I'm going to go four is the fortune cookie.

And Kels, what's your. That was a lot of thought put into that. What was yours, Kelsey?

Okay, I think number one is the fortune cookie.

Okay.

And I'm gonna guess that. I feel like you could actually say most of these. I'm gonna sand the mite.

You stick it.

Number four. Number four is you.

All right, so you're going with Don in regards number four, but he thought it was a fortune cookie. So first of all, let me give you the winner. Don Miller nails the quote from my cheesy quote. Don't worry about making mistakes. In fact, the more mistakes you make, the more progress you're making. That was me. So, Don, well done. Now I tried to throw a monkey wrench in there. Quote number five was Don Miller himself. Nearly every human being is looking for a guide to help him win the day. I took that out of his book story, Brand the fortune cookie. Kelsey. Nailed. The usefulness of a cup is in its emptiness.

Ah, I should have gone with that.

Great job. Both of you accused Steve Jobs of either being me or a fortune cookie. Steve Jobs, Sorry. You're either a Pollock or a fortune cookie. If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time. That's Steve Jobs. It was Walt Disney who said, the way to get started is to quit, take talking and begin doing. Oh, my God. Was that a lot of fun? All right, that wasn't that fun. All right, Kelsey, we gotta start wrapping things up. Why don't we skip the tip? Because we are literally that tight on time. I gotta hop on another interview. So we'll save. That's our open loop for next time, and let's start getting out of here. Okay?

Okay. Please don't forget to subscribe and listen to us continually on whatever podcast you're listening to us. And review us.

Yeah, exactly. So we want you to subscribe. Do we get the T shirts in yet, Kelsey?

No, but they're on their way. Okay, he's working on them.

All right, we're working on it. So what we're gonna do is, if you leave a review, take a screenshot of it, send it over to Kelseykemicalitz.com and we will randomly pick some people, because I don't think we want perfect. Yeah, we'll randomly pick some people, and we'll send you a T shirt with some of the new words I came up with, like gemologically proven or whatever the darn words are.

And flattery will get you everywhere.

Yeah, exactly.

The more flatter when I say random.

Yeah. Yeah, we'll pick our favorite flattery. And do one last thing. Go to mikemcalowitz.com you're gonna see the new story brand website up there and definitely get the tools that are available for you. So we're making entrepreneurship simple, and together, we're going to eradicate your entrepreneurial poverty. All right, guys, we'll see you next week.

Bye. Thank you.