“Nobody wants to hear your story, they want to be invited into a story,” Donald Miller told me, in a recent interview about his new book, Building A StoryBrand 2.0.That’s it. That’s how financial planning—or perhaps more accurately, financial planners—have got the story all wrong. And regardless of the type of business that you’re in, I’m betting that the same holds true.
We’ve made ourselves, and/or our solutions, the main character in the narrative of our client’s financial planning, rather than ceding that role to the natural actor, our client.
This wise counsel comes from the StoryBrand guy, Donald Miller, and Miller’s story deserves attention because it’s instructive. He’s not the first to talk about how to use narrative theory in branding and marketing, but it is safe to say he’s done the best job of telling us precisely how to use stories to help people better understand our businesses. And it’s not by telling our story, but by helping others to see theirs.
This is likely because Miller isn’t, or wasn’t, a marketing guru, but a practitioner. An author. Before writing StoryBrand, Miller had published seven books that fit into the memoirist category, including one of my all-time favorite titles, Blue Like Jazz. But after finding success in that genre, Miller says, “I ran out of books to write,” so he began, “an exercise in curiosity” to explicate how narrative structures work and how to use that to clarify a business’s message.
And the big takeaway? As businesses, the story isn’t about us; it’s about those we serve.
StoryBrand 1.0
In the original Building a StoryBrand, Miller shares the SB7 framework—the seven plot points in every great story, whether it’s a novel, TV show, commercial, epic movie, or yes, a business or brand. And it doesn’t take more than a second glance to see where we go wrong as business owners or developers.
Where do you find yourself in this plot?StoryBrandFrom Star Wars to Hunger Games to Top Gun: Maverick to Apple, Miller shows us how this plotline plays out in every great story and iconic brand. But nobody dreams of winning Best Supporting Actor as a kid, so we naturally default to jumping into the cockpit and calling ourselves Maverick.
And there is the fatal flaw we commit, making it too much about us. Our services, processes, and accolades—all of which matter, but only to the degree they serve the protagonist, the client, and their story.
The good news is that we play a vital role in this story—it’s just not the starring role, and the sooner we accept our rightful supporting role, the sooner we can better serve more clients. And everything becomes crystal clear when we see it that way—especially as financial advisors.
StoryBrand Financial Planning
Our clients are the main character, the hero. Our job is to get to know them well enough to understand their problem or challenge, and then we can settle into our rightful role as the client’s guide.
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