Young and Profiting with Hala Taha - Donald Miller: Storytelling for Business | E120

Episode Date: June 28, 2021

Storytelling Made Simple!   In today’s episode, we are talking with Donald Miller, best-selling author, CEO, and podcast host. Donald is the CEO of Business Made Simple, an online platform that teaches business professionals everything they need to know to grow a business and enhance their personal value on the open market. He is also the host of the Business Made Simple Podcast and is the author of several books including the bestseller "Building a StoryBrand."   Donald is widely considered one of the most entertaining and informative speakers in the world. His audiences are challenged to lean 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. Don's thoughts on story have deeply influenced leaders and teams for Pantene, Ford/Lincoln, Zaxby's, Chick-fil-A, Steelcase, Intel, Prime Lending and thousands more.   In this episode, we discuss Donald’s upbringing without a father figure, the power of storytelling, and why you should always aim to tell stories. We’ll also talk about the seven steps that happen in every story, the best call-to-actions, how customer testimonials can be important, and how to use storytelling in your social media.   Sponsored by -    Save $15 off your first visit with a board-certified dermatologist at Apostrophe.com/YAP Visit capsule.com to get your prescription hand delivered today—for free   Social Media:    Follow YAP on IG: www.instagram.com/youngandprofiting Reach out to Hala directly at [e-mail] Follow Hala on Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/htaha/ Follow Hala on Instagram: www.instagram.com/yapwithhala Follow Hala on ClubHouse: @halataha Check out our website to meet the team, view show notes and transcripts: www.youngandprofiting.com   Timestamps:   01:05 - What Donald Was Like As A Child 04:19 -The Importance of Mentors 07:49 - Why Stories Are So Powerful 11:25 - Importance of Messaging Being Concise 16:05 - The Explanation of Story Loops 19:02 - Why You Need to Continuously Solve Problems 21:45 - Where the CEO Fits Within the Face of The Brand 27:04 - The Seven Steps That Happen in Every Story 31:25 - Details on How To Use the Seven Steps 32:44 - Best Call-To-Actions 35:49 - The Principle of Pricing in Storytelling 38:17 - Real Examples of 7 Soundbites 44:28 - Why Customer Testimonials Are So Impactful 45:43 - How Brand Elements Can Pass The ‘Grunt’ Test 51:11 - Best Practices for Storytelling in Social Media 52:28 - The Comparison of Business to An Airplane 59:13 - Donald’s Secret to Profiting in Life    Mentioned in the Episode:   Donald’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donald-miller-storybrand/ Donald’s Book, Business Made Simple: https://www.businessmadesimple.com/ Donald’s Company: https://storybrand.com/ StoryBrand’s Upcoming Marketing Workshop: https://storybrand.com/#register Free 5-Minute Marketing Makeover: http://www.5minutemarketingmakeover.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode of YAP is sponsored in part by Shopify. Shopify simplifies selling online and in-person so you can focus on successfully growing your business. Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at Shopify.com slash profiting. You're listening to YAP, Young and Profiting Podcast. A place where you can listen, learn, and profit. Welcome to the show. I'm your host, Halla Taha, and on Young and Profiting Podcast,

we investigate a new topic each week and interview some of the brightest minds in the world. My goal is to turn their wisdom into actionable advice that you can use in your everyday life, no matter your age, profession, or industry. There's no fluff on this podcast, And that's on purpose. I'm here to uncover value from my guests by doing the proper research and asking the right questions. If you're new to the show, we've chatted with the likes of XFBI agents, real estate moguls,

self-made billionaires, CEOs, and bestselling authors. Our subject matter ranges from enhancing productivity, had to gain influence, the art of entrepreneurship, and more. If you're smart and like to continually improve yourself, hit the subscribe button because you'll love it here at Young and Profiting Podcast. This week on YAP, we're chatting with Donald Miller, an American author, public speaker, and business owner. Donald is the CEO of Storybrand, an agency that has helped more than 3,000 businesses

like Pantene and Chick-fil-A clarify their brand message. Donald is also the CEO of Business Made Simple, an online platform that teaches business professionals everything they need to know about growing a business. He hosts the Business Made Simple podcast and is the author of Two Best Sellers, building a story brand and marketing-made simple. In this episode, we discussed the power of storytelling for business and how to create a story brand using Don's Seven Step Framework.

We'll learn the primary characters in a story brand like the Guide in the Hero, and we'll understand the importance of opening and closing story loops, as well as why if you confuse you lose in your brand messaging. Hey, Donald. Welcome to Young Improfiting Podcast. So glad to have you here. I'm grateful to be here. I'm so excited for this interview because storytelling is like one of my favorite topics, and I've invited a couple people on the show to talk about storytelling, but it's been a lot of like fluff and no actionable content.

And then I heard your stuff and I was like hooked and I was like, we have to have a line. And I'm just so excited because I feel like you're gonna have so much insight to share with everyone. So welcome again. So for anybody who doesn't know who you are, you are a podcast host, you are a CEO, you are an author, you're a multitude of things,

and one of the things that you're most known for is helping brands tell their stories. So you've worked with Chick-fil-A, Pantines, Countless, Household Brands. So I would love to introduce yourself to my listeners, give a bit of your background. For my understanding, you grew up in Texas, and you were a bit of a troubled child,

and you found a mentor who inspired you to start writing. So I'd love to understand who you are as a child, because it's nothing like who you are today. And it will give some inspiration to my listeners, anybody who's on this troubled path who may be able to come out the other side. So tell us a bit about your upbringing and your childhood. Yeah, well, I had no shot at any form of success. If you took a snapshot of my junior high

high school years, you would say this kid's going nowhere fast. And I had this youth pastor at my local church who said, Donna, I'd love for you to write the guest column in this little bitty youth group newsletter. I mean, it was probably 50 people subscribed to it. I wrote it. I got great feedback from like five people and I thought, I'm good at one thing and it's writing and of course that was not true at the time, but at least I was delusional the optimistic to think I could hone it into a craft. And I did so. And so I wrote a bunch of books and my second book was called Blue Like Jazz and it stayed on the New York Times best sales list for like 42 weeks if you can believe it. Now I just fast forwarded 15 years, you know, by the time that happened, there was a lot of writing in there.

And then in order to keep writing books and keep selling books quite honestly, I studied story and how story works and how story keeps a person turning the pages. And I just became a story junkie. I just read every book I could, took every course I could on story in order to be a better writer. So I kept writing books and those books did well, but by about the seventh or eighth memoir, I ran out of things to say. And Accenture, this giant consulting firm called me and said, Don, we know you know a lot

about story. Could you help us figure out how to overlap a project management system and story structure together? In other words, we want to invite, united, and continental to merge as an airline. Could you help us figure out how to create a narrative around something like that? And I did, I created a curriculum,

and then realized really quickly this effects marketing and messaging and created a curriculum around the way companies can use stories to engage customers and wrote a book and it sold half a million copies. And now I'm grateful to say, somehow, that's what I've ended up doing with the last seven, eight years of my life is helping people, helping companies

invite people into a better story. And I absolutely love it because it unites your sales and marketing, but it also, there's nothing sleazy about story. There's nothing aggressive about it. It's just a technique that people pay a lot of attention to at the theater, watching Netflix, reading books, and if stories can use that, they don't have to be sleazy or aggressive, but everybody

suddenly is attracted to their brand. And so I'm grateful to have this weird non-linear journey toward what I'm doing now. Yeah, it's really cool. And I'd love to just step back and focus on that journey a bit, because from my understanding, you didn't grow up with a father figure. And that's been a big part of your life. And also a big part of giving back in your life, you started the mentoring project, which really focuses on youth who don't have a father. So I'd love to hear a bit about that from you. And why that's been so powerful and the importance

of a mentor and kind of like the state of America in terms of like fatherless figures and why you think that's a problem and why you're trying to help solve that problem. Yeah, that's a huge topic. You know, in stories, how are there really four major characters? There is the hero or apartment, let me start over, there's the victim. And the victim is the person who has been kidnapped, they're being bullied, you know,

if it's the person in the story who needs to be rescued, then there's the villain, and that's the evil person who's trying to destroy the victim. And then there's the hero who's combating the villain, and then there's the guide who has a backstory of success and is now helping the hero in their fight against the villain. Those are the four major characters in stories. And those characters exist in stories because they exist in me and you, it's not like there

are villains out there and there are victims out there and there are heroes out there and there are guides out there. Actually every human being you meet has all four characters inside them. And on any given day they could play all four characters. If I'm caught in traffic like I was about 20 minutes ago, I'm a victim, right? And woe is me and I feel sorry for myself. If I run a red light and honk at somebody and nearly hit a pedestrian, I'm a villain. There's no, there's no question about it. If I'm a hero and I help an old lady cross the street and, and late to this interview because I

did a nice thing, well, then I'm a hero. If I'm a guide and I give somebody advice on how to write a book so that they can win and it's sacrificial of me to do that, then I'm a hero. If I'm a guide and I give somebody advice on how to write a book so that they can win and it's sacrificial of me to do that, then I'm the guide. You know, we play all those characters every day and the reality is the more we play the hero, the better our life is going to go. The more we play the guide, the better our life is going to go. The more we play the victim, the worse our life is going to go and the more we play the villain, the worse our life is going to go. So to the degree that you play these four characters, your life tells a story. What happens to the victim is they get rescued and they're forgotten about.

What happens to the villain is they go to jail or they're imprisoned. What happens to the hero is they're rewarded at the end of the movie and the guide, of course, is respected because they've helped the hero win and they've laid down their life. So when you talk about fatherhood and having grown up without a father, really what I grew up with out was a guide, the person who was supposed to be there to help you win and sacrifice of themselves to help you win was absent in my life. And so what I have done is created a mentoring program

for fatherless kids so that those guides, every hero needs a guide, and the guide can show up in the story. One of the things that I tell brands is if you want to grow your brand or you want your product to change more lives, position yourself in your company as the guide, helping other heroes win. Don't play the hero, don't play the victim, don't play the villain, play the guide and you know, and make the customer the hero is a mantra around our office. The customer is the hero, the customer is the hero. So it's not just life and fatherlessness

and it's business, it's leadership, it's your podcast. I mean, if you think about your podcast, Holly, you are the guide helping thousands of heroes listening to this podcast win. And people are attracted to you because of that reason because they say that's the person who can help me win. And the more we do that, the better our lives are going to go. Oh my gosh, I love how you related that back to stories.

It's so perfect. You're so good. Okay, so let's keep talking about storytelling and the importance of storytelling. So first, help us understand why do stories work so well? What's the proof out there that demonstrates that stories are really powerful and that we learn best from stories? Yeah, well, the average person spends about 30% of their time daydreaming. And it's actually a survival mechanism.

When you daydream or your mind just checks out or you're staring at your phone, that's your brain recharging. And what your brain is saying is, look, there's nothing in my environment right now that I need in order to survive. Therefore, I'm gonna rest my brain. And the only thing that can stop a brain from daydreaming 30% of the time is actually story. When you sit down to watch a movie or read a book

or listen to a podcast like this one, your brain will stop daydreaming and it will plug in and start paying attention. And the way that the reason that happens is because stories ask questions. And then they don't give you the answer until the end. So story asks the question, if you're watching a romcom story says, is this absent-minded buffoon of a man going to be able to get his stuff together to marry his sweetheart before his jerk brother marries the sweetheart? That's a story. You pay attention for two hours until the story is resolved.

If it's Game of Thrones or something like that, you're talking about two weeks of plugging in and paying attention. So story has a powerful ability to compel a human brain. There's some rules about story, though. It cannot be confusing. You have to know what the hero wants. The hero has to transform as they encounter these various challenges.

And if you break some of these rules, people will start to daydream during your story. They won't know why they're doing it,, people will start to daydream during your story. They won't know why they're doing it, but they'll start to daydream. The same is true with brands. If you have not identified what you're helping your customer achieve, and especially if you haven't identified the problem

that your brand solves for the hero customer, they will stop paying attention to you. That has to be crystal clear within seconds of interacting with your brand. And if it's not, then they're gonna stop paying attention. So, story works so well because for over 2000 years, since a guy named Aristotle wrote a book called Poetics, we have recognized stories, the most powerful tool

in the universe to compel a human brain. And brands are beginning to discover its ability, but most brands, they don't get it. They walk in and they try to tell their story. You know, my grandfather started a company and it's 75 years old and we're trying to increase our great places to work metric. None of that stuff has anything to do with the customer.

It's all about you. And so what we always say is don't tell your story, invite customers into a story in which they can experience a transformation and ultimately have their problem resolved in the end. Human beings are drawn to that just like they're drawn to Netflix. I mean, you should think of your company as one of the things that one of the shows on Netflix and you're trying to get people to press on it and engage. That's so like so many things that you covered. I want to dig deep into, you mentioned that we have to be concise.

And I think you have this phrase that you say, if you confuse, you lose. So let's talk about why it's important not to stuff our messaging with so much content. I know a lot of people, they try to give every element of the story and they don't realize that sometimes less is more because if you confuse people, you've lost them. So talk to us about why we need to be really clear, really concise when it comes to our messaging. Yeah, you know, people think of stories as being about something and they, of

course, are about something. But the real power of a good storyteller is not in what they say, it's in what they leave out. It's in what they don't say. Storytellers have to make decisions and they leave enormous amounts of material, if you will, on the cutting room floor. They don't say things. So in other words, if Jason Bourne wanted to know who he really was, but he also wanted to lose 35 pounds

and he also wanted to run a marathon. And he also wanted to marry his sweetheart and he also wanted to adopt a cat. You would lose the audience because it's about too many things. And I think that's a mistake most brands make. Their brand is about too many things. It's about delivering too much value or too many things of value to the customer.

So the customer can't really get their mind around what your brand is about. If you want to own what I call mental real estate, that is you want somebody to think of you when they're thinking of whatever it is that you sell, you want to sort of own a piece of territory. And specifically what that needs to be is you need to own a problem. And everybody listening, if you want to be a young professional who skyrockets in their career to own a problem. And everybody listening, if you wanna be a young professional who skyrockets in their career, own a problem. So, you know, this week I was putting together some furniture

and I walked into my shop, my tool shed, and I looked for very specific tools. I was looking for a crescent wrench, I was looking for a Allen wrench, I was looking for this. Nothing was ambiguous. I knew which tools I needed in order to do the work I needed to do.

And that's how you want to think of your brand. If you have a leaky roof, you know you're going to call X brand. If you want somebody to pick up your dry cleaning so you don't have to drop it off, this is the brand that does it. If you want a flat screen TV that looks like a piece of art, you know this is the specific thing. And so a lot of times when you look at brands,

you know, they have taglines like, trust is the commodity we exchange. Well, if your tagline is trust is the commodity we exchange, I have no idea what problem you solve. And there's no reason for me to do business with you. So we come up with these cute and clever and sometimes rather poetic things to say about our businesses, but ultimately,

unless we're explaining the problem that we solve in very clear terms, people are gonna pass us by. So clarity is the key. If you confuse, you lose. And then people are focusing on the wrong things, like he said, so it's just a whole mess. You wanna to be super, super clear. Well, that, yeah, especially when you're young, because when you're young, although I think most of the genius that hits us, hits us in our youth, the problem is it can some by at times be cluttered by identity crisis.

We've cast out on our own. We're only 10 years out of the house and we're trying to prove that we're strong, enable, and capable, and that gets in the way. It's usually only after we have succeeded that we established the kind of confidence that we need to heal our own wounds and turn around and help somebody else. And it's the point where we've healed our own wounds and we've turned around to help somebody else that people are actually actually interested in working with us. And I don't think you

can fake that, Hala, I don't. I think I think you've got to go out and get some wins early in order to realize that wins don't mean anything. And what actually really means something is helping somebody else. That's what that's what's meaningful in life. You know, it's so funny. When I've been hearing about your storytelling techniques, I launched this company called YAP Media last year and we're already about to hit two million dollars in revenue and half. That's amazing.

Congratulations. Thank you. I've 40 employees and our demand is so huge. We have a wait list of clients, like people just want it. And then I realize that a lot of the things that you say, we did by accident. Like you know what I mean? Like it just happened naturally.

We run into that a lot. And here's the thing. We go into companies that, you know, are making two, 300 million. And they don't understand why. And sometimes we just go in and explain, well, you actually don't need to learn anything from us. But let me tell you what you've already done.

You've already treated the customer as the hero. You've already gotten past yourself. You lose sleep over their failures. You love them more than you love yourself. And when that starts happening, companies grow. It's been really cool, like looking at your stuff and then being like, oh yeah, we do that, we do that. So let's talk about story loops.

Because I know that you say that's a foundation of a story and we have to open and close story loops. So I'd love for you to explain that. Tell us about that and how we can use that in our stories. Yeah. So the way of story hooks you is it opens and closes story loops. So, you know, let's go back to Jason Bourne because we've probably all seen at least one of the 53 franchise movies that they've made about that. But, you. But Jason Bourne wants to know who he is. That's a story loop. And so we're going to open the story loop of who is Jason Bourne, what's his real identity, where this guy come from.

We're not going to close that, by the way, till the end of the movie, because the second we close it, the movie's over. So let's just call that the main story loop. Well, within the main story loop, though, we have to have smaller story loops that open and close in order to drive the narrative toward the climactic scene.

So Jason Bourne wants to know who he is, but we're not going to tell you, tell you the climactic scene at the end. But we're going to put him in a hotel room and all of a sudden bullets are going to fly through the hotel room door and he's got to get out of the room. So we open a story loop. How's Jason Bourne going to get out of the room? And he jumps out of window and he lands on a motorcycle, we can close the story loop. He is get out of the room? And he jumps out of window and he lands on a motorcycle, we can close the story loop.

He is now out of the room. Now we open another one when two other motorcycles show up behind him and they're chasing him and now he's in a motorcycle chase. So we open that, we're gonna close it when, whatever drives this motorcycle into the river and makes him think he drowned, but he didn't really drown.

He really is hiding under a tire or something like that. And then he gets out of the river, you know, that's closed story loop. Then he runs and hides in a farmhouse where he meets another spy who happens to be an attractive woman and there's chemistry between them. So now we open the love story story loop.

And you keep opening and closing these story loops all the way through the narrative until you finally close the main story loop. And so what we do is we help businesses figure out how to structure their own narrative in the same way. What is the big story loop that you're opening that people can only close if they buy your product? And then inside of that story loop,

what is this email sales letter opening and closing? You know, is it a bonus that's going away? You know, what is it? Your sales reps, how do your sales reps open a story loop over a conversation at lunch that can only be closed if people buy your product? You're constantly opening and closing story loops. The opening and closing of story loops

is the only thing that actually motivates human behavior. You know, for instance, hunger is a story loop. Lunch closes it. Feeling lazy is a story loop, Launch closes it. Feeling lazy is a story loop. Getting out of bed closes it. Everything is driven by the opening and closing of story loops. So if everybody on your team knows how to open a narrative story loop, they know how to motivate human behavior.

That's why it's so important to be a good storyteller if you want to win in the world today. So let's talk about problems because I know that if you don't have a problem that you're selling, you really don't have a business. And once you solve that problem for good, you're out of business, right? So talk about how you need to continue to solve our customers problem or else they won't be our customer anymore because there's no problem to solve.

Yeah, they definitely won't be your customer anymore. The only reason people open their wallets and spend money is to solve a problem. The only reason they call your sales rep back is to solve a problem. The only reason they go to your website is to solve a problem. The only reason they give you their email address

so they can get a free lead generator, if you will, is to solve a problem. That's it. If they don't sense that you can help them solve a problem, they will not part with their money. Because again, the opening of the story loop, which is a problem, is the only thing that motivates human behavior.

So what I always say is own a problem. What problem do you own? What problem does every product in your company own? What problem does each division own? Then you really want to repeat with words that we solve this problem over and over and over and over and over and over. That's the only way to build a brand.

You know, if I told you a story that had no problem in it, it wouldn't make any sense. Like if I said, you know, a buddy of mine got a call from some friends. He lives in LA and they said, Hey, come down to the beach and play volleyball. We're going to play volleyball. You know, she goes down. He sees them as he's walking down the beach. She plays volleyball, the games in an attie. Somebody says, is there a hungry for lunch?

He said, yeah, it's Tuesday. It's Taco Tuesday. There's a Taco truck across street. Let's get some tacos. Yeah, I need some tacos. At some point, you're going to stop listening to the story because there's no problem. Everything is just going his way. But if we said, my buddy got a call, said, come down to the beach, play volleyball.

He's walking down to the beach and an earthquake hits. And now he's down on all four and he's looking down at the beach and the beach opens up and half his friends fall into the hole in the beach Now we got a story. How is he gonna get him out of the hole? Who's gonna live? How's he gonna get through this? You know the all those that's how a movie works It's problem after problem after problem after problem after problem The business tip for us here for everybody listening is when you stop talking about your customers problems, they stop giving you money. And you have to know what problem you solve and you have to talk about it over and over and over.

There the hero in the story, trying to solve a problem, you're the guide who has already solved that problem and can help them come to a resolution themselves. That's how we need to think of our roles as young professionals. Young and profitors, do you have a brilliant business idea, but you don't know how to move forward with it? Going into debt for a four-year degree isn't the only path to success. Instead, learn everything you need to know about running a business for free by listening to the Millionaire University podcast. The Millionaire University podcast is a show that's changing the game for aspiring entrepreneurs. Hosted by Justin and Tara Williams, it's the ultimate resource for those who want to

run a successful business and graduate rich, not broke. Justin and Tara started from Square One, just like you and me. They faced lows and dug themselves out of huge debt. Now they're financially free and they're sharing their hard earned lessons with all of us. That's right, millionaire university will teach you everything you need to know about starting and growing a successful business. No degrees required.

In each episode you'll gain invaluable insights from seasoned entrepreneurs and mentors who truly understand what it takes to succeed. From topics like how to start a software business without creating your own software, to more broad discussions such as eight businesses you can start tomorrow to make 10K plus month, this podcast has it all. So don't wait, now's the time to turn your business idea

into a reality by listening to the Millionaire University podcast. New episodes drop Mondays and Thursdays. Find the Millionaire University podcast on Apple Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Your dog is an important part of your family. Don't settle when it comes to their health. Make the switch to fresh food made with real ingredients that are backed by science with NAMNAM. NAMNAM delivers fresh dog food that

is personalized to your dog's individual needs. Each portion is tailored to ensure your dog gets the nutrition they need so you can watch them thrive. Nom-nom's ingredients are cooked individually and then mixed together, because science tells us that every protein, carb, and veggie has different cooking times and methods. This packs in all the vitamins and minerals your dog needs, so they truly get the most out of every single bite. And nom-nom is completely free of additives,

fillers, and mystery ingredients that contribute to bloating and low energy. Your dog deserves only the best. And Nom Nom delivers just that. Their nutrient-packed recipes are crafted by board-certified veterinary nutritionists. Made fresh and shipped to your door. Absolutely free. Nom Nom meals start at just $2.40, and every meal is cooked in company-owned kitchens right here in the US.

And they've already delivered over 40 million meals, inspiring clean bowls and wagging tails everywhere. Ever since I started feeding my dog Nom-nom, he's been so much more energetic, and he's getting older, he's a senior dog, but now we've been going on longer walks, and he's getting older. He's a senior dog, but now we've been going on longer walks, and he's much more playful. He used to be pretty sluggish and sleeping all the time,

but I've definitely noticed a major improvement since I started feeding him nom nom. And the best part, they offer a money back guarantee. If your dog's tail isn't wagging within 30 days, they'll refund your first order. No fillers, no nonsense, just nom nom. Go right now for 50% off your no risk 2 week trial at trinom.com-shap. That's trinom.nom.com-shap for 50% off trinom.com-shap.

Hear that sound, young and profitors? You should know that sound by now, but in case you don't, that's the sound of another sale on Shopify. Shopify is the commerce platform that's revolutionizing millions of businesses worldwide. Whether you sell edgy t-shirts or offer an educational course like me, Shopify simplifies selling online and in person so you can focus on successfully growing your business. Shopify is packed with industry leading tools that are ready to ignite your growth, giving you complete control over your business and brand

without having to learn any new skills in design or code. And Shopify grows with you no matter how big your business gets. Thanks to an endless list of integrations and third-party apps, anything you can think of from on-demand printing to accounting to chatbots, Shopify has everything you need to revolutionize your business. If you're a regular listener, you probably know that I use Shopify to sell my LinkedIn secrets masterclass. Setting up my Shopify store just took me a few days. I didn't have to worry about my website and how I was going to collect payments and how I was going to trigger abandoned cart emails

and all these things that Shopify does for me was just a click of a button even setting up my chat bot was just a click of a button. It was so easy to do. Like I said, just took a couple of days. And so it just allowed me to focus on my actual product and making sure my LinkedIn masterclass was the best it could be. And I was able to focus on my marketing. So Shopify really, really helped me make sure that my masterclass was able to focus on my marketing. So Shopify really, really helped me make sure that my masterclass was going to be a success right off the bat and enabled focus and focus is everything when it comes to entrepreneurship. With Shopify single dashboard, I can manage my orders and my payments from anywhere in the world. And like I said, it's one of my

favorite things to do every day is check my Shopify dashboard. It is a rush of dopamine to see all those blinking lights around the world, showing me where everybody is logging on on the site. I love it. I highly recommend it. Shopify is a platform that I use every single day and it can take your business to the next level. Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at Shopify.com. Sash profiting again, go to Shopify.com. Sashiting. Again, go to shopfide.com Sush Profiting,

all lowercase to take your business to the next level today. Again, that shopfide.com Sush Profiting, shopfide.com Sush Profiting, all lowercase. This is Possibility powered by Shopify. So let's stick on that. Let's stick on the role of hero and guide before I have you walk through all seven steps, because I definitely want my listeners to hear all seven steps. So from my understanding, the business is the guide, the hero is the customer, but then I'm curious like so many brands have

a face, right? Even young and profiting, I'm the face of Yap Media, young and profiting. So where does the CEO, the face of the brand sit in all of this? Well, your brand can have a face or it doesn't have to. There's no difference. It's not a negative if you do. I happen to be the face of my brand. You're the face of your brand. But what the face of the brand needs to be is a guide. You need to be known as a guide. And there are two things that a guide does inside of a story to become the guide, if you will. The guide needs to express or demonstrate empathy. And really, how that's just compassion. The guide needs to open their heart and say, it hurts me that my customers are dealing

with this. It hurts me that young professionals don't know how to move up in their career and quite honestly college doesn't teach them. And they paid a bunch of money and they're getting more out of your podcast than they are out of Harvard business. I pretty much believe that. And so that's not right. And as soon as you have a compassion for them, you've done the first step in becoming the guy.

The second is you have to actually demonstrate competency or authority. You have to know what you're doing and you have to be able to say, look, here's a path that you can take as a young professional to succeed in life. And that path has to work. You've got to know what you're doing. But when we meet somebody who is compassionate about our struggle, but they can also turn around and say, I can get you out of this, and I know how to get you out.

And I have tools that will help you no longer struggle with this. And it's worked for thousands of other people, and it will work for you. That's the exact person that every hero is looking for. What's fascinating is that heroes are actually not looking for other heroes. So that we come in and we say,

I'm trying to build a brand and it's going really great. My grandfather started it and I've got capital, private equity is helping me out and we're gonna try. Everybody hears you talking and they say, well, this just sounds like another hero. Let me give you an example. Let's say you go to a cocktail party and you meet two people, they do the exact same thing.

They have the exact same business. They have the exact same business. They charge the exact same amount of money and they have the exact same quality product. Okay. So you go to the first when you say, what do you do? And they say, well, I'm an ad home chef. You know, I come to your house and I cook and they say, that's fascinating. You know, where did you go to school? So well, I went to the culinary school in New York and then I studied in France for a

year. Oh, you're kidding. You were in France, were you in Paris? Yes, I was actually in Paris. Wow, my wife and I are going to the French Open. Do you like tennis? You're just having a conversation. But let's say you go to the second person,

you say, what do you do? And 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. I come to your house and I cook, so that you and your family consider on the dinner table, stress-free,

have a delightful conversation. And by the way, when you're done eating, you don't have to feel guilty because the food I eat is actually very good for you. I really bring families together around a table and I take away the stress of having to figure out what's for dinner tonight. Who's gonna do more business?

The person who told you they went to chef school in France or the person who offered to solve a problem? The person who offered to solve a problem and also it goes to the golden rule of friendship which is people want to hear about themselves, people want to talk about themselves, they don't want to hear about you. And you know, yeah.

I'll say this, Hall, I think you're right. I will add one thing to the golden rule of friendship. People wanna talk about themselves and think about themselves first. And then when you give them the opportunity to do that, they suddenly become curious about you. In other words, what you really want, which is to talk about yourself, you can't have right away.

Because as soon as you make that dinner and bring that family together and they go to bed that night going, my gosh, this is the best 200 bucks we've ever spent as a family, I wonder what how our story is. And the next time you're over, they're sitting there in the kitchen early and they're going, okay, tell us about yourself.

How did you learn to make a sauce like this? And you say, well, my mom actually taught me to make this sauce and they're like, tell us about your mom. Suddenly, they're dying to know about you. And the reason they're dying to know about you is because they finally met a guide who can help them solve a problem and who was more interested in solving their problem

than in sharing their own story. The rule is, if you're healthy and you're strong, you think about others, but if you're hurt and you're wounded, you think about yourself because you're in pain. It's a natural thing to do. It's not there's nothing wrong with it. But once we get healthy and we've got some wins under our belt and we're strong, I'm going to die in 30, 40 years. I don't have time to sit and think about myself. I want to think about other people. You know, and I want to leave a legacy in the hearts of the people around me. That's who we're looking for.

And the sooner and earlier we can reach that kind of maturity. And again, you can't fake it. It doesn't work. You're gonna get found out. But if you can really get outside of yourself for a minute and think about the people around you, you're gonna become the leader

that people really enjoy interacting with. Hmm, I think that's so powerful. So let's get into the seven steps. I'd love for you to walk us through the seven steps. I might pause and ask for an example or something, but I'll just let you take the floor and give us these seven steps. We're all about actionable advice, so if you love this stuff. Well, these are the seven things that happen in every story.

And because they happen in every story, we know it's a formula. We know it's a formula that works. I mean, this formula is going to get people's attention and cause them to pause and pay attention to you as a leader or a friend. The first thing that happens, there's a character. That character wants something and they have to want something specific. They can't want too many things and they can't want something elusive. They have to want something. They want to marry the woman. They want to win the championship. They want to disarm the bomb. They want to find their way back home. Whatever. The movie is about something. It's about a girl or a guy who wants something.

And if you add too many things, it's not going to work. So that's the rule. What that means is we need to identify something our characters want, our customers. What do they want? I own a company called Business Made Simple. We do small business coaching. I don't actually coach you, but we certify coaches who can coach you. So we know our customer wants to be coached, right? And then the next thing that has to happen is there has to be a problem.

And I already talked about this in this interview. The problem has to be very frustrating. And it's causing people to want coaching or whatever. They feel like they're spinning their wheels, they feel like they can't, they don't know how to scale up, they feel like business is a mystery, you know, whatever it is, but we need to identify

that problem and talk about it, because it's gonna cause them to want the very thing that we offer. And then we are able to position ourselves in the story as the guide, and we are able to do that by saying, business should not be like a mystery to you. It should be very simple. You should look at a business and be able to understand

what's wrong with it within five minutes. There should be no mystery because there isn't. And there's no mystery in my business and I can teach you easily how there could be no mystery in yours. You shouldn't be struggling like this. That's me practicing empathy and demonstrating competency out position myself as a guide.

Then step four, if you want to give a plan, and I like personally three step plans. So Hala, in order to work with you, step one is this, step two is this, step three is this. And what we find is that when we give people a path to follow, they actually take the path. But if we ask them to jump across the creek, they don't do it, because they're afraid they might get wet.

So you wanna give them a three step plan. And then a really strong direct call to action. You know, subscribe to our platform today, hire one of our coaches today. They need to be very specific calls to action that people can take in order to solve their problem. And then there's two more. One is success and one is failure.

We have to give people a vision of what their life can look like if they do take action, and also a vision for what their life is going to look like if they don't, because if there's not stakes in the story, that is if nothing can be won or lost, based on whether or not I do business with you, nobody will do business with you. I'm only doing business with you to achieve something good and keep away from a negative consequence. But as a business, if we've not spelled out what the something good is and what the negative consequences, I wouldn't expect anybody to do business with us. Now, what's interesting about those seven steps that I just identified is those are the

seven steps that exist in every movie that you're going to watch. You end up back at the theater this summer, post-COVID, pray that we all get to go back to the theater, it'll be super fun, then you're going to see those seven steps in every movie. And when you really look at a very good brand, a brand that's making millions and hundreds of millions of dollars, you will see those seven steps and those seven pieces of communication in everything that they say. And in my opinion, those sound bites that you derive from those seven steps of story are the sound bites that you want to repeat over and over in your messaging and your marketing. That is how you make the customer the hero, and that is how you invite customers into a story.

So, that's all really, really helpful. I guess the one question that I have is, do all seven elements need to be in every asset? So, like, okay, so how do we do it? Like, how do we know do people need to get it in order? Like, how does that work? You don't need it in order. Really, what those seven steps are, if you will, they're like chords on a guitar. If you know those seven chords,

do you have to use all seven of them in every song? No, you can use three. You can use one. If you're a Tracy Chabin, you can use two and write incredible songs. The seven chords are science. What you're asking a question, the question you're asking is how do you create art? And I would say, well, you use those seven chords and everything else is subjective.

You know, so should your tagline be the problem? It can be. There's not a formula for it. But I will say as soon as you use a chord, that isn't a real chord, everybody in the audience is going gonna know it, because it's gonna sound terrible. And those are the only seven chords. There are no others.

And as long as you're communicating on a Facebook ad, in a podcast intro, and as long as you're communicating something from those seven chords, you're gonna connect with the audience. But no, they don't all have to be there and they don't have to be in a specific order. Great.

Okay, so then I guess the other question that I have is call to actions. I know that they're super important, they need to be strong. Can you give us an example of a good call to action versus like a passive wine and how can we have strong call to actions? Yeah, so a good call to action is schedule an appointment or buy now or call a sales rep. So very action oriented. It's action oriented, but it's also,

it's the equivalent, Hala, I've been married for eight years. So, but I remember when I was dating, I would say things like, hey, do you wanna get coffee some time or would you like to crack? I would make it very elusive as to whether or not I was asking this girl out. And it never worked.

It was always, they were always like, I don't know, you're making it awkward. I, you know, and as soon as I learned to say, hey, I've really enjoyed talking to you. Can I take you on a date sometime? Can I buy you dinner? You know, yes, many girls would say, hey, I've really enjoyed talking to you. Can I take you on a date sometime? Can I buy you dinner? You know, yes, many girls would say, actually, no, I'm seeing somebody or Don that, that is so sweet. You know, I don't think I'm up for dating right now. It was always very clear. And I think even though I would get rejected, there were so many girls

who would say, yes, I would love to go on a date with you because everything was clear. And I think that's what we want to do with our customers. We want to be able to say, look, in no uncertain terms, I'm looking for a financial transaction that solves your problem. You've got a leaky roof, I've got stuff to put on your roof, so it doesn't leak for 500 bucks,

I could come to your house Thursday and do it. What we're not doing is giving somebody something to accept or reject. So calls to action are incredibly important. Now passive aggressive calls to action are things on our website that say things like learn more or get started. Those are actually passive aggressive calls to action.

And sometimes people want to learn more, but basically they don't actually know where you want this relationship to go. And one reality that's gonna be very uncomfortable for almost everybody listening to here is that business relationships are by nature, transactional relationships. It is about them giving you money and exchange for the solution to a problem. That's what it's about. Therefore, if you position your business as being friends with your customer, I think you're being inauthentic. Friendship can come from a transaction relationship, but often does. Many of my clients are

very, very good friends of mine now. But it started by being authentic, and authenticity is this is a business, and I have a solution to your problem, and I'm going to be professional. I'm going to be kind, but I'm not going gonna act like we're more intimate than we actually are. Now, if we become friends down the road, then that authentically can happen. And I think businesses that say, look, we love our customers and we just wanna be friends

and it's all about relationship. I think they're being incredibly unauthentic and people can smell it out. And I've never once seen it work. Mm, I think that's super interesting. Let's talk about pricing. Like, is there a point in the story where we give our pricing? I know you said we don't have to do it in order, but is there is there something with pricing and storytelling that we should be aware of? Well, there's just some principles that I've learned doing business over the years. The

main principle is that people do not respect things they don't pay for. It's very important as young business professionals that we understand that almost everybody listening to this podcast is underpricing their materials. That you're not asking enough for it. And when you don't ask enough for it, people don't respect it.

It was very hard, because I'm by nature, how I'm a people pleaser. I want to be liked by people, I like people, you know, and I just don't like charging. I don't like charging money for things. And I realized recently, you know what you're doing, Don, is you're using not charging people money as a control mechanism. Because if you give them something very valuable and they don't pay for it, you have leverage over them. And you now control them in some way. Let's not pretend you're being generous.

And I thought, gosh, that was really convicting. And so these days I charge. I mean, I've always charged. I've got 30 employees, I have to charge. But I don't feel bad about charging. I feel good about it. So that's the main thing is that the hero needs to put skin in the game.

And if you aren't charging, you're letting them take further and further steps without putting skin in the game. I've had thousands of people come to Nashville, Tennessee for my workshops. And probably have let, I know, 10, 15 of them in for free. These are friends, family members. Well, those 10 or 15, it's a really good workshop. And only three or four of them have looked at their phone

or left for an hour at a time or taken long bathroom breaks or didn't get into a small group when they were supposed to. Every person who disengaged from my workshop, every single one of them got in for free. Everybody who paid money, they had skin in the game and they got more out of it. And we need to remember that about our products too.

I think that's so true. I mean, I remember starting businesses when I was younger and not charging enough for them. And then, you know, you learn your lesson quick. You do it. And also the people who pay less, sometimes tend to be the most difficult customer. That's right. I guarantee if you have a $20 product, you sometimes tend to be the most difficult customer. It's right. I guarantee if you have a $20 product, you're going to have a lot of customer service problems. If you have a $20,000 product, nobody's going to call you. Exactly. It's so strange.

It's so strange how that works. It's very, very strange. Okay, so let's get a real life example of these seven sound bites. Like, give us maybe Pantene Chick-fil-A. Like, walk us through one of the companies you've worked with or any company and what their seven sound bites are like. Yeah, well, you know, right now the company, I look at my left and there's a big whiteboard over here, is the Berkshire Hathaway Home Services. So Berkshire Hathaway has 51,000 real estate agents all over the world and we are helping

them transform so that they are the guides and the customer is the hero. So, one of the things we do is we say, okay, well, you need to do a little intake. If somebody's looking for a home, one of the first questions that you want to ask, or you want to find out in the intake interview, what problem are you trying to solve? And so, if Nancy, our homeowner, is absolutely sick of only having one sink in the master bathroom. You know, she shares the sink with her husband. Not only that, they have kids who are running in and out there.

It's one sink and it's two clogged. Well, I'm listening to Nancy and I'm going, okay, I know Nancy's interested in a good mortgage rate. She's interested in being a good part of town, but I think what she's really interested in is two sinks in that sink and bathroom. That's what she's interested in. And then I hear the story of Greg.

Greg is Nancy's husband, and he got up at three in the morning one night, realized that he let the dog out to use the bathroom, but the dog didn't come back, and they don't have a backyard fence. And he got up 10 degrees, and in his pajamas in a flashlight, looking for that dog,

and finally found him three houses over and brought the dog back. So Greg needs offense. Now I know what kind of house to sell Nancy and Greg. Two sinks and offense is what we're looking for. But really, so now I know the problem they're trying to solve, I position myself as a guide and I'm just going to say to them, you know, Nancy, if you find a house with two sinks, if I can find a house with two sinks, I think we saw your problem.

Greg, I think, you know, I want to empathize, you should not have to deal with two sinks if I can find a house with two sinks. I think we solved your problem. Greg, I think, you know, I want to empathize. You should not have to deal with one sink. Nancy, that is a crime. Nobody should have to deal with one sink, especially with a husband as big as Greg. He's going to, he's like a bear in here, right? So, and then Greg, you should not be walking around two in the morning in your pajamas. You need a fence. You're going to love having a fence.

I want to be able to really help them understand I have heard your problem, it is now my problem and I'm going to solve that problem. And when they hear that rather than I ignore their problems, then I just think their problems are everybody else's, they want a good mortgage rate and they want to be in a good school district. But they're hearing me say, you're not listening. And in order to be guides, we've got to be really good listeners. So, I've identified what they want. I've identified what their problems are.

I've positioned myself as the guide. And I say, look, here's how I'd like to do this. Every first Saturday of the month, I'd like to get out and look at six homes. And we're going to find a home that's right for you. When we find a home that's right for you. When we find a home that's right for you, we're gonna have the paperwork ready, and we're gonna be able to make an offer very quickly on that home and steal it from anybody else.

And number three is I'm gonna hand you the keys to that home. It's a three-step process. Nancy Greg, it's actually very easy to buy a house as long as you let me guide you. And then I say, do you wanna work with me as a real station? I wanna be the exclusive person to find you at home. That's my call to action.

And when they say, yes, I say great. You're not going to have a home with one sink. You're not going to have a home without a fence. And I think in about six weeks, we're going to be standing in a beautiful home that's the home of your dreams. It's going to have two sinks in a fence. I promise you that.

What I do, I just give them a vision for what their life is not going to look like, and I gave them a vision what their life will look like. All seven steps in one five minute conversation, and now I've invited them into a story. Now there's one more thing that I wanna do after they buy the home,

and a real estate agent, probably will never see them again. I'm actually gonna either, if it was a really nice home, let's say it's a million dollar home, I'm gonna call them and I'm gonna say, hey, do you guys mind if I swing by this coming Saturday? There's absolutely no reason for me to swing by.

No reason. I've got the money. They cannot get me anymore money. I'm gonna go by and I'm gonna say, hey, Greg Nancy, I just wanted to see your home, see how it was working out for you and make sure everything was great. Can I just say something?

The way that you guys decided you wanted to go for your dream home and you wanted to treat your family and you wanted to make a good financial investment, that's the kind of family I like working with. You guys are an exceptional family. Thanks for letting me be part of this story. If you ever need anything, call me. That follow-up visit, Hullah. In a story, the guide comes back into the story and affirms the transformation of the

hero. It's what many, many salespeople fail to get. They don't do it. That family will now tell 10 times more people about that real estate agent than they would have if he would not have stopped by. It closes the story loop in their mind and it affirms that they went on a journey and they are now different people than they were at the beginning. Only the guide can do that. We're working with

Berkshire Hathaway, 51,000 real estate agents to teach them how to do that. They're going to sell a lot more homes because of it. I love that follow up tip. How can we use that follow up tip if it's like a recurring customer? Like if it's a... Well, in a lightweight, it's not as powerful, but it is powerful, even a follow up email.

A week after they buy a digital asset from you, have an automated email that goes out and says, listen, here's the kind of people that we find by our products. They're people who are hardworking. They're people who want to get ahead. They're people who are hard working. They're people who want to get ahead. They're people who want to provide for families. They're people who see the American dream and they go get it.

Not everybody is wired that way. In fact, we find it's about 5% of the population. And I just want to congratulate you on being in the 5% are actually driving the economy in this country. And I'm grateful to know you. That's it, right? You write that email, it's automated, and people feel affirmed, and you mean it.

You know, it's not a, it's not a, it's, that's the other thing is you got to mean it. And, you know, we really do have to enter into this. These aren't tactics on how to manipulate people. They're tactics on how to guide somebody into a story. So talk to us about how we can then, like, what is the importance of customer testimonials, customer references?

How should we integrate those stories into our brand and why are they so powerful? Well, you want to make sure that your customer testimonials are affirming one of the seven plot points in the story. So, a customer needs to say, you know, I had this problem, but how I helped me solve it. My life was going in the wrong direction, but you know, she helped me experience this scene in my life that was really beautiful. Even your customer testimonials, what you're actually listening for, are the seven elements of story.

And the other thing, rule about customer testimon testimony is you want them to be short. People scan them. And here's another tip. Write them for the customer. They're not writers. So if they send you a testimonial, shorten it, clean it up, send it back to them, say, do you approve of this? Is this essentially how you feel about the product?

Yes. Would you mind if I put your name to this? Because they're not writers, you know, you know better probably how to capture what they're trying to say than they do themselves. Yeah, bam. If you're ready to take your business to new heights, break through to the six or seven figure mark or learn from the world's most successful people, look no further because the Kelly Roach show has got you covered.

Kelly Roach is a best-selling author, a top-ranked podcast host, and an extremely talented marketer. She's the owner of NotOne, but six thriving companies, and now she's ready to share her knowledge and experience with you on the Kelly Roach Show. Kelly is an inspirational entrepreneur, and I highly respect her. She's been a guest on YAP. She was a former social client.

She's a podcast client. And I remember when she came on young and profiting, and she talked about her conviction marketing framework, it was like mind blowing to me. I remember immediately implementing what she taught me in the interview in my company and the marketing efforts that we were doing. And as a marketer, I really, really respect

all Kelly has done, all Kelly has built. In the corporate world, Kelly secured seven promotions in just eight years, but she didn't just stop there. She was working in I-5 and at the same time she built her eight-figure company as a side hustle and eventually took it and made her full-time hustle. And her strategic business goals led her to win the prestigious Inc. 500 award for the fastest-growing business in the United States. She's built an empire. She's earned a life-changing wealth. And on top of all that, she maintains a happy marriage and a healthy home life. On the Kelly Road show, you'll learn that

it's possible to have it all. Tune into the Kelly Road show as she unveils her secrets for growing your business. It doesn't matter if you're just starting out in your career or if you're already a seasoned entrepreneur. In each episode, Kelly shares the truth about what it takes to create rapid, exponential growth. Unlock your potential, unleash your success, and start living your dream life today. Tune into the Kelly Road Show available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Hey, Yap fam! As you may know, I've been a full-time entrepreneur for three years now. Yet media blew up so fast, it was really hard to keep everything under control,

but things have settled a bit, and I'm really focused on revamping and improving our company culture. I have 16 employees, so it's a lot of people to try to rally and motivate, and I recently had best-selling author Kim Scott on the show. And after previewing her content in our conversation, I just knew I had to take her class on master class, tackle the hard conversations with radical candor to really absorb all she has to offer. And now I'm using her radical candor method every day with my team to give in solicit

feedback, to cultivate a more inclusive culture, and to empower them with my honesty. And I can see my team feeling more motivated and energized already. They are really receptive to this framework and I'm so happy because I really needed this class. With Masterclass, you can learn from the best to become your best, anytime, anywhere, and at your own pace. And we all know that profiting in life doesn't just mean thriving in business. With Masterclass, you can brush up on your art skills or your cooking skills, or even

your modeling skills With over 180 classes from a range of world-class instructors. That thing you've always wanted to do better It's just a few clicks away. On masterclass you'll find courses from many appa Alstar guests like Chris Voss and Daniel Pink I've been taking their sales and negotiation classes and I've been feeling like a real shark lately I've totally leveled up my sales skills. How much would it cost you to take a one-on-one class from the world's best? A lot. But with masterclass annual memberships, it just cost you $10 a month. I have to say the most surprising thing about masterclass since I started this incredible journey on the platform is the value.

For the quality of classes, instructors, the platform itself is beautiful, the videos are super high quality, you can't beat it. Gain new skills and as little as 10 minutes on your phone, your computer, tablet, smart TV, and my personal favorite way to learn is their audio mode to listen on the go. That way I can multitask while I learn. Get unlimited access to every class,

and right now as the app listener, you can get 15% off when you go to masterclass.com-profiting. That's masterclass.com-profiting for 15% off an annual membership. Masterclass.com-profiting. Okay, so I want to talk about other elements to a brand aside from the storytelling. So there's a brand name itself, there's a one-liner, the tagline, and there's a mission statement. There's probably other items that I'm not listening of. I would love to get your guidance on these types of items.

Well, again, everything should come out of the seven elements. So, well, let me just give you this. When I go to your website, what I need your website to do is pass what I call the grunt test. So the grunt test is if I take a laptop and I put it in your lap and I open it up to your website, I need to be able to answer three questions

within eight seconds. Those questions are, what do you offer? How will it make my life better and what do I need to do to buy it? What do you offer? How will it make my life better? And what do I need to do to buy it? What do you offer? How will it make my life better? And what do I need to do to buy it? If I go to your website and above the fold

cannot answer those three questions, I think you're confusing everybody about what you do and what you sell. And the same with your tagline and your mission statement. Mission statements are terrible. They're just awful. Here's a greatline and your mission statement. Mission statements are terrible. They're just awful. Here's a great formula for a mission statement. We will accomplish X by X because of X.

Just keep it really short. We're gonna have 250,000 people in our platform by January of 2025 because everybody deserves access to a life-changing business education. That's a good mission statement. What most mission statements don't have is a mission. There's no mission.

It's like we're gonna increase shareholder value by providing excellent service. It's like it's written by lawyers. It's terrible. And nobody can get behind it or nobody knows what to do after they read the mission statement. You would think if you read a mission statement, you would know what to do after you read it.

But most mission statements you read it and it's like, I have no idea how to behave or what to do or any of this based on this mission statement. So, clarity is the key, clarity, clarity, clarity. And then any tips on naming your brand? Does the name really matter? Well, I do, but it does matter. I think if you name, let me give you an example.

I met a guy recently and I bought some kitchen knives from him. He has a boutique kitchen knife making store, if you will. It's not a story, he just sells them online. And I bought a chef's knife and I bought a pairing knife and I bought, you know, I'm trying to get better in the kitchen. And his knife company is called Baby Knives.

Literally, Baby Knives. Literally, baby knives. And I said, okay, these are beautiful knives. They're not for babies. Why is your wife's your knife company called Baby Knives? And he said, well, my nickname when I was a little kid was baby. And so I wanted the name to reflect, you know me. And so I called it Baby Knives.

And I just said, gosh. I said, you know, it's so confusing because babies don't buy knives and we try to keep knives away from our babies. Because I know like, you know, it's so confusing because babies don't buy knives and we try to keep knives away from our babies because I know, but you know, it was my name when I was kid. Well, what you're telling me is you named your company something that has to be explained. The only problem is you're not around to explain it to the millions of people you want to find out about your company. And so what I told him is what I'll tell everybody listening.

You know, if he would have called it boutique knives or, you know, he lives out in the wilderness, wilderness knives or, you know, whatever, you know, nobody would have been confused. At least you got the word knives in the company name. That's good, because he sells knives. But what I told him was, you're gonna have to spend a lot more money and work a lot harder to build this brand because you call it baby knots. It doesn't mean it's not gonna be successful

Uber is successful and they don't say on-demand taxi services. It's not the name of their company But they had to spend hundreds of millions of dollars and they had to make life very very easy In order for it to grow. It could have grown faster. So we need to be aware of that. Yes, you can have a company name that is poetic and sounds beautiful, but you're going to have to work really hard in order to build it. Now, once it's built and you become a household name, the problem solved, it's fine. So I think the question is,

business made simple is the name of my company. What do you think we do? Right? It's not a... Yeah, you don't have gas. It's not Acme Curriculum Company. That's not what we call ourselves. We call it as those business made simple because we make business simple.

You work with young professionals, it's in the name. So I like names that say what you do. And if you don't have that, then what you want is a name that is elusive and beautiful, whatever you want it to be, and a tagline that says what you do. Baby knives, the best kitchen knives in the world. Okay, well, that helps.

It helps a great deal. So the idea is what we teach our people when we're training them is you want to constantly be asking yourself, how is it that I could be misunderstood? And if it's possible that you can be misunderstood, you want to fix that because it's like Swiss cheese and you got an army marching across the Swiss cheese. Everything, every way you're misunderstood as a giant hole that some of your customers are going to fall into before they get to the cash register. Okay. Last question on storytelling and then we'll give a teaser to your business-made

simple book, which is one of your more recent books. So social media, do you have any formulas for telling a good story in your social media posts? Yeah, you know, there's one thing that I really love. There's a lot of things you can do with social media. But the one thing that I really love that works over and over is images and stories of people who have succeeded after using your product. So if you just, my social media has pictures of my dog, pictures of my wife. It's a terrible example. It's my personal social media. BusinessMadeSimple has its own social media instead of Storybrand, my other two companies.

But really what you want to do is show images. If you're a real estate agent, I would have couples standing in front of their dream home. That would be my exclusive social media feed. Picture after picture after picture. Because what I'm doing is I'm showing the climactic scene and somebody else's story that you can also experience yourself.

And that's what you want to do is here's where I take people, here's where I take people, here's where I take people, here's where I take people, here's where I take people, over and over in your social media, until it's just branded in the mind of everybody who's following you. This is where I take people. This is what their life looks like after they finish using my product. So show the transformation.

Show the transform. Show the end of it. Show the end of the story. I love that. Okay, so let's talk about your book, Business Made Simple. You have a chapter that's called, how a business really works and how to keep it from crashing

and you compare business to an airplane. So I'd love for you if you remember that analogy to give that analogy and help us understand and hopefully that will inspire people to go grab your book. Yeah, you know, the way I grew my business and we grew in about five years to about 20 million and we have a 64% profit margin. So it's just an insane business.

I can't believe the kid who grew up, not paying attention to school, got here. But I'm grateful. But the way I did it was, I kept thinking about business like an airplane. And what I mean by that is an airplane really has six fundamental parts. There's the, some airplanes do.

There's the cockpit, and that's where the leadership sits. And the leadership needs to know where we're going. And then you want to reverse engineer how much gas you need to get there, who should be on board, how much food should be on the plane. You reverse engineer everything based on where you're going.

So the number one job of a leadership team is to know where we're going. Then your right engine is your marketing. It provides thrust, it gets the airplane off the ground. It moves the airplane forward. Your left engine is your sales. And what you want to do is you want your marketing and your sales to combine and they have one goal.

That is to make the customer the hero of the story. That's the goal of the marketing and sales. And you do that and the thrust increases in the airplane. Then you have the wings of the airplane. Those are your products and your products need to be in demand and they also need to be in demand and they also need to be very profitable. And the more profitable your products are,

the bigger your wings on the airplane are and the greater lift you're gonna get. So you wanna always be analyzing your products and don't be launching products that have thin, razor, profit margins. You're gonna have to do too much volume. What that means is you're right into your left end is gonna have to work harder.

The less profitable your products are to get that plane off the ground. Okay, and then your overhead is your body of the airplane. So you wanna keep your overhead small. You know, I just heard a story yesterday, I was with some friends and one of the companies that a friend of mine worked for went out of work, out of business.

We were at a birthday party here at my house, we threw a birthday party for a friend, and she ordered a milk bar cake. How long have you ever had a milk bar cake? No. You need to go order a milk bar cake tonight. It is the best cake you'll ever eat. It's astounding.

These cakes are unbelievable. Anyway, they're expensive. And the company that she worked for would buy and ship a milk bar cake to every employee on their birthday. And I literally said, that's a great way to go out of business. Because all it does is add money to overhead.

It's a very nice thing to do. But it makes the body of the airplane huge because the money that went into buying those thousands of milk bar cakes did not go into marketing and did not go into sales. They went into the overhead. So you you just made a airplane huge and of course if you're buying cakes for everybody you're buying all sorts of stuff that has nothing to do with making money. And I love acknowledging birthdays but you're buying milk bar cakes and I don't know where you're getting the money for that. but you're buying milk bar cakes and I don't know where you're getting the money for that.

And then so that's the overhead has to be lean and then the last part of the airplane, the sixth part of the airplane is your fuel tank. And your fuel tank is your cash flow. And you always need an enormous amount of cash in the bank in case something bad happens. That's how companies go under. They don't have enough cash to pay bills. And suddenly the IRS comes and says, we need X amount of dollars and payroll is due. And when all that happens at the same time, the airplane crashes. I hear you sign. You've been there. Yeah. I'm just thinking I only have two months or the thought of enough. No, well, it's close. You actually just need about five.

Yeah, you need about five. In the book, let's see, if you go to businessmadesimple.com, I have a course called How to Grow a Business. And I teach you, in that course, I teach the whole thing sitting in front of a triple seven, a seven-77. And I walk around the airplane, I show you the different parts of the airplane. I say, here's how business works. But when it gets to cash flow, I tell you why you need five checking accounts,

and I tell you how to use them. You only want five checking accounts. And if you can move money in and out of these accounts, the way I teach you, you will never run out of money. You'll always have enough money for taxes, you'll always have enough money for your personally, you'll always have enough money to pay bills. If you just let the, and one of the rules is,

you want in a, what I call the profit account, you want five months worth of overhead. And that allows you to circle the airport for five months before you land if there's an emergency, you have plenty of time. And when COVID hit, we didn't panic. We had five months to figure it out. It took us two weeks to figure it out.

And we ended up growing the business by 30% during COVID because we had the time and the luxury of peace to sit down and say, how do we serve our customers? And now that everybody's needs have changed, we created some new products that did that. But I would have panicked if I didn't have money in the bank. Two months, I'd say,

how are you doing pretty good? Yeah, you just want to get it up to five. Yeah, we have some savings to do. I, my business partner was talking about profit distributions. And I was like, no, save more money. No, no, no, you are right. Tell your business partner you are right. Profit distributions, you have to be very, very careful

with profit distributions because they will blow, they don to be very, very careful with profit distributions because they will blow, they don't blow your overhead because it's profit distributions, but they negatively affect your cash flow. What I would do is do the equivalent of profit distributions, but I would make commissions on sales. And I would make sure that anybody who's getting those commissions is directly connected somehow to that. In other words, everybody's gonna be paid

based on what they sell, or if they're in a team that helps sale, or helps create. Businesses have to create product and sell product. So that's how, I did profit distributions and I regret it. I did it with only a few people. What I would do going back is I would actually say, no, we're gonna give them the same amount of money, an opportunity to be wealthy, but it's going to be connected directly to

the products that they are directly involved in selling. And then what you're doing then is you're taking profit distributions which contribute to the loss of cash flow. You're putting them into the right and left engine. You're increasing thrust in the company. And that's going to be more money for everybody. I think that I need to either get a consult with you or take your course or do something,

because I feel like you could probably help me with a lot of questions I have on my own business. So really cool stuff. The last question I ask, oh my guest, Donald, is what is your secret to profiting in life? Secret to profiting in life is understanding, for me personally, that life is more about experiencing meaning than it is about being successful.

And I take Victor Frankl's advice when he talks about experiencing meaning. He has a three-part formula. The first is a project that you work on that hopefully is sacrificial and helps other people. An optimistic or redemptive perspective on all challenges that you face, even tragedies, and share your life with others.

Oh, that's beautiful. And yeah, you do those three things, and it's a rich life. I read Victor Frankl's book, Man's Search for Meaning 10 Years ago, and there's been tragic days. I mean, days when I've cried myself to sleep, the friend of mine took his life, just really hard stuff.

But there's not been a single day when I haven't woken up and felt a deep sense that I was supposed to be here, and I was here for a reason. And it's made all the difference. So to me, that's about it. Cool. And where can our listeners go to learn more about you

and everything that you do? Well, we had a lot of marketing advice. One of the best things I did, I put out a free lead generator, and it's just three fantastic videos, and it's at fiveminutemarketingmakeover.com. You can either spell it out or use the number, but fiveminutemarketingmakeover.com will help you figure out how to talk about your company. Awesome. Well, I can't wait to have you back on. I feel like there's so many other topics we could dive into in terms of general. Yeah, I would love to have you here on Clubhouse.

So let's make it happen again. Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it. Thanks, Tom. I appreciate it. Thanks for listening to Young and Profiting Podcast. If you haven't subscribed to the podcast yet, make sure you do so and drop us a five star review while you're at it.

Donald was absolutely brilliant. I love this conversation and more than the conversation itself, I love the topic of storytelling and I'm so happy that today was an action-packed conversation that had no fluff. It was totally something that we could take and start implementing today when it comes to better brand messaging for our businesses. And stories are so interesting to me because they are the most powerful tool in the universe to convince the human brain to buy. Research shows that messages delivered as stories can be up to 22 times more memorable than

just facts. Stories inspire, stories motivate. They help build familiarity and trust, and leading with a story in a pitch is almost always more likely to lead to a yes. So there's two key things I want to talk about when it comes to storytelling. There's two things I want you to remember from this episode. Number one, when it comes to storytelling, less is more. As Donald said, if you confuse, you lose.

So be sure to clarify your message. Number two, when you're storytelling, you want the customer to be the hero. As Donald said, when we position our customer as a hero and ourselves as the guide, we will be recognized as a sought after character to help them along their journey. In other words, your audience is Luke Skywalker and you get to be Yoda. It's a small but a very powerful shift. Historically, businesses have made their marketing all about them. It's their story, their founder's story, their qualification, their awesomeness. The story brand framework really changes all of that. It flips it on its head, and it puts the potential customer at the center of the marketing

experience. The best brands are guides that help customers find success. That's the type of messaging that customers can resonate with and trust. So I really hope you leave this episode feeling more confident with your business storytelling. And I encourage you to incorporate storytelling into every single communication opportunity and to keep practicing because storytelling is described as an art for a reason. They always say the art of storytelling. And that's because it is like an art.

It requires creativity, vision, skill, practice. Storytelling isn't something you can just grasp in one sitting or one podcast. You really have to practice. So just get started. Start with one social post sitting incorporates business storytelling, one email, one webpage.

Just get started. And if you haven't subscribed to Young and Profiting Podcast yet, please do so so you can be alerted. Every time we drop a new episode, we put out content twice a week on Mondays and Fridays so I hope you guys are enjoying our content. And if you haven't written us a five star review yet, make sure you do that. You can write us a review on Apple, CastBox, Podcast Republic wherever you listen to the show, reviews act as social proof and they also largely

impact our podcast rankings. I love to shout out people who drop a review so this week's shout out goes to poetic girl from Apple Podcasts. She says amazing how it is a true professional. The amount of work that goes behind every single episode is unmatched. Each episode offers tremendous value and insights to improving the quality of your life and mindset. Wow, thank you so much, poetic girl. I wish I knew your real name, but it's all right. Thank you so much for the review. I love it when people drop us feedback. It keeps us going. It's one of the best ways to thank us here at Young and Profiting Podcast. So again, make sure you guys drop us a review if you haven't yet, especially on Apple podcasts. It means

the world to us. We are so grateful for our listeners. And I love it when you guys shout us out on social. You can find me on Instagram at Yap with Hala or LinkedIn, just search my name. It's Halataha. And now I'm on Clubhouse and Greenroom. You can find me at Halataha. I love to engage everybody there.

We're doing live episodes all the time. So make sure you follow me on those social, drop-in audio channels. Big thanks to YapTeam as always, this is Halas signing off. Are you looking for ways to be happier, healthier, more productive, and more creative? I'm Gretchen Rubin, the number one best-selling author of the Happiness Project, and every week we share ideas and practical solutions on the happier with Gretchen Ruben podcast. My co-host and happiness guinea pig is my sister Elizabeth Kraft.

That's me Elizabeth Kraft, TV writer and producer in Hollywood. Join us as we explore fresh insights from cutting edge science, ancient wisdom, pop culture and our own experiences about cultivating happiness and good habits. Every week we offer a try this at home tip you can use to boost your happiness without spending a lot of time, energy, or money. Suggestions such as follow the one minute rule. Choose a one word theme for the year or design your summer. We also feature segments like know yourself better where we discuss questions like are you

an over buyer or an under buyer? Morning person or night person, abundance lever or simplicity lever, and every episode includes a happiness hack, a quick easy shortcut to more happy. Listen and follow the podcast happier with Gretchen Rubin. Head out, grab some friends, camp out. Get hyped up, buy back. Take your Dean. Let it all out. Now, RBI Co-op, we're here for all the outs. We want you to spend more time outside our doors and in there.

Try it out, check out, think it out. RBI Co-op, all out. Visit RBI.com. All at visit ariei.com