Customers aren’t looking for another hero they’re looking for a guide. Companies tend to sell solutions to external problems, but customers buy solutions to internal problems. The customer is the hero, not your brand. When customers finally understand how you can help them live a wonderful story, your company will grow. And they should be able to answer these questions within five seconds of looking at our website or marketing material. There are three question audience must be able to answer to engage in a story. That action helps them avoid FAILURE and ends in a SUCCESS. At the peak of their despair, a GUIDE steps into their lives, gives them a PLAN, and CALLS THEM TO ACTION. Here is nearly every story you see or hear in a nutshell: A CHARACTER who wants something encounters a PROBLEM before they can get it. The essence of branding is to create simple, relevant messages we can repeat over and over so that we “brand” ourselves into the public consciousness. Story is the greatest weapon we have to combat noise, because it organizes information in such a way that people are compelled to listen. And customers make buying decisions not based on what we say but on what they hear. What we think we are saying to our customers and what our customers actually hear are two different things. If we haven’t identified what our customer wants, what problem we are helping them solve, and what life will look like after they engage our products and services we can forget about thriving in the marketplace. The second mistake brands make is they cause their customers to burn too many calories in an effort to understand their offer.

The first mistake brands make is they fail to focus on the aspects of their offer that will help people survive and thrive.

Even if we have the best product in the marketplace, we’ll lose to an inferior product if our competitor’s offer is communicated more clearly.

My story brand com