Donald Miller helps people take their passions, their hard work and their callings and
make other people care about them too. This book is for anyone who has ever had a conversation about their passion project or work and found the listener looking back at them with eyes glazed over.

We all need help learning to speak about what we do. This book is like taking a master class! You will not regret the purchase..

The publisher provided an ARC through Netgalley. I have voluntarily decided to read and review, giving my personal opinions and thoughts

We loved this book as an agency, and have implemented so many of the ideas in our own brand process with clients - and have recommended it over and over to clients!

I love reading business books and I was excited to read StoryBrand. I was not familiar with Donald Miller's company before learning about it in this book. As with many business books, StoryBrand was filled with commonsense ideas and information on the author's company.

I found the concept of StoryBrand to be informative and interesting. I particularly enjoyed when the author broke down different parts of stories and explained how brands hook potential customers and sell them on their products and services.

This book was a quick and informative read. It gave me a clear formula to approach selling a product and helped me to better understand potential customers.

Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller is a book that summarizes his approach to marketing. But it is so much more than that. Donald Miller is the author of other books of great depth (which I highly recommend). This book is quite different because in it he unpacks the power of a story. The human brain is hardwired to remember story. Facts can be hard to remember, but put them into a story and the difference is phenomenal. This book is a treasure trove of information that would benefit business people and anyone else for that matter. I highly recommend this book to any reader. I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher. These opinions are entirely my own.

Very useful book for small business owners. Sensible straightforward, easy to follow advice.

Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller shifts the paradigm surrounding the key perspective when creating a brand story and highlights the power of storytelling to making a brand heard in the marketplace. Donald starts by saying, “Your customer should be the hero of the story, not your brand.” His logic behind this is sound and easy to test, each of us is a consumer of brands, and, yes, brands that make me the hero and act as my guide draw me deeper.

He offers this approach to get the most out of his book:
“1. Read the book and understand the SB7 framework
2. Filter your message through the framework.
3. Clarify your message so more customers listen.”
I’ve completed one, my business partner Karren and I are working on two - yes, this is helping hugely, and three, well on three I’ll keep you posted but the testimonials shared in the book suggest this has worked for many.

As a brand strategist I related to this line “The fact is, pretty websites don’t sell things. Words sell things. And if we haven’t clarified our message, our customers won’t listen.” It is a struggle to cut through the noise clutter we each live with and this book shares great ways to do just that!

The key challenge of the book is outlined as “So what’s your message? Can you say it easily? Is it simple, relevant, and repeatable? Can your entire team repeat your company’s message in such a way that it is compelling?” Wow, I read that and answered no, so did Karren! Spending time here is now our priority for our business, we do it for our clients but even then, found these questions insightful and guiding!

10% through the book, I wanted to know how to make this happen with the simple 7 StoryBrand framework and that’s what the following chapters do, step by step, they walk you through the process of creating a story for your brand, hero, guide, villain and all!

The brand is cast into the role of guide, defined as needing to have a “precise one two punch of empathy and authority in order to move the hero and story along.” Isn't that exactly what we look for? Now, in case you’re thinking this is a pie-in-the-sky creative-like process, feel reassured, each step is full of practical ways to make this work. To follow the guide thread, Donald elaborates on how to make the brand appear as a guide through testimonials, statistics, awards and logos. Each element is explained and he guides the reader on how to make the most of each aspect.

The book wraps up with using this framework on an internal marketing campaign which piqued my interest but felt like it needed its own book to make the most of the advice shared.

In short, I loved this book, it has a fresh way of sharing the age old story telling techniques with brand application and explains how to make it happen in your business. Highly recommended, currently being recommended to friends, five out of five!

It’s true, most businesses don’t know how to talk about their company

I enjoyed this book very much indeed. It’s easy style together and its incredible practicality is a rare combination. I would highly recommend that you read the book and then complete the BrandScript as a part of the story building process. It brings the focus back to the customer, reminding us to view our product or service from the customer perspective, you see, as Donald Miller explains,“ Customers don’t generally care about your story, they care about their own.”

My own experience in marketing means that I spent a great deal of time nodding in agreement with his approach, that the story we tell is key; it needs to clarify rather the describe products and services, features and benefits. Miller explains that when the communication is clumsy and wordy it is ignored, we make it too hard for the customer to understand what we are offering and what we want them to do. It may even result in their choosing another product or brand. Not because it’s better but rather because the customer understood what was on offer and how to go about sourcing/buying it. “...a good messaging filter will remove all the stuff that bores our customers and bear down on the aspects of our brand that will help…” he says.

I agree that being specific matters! I found it was extremely motivating to have the curating of the brand story recognised as an important foundation for the entire marketing effort and one that directly impacts on its success and bottom line.

The author cautions against undertaking marketing activities that won’t achieve the desired effect, ”Most companies waste enormous amounts of money on marketing,” he states emphatically, “ ...pretty websites don’t sell things. Words sell things. And if we haven’t clarified our message, our customers won’t listen.”

In his seven-part StoryBrand framework he guides the reader through a logical process. This includes positioning the customers as the heroes of the story and ourselves as the guide who has a plan and calls them to action and helps them avoid failure and so it ends in success.

Will investing time and money in crafting a Brand Story be worth the effort? Miller’s answer, “At StoryBrand we’ve had clients double, triple and even quadruple their revenue after getting one thing straight - their message.” As I too am a consultant to business, I had to smile at this line, “Stop wasting money on marketing that doesn’t work. Hire someone who knows how to craft a clear message.”

Much of what was covered in the book was not new to me but it has definitely clarified the importance of spending the time developing a powerful brand story. The contents of this book have both inspired me and challenged we to make use of the framework going forward. Great job Mr Miller!

Capture the attention and imagination of your audience with a story. Read and apply the wisdom found in this book and leverage the power of Story. Have already purchased 3 copies for friends & colleagues! If you're looking for a way to tell others about your business in a way that is captivating, grab this book!

I have not read many books that were focused strictly on improving my business. Most of the information I learn, I learn directly from others. However, I've found most aren't good storytellers. After reading this book, I understand why. Storytelling is an art, and one that must be practiced and nurtured. Miller describes this art in a way that makes you believe you can implement it in your life...and you can. I recommend anyone reading this book that wants to improve your communication with others.

This book offers great advice. But to me, it's helpful for the large companies and not for the little guy.

Every business minded person needs a go-to book. We all know (or should know) how important storytelling and branding is. This book will become a staple of mine. It is one that you can revisit year after year. Go read this now.

StoryBrand is an extremely practical and useful tool, not just to read about, but to practice. It can make a difference in your work communications and even in your everyday communications with friends and family.

How? By using a story framework, Donald Miller invites you to substitute in your own story, your own message, to duplicate the same effective outcomes he has experienced in his own company and in the companies he has assisted. He walks with you step by step, in manageable portions. He shows you through lots of examples and templates that anyone can do this.

StoryBrand forces you to narrow down your message to its most meaningful core. It helps you recognize and prioritize the key points of your message, then teaches you how to relay those to others, whether through a website, social media, business cards, or just face-to-face conversations.

By prioritizing your customer as the hero of the story, not you or your brand, your brand becomes the conduit they need to get what they want. A very valuable book! [My thanks to NetGalley for the review copy of this book.]

Have to say, this is a great book and packed full of useful information which is easy to understand and surprisingly easy to apply to ones business.

It really has made me look differently at the messages which one should publicise when talking about your business for maximum impact to potential customers. In essence it walks you through how to tell a story about your business where the customer can identify as being the hero rather than the company they are looking at - in other words putting the customer as the focus.

I don't particularly agree with some of the pop psycho-babble at the start and it did put me off. But I am so glad I persevered and read through to the important stuff.

In short, one of those books which is well worth reading not just for the odd tidbit of new info but because it proposes a completely new approach, which I can see will have a substantial benefit to my businesses.

This book kind of amazing. When you read the advice on how to structure your message to your (potential) customer and even employees, it all seems so obvious. However, it wasn't until I read the book and the structure it delivers as to how to tailor your message to your product that I had actually given it a thought.
I'm now in the process of changing my website, the inside of my books in order to deliver the message that seemed so obvious to me but upon introspection, I could see how I came up short. I'm looking forward to improving my results, sales, and customer interaction. Truly a game-changer for me.

The book is an easy read and the message is simple. I'm already looking at revamping my blog based on the book. While Miller wrote this as a marketing book, I find that his thoughts on the Hero's Journey work well for leadership too. I plan to write an article about leaders as mentors and not the heroes of the story.

At the moment I will only give a rating to the book and I hope it is possible for me to write down my reviews on Amazon. Barnes and Noble and Goodreads. I am very grateful to you because your publications are great, especially in the topics that interest me most. Thanks and blessings.

Always a fan of Donald Miller work since the Storbrand workbook I picked up so many years ago. This one was good as well, I personally had a harder time connecting but that is due to the season I am in and probably just need to go back to the original storybrand workbook and then revisit this one.

I received an e-copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

If you're in the market for a smart, concise and doable marketing book, pick this one up. BUILDING A STORY BRAND offers businesses and solo entrepreneurs an easy-to-follow guide for how they can simplify their message and learn how to engage customers by making them the hero in the story. The Story Brand formula and online tool will make the process of improving your message to potential customers painless. It's easy to get so bogged down in the details you forget your initial message and purpose. And who doesn't want a reason to simplify? This book also offers targeted advice on cleaning up your website, growing your business, creating lead generators, and more.

Improve how you connect with potential customers and you may find that they become committed, loyal actual customers. This is the simple proposition of this book, showing how to use stories and storytelling to build a brand, develop a connection and nurture a business relationship.

Make no mistake. You are not going to make a faux story about being inspired as a child to do something with all the clichés of traditionalism and adversity. The story is part metaphor and part building block. There is no real rocket science behind it, yet it is something most people are guilty of either ignoring or failing to always thoroughly consider. It can be all too easy to be 'blind' to one's own products and services since you know it all, have worked with it and perhaps wrongly assume that everyone else will 'get it' and 'love it'. Other mistakes can include wrapping up a proposition in jargon or failing to demonstrate a real need or just seeming fake. The list is endless.

Yet look at how some successful companies do it. You don't have to have the financial resources of Apple, for example, to do some of the things that they have done to great effect. Even the smallest of companies can weave a good story and use it to develop a brand - even if it only shall service a local area - and create an authentic, creative and appreciated entity in the process. Within the book, the author does a good job in explaining the importance of the storytelling art, using everyday language to great effect. The hard work still falls into your lap, however, but you will be better-armed with a plan of action to understand what may make human customers react and respond to.

It is not a magic act. You still need a compelling proposition. You probably won't be selling ice to the North Pole, but you should be communicating differently, acting differently and reacting differently and hopefully seeing your business grow if you successfully implement all of the author's advice. Even if, for whatever reason, you do not or cannot get fully on-board with the book, it still will give a lot of good data to lead to eventual change or modification.

It has a lot of potential to offer the astute, receptive reader.

Building a StoryBrand, written by Donald Miller and published by Thomas Nelson. ISBN 9780718033323. YYYYY

This is a really good book for anyone working in marketing or product development. So many things you read in this book can make you think of your favorite brands, and also show you how they are successful. I loved the simple metaphor or hero and guide! Customer is king message has been reiterated. Thank you netgalley for this book! I hope to learn a thing or two, and implement those concepts in my own product.