I discovered Donald Miller by Ray Edwards, one of my copywriting mentors. He was promoting Don’s unreleased at the time book ‘Building a Story Brand’. As I always check Ray’s recommendations I clicked through to find more information about the book. So I ended up listening to a podcast by Donald Miller announcing the release of his new book.
The podcast was very interesting and got me hooked immediately. Don was approaching marketing in a whole different way than other copywriters so I listened to a few more podcasts and visited the storybrand.com website as well.
Finally, I decided to proceed with an order on Amazon. The hardcopy version of the book was bundled with 2 bonus video lectures and I had the chance to watch those videos instantly right after the purchase
Building A StoryBrand – Book Review

Donald Miller – Biography
Don Miller is a best selling American author and public speaker out of Nashville, Tennessee. Among his books, you’ll find…
- Prayer and the Art of Volkswagen maintenance (2000)
- Blue like Jazz (2003)
- Through painted deserts (2005)
- To own a dragon (2006)
- A million miles in a thousand years (2009)
- Scary close (2015)
- Building a story brand (2017)
Additionally, he is the founder and CEO of StoryBrand.com, a B2B company helping other companies clarify their marketing messages. He organizes live workshops where he helps businesses to connect with customers, revolutionize their marketing, and grow their companies. StoryBrand also offers online courses, private workshops, live events, and guides certification.
There is free marketing material so that you can test what this company has to offer before you decide to proceed with a purchase.
- The
storybrand onlinebrandscript (online tool) - 5 things your website should include (PDF)
- 5-minute marketing makeover (mini video series)
- Avoid the marketing money pit (video series)
- Building a
storybrand podcast

Overview
Building a StoryBrand is a book by Donald Miller that aims to help businesses and organizations clarify their marketing message so customers engage. A paradigm-shifting approach to connecting with customers can give you the ultimate competitive advantage by revealing the secret to helping customers understand the benefits of using your products, ideas, or services.
Slogans on the hardcover
- Clarify your message so customers will listen
- Use the 7 elements of great storytelling to grow your business
Donald is using storytelling in an innovative way to approach customers as ‘Heroes’. Brands play the role of the ‘Guide’ like it happens with movies and stories, there’s almost always a guide helping the ‘Hero’ succeed.
- movie ‘Hunger Games’ – Katniss Everdeen with Haymitch
- movie ‘Star Wars’ – Luke Skywalker with Obi-Wan Kenobi
Contents
- Introduction
Section 1: Why most marketing is a money pit
- 01 the key to being seen, heard, and understood
- 02 the secret weapon that will grow your business
- 03 the simple SB7 framework
Section 2: Building your storybrand
- 04 A character
- 05 Has a problem
- 06 And meets a guide
- 07 Who gives them a plan
- 08 And calls them to action
- 09 That helps them avoid failure
- 10 And ends in a success
- 11 People want your brand to participate in their transformation
Section 3: Implementing your storybrand brandscript
- 12 Building a better website
- 13 Using storybrand to transform company culture
Extras
- The storybrand marketing roadmap
- Afterword
- Acknowledgements
- Praise for the storybrand framework
- Storybrand resources
A few Examples of Real Companies and Politicians
- Steve Jobs and the message of Apple
- Kyle Shultz – a fireman in Ohio
- CarlMax
- Starbucks
- Tesla Motors
- Nespresso
- Edward Jones
- AllState Insurances
- Ronald Reagan
- Dave Ramsey
Key Takeaways
- This is not a book about telling your company’s story, a book like that would be a waste of time.
- Your customer should be the hero of the story, not your brand.
- Businesses that invite their customers into a heroic story grow, businesses that don’t are forgotten.
- The first mistake brands make is they fail to focus on the aspects of their offer that will help people survive and thrive
- The second is they cause their customers to burn too many calories in an effort to understand their offer
- Alfred Hitchcock defined a good story as ‘life with the dull parts taken out’.
- Thousands of companies shut their doors every year, not because they don’t have a great product, but because potential customers can’t figure out how that product will make their lives better.
- In story terms, identifying a potential desire for your customer opens what’s sometimes called a story gap.
- In business, if we don’t communicate clearly, we shrink
- Identifying our customers’ problems deepens their interest in the story we’re telling.
- Screenwriters and novelists know the stronger, more evil, more dastardly the villain, the more sympathy we’ll have for the hero and the more the audience will want them to win in the end. This translates into audience engagement
- Most companies sell solutions to external problems, but people buy solutions to internal problems.
- People want to be involved in a story that is larger than themselves.
- If a storyteller doesn’t clearly let an audience know what no-good, terrible, awful thing might befall their hero unless they overcome their challenges, the story will have no stakes, and a story without stakes is boring.
- As it relates to our marketing, the obvious question is… ‘What will the customer lose if they don’t buy our products?’
- The best way to identify an aspirational identity that our customers may be attracted to is to consider how they want their friends to talk about them.

What Others Say about the Book
Seth Godin – author of ‘All marketers are liars’.
A seminal book built around an idea that will clarify, energize, and transform your business. A specific, detailed, and useful way to change the way you talk about the work you care about.
Ken Blanchard – chief spiritual officer of the Ken Blanchard Companies
Don Miller ought to be working with your company just like he worked with ours. We changed our website after learning his framework and the results were fantastic. We noticed a difference right away. The SB7 framework works – and we’re implementing it company-wide. Read this book!
John C. Maxwell – #1 New York bestselling author
Don will teach you a lot more than how to sell products: he will teach you how to transform the lives of your customers. Your customers need you to play a role in their lives, and this book will teach you how. If you want your business to grow, read this book
Dave Ramsey – #1 New York bestselling author
This is the most important business/marketing book of the year. All communicators know the power of Story. Don has captures the process to make your marketing pierce the white noise of the most overserved marketing generation in history. You have to read this book
Bill Haslam – 49th governor of Tennessee
Don reminds us that all good messaging begins and ends with empathy. He knows that if you want to be seen, heard, and understood, the first step is to listen. Get this book if you want to connect with people in a profound way.
Amazon Reviews
145 customer reviews – 4.9 stars out of 5
Goodreads reviews
260 ratings, 35 reviews, 4.52 stars out of 5
Barnes and Noble Reviews
1 customer review – 5 stars

My Review
I received the book 40 days after my order and in the meantime, I was eager to find out more about Don’s innovative framework. I listened to podcasts, watched his 2 video lectures and read some of his blog posts. Additionally, I used the online tool to create a Brandscript.
Don’s approach to marketing is different than others. He uses storytelling to invite customers into a heroic story that is about them, not about the brands.
The book will help business owners, entrepreneurs, and leaders clarify their marketing message. People buy products and services because they read words that make them want to buy those products. Don believes that even the most beautifully designed website can be outperformed by an ugly website that has a clear message.
The book is a ‘Goldmine’ of information on everything that has to do with marketing. The SB7 framework is a guide to build better websites, to remove the clutter and noise out, to create effective email campaigns and social media ads.
Don is giving examples of real companies with a clear message that managed to build a strong presence in the marketplace. He expands on his clients and how he helped them understand the importance of being ‘Guides’ for ‘Hero’ customers. He also gives examples of companies that failed to invite customers into their story.
The book goes beyond theory and helps its readers by giving real examples that can be used in any industry, in any market. He gives examples for financial advisors, college alumni associations, restaurants, real estate agents, bookstores, hotels.
The book explores the SB7 framework step by step with detailed instructions analyzing all the important things that brands should consider in order to create their marketing collateral.
The book will help you…
- Make customers respond to the 7 universal story points
- Understand why customers make purchases
- Simplify your brand message so people understand and act on it
- Create effective material for websites, brochures, and social media
- Understand why so many companies even with a huge budget fail
- Open a story gap in your potential customers’ minds
- Create a story question for your customers
- Implement the 3 levels of conflict
- Recognize the 2 characteristics of a real ‘Guide’
- Make a first great impression
- Give your customers a plan that is easy to apply
- Help your customers transform by using your products and services
- Transform a large organization step by step
- Create a one-liner
- Create lead generators to collect email addresses
- Create automated email drip campaigns
- Collect and tell stories of transformation
- Create a system that generates referrals
If you read the book carefully, and you apply all the steps outlined here, you will create a marketing message that is clear, one that intrigues people to know more about your brand.
I have already applied many of the SB7 principles into my marketing material and I am constantly monitoring the response. I designed a new homepage and built many landing pages based on the storytelling framework presented in this book. So far, the results are impressive. The CTA (call-to-action) buttons I created get clicked.
All in all, one of the best marketing books I’ve ever read in my life, and I’ve read hundreds. Highly recommended for business owners, leaders, bloggers, online marketers, agencies, large organizations, non-profits. Brilliant, innovative, and different.
Do you need help applying the principles of “Building a StoryBrand” to your messages? Do you need help with your marketing campaigns?
Schedule a free video-call interview to help us understand where you are at your business right now, your needs and goals, and we will give you a detailed analysis of how we work. Then, we’ll create the first campaign for you for free to prove we can get you results.
That’s it, another review has finished, here on Web Market Support. I am waiting for your comments and thoughts. Till next time.
We Teach
Marketing & Business
Live on Zoom
Your host: Tasos Perte Tzortzis
Schedule an interview so we can evaluate where you are right now, your needs and goals, and we'll give you a detailed analysis of how the workshops work
*30-Day Free Trial

Tasos Perte Tzortzis
Business Organisation & Administration, Marketing Consultant, Creator of the "7 Ideals" Methodology
Although doing traditional business offline since 1992, I fell in love with online marketing in late 2014 and have helped hundreds of brands sell more of their products and services. Founder of WebMarketSupport, Muvimag, Summer Dream.
Reading, arts, science, chess, coffee, tea, swimming, Audi, and family comes first.
MARKETING | ADVERTISING | SALES
-
Mastering the Art of Search Visibility: A Comprehensive Guide
-
Boosting Conversions in 2023 and Beyond: 7 Types of Content You Should Use
- Zero-Party, First-Party, Second-Party, Third-Party Data
-
The Ultimate Guide to Use an iPad Survey to Grow Your Business
- 6 Clever Ways To Use Instagram For Customer Retention
-
Emotional Marketing Examples | Scientifically Proven To Sway
- How Influencer Marketing Impacts Business Growth
- Identify and reach your target audience - comprehensive guide
- Guerrilla marketing - ultimate weapon if done right
- What is branding in business and how to build a brand
- Direct response marketing - all you need to know
- Does product appearance matter? a story, research, and more
-
23 Solid Reasons That Prove Content Marketing Can Boost Your Business
- Don't push customers to buy
-
23 Reasons That Leave No Doubts On Why Marketing Is So Necessary
- How to Build a Content Marketing Campaign for your Next Event
- Key Coupon Marketing Strategies To Accelerate Sales
-
The Power Of Video Marketing In A Competitive Business World
-
Marketing Ideas For Photographers – How To Boost Your Portfolio
-
How Artificial Intelligence (AI) Is Changing Social Media Marketing
-
The Future of Email Marketing: How to Optimize for Mobile Devices
- 11 common blogging mistakes that cost you a fortune
- 5 Tips for Creating a Recognizable Online Presence
- Expertise, Authority, and Trust In SEO
-
Why Search Intent Matters For SEO And How To Optimize Your Website
-
Why Well-Established Brands Keep Spending Money On Advertising
-
6 Powerful Suggestions For Writing A Successful Shopify Description
-
5 Effective Ways To Captivate Potential Clients On Social Media
- Ways To Sell Unwanted Gift Cards: Save Time and Money
-
How Can you Make Money with Blogging? – Here are 9 Popular Ways
-
Inbound vs Outbound Marketing Techniques – On the Battlefield
-
The Advantages of Storytelling for Your Blog and Your Audience
-
New Customer Needs Resulting in a Modern Marketing Definition
-
Low Hanging Fruit Definition – Best Keywords To Get Ranked Sooner
-
How To Promote Your Website Business Offline and Gain Exposure
- Infographic – How To Advertise Your Business Online For Free
Marketing/Business/Sales/Investing
-
Profit From Amazon Like Clockwork | FREE Live Workshop Feb 21
-
ChatGPT Live Training Andrew Darius Feb 20, 21 | Review & Bonus
- Money Revealed 2022 – Revealed Films | Review
- Revealed Films – EndGame Series Review
- LAST CHECKED: Tricia Brouk | The Big Talk Academy Review
- 2022 Recap 2023 Predictions & “7 Ideals” News
- Quantum Financial System | Almost Here
- Crazy Business Predictions & SOS Platforms
- BREAKING Business News | Entering the New Economic Era
- The Art Of The Big Talk – Live Masterclass Review
- Uncensored Crypto Review | Backdoor to Freedom
- David Straight – All Banks Switching To QFS
- Jeff Walker Launch | Book Review Extended Highlights
- Revealed Films – Crypto Revealed Review
- Kim Walsh Phillips – Free More Followers Challenge
- Systeme.io – The New System To Launch An Online Business Review
- Project Next | Most In-Depth Review
- Own Your Future Challenge Review
- Stu McLaren Tribe Review | Read Before You Join
- Steve Olsher - Audio Domination Review | Read Before You Join
-
Steve Olsher - Profiting from Podcasts – A Ticket to Paradise
- Systeme.io – “Create Your Course And Sell It” Review
- The Most In-Depth Wholesale Formula Review by Dan Meadors and Dylan Frost
- OnBuy Marketplace Review – Video Walkthrough, Detailed Rating
- Jeff Walker - Product Launch Formula Review
- Marketing Secrets Blackbook – No Doubt | Not Typical
-
Parallel Profits – Huge Potential From Only 7 Sales, Is It Viable?
-
Email On Steroids – Matt McWilliams – List Launch Challenge Review
- Building a Story Brand – Marketing Innovation to Help Brands Clarify their Message
- Mark Miller Smart Leadership | Book Review
- Claire Zammit – The Visionary’s Guide To Empowering Women
- Dr. Trevor Blattner – Redefining The Top 1% Book Review
- Dr. Claire Zammit – The Feminine Power Breakthrough Free eBook
- CreativeLive Review – An Enormous Library Of Courses
- Net Millionaires Club – Full of Promises, No Content, No Demo, Paul Darby’s Bad Reputation
- Mirasee | Business Ignition Bootcamp Review – What To Expect
-
Mirasee | Course Builder’s Laboratory – Pure Quality, Over the Top Coaching & Support
- Dean Graziosi Overcoming His Inner Negative Beliefs
- Dean Graziosi – The Underdog Advantage Book | Review + Bonuses
- Matt McWilliams | No Product No Problem – A Course to Transform You Into a Marketing Ninja | Huge Bonuses Inside
- Systeme - Aurelian Amacker – Business Coach Training Review
- Is Dumb Little System “One” that Can Stuff your Inbox with $10-$90 Daily Commissions?
-
Find Critical Website Statistics on WooRank to Drastically Improve Performance
-
Save for later with the Free GetPocket App that Works on Any device
- 100X Your Business With the Secrets of Successful Selling Masterclass by Kevin Harrington
- Money Revealed 2020 Review | Epic & Timely
- Wealth Breakthroughs Review – Money Secrets Revealed
- Hope Writers Detailed Review & Bonuses | What Is Missing
- Digital Altitude ShutDown by FTC – Halting Business Coaching Scheme
- BMIClix – Warning to My Referrals – Filthy Scam
-
Instant Income Code – 784 Operation 5 Over / Roger / Return to Base / Copy
-
Non-Paying / Scam / Not Recommended PTC Sites – AZ List – Regular Updates
- Why I Stopped Promoting Michael Hyatt And Maybe You Should Too
- Is “Wealth Start Business” a Revolutionary System to Turn Clickers into Millionaires?
- Stay on Time With the Professional Task Management App called Any.Do
-
Thin Air Profits A Totally Free System that Costs Only 10 Bucks
-
Ryan Hauser University – Mastering High Ticket Sales Without Training?
- Ray Edwards - Copywriting Academy 2.0 Review
-
My Funnel Empire is full of Weird Tricks and Magic to Trap you Into their System
-
The Instant Cash Flow Funnel is a Bridge to Multiple Ad Networks and is Free to Use
- Sign Up Machine is a Portal full of MLM and other Biz Ops – What to Expect
-
Increase Social Media Engagement with Postplanner App – Expect Amazing Results
- The Financial Freedom Group is a Typical Fraud Advertisement Targeting Newbies
-
How an Attractive Offer like Stiforp Profits can be taken down in 1 min
-
How the 120 Minute Payday Software Claims Lead You to a Trap
-
I Strongly Doubt that the Network Power Group is a Serious Opportunity
-
Can the Million Leads for Free Program Guarantee your Online Success?
-
Is Take Surveys for Cash a Legit Opportunity or a Well Covered Scam?
-
Jim Graham is Not Giving Up – FundMe Media is the new Crowdfunding Scam
-
How the Traffic Brokers’ Producer Tried to Impress Me and Failed...a Scam?
-
Why James Scholes did not Convince me with the Evergreen Wealth Formula
- Is Shoemoney Network a Reliable Business Model or a Scam?
- “Story Engines” Nick Stephenson – Masterpiece For Aspiring Authors
-
Is Web Wealth System one that can Transform your Entrepreneurial Life?
-
Is Traffic Monsoon Legit or Scam? Glamorous ad packs & promises
-
Is Vital Viral Pro Among the Best Resources to Get Free Traffic?
-
Passive Wealth Booster – Promo Video Analysis to bring them down
-
Would you Trust All In One Profits to Do Business with?..is it a Scam?
-
Copywriting Academy 2.0 – MasterClass Training Sessions for Maximum Results
-
Namecheap – a Top Domain Registrar with an Extended List of Services
-
Traffic Swarm Review – a Classic Way to Get Visitors to your Website
- Is Jaaxy the Best Keyword Finder to Beat Competition and Get Ranked?
- Using Offerde’s Affiliate Network Directory to Track Products
-
Enhance your Content Effectively with the Factbrowser Statistic Search Engine
-
Visual Content Marketing Tips with the last #ViralWebinar by PostPlanner
- Is Nick Stephenson’s Your First 10K Readers The Real Deal?
-
Why I Won’t Pay for the Premium Six Figure Mentors Membership
-
Does Clicksure Work? Yes, if you Want to Build a Bad Reputation
-
ySense: Well-Paying Survey/GPT Since 2007 – Received #6 Payments
-
Why the Affiliate Millionaire “Scam Club” Did Not Convince Me
-
A Kickstarter Millionaire Called Jim Graham Generates a Lot of Questions
- Tribe Writers – Get the Attention Your Writing Deserves and Make a Living Off It
-
Walking On A Scam Borderline With The Traffic Authority Review
-
Big Cartel Review – No Drugs Involved In This E-Commerce Marketplace
-
IDplr Review – A PLR Articles Market For Inspiration? or Hard Copy?
-
Profit Bank By Millionaire Society Review – Scam From The Get Go
- How to Self Publish an Ebook Online the Right Way w/ the Author Academy
- Life Coaching Certified Review – $675 Now Dropped To $77
- Experts Academy Elite | Killer Intro – Disappoints Me At The End
-
Commission Uprising Review – 7 Lousy Dollars for Steven Rounds
-
Why Affilorama’s Free Membership is One of the Best Marketing Trainings
- Cash Gifting Review – Midnight Courier Delivers Envelopes
-
Amazing Selling Machine Review – High-Quality Training, Updated Courses
- Wealthy Affiliate Review 2019 – Don’t Worry About Money Anymore
0 Comments