{"id":55733,"date":"2025-01-20T11:03:30","date_gmt":"2025-01-20T11:03:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/?p=55733"},"modified":"2025-01-20T11:03:33","modified_gmt":"2025-01-20T11:03:33","slug":"how-financial-planning-has-got-the-story-all-wrong-insights-from-storybrands-donald-miller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/?p=55733","title":{"rendered":"How Financial Planning Has Got The Story All Wrong: Insights From StoryBrand’s Donald Miller"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u201cNobody wants to hear your story, they want to be invited into a story,\u201d Donald Miller told me, in a recent interview about his new book, Building A StoryBrand 2.0<\/em>.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s it. That\u2019s how financial planning\u2014or perhaps more accurately, financial planners<\/em>\u2014have got the story all wrong. And regardless of the type of business that you\u2019re in, I\u2019m betting that the same holds true.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve made ourselves, and\/or our solutions, the main character in the narrative of our client\u2019s financial planning, rather than ceding that role to the natural actor, our client.<\/p>\n

This wise counsel comes from the StoryBrand <\/em>guy, Donald Miller, and Miller\u2019s story deserves attention because it\u2019s instructive. He\u2019s not the first to talk about how to use narrative theory in branding and marketing, but it is safe to say he\u2019s done the best job of telling us precisely how to use stories to help people better understand our businesses. And it\u2019s not by telling our story, but by helping others to see theirs.<\/p>\n

This is likely because Miller isn\u2019t, or wasn\u2019t, a marketing guru, but a practitioner. An author. Before writing StoryBrand<\/em>, Miller had published seven books that fit into the memoirist category, including one of my all-time favorite titles, Blue Like Jazz<\/em>. But after finding success in that genre, Miller says, \u201cI ran out of books to write,\u201d so he began, \u201can exercise in curiosity\u201d to explicate how narrative structures work and how to use that to clarify a business\u2019s message.<\/p>\n

<\/fbs-ad><\/p>\n

And the big takeaway? As businesses, the story isn\u2019t about us; it\u2019s about those we serve.<\/p>\n

StoryBrand 1.0<\/h2>\n

In the original Building a StoryBrand<\/em>, Miller shares the SB7 framework\u2014the seven plot points in every great story, whether it\u2019s a novel, TV show, commercial, epic movie, or yes, a business or brand. And it doesn\u2019t take more than a second glance to see where we go wrong as business owners or developers.<\/p>\n

From Star Wars<\/em> to Hunger Games<\/em> to Top Gun: Maverick<\/em> to Apple, Miller shows us how this plotline plays out in every great story and iconic brand. But nobody dreams of winning Best Supporting Actor as a kid, so we naturally default to jumping into the cockpit and calling ourselves Maverick.<\/p>\n

And there is the fatal flaw we commit, making it too much about us. Our services, processes, and accolades\u2014all of which matter, but only to the degree they serve the protagonist, the client, and their story.<\/p>\n

The good news is that we play a vital role in this story\u2014it\u2019s just not the starring role, and the sooner we accept our rightful supporting role, the sooner we can better serve more clients. And everything becomes crystal clear when we see it that way\u2014especially as financial advisors.<\/p>\n

StoryBrand Financial Planning<\/h2>\n

Our clients are the main character<\/strong>, the hero. Our job is to get to know them well enough to understand their problem<\/strong> or challenge, and then we can settle into our rightful role as the client\u2019s guide<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s no better metaphor for the posture of all truly great financial advisors, by the way, than guide<\/em>. We teach, but we\u2019re not teachers who have a necessarily condescending stance toward their students. We navigate the technical, but we are not technicians who often get stuck down rabbit holes of specialization. We consult, but we\u2019re not consultants who diagnose, recommend, and then walk away, leaving a hefty bill in their wake. We persuade, but we\u2019re not salespeople who are driven more by transactions than transformations.<\/p>\n

Instead, we are guides for whom experience, wisdom, and the skills of teaching, specializing, consulting, and persuading are all prerequisites.<\/p>\n

Then comes planning<\/strong>, a process best navigated in collaboration with our clients. Miller also clarifies here that the plan should be delivered \u201cin the form of baby steps,\u201d a truth we\u2019ve learned from the field of behavioral finance. This, too, contrasts with how most of us learned financial planning. Yet while great financial planning<\/em> must be comprehensive in its scope, great financial plans<\/em> must be modular<\/em>, lest they overwhelm and result in inaction.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s where the skills of persuasion come in handy, in calling our clients to action<\/strong>\u2014actions of their own choosing and architecture\u2014and providing the pivotal role of accountability<\/em>. We grossly underestimate this as part of our role, perhaps because we love the creative planning at the center of our work. But here again, we are reminded that the plan is no more the hero than we are\u2014and the best unimplemented plans in the world are utterly worthless unless clients take action.<\/p>\n

Said action can result in success\u2014Yay!\u2014but plans succeed to varying degrees, and circumstances often change. Some plans even fail. Enter the plot twist, when new circumstances or suboptimal implementation allows us to re-engage the perpetual cycle of story all over again, as we address a new problem or challenge and strive for success anew.<\/p>\n

And please remember, the best movies have numerous plot twists. If you\u2019ve already run through Plan A to B, C, or even Z, it only makes your story more compelling.<\/p>\n

StoryBrand 2.0 \u2013 The Controlling Idea<\/h2>\n

So, StoryBrand <\/em>1.0 does an amazing job helping us identify our proper role and re-write the story. I also asked Miller what was new for readers in StoryBrand 2.0<\/em>, and there\u2019s another gem that could turn our marketing on its head: the controlling idea.<\/p>\n

He writes, \u201cCertainly a story can present multiple ideas, and those ideas are sometimes subjective, but very few stories are commercially successful if the plot is up for interpretation.\u201d Hmm. Can you give us an example?<\/p>\n

\u201cIf our controlling idea involves a lost dog returning home to his family, who realize how much they loved the previously neglected dog,\u201d says Miller, \u201cwe should not include too many scenes about a food critic attempting to start their own restaurant.\u201d<\/p>\n

The controlling idea, then, is the main plotline in a nutshell, which isn\u2019t any bigger than a run-on sentence and may be much smaller. StoryBrand 2.0<\/em> describes the controlling idea of the classic Lion King<\/em> plot as \u201cA young lion must gain the confidence necessary to confront his evil uncle, who murdered his father, so that he can take his rightful place as king of the jungle and return order and life to his homeland.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Miller strategized with a client who owned a gym franchise and was struggling to differentiate from all the other gyms out there. The gym\u2019s unique feature was targeted resistance training\u201420-minute trainer-led sessions twice per week\u2014for those who didn\u2019t have time to live at the gym. The essence of the controlling idea ended up being distilled all the way down to three words: \u201ctwenty minutes, twice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bang. Then, once you\u2019ve got your controlling narrative for your business and brand, the discipline required is to run 100% of your messaging through that singular lens. If it builds on that narrative, great. If it distracts, it\u2019s out.<\/p>\n

The question StoryBrand 2.0<\/em> leaves us with, then, is, \u201cHave you defined a controlling idea?\u201d<\/p>\n

StoryBrand.Ai<\/h2>\n

And considering the answer for most is some version of \u201cNo,\u201d the biggest new addition to the StoryBrand script isn\u2019t even contained in the newly revised edition of the book\u2014it\u2019s a website and tool, StoryBrand.Ai, which I have trialed and must confess left me jaw dropped.<\/p>\n

In a matter of minutes, StoryBrand.Ai delivers a brand script, tagline, product service or name, description, packaging copy, website wireframe, lead generator ideas, lead-generating PDF, domain name suggestions, sales emails and talking points, a compelling one-liner, video scripts, social media post ideas and captions, a brand or product story, and nurture emails. Not bad for $39 per month.<\/p>\n

The goal of all of it, though, must be remembered, in what I believe is the \u201ccontrolling idea\u201d of StoryBrand itself, and the quote from Donald Miller that sparked this post: \u201cNobody wants to hear your story, they want to be invited into a story.\u201d<\/p>\n

How can you apply that wisdom in your business or practice?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cNobody wants to hear your story, they want to be invited into a story,\u201d Donald Miller told me, in a recent interview about his new book, Building A StoryBrand 2.0. That\u2019s it. That\u2019s how financial planning\u2014or perhaps more accurately, financial planners\u2014have got the story all wrong. And regardless of the type of business that you\u2019re […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-55733","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-finance"},"yoast_head":"\nHow Financial Planning Has Got The Story All Wrong: Insights From StoryBrand's Donald Miller | Innodebt<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u201cNobody wants to hear your story, they want to be invited into a story,\u201d Donald Miller told me, in a recent interview about his new book, Building A\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/?p=55733\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" 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