Using Story and AI to Grow Your Business (SUMMER REPLAY)

People don't actually care about your story until you've helped them. After you have helped them accomplish something, they're really more interested in knowing more about you and getting to know you and being close. You're leading with the assumption that they care about you and want to know your story when you haven't invited them into a story that helps them. Hey, it's Story Brand Podcasts, producer Bobby Richards, and as we continue to revisit some of our most valuable past episode, today's replay is especially relevant. It's all about how to use AI and story to grow your business. We all know that AI can help you create content faster, but that speed alone, it's not going to make your message work. You need a clear story, a strong strategy, and language that connects with real customers. And in today's episode, you'll learn just that. How to combine AI with the Story Brand framework. So your marketing and messaging is faster, clearer, and more effective. You're going to love this one. Let's get right into it. You're listening to the Story Brand Podcast, based on Donald Miller's best-selling book, Building a Story Brand. The Story Brand framework is made up of seven key elements, all of them anchored in one powerful idea. Your customer is the hero, and you are their guide. Each week on the podcast, you'll get exactly what you need to craft clear messaging that connects with more customers and grows your business. Now let's dive in with your host, Donald Miller. If you're listening to this podcast or watching this podcast, you have bought into the idea that story is everything when it comes to growing your business. What I mean by that is if you invite customers into a story rather than just spit facts at them, customers engage, customers understand what problems you can solve for them, customers buy your products. Several questions, though, where do you put these stories and how do you actually write them? Today we're going to talk about AI prompts, artificial intelligence prompts that will help you transform all of your copy, that is your landing pages, your websites, your lead generators, even your product descriptions, so that they are narrative and invite customers into a story. This will make the process go much more quickly, and it'll be very, very effective for you. There's prompts that I use when I am working with a client and trying to understand how to invite their customer into a story. I want to share those prompts with you today. All right, here are the prompts. You're going to go to Cloud. Cloud is a really good one. Storybrand.ai is mine. Also, a very good one. Do some of this for you. Chat GPT, not quite as effective, I think, in writing, but you want to go to your AI platform of choice, and you want to actually take existing copy first. Let's say that you have somewhere written down the story of your company. Everybody wants to tell the story of their business. I think it's not very important to tell the story of your business. I think it's much more important to tell the story of why your business cares about your customer and why your business is good at solving their problem, which probably has nothing to do with your grandfather starting a company 75 years ago. Basically, what I'm saying there is it's really important that the customer find themselves in your story. For example, if you asked me, "Don, tell me the story of Storybrand and you are a customer or a potential customer, I am not going to tell you the story of Storybrand." I'm not going to say, "Well, years ago I was in Portland, Oregon, and I was a writer, and I wrote all these memoirs and I had to study story in order to understand how to write a better memoir. I became something of a story, you know, aficionado. I had taken so many courses and read so many books about it. And then, you know, Accenture called and wanted a project management piece of curriculum. They knew I was an expert at the story, so they asked me, "Can you run those ideas of story through a project management curriculum?" And then I did that and it went really well. And I thought, you know, this works much better as a marketing thing. But at this point, your eyes are rolling over, right? They're glazing over. You're not interested. And so in order for me to quote, "Make you think I'm telling my story, but actually do something very different, invite you into a story where you want to do business with me, I begin to, I want to change the elements." What I need to do instead is say, "Well, years ago I had a product. It was a conference company." And I held conference after conference and the auditorium was only half full. I'd written best-selling books. There's no reason for the auditorium to be half full. And so I realized that what I was doing was I was telling people why this should come to the conference or telling the story of the conference, but not inviting them into a story where they're the hero and I'm the guide and they come to this conference in order to accomplish something that helps them win the day. So I created this framework that I filtered everything through and that became story brand, the story brand framework. What happened to the conference? We went from half full auditoriums to standing room only to wait lists. All I did was change the copy and that was the foundation of the story brand framework. And now I can use that framework to sell anything, to sell, you know, if you're selling plungers, I can help you sell plungers. And that's the story of story brand. Is it the story of story brand? Is the story of the product that the customer is interested in and how they can use that product to win the day. That's what it is. It's part of it. You know, if you ask Dave Ramsey, "Hey, what's your story?" I mean, you know, what do you mean? What's the story? Like he's married. He's got kids. He went to, you know, University of Tennessee's, Big Falls fan. What part of it? He doesn't tell any of that. What he said is years ago, I went bankrupt because I had stupid financial practices. And read the book of Proverbs and realize this is pretty simple. Just don't have debt, you know, and obey some ancient principles. And now I've turned that into baby steps. It's a formula that you can use to run your money and filter your money and navigate the whole world, complex world of money. And I teach that through this. You think he's telling a story, but he's not. He's actually telling your story. You have terrible financial practices. It's causing you a lot of stress. Here, use these baby steps that I came up with so that you can have more money in the bank and more financial peace. And at the end of the day, you know, won't be an idiot who, you know, has terrible practices and doesn't have any money. He's got a villain, right? The villain is credit card companies. They're trying to get you. You think he's telling his story, but he's not. He's actually inviting you into a story. Why does this matter? This matters because people don't actually care about your story until you've helped them. So in your, in telling your business story, in your CEO's signature keynote, in your product descriptions on your landing page, you want to actually invite people into a story. So here's the prompt on how to do it. First, you actually, you actually tell Claude or chatchypt or straband.ai, tell them the website that you want to rewrite. Say, look, I want you to give me a new wireframe for this website or you enter in your current product description on Amazon, wherever it is. You say, I want you to rewrite this product description, but I want you to use this prompt. And here's the prompt. I want you to start with the problem. Start with the problem, this product solves. Then I want you to agitate the problem on an emotional level. In other words, the problem that this product solves is this, but the emotion that I feel because I have this problem is this, anxiety being overwhelmed, whatever. And then, this is number three problem, feeling as a result of the problem, negative feeling as a result of the problem, the specific need stated as a thesis statement. Right? So in movies, you'll see a thesis statement. Nicholas Cage almost looks at the camera and says they're going to try to steal the declaration of independence and we have to stop them. What did he do? He basically said, here's what the story is about. So specific needs stated as a thesis is a prompt inside of AI so that it will spit out you've tried normal plungers before and they just don't work and they're messy and they're disgusting. We need a better plunger. That's what it's going to spit out when you ask for that specific thesis statement. This removes cognitive dissonance and decreases cognitive load in the mind of the person who is reading the product description or the product copy. So specific needs stated as thesis is number three. Number four, your product positioned as the solution. So right after we need a better plunger, our plunger, your product stated as the solution to the problem. All right. Number five, stakes. If you don't buy it, here's the bad thing that's going to happen. If you do buy it, here's the great thing that's going to happen. Stakes are the fifth element. of this messaging framework. Then CTA, and a call to action needs to be specific. I want you to use this formula. If you are struggling with X, then purchasing Y is the right decision. If you are tired of ineffective messy plungers, buying our plunger is the right decision. That's how you're gonna word the CTA and you need to put it in the prompt. And then finally, at the end, the seventh element is a positive end result. They happy ever after. Because you buy our plunger, it works quick, much more clean, less chaos, and it hardly costs you any more money than a regular plunger. Right? So let me repeat them all again. You start with the problem. Then you agitate the problem through a feeling. Your problem is making you feel this way. This hooks the reader. The problem hooks the reader, and then when you agitate the problem, make it emotional, it hooks them even further. It opens the story loop. Because as they're reading this product copy or going down this landing page, they're going, oh, that's a problem. I wonder how they're gonna solve this. Ooh, this is a bigger problem than I thought. I really wonder how they're gonna solve this. Specifically, here's the need that we have as the reader. And it sounds like your product could be the solution to this problem, and the stakes are very high. If I don't solve this problem, bad things gonna happen. If I do solve this problem, great things gonna happen. Then the call to action is very, very specific, reducing cognitive load. If you have this problem, buying why is the right decision? Why do I say is the right decision? Because that's the hangout. Your customer is actually wondering, well, should I buy it or shouldn't I? And you're actually saying, yes, you should. You're doing the thinking for them. Yes, you should buy it. And then because you buy this, your life is going to look wonderful. It's gonna look like this. Those are the elements of the story. - If you've ever struggled to explain what your business does or you felt like your marketing should be converting better, then join us for Story Brand, Your Business Live. It's a two day workshop here in Nashville. It's happening September 1st through 2nd, where Donald Miller himself will teach you how to build clear messaging that works. And at the event, you'll also get direct feedback from Story Brand certified guides. So your message finally connects with customers. All of this year's workshops have sold out, so don't miss your chance. Register for the Story Brand, Your Business Live event happening September 1st through 2nd, at Storybrand.com/live. - The basic elements of a story are a hero falls into a hole. A guide comes along, empathizes with the hero, throws a rope in the hole, the hero climbs out of the hole, the hero has changed and transformed because they had to go through the struggle. They are a better version of themselves, and they live happily ever after. That's every story, that's every movie you've ever watched, that's every story you've ever read, unless it was a tragedy, and then the hero failed to change or died in the hole. But most stories don't end that way. That's every story that you've ever seen. And that's what you want to capture inside of your product descriptions, your product copy inside of your landing page, your CEO keynote, the story of your actual business, that's the formula. Now, why is this formula so important? Here's why it's so important. The average human brain day dreams, 30% of the time that it's on the planet. The average human brain just walks around and starts thinking about things, has trouble paying attention, eyes glaze over. I mean, you've driven down the street before and gone three miles and without realizing you've been even driving. That is your brain day dreaming. And the reason the brain day dreams, there's one reason. There's nothing for it to think about, associated with its survival. The human brain is a survival machine. It is designed to keep you on the planet and it's very, very good at it. That's why you look both ways before you cross the street. That's why if your spidey senses sense that somebody might not be safe, you distance yourself from them. That's why when you smell something that smells putrid, you don't drink it. Because your spidey senses go this will not help me survive. This may be a survival liability instead of an asset. So your brain is constantly looking for survival assets and constantly rejecting survival liabilities. When you frame your product descriptions, when you frame your landing page, when you frame your keynote as in the framework that I just gave you, you sense that there is something in here that is going to help me survive. And you start paying attention, you engage. It works like magic. It is the only tool known to the human brain that can stop you from day dreaming for 10, 20, 30 minutes, 50 minutes hours. You know, I learned this, I learned the power of this just recently, at least it was affirmed recently. I was reading Stephen King's book on writing. He has a book called On Writing. And the first part of the book is just his memoir about being a writer. And then the second part of the book is advice on how to write well. And I've read this book, I don't know, three to five times reading it again now. So I'm on my fifth or sixth reading, I don't know. I've read it a lot. I noticed something really fascinating at the beginning of the book. He says, at the beginning of the book, I'm a writer, it's very hard to understand, even for myself to understand how I became a writer. So I'm just gonna give you little snapshots from my childhood and my writing life that I think helped me develop into a writer. How they did that can't exactly connect it all, but that's what I'm gonna give you. And immediately, and then the second half of the book, I'm gonna give you tips and strategies on how you can do this. And immediately it starts into these stories. And these stories are stories like, you know, I was raised by a single mom and we lived in this cheap apartment and there was, I remember a story where I was locked in the bathroom and my brother, I had locked myself in the bathroom because my brother was on the roof and I was trying to get him through the bathroom window. And it was like a four story apartment complex, he could have died. What in the heck does that story have to do with him becoming a writer? Let me tell you what it has to do with him becoming a writer, nothing. Nothing. What is it then? It's a story and it's a good story. His brother could follow the roof. The neighbors are calling the police 'cause somebody's on the roof, the mom's not home. She doesn't know where his mom is. He's trying to get him through the door. A good writer understands the power of just telling a frickin' story. I mean, that changed my understanding and I'm, what, 15 books in now. I don't know how many books I've written. I'm a lot of books in. And I literally realized you can, I could write a book that's just a memoir about how I got into business and started a company and grew a company. And I don't even have to tell, I don't even have to do anything except for telling interesting stories that are loosely connected to having become a capitalist. That's it. And I actually started writing this book just for fun 'cause I'm realizing, is it really this easy? You just have to tell stories that are loosely connected. Yes. Why? Because the human brain cannot turn away from a good story. You just can't do it. It just isn't, brother, gonna get off the frickin' roof of the cops coming, where the hell is mom? Right, I mean, open story loop after open story loop after open story loop. That's how powerful story is. And if you can take every aspect of your business, your landing page, your keynote address, your webinar, the live stream that you're about to do, the open house as a real estate agent walking people through the open house. And you can harness the power and the formulas that make good stories. People have no choice but to pay attention to you. No choice. And I think you ought to use it. So let me summarize this. And AI, by the way, is making it easier and easier for you to do this, right? Let me summarize it again. Let me give you the problem. Start with the problem. What is the problem this product solves? What is the problem my customer has as it relates to this product or this brand or even me as a leader, if you're a politician or a leader. Next, what negative feeling is this problem causing in my life and use this to agitate the problem and make it worse? Next, state the specific need this product solves as a thesis statement inside of this product copy or on this landing page or inside of this keynote address I'm giving. Then finally, by the way, we're on the fourth, most people start with the product. We're on the fourth element. Because we got to earn the right to talk about this product and this product needs to be positioned as valuable and it's only going to be positioned as valuable is if it solves a specific problem, that problem is also emotional. So then position the product as the solution to this problem. Then fifth, give me the stakes. The positive and negative stakes that are in play at stake as to whether or not I buy this product. What terrible things can have to be if I don't, what wonderful things gonna happen if I do, then call them to action with a specific-- If you are struggling with X, purchasing Y is the right decision. And then finally, Paying a picture of the beautiful reality that I could experience if I buy this product. The beautiful end to this story. If you use this formula to do all sorts of things, buy a framelandie page, write a sales email, create a sales pitch deck to click through, give a webinar or a live stream, create a YouTube video. If you use the formula that I just gave you, you'll engage more people. Guarantee. Guarantee. Alright, hope this episode of the Story-Rain Podcast has helped you build your business. I hope that you have great success inviting people into a story. And if you don't use story, people are going to ignore you. If you do use it, people will pay attention. See how I just use stakes there? You're called to action. If you're wondering how to invite customers into a story, using this formula is the right decision. And if you do it, your business is going to grow. Literally just went through the last three elements of this. Alright, everybody, see you next time. Thanks for listening to the Story-Rain Podcast. No matter where you are in your marketing and messaging journey, get the tools, the training, and the support you need to start clarifying that message at storybrand.com. And don't forget to follow and subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss an episode. And if you're watching on YouTube, hit that subscribe button, and then leave a comment letting us know what resonated with you and what we can impact to help your business grow in a future episode. Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next week.