Notes on Being a Guide, Not a Hero
Notes from Chapter 6 and 7 of Donald Miller’s Storybrand 2.0:
“[O]ne of the main miracles of life is the fact that we get to transform. No two lives are the same, yet we share common chapters. Every human being is on the transformational journey.”
“Human beings wake up every morning self-identifying as the hero of their own story. They are troubled by external, internal, and philosophical conflicts, and they know they can’t solve these problems on their own. For this reason, all human beings are seeking guides. Certainly we are inspired by stories of other heroes overcoming great challenges, but what we really need when the conflict is rising in our own lives is not another hero—what we need is a guide.”
As I thought about the advice that businesses should make their customers the hero (and they should be the guide), I realized that social media is this idea on steroids. This is likely a reason it’s been such a potent cultural creation.
“[A]ny message that can be framed as a contribution to a ‘power to the people’ movement will trump any message that is framed as a ‘power to the powerful’ money grab.”
This chapter uses a lot of political analogies and it made me think about what a winning political message/platform might be in modern America. What I came up with was “Let’s Rebuild America.”
I loved this: “the day we stop losing sleep over our problems and start losing sleep over our customers problems is the day our business will transform into a brand customers love.”
There was a strong emphasis on competence and empathy in these chapters as core attributes for what makes a good guide special: “The guide must be strong and all-knowing. The guide must be confident, that way the spotlight is fully on the hero and their transformation.”
“Empathetic statements start with words like, ‘We understand how it feels to…’ or ‘Nobody should have to experience…’ or ‘Like you, we are frustrated by…’ or, in the case of one commercial inviting Toyota owners to engage their local Toyota service center, simpy, ‘We care about your Toyota.’”
“All effective plans do two things: they clarify what doing business with us will look like and they remove the sense of risk a customer might feel before committing to our product service.”
Process plans are about alleviating confusion and agreement plans are about alleviating fear.
An artful—and romantic— depiction of the combination of strength (competency) and empathy.
Beautiful depiction of the spiritual guide, leading out of the darkness to the light.
I found this one striking for how futuristic (or ancient?) it feels. It just has an enormous, epic feel.
