My BMS membership is expired: 3 things I got from it

A year ago and a few days, I signed up for a year of Donald Miller’s Business Made Simple membership.

It was worth it.

Here are the three best things I took away from it:

Storybrand Training

I may not be a $10,000 certified Storybrand guide, but I had all of the class videos for a year. I watched that whole series about 4 times and was able to start practicing the principles. It’s genius material. I sat with a friend and I did it just like I do my Biblical Discipleship Counseling (which I did actually get the full certification for BTW.).

My friend talks about what he wants to do with his business. I ask him who his ideal client is. He talks for a little bit then I ask, what is your ideal client’s main struggle?

This is the silver bullet of marketing, I think.

I do the classic “So what I’m hearing is…” that we all learned from active listening during premarital counseling.

When I repeat what I heard, I add in the actual and philosophical threats the potential client feels.

This is how you do storybrand marketing.

My friend (this happened multiple times just like this) responds with an excited YES! YOU GET IT! THAT’S WHO I WANT AS A CLIENT. And then I spring the trap:

”What do you have to offer someone like that?”

Then they spill the beans with the most passionate and visionary language they have – on accident – and tell me what they offer their clients.

Storybrand marketing is gold. It doesn’t just make you feel good as a marketing consultant, it delivers the results.

I Learned how to run a small business

Grow Your Small Business by Donald Miller is available as a book but it also lives behind the paywall of Business Made Simple. The video content is similar to the book. It’s helpful to a guy that knows all about how to make websites, do social media marketing and all of the production stuff, but needs business help.

They have videos.

Seriously, like lots and lots of videos and each one has a worksheet. I didn’t fill any of them out, but it was good to skim while I watched the videos.

The worksheets were good ways to think about the material and then…explain it to my wife.

That’s the thing. Even if you are self-employed, you still have to have some accountability and some progress to explain to those that care about you.

Explaining the stuff makes it that much more solid.

Explaining how we’re going to have a small business and then grow it into a big one is 100,000 times better than just thinking of how you might do it someday.

No matter what field you are in, you use the “Flight Plan” to make sure every part of your business gets the attention and work it needs.

• Leadership
• Marketing
• Sales
• Products
• Management and Operations
• Cash flow

Miller compares each of these to the parts of an airplane. The thing that was the most beneficial for me was breaking it all down into practical steps, instead of being overwhelmed with my business.

I don’t use a ton of those, like the meeting formats or performance reviews, but I might someday when I grow this small business.

What is your ideal client’s main struggle?
This is the silver bullet of marketing, I think.

When you pay for it, you do it

Unlike a gym membership or countless online classes I bought from Udemy, I went all in on this program. I watched the Storybrand workshops and took the tests about four times over the course of a year. I printed out worksheets and filled them in for my friends and clients to help them see their business in a different light.

At one point I even put my former 9-5 job through the Storybrand process to help plan out the design for the website.

This stuff is applicable across many types of businesses.

And that’s the third bit that I learned, even if it wasn’t explicit. It is worth paying for something if it is going to deliver what is promised. This program definitely delivered. It was worth paying for and worth the time I gave to it.

So why didn’t I renew it?

I did it. I consumed it all. Now it’s time to apply it.

Some great advice from one of the certified Storybrand guides: go through the Storybrand framework as much as you can, with as many businesses as you can, as often as you can.

So instead of paying for another year of membership, I’m charging people to let me walk them through the framework. It really does help them get a focus and understanding of what their marketing message should be.

So thanks Don. Maybe I’ll see you at one of your live seminars one day.