Beat stronger competitors by leading with customer compassion

StoryBrand With Donald Miller July 2, 2019

• Competitors who lead with their own story make themselves the hero — easy to beat.
• Customers choose whoever best understands their pain, not the most credentialed.
• Out-empathise bigger rivals: compassion costs nothing and wins customer trust.

How to choose a career: two questions that actually matter

StoryBrand With Donald Miller June 27, 2019

• Proving yourself through work is a guaranteed path to burnout
• People only pay for problems being solved — usefulness drives income
• Love it and it solves a problem: the only two criteria that count

The Two Kinds of Negotiators

StoryBrand With Donald Miller June 24, 2019

How self-deprecating talk shapes what others think of you

StoryBrand With Donald Miller June 24, 2019

• People take self-deprecating comments as fact, not humility
• Negative self-talk directly blocks promotions and career opportunities
• Honest, positive sound bites signal value and invite success

Teach your team to decide well by always explaining why

StoryBrand With Donald Miller June 20, 2019

• Bad team decisions are a leadership failure, not a talent problem.
• Explaining your reasoning 8–10 times duplicates your judgment across the team.
• Even gut-instinct leaders gain clarity by articulating their own "why".

How to stop emotions derailing your career and decisions

StoryBrand With Donald Miller June 20, 2019

• No clear goal is the real reason emotions hijack you.
• You can lose every battle and still win the war.
• Write down your war — use it as a daily filter.

How to Recover From Big Mistakes at Work

StoryBrand With Donald Miller June 18, 2019

• Mistakes are inevitable — recovery speed and boldness define you.
• Overdoing the apology signals respect louder than the slight did.
• Silence earns a blacklist; pursuit earns forgiveness every time.

Why your business isn't growing: create a clear first step

StoryBrand With Donald Miller June 18, 2019

• A missing entry point is silently killing your business growth
• One simple first step can double revenue in 24 months
• Complexity without a clear on-ramp locks your front door

How to build a brand people love by making them feel good

StoryBrand With Donald Miller June 18, 2019

• Brand love comes from making customers feel good about their life.
• Chick-fil-A turns cleanliness and cheerfulness into competitive advantage.
• Fix what your industry makes people hate — that is your opening.

How to increase profit margins by doing less for more

StoryBrand With Donald Miller June 10, 2019

• High revenue can hide terrible margins once operational costs are counted
• Opportunity cost: complex programs drain bandwidth from more profitable work
• Ask if every revenue stream can be done with less effort for more money

Sell the feeling, not just the product, to increase perceived value

StoryBrand With Donald Miller June 10, 2019

• Words cost nothing but can double your product's perceived value.
• Place a feeling-driven phrase next to the price, not buried in a brochure.
• Ask: does your product make people feel peace, confidence, or nostalgia?

Reduce cognitive load at every step of your customer path

StoryBrand With Donald Miller June 6, 2019

• A simpler customer path beats a better product every time.
• Every touchpoint costs the brain calories — cut them ruthlessly.
• One round of clarity work multiplies across thousands of customers.

A simple technique for having tough conversations at work

StoryBrand With Donald Miller June 6, 2019

• Find a story from your past where you made the same mistake
• Shared experience kills the judgment mindset before it starts
• Reframing failure as lesson stops the post-firing shame spiral

How to split equity with cofounders to maximise long-term motivation

Y Combinator June 6, 2019

• Equity splits should maximise motivation, not reflect negotiation outcomes
• Four-year vesting with a one-year cliff makes generosity safe
• If a cofounder isn't worth a generous grant, rethink the relationship

The four pillars of high performance organisations

StoryBrand With Donald Miller June 5, 2019

• Only four practices separate high performance organisations from the rest.
• 70% disengagement explains why consistent execution is so rare.
• Execution is the dismount — leadership, alignment, and engagement are the routine.