Using "you" and "your" to make marketing customer-focused

StoryBrand With Donald Miller June 5, 2019

• Shift marketing language from brand to customer with one word
• "Your favourite plumber" outperforms "we're the greatest" every time
• Overuse backfires — treat "you/your" as seasoning, not wallpaper

Not gossiping is the single most underrated trust-building habit

StoryBrand With Donald Miller June 5, 2019

• Gossip doesn't make enemies — it quietly kills your career advancement.
• Leaders distance themselves from gossips without ever saying why.
• Three employees who tripled their salary shared one trait: no gossip.

The fastest way to turn a struggling company around

StoryBrand With Donald Miller June 3, 2019

• Struggling companies stop selling — that's the core problem.
• Weekly product emails to your customer list restart cash flow.
• Strategy can wait; soldiers in the trenches come first.

Why customers don't buy: the clarity problem

StoryBrand With Donald Miller June 3, 2019

• Buyers won't do the math — you have to do it for them
• Confusion always produces a no, not a maybe
• Rejected prospects can flip to yes when you name their specific upside

Hire entry-level people who can run the department within two years

StoryBrand With Donald Miller June 3, 2019

• Entry-level hires should pass a 24-month leadership potential test
• Fast growth creates internal vacancies — unprepared assistants leave gaps
• Hiring from within beats external hires on cost and customer continuity

Why startups should charge more, not less

Y Combinator May 31, 2019

• Undercharging by 10–100x is the most common early pricing mistake
• Competing on price hides whether anyone actually wants your product
• DoorDash, Airbnb, Dropbox — big winners charged a premium, not a discount

How to keep momentum going after a win

StoryBrand With Donald Miller May 23, 2019

• A win stops momentum faster than a loss.
• Celebrating without a next goal signals the story is over.
• Follow every win immediately by defining the next one.

How to find a cofounder: YC's data and advice

Y Combinator May 23, 2019

• 94% of top YC companies have cofounders — solo founding is rare at scale.
• Best cofounders come from school or work, where trust is already built.
• Equal equity split signals equal commitment for the 8–10 year journey ahead.

How to attract people to your brand using story loops

StoryBrand With Donald Miller May 22, 2019

• Open a question in people's minds — they stay until it's answered.
• Your question must agitate a pain only your product resolves.
• Ask: what story loop can I open that my product closes?

Three steps to turn failure into professional growth

StoryBrand With Donald Miller May 20, 2019

• Failure builds strength only when you honestly acknowledge it.
• Three-step framework: acknowledge, extract a lesson, then adjust behaviour.
• Writing your mistake and fix to a boss earns respect, not firing.

How to Sell an Idea to Your Team

StoryBrand With Donald Miller May 17, 2019

Marketing vs branding: why most companies get the balance wrong

StoryBrand With Donald Miller May 16, 2019

• Branding is a luxury — only worth pursuing above $250k revenue.
• Marketing means telling people what to buy and why; branding is feeling.
• Spend 80% on marketing, 20% on branding — or you'll go under.

When to apply to Y Combinator: the only two things that matter

Y Combinator May 16, 2019

• No traction or revenue needed — just a team and an idea.
• 25–50% of YC batches are funded at the idea-only stage.
• Rejection isn't final; more progress and reapplying works.

How to turn your brand into a movement by defining a villain

StoryBrand With Donald Miller May 15, 2019

• People unify around a shared enemy faster than a shared product.
• Name your villain with one sentence: 'What X does to our customers isn't right.'
• The villain is the root cause of customer problems, not the symptom.

Starting a business with a friend: how to do it right

StoryBrand With Donald Miller May 14, 2019

• Long friendships reveal character flaws before you're locked in together
• Vaguer agreements — not the friendship — destroy co-founder relationships
• Benchmark equity splits against real investors to remove personal bias