Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen
A few years ago, Renee picked up Donald Miller’s Building a StoryBrand looking for a clearer way to talk about what AdminBooks does. What she found changed more than our website copy. It changed how we think about the client relationship itself.
Miller’s argument is simple. Most businesses talk about themselves as the hero of the story. The truth is your customer is the hero, and your business is meant to play a supporting role: the guide. His SB7 framework breaks that guide role into seven parts. Here’s the short version, and what it looks like in practice at a firm like ours.
A Character
Every business owner is the hero of their own story. They want something specific, whether that’s more profit, less stress, or simply knowing where their money is going.
Has a Problem
People don’t call an accountant because they woke up curious about debits and credits. They call because something is broken: messy books, a tax bill they didn’t see coming, a spreadsheet nobody trusts anymore.
Who Meets a Guide
Nobody is looking for a second hero to swoop in. They’re looking for a guide who has been down this road before and can point the way. A guide earns trust two ways:
- Empathy: understanding what the problem actually feels like
- Authority: proof that you know how to solve it
Who Gives Them a Plan
A guide without a plan is just encouragement. People need to know exactly what happens next, in order, so the decision to move forward feels safe instead of risky.
And Calls Them to Action
People rarely act without being asked. A clear next step, stated plainly, is what turns interest into a decision.
That Helps Them Avoid Failure
Part of the story is naming what’s at stake if nothing changes: missed deductions, penalties, a business owner still doing books at midnight a year from now.
And Ends in Success
Never assume people can picture the outcome. Show them what life looks like once the problem is actually solved, and say it out loud.
How This Shows Up at AdminBooks
Reading this book didn’t just change our marketing. It changed how we structured the client experience itself. In practice, that means:
You’re the Hero
The goal was never to make AdminBooks the center of the story. It’s your business, your decisions, your growth. We’re here to make the financial side easier to see clearly.
We Show Up as the Guide
Nearly a decade of running a fully virtual accounting firm, plus a team of CPAs and Enrolled Agents, is the authority side. The empathy side is simpler: we’ve sat across from enough business owners to know what the problem actually feels like before it’s ever spoken out loud.
There’s an Actual Plan
Onboarding isn’t a mystery. Once you sign on, everything moves through a secure client portal, and you’ll meet directly with our Bookkeeping Manager before anything else happens.
None of this works without a clear message. That’s the part Donald Miller’s book put into words for us, and it’s the same principle we try to apply anywhere a client is trying to figure out if we’re the right fit.
Renee Daggett, Founder of AdminBooks
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