Skills / Marketing-messaging

StoryBrand Framework

People don't buy the best products; they buy the products they can understand the fastest.

The StoryBrand Framework (SB7) is Donald Miller's 7-part story-based messaging system that applies the universal structure of narrative to business marketing. Built on a single paradigm shift — your customer is the hero, your brand is the guide — it produces a one-page BrandScript that becomes the master source document for every website, email, ad, and sales conversation your business produces. Where most marketing confuses, StoryBrand clarifies.

By Donald Miller  ·  Free

Use this skill See it in action

Specimen 01 · Live diagnosisStoryBrand Framework

Input

“We're a B2B SaaS company. Our customers are operations managers at mid-size manufacturing companies. They want to reduce unplanned production…”

Diagnosis

Let's build your BrandScript.

Full transcript ↓

Calibrated referenceagent-skills.ai

The gap

Make your customer the hero, your brand the guide, and your message finally clear

SB7 maps seven universal story elements onto any business's marketing in sequence: (1) A Character — who the customer is and the single thing they most want; (2) Has a Problem — defined at three layers: External (the tangible problem), Internal (the emotional frustration and self-doubt it creates), and Philosophical (the underlying injustice), plus a named Villain antagonist; (3) And Meets a Guide — the brand positioning itself with Empathy ('we understand how you feel') and Authority (social proof, credentials, results); (4) Who Gives Them a Plan — a 3-step Process Plan that reduces decision friction, or an Agreement Plan that resolves objections; (5) And Calls Them to Action — a Direct CTA (Buy Now, Schedule a Call) and a Transitional CTA (Download the Guide, Watch the Demo); (6) That Helps Them Avoid Failure — the specific stakes of inaction articulated with emotional and practical weight; (7) And Ends in Success — the aspirational transformation and identity the customer gains. Every element populates a single BrandScript, which then generates the One-Liner, homepage wireframe, email sequence, and all downstream marketing copy.

The problem

Most businesses fail at marketing because they make themselves the hero of the story — leading with product features, company history, and internal jargon that customers don't care about. As Donald Miller puts it: 'If you confuse, you lose.' When a prospect can't instantly understand what you do and why it matters to their life, they move on. The StoryBrand Framework exists because human brains are wired for story, and businesses that speak in story get heard while others get ignored.

The solution

By completing a BrandScript session, your core message will be clear enough to explain on a cocktail napkin and compelling enough to anchor every email, ad, website, and sales conversation your business will ever produce — because every piece of marketing flows from the same seven-element source document.

You bring

Your business, product, or service description
Your primary target customer persona and what they most want
The transformation or outcome your offer delivers
Existing marketing copy or website (optional, for messaging audit)

You get

A completed one-page BrandScript covering all 7 SB7 elements — the master document for all your marketing
A StoryBrand One-Liner: a single, memorable paragraph in problem → guide → solution → outcome format
A homepage copy wireframe built section-by-section from your BrandScript
Paired Direct and Transitional CTAs with supporting copy rationale

In action

Watch the methodology work.

Three specimens from a single real session: the same situation, unaided and calibrated, the full transcript, and the skill answering live in the channel where the work happens.

Fig.01  —  The same situation, two ways

Specimens A · B

Specimen AVague

Unaided

“Your homepage reads: 'Advanced Predictive Maintenance Solutions for Modern Manufacturing.' You lead with a product feature carousel, a 'Founded in 2015' about section, and three technical specification tabs. Visitors spend eight seconds on the page and leave. Your sales team says prospects don't understand what you actually do until the third or fourth call.”

×Vague — nothing concrete to act on.

Specimen BCalibrated

With StoryBrand Framework

“Your homepage opens with: 'Your machines shouldn't stop your business.' Below it: 'Operations managers at growing manufacturers use [Product] to catch equipment failures before they happen — so production stays on schedule and leadership stays confident in their team.' A clear 3-step plan (Connect → Monitor → Act) removes decision friction. A Transitional CTA ('See a 10-minute live demo') captures prospects who aren't ready to buy. Your completed BrandScript now anchors your website, your sales deck, your email nurture sequence, and your LinkedIn company bio — all saying the same thing in different formats.”

◦Specific, grounded, and ends with one clear next step.

Fig.02  —  A real session, unedited

In-app · assistant

StoryBrand FrameworkClaude

StoryBrand Framework

Let's build your BrandScript. Before we write a single word, one rule that changes everything: in this story, you are not the hero — your customer is. Your brand is the guide: the Yoda to their Luke, the Gandalf to their Frodo. The guide doesn't have the biggest challenge; the guide has the tools, the empathy, and the plan.

With that framing, tell me: who is your primary customer, and what is the single most important thing they want to achieve or obtain?

We're a B2B SaaS company. Our customers are operations managers at mid-size manufacturing companies. They want to reduce unplanned production downtime.

Good. 'Reduce unplanned production downtime' is the External Problem — the tangible, surface-level thing they need fixed. But here's where most companies stop, and it's why their marketing falls flat.

Let's go one layer deeper. When a machine goes down unexpectedly and production halts, what does the operations manager feel — not about the machine, but about themselves? About their competence, their standing with leadership, their ability to do their job? That emotional experience is the Internal Problem, and it's usually what actually drives the buying decision.

They probably feel like they're failing. Like they should have caught it earlier. There's real pressure from leadership, and they're the ones on the hook when output drops.

That's the Internal Problem precisely: the fear of being seen as incompetent when systems break on their watch.

Now the third layer — the Philosophical Problem. This is the underlying injustice, the 'it shouldn't have to be this way' statement. Something like: 'A skilled operations manager shouldn't be held hostage to equipment failures that better technology should have predicted.' Does that resonate?

And let's name the Villain — the antagonist force causing all of this. Not your customer; something working against them. Based on what you've said, I'd guess it's something like 'reactive maintenance culture' — the assumption that you run equipment until it breaks, then deal with the fallout. Is that the right villain for your customer's story?

Yes, exactly. Reactive maintenance — 'run it till it breaks' — that's the mindset that creates all the chaos they're dealing with.

Here's your Problem layer:

External Problem: Unplanned machine downtime disrupting production output and schedulesInternal Problem: Fear of being seen as an incompetent manager when equipment fails on their watchPhilosophical Problem: Skilled operations leaders shouldn't be held hostage to failures that predictive technology should have caughtThe Villain: Reactive maintenance culture — the 'run it till it breaks' assumption baked into how most facilities operate

This three-layer stack is what makes your messaging hit differently from every competitor who just says 'we reduce downtime.' You're speaking to what they feel, not just what they need to fix. Customers read that and think: 'these people actually get it.'

Ready to position your brand as the Guide — the one who has seen this problem before and has a proven plan?

Yes — and honestly, this is already more specific than anything we've written about our own product before.

Reply to StoryBrand Framework…

What the skill is doing

01BrandScript Generation

02Three-Layer Problem Excavation

03One-Liner Crafting

Fig.03  —  The same skill, in the channel you already use

WhatsApp · live

9:41

SFStoryBrand Frameworktyping…

Messages are end-to-end encrypted. No one outside of this chat can read them.

Today

We're a B2B SaaS company. Our customers are operations managers at mid-size manufacturing companies. They want to reduce unplanned production downtime…9:14✓✓

Before we write a single word, one rule that changes everything: in this story, you are not the hero — your customer is.9:14

Your brand is the guide: the Yoda to their Luke, the Gandalf to their Frodo.9:15

The guide doesn't have the biggest challenge; the guide has the tools, the empathy, and the plan.9:15

Message

The same skill, where the work happens.

No new app to learn. The methodology runs over the WhatsApp Business API, so the answer lands as a reply in the thread you’re already in — same rigour, zero context-switch.

◦Reads the situation, names the pattern, returns one concrete next move.

◦Delivered in seconds, inside a conversation that already exists.

Specimen · WhatsApp Business API · live

Capabilities

What it does, specifically.

Each capability is a distinct move drawn straight from the source methodology — not a generic assistant guessing.

CapabilityC-01

BrandScript Generation

Guides you through a structured interview to fill in all 7 SB7 elements, producing a complete one-page BrandScript — the master messaging document from which all marketing copy flows. The skill surfaces targeted inputs for each element before generating the finished document, catching the common pitfall of businesses confusing their product features with their customer's actual problems.

◦ MethodBased on Miller's BrandScript template from Building a StoryBrand, which maps the 7 universal story elements to business messaging and functions as the single source of truth for all downstream marketing assets.

CapabilityC-02

Three-Layer Problem Excavation

Surfaces not just the surface-level External Problem but the Internal emotional frustration it creates (the self-doubt and fear underneath the tactical problem) and the Philosophical injustice driving it ('it shouldn't have to be this way'), plus names the Villain — the antagonist force working against your customer. This three-layer depth is what makes marketing emotionally resonant instead of merely informational.

◦ MethodBased on Miller's core insight that customers buy solutions to internal problems but businesses only market against external ones — and that naming the villain creates a shared enemy between brand and customer, generating trust and alignment.

CapabilityC-03

One-Liner Crafting

Distills your full BrandScript into a single memorable paragraph that can anchor any pitch, bio, LinkedIn summary, or sales opener. The One-Liner goes through iteration until it passes the 'blank stare test' — a stranger hears it and immediately understands what you do and wants to know more, rather than nodding politely while thinking about something else.

◦ MethodBased on Miller's One-Liner formula from Building a StoryBrand: name the hero's problem, describe your solution, and state the transformational outcome — compressed into one to three sentences that work in every context.

CapabilityC-04

CTA Architecture

Generates both a Direct CTA (high-commitment: Buy Now, Schedule a Call, Start Today) and a Transitional CTA (low-commitment: Download the Guide, Watch the Demo, Get the Checklist) with button copy, supporting headlines, and placement rationale. Most businesses use only one type and leave conversion on the table — this capability ensures you're capturing both ready buyers and nurture-stage prospects.

◦ MethodBased on Miller's two-CTA model, which mirrors the story beat where the guide presents the hero with a clear path — Direct CTAs for those ready to commit, Transitional CTAs that build trust with prospects who need to experience value first before they decide.

CapabilityC-05

Homepage Wireframe Translation

Translates a completed BrandScript into a structured homepage copy wireframe section by section: the header (what you offer and why it matters), a stakes bar (the cost of inaction), value proposition blocks, guide credentialing (empathy plus authority), the 3-step plan, CTA placements, and success imagery copy. Each section maps directly to a specific BrandScript element.

◦ MethodBased on the homepage wireframe model from Marketing Made Simple (Miller & Peterson, 2020), which provides a step-by-step template for converting BrandScript elements into a conversion-optimized homepage structure.

Tested

Graded before it shipped.

Every skill is scored against independent scenarios for methodology fidelity before it goes live — not vibes, a rubric.

What it produces

OutputD-01

Completed BrandScript

A one-page master messaging document with all 7 SB7 elements filled in — Character, three-layer Problem and Villain, Guide positioning (Empathy + Authority), the Plan, Direct and Transitional CTAs, Failure stakes, and Success vision. This is the north star from which every marketing asset your business produces should flow.

OutputD-02

StoryBrand One-Liner

A one-to-three sentence elevator pitch following the problem → guide → solution → outcome structure. Precise enough to fit a business card, field-tested through iteration until it produces curiosity rather than polite nods. Ready for your website bio, LinkedIn headline, and sales intro.

OutputD-03

Homepage Copy Wireframe

A section-by-section copy wireframe for your website's homepage — header, stakes bar, value propositions, guide credentials, 3-step plan, CTA blocks, and success imagery — built directly from your BrandScript and structured for conversion.

OutputD-04

CTA Copy Suite

A paired set of Direct and Transitional CTAs with button copy, supporting headlines, and positioning rationale for each — ready to place on your website, in emails, or in paid ads, with a brief explanation of which prospect type each CTA is designed to capture.

The source

Grounded in the original work.

Every answer traces back to a real source and the practitioner who wrote it — not a secondhand summary. Here is the source of record.

Source authorA-01

Donald Miller

Donald Miller is the founder and CEO of StoryBrand and Business Made Simple, and author of Building a StoryBrand (2017), a Wall Street Journal bestseller that has sold millions of copies and become a defining text in modern marketing and brand communication. His SB7 Framework has been adopted by tens of thousands of businesses worldwide, backed by a professional certification program that trains practitioners as licensed StoryBrand Guides. He co-authored Marketing Made Simple (2020) to extend the BrandScript into specific marketing assets including website wireframes and email funnels.

Status · Inspired by Donald Miller’s work — not yet claimed. Are you Donald Miller?

Primary sourceS-01

Building a StoryBrand (2017)

by Donald Miller

Founder & CEO of StoryBrand and Business Made Simple; WSJ bestselling author of Building a StoryBrand (millions of copies sold); creator of the SB7 Framework with a global certified guide practitioner network.

Read the original ↗

Citationstorybrand.com

In the build queue

Be first to run it.

StoryBrand Framework is being built right now. Leave your email and we’ll tell you the moment it goes live.

Notify meEmail

At launchI run a [type of business] and I think our marketing isn't working because people are confused about what we actually do. Can we build a BrandScript together so I can get my message clear and stop losing people in the first 10 seconds?