After launching their agency in 2019, 8Bend Marketing quickly identified StoryBrand agency certification as a goal and achieved it within less than a year. And in seeing the incredible value the StoryBrand framework brought to clients across the region, 8Bend became an early adopter and certified coach for Donald Miller’s newest program, Business Made Simple University. The new program is based on content from Miller’s book Business Made Simple, which was released late last month.
Today, we sat down with Josh Davis, President of 8Bend Marketing, to discuss the new offering, what participants can expect to gain and general business advice that leaders at all stages can benefit from.
TREND: Tell us about why you decided to become a Business Made Simple Certified Coach.
Davis: If you’re a marketer or business leader, there’s a good chance you’re at least somewhat familiar with StoryBrand. If you haven’t read the book, someone has probably told you about the concepts or recommended it to you. It’s a New York Times best-seller for a reason: The content is strong.
We have led dozens of customers through the StoryBrand framework and seen great successes through those experiences, and when we saw the Business Made Simple University curriculum, we knew we could bring even more value to even more leaders in our region.
TREND: Who is a good fit for Business Made Simple University?
Davis: Essentially any business leader or professional who is looking to take their business or career to the next level. As a business leader or owner, you’ll come away with actionable training on topics including leadership, communication, marketing, productivity and more. People who want skills and tools they can immediately apply to their business will love this curriculum. For example, you can learn a framework to rewrite your company mission statement into a format your employees will remember. Mission statements are important to business owners, but how many employees actually know them?
TREND: What are some of the common struggles you’ve seen business leaders in our area facing that this program can help with?
Davis: Great question. Since we established our agency in 2019, it’s been really eye-opening to talk with business leaders about their pain points. A few that come to mind would be:
- “Learn from your mistakes” isn’t the best advice. Sure, we do learn from mistakes — but we don’t believe that this is sound business advice. You don’t have to wait to make mistakes to learn and grow. If you can find a way to be proactive and strategic, rather than throwing something at the wall and seeing what sticks, wouldn’t that be a preferable path?
- Spending 15-20 years in the trenches or obtaining an MBA shouldn’t be the only way to develop business acumen. We’re certainly not casting shade at anyone here who has (or is pursuing) an MBA, but the reality is that many of us cannot afford or do not have the time to commit to an MBA program. I personally believe a great business education should be way more accessible to more people from all walks of life. Wouldn’t it be great if you could get a complete business education and avoid the $30,000 or $50,000 in college debt? Or if you could become a better leader or a more valuable employee without having to wait for 15-20 years of hard life lessons? This program helps expedite the process in an inclusive and approachable way.
- People are feeling really disconnected. We found a stat that as of January 2021, there are nearly 2 million podcasts floating around out there, and more than 43 million episodes. And that’s just podcasts! There’s no shortage of TED Talks, business blogs and other educational materials, but we’re missing out on feeling truly connected and motivated by those resources.
In many cases, business owners and leaders feel the pressure and anxiety of trying to devour all this learning content and then figure out how to apply it to their business. This program seeks to remedy that. In the same span of time you could sit and listen to another business podcast, you could join a program with a live coach, learning alongside like-minded professionals, based on the advice and acumen of a highly experienced and successful professional. We feel like that’s a pretty strong value proposition!
TREND: Is there a way someone can learn more about the program without signing up?
Davis: Absolutely! We are hosting a virtual kickoff on Feb. 18th at noon. We’ll review the “Business Made Simple” book by Donald Miller, talk about the 10 Characteristics of a Value-Driven Professional and share details about what our first two group coaching cohorts will look like. As an added bonus and thank you to folks for signing up for the webinar, we’ll be giving out free copies of “Business Made Simple” to our first 20 registrants. You can sign up here.
About 8Bend Marketing
With the proven methods from Building a StoryBrand and Marketing Made Simple, 8Bend Marketing helps passionate business leaders super-charge their marketing. 8Bend uses the StoryBrand messaging framework to help companies develop a clear, strong sales story that gets instant results.
