I found out about Donald Miller a couple of years ago in one of my Facebook groups for entrepreneurs and small business owners. Several comments recommended Building a StoryBrand as a must-read when it comes to marketing.
I read Building a Story Brand and then “Marketing Made Simple.” I love how they take highly complex ideas and explain them in simple executable steps. Donald Miller knows that business is more than just a good idea made profitable – it’s a system of unspoken rules, rarely taught by MBA schools. If you are attempting to grow your business or career profitably, you need elite business knowledge to create tangible value.
Donald Miller has done it yet again with his newest book, Business Made Simple: 60 Days to Master Leadership, Sales, Marketing, Execution, Management, Personal Productivity, and More.
Business Made Simple
If you want to grow your career and create a healthy and profitable company, check this book.
From writing your mission statement to formulating sales presentations, writing effective marketing messaging, setting up sales funnels, and executing projects across many departments, it covers all bases.
These 60 short, daily entries and accompanying videos will add enormous value to your business and the organization you work for. In this sixty-day guide, the book presents the nine areas where truly successful leaders and their businesses excel:
Character: What kind of person succeeds in business?
Leadership: How do you unite a team around a mission?
Personal Productivity: How can you get more done in less time?
Messaging: Why aren’t customers paying more attention?
Marketing: How do I build a sales funnel?
Business Strategy: How does a business really work?
Execution: How can we get things done?
Sales: How do I close more sales?
Management: What does a good manager do?
His book is based on the idea that value-driven professionals give their company’s and customers an incredible return on their investment. Donald Miller defines a value-driven professional as: “Someone obsessed with getting value to everyone they work with.”
“Each of us has to wake up in the morning and give people a return on the time, energy, and money they entrust to us.”
He goes on to say, “this is the secret to success. If you want to succeed in work, love, friendship, and life, give people around a great return on whatever it is they invested in you”.
1. See yourself as an economical product on the open market.
You are committed to getting people a strong return on the investment made in you. You’re zealous by making other people absurdly successful.
2. See yourself as a hero, not a victim.
You see yourself as a hero on a mission, not a victim. Victim mentality will end your career. Once you see yourself as a hero on a mission, you.
3. Know how to de-escalate drama
How do you escalate drama? You ask yourself: How would a calm and calculated person handle this situation? Your goal is to remain calm.
4. Accept feedback as a gift
Value-driven professionals are thankful for constructive feedback and know how to take feedback and use it to grow in their careers.
5. Know the right way to engage in conflict
We live in a broken world, so conflict is unavoidable. But how do you navigate conflict as a value-driven professional? You expect conflict, control your emotions, affirm the person you are confronting, and understand you could be wrong. Bonus: in all great story the hero has to face a conflict.
6. Long to be trusted and respected more than liked
A respected and trusted leader sets clear expectations, communicates and keeps others accountable, and rewards good performance. They care less about being liked than being respected and trusted.
7. Have a bias towards action
Donald Miller has observed that all great leaders have a bias towards action. They take action to make ideas happen.
8. Do not choose to be confused
When there are things we don’t want to do, we tend to get confused about how it works. For example, you may need to fire an employee, but you choose to be confused about what you should do to let this employee go.
9. Be relentlessly optimistic
High-impact leaders are not afraid to fail. Actually, successful leaders have failed more than most. As a result, they experience more success in work and life.
10. Have a growth mindset
A value-driven professional has learned to adopt a growth mindset when faced with setbacks. This comes from the work of the Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck. Growth mindset individuals see the world differently from embracing challenges to persisting through obstacles to learning from criticism to finding inspiration from others’ success.
Final Words
The truth is that it’s hard to be successful without a clear understanding of how business works.
According to Donald Miller, if you master the lessons introduced in his new book—the ten characteristics of a value-driven professional along with the ten core competencies of a value-driven professional—you will dramatically increase your worth on the open market.
Business Made Simple is the must-have guide for anyone who feels lost or overwhelmed by the modern business climate. If you want to take your career to the next level, read and apply the Business Made Simple book’s principles to transform your economic worth over the next 60 days.
The Business Made Simple book by Donald Miller is available for purchase.
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