What Donald Miller Taught Me About Saying What You Do In One Sentence
Before I get into what I learned, I want to give credit where it belongs.
Donald Miller has an incredible ability to take marketing ideas that feel complicated and make them simple enough to use. His one-liner framework changed the way I thought about explaining a business, and eventually changed the way I thought about advertising itself.
I didn’t invent this framework. I learned it from Donald Miller.
What follows is how I understood it, worked through it and eventually applied it while building Boofkay.
Thank you, Mr. Miller.
I don’t remember the exact video where I first heard Donald Miller explain the one-liner, but this video captures the idea that stuck with me.
What stuck with me was simple:
Explain what your business does in one simple sentence.
That sounded easy.
It wasn’t.
But the more I worked on it, the more I realized that was the point.
If I couldn’t clearly explain what I did in one sentence, how was somebody seeing an advertisement for a few seconds supposed to figure it out?
The version of Donald Miller’s approach that stuck with me broke the story into three parts:
What’s your customer’s problem?
What do you do to help them solve it?
What does their life look like after you solve it?
Problem.
Plan.
Happy ending.
A whole business story condensed into a sentence.
And that simple idea changed the way I thought about more than just explaining a business.
It changed the way I thought about advertising.
Say One Thing Clearly
When you’re starting a business, you want to tell everybody everything.
Every service.
Every feature.
Every benefit.
Every reason they should hire you.
You try to fit the whole company into one advertisement.
The problem is that the person looking at the ad isn’t studying for a test.
They’re scrolling.
Driving.
Watching television.
Checking their phone.
Living their life.
You’ve got a moment.
So what are you going to say?
Donald Miller’s one-liner exercise forced me to start asking a harder question:
What’s the one thing I want this person to understand?
Later I came across another advertising idea that fit perfectly with what I was learning:
Start with one message. Then stop.
That’s become a big part of the way I think about advertising.
Make it simple.
Make it speak to the customer.
Give it something different enough to be remembered.
Then stop talking.
Build Your Own One-Line Brand Story
You don’t need a clever slogan to start. You need to understand the story your customer is already living.
The goal of this exercise is to explain your business in one clear sentence by answering three questions:
What problem is your customer dealing with?
What do you do to help solve it?
What does success look like after you help them?
Start with clarity. You can make it clever later.
Grab a piece of paper, open a note on your phone or work through the questions below.
01 — Identify Your Customer’s Problem
Start with the problem your customer already has.
The key is: don’t describe your product problem. Describe the customer’s frustration.
For example:
Instead of:
“They need video marketing.”
That describes the solution you want to sell.
Try:
“Most local business owners know they should advertise consistently, but they don’t have the time, ideas or budget to keep creating content.”
Or:
“A lot of local businesses struggle to stay visible long enough for people to remember them.”
Your Customer’s Problem
Ask yourself:
What is frustrating, difficult, expensive, confusing, stressful or time-consuming for my customer before they hire me?
Try finishing one of these:
Most of my customers struggle with…
My customers get frustrated when…
A lot of people don’t know how to…
My customers worry about…
My customers are tired of…
My customers want __________, but __________ keeps getting in the way.
Here are a few examples from different types of businesses:
Roofer: Homeowners don’t know who to call when a roofing problem suddenly appears.
Mover: Moving is stressful, time-consuming and easy to underestimate.
Insurance agency: People often don’t understand what coverage they actually need until something goes wrong.
Custom closets: Homeowners are frustrated by cluttered spaces that make everyday life harder.
Photographer: People want great photos but don’t always know how to plan a shoot or feel comfortable in front of a camera.
Hair salon: People get tired of hair that no longer feels like them.
Gutter company: Homeowners ignore gutter problems until water starts causing damage.
One More Example
Instead of:
“Local businesses need advertising.”
Try:
“Most local businesses struggle to stay visible and get remembered because consistent advertising takes time, money and creative ideas they don’t always have.”
The second version gives you something much stronger to build the rest of your one-line brand story around.
Your customer’s problem:
02 — Explain Your Plan To Help Them
Your customer has a problem. Now explain what you do to help solve it.
The key is: don’t list everything your business does. Explain the part that solves the problem you just identified.
For example:
Problem:
“Most local businesses struggle to stay visible long enough for people to remember them.”
Instead of:
“We create videos, manage Facebook ads, design campaigns and provide marketing services.”
That tells people what you do, but it makes them work to figure out how it helps them.
Try:
“We created a 12-month local awareness campaign that keeps your business in front of people for just a dollar a day.”
Now the plan connects directly to the problem.
Your Plan
Ask yourself:
What do I actually do that makes this problem easier, better or disappear for my customer?
Try finishing one of these:
We help our customers by…
We created…
Here’s what we do…
Our simple plan is…
We make it easier to…
Instead of __________, we help you __________.
Keep your plan:
Easy to understand.
Brief.
Specific.
Different enough to be interesting.
A Few Examples
Roofer: We inspect the roof, explain what needs attention and give the homeowner a clear plan for fixing it.
Mover: We handle the planning, packing and heavy lifting so moving day is easier.
Insurance agency: We help people understand their options and choose coverage that fits what they actually need.
Custom closets: We design and install a storage system around the way the homeowner actually uses the space.
Photographer: We guide clients through the shoot so they can relax and get photos they’re proud to keep.
Gutter company: We inspect the gutter system, explain the problem and recommend the right solution before water damage becomes a bigger issue.
One More Example
Instead of:
“Boofkay makes creative advertising.”
Try:
“DDK With Dad gives local businesses a 12-month digital door knocking campaign for a dollar a day.”
The second version gives the customer a much clearer picture of the plan.
Your plan:
03 — Describe The Happy Ending
Your customer had a problem.
You gave them a plan.
Now show them what life looks like when the problem is solved.
This is the part where you stop thinking about what you sell and start thinking about what your customer actually wants.
A customer usually isn’t buying the service itself.
They’re buying what happens because of the service.
A homeowner doesn’t really want gutters.
They want to stop worrying about water damaging their house.
A business owner doesn’t really want Facebook ads.
They want people in their community to know who they are and remember them when they need what they sell.
Your Happy Ending
Ask yourself:
What changes for my customer after I help them?
What frustration disappears?
What do they gain?
How do they feel afterward?
What does success actually look like to them?
Try finishing one of these:
So they can…
The result is…
Now they can…
So they no longer have to worry about…
This helps them finally…
Instead of __________, they can now __________.
A Few Examples
Roofer: The homeowner can feel confident that their home is protected when the next storm comes.
Mover: The customer gets into their new home with less stress and fewer things to worry about.
Insurance agency: The customer understands their coverage and feels confident they’re protecting what matters most.
Custom closets: The homeowner starts the day with an organized space that makes everyday life easier.
Photographer: The client walks away with photographs they’re excited to keep, share and look back on.
Hair salon: The customer leaves feeling more confident and more like themselves.
Gutter company: The homeowner can stop worrying about overflowing gutters and water damage every time it rains.
One More Example
Instead of:
“DDK With Dad gives businesses Facebook advertising.”
Try:
“DDK With Dad helps your business become known before customers need you.”
That’s the happy ending.
The advertising campaign is the plan.
Being known and remembered is the result.
And that distinction matters.
The resolution — the happy ending of your customer’s story — is often the business you’re really in.
Your customer’s happy ending:
Put It All Together
Now take the three pieces you just worked through:
The problem.
Your plan.
The happy ending.
And put them into one clear sentence.
Use this simple formula:
Most [customers] struggle with [problem]. [Your business] helps them [your plan], so they can [successful ending].
Don’t worry about making it clever yet.
Make it clear first. Then make it yours.
Example
Problem:
Most local businesses struggle to stay visible long enough for people to remember them.
Plan:
DDK With Dad gives local businesses a 12-month digital door knocking campaign for a dollar a day.
Happy Ending:
Their business becomes known before customers need them.
Put it together:
Most local businesses struggle to get remembered because consistent advertising is expensive and complicated. DDK With Dad gives them a 12-month digital door knocking campaign for a dollar a day, helping their business become known before customers need them.
Now try yours:
Most ______________________________ struggle with ______________________________.
We help them ______________________________, so they can ______________________________.
Your first version doesn’t have to be perfect.
Get the story right first.
Then shorten it.
Simplify it.
Make it sound like you.
And keep working on it until somebody can hear it once and understand what you do.
I Tried It On Boofkay
When I first worked through Donald Miller’s one-liner exercise, Boofkay was still taking shape.
At the time, I was focused heavily on creating commercials and video content for businesses.
The problems I kept coming back to were pretty obvious.
Business owners know they need advertising.
Coming up with creative ideas is hard.
Producing quality video can get expensive.
And most business owners didn’t start their businesses because they wanted another job creating advertising content.
A roofer wants to roof.
A mover wants to move.
A photographer wants to take pictures.
They don’t necessarily want to spend Thursday night trying to figure out what they’re supposed to post on Facebook.
So I started working through different versions of my own one-liner.
One of them became:
“The majority of business owners feel frustrated trying to create quality video content for their marketing campaigns because it’s difficult, time consuming and expensive. Boofkay removes the frustration by providing Hollywood-style commercials at an affordable price so businesses can advertise like major brands and focus on what matters most.”
It wasn’t perfect.
But the exercise made me think differently.
Instead of starting with:
We make videos.
I started with:
What problem am I actually solving for the business owner?
That question eventually became much more important as Boofkay evolved.
Because I realized the business wasn’t really about making videos.
The videos were one of the tools.
The bigger problem was helping local businesses get noticed, become known and stay remembered.
That thinking eventually helped shape two very different Boofkay advertising systems:
DDK With Dad and Ads That Stick.
DDK WITH DAD
DDK With Dad is a good example of how the one-liner idea started showing up in the way I described Boofkay’s actual offers.
The official description is:
DDK With Dad — The 12-Month Digital Door Knocking Dollar-A-Day Local Awareness Marketing Campaign.
That sentence does a lot of work.
12-Month tells you this is not a quick advertising campaign.
Digital Door Knocking takes something everybody understands — going door to door — and turns it into a digital advertising idea.
Dollar-A-Day makes the advertising budget simple.
And Local Awareness Marketing Campaign tells you exactly what the goal is.
But underneath that description is the same three-part story.
The Problem
Most local businesses struggle to stay visible long enough for people to remember them.
They advertise for a little while.
They post when they have time.
They boost something here and there.
Then the advertising stops.
And when a customer finally needs what they sell, the business may not be the name that comes to mind.
The Plan
DDK With Dad gives local businesses a 12-month digital door knocking campaign for a dollar a day.
Instead of trying to reach everybody at once, the idea is to consistently show up in front of people in the local area throughout the year.
Every day.
All year.
The Happy Ending
Your business becomes known before customers need you.
That is the part I care about most.
Because when somebody suddenly needs a roofer, mover, insurance agent, photographer, gutter company or another local service, I want the business I’m advertising to already be familiar.
The ad is not trying to make somebody buy something every single time they see it.
It is trying to make sure they remember who to call when the moment comes.
Put the whole story together:
Most local businesses struggle to get remembered because consistent advertising is expensive and complicated. DDK With Dad gives them a 12-month digital door knocking campaign for a dollar a day, helping their business become known before customers need them.
That is the one-line story behind DDK With Dad.
The advertising is the plan.
Being known and remembered is the business we’re really in.
ADS THAT STICK
Ads That Stick is another example of the same idea, but the system works in a completely different way.
The simplest way I describe it is:
Ads That Stick combines the physical with the digital.
Physical visibility. Digital conversion.
A simple system that connects families to you.
That is the short version.
But underneath it is the same three-part story.
The Problem
Most advertising disappears.
A Facebook ad stops running.
A post gets buried.
A mailer gets thrown away.
A commercial ends.
And once the ad is gone, the business has to pay to get in front of the customer again.
That is a problem for local businesses trying to stay visible long enough to be remembered.
The Plan
Ads That Stick combines something physical that can stay in the home with a digital path that connects people directly to the business.
The physical piece creates repeated visibility.
The digital piece gives the customer a way to take action.
That is where the line comes from:
Physical visibility. Digital conversion.
The system is designed to keep the business around long after a normal ad would have disappeared.
The Happy Ending
The goal is simple:
Stay visible. Stay familiar. Make it easy for people to connect when they are ready.
Instead of hoping someone remembers an ad they saw once, Ads That Stick gives the business a way to keep showing up in the household over time.
Then, when the family needs what that business offers, the connection is already there.
Put the whole story together:
Most advertising disappears almost as quickly as it appears. Ads That Stick combines physical visibility with digital conversion, giving local businesses a simple way to stay in front of families and connect with them when the time is right.
That is the one-line story behind Ads That Stick.
The physical piece gets you seen.
The digital piece gives people a way to respond.
And the system connects the two.
BLOW UP YOUR BUSINESS
After working through the one-liner exercise, I started thinking about something else.
A clear sentence can explain what you do.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean people will remember it.
I wanted Boofkay to have something unforgettable.
Something that would stick in somebody’s head.
And really, what does an advertising agency do?
It blows things up.
Ideas.
Businesses.
Awareness.
Attention.
And that became…
Blow Up Your Business.
It’s dangerous.
It’s ridiculous.
It makes you wonder.
It doesn’t explain every service Boofkay offers.
It’s not supposed to.
The one-liner explains Boofkay.
Blow Up Your Business makes it unforgettable.
For example, I can explain DDK With Dad clearly:
Most local businesses struggle to get remembered because consistent advertising is expensive and complicated. DDK With Dad gives them a 12-month digital door knocking campaign for a dollar a day, helping their business become known before customers need them.
That tells you the problem, the plan and what success looks like.
Once you understand that, I don’t need to keep talking.
I can simply say:
Let’s Blow Up Your Business.
That’s where the two ideas come together for me.
First, make sure people understand what you do.
Then give them something they’re going to remember.
Simple.
Different.
Memorable.
That way of thinking has spilled over into almost everything I create now.
One message.
Make it clear.
Make it interesting.
Then stop.
If You Can't Explain It Simply, Keep Working On It
Donald Miller’s one-liner exercise looked simple when I first came across it.
Three questions.
One sentence.
How hard could that be?
Pretty hard, actually.
Because writing the sentence forces you to decide what your business is really doing for somebody.
Not every service you offer.
Not every feature.
Not every reason you think you’re great.
What problem are you solving?
How are you helping?
What does the customer get when it works?
If you can answer those three questions clearly, you have the beginning of a story people can understand.
And if you can’t?
Keep working on it.
That was one of the earliest marketing lessons that changed the way I thought about Boofkay, and I still come back to it.
Whether I’m working on DDK With Dad, Ads That Stick, a website, a Facebook ad, a video or a single headline, I keep asking the same question:
What is the one thing I want this person to understand?
Say that.
Make it interesting.
Then stop.
And if you can find a way to make it unforgettable?
Even better.
Let’s Blow Up Your Business.
Learn More From Donald Miller
If Donald Miller’s one-liner exercise helps you think differently about your business, learn it from the man himself.
- Watch: StoryBrand One-Liner Exercise with Donald Miller
- StoryBrand: Visit StoryBrand
- Donald Miller: Visit DonaldMiller.com
- One-Liner Worksheet: Download the official StoryBrand worksheet
Donald Miller and StoryBrand have a lot more to teach than what I’ve covered here. This article is simply the part of his approach that stuck with me and became part of the way I think about Boofkay.
