“Nobody wants to hear your story, they want to be invited into a story,” Donald Miller told me, in a recent interview about his new book, Building A StoryBrand 2.0.
That’s it. That’s how financial planning—or perhaps more accurately, financial planners—have got the story all wrong. And regardless of the type of business that you’re in, I’m betting that the same holds true.
What’s your story?
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We’ve made ourselves, and/or our solutions, the main character in the narrative of our client’s financial planning, rather than ceding that role to the natural actor, our client.
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This wise counsel comes from the StoryBrand guy, Donald Miller, and Miller’s story deserves attention because it’s instructive. He’s not the first to talk about how to use narrative theory in branding and marketing, but it is safe to say he’s done the best job of telling us precisely how to use stories to help people better understand our businesses. And it’s not by telling our story, but by helping others to see theirs.
This is likely because Miller isn’t, or wasn’t, a marketing guru, but a practitioner. An author. Before writing StoryBrand, Miller had published seven books that fit into the memoirist category, including one of my all-time favorite titles, Blue Like Jazz. But after finding success in that genre, Miller says, “I ran out of books to write,” so he began, “an exercise in curiosity” to explicate how narrative structures work and how to use that to clarify a business’s message.
And the big takeaway? As businesses, the story isn’t about us; it’s about those we serve.
StoryBrand 1.0
In the original Building a StoryBrand, Miller shares the SB7 framework—the seven plot points in every great story, whether it’s a novel, TV show, commercial, epic movie, or yes, a business or brand. And it doesn’t take more than a second glance to see where we go wrong as business owners or developers.
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Where do you find yourself in this plot?
StoryBrand
From Star Wars to Hunger Games to Top Gun: Maverick to Apple, Miller shows us how this plotline plays out in every great story and iconic brand. But nobody dreams of winning Best Supporting Actor as a kid, so we naturally default to jumping into the cockpit and calling ourselves Maverick.
And there is the fatal flaw we commit, making it too much about us. Our services, processes, and accolades—all of which matter, but only to the degree they serve the protagonist, the client, and their story.
The good news is that we play a vital role in this story—it’s just not the starring role, and the sooner we accept our rightful supporting role, the sooner we can better serve more clients. And everything becomes crystal clear when we see it that way—especially as financial advisors.
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StoryBrand Financial Planning
Our clients are the main character, the hero. Our job is to get to know them well enough to understand their problem or challenge, and then we can settle into our rightful role as the client’s guide.
And there’s no better metaphor for the posture of all truly great financial advisors, by the way, than guide. We teach, but we’re not teachers who have a necessarily condescending stance toward their students. We navigate the technical, but we are not technicians who often get stuck down rabbit holes of specialization. We consult, but we’re not consultants who diagnose, recommend, and then walk away, leaving a hefty bill in their wake. We persuade, but we’re not salespeople who are driven more by transactions than transformations.
Instead, we are guides for whom experience, wisdom, and the skills of teaching, specializing, consulting, and persuading are all prerequisites.
Then comes planning, a process best navigated in collaboration with our clients. Miller also clarifies here that the plan should be delivered “in the form of baby steps,” a truth we’ve learned from the field of behavioral finance. This, too, contrasts with how most of us learned financial planning. Yet while great financial planning must be comprehensive in its scope, great financial plans must be modular, lest they overwhelm and result in inaction.
Here’s where the skills of persuasion come in handy, in calling our clients to action—actions of their own choosing and architecture—and providing the pivotal role of accountability. We grossly underestimate this as part of our role, perhaps because we love the creative planning at the center of our work. But here again, we are reminded that the plan is no more the hero than we are—and the best unimplemented plans in the world are utterly worthless unless clients take action.
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Said action can result in success—Yay!—but plans succeed to varying degrees, and circumstances often change. Some plans even fail. Enter the plot twist, when new circumstances or suboptimal implementation allows us to re-engage the perpetual cycle of story all over again, as we address a new problem or challenge and strive for success anew.
And please remember, the best movies have numerous plot twists. If you’ve already run through Plan A to B, C, or even Z, it only makes your story more compelling.
StoryBrand 2.0 – The Controlling Idea
So, StoryBrand 1.0 does an amazing job helping us identify our proper role and re-write the story. I also asked Miller what was new for readers in StoryBrand 2.0, and there’s another gem that could turn our marketing on its head: the controlling idea.
He writes, “Certainly a story can present multiple ideas, and those ideas are sometimes subjective, but very few stories are commercially successful if the plot is up for interpretation.” Hmm. Can you give us an example?
“If our controlling idea involves a lost dog returning home to his family, who realize how much they loved the previously neglected dog,” says Miller, “we should not include too many scenes about a food critic attempting to start their own restaurant.”
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The controlling idea, then, is the main plotline in a nutshell, which isn’t any bigger than a run-on sentence and may be much smaller. StoryBrand 2.0 describes the controlling idea of the classic Lion King plot as “A young lion must gain the confidence necessary to confront his evil uncle, who murdered his father, so that he can take his rightful place as king of the jungle and return order and life to his homeland.”
Meanwhile, Miller strategized with a client who owned a gym franchise and was struggling to differentiate from all the other gyms out there. The gym’s unique feature was targeted resistance training—20-minute trainer-led sessions twice per week—for those who didn’t have time to live at the gym. The essence of the controlling idea ended up being distilled all the way down to three words: “twenty minutes, twice.”
Bang. Then, once you’ve got your controlling narrative for your business and brand, the discipline required is to run 100% of your messaging through that singular lens. If it builds on that narrative, great. If it distracts, it’s out.
The question StoryBrand 2.0 leaves us with, then, is, “Have you defined a controlling idea?”
StoryBrand.Ai
And considering the answer for most is some version of “No,” the biggest new addition to the StoryBrand script isn’t even contained in the newly revised edition of the book—it’s a website and tool, StoryBrand.Ai, which I have trialed and must confess left me jaw dropped.
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In a matter of minutes, StoryBrand.Ai delivers a brand script, tagline, product service or name, description, packaging copy, website wireframe, lead generator ideas, lead-generating PDF, domain name suggestions, sales emails and talking points, a compelling one-liner, video scripts, social media post ideas and captions, a brand or product story, and nurture emails. Not bad for $39 per month.
The goal of all of it, though, must be remembered, in what I believe is the “controlling idea” of StoryBrand itself, and the quote from Donald Miller that sparked this post: “Nobody wants to hear your story, they want to be invited into a story.”
How can you apply that wisdom in your business or practice?
The Federal Reserve gave investors an early Christmas present by lowering interest rates by 25 basis points (i.e., 0.25%) marking its third rate cut this year. In the past, a change like this in the “long end” of the interest rate yield curve has triggered a predictable, investable pattern. Typically, this pattern would be bearish for finance stocks, particularly banks—investors would buy bank stocks when rates rose and sell them as rates fell….
Dozens of protesters from the “Religious Zionist Reservists Forum” and the “Shared Service Forum” demonstrated Saturday evening outside the home of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich in Kedumim.
The protesters arrived with a direct and pointed message, centered on a symbolic “draft order,” calling on Smotrich to “enlist” on behalf of the State of Israel and oppose what they termed the “sham law” being advanced by MK Boaz Bismuth and the Knesset’s haredi parties.
Among the protesters in Kedumim were the parents of Sergeant First Class (res.) Amichai Oster, who fell in battle in Gaza. Amichai grew up in Karnei Shomron and studied at the Shavei Hevron yeshiva.
Protesters held signs reading: “Smotrich, enlist for us,” along with the symbolic “draft order,” calling on him to “enlist for the sake of the State’s security and to save the people’s army – stand against the bill proposed by Bismuth and the haredim!”
Parallel demonstrations were held outside the homes of MK Ohad Tal in Efrat and MK Michal Woldiger in Givat Shmuel.
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Representatives of the “Shared Service Forum” said: “We are members of the public that contributes the most, and we came here to say: Bezalel, without enlistment there will be no victory and no security. Do not abandon our values for the sake of the coalition. The exemption law is a strategic threat, and you bear the responsibility to stop it and lead a real, fair draft plan for a country in which we are all partners. It’s in your hands.”
The global carbon market is at an inflection point as discussions during the recent COP meeting in Brazil demonstrated.
After years of negotiations over carbon market rules under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, countries are finally moving on to the implementation phase, with more than 30 countries already developing Article 6 strategies. At the same time, the voluntary market is evolving after a period of intense scrutiny over the quality and integrity of carbon credit projects.
The era of Carbon Markets 2.0 is characterised by high integrity standards and is increasingly recognised as critical to meeting the emission reduction goals of the Paris Agreement.
And this ongoing transition presents enormous opportunities for financial institutions to apply their expertise to professionalise the trade of carbon credits and restore confidence in the market.
The engagement of banks, insurance companies, asset managers and others can ensure that carbon markets evolve with the same discipline, risk management, and transparency that define mature financial systems while benefitting from new business opportunities.
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Carbon markets 2.0
Carbon markets are an untapped opportunity to deliver climate action at speed and scale. Based on solutions available now, they allow industries to take action on emissions for which there is currently no or limited solution, complementing their decarbonization programs and closing the gap between the net zero we need to achieve and the net zero that is possible now. They also generate debt-free climate finance for emerging and developing economies to support climate-positive growth – all of which is essential for the global transition to net zero.
Despite recent slowdowns in carbon markets, the volume of credit retirements, representing delivered, verifiable climate action, was higher in the first half of 2025 than in any prior first half-year on record. Corporate climate commitments are increasing, driving significant demand for carbon credits to help bridge the gap on the path to meeting net-zero goals.
According to recent market research from the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity initiative (VCMI), businesses are now looking for three core qualities in the market to further rebuild their trust: stability, consistency, and transparency – supported by robust infrastructure. These elements are vital to restoring investor confidence and enabling interoperability across markets.
MSCI estimates that the global carbon credit market could grow from $1.4 billion in 2024 to up to $35 billion by 2030 and between $40 billion and $250 billion by 2050. Achieving such growth will rely on institutions equipped with capital, analytical rigour, risk frameworks, and market infrastructure.
Carbon Markets 2.0 will both benefit from and rely on the participation of financial institutions. Now is the time for them to engage, support the growth and professionalism of this nascent market, and, in doing so, benefit from new business opportunities.
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The opportunity
Institutional capital has a unique role to play in shaping the carbon market as it grows. Financial institutions can go beyond investing or lending to high-quality projects by helping build the infrastructure that will enable growth at scale. This includes insurance, aggregation platforms, verification services, market-making capacity, and long-term investment vehicles.
By applying their expertise and understanding of the data and infrastructure required for a functioning, transparent market, financial institutions can help accelerate the integration of carbon credits into the global financial architecture.
As global efforts to decarbonise intensify, high-integrity carbon markets offer financial institutions a pathway to deliver tangible climate impact, support broader social and nature-positive goals, and unlock new sources of revenue, such as:
Leveraging core competencies for market growth, including advisory, lending, project finance, asset management, trading, market access, and risk management solutions.
Unlocking new commercial pathways and portfolio diversification beyond existing business models, supporting long-term growth, and facilitating entry into emerging decarbonisation-driven markets.
Securing first-mover advantage, helping to shape norms, gain market share, and capture opportunities across advisory, structuring, and product innovation.
Deepening client engagement by helping clients navigate carbon markets to add strategic value and strengthen long-term relationships.
Harnessing the opportunity
To make the most of these opportunities, financial institutions should consider engagements in high-integrity carbon markets to signal confidence and foster market stability. Visible participation, such as integrating high-quality carbon credits into institutional climate strategies, can help normalise the voluntary use of carbon credits alongside decarbonisation efforts and demonstrate leadership in climate-aligned financial practices.
Financial institutions can also deliver solutions that reduce market risk and improve project bankability. For instance, de-risking mechanisms like carbon credit insurance can mitigate performance, political, and delivery risks, addressing one of the core challenges holding back investments in carbon projects.
Additionally, diversified funding structures, including blended finance and concessional capital, can lower the cost of capital and de-risk early-stage startups. Fixed-price offtake agreements with investment-grade buyers and the use of project aggregation platforms can improve cash flow predictability and risk distribution, further enhancing bankability.
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By structuring investments into carbon project developers, funds, or the broader market ecosystem, financial institutions can unlock much-needed finance and create an investable pathway for nature and carbon solutions.
For instance, earlier this year JPMorgan Chase struck a long-term offtake agreement for carbon credits tied to CO₂ capture, blending its roles as investor and market facilitator. Standard Chartered is also set to sell jurisdictional forest credits on behalf of the Brazilian state of Acre, while embedding transparency, local consultation, and benefit-sharing into the deal. These examples offer promising precedents in demonstrating that institutions can act not only as financiers but as integrators of high-integrity carbon markets.
The institutions that lead the growth of carbon markets will not only drive climate and nature outcomes but also unlock strategic commercial advantages in an emerging and rapidly evolving asset class.
However, the window to secure first-mover advantage is narrow: carbon markets are now shifting from speculation to implementation. Now is the moment for financial institutions to move from the sidelines and into leadership, helping shape the future of high-integrity carbon markets while capturing the opportunities they offer.
The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.
