BUILD A PREDICTABLE, PROFITABLE MARKETING BUSINESS. WITHOUT CHASING CLIENTS.
The StoryBrand Guide Certification gives you a proven playbook to attract the right leads, close better clients, and build a $400k+ marketing business with confidence.
WHY JOIN THEYou keep explaining instead of closing. Without a clear, trusted framework, every sales conversation feels like starting from scratch—and momentum dies before decisions are made.
Your work becomes easier to replace. As AI tools multiply and clients look for faster, cheaper solutions, marketers without a strong positioning story get pushed toward commodity pricing.
Revenue feels fragile. One lost client or slow month creates stress because there’s no consistent, reliable system generating qualified leads.
You work harder to earn the same money. Custom strategies, custom proposals, and long sales cycles drain time and energy while growth stays unpredictable.
Trust takes too long to earn. Prospects hesitate because they don’t immediately see why you’re the safest, most credible choice.
You feel stuck under an invisible ceiling. Not because you lack ambition or ability—but because your business still depends on effort instead of authority.
Burnout creeps in. You stay focused on serving clients while your own business growth gets pushed to the margins.
You watch others pull ahead. Peers with clearer positioning close faster, charge more, and attract better clients—while you’re left wondering what you’re missing.
The market keeps changing—but your plan doesn’t. And uncertainty becomes the default instead of the exception.
THE REAL COST OF INACTION
Without a clear, proven framework that builds trust quickly, shortens sales cycles, and differentiates your value, growth remains elusive. StoryBrand Certified Guides share best practices, templates, and playbooks that make growth easy and revenue predictable.
The StoryBrand Certified Guide Program is a proven business-building system designed to help marketing professionals grow a $400,000-per-year solo marketing business—without building an agency, hiring a large team, or discounting their services. Most solo marketers stay stuck under $150k because they are constantly worried about lead flow, unsure how to close prospects efficiently, and stretched so thin that delivering consistent results becomes difficult. Our program exists to remove that pressure by giving you a clear, repeatable playbook for growing a marketing business. This proprietary playbook was created after helping more than 500 individual marketers increase revenue, streamline delivery, and deliver better results for their clients. It is intentionally designed to help a solo marketing business reach—and surpass—$400k in annual top-line revenue when followed consistently.
Read More...When you join, you receive far more than a certification. You gain access to step-by-step systems built specifically for marketing businesses to attract highly qualified leads, close them faster, and deliver exceptional outcomes. These resources include a listing in our Guide directory, proven website and funnel templates for marketing services, plug-and-play ads that educate and warm up prospects before a sales call, social media and follow-up email playbooks, client pitch decks that shorten the sales cycle, a menu of licensed StoryBrand marketing products you can sell at premium prices, pricing guidelines to help you stop discounting and confidently charge what you’re worth, keynote presentations you’re licensed to deliver on stages or webinars, and playbooks for launching your own mastermind or hiring your first virtual assistant. You don’t have to use every tool—but hundreds of successful Guides do, because this system works.
Just as importantly, you do not enter the market alone. More than 1.5 million small business owners have trusted StoryBrand with their contact information, and each week through WeeklySoundbite.com we encourage them to hire a StoryBrand Certified Guide to help them create a marketing campaign that works. We actively vouch for our Guides in the marketplace, allowing you to borrow the authority, trust, and visibility StoryBrand has earned over years of service to small businesses. We take no percentage of your revenue—you keep everything you earn. Our role is to resource you, certify you, and surround you with a community of experienced marketing professionals who have collectively billed hundreds of millions of dollars in marketing strategy and execution. Many Guides reach a $400k run rate within 12 months and cross the $400k mark in their second year—not because it’s guaranteed, but because the system is designed around that outcome and supported by proven tools, coaching, and community. If your goal is to build a serious solo marketing business and focus on delivering great marketing instead of worrying about leads and sales, apply for certification to see if the StoryBrand Certified Guide Program is the right fit.
RESULTS VARY, BUT ACTUAL, NEW GUIDES HAVE REPORTED SUCCESS SUCH AS:THIS CERTIFICATION IS FOR...
“In the first month of the program, I saw revenue increase by $6,000. Fast forward to month 3 and I have an influx of new clients and am on track to double the business within the year.”
“My growth coaching group encouraged me to get in front of more potential clients in my network and helped me craft an offer. I implemented their feedback and advice and just landed a client for $36,000.”
"My return on investment was immediate with two clients…I had seven clients within the first 3 months"
"This past month was the biggest month I’ve ever had. And if I didn’t sell anything else this year, I’d still surpass my biggest year ever."
Fill out the short form to book your call and make sure the program is a good fit.
Join the 2-day live training to master the StoryBrand Framework
Use your certification to land clients, deliver results, and increase your revenue.
WATCH JULIA’S STORY
Julia Block Pearson struggled with confidence in her marketing business. She was unsure if her strategies would work, so she undercharged and made just enough money to get by. Everything changed when she found StoryBrand. Now, she leads a successful team of 11 people, enjoys a balanced life, and earns a lot more money. Julia used the StoryBrand Framework (and now you’ll also learn the Soundbite Strategy) to confidently deliver results and grow her business.
It Started With a Problem, Not a Business Idea
The StoryBrand Certified Guide Program did not begin as a strategic growth initiative. It began with a problem.
After Building a StoryBrand was published in 2017, hundreds of small business owners started reaching out every single day. They trusted the StoryBrand framework, and they wanted help clarifying their message. More specifically, they wanted someone to build their website or create a marketing campaign using the framework.
That response was unexpected—especially considering the book almost never made it to print. At the time, the idea of applying ancient storytelling principles to modern marketing did not sound like bestseller material. Yet the book sold tens of thousands of copies in its first year, and the demand for StoryBrand-style marketing only accelerated from there.
Demand We Couldn’t Personally Fulfill
Read More...As the book gained traction, companies of every size began calling, from small businesses to major organizations like Procter & Gamble, Ford/Lincoln, and even the National Security Agency.
The challenge was clear: business owners wanted StoryBrand marketing campaigns, but we were not an agency, and we never intended to become one. Our work has always centered on teaching, coaching, and building frameworks, not running client services at scale.
At the same time, we saw another troubling pattern.
Many business owners were spending money on marketing that simply did not work. Their websites were confusing. Their messaging created unnecessary cognitive load. And too often, marketers seemed more focused on being clever or winning awards than on delivering measurable results.
That is not just ineffective. It is unacceptable.
A Better Idea: Train Marketers Who Care About Results
So we asked ourselves a difficult question: if we could not serve every business owner directly, where could we safely send them?
The answer became the foundation of the Certified Guide Program.
What if we trained independent marketers in the StoryBrand framework?
What if we ensured they were excellent, committed to clarity over cleverness?
And what if, once trained, we actively told the world to hire them?
That idea led to the certification of our very first group of StoryBrand Certified Guides nearly a decade ago. There was no guarantee it would work. But it did.
Business owners got results. Guides built thriving practices. And a community began to form.
What the Program Has Become Today
Since then, nearly 1,000 independent marketers have gone through the program. Many have grown their businesses significantly while maintaining independence and flexibility.
Over time, we learned something important: most independent marketers can grow to roughly $400,000 per year without hiring a team. With the right systems, pricing, and positioning, it is possible to build a highly profitable, sustainable business without becoming a large agency.
Because of our proximity to Guides and small business owners alike, we have gained deep insight into what actually works:
• What marketing products clients will buy
• How to price confidently
• How to structure offers
• How to close sales and follow up effectively
• How to deliver results that lead to retainers and referrals
All of that experience is now embedded in the program.
A Clear Path to a Stronger Marketing Business
Today, the StoryBrand Certified Guide Program is organized into a three-phase, fifteen-step journey designed to help independent marketers grow from $150,000 (or less) to $400,000 (or more), if that is their goal.
At its core, the journey focuses on three essential capabilities:
• Attracting qualified leads
• Closing those leads with confidence
• Delivering results that drive retention and referrals
Most marketers understand these ideas conceptually. What they often lack are the systems, coaching, and accountability required to execute them consistently.
That is what this program is designed to provide.
Why This Matters So Much to Us
The outcome we are most proud of is not revenue growth.
It is relief.
Time and again, we hear from business owners who hired a StoryBrand Certified Guide, and without exception, they talk about results. Clear messaging. Marketing that works. Confidence restored.
That consistency is not accidental. When you lead with clarity and simplicity, marketing works. When you lead with cleverness, it almost never does.
We emphasize clarity relentlessly because small business owners deserve marketing that delivers. Many of us have lived the stress of inconsistent income, month-to-month uncertainty, and wasted marketing spend. We understand what is at stake.
The Certified Guide Program exists to serve both sides of that equation: to help independent marketers build strong, predictable businesses, and to help small business owners find marketing partners they can trust.
That is the story of how the StoryBrand Certified Guide Program came to be, and why it continues to exist today.
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