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Confession: Life’s lessons often shape the best business plans

May 10, 2010 in Communications, Web Ministry with 4 Comments

Life’s journey is filled with moments that shape our decision making, our life experience and ultimately who we are. Like in episodic storytelling, our lives play out in lengthy story arcs that unfold over time. The meaning of which don’t become clear until months or years later.

In recent days, I came across a blog post bravely written by a friend of mine — she shares how one of her life moments brought insight. Her very successful career came to an abrupt end and her journey took a different path in a moment in time. Her insight brought to light an issue that I’ve personally dealt with and believe that many parents struggle with in silence: the balance of career and family. I’m not talking about the management of daily schedules, but the prioritization of family over career.

I have to admit, I am a convert. I was born with strong determination – when I decide to accomplish a task, I am dogged. This sense of determination has served me well throughout my working career. And as I look back over my life I see arcs – each, another accomplishment building on the next. The rewards of each accomplishment equated to more power, more responsibility, and more money. All the while, each reward meant time away home, more parental responsibility for my wife, and missed opportunities to take an active role in the lives of my children. I was surrendering those things that I once held dear to my career ambition.

Life’s journey changed when my wife shared that she felt as if she was living the life of a single parent. This was not the life that either one of us had imagined; I was determined to make a change. I went to work the next day and turned in my resignation.

Like my friend, I too had a moment in time that pointed me in a new direction. In the spring of 2007, I had revealed to my wife that, once again, I would need to work throughout the weekend. Shannon is the most supportive wife a husband could have, but this was one more weekend stacked on top of many years of 65-hour-plus work weeks that included most weekends – she had had enough. Life’s journey changed when my wife shared that she felt as if she was living the life of a single parent. This was not the life that either one of us had imagined; I was determined to make a change. I went to work the next day and turned in my resignation.

For most, I disguised my decision to resign with half-truths. I’ve found that when a person resigns from a job, they often prepare a grandiose story of future plans. Truthfully, most are leaving because they’re either about to be fired, hate their job, or found a better opportunity. I genuinely loved my job too much and chose it over my family too often. So at my departure, I shared my plans to start my own web design business. Which I did out of necessity, have learned to love, and can proudly say has turned into a successful venture. Funny how the bumps in life’s journey often act as the best business plans.

While it may not have been clear at the time, my decision to choose a different career path was vital in shaping the man I am today. Yes, the business has thrived, but that’s because I’ve learned to prioritize and have worked hard. Each morning, I wake no longer carrying the guilt that accompanied my career ambition. I’m an active, present father and husband. I see my kids when they leave for school in the morning, eat lunch with my wife most days, and sit at the dinner table with my family each night. It’s not perfect and there have certainly been hard times, but I can rest my head at night knowing that making my family first priority will be foundational for my children as they begin their journey.

What merit badges have you earned?

May 3, 2010 in Communications with 0 Comments

What merit badges have you earned?

Posing with Cub Scout posse (troop 252) circa 1981, Trinity United Methodist Church, Grandview, Ohio.

To my father’s disappointment, I never earned the rank of Eagle Scout – the ultimate Boy Scout honor. I recall waking up in the middle of the night on my first Boy Scout camping trip soaking wet, my camping gear floating in the puddles of rain water that had collected in my canvas tent. I skipped the section in the handbook explaining that pitching a tent in a ditch was a bad idea. So that night, as I lay soaked to the bone, I decided camping and the joy of earning merit badges wasn’t for me.

My first camping trip, circa 1983, Grandview, Ohio

All packed and ready for my first Boy Scout camping trip (1983). The photo after my return home wasn't as promising.

While I’ve avoided camping ever since, I do long for the un-earned merit badges. I recall from my highly decorated tenure as a Cub Scout, a certain sense of pride when my mom ironed a new merit badge to my sleeve. So when I recently stumbled upon NerdMeritBadges.com and Science Scouts, I was reminded of what I had missed out on. It got me thinking about some of the badges I believe I’ve earned as an adult:

  • Family Road Trip Badge –Fully completed a road trip of more than 1000 miles with spouse and minimum of two children across the country. To earn, recipient must make a minimum of 12 potty breaks, and clean-up one mess made by child along the side of a major U.S. highway.
  • I Pay My Own Health Insurance Badge – Paid out of pocket for health insurance coverage. To earn, recipient must pay equal to or more than your current mortgage payment.
  • Tech Envy Badge – Secretly, you long for the new gadgets recently purchased by your friends, colleagues and family – such as iPads, iPhones and any emerging technology developed by Apple. To earn, your thoughts of ill-will toward another can’t include physical harm in any way.
  • Giant Leap Badge – Left a well-paying job with benefits to pursue your dream. To earn, you must pursue the dream for a minimum of two years.
  • Paid Off My Car Badge – Paid off a car loan in full. To earn, the car must be new at the time of purchase. Additional badges can be earned with each car purchased in full.
  • Bureaucracy Badge – A proven ability to sit through lengthy meetings where nothing is accomplished without falling asleep. To earn, you must have been gainfully employed by an organization with a tiered hierarchy where no single individual is actually in charge, or if a CEO is in place, he/she has no authority to make decisions.
  • I Married Up Badge – If you count yourself lucky each day to have married your spouse and often worry that they will someday realize they married down. To earn, you and your spouse must be able to prove that you actually do have the ability to know what the other is thinking.

I feel this blog post is turning into my own version of “You know you’re a redneck if … .” So, I’d love to hear from you. What merit badges have you earned during your lifetime?

Consensus building isn’t a result of smoke and mirrors

April 22, 2010 in Communications, Web Ministry with 2 Comments

Consensus building isn’t a result of smoke and mirrors

Photo Credit: Arty Smokes

What is it they say? You learn more from a mistake than a success. Years ago while working on a web design project I found myself facing one of those life lessons.

Our project team had spent months conducting research, developing an elegant user experience, and ultimately creating three design directions to present to the client. The client’s meeting room was cramped, so I came up with what I thought was a brilliant idea. To allow for an effortless experience, I positioned multiple monitors around the cramped conference table.

Little did I know, but I had neglected to calibrate the monitors. There were slight variations in tones of color, brightness, etc. As you can guess, a member of the client committee stood up and decided to confer with a colleague at another monitor. I often wake up in the middle of the night hearing these words spoken by the client, “I prefer the orange used on this design.” Yep, same design, different monitor. The client ultimately was very pleased with the final deliverable, and I learned that consensus building doesn’t happen as a result of smoke and mirrors. During workshops, I will often find myself sharing this life lesson to illustrate the point.

The one thing you need to fully understand is that it is near impossible to get more than two people to agree on choice of colors, fonts and design style. But you can find consensus.

So how do you find consensus when creating a new visual design for your church website? The one thing you need to fully understand is that it is near impossible to get more than two people to agree on choice of colors, fonts and design style. But you can find consensus. That’s why it is absolutely critical that your client design team is lead by a strong leader, and that the team includes the “final” decision maker. You’re looking for that person who has the final say, or has the authority to provide sign off. In most cases, it’s the senior pastor or director of communications. You’re certainly not designing for them specifically, but their opinion needs to be heard throughout the process.

During training workshops, I will often gather 6-8 volunteers from the audience and conduct an impromptu visual design workshop. I do this to illustrate how to achieve group consensus. I ask them to review samples of fonts, depths of light and dark, image choices and eventually I get to the all important color choices. I will start by having them review the family of colors (blues, reds, etc.), narrowing the choice down to three. Once they have come to consensus on one, they are asked to decide on a shade of that color. It’s at this point, I sit back and observe. Each group is different, but in most cases, it’s near impossible to get the whole group to agree on their favorite.

After a few minutes of uncomfortable banter, I have the group return to their seats. The lesson learned is that groups can certainly provide you with design direction, offering a roadmap of likes and dislikes, pinpointing design boundaries. It’s ultimately the job of the visual designer to gather this research and create a visual representation that meets the needs of both the user and stakeholders. If you’ve taken time to listen to the needs and hopes of the audience and stakeholder, you won’t need to rely on the magic of multiple monitors to display the results.

Damn you Luddites!

March 19, 2010 in Communications, Web Ministry with 6 Comments

This morning I was reading an article from Reuters detailing how the northern English town of Huddersfield is planning a 200 year anniversary of the Luddite movement. As you may be aware, the Luddites were a social movement of British textile artisans in the nineteenth century who protested, often by destroying mechanized looms, against the changes produced by the Industrial Revolution. The Luddites felt that the the new machines were leaving them without work and changing their entire way of life, so they pillaged, and in some cases, murdered those that got in their way.

If you work in the arena of non-profit or faith-based communications, you’ve encountered a modern day Luddite from time-to-time. Now they’re not going to take a baseball bat to your laptop or trash your iPhone — excuses are their weapon of choice. Modern day Luddites say things like:

  • “But, that’s the way we’ve always done it.”
  • “We don’t have enough staff.”
  • “We like things the way they are.”
  • “Our membership is too small.”
  • “It’s too expensive.”
  • “Our congregation is older.”
  • “Our membership is on dial-up.”
  • “We haven’t had a visitor or a new member join in 10 years!”
  • “Facebook is for kids.”

These are all excuses that I’ve heard first-hand in working with churches and non-profits for the past 17 years. Excuses are used either when someone is scared to try something new, has a narrow vision for the future, or has been stretched so thin by their employer that they either resist or chance watching the house of cards come tumbling down.

Are you a modern day Luddite, also known as a pessimist, naysayer, or worrywart? And you realists, you are dangerously close to falling into the Luddite group. I offer this olive branch, throw down your book of excuses, and join our revolution of optimism, what ifs, and can you only imagine. We welcome you with open arms.

Stop letting your fingers do the walking and dump your Yellow Pages ad

February 28, 2010 in Communications with 7 Comments

 

For those of you who read my blog on a regular basis, this post may look very familiar — it’s a post that I shared with you last March. I was reminded again this past weekend how many churches and non-profits are reviewing their spending habits during the recession, and seeking inventive ways to share their story. Dumping your Yellow Pages ad and using it to bolster your web and/or social media efforts is one simple trick that I’ve found helpful. Enjoy!

 

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Over the course of the 17-plus years that I’ve been working with faith based and non-profits, I’ve seen many projects fail during the kick-off meeting due to perceived budget constraints. Likewise, I’ve seen projects grow from nothing to multi-million dollar success stories. The success of a project doesn’t hinge on the size of your budget but the amount of passion you pay into it.

 

The success of a project doesn’t hinge on the size of your budget but the amount of passion you pay into it.

 

I would be naive to say that you’re not going to incur some nominal costs along the way. One easy way to unearth money from your existing budget is to stop letting your fingers do the walking and dump your Yellow Pages advertisement. I know. I know. That’s the way you’ve always connected with the community and constituents. I’ve heard all the excuses. But here are the facts.

 

According to a CRM Associates study, a single Yellow Page ad will deliver on average 422 calls at a cost of $10.00 per-call nationally per year. That means that the average church is paying $4,220 per-year for a return of 422 calls.

 

According the same CRM study, a single White Page listing will deliver on average 365 calls at a cost of $.60 per-call nationally per-year. That adds up to $219.00 a year.

 

The White Page listing garners about as many phone calls and is significantly cheaper.

 

If I haven’t made my point yet, here’s some more inspiration. According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 28 million Americans have used the Internet to gather religious and spiritual information and connect with others along their faith journey. Of that 28 million, 14 percent have gone online to find a new church – that’s nearly four million people.

 

To recap, that’s an average of 787 calls per-year for both Yellow and White Page ads. Or you can use the money you’re now spending on phone ads to reach out to the 28 million people who are hurting and seeking a community of faith for answers. Your church could offer that support.

 

Keep this in mind. You can modify your phone ad once-a-year; your website — 24 hours-a-day, 365 days-a-year. The phone ad has a localized reach; your website reaches the world. Your phone ad has a fixed dimension to share your message; your website can have as many pages as you like. Your phone ad is limited to a single medium; the internet is multi-medium and viral.

 

Enough said. My suggestion is to keep your White Page ad, but dump the Yellow Page ad opting to use those monies on either a new or retooling of your current church website.  Blessings.

 

I would love to hear how you are rethinking your spending.

 

UPDATE: “Nearly 70% of adults in the U.S. “rarely or never” use the phone book, according to a recent survey conducted by Harris Interactive. Instead, most of them (60%) use the Internet to find contact information, a number that’s certain to continue to rise, especially as smart phone adoption and location-based services both grow.” Read more about this report at http://rww.to/g8tQPr.
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