I am leaving next week to write my second book. “Shadow Him”. For the 1st time in my Marketing Ministries career(8 years), life I am shutting everything down and going away for one week to write a book, eat, sleep, and write.
The chapter titles…The Natural Progression. I am very excited to co-author this book. Its going to be excited and liberating all at the same time

I meet with several visionaries pastors and ministry leaders every week! I want to say that before we change the world we have to begin to understand who we are and how we want to communicate our brand. For the past several months we have been taking clients and friends through “The Natural Progression”. I am encouraging most everyone in my circle of influence to embrace the “Natural Progression”. Pray on it….

1) God down loads a dream to you and you embrace that dream as your Destiny

2) Write down the Vision

3) Formulate your plan, business and marketing

4) Develop your brand

5) Communicate the Vision through your Marketing

6) Hear from God Daily about steps 1-5

7) Take action: God can’t steer a parked car

Start with you, then move to your family, then community then move to the region, country then to the world. Make sure your backyard is cleaned up and you know who you are in Christ before you go to the world.

We recently upgraded our reporting system to Function Fox and this article came out of their newsletter. I about had a cow when I read it. It quite halirous to me, only because we have been teaching this stuff for years. I guess most of you have seen this happen since you are always posting new and creative material so it doesn’t come to a surprise to you that other people are saying the same thing

You can’t attract prospects without good stories…
by Larry Melnick

…and you can’t tell a good story without a good script.

Humans live in stories. Your story is a window through which you see the world. Also through which the world sees you. It affects how you make decisions and how the world makes decisions about you.

The fact that we naturally live in stories is actually good news for professional services firms. After all, we don’t sell a product and therefore we need to rely on prospects to infer our potential value.

Unfortunately, most case histories simply don’t tell the stories in a thorough and compelling enough manner. Don’t get me wrong. I realize that it’s “short attention span theatre” out there, so I’m not talking about writing a book. What I am talking about is a case history that’s designed to grab a prospect’s attention and then deliver the story in a clear, compelling and concise way by answering 5 key questions:

1. What was the business problem or opportunity that existed (not that they needed a new website or identity) and what were they trying to accomplish?

2. What were the key insights that we knew or learned through research that helped determine our strategy (shows that there’s good thought behind the work)?

3. What did our strategy involve?

4. What if any obstacles stood in the way of success (external and/or internal)?

5. What were the results of our efforts (increased sales, etc., not the website that you developed)?

When you have a free moment, take a look at one of your case histories. If it doesn’t sufficiently address these questions, you’re probably selling yourself short. You’re also not providing your business developers with enough knowledge to effectively engage prospects in a meaningful way.