building

Mitch Joel had some interesting thoughts the other day in regard to our obsessions with attracting the big crowd as a media & market solution. He threw out that Charlie Sheen has garnered over 1 million plus twitter followers within days of creating a profile. He even admitted that he is one of those followers (I’m hoping it was just for case study work). However, he notes, which is what I would feel is the norm, that few of those watching Charlie on tv or on twitter would actually take action based on him. If they did it would probably be more gimmick action (buying some #winning t-shirt). Somewhat like a circulating Justin Bieber t-shirt that goes around my Sunday school class’s ‘dirty santa’ Christmas party. You don’t really want one, but it is funny to force others to have one. Tangenting!

Mitch goes on to lift up Howard Stern. Howard has far fewer twitter followers as a social media platform. But Mitch is sure, and I’d agree, that if Howard asked his people to do something (other than a Retweet) they would move the proverbial market meters. Howard has influence. Heck, I went to watch his movie because he talked it up so much on his show.

This has me wondering about church membership. We often get pre-occupied with the attraction of numbers. “This is the biggest church of ….” “This was our highest attended ….” “How can we get more people to show up for ….” are phrases if you hang around church long enough you will hear quite frequently. Size is a measuring stick.. but is it the right measurement?

All the good church people are out there saying, “Oh no! It’s not about the size.” But if we are honest, we many times will feel inferior because we are not part of the big thing around the corner or the other side of town. I don’t see a problem being honest about that… something we need to work on.

We need to look at the people that we have and ask ourselves, how are we building our influencing with those with us? I am so much more impressed with churches that can inspire/influence their people (and not just the chosen 10% that do everything for the church operations) to get out and do & be church.

Those are places that I’d want to be a part of.

Should we ask ourselves as a marker of ministry, how have we positively influenced our communities? Or should the ‘size matters’ mantra continue to stick?

Today at All American Pest Control Erin hosted an Accelerent seminar led by John Boyans on building sales, referrals, relationships, and overall Accelerent partnership. I’ve started making a few of these but today was a bit different since it was our home turf & it was in our brand new addition’s training room. My primary responsibility was tech emergencies.

John had a few quotables & thoughts that stuck out to me, but the one that stuck the most was.

“People will buy You first, your Brand second, and your Product third.”

I am very inclined to tell folks that they are their brand, and their brand is their communication.. Which pushes on his thoughts a bit.. Then I pieced together the difference. It is the sale, the commitment that make because of the relationship with you. That relationship is real, ie. they actually know you, or perceived, ie. your brand is strong enough that they feel they know you.

What does this mean?…

It means that your mom knows you and loves you and will buy your product no matter what. Even if you tell your mom that the book you were writing has no real value to her what so ever [personal experience confession]. It is why whenever you start something new, you plug the ‘low hanging fruit’ of people who “know you” not necessarily your brand.

It can build on itself as well.

I have no physical product to sell… at least right now.. But I am trying to bring about change. For me this means that my personable relationships are king right now in bringing change. My brand is directly affected and plays a role in these relationships (many times as the introduction to a personal relationship) and how I keep these relationships builds my brand. It is a wonderful cycle

So understand this, whether you are a CEO, Pastor, Writer, Intern..

You, as a person, have a brand that people can relate to
You may belong to a corporate brand that people cannot relate to, only its people. You
When these stars line up you are building some kickass leverage in making change

Attraction vs Influence

You, Your Brand, Your Product