Uncertainty seems likely to be certain for at least the next few months. It’s even difficult to stir excitement about a vision for anything past Easter. But effective leaders respond to crises with a firm resolve to move forward. We…

The Purpose of Repurposing Everything You Do I wasn’t good at math in high school. I didn’t want to learn how to add and multiply letters. My early training in marketing taught me that 1 + 2 = 5 or…

What’s the Hurry? Jack may have been nimble and quick, but did he help people? He may have been able to jump over candlesticks, but could he stoop down to pull someone up? The challenge we all face is the…

Since early man first paid to have someone carve “Eat at Joe’s” in a well-positioned tree, advertisers struggled to develop metrics to measure ROI on advertising investment. Now as the digital marketing industry has emerged from the introduction phase of…

One of the fundamentals of building an authority brand (pastors, ministry leaders, subject experts) is to publish content. Blogging is important. Podcasting is important and is a quick catalyst to any brand work. An email newsletter is a welcomed guest…

On the Greenelines podcast, I ask each guest to recommend a book for two as suggested reading for my audience. (The show had 300,000 downloads in October!) I’ll try to share four books recommended on my show in this newsletter…

To clarify your message and corresponding message strategy, consider this insightful synonym: nurture. How do you nurture others with your words? What do you hear yourself saying? What do others say about your help? I think you know what it…

Michael Gerber’s classic book for entrepreneurs, The E-Myth Revisited, was the major influence of 20 years of my career. I read it annually and encouraged others to do the same. Gerber teaches the value of systems. Find what works, create…

Don’t Forget the Vanilla As you continue to publish and build your brand, it’s more important to consider what NOT to stop than it is to consider what to start next. I’m all for new media. My eyes remain wide…

Early Settlers Mined Hope With a Spirit of YES! I am a yes man. I’ve spent my career shouting that I am not such a man, but by the grace of God, I am. Brian Bird taught me in a…

An e-blast is an advertisement sent to an email list. So it’s clear that the effectiveness of the list will depend upon only a few key factors: The quality of the list The quality of the advertisement The frequency of…

Do You Have a Book in You? There aren’t many days that pass in which I don’t hear, “I know I’ve got a book in me.” My response is, “Start writing it today.” That usually ends the conversation. If you…

The Interest Index   If you’ve ever watched Simon Cowell judge talent competitions, you’ve heard him say, “I won’t remember you.” Then someone with seemingly less talent does something special and Simon says, “People are going to be talking about…

Is Your List Special?   My wife is on my email list. I think she actually reads some of my content. But when I send her a love letter, I KNOW she reads it. The size of my email list…

Train the Path What steps on what path are necessary for you to accomplish your goals? Once we learn what it takes to create a successful way forward, the next major step is to teach the method. We can’t expect…

Ask Every Day Everyone should have a coach. National research has documented a consistent return on investment of over 18 percent from coaching. Coaches aren’t professional experts in any field but they have the skill to find the potential within…

A Plan for All Seasons “Stay tuned to this station for the latest update on the hurricane.” Most Floridians have heard this message about 100 times too many in the last week. The storm has been in our ears and…

It’s Not a Secret: Better Content Produces Higher Open Rates Like most things in marketing, the web catches every passing thought about how to write subject lines. We probably all agree that subject lines are the determining factor to opened…

The Value Proposition When we present the price for a product or service prior to demonstrating that the product offers a benefit or solves a problem, we’ve chosen price as the primary discussion point. Do you want your relationship with…

Nurture Don’t Nag A consistent drip of water on the face of a rock over time can transform the image of the rock. When a full bucket of water is tossed on the rock a few times per year, it…

A Target of One Seth Godin shared a thought in 2014 about how marketers can learn a lesson from Broadway. I copied this quote and have often used it to suggest a point: “Make plays for your audience instead of…

A Path to Transformation Throw a lot of mud on the wall and hope something sticks! Each handful of mud is tactical execution of the old strategy of spray and pray. With no plan, we try everything we can afford…

Divine Appointments Occur in Your Email Most leaders approach list building as a “sometime” thing. Before we get to the meat of this email, let’s be clear about how important list building is to your business or ministry. If you…

How Do You Help People? Your message matters. It precedes everything you do. It’s what you’re known for It’s why people come to you It’s your gift from God for use in the kingdom When I teach marketing to pastors…

Too often, I hear stories about what didn’t happen. “I wrote it. They didn’t buy the book.” “I sang the song I wrote. No one downloaded it.” “I built a website. No one visited.” Getting found is the issue. Most…

Unfortunately, marketers sometimes hear from customers, “My campaign didn’t work.” More often than not, we hear this claim when someone has big expectations at the launch of the campaign. I recognize that few of us want to hear the phrase,…

I remember one of my elementary school math teachers made a big deal about double checking our work. She even made us exchange papers with our neighbors and check their work. Little did I know at the time, she taught…

Sometimes it’s important for leaders to hike a trail in search of residue from completed projects. Our path is worthy of reflection and study. Louis Lamour provides good counsel for learning from a trail: “In tracking, what the tracker seeks…

Paul’s break-up with Barnabas is a good reminder to all of us to guard our hearts as we minister together (Acts 15:38-41). Paul wanted to revisit churches they had established and didn’t want to take John Mark with him. Barnabas…

We shouldn’t underestimate the importance of proximity. Relationships are observable. It’s easy to see what matters most. We remain close to it. Absentee relationships tend to lose their luster. (Click here to read more about kingdom relationships.) The key question…

It’s hard to find a better recipe for achievement than sustained, consistent effort.

I’ve often whined in my writing about the drawing power of social media. Cal Newport helped me see a way forward from the distraction traps. But it wasn’t a matter of personal willpower or hiding my phone; it was a…

It almost feels “old school” to write to you about websites. And that’s the problem. Many of us are more concerned about social media outlets and other shiny objects. We spend more time away from our websites than we spend…

Mentors are like an open window on an early spring evening. The window is often closed before the breeze has finished its work. I’ve been blessed to mentor many young adults. I’m rarely prepared for our season to end. But…

As we create new ideas and processes, it’s good to take a look over our shoulder. How can our new idea impact our legacy products and processes? Quick example: Assume an ice cream shop designed a landing page as a…

How can I buy from you if I’m not aware of what you do? I may have a great need for what you do. If I don’t know about you, I will keep looking for someone who can meet my…

What if you were on a soccer pitch with seven soccer balls lined up on one goal line? How much confusion and chaos would ensue before you kicked the correct ball down the field to reach the goal? In soccer,…

If you want to help people, begin with clear communication. First, please fill in these blanks. (You may want to think about it over the weekend.) 1. I help people by _________________________________. (Write everything you can think of.) 2. God…

Much of the research concerning employees who work from home suggests that productivity increases. In the short run, people get more done. (The trouble seems to come in the long run.) The battle cry of a work-from-home newbie is “I…

This is your day to multiply. “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Prov. 14:12). I’m already feeling the pressure of another year passing by. I know, it’s only…

I feel so much pressure this morning… I’m all worked up about posting to Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. I must get in the apps and connect with people, like their posts and share their videos. Like many of you, sometimes…

Google is hazardous to our intellectual health. How often does someone tell you to “Google it”? We are told to seek answers to our questions through an algorithm that sifts through websites for relevant information. Kids stop asking Mom and…

I’ve been asked many times to describe what it means to be called by God into marketplace ministry. I suppose some folks believe that God calls men and women into traditional ministry work but doesn’t bother with appointments in the…

In last week’s newsletter, I asked the question, “Do you want to help people?” I hope you’ve been thinking deeply about that question this week. Once we establish that we have the “want to,” we must then consider the “how…

Most readers of this blog work in the kingdom marketplace. You do business as unto the Lord. If this is true for you, I have one question: Do you want to help people? Which comes first in your heart and…

There is no need to reinvent the wheel. But there are always opportunities to learn more about how to maximize the principles of retail evolution. I first taught the “wheel of retailing” in my Fundamentals of Retailing class at Marshall…

What do customers expect from your brand? Many times in attempting to manage customer expectations, we preach negatives! Your employees learn hard lessons about what clients expect. Anyone that picks up the phone has likely dealt with a disgruntled customer….

Re-blog from Freeport press weekly: Print has a slew of specific benefits. Here are 10 in particular: Allows you to differentiate your brand and reinforce what makes you unique through the design, visual approach, content strategy and tone and manner….

Marketers often use blogs to connect with target audience lifestyles and drive users to websites. While blogs have not lost their relevance, podcasts are producing stronger results for those very same goals!  

How many Coney dogs could you eat every week? I was blessed with an opportunity early in my career to lead a franchise restaurant group. As with most restaurant chains, everything began with one successful site. The founder began selling…

In the daily grind of leadership, we must find every opportunity to focus on the one. Team meetings are necessary and serve a purpose. Committee meetings are useful for passing monkeys. Project teams get things done. The essence of leadership…

“Familiarity breeds contempt” is one of those common expressions that appear to be a Proverb but fall well short of spiritual insight. The phrase tends to indicate that the more we are around someone, the more likely it is we…

Referral is not a dirty word. I’ve worked with many clients who feel that asking their clients for a referral is icky. “I’m not comfortable asking people to refer my services. I feel like I need a shower after I…

Simon Cowell seems kinder and gentler since his days as a judge on American Idol. As Executive Producer of America’s Got Talent, he is friendly and speaks with more encouragement. He’s still tough on singers but loved the act with…

Many marketers make the claim, “Try it, you’ll like it.” The burden of risk reduction is always in the hands of the owner. Buyers want high quality, low prices, and no risk. Guarantees and money back promises are almost a…

I had the privilege to interview T.D. Jakes on my podcast yesterday. Many of his sermons have moved me over the years, as have his writings. Along the way, I learned that Bishop Jakes is a successful entrepreneur and knows…

Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce… Can you finish this copywriting masterpiece?  Do you know the campaign ran over 30 years ago for the Big Mac? Click here to watch the commercial which first ran in 1975. BIG MAC The…

This question is similar to the question, “What is the strategy behind your landing page?” What follows are a few strategies for building landing pages.   First, a simple definition. Think of your landing page as an airstrip, not the…

I guess I’m not much of a cook. I don’t want Colonel Sanders’ fried chicken recipe.  Famous Amos makes great cookies but I have no need to reverse engineer the baking. And I don’t need to know the secret in…

In reading through 1 Samuel, my spirit seemed to jump when I read chapter 14. Verse 7 flashed at me as though highlighted in fluorescent yellow: “And his armor-bearer said to him, ‘Do all that is in your heart. Do…

Great customer service is marketing. When I worked in broadcast television during my years in marketing consulting, I learned that most business owners, (or pastors or ministry directors) have a very high opinion of the customer service they provide. I…

In the mid-1970s, I remember attending an Easter service with my wife’s parents. We traveled across the country together to spend an Easter weekend with other relatives somewhere near Carlsbad, New Mexico. It was there I survived my first pseudo-skiing…

Scientific rules are based on natural laws. Gravity works every time because of a law of nature. Airplanes fly when rules are followed. Medicine operates mainly within a set of rules. Law and accountancy operate within boundaries. There are no laws…

Marketers have been attempting to study cause and effect since the arrival of their first advertising invoice. If we pay our electric bill, we flip a switch and get lights. If we pay to fly across the country, we usually walk…

Deep Work by Cal Newport is a great book packed with levers to improve productivity. Cal Newport subtitled his book “Rules for focused success in a distracted world.” I’ve written many times about the bad tenant in my life that I…

What is your knee-jerk reaction when someone insults you? Retaliation is a dangerous weapon. But the type of retaliation that becomes a Godly lever is revealed by Peter: “Don’t repay evil for evil. Don’t retaliate with insults when people insult you….

It seems I can’t open my email without seeing a note from someone offering suggestions on how to create a better morning ritual. Time management gurus are obsessed with the 5 things I should do every morning. They tell me what…

Does your environment contradict your goals? Reliable research continues to support the belief that environmental stimuli play a significant role in goal achievement. Economic mobility is highly determined by the county in which we live. Our personal achievements trend toward…

Emotional intelligence is an important lever to getting things done through others. “When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with creatures of emotion.” —Dale Carnegie The essence of emotional intelligence is the psychological concept…

It’s rare to read anything about leadership without seeing the phrase “servant leader.” It seems the phrase has become a candidate for the Oxymoron Hall of Fame. It will be enshrined with other head-scratching phrases such as: postal service rap…

Sometimes, marketing is like pushing a rock up a hill. We feel like we are making progress, but we know that one slip of the foot can cause the rock to crush us on the way back down the hill….

Aim and fire. We can do without the “ready.” When I ask friends or clients about the development of their platform, I frequently hear things such as “I’m getting my thoughts together and will start soon,” “I’m doing research” or…

The one thing I hear most often from ministry and book authors is that they don’t have time to do the work necessary to attract people to their platform. A platform is a place in which you show up every…

If you are struggling to define the message of your ministry, how will your audience define you? What do you hear yourself saying most often?  What do you wake up thinking about?  What one thing do you hope your audience…

The essence of an effective marketing strategy is to develop a clear and powerful competitive advantage. The thrust of a product or service advantage is to meet the felt needs of a customer in a better way than any competitor…

As you glance at this image, do you anticipate the destiny of the drip from the faucet? The principle of closure refers to the belief held in the Gestalt school of psychology that the human brain perceives forms and figures…

Haven’t you noticed that when you chase something, it tends to be running away from you? Pushy sales people or advertising messages chase prospects. Push marketing lives for the chase. Push marketing is interruptive. Television and radio commercials don’t ask permission to…

One of the most important lessons to learn in marketing is to get there slowly. The faster you try to race to get there, the longer it will take. There is always a temptation to spray and pray messages through…

Even the best vision is hindered by fog. And a foggy vision cripples the progress of a mission. When someone first begins to consider their message, it may not be clear. Perhaps we know “about” our message before we really…

“I once was lost but now I’m found.” My message was once lost in the noise of “me-too” product claims and offers. The louder I yelled, the less I seemed to be heard. I pushed messages a few times each year…