Mike Walker Creative

I came across this nugget from the great Phil Cooke regarding mobile phone broadcasting. If you are a content producer/provider this is the wave of the future. Imagine being able to send your content direct to peoples cel phones….

This is a great tool that will need the right strategy. This combined with the power of Ministry Give are incredible tools to reach directly to people. The broadcast networks gave us “potential households” this gives you direct access to people and the ability to track them as donors or viewers. Cool stuff….

President Elect Barack Obama is planning on introducing an economic stimulus plan this week. I, along with the rest of the country, am very anxious and excited to see what he brings to the table.

Keep in mind, this is the guy who raised an unprecedented amount of campaign capital. Not only did his campaign set records, it eclipsed anything people have imagined. Here’s the really crazy thing…he did it during the middle of an economic recession. They had the right tools with the right strategy.

In a time where churches are seeing on average of 15-25% reduction in giving it’s time to start looking at a new way of doing things.

Monday morning I met with Yuri Star of Church Media Group about a new product they have called Ministry Give. Ministry Give uses the same technology that the Obama campaign used to raise record amounts of capital…..AND…it’s not expensive at all. It allows your donors to give online, at a kiosk, or via their cel phone. It’s a very cutting edge solution for fund raising.

Check out Ministry Give and put together a strategy that will help your organization. If you have questions please feel free to drop me an email.

I have been fortunate to be able to do some work with the Dallas Cowboys franchise.

When Bill Parcells came in to take over the coaching he had a phrase he used to pound in to the players heads, “don’t eat the cheese”. When things started going well and the press would start giving out accolades he would remind his stars especially…”don’t eat the cheese. Your cheeks will get fat from eating the cheese”.

What he was trying to tell his guys was this, be careful about reading and believing your own press. You’re never quite as good as they say and never quite as bad.

Eating the cheese can be incredibly destructive to any organization. I have seen it first hand in several organizations. Some of the strongest teams with the most momentum have been undone because they started believing their press. They got distracted by the success and quit doing the things that got them there. The guy or girl who outworked everyone else suddenly became the one crying for another assistant so they could spend less time doing what made them successful in the first place….their cheeks got fat from the cheese.

Just because something worked for several years doesn’t mean it will keep working…which means YOU have to keep working to stay current and keep yourself and your company on the leading edge.

Don’t eat the cheese.

I am probably going to date myself a little, but I grew up during the age of arena rock shows. Every act aspired to perform in arenas. The size of those shows eventually grew in to stadium shows and as you can imagine every act aspired to have a stadium show.

In the late 90’s the industry went through it all again. In the early 2000’s everyone pulled out and pulled out quickly. Acts that were playing to scores of people inside stadiums went straight in to theaters and clubs basically overnight.

What happened was a series of things. Itunes changed the buying habits of listeners and the record industry didn’t (and still doesn’t) know how to respond. Creativity started lacking in the shows. It became cookie cutter. One of the biggest things that happened was the fact that the bubble burst. The costs of keeping a show in a stadium made them far less profitable. There was a ton of money coming in, but what it took to keep it going wasn’t worth it.

A show that might profit $150,000-200,000 in an arena after expenses might profit $275,000-325,000 in a stadium. More money right? Not exactly…it takes 2-3 times the man power, expense, and effort to put on a stadium show than it does an arena show. So while on paper it looks more profitable it’s really not sustainable. You have to maintain a larger staff, more hotels, more meals, extra production, more security, etc…so more is not exactly more.

The church world always has been and still is about 15 years behind. One thing I think we are seeing is that more is not always more. Churches are building larger and larger buildings and adding more and more staff. My question is, are they more effective? Some would say yes and some no.

I think churches should in fact grow. There are scores of lost people in the world who need to hear the message, but are churches growing smart and are they growing healthy? I have seen up close examples of some that have and some that haven’t.

We celebrate explosive growth, but that same speed of growth can also be the speed of your undoing.

Business has countless examples of both as well. In the early 2000’s we saw a boom in mortgages and refinancing. Today we are reaping what was sowed. The mortgage industry handed out bad loan after bad loan (a lot of good ones too) and they had more business. I am curious if they had it to do over again if they would have been so anxious to write every loan or if they would have been a bit more strategic and taken the time to write better paper?

Again, the church has much to learn from this. Otherwise we will see in the church world more of what’s happening in corporate america. Just doing good business is not going to exempt the church from feeling the pressures of the economy, but it sure will help it cope effectively.

Smart growth is smart growth…as is smart reductions.

A good friend of mine nearly lost his company 2 years ago. They were doing more business than they ever dreamed and had more money flowing in to the company than ever before. The problem they had was sustaining what they had grown to. More was not exactly more. It wasn’t until they went through the organization and did some timely pruning that they were actually able to grow in a healthy manner.

Starbucks realized that this year. They had added more stores to hopefully increase their profit shares. The problem was that it wasn’t smart growth. More stores didnt exactly equal more profits. They had to cut back in order to see more profitability.

As you are growing it’s important to ask the question…can we do this? It’s equally important to ask…should we do this? Growing an organization to a certain size isn’t the hard part….sustaining it is. It’s funny how growth can actually cost you your organization if you aren’t careful.

So I ask again…is more always more?

I was working on a project recently that had me researching the fastest growing churches in the country. I am actually a member of one of he fastest growing churches at Gateway Church in Southlake, TX. I was aware of the usual names on the list as I try to keep up with what’s going on, but here is one to keep  your eye on.

I was on site with a new church in Lubbock, TX, called Experience Life Now. Pastor Chris Galanas and his team are only 9 months old. They planted with 300 people and in just 9 months have grown to 700…AND they are growing through the summer. 

They will be a church to keep your eye on in the months and years ahead.

Most people think of creativity mainly in the artistic realm, but creativity can lend a hand in so many areas. Especially during times of economic recession creative and innovative solutions can really lend a hand at not only surviving, but also thriving.

I have been reading up on different companies and their solutions through out the economic tough times and I thought I would start sharing some of them on here.

Tip 1:

RETHINK THE WORK WEEK

I read an article recently about a college in Florida that decided to move its summer classes to Monday-Thursday last summer and shut the majority of the campus down on Friday except for basic operations. In the course of 2 1/2 months they saved over $268,000 in energy costs alone. 

They have implemented it this summer as well and are looking to make it a regular process during the main school year. In addition to the savings in energy they have also noticed higher retention rates among their staff and sick leave has reduced by 50%.

Creativity doesn’t have to limit itself to art.

Look around your organization and see what and how you can do things differently and not only are you more likely to survive this economic crunch but you have a better shot at thriving!

For anyone who knows me, I love leading change and I love leading turnarounds. Which is to say I like walking in to situations that are running/working at less than optimal, analyze them, and get them working at their most efficient. Whether it’s teams, business models, or whatever I like being able to work on a turnaround. 

One of the things I have found important is having the proper balance to the team of youth, experience, people who have been with the company or department for a while, and those who are fresh faces with fresh outlooks. Each situation is always a little different depending on the needs and goals. 

I came across an interesting story the other day about Josiah Wedgewood. Most of us have heard of Wedgewood China, but I never knew the story till recently.

Josiah was born in a time when you learned your families trade, apprenticed at it, and then opened your own shop. This was during the 1700’s so we are talking about trades like blacksmithing and pottery makers.

Josiah learned his family trade of pottery, but didn’t want to be the average company so he took on some new spins to the trade in firing the pottery, glazing it, signing his name to it, and then selling it at 4 times the amount that everyone else was.

As his business grew he had to bring on more help. Here’s what I found to be interesting. In bringing on more help he hired only the untrained. He found that it was easier to teach the untrained than it was to unteach them first. 

I still contend that in MOST, not all, situations today you need to have a balance of experience versus youth, but I think it’s an interesting thing to consider when building or rebuilding teams. 

I have found it best that if you have some people that have experience or have been around a while, if they will jump on board, they can be a huge asset, but when leading change you really need to do some things to spur the change and movement.  Fresh faces and ideas are always key….so are establishing some very attainable goals, and quick short term victories to establish a belief in the process. 

If you do have a young team. Don’t just give them the reigns. Let them do their craft, but they still need leadership. Teach them and train them. Over time they will take your team and organization to a new level, but it requires the time investment on your part.

I came across an article that speaks to one of the great problems in the local church today, how to reach the next generation.
check out the article….does your organization have a plan to reach the next generation?

Read it here.