Jason Norris

Exploring creative ways to communicate and educate

Don’t try to get them in your building till you give them something first

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Cart before horse.

That’s a cliche that doesn’t mean much now, but back in the day, it was a simple way to say “do things in order.”

Horses PULL carts. If the cart is in front of the horse, you’re not going anywhere.

Our culture has changed

Our technology changed and made the cliche nearly unintelligible. Most of us don’t use horses and carts to go places.

Our technology has also contributed to the change in culture, which makes our usual approaches to church growth unusually ineffective.

No matter how exciting, engaging, and life-changing you think your church is, just promoting your church with “join us Sunday” is not going to work—most of the time.

That’s a cart-before-horse strategy.

If people hear or read “join us Sunday” among the hundreds of message bites they read and hear every day on social media, it’s just more noise to them.

They need a much more compelling reason to stop scrolling and pay attention to your message bite.

An ad for your church is not compelling

Most people are self-trained to tune out your calls to action.

Sure, advertising still works.

Billions of dollars are spent on advertising each year.

But unless you have the budget to hire an advertising agency to upgrade “join us Sunday,” you’ll need to find another strategy to reach the world we’re living in today.

Put the cart in front of the horse.

Give them something first.

Give. Give. Give.

What can I give?

As a church, you have answers to life’s biggest questions.

Start there.

  • Why am I here?
  • What’s wrong with this world?
  • How can I be happy?
  • Is this all there is?
  • ______________________ ?

Think about the questions you’ve heard from people you know.

Answer those questions in your blog posts, memes, podcasts, Facebook posts, YouTube videos and wherever you put your worldview on display.

I also recommend you take their questions seriously.

Don’t give mocking answers. Don’t be sarcastic. Snark is the wrong approach.

Assume their questions are sincere.

Answer genuinely.

Don’t demand they visit your church if they want the answers. Reach them while they’re on the go. Answer questions “for free” so to speak.

The key here is to give to them.

And give first.

When can I ask them to join us?

This is not to say you can never advertise “join us Sunday.” Those “commercial” posts are fine to do. They just need to be few and far between.

Acknowledge who you are, of course. People are smart enough to see and hear who is making the message.

Over time, they’ll appreciate what you’ve done and respond.

Don’t rush this.

Be patient.

Give.

And give.

Meanwhile, consider what you do in your building. When someone connects with you after all these things you give them, make sure what they see when they arrive matches what you offered already.

The story of how a number changed my life

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Do you have a significant number?

I do.

Because Tiff.

I met the woman who would become my life before she or I realized the significance of having met.

Alas, our paths diverged.

Back then, we weren’t on the same road.

But little did we know, we were part of a grander plan that was coming true. God blessed that broken road and led us back together.

We celebrate this three times each year.

Our wedding anniversary, of course.

But that wedding wouldn’t have happened had we not had our second first date. So we celebrate that, too.

And we celebrate another day.

But back to my question. Do you have a significant number?

Tiff had one.

It was 212.

I was intrigued by her interest and fascination in the number 212. We talked about it when we got back together.

And I was so glad we got back together. She was the one. I felt it. Come to find out, she felt it, too.

Then I realized an important day was coming.

It was not Valentine’s Day. It was a couple days before.

It was February 12.

So I decided that on that day, I would ask her to marry me.

She said yes.

And 212 became my significant number, too.

Filed Under: 212

Do we want it easy?

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Yes!

We do want it easy.

We want everything to be easy.

We’re all a bit lazy like that.

But it isn’t easy.

It takes work.

New things

When things are new, things are not easy.

When you’ve never done a thing, it would be a little silly to think it’s going to be easy.

It’s new.

That means you have no clear mental framework for how it’s going to go.

You just have to go.

You have to start.

You find out it’s hard. You figure out how to make it work. You move to the next level.

You look back and realize what you thought might be easy was not at all easy.

But you started.

That was key.

You had to start in order to learn what was not easy.

Then you changed.

Then you got the hang of it.

You learned a lesson.

If it had been easy, you would have never learned that.

Continuing things

As you go, it doesn’t get easier.

Why?

Things change.

Things always change.

People change.

You change.

When you thought the new was supposed to be easy, you worked till you understood it.

Now that you arrived at this level, you notice that getting better will require even more work.

It’s not easy here, either.

Why?

Because progressing further takes you into more new things.

You realize those things are important. You realize you don’t know or understand them. You’ll need to work hard to learn these new things, too.

And along the way, you realize you have to maintain what you’ve already learned—in addition to figuring out the next new things.

It’s hard.

It only remains easy if you fail to grow.

If you never strive for the next level, you’ll never get there.

There are always new things.

Always.

Old things

When you go really far, watch out.

There’s a danger here that feels wonderful.

It’s nostalgia.

You look back at that very first new level. You forget how hard it was because that thing is not hard anymore. You forget the difficulty.

You just look at the old level and revel in the feelings you felt long ago.

Nostalgia is a trap.

Those old things are good in that they show what you’ve overcome and how far you’ve come.

But the old things are bad if you feel drawn back to that time, longing for a time when things were not hard.

But wait. Those old things were difficult.

It took you a long time of working hard to make it to the first next level.

It’s the same kind of struggle you’re facing now.

You can’t go back. Literally, you cannot go back.

But if you’re not careful, longing for the good old days will distract you from working hard now.

You think you want it easy

You’ve paid your dues.

You deserve easy.

But easy is lazy.

Easy doesn’t make you grow.

Growing is better.

The next level is better.

It will take a lot of work, but that work will be worth it.

Consistency versus Perfectionism

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Day 31 of the 500-words daily writing challenge

So I wasn’t perfect.

I set out to write at least 500 words every day for a month.

Didn’t do that.

Missed a few days. Stopped short a couple times.

But, this challenge got me busy writing. I’ve written more this month than all last year.

But “how much” was not the goal.

That’s not the purpose of the challenge. Just 500 is all that is required each day. That’s not much at all. But 500 words almost every day for a month results in a lot.

Hmm. Maybe I should tally those words. Or maybe that’s a distraction to actually writing.

Writing like this forces you to leave perfectionism in the dust

If you really do like you’re supposed to do, you won’t even try to edit while you write. You’ll just keep those fingers tapping the keys till 500 words pour out of you.

But I still edit.

I’m going to try the whole “don’t edit” thing as I go forward past the end of this challenge. But see, I couldn’t even leave that sentence alone. I felt compelled to make it better.

But not perfect.

I’m not trying to be perfect anymore

I used to do that.

Many times the pull toward perfectionism caused me to not write, not finish. It wasn’t perfect. It needed work. But I couldn’t push myself to work on it till I achieved that illusive “perfect.”

I’ve done that in writing as well as podcasting. You name it. I want things to be just right. I don’t want to embarrass myself by expressing my creativity in less than perfect ways.

But do you know how much work you have to do to achieve perfection?

No, you don’t know it. I don’t know it. No one knows it.

Absolute perfection is impossible.

Perfection is an illusion

No matter how perfect you think your work is, someone else will find flaws.

Someone else will not appreciate it.

Someone else will not understand it.

And even if you don’t care about anyone else—though that does make me question why you’re pursuing this work—you yourself will not think it’s perfect as you begin Project #2.

Perfectionism is an obstacle.

Don’t trip over the obstacle.

Do something different.

Be consistent

Being consistent with whatever work you do is far better than being perfect. And being consistent might actually take you closer to so-called perfect than pursuing perfect ever will.

Being consistent will help you improve your skills. Writing every day, even if it’s incredibly rough, will help make you a better writer.

Podcasting consistently will improve your content creation and presentation skills because you’ll really get the hang of it and discover what you need to do to make it better.

Caveat: Don’t necessarily jump on the daily podcasting train. That’s difficult to do if you have other things in your life like family, work obligations, etc. Find a schedule that works for you (weekly, every two weeks, or even monthly). Do the work. Keep consistent. You’ll see and hear yourself improve.

One last thought

While consistency is better than perfectionism, don’t try to pursue consistency perfectly.

Sometimes, things in life truly take precedence over what you’re attempting to be consistent at.

The key is to get back up as quickly as you can.

And of course, make sure the consistent goal is small enough you can accomplish it even during busy seasons of life.

And that’s that

The 500-words daily writing challenge has come to an end.

Thank you, Jeff Goins, for challenging us all.

Meanwhile, I have about a hundred new ideas.

So I’ll be writing about those things tomorrow.

And the next day.

And the day after that.

Looking back, writing forward

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Day 30 of the 500-words daily writing challenge

So when I started this writing challenge, I decided to post each one on my blog. That gave me a push to keep going since each blog post started with something like

Day 6 of the 500-words daily writing challenge…

If I missed, it would throw off the whole blog!

However, I eventually did miss. I think I missed three days.

Didn’t write anything on those days. My excuse one day was because it was especially busy. And since I usually wrote late at night after everyone was asleep, sometimes I’d be too tired.

And a couple of times I did write something, but I didn’t hit 500 words. So I fell short two times.

One night I switched genres

I’ve been very interested in getting into audio fiction (some say audio dramas). Well, I wasn’t quite ready to let the world read those. It’s kind of a new thing for me, so I wanted the blog to stay primarily focused on the parts of podcasting I know.

I also wanted to develop something that would be like a portfolio of the kinds of things I can help people with that want to start a podcast.

In fact, I’m very excited to have written several “rules in podcasting.” Think Gibbs and his rules on NCIS.

But back to the fiction again.

One day I would like to share those stories, but I think they do need some serious editing before I do that. And when you think about it, even the daily blog posts on podcasting could be better with editing.

So there were several days toward the end of the challenge that I didn’t post anything. I stored them in Evernote. Now they’re waiting to be edited.

What’s next?

So as the month-long daily writing challenge comes to a close, I plan to keep going.

In fact, I didn’t get into the challenge simply for the sake of writing for 31 days. I got into this in order to push myself toward developing this as a daily habit from now on.

I want this to be part of who I am.

I am a writer.

I write.

I write every day.

Of course, I’m more than just a writer, but this is an important part of who I am. I am a communicator who wants to communicate better. Writing is crucial to that. I know that I communicate better after having written.

In fact, there were two events within the past week that showed me very clearly that my writing has benefited my ability to communicate.

One was in church. A topic came up that I wanted to comment on. So I did. And as I talked, I was remembering clearly the things I had written.

Speaking up in the way I did was easy because I had clarified my thoughts a couple of weeks before.

The other event was at the Podcast Dallas meetup. It was a Q&A session, and there were several new and not-yet podcasters there.

I was able to speak up and share insights and advice based on my experience, of course, but also based on the writing I’ve done this past month.

I got to say aloud one of the things I’ve become convinced about:

Technique is more important than technology.

So this has been a fruitful experience, writing something almost every day for a month.

And I know it will benefit you to.

That is, if you have a message in your heart you want to share.

Or if you have knowledge you want to teach.

Or if you have a story you want to tell.

Write just 500 words every day, and when you’re ready, let the world read (or hear) your words.

Rule 10 in podcasting

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Day 28 of the 500-words daily writing challenge

We all have pet peeves.

We all have these things that irk us deeply.

This is one of mine.

Rule 10 in podcasting:

Don’t talk about the weather!

And if you do this in your podcast, it’s just wrong.

No apologies. None. Talking about the weather in your podcast when your podcast is not about the weather is an irksome way to start your show.

And that’s when you usually hear it. It’s like an ice breaker.

It’s what you say to strangers when you’re in an elevator.

“Sure is cold, ain’t it?”

They reply, “For sure for sure. Hope it warms up.”

*ding*

Elevator arrives at your floor and off you go.

That’s fine for an elevator speech.

In a podcast?

Not fine. Not fine at all.

Typically, weather talk in a podcast goes like this.

Banter

Host: My guest today is so-and-so. Welcome to the show.

Guest: Great to be here.

Host: I saw in the news you just had a heat wave.

Guest: It was so so hot here.

Host: Highest temperatures on record right?

Guest: We broke all sorts of records this week.

Host: How hot did it get?

Guest: It was 105 yesterday. They say it will get up to 107 today.

Host: Wow. How hot did it feel? The heat index?

Guest: Yesterday around 11 am the heat index was 116 degrees.

Host: 116 degrees? Oh man that’s hot!

Guest: You better believe it. We’re all staying inside any place with air conditioning.

Host: I should hope so!

Guest: But some relief is coming soon.

Host: Really?

Guest: Weather report for Friday shows highs only about 99 degrees.

Host: I bet it’ll feel like autumn has finally arrived!

Guest: I’m sure it will. We might venture outside in a couple of days.

Host: Haha. Wow. So amazing to hear what you’ve been through.

Guest: Oh yeah. Lots of sweating.

Host: We should probably tell folks why you’re on the podcast today.

Guest: Yeah.

Host: So-and-so is here today to talk about his new book on making your own podcast.

Guest: It will be published in about 6 weeks from today.

Host: Of course, we record these shows ahead of time, so by the time this show airs the book will be available.

So what’s wrong with weather talk?

It’s irrelevant

This fake podcaster talked about something that means nothing to 95% of the listening audience. The listeners came to learn how to make their own podcasts. The listeners came to hear a talk about the book.

Instead, the first several minutes of the show is filled with something they don’t care about.

But what about building a rapport with the guest and with the audience? Lots of people like listening to that kind of small talk.

Which brings us to another problem.

It’s old news

Many podcasters record multiple interviews ahead of time. It’s a good strategy. Helps them stay consistent with their podcast, publishing new episodes on time.

But by the time this episode was released, the heatwave was over, and the book was already available!

Even if a listener lived in the same city as the guest, that heatwave was no longer an issue. And for the 95% of listeners who were not in that region of the world, it was not news for them at the time—certainly not six weeks after the fact.

More than six weeks later!

Did everyone listen to that episode the day it was published?

No, they didn’t.

Think about this.

Someone’s looking to start a podcast. They find this podcast. They see an episode with the writer of a book on how to start a podcast. They get excited, subscribe to the show, and play the episode.

But it’s February 5, 2018. The weather lately has been about snow storms! And here are these two talking about a heat wave six months ago!

It’s a waste of time

I know that sounds harsh. But for practically everyone who listens to a recording made several weeks before it’s released or even a half year later, sitting through all that wastes their time.

Three to five minutes might not sound like much to you, but it is to your listener.

That listener chose to listen to you. Respect that. Give them what you promised them in your episode title.

Don’t waste their time with weather talk—or anything that is old and irrelevant.