Here are two of three questions I get asked regularly about how to share stories. This is an excerpt from Q & A portion of the free webinar I recently delivered for Bloomerang.co. Next week, I’ll share with you the often asked third question. Stay tuned!
Q1. Collin asked: “Can video still have the same impact at an outdoor event where the lights can’t go down?”
LJ: I have to tell you the truth, Collin, it won’t.
But what can, is sending me the clip afterwards. Send me the clip to watch on my phone, have it ready, collect my cell phone number, my mobile phone number and say, “When you get home tonight, re-watch this video” and make sure that you’ve got the URL for where to make a contribution at the end of that video. Because when I watch that powerful video, in the quiet, in the silence of my own home, or my car or wherever I am, that’s when the connection can happen.
Q2 Robert asks: It seems like tangible things like clean water sell better than evangelism ministry.
LJ: Not at all Robert. Each of you has your OWN community. You’re not looking for everyone on the planet to give to you. The truth is, everyone on the planet is not your audience. Ask yourselves, “who is our audience?” These are the people whose passion is the same as yours.
An organization that I love is the Pangea World Theater and I love them not for their theater so much, because I haven’t seen many of their shows. I love them because Dipanker and Meena, their two founders and directors, start every meeting with a moment of silence and the bell ringing that we do in meditation. They have us centered and grounded. That’s meaningful to me. And then we talk a little bit about what’s going on in our world before we get into talking about their show or see the performance.
So you want to ask questions like: “Why is your faith or why participating at our church or in this practice, why does it matter to you? How do you feel differently? What does it do for you?”
Gather some descriptive words and answers from your community. Those are what will resonate with your audience. Remember this: You are on a fishing expedition for the very people for whom your mission is their mission too.
The stories you share must resonate with people whose mission is the same or similar to yours. If you share a story with me about prayer, that might really resonate with me or meditation that might really resonate with me. But it might not for Catherine or Kelsey or Tony who are on the call here today. Don’t worry about the effectiveness of getting to the masses. Look for the people who are in your community that you want to go deeper with.
Next week, I’ll share my answer to the question: How do we share our stories when the people we serve live far away?
