As many of you know, I attend networking events all over Lake County. I do so for two reasons. I go sometimes as a representative of Sweet Sheila’s Treats. Most of the time though I go as a representative of the church – First Christian Church in Gurnee. At most events each attendee is allowed to give what is commonly called their “elevator” pitch – 30 seconds of information designed specifically to help people want to connect with you.
I want you to know that i have heard thousands of these “elevator” speeches, most of which I think are pretty terrible and ineffective. Most are what i would call the “Shotgun” style – where words are blurted out with the hope of hitting something – or in this case triggering someone elses desire to meet up with the speaker in order to do business.
Sharing Our Life Mission is a lot like that for most of us. We don’t really take aim at a target – we hope our words and our life actions speak loudly and cause people to want to know more about our faith, our church, our God. And what we really know is that we are pretty ineffective. The shotgun approach simply does not work. And since it doesn’t work – sometimes we just shoot more often – making lots of noise but seldom hitting anything 0r we stop shooting altogether – and never even have the chance. (but at least it is quiet)
Sharing Your Life Mission well is really like effective marketing. Effective marketing is usually done with pinpoint targeting, aiming at specific people, with specific needs, wants or hopes. Effective sharing of our life mission is done the same way. Identifying people’s needs, wants and hopes and then taking action to meet them.
So how do you identify who you share your mission with? You assess your passions and talents. You look at your five circles of relationships. Family, Friends, Acquaintances, Fun and Work and identify names of people your passsions and talents can help, then you make a plan – identifying who to help or share with and the first 2 or three steps along the way. Remembering all along that because you are sharing with people, the path, the need, the hope might change along the way.
