Journey through Michael Hyatt’s Platform: Post 13: Build Your Pit Crew

This chapter in Michael Hyatt’s Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World, was probably the toughest for me to gravitate to, not because I disagree with it, but because I am afraid it will leave my readers feeling like they’re stuck and ready to quit. In the chapter,Hyatt talks about all the people you need on your team and he’s right about every one of them except possibly publisher, but even that would be great.

The problem is for those just starting out, you won’t be able to afford most of them and those that “work for you” usually won’t work with you because you  aren’t well known. If you get caught up waiting for an agent or a publisher to pick you, you won’t get anywhere. What do you need to do instead? You’ve got to build your platform. I don’t think Hyatt is wrong in this chapter, I just wonder if he has the proverbial cart before the horse.

In my case, I have two on my pit crew, a coach (whom I pay and who is worth every penny and much more than I could afford) and a couple collaborators with whom I get together to create. Both of these are really advantageous. My coach keeps me on task, asks me questions and gives me action steps. In the year we’ve been working together, he has helped me advance further than I have in all my years of ministry to this point. My collaborators help me stay sharp and creative and they’re free.

I really want a booking agent and were it not for a financially minded wife, I’d have needed an accountant long ago but for the most part this starts out as a do it yourself thing and you can do it. Work with your connections to get bookings, exhibitions, or whatever your particular discipline needs, build your resume, then your income and eventually you’ll be able to hire the others. A lot of times the biblical admonition holds true. “You have not because you ask not.” Opportunities are out there, ask people for opportunities and when you get one, deliver your very best.

As to your pit crew. Start off with collaborators, they’re free and they will help you realize that you’re not in this alone. Get a good coach as soon as you can and do the rest yourself for a while. Hyatt is right, the more of a crew you have the more you can focus on what you do best, but don’t wait til you can afford a crew. Build your business, build your platform. Start now.

As the old saying goes, the best time to plant a tree is ten years ago, the second best  time is now.

If you haven’t done it yet, check out Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World.

Journey through Michael Hyatt’s Platform: Post 12: Set Up Your Branding Tools

Next in Michael Hyatt’s Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World, he tells us about building your branding tools. These are things like your email address, signature cards, etc. The implementation on this may take a little longer than the day I’m giving for each of these posts. I have however already done the following:

1. I’ve owned the domain AMOKArts.com for a few years already. More recently I took a course on using WordPress and consolidated my blog and my website into one fairly seemless blog site. At this point if you go to AMOKArts.com it comes here to the blog. My reason for doing  this is really simple, WordPress makes it easier to keep my website up to date and a big part of having a successful site is updating frequently. I am also in the process of moving my blog to the hosted version of WordPress. This will give me a little more freedom and add some new features to the site, but it will still be accessed through AMOKArts.com
2. Set up an email address for AMOKArts.com. I’ve had amokarts@aol.com for years. Hyatt advises that this looks like you’re stuck in the 90s and he may be right. Also I have a friend who’s been interested in helping  me with booking who would like access to an email account as well so I set up info@amokarts.com. The AOL account is still open (I fear it’s going to take me some time to switch everything over. but it’s coming.
3. I still need to set up my email signature on that address. It’s been set up on the AOL address for years and basically includes my name as well as my various contact information. i.e. email address, blog,website and some social media connecting points.
4. I also need to make some adjustments to my social media profiles related to a few of these changes.

I’ve had most of these in place for a while. The trick now is to be intentional about getting the word out about them. That’s sort of the point of building a brand and a platform.

What branding tools are you using and how can you improve on how you’re using them?

If you haven’t done it yet, check out Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World.

Journey through Michael Hyatt’s Platform: Post Eleven A: My Elevator Pitch Revisited

Yesterday in our journey through Michael Hyatt’s Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World, we began to look at the elevator pitch and I posted my own. It was a good  first effort, but upon further review, it may have been good for the whole “product” that is AMOKArts, but it felt a little long and a bit labored. I decided to go a little more specific and create one for one of my specific “products,” namely a new, or at least improved presentation called Be the Body. 

In the book Michael Hyatt addresses four things that must be in a good elevator pitch. They are:

1. Your product name and category
2. The problem you are attempting to solve
3. Your proposed solution
4. The key benefit of your solution

Here is my clear and concise pitch for Be the Body:

I am in the midst of creating a new [component 1] presentation for churches called Be the Body. [component 2] This live art, multimedia presentation is designed to get more people involved in “doing ministry” both inside and outside the church. The truth is many people think the only people who can minister have seminary degrees and the ability to “preach, play or sing.” The Bible says “each one should use whatever gifts he has received to serve others.” [component 3] Be the Body will show your congregation that each of them was made by God, on purpose, for a purpose and teach them how to find and live  that purpose to the glory of God. [component 4] Be the Body will encourage and inspire your congregation to find new ways to serve the Lord in the local church and beyond, empowering them to work together to fulfill your church’s mission in your community.

So what do you think? Does my elevator pitch make Be the Body look like something your congregation could use?

How would you pitch your “product?”

If you haven’t done it yet, check out Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World.

Journey through Michael Hyatt’s Platform: Post Eleven: My Elevator Pitch

Right now it seems everyone is giving me the same message, in addition to Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World, I’m also reading Kari Chapin’s Grow Your Handmade Business: How to Envision, Develop, and Sustain a Successful Creative Business and Dan Miller’s 48 Days to the Work You Love: Preparing for the New Normal and they’re all telling me the same thing, I need to come up with an elevator pitch.

What is an elevator pitch? Imagine you step onto the elevator and to your surprise an amazing influential contact for  your product/business/ministry, etc. is on there. His stop is on the top floor of the building and that is all the time you have to “pitch” what it is that you do. You have about a minute to promote yourself and possibly change your life. Could you do it? Could you concisely explain what you do in under a minute?

Of course, this is more than just about elevators. People are busy and you often don’t have a lot of time to get their attention. This is the importance of the elevator pitch and it’s why you need to work it up in advance and be prepared to share it at a moment’s notice.

In Kari Chapin’s Grow Your Handmade Business: How to Envision, Develop, and Sustain a Successful Creative Business she gives us some really helpful questions your pitch should answer.

• Why do you “rock people’s socks?”
• Why are you doing what you do, in terms of your business [or product or ministry]?
• Why do you think you can succeed in your business [or product or ministry]?
• What do you want to be known for in your business [or product or ministry]?
• Why do you care about your field?
• What difference do you want to make in your field?

These are all helpful questions to get you on your way. You may not answer them all in your pitch, but they can help you on your way. I’ve been trying to promote AMOKArts  for quite some time and I’m very passionate about it, but I sometimes get tongue tied trying to explain it especially when I don’t have a lot of time so today, I’ve begun developing my elevator pitch. It goes something like this:

Now as I look at my pitch, it’s a little long and of course it needs some  rehearsing. I’m not going to give it like a speech I’ve memorized, I’m just going to be prepared to share the main points in a clear and concise manner. Also, this may be too general, and I should probably prepare specific pitches for each of my books, presentations, etc.

What’s your elevator pitch? Think about it, write it down and prepare to share it.

All of this work led me to another thought. The Bible tells us to always be prepared to give a reason for the hope we have and to do this with gentleness and respect. Would it be a good idea to apply these principles to sharing a testimony/the Gospel? After all you only get so much time to share your faith sometimes. Just something to think about. Could you share your faith with someone this way?

If you haven’t done it yet, check out Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World.

Journey through Michael Hyatt’s Platform: Post Ten: Define Your Platform Goals

In Chapter ten of Michael Hyatt’s Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World, he gives us an admonition to define (and write down) our platform goals along with five reasons to do so. This  was a little difficult for me. How do I define what I want this platform to be and do?

If I have learned anything on this journey so far, it’s that when I am stuck for what I want to accomplish I need to go back to my mission statement. (Have you written yours yet?) Here’s mine again.

The mission of my life/ministry is to use my God-given creative gifts to:
• Introduce people to Jesus Christ
• Encourage people to find and use their God-given gifts to serve God and others and
• Be a blessing to those in need, making the world a better place one soul at a time.

Looking at that statement, I can gather a couple of things:

I want my platform to clearly and often communicate the Gospel, be God honoring and “always make Jesus look good.”

While my main focus is the arts, I want to be certain to have many applicable principals for anyone who wants to use any God-given gift to serve others.

I want to always be thinking about ways I can use my platform as a way of giving anyone who sees it information that can be used for the greater good.

In addition, because I want to be able to do good and help others personally as well, I want my platform to generate some financial revenue, through sales of art, bookings and useful resources. This is a careful balancing act. I never want to become a spam site with a bunch of useless stuff or disturbing ads to wade through. For this reason, I will look at anything I post on this site as a resource and ask the question, does this resource accomplish part of my mission? If the answer is no, it cannot go up on this site.

I want my platform to be a useful tool to my readers with ideas worth spreading. I want my platform to accomplish my God-given mission. I want to build a world-wide tribe of creative people who want to honor and glorify God with their gifts and I want my platform to give them the tools they need to do what they are called to do. I want it to be a gift my readers can’t wait to open and I want to give away most of what I do. I want my platform to establish trust and show people that I can be trusted to be brought in to speak to a congregation and that anything I post for sale is worth buying, God honoring and useful. Over all of this I want my platform to do what I want my life to do: Honor and glorify God.

I want this platform to reach as broad an audience as the Lord will give me, to help and reach multitudes.

As you look to build your platform, what do you want it to do?

If you haven’t done it yet, check out Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World.

Journey through Michael Hyatt’s Platform: Post Nine B: Think Big (Part 3)

Yesterday in our discussion of Michael Hyatt’s Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World, I began to dissect my big dream and take it into action steps. In essence I was breaking down a life-long ambition into things I can do today to move me toward my goal. I encourage you to do the same thing. You see if we just look at the big goal somewhere off in the distance, we start to get frustrated because we can’t see how to get there and after a while “be realistic” sets in and we give up. The remainder of my big dream goes something like this:

I want to travel the world and use my God-given creative gifts to spread the Gospel, help others to find and use their God given gifts and talents to serve God, serve others, live their dreams and make the world a better place.

Again this is a huge goal, so where to begin. Well I begin in my circle. I work up my presentation (done), I present it at my home church (done), and I begin to look for opportunities to present it at other places, honing it as I gain more and more experience (I’ve started doing this, surpassed the first goal I set for myself and am still working to get into other places.) Each time I present what I do, I have the chance to advance my goal in two ways.

1. I gain experience, and begin helping people and
2. I get to meet other people who may be able to help me move to the next level.

There is no substitute for going out and doing what you do before your audience. I’ve done it for free, I’ve done it as a benefit and I’ve done it for compensation. In the beginning, take the opportunities that come your way and learn and grow.

The rest of the goal looks like  this:

I want to replicate my efforts by helping others with similar dreams to mine to start their own movements.

A good first step for this is to create resources others can use and writing down the guidelines, ideas and tips I use in what I do and making them available to others. That’s pretty much how the AMOKArts web site started over a decade ago. I want to take it a step further by creating a scalable program designed to be used not just by other creatives, but by people who may not consider themselves creatives but who want to help the creatives in their midst.

I want to have creative businesses in place that help to fund this ministry and the creative dreams of people around the world and meet needs of people around the world.

My action step on this has already begun as well with my Zazzle site and my Deviant art Gallery as well as my publishing efforts. I am also working toward a motivational speaking piece on enhancing creativity that can be presented to businesses and schools. Which is further mentioned in my goals below.

I want to help other leaders to rise up in churches and return the church to it’s rightful position as the creative hub in every community, we are the children of the ultimate creator after all.

Most of this was covered in the above step about replicating my efforts, but I’ve also been living this out in my home church on a weekly basis, by incorporating the arts in our worship. I know I’m just scratching the surface at this point but at least I am scratching. I further this by doing workshops at church events on incorporating creativity in the life of the church.

I also want to be a speaker/expert on the subject of creativity so I can go beyond  the walls of the church to bridge the gap between church, creativity and culture. 

Again I covered this above in the creative business section but this goes more to the motivation. I may not be able to introduce the Gospel component everywhere I go, but I can live  the Gospel as I take the first steps by helping people find what they were created to be and do and finally

I want to work with creatives world wide to create works of art, music, films and new media that spreads the Gospel, empowers and inspires people to greater acts of love and service.

The first step toward this is meeting people, getting them involved in AMOK and being of help to them in their endeavors.

My dream is huge and I have a long way to go, but taking these action steps goes a long way toward alleviating the frustration of the distance between here and there. By taking the next right step, I know that Lord-willing, I will see this dream realized or at least I will have pushed it as far as I can.

“He who began a good work in you will carry it through to completion in the day of Christ Jesus.”

What is the next right step for you?

If you haven’t done it yet, check out Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World.

Journey through Michael Hyatt’s Platform: Post Nine A: Think Big (Part 2)

In yesterday’s post Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World, I shared with you my big dream. We’ll look at that in just a second, but first I need to look at an admonition from Michael Hyatt. We have to look at why we want to do what we want to do. What’s our rationale, our motivation.

I shared this big dream with all kinds of great stuff, but the why behind it is really important. When we lose track of the why, it’s really easy to lose your way. This goal, this dream is important to me because it’s what was done for me. When I was a young believer, I was floundering and struggling. I couldn’t see a role for myself in the church or a real purpose for my life. Then one day my pastor came  to me and showed me a small way that I could use my gift to serve God. He had no idea what that one simple little project would unleash, but in that simple thing I found my purpose. I’ve been trying to change the world basically ever since. When you connect people with their God-given purpose,  it lights them up and makes them become more than they could ever have been on their own. I want to use my little gift to do great good in this world, solve problems, meet needs, help people and more than anything else glorify the God who cared enough to make me on purpose, for a purpose and gave His only Son to set me free.

So lets look at the dream again, this time breaking it down.

My dream is to have a world-wide arts ministry movement. World-wide? Isn’t that a little big? Oops that’s “Be realistic” manifesting. I’m dreaming big dreams with a God with whom all things are possible. In truth, I already have this to some degree. I have this little map on my blog stats page that shows me people all over the world are reading this. That means there are already some people out there that are at least interested in art ministry. Some of them have already joined the conversation but many more are at least reading. I know this is just a seed of what it can be, but you have to plant a seed to make something grow. In this post we’re going to start to look at action steps. I’ve already done the first few steps toward this. I started a blog, I’m creating content and people are starting to pick up on it. Some day I want to travel to all those places and more and meet the people face to face, but for now it’s important to keep feeding this tribe of people the best most inspirational stuff I can create and/or find to be as great a help to them as I can.

Once you have a big dream, the next thing is to find the action steps toward the goal. The danger of dreaming big is we can get so caught up in the size of the dream that we can’t see how to get there from here and this often gets us running back to “Be Practical.” That’s not the answer. The answer is to spend each day doing the next right thing. I desire to have a world-wide arts ministry movement. The action step for this part of the big dream is to be faithful and post something valuable enough that each person God has given me will share it. That’s a big part of what it means to build a platform.

To keep this post from turning into War and Peace. I’ll stop there and pick it up tomorrow.

If you haven’t done it yet, check out Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World.

Journey through Michael Hyatt’s Platform: Post Nine: Think Big (Part 1)

As we look at building our platforms in Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World, I got this sudden idea. Step one: Forget everything you ever learned. Okay that’s going a little too far, but there is one pervasive idea that has been taught to us to some degree since we were little children and that is to be realistic. Today Michael Hyatt and I give you permission to stop doing that. Today is a time  to dream and dream big.

Let me give you an illustration. In the Sixties, Gene Roddenberry gave us Star Trek. In Star Trek, Kirk, Spock, Sulu and the gang talked to each other on devices that had no wires capable of communicating over long distances. They had a computer on their ship, which answered to voice commands. Today we have Siri on our iPhones. What was once fantasy is now reality. Nearly every great idea, every great product has happened at least in part, because someone turned off their “Be Realistic” switch and took the steps necessary to make a dream a reality. I’m still not sure I’m ready to be “beamed up” though.

In the book Michael Hyatt gives seven steps to thinking big. As usual, I won’t give you those, because as stated ad nauseum in this series, I believe every one of my readers should read this book. Instead I am going to share with you my big dream and how I plan to get there. Incidentally this is one of the steps, writing your dream down.

My dream is to have a world-wide arts ministry movement. I want to travel the world and use my God-given creative gifts to spread the Gospel, help others to find and use their God given gifts and talents to serve God, serve others, live their dreams and make the world a better place. I want to replicate my efforts by helping others with similar dreams to mine to start their own movements. I want to have creative businesses in place that help to fund this ministry and  the creative dreams of people around the world and meet needs of people around the world. I want to help other leaders to rise up in churches and return the church to it’s rightful position as the creative hub in every community, we are the children of the ultimate creator after all. I also want to be a speaker/expert on the subject of creativity so I can go beyond  the walls of the church to bridge the gap between church, creativity and culture. I want to work with creatives world wide to create works of art, music, films and new media that spreads the Gospel, empowers and inspires people to greater acts of love and service.

Now admittedly that’s huge, but when I throw away “be realistic” that’s what I see. Those are the possibilities. In part two we’re going to look at how to get there.

What do you see when you throw away “Be Realistic” Because remember with God all things are possible.

If you haven’t done it yet, check out Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World.

Journey through Michael Hyatt’s Platform: Post Eight Take Responsibility

In Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World, chapter we turn the corner from product to platform. Hyatt gives us an admonition to take personal responsibility to for building our own platform and he’s exactly right, though I have fought this for years.

I’ve always sort of lamented the idea of having to do the “marketing stuff” myself. I’ve always just  wanted to pawn all of that stuff off to agents. I sat here thinking “If I had an agent, then I could just create great stuff all day and let someone else worry about the day to day details.” There’s a problem with that line of thinking though. If no one knows who I am and what I do, why would they take that responsibility? Some day it would be nice to have someone in charge of that, and if any of my readers is passionate about being a booking agent, I would love to give you a chance to work with me to try out your skills (contact me), but the main responsibility for letting the world know about who I am and what I do (because that’s my product) falls to me.

It makes the most sense if you think about it, after all:

Who knows more about what you do than you? You may be an expert of a lot of things or almost nothing, but no one knows more about you and your product than you.

Who is more passionate about it that you? You have a reason for doing what you do and/or making what you make. You had a vision and you’ve devoted a great deal of your life into making this thing a reality. There are few people on earth who are as excited about this as you. Your job is to spread the excitement and show the world why you value it as much as you do. Incidentally, if you’re not that excited, your product is probably not “wow” go back to the beginning and try again.

Finally there was an old advertising slogan that said very simply, “If you don’t do it, it won’t get done.” If you won’t take responsibility for your “product” who will.

Think about AMOKArts. I work on this thing every day. I write every day. I search out stuff that might be interesting for and helpful to my readers every day. I work on creating new programs and perfecting the ones I’m already doing every day and I think about this all the time. I believe this mission to spread the Gospel and help others to find and use their gifts by using my gift of art comes from God. And while I hope you’re excited about it, no one on earth is more passionate about this than me. I’m the one who needs to be primarily responsible for taking it forth into the world. I hope and pray what I put here is beneficial enough to you to spread it around, repost it, share it but the main responsibility falls to me.

Are you willing to take responsibility for your “product?” And if so what does that look like.

If you haven’t done it yet, check out Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World.

Journey through Michael Hyatt’s Platform: Post Seven Wrap it in Style

In Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World, chapter seven Michael  Hyatt, gives some great tips for styling and packaging your product. I found them to be particularly helpful and you should read them, but it all boils down to this. What makes your product stand out.  You’ve gone to the trouble to make it great, gone through all the steps and now your product is out there in this great big noisy world, surrounded by tons of other products all competing for a very limited amount of your potential audience’s time and attention. How will you see to it that they pick you? How have you packaged your product.

For me, at the end of the day, I’m desiring to have a speaking ministry and I’ve been told that I’m pretty good at it, praise God. The problem is there are a million other speaking ministries out there. What makes me stand out? Well I’ve added the art element, the live painting, the videos, etc. All of the sudden, that’s a much smaller group and I have a greater chance of standing out. I’ve taken the other gifts that God has given me and used them to package my speaking ministry into this thing I call AMOKArts. Now all I have to do is create work that stands out, adds impact to compelling messages and do it all the absolute best I can.

What do you do? And how can you make what you do stand out from the crowd in this noisy world? (Don’t say you can’t because you can.)

This is the last chapter in the book on your product. The remaining chapters revolve around letting the world know about your “product” which is the essence of building your platform. Take a moment or two or a couple days and look at your product or the one  you want to create, read the book, and apply its principles to what you’re doing. Then let’s build a platform.

If you haven’t done it yet, check out Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World.