Get Your Strategy On
The following happens between 4:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m.
I knocked on Mark Beeson’s office door. He told me to come in and have a seat. Immediately, I could tell by the look on his face that my day wasn’t going to get any better.
“Tony, I have two issues we need to discuss. First, I think we need to talk about what’s happening with you today. You’ve lost focus. It’s as if your mind is in a completely different place. You don’t seem to be yourself. You’ve lost your mojo. You’re quoting lyrics from bad 80s hair bands. What’s the deal?”
“Sorry, Mark, I’m facing a blog crisis today. I’m dealing with unusual comment spam. Someone has hijacked our podcast. And now it looks like one of our Innovative Church Conference keynote speakers has been taken hostage.”
Mark paused for a moment, and then he responded. “Tony, the first thing to remember in situations is like this is that you can only take blogging one post at a time.” And then he turned to his computer. “For example, if you take your blog in a bad direction and day after day, month after month, year after year you make posts in that direction, where will you end up?”
Tony: “Writing boring Op-Ed pieces for the New York Times?”
Mark: “No, you’ll end up over here. However, if you take your blog in a good direction and day after day, month after month, year after year you make posts in that direction, do you know where you’ll end up?”
Tony: “Being a ghostwriter for John Maxwell?”
Mark: “No, Tony, you’ll end up over here. Man, this illustration usually works when I’m on the platform. Maybe I’ve lost my mojo?”
Mark leaned in and looked me straight into the eyes, “Tony, let me just cut to the chase. (Mark has always wanted to use that phrase.) You need to end this 24 series you have going on your blog. You’re less than half-way through the day, and it’s already beginning to lose steam. Either you add a twist that draws more readers, or you need to just drop it.”
Tony: “Mark, I understand. When I get home tonight, I’ll see what I can do. By the way, you said you had two issues to discuss?”
Mark: “Yea, go tell Stevens to take off that silly kimono…”
Tony Morgan is a pastor and the Chief Strategic Officer at NewSpring Church where he develops creative solutions for communications, technology and NewSpring Ministries--the church's ministry that equips other church leaders.
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Chris
August 25th, 2006 at 12:32 am
I’ve been reading this blog for a while…it’s very good. However, this “24″ series has been a failure of epic proportions. Put this in the “New Coke” file and move on, please.
Johnny Laird
August 25th, 2006 at 3:57 am
…ya kill me, Tony! This is hilarious. :-) Thanks for brightening up my morning!! (Greenwich Mean Time!)
Dawn Nicole Baldwin
August 25th, 2006 at 11:05 am
I actually love the series. It’s a great distraction for me.
And Tony, for a guy who’s helping to lead an innovative church, you’re mandated to try new things :) It’s not a choice, my friend. Blog on!
Anne Jackson
August 25th, 2006 at 2:17 pm
someone has to eat the mushroom first. :) tony is the mushroom eater.