Filed under: Finding God in the Ordinary | Tags: business, Calvary, communications, marketing
I did a video shoot last Friday with Chad Ashton for a new program starting at Calvary called Fusion Leaders. They are going to have monthly breakfasts for business leaders in our community. The first meeting is coming up in October, where their guest speaker will be former assistant police chief for the LAPD – Bob Vernon. Along with each month’s invited guest speaker, they also want to feature a video testimony of a prominent business leader who has effectively “fused” their Christian faith with their business life.
So, Chad and I hit the road last week to shoot two of these video testimonies that could also be used as a promo for their small group time facilitators. The first location was Custom Comfort Mattresses in Anaheim Hills. We got there at 6:30 in the morning to film B-roll of the start of their production run. We got really cool footage of each step in production and were ready to do the interviews at about 7:15 in their main showroom. We filmed the company’s president/owner as well the COO, who had prior experience working in youth ministry. They were both great guys and we got some really great stuff.
We then drove over to Long Beach to the main Farmers and Merchants Bank. The building just recently underwent a total renovation and it showed. We were able to film on the main bank floor and even inside the main vault. All of that was incredible. The testimony interview was with the bank’s president since 1979, Ken Walker. His family has owned the bank since 1907. His story of God’s faithfulness and the bank’s stability through the Great Depression and the current mortgage crisis alike was fascinating. However, I’m not sure how much of it translated well on video. In fact, we must have rolled over an hour of tape for what needs to be about a 3 minute piece, trying to get something that was easily useable.
While the mattress guys were fairly ordinary as far as business stories go – their video was so easy to edit because they gave great, consise sound bites. In contrast, the entire bank story was far and away the bigger and more extraordinary story, but there were no clear or useable points to grab. It will take a lot of extra work to pull something cohesive together, or it may get left on the cutting room floor.
The whole thing was a good reminder for me about how the message is really only as good as the medium being used to communicate it. What an awesome responsibility we have when telling the good news of God’s story to a world that so desperately needs it. We have got to keep it clear and concise and never let it become boring, or even worse, unuseable.
There are rumors swirling about what the new nickname and uniforms for the recently relocated Seattle Supersonics will be now that they’ve moved to Oklahoma City. Part of their official agreement with the city is that they cannot take the team name or the colors with them to OKC.
The leading contenders (verified off of recent trademark and domain name registrations) are Thunder, Bison, Barons, Energy, Wind, and Marshalls.
I think the Barons would be ironic as the team was essentially stolen from Seattle like a real robber baron would have done back in the day. Energy and Wind are a direct tie in with minority owner Aubrey McClendon’s company Chesapeake Energy. I believe that equals lame product tie-in and thus equally lame nickname.
The WNBA team from Seattle was already named the Storm and I would assume they’re moving to OKC as well. Thunder and Storm obviously go well together and fit in really well with the area’s weather. However, any real team name should end with an S. They should make that an official rule. Think about it, are there any cool teams that don’t have an S on the end? They could fix that by going native american with the Thunderbirds or old-school cartoon with the Thundercats.
There are some names that didn’t make the cut according to the various news sources that I actually like the best - Outlaws or Bandits. Either of those names would lend themselves to great imagery and a ton of uniform sales; plus a built in rivalry against their Texas neighbors, the Mavericks. But, the nba has too many image issues with players past and present to green light one of those choices.
The Tornadoes and Cyclones would make a lot of sense too, but again they’re probably too loaded with the amount of tragedy with which they can be associated. Then there’s the worst one of all I’ve seen floating around – the boomers or even the bombers. Terrible, with a capital T.
What name would you choose?
Just got back from getting my hair cut at Sport Clips.
This place is extraordinary. I can’t remember now who first told me about it, but it was one of the guys from Calvary. I sprung for the MVP today – full cut, tea tree shampoo scalp massage, hot towel face massage and a shoulder/back massage. With the coupon I used today, all that was only 20 bucks. Plus, they had SportsCenter on the whole time and no one tried to strike up witty small talk. I’m thinking of investing in it because it’s such a great idea.
I think they need to start a referral program. Every time someone mentions a hair cut, I make sure to tell them about Sport Clips and how cool it is. Are there any places like this that you love? Places that have a great concept and you’re alway telling friends about?
The Times ran an obituary of the famous OC business man Carl Karcher on Friday. “Carl Karcher, who parlayed a single hot dog pushcart into a chain of more than 1,000 fast-food restaurants bearing his name, died Friday. He was 90.” That’s an amazing achievement.
He started the business in 1941 by selling his car and investing the money into a hot dog cart. The business sense and dedication to see a simple idea done well, while introducing industry innovations is inspiring (that was a lot of i’s in a row, huh?) He took a simple, ordinary idea and managed to turn it into something extraordinary.
What really struck me though was how he integrated his faith into his business life – again from the Times, “The boss ate several meals a week at his restaurants, and, wherever he went, he handed out coupons for free hamburgers, wrapped in a Scripture verse. Despite 50- to 80-hour workweeks and a firm commitment to his family, he still found time most evenings to attend a civic, charity or political event.” He didn’t just hand people bible verses, he matched it with an unexpected kindness of giving away a free hamburger. He also found time in his busy week to support things that he believed in and had a passion for. There’s a lesson in there somewhere.
It reminds me a little bit about a book I began reading this week – “I’m Okay and You’re Not” by John Shore. In the book (which I’m only about half-way through), Shore talks about how the Great Commission needs to take more of a back seat, or at least live side-by-side, with the Great Commandment. We can’t just tell everyone the truth about Jesus and that they need to believe. We have to start by loving God and loving other people. That is what Jesus said is the most important thing of all, right?
The truth, when spoken without love, often falls on deaf ears. Simple acts of kindness and conversations that happen through authentic relationships will go much further in demonstrating who Christ is than one-way declarations of truth ever could.
If you’re a believer, have you focused too much on just trying to convince people of the Way or have you shown them the Way through how you live your life and how you love your neighbor? Are there simple things you can do to “wrap” the truth in acts of love and grace?
