Growing up in the Midwest is growing up in line for potluck.
As many a Garrison Keilor Lake Wobegon episodes note, pitching in by cooking a casserole is an essential part of community.
Recently I had a chance to record a conversation with Greg Tehven. We realized that everything we need to know about marketing and building a community, we learned from the Lutheran Church.
- Want to get someone involved in your community? Give them a job, just like you do to visitors at the potluck.
- Want to grow your business? Make real relationships and provide value for others like you would when you meet someone over watered down coffee in the back of the church.
- Want to create a community that thrives over time? Treat your neighbors well like you would on the farm and think in terms of generations, not transactions.
Connecting with our ancestors and looking at what has kept communities vibrant for generations reveals an important fact: what works online is what has worked for years offline. Now we just need to improve our digital literacy to know how to apply that in a digital age.
Take a listen to our conversation and learn why it is more important (and more difficult) to fill a room than it is to fill a list.
If we’ve learned anything from the Lutheran Church, it’s that everyone is in the church directory, but only a few actually come early and set out the pies and casserole. Nurture relationships so more people show up and help out.
Go in peace!
The post Everything I Need to Know About Marketing I Learned from the Lutheran Church appeared first on 9 Clouds.
