All posts in Writings

About five or six years ago, a nationwide study was performed by several microbiologists from the University of New Hampshire as well as Yale University’s School of Medicine, as to whether or not bottled water was safer, healthier, and indeed more pleasant to drink than tap water.

With sales in the U.S. alone topping $100 billion each year, accounting for nearly 29% of the entire liquid beverage industry, a number of environmentally-focused organizations felt compelled to implore members of the political and scientific community to investigate if in fact bottled water should be considered the trusted option its manufacturers have so effectively advertised it to be.

Their findings were quite astonishing.

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This post was first featured in August 2010 on ChurchMarketingSucks.com

About a year or so ago, I read a quote from popular author and marketing guru, Seth Godin (a leader I greatly admire I might add), as it relates to the need for more entrepreneurs to become proactive concerning the services they seek to provide others with:

In my experience, much of marketing is a game of waiting on the other guy to go first. Well, if nothing happens, you go first.”

While the ‘other guy’ Seth was referring to in this case was that company or organization that serves as a leading competitor for any entrepreneur seeking to excel in a particular arena, this small bit of advice can be (at times) extremely dangerous for some of us to act on who serve leaders or perhaps volunteers within our local church. Especially without wise counsel.

Now I realize some of you reading this have the sudden urge to run and gather up a few of your fellow buddies (you know, the ones you can’t wait to wake up each morning and discuss the incredible mysteries God is unveiling through Seth and his blog) and label me as a marketing heretic.

But before you do, allow me to explain.

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I’m not sure when it actually begins, but I am extremely confident that in every marriage, there comes a time when a considerable gap emerges between what we expect our spouses to do, and how he or she actually behaves.

Whether it pertains to promises made about the division of household chores, special date nights without the children, or perhaps just a commitment of not checking the work email when at home, time has a way of widening the gap between our expectations of how we want our marriage to be like, and how we actually behave within our marriages.

What I’ve found interesting is that within each one of these gaps, we have a tendency to fill them up with one of the following two decisions:

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