Don’t Hire Me.
My work is about building trust at scale; part of that means being upfront about who the right clients are. I'm a long-term strategist. I help you decide what you're for, then make sure your city knows it.
The goal is to continue to grow for years after I stop being paid by building trust at scale with your community.
Which means most churches who call me shouldn't hire me. Here's how to tell if you're one of them.
Don’t hire me if…
You think strategy means boosting posts.
1
If the brief is “get our stuff in front of more people,” you don’t need a strategist. You need a media buyer, and a good one will do it for a fraction of what I cost. I start somewhere less comfortable: who you’re actually trying to reach, and what they already believe about you. Most churches skip that question. It’s the only one that matters.
Who I’d send you to instead: ChurchCandy.com or ChurchMediaSquad.com
You want to be a smaller copy of a bigger church.
2
I work inside one of the largest churches in the country. I know exactly what you’re admiring, and I’m telling you not to. It was built for a different city, a different budget, and a different leader. Thirty years of copying has made American churches almost impossible to tell apart. Your city doesn’t need another franchise location. It needs you.
By a ticket for the Grow Leader Conference instead. It’s cheaper than me, and you’ll get more of what you’re looking for.
You’ll judge me by next Sunday’s attendance.
3
I can get you a spike. Anyone can. It fades the week the money stops. What lasts is slower: people across your city who already know your name when their marriage cracks or their kid stops calling. That takes years and it compounds. If you need a number by Easter and nothing after, I’m the wrong bet.
Check out WeAreClever.com or Hello.Church
You want ideas nobody on your board could object to.
4
The truth is, if that is the posture, nobody in your city will notice them either. The safe option is the invisible one. I’m going to bring you at least one idea that makes an elder/board uncomfortable. Some will be wrong. But the cost of safe and dull is way exponentially higher. It just never gets discussed in the meeting, because nobody can see what didn’t happen.
I’d recommend you hire someone who will give you exactly what you ask for. There is no shame in that, it’s just not me.
You already know the answer and need someone to agree.
5
You’re paying for a second brain, not a second pair of hands. If the logo, the campaign, and the launch date are locked, you need a designer. If I think the plan is wrong, I’ll say so in the room, with the evidence. If you go ahead anyway, I’ll definitely disagree and commit. But you’ll always know what I think.
You want a billboard to do your people’s job.
6
The best invitation to church has never been an ad. It’s a friend. No budget will replace a congregation that’s stopped inviting. My job is to make that invitation easier to give and easier to say yes to. If your people aren’t inviting, that’s the problem to solve first, and it isn’t a media problem.
I’d recommend you keep the budget and spend it on hospitality. I’m serious.
So who’s left?
You suspect the playbook everyone is running is broken. A leadership team willing to wait for results that outlast a sermon series. A church that would rather be unmistakably itself than a smaller copy of someone else.
If that's you, the list above probably read less like a warning and more like relief.
What working together looks like
Months 1 to 3
Diagnose
Listen to your people, your data, and your city. Find out what you're known for now, and what you could be.
Months 4 to 6
Decide
One clear position, a short list of priorities, and the measures we'll judge them by.
Months 7 to 12+
Build and Compound
Work alongside your team, measure honestly, and stay consistent long enough for it to work.
Most first calls end with me saying no.
7 of my last 8 calls fit calls ended with me recommending someone else. I keep that number on this page because it's the most honest thing I can tell you about how I work. If I'm not the right person, you'll hear it in the first thirty minutes, along with a name who is.