The Message creates the Membership, the Membership drives the Movement

Greetings!

On Wednesday we had a small group of leaders gathered at the office to work on the Workshop flow and Que Cards we will be introducing at Reunion. We had a great morning of challenging dialog and wordsmithing the framework for the "official" message of the HM story for new clients. . At noon while the team had lunch in the conference room I slipped into my office to lie down for a bit (I was at the bottom of the chemo cycle and needed a little rest). I laid down on the floor under the air conditioner and got chilled. I then went out to the parking lot to the car to sit and warm back up. Bryndi went out with me.

Something in the combination of the cold and heat and the chem cycle's low blood count triggered a sudden rapid drop in blood pressure and as I was trying to get out of the car I collapsed. Bryndi caught my fall to the pavement and went in for help. I was not out very long but unfortunately it was long enough for the leaders to gather and get a look at a fallen president.

Brytt and Marshyl gave me a priesthood blessing while I was still out and they got me home. They called Judy who drove down from the Lodge. She checked my temperature which was over the limit that signals potential infection in the chemo process. So I made the trek back to the hospital. They found my blood pressure was extremely low and they were concerned about illness and infection, so they put me in ICU. They cut in a central line, IV, and direct artery pressure monitor. They dumped a lot of fluid in me and I was feeling chipper and wanting to get back to work the next day.

But my white count and a couple of heart-stopping and self-restarted flutters kept me in ICU another day and then the low white cell count kept me yet another day. I feel great and motivated to get on with the work and life of heritage making and heritage makers. I fully expect to be released tomorrow. Besides that, I think that the hospital is considering charging me office space because I am always on the computer, cell phone and visiting/working with my HM visitors. There is still so much to do to get the vision, mission and methods planted in the hearts of our people - and yours.

As with the former time out in the hospital, aside from just moving my office here, there have been some pause moments for reflection, prioritizing, a lot of prayer and vision time. I have come to know that vision is the flow of thoughts and insight that is directed and connected by divine influence when one is seeking for and open to it. In other words, ASK ing for it. That is Ask, Seek and Knock ing. When I "ask" for answers, I usually find them in the scriptures. When I "seek" understanding, I find it their (scripture's) principled teachings and when I "knock" for application, I find that it opened, unlocked to my understanding, in His words - spirit. Thus, my vision becomes more clear and more timely to the needs of my life and the business as I make the time to ASK and am willing to accept His gifts and simple directions.

Some may be offended at the suggestion that I firmly believe that He is in the details of my life and our business. Make no mistake, His business is not ours. His is saving souls and bringing to pass their eternal life. Ours is helping mothers, and fathers, who will take the time, to proactively build a heritage of values, traditions, heroes and relationships that will carve their priorities, attitudes and ultimately choices -choices that are in harmony with those wholesome, contributive values and traditions. We help them build heritage fences that can keep their good things in and the bad things out of the lives of their children.

Sometimes in the "mechanism" of the business and the magic of the storybooking process we can put the cart before the horse and the process ahead of the purpose. Even the most Sr. Consultants and staff find themselves in this battle of vision/priority definition and messaging.
It was actually in the energy of this conversation that we were working on for the new workshop flow before I collapsed in the parking lot on Wednesday. It seems impossible that it can happen that we can get the story of Heritage Makers turned around to something that might better be titled "Storymakers."

So once again, I lay the vision before you, with the historical details of the convergence of people and preparation that has combined together both the vision (purpose) and the mission (process), which I sometimes refer to as the the cause and the crusade of the business.

Heritage Makers is a business that seeks to help families build, create, and share their heritage. That is the vision and core of our message and at least 10% of the story (time) and 90% of the impact (buy-in and buying rational). We complete this vision by implementing our mission of storybooking the events, relationships, values and heroes of the family. This makes up 60-70% of the story, our message, explanation and time.

How we achieve the mission is through our independent direct salesforce of consultants who bring mothers, fathers and families the message of heritage making - the why (vision) 10% and the how (Mission) 60%. The message of the business and service opportunity is the remaining 20-30% of the message.

If we get the message sequence or balance wrong, we miss the mark and success eludes us and the movement of heritage and Heritage Makers slows. For the most part we have been putting too much time in the how and what of storybooking (less than effective time) because of the complexity of the process and the tendency to add too many embellishing discussions, we can dilute the message and over extend the celebration time and complexity. We then put far to little time into the business message of opportunity for profit and sevice sponsoring. The result of not having the message right and tight has been slower than desired growth, progress, consultant career advancement progress and profit.

The vision of heritage, our purpose is understood quickly and mostly intuitively with the mention of some simple key concepts and words - heritage, traditions, heroes, family, traditions and values. Woven together the message of heritage, the why of our what we do, is clear. Simply holding a picture and a storybook up before a prospective client/consultant while making this heritage making vision statement is self evident and needs only a few carefully crafted and passionately articulated sentences and personal testimony. This can be guided and prompted with a few bullets on a single Cue Card. The bullets references a script (The Heritage Makers Message). Done effectively, the prospect "GETS IT" - quick. Not done well, the prospect does not get the impact and significance "priority" of why, why it is worth it and why now.

The mission, the how we do it, storybooking can also be simplified into an explanation with key concepts and triggering words. Then followed with an effective video presentation of how Studio works the mision message is exciting and compelling. This is best done with a TV showing the DVD that gives the prospect a quick, but thorough overview of the process. Done right the explanation and video can take as little as 20-30 minutes. This part of the message gives then the "BIG PICTURE" of the process and the understanding that - yes, they can do it and that it is fun and easy.

The sequence of the "How" message is simple pictures, to stories, to storybooks, to studio.

This leads right into the membership discussion and on into product package options (Studio and publishing). The idea of membership is not understood by most of our consultants or clients. Our "members" become such when they determine to become a heritage maker for their family, not when they choose a product or choose Studio basic or premier. In essence, when they hear the clear message of heritage making and buy into the idea of their ability to create and perpetuated their family heritage, story, they are a heritage maker. Yes, even before they become a client, they can be a member of your heritage making group. They should be invited to your monthly personal Digi Crops or your team's weekly Digi Crops, as new members of your heritage makers group.

There is much more to discuss about the Workshop structure and Cue Card and DVD tools that will have to wait until Reunion for the full explanation. This will be a very important simplification of the message process. We owe much to the efforts of Wendy McGee, Mary Hansen, Hallie Redd, Heidi Arave, Lena Fleming and Virginia Dixon in the work of helping to forge the message. Much is still needed to get this "cookie cutter" duplicatable message accepted, learned and implemented as our standard for the story of heritage makers -- the message of our business, the invitation to our membership and the progress of our movement.

This is the formula for our success: The message (words) and workshops drive the membership (mission- clients and sales). The membership (new heritage makers) drive the movement (vision-growth, progress, branding and recognition) success.

Again, the message drives the membership, the membership drives the movement, and the movement is our success.

It all starts with getting the message right, and tight (simple and short) with a "little" personalization and minimal customization. This will be the task and the trial of leaders to do it and teach "the HM way" not "their way," good as their way may be. To unlearn and relearn and implement the simple messaging system of the business is, with the introduction of the template system, the best shot we have for faster growth in membership and the movement - growth and profit.

Remember, the message creates the membership and the membership creates the movement.
Lets start now in getting the message right and tight - clear and simple. You might want to get a message to your members to read this blog post - now. Comments are welcome.

Onward and Upward

Love Doug