Referenced Resources:
Kreativ Marketing and Design - kreativmarketing.us
Unsplash - unsplash.com
Church Comms Creative List - https://www.sharetalent.co/post/the-ultimate-church-comms-and-creative-reading-list
The Traveler's Gift - Amazon.com
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Connect with Kreativ Marketing:
Instagram - @kreativdigitalmedia
Facebook - www.facebook.com/kreativdigitalmedia
Transcript
Hey, welcome back to another episode of the Church Marketing Hacks podcast. I'm your host, Matt Lombardi. Joined today by Kyle Coker. Kyle, how's it going, man?
Great, great, Wonderful day.
Yeah, man. Well, I'm gonna let you quickly kinda tell a little bit about yourself. Give us the bio. give us the back of the baseball card real quick.
Sure, sure. Well, currently I'm the owner of Kreative Marketing and Design. We do a little bit of everything. Video production, graphic design, social media, websites, you know, you name it, we're, we're kind of in the mix. I've worked with ministries for the past 15 years. Worked in ministry as production head for a major church for eight of those years as a creative director for 15. For five of those years with an evangelistic ministry that toured the country and additional parts of the world. So, I'm not tooting my own horn at all, but kind of seen a lot of different things, seen a lot of small churches in rural America, seen mega churches in Boston and Dallas, seen unique churches in Northern Ireland and, and helped all of them do what it is that they need to do to reach the community.
So I love it man. So cool. I love the diverse experience. Kinda seeing a little bit of everything is so practical because sometimes what works in one church can fall flat on its face in another and then sometimes something that falls flat on its face, one place can work beautifully in another. So love that experience. So we're gonna dive right in because of all that experience, cause of your background, I think you're a good person to ask this question. What's the best marketing hack you've seen in your time serving churches? It could be a campaign that you spearheaded or lead with a team could be a strategy, it could be a tool that you just love, could be a system or a process. Anything that you've done or been part of the team on that has just had a huge impact for the ministries you've gotten to serve?
Well, that's a great question. Let me answer that with I'm a big movie buff. I love movies, watch movies all the time. So I'm actually gonna reference Fight Club, which is probably not something you normally prefer.
I love it. Christian podcast.
There's a point in the movie where, where Ed Norton, you know, we're getting his backstory, he's traveling all over the country on flights and in hotels, and he first meets Brad Pitt's character on an airline. And he introduces his little concept of single serving friends where, you know, you got single serving packets of sugar, single serving you know, pretzel, single serving of coffee, single serving friends where they come in and outta your lives very quickly. So my marketing hack kind of goes along those lines. Understand where it is you want to go with what it is you're creating. You know, right now, I'm working on a couple of videos for some local churches. And in the past with that evangelistic ministry, we've created a television show that was nationally broadcast. It was on Discovery Channel, it was on you know, freeform. It was broadcast all over the. And we spent months on that, on the recording, on the editing, on the sound mixing, on the graphic design, on every little detail. I mean, there was nothing in there, no frame that was in that movie. No pixel that was on that screen that was not meticulously looked at or adjusted or created. So I understand the scope of doing something big for a lasting impact. You also need to know that if you're creating something for social media, that's a single serving friend. I mean, think about the last time you scrolled through Twitter, scrolled through Instagram, scrolled through Facebook. How many times did you ponder or think or linger on an image that you saw, and how many times did you go back and look at it? You know, two or three or four times you see it, You're like, Oh, that's interesting. You may even do that little laugh where you, you know, Force air through your nose, you know, and move on. So it's a single serving friend. So my marketing hack is to understand the end use of what you're creating. If you're creating the Sistine Chapel, my gosh, then two years painting it. But if you're creating one of those single serving Instagram posts, Yes, absolutely. Use Canva. Use a template. spend 30 minutes or an hour on it. But if you're doing an Instagram post and you're spending three days creating it, you're wasting your time. Now, don't get me wrong you know, Colossians 3 23 says, That means do it best. Don’t you know? Don't just kind of do it, but do it hardly. However, understand what you're doing. If you're, you know, creating something massive, yes, put all your effort and all your time and energy into it because it will make a lasting impact. You know, I've created videos that are five minute videos, and it took me a month to create it. I've created television shows that are 30 minutes, and it took me six months to create it. However, if you're doing a one minute video, For social media that nobody's ever gonna watch after that initial 60 seconds, do not spend six months on it. So that's my marketing hack for churches, is understand your end result, your end goal, and scale back accordingly. Always do your best, but make sure that your best does not take all of it.
Man, Kyle, that is such good advice and such a great way to put it because I mean, that single serving friend concept, right, that's from Fight Club is perfect for that. And I've struggled with that in the past of how do you describe to creatives, Hey, Sunday comes every single week, so if you're gonna put it on, you can't spend six months on this. You got a few days to work on this. That's it. And then it's gone. And , yeah, I think it's, that's perfect advice. It's like understand the end use of it and start with the end in mind because then you won't waste too many resources on something that, you know, cause there's nothing more discouraging as a creative, right. I pour my heart and soul into this and then someone barely even notices it and you're like, Oh, absolutely.
Yeah, that's a rescue. When I first started with that evangelistic ministry, we had a, we had a goal. We had, we want to be excellent in everything we do and, and honestly, everybody wants to do that. And so I started creating graphics for the website and creating graphics for the social media. And I may spend a week on a graphic and it goes through social media and it gets 12 likes. One share. Yeah. Like, oh my gosh. You know? Right. So, you know, Yes, of course. Do your best. But understand that your vest may need to go into something else, something more lasting, something more permanent.
I love it. I love it. That's great. So question number two, if you could recommend a book, a podcast, a resource to every church marketing creative comms leader out there, what would it be? Do you have one that you've gifted a lot or that you've recommended?
Well, of course I recommend the Church Marketing Hacks podcast.
I love it. Shameless plug.
So let me, let me, let me give two actually, because the first one is super short and I don't wanna short change you. The first one is unsplash.com. Yeah. unsplash.com is a photo resource and it's free to everybody. You don't have to sign up, you don't have to pay royalties, but everything that you find on Unsplash is royalty free. You can use it for. Any project, any scope, any scale. I've seen Unsplash photos on national Nike ads. I've seen them on local ads. So unsplash.com is a great resource. If you're looking for high quality photos. Search for people talking, You're gonna get high quality photo, and you can use it for anything you want. So unsplash.com is my first, my second recommendation. In ministry, there's no lack of skill. I mean, there's a ton of skilled people in ministry, whether it's people that work in you know, from the pulpit or people that work behind the scenes creating graphics or mixing audio or playing music. There's no lack of skill. That's not an issue. So I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna give you a resource to build that skill. One of the things we do is we have a lot of self doubt. We put ourselves out there, especially in creative, you put yourself out there, you put your heart and soul into a design, a mix, a video, and you're laying your heart out there for people to step on. And one thing that humans do great is criticism. So I'm gonna give you a resource that is more about you developing you on the inside and how to, how to respond to saying things. So there's a book that I recommend, and in fact, every time I find books for anything like that I buy another one. It's called The Traveler's Gift from Andy Andrews fantastic book. Now, in, in the Bible, Jesus taught with parables. You know, he told the parable of the sower, told the parable of the, the prodigal son. He taught with stories. And the traveler's gift is written in that format. It's written in parable form. So it teaches you great concepts for you to apply to your life about how you think about things, about how you respond to things, about how you take action on. But it's written in a story form following the life of this one guy that's in the book, and how he goes through and learns those concepts. So it's not just a self-help book, but it is something that I recommend to a lot of people, especially those that their work is being seen. You know, their work is being critiqued, their work is being viewed by the masses. Their work is being you know, picked. So the Traveler's Gift by Andy Andrews is probably the resource that I would recommend to anybody.
I love it, man. I've, I've actually never even heard of it, and so now it's on my Amazon list, right? I gotta go put it on there. Get ordered. We release every year a kind of church comms creative Leaders reading list. I think last year's had like 35 books on it. Well, I love getting recommendations like this cause it allows us to go find new books. Last but not least, if you could give your 21 year old self advice about working in ministry, working in church, what would that be?
My initial response to that would be, don't make stupid decisions, but honestly, some of those stupid decisions have developed me and built me into who I am, where and where I am. So I'm gonna go a different route. Don't miss those two words. Don't as a 21 year old, you know, don't miss the opportunity to hang out here. Don't miss the opportunity to learn that new skill. Don't miss the opportunity to do this. However, as an older father, leader, business owner that don't miss has different connotations. I lost my dad six years ago and there were a lot of things that when I lost him, that don't miss really. You know, when's the last time you're gonna take a walk with your dad? When's the last time you're gonna hug your kid? When's the last time your kid's gonna call you daddy instead of dad? When's the last time that your body will allow you to take a hike? When's the last time that you'll have the time and the money to do certain things? So there's always a last time to do something. You know, When's the last time your daughter will let you tuck her in at night. When's the last time your teenage son will let you hug him in public? Don't miss the opportunity to do those things. So to me, my recommendation to a 21 year old, a 51 year old and a 91 year old, is don't miss the opportunity to do those things in ministry. We always wear a ton of hats, you know? Nobody's, hardly anybody is ever just a social media manager or a videographer or a pastor. You're a vocational pastor and you also, you know, work a 40, 50 hour job. You're a creative director, but that also means you vacuum the carpet, you know, at the end of the day. So most of us work an inordinate amount of hours and tend to put some of those things that we shouldn't miss aside, we tend to put 'em down the I'll get to that later. I'll read that book later. I'll take up drawing later. I'll take a walk with my wife later. I'll go on that canoe trip with my brother later. You know, so my recommendation to 21 year old anyone is, don't miss.
I love it. So good. There's just so much wisdom there in being present, Right? Especially as creatives. It's not just good for, for looking back, but it's actually good in the moment to have that kind of attitude of, don't miss out, like, don't miss out on what's in front of you. Because a lot of times that's where, I mean, it is where God's speaking the most, right? Is, is when you're present, when you're open and available. People around you, but also the opportunities and relationships and all the unexpected things that God can show up. Whereas if you're always looking at, well, what's next? Or regretting what's in the past, you're not available for God to speak in the ways that he wants to. So, Kyle, thank you so much. If folks wanna connect with you, what's the best place? Are you on the Instagram, social media? What's, what's the best place to hit you up?
They can connect with us on, on our website or through social media and search for Kreativ marketing or Kreativ media. And creative is spelled K R E A T I V K R E A T I V.
Awesome. Awesome. Well, Kyle Coker, ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for the wisdom, for the insight, and for taking the time today. Good talking with you buddy.
My pleasure, Matt. Thanks.
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