Of all the steps in the Rethink Communication playbook, Phil Bowdle explains why clarifying your message is the most important first step.
In this exclusive Courageous Storytellers webinar, Phil talks about what the book is about, the most important message, and more. We’ve got a quick snippet from that webinar, where Phil explains the importance of clarifying your message first:
Clarify Your Message
Most people just start communicating their message before they clarify what their message really is and how they can make it effective. If you can spend the time on that first stage of clarifying what you’re actually trying to communicate in a way that breaks down barriers, in a way that you can establish what’s the win for you as a church of why you’re even communicating that message, and what’s the win for the person you’re trying to reach. If you can clarify your message, it’s like sharpening your ax before cutting down the tree. That is vital. I think it’s the thing that’s overlooked most of the time. We don’t usually start clarifying it until we realize, ‘Ooh, I just did this stage announcement and it doesn’t seem like that was very clear, let me do that over.’ If we can start our message by clarifying it first it makes everything else fall into place.
We’ve just found, through the conversations I get to be a part of or lead, it’s never wasted time to clarify your message. It’s never too clear. If you can really go through the playbook that I lay out and answer a few questions and have dialogue around what’s your win, who’s the target audience you’re trying to reach, and what are the barriers you need to overcome—everything else, the rest of the communication strategy, falls into place if you can just take a moment to clarify.
More:
- Get a copy of Rethink Communication: A Playbook to Clarify and Communicate Everything in Your Church by Phil Bowdle.
- Read an excerpt of Rethink Communication: Urgent vs. Important.
- Join our Courageous Storytellers membership site to get access to the full webinar, plus our entire library of super practical resources.
