Big Picture Question #1 [Mysterious Customer Needs]
Answer coming in F.I.T. Future episode 3.
Trusted Teaching: [Customer Needs]
Trusted teaching coming in F.I.T. Future episode 3
Moving Message: [Purposeful Release]
The Mysterious Marketing Heuristic
In 2016, award-winning author and behavioral psychologist Robert Cialdini revealed the most purposeful principle affecting human behavior to date. He purposely released the book Pre-Suasion to add depth of purpose to his previously released six persuasion principles:
Even though Cialdini had been studying purposeful persuasion for over four decades, the seventh principle revealed the collective purpose of every human with just one word.
But, before we reveal this mysterious word, let’s look at Ephesians 1:7-10 to see what the scriptures say about purpose and then we’ll circle back around to Cialdini.
“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.”
Are You One of Us?
Unity is the seventh and most significant persuasive principle Cialdini discovered. Unity begs the questions:
• Is this person one of us?
• Do they share our purpose?
Marketers must have a shared identity with their customers. Customers ask these questions unconsciously because we desire deep connections with others based on our shared values. Unity is why people tattoo brand names on their bodies, Harley Davidson style. Or why millennials use Instagram to share their experiences with the world. In other words, we all long for unity.
Unity is persuasive. It encompasses not only our values, but how we see and relate to others and the world around us. What happens after a sense of belonging is established? Comparisons. We often wonder, how do I compare with others in this group? Social status motivates human behavior.
Status Signals
No one likes finding purpose in status symbols for the sake of status itself. For instance, we scoff at the founder leaning on the rented Ferrari for a photo shoot because he is signaling status to persuade people. But railing against status is just as much a status symbol as anything else. Status never lasts.
Unity: Finding Meaning, Pleasure and Fullness
Status creates unity, but it does not deliver lasting meaning, pleasure, and fullness. The bible lays out a higher unity found far above this world, yet so near it transcends seasons and history, heaven and earth.
God’s unity sums up eternal meaning, pleasure, and fullness in a person. A unity that packs individual and collective purpose in one person, who is unlike any other. God did this willfully and it was his pleasure.
In Christ We Must Find:
We Must Find Our Meaning in Christ
The easiest way people find meaning is through status. There is less friction when our meaning is made by what we do or the positions we hold. This is especially true in western cultures. Paraphrasing a friends of mine Jeff Jackson, he said, that apart from finding meaning in Christ, our individualistic identities in the west are influenced by the idea “I think, I do, therefore I am.” We are looked at as “human-doings” rather than human beings. People are natural meaning makers.
What we do produces unity as entrepreneurs and employees, husbands and wives, and fathers and mothers. But, if there isn’t meaning beyond what we do or the positions we hold, what happens when we can’t do them anymore or those seasons of life pass?
Neither positions, nor past achievements, nor any created thing ultimately provides us meaning. We must find our meaning in Christ.
Released by Payment
We must find our meaning in Christ because we have been redeemed or released by a payment. That happened in Christ. He provides us a rich purpose. We read in Ephesians chapter one verse seven:
“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,”
Blood Payment
We must find our meaning in Christ because we have been released by blood payment. Christ’s blood released us from sin, paying for our forgiveness. We broke God’s law and by our very nature just kept going. However, we are released by the riches of his grace.
Jesus released what he deserves [worship in heaven] to pay for what he didn’t [our sins] on Calvary’s cross. He paid the costly price our sins demanded before pop God by shedding his blood on earth and rose to life three days later. That means we matter.
Moving Towards Meaning in Shadow Lanes
In the lanes of life, business owners swim toward meaning. For the majority of my life, I have stroked towards success kicking away the fear and shame of failure. The fear of failure torments meaning makers because it is a fault-finding task master … always watching … ever demanding. Touch the wall–the whistle blows. Push harder! Swim faster!
Always pushing, always striving, but never arriving. The fear of failure threatens to drown us when we strive for our own meaning.
But, God never wanted us to be the protagonists in our own stories. Christ paid the price for that role. So if you feel weighed down by fears of failure, know that Christ reaches into life’s shadow lanes. He pulls us out of the shallow end showing us we matter in him.
Everything is about Christ! There is no guilt, shame, or fear in him. Christ released us. We matter because he gives us meaning!
We Must Find Our Pleasure in Christ
When meaning is found, pleasure isn’t far behind. We must find pleasure in Christ because he chose us to know the mystery of his will by his purpose. We see that below in Ephesians 1 verse 9.
making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ
The word “purpose,” translates to pleasure.
He could have just done his will and left us in the dark about the mystery [revealed secret] of it all. But it was his pleasure to make known the wisdom, insight, and knowledge of his will. He was pleased to reveal it.
Purposeful Pleasure
Craning his neck upward, Michelangelo painted what many consider to be the most magnificent of masterpieces. However, he took no pleasure in the Pope’s insistence that he stop his sculpting to complete these frescoes. Instead, he took great pleasure in revealing busts that provoked thought and admiration. He revealed how he sculpted the David statue by saying, “I just remove everything that is not David.” That is how he revealed his pleasure.
Raise Your Heads
We search high and low looking for our good pleasure apart from God, but he was pleased to make it known in Christ’s fullness.
What can we do to find pleasure in him when this world seems so out of control?
Our Redemption is Coming Near
We can straighten up, raise our heads and realize that our redemption is drawing near. To do that, we resist burying our heads in the sand avoiding the beginnings that signal the end we see all around us.
Beginnings Signal the End: Wars & Disasters
Jesus spoke of wars and calamities that crush Godly pleasures like food and shelter. When I watch modern-day calamities on the news, I sigh and think that there is no ultimate pleasure on this earth. But these actually point us to ultimate pleasure.
Our Pleasure is Coming in Christ
We’re not dependent on our businesses to please us, should God chose to bless us with growth. We’re not looking at our friends, family or church community to find pleasure. We are straightening up, raising our heads, and realizing that our pleasure is coming in Christ because he releases us. Raise your head in pleasure!
Our Fullness in Christ
We must find our fullness in Christ because he plans to make all things new! Paul describes God’s plan to make all things new in Ephesians 1:10.
“as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.”
It’s a plan for the fullness of time that fills all things in Christ. That means every moment in history, every season, all periods of time, everything comes together in Christ.
God’s plan sets Christ as the ultimate administrator setting his house in order. Everything awaits God’s plan for the fullness of time when heaven and earth will come together in Christ. Isaiah spoke about the future unity of heaven and earth in Isaiah 65:17 when he wrote:
“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.”
Full Access
Walking with a trusted friend, William Tyndale pondered his plan to translate the Bible for commoners but was betrayed and imprisoned for 16 months before his planned execution. His friend conspired with the King’s soldiers, binding, burning, and strangling Tyndale near Brussels. But, the fullness of Tyndale’s life plan came out before his death. He prayed, “Lord! Open the King of England’s eyes.”
A Plan and a Platform
Before his death, Tyndale needed a plan for financing his translation and a platform for distribution. Enter Humphrey Monmouth, a successful cloth merchant that Tyndale met in a pub. Monmouth agreed to pay all of Tyndale’s expenses and sent him to Germany where he fled from town to town translating the Bible.
Monmouth was eventually arrested as well, but their plan reached its fullness only after their deaths. King Henry VIII had a change of heart allowing Bibles to be published freely, leading to the King James Version that helped spark the reformation.
Releasing the Control Key
We’ve been entrusted to administer our businesses to God’s glory, but what do you do when surrendering control of your business to God seems impossible? Release the control key.
We release the need to control our outcomes while patiently waiting on God for what’s next. We release accusing and fearful thoughts about failures, perceived or real, while waiting on God.
We wait.
Sometimes alone, in silence, when no one else understands why we are not “doing” things. We wait on God.
Waiting on God doesn’t waste our time, resources or gifts. Remember, western culture can easily see us as “human-doers” instead of human beings, we make time to be with God, waiting on him, because we must find our fullness in Christ.
His Goodness is Running to Release Us
In Christ, meaning, pleasure and fullness find us because we are in Christ where everything is about him.
Just as the world around us groans waiting for the redemption and renewal promised by Christ’s resurrection, we await complete release in Christ!
