Communications

I've communicated poorly via this blog.  Rather, I haven't at all.  But I got thinking the other day about how we can/will/should communicate with our "crowd."  I will call our fanbase the "lonely crowd" for the duration of this post.  

I don't think a blog for that purpose is a bad idea, but I wonder if it'd be better to take the party to them.  We could do a weekly lonely email, sent on the same day every week so they know to look for it, and talk about more than just "come see us at this place for a show with these guys."  Nothing super long, but some not-too-shallow thoughts/views/ideas/passions/the like.  I'd be willing to do it on an ongoing basis, but it wouldn't be a terrible thing for us to take turns, too.  

Something else to consider is doing a lonely newsletter once a month.  That is, if we have mailing addresses for our list.  It doesn't need to be anything fancy and it could be fairly inexpensive . . . the bulk of the cost would be postage.  It's just another way to get in front of the lonely crowd.  I mean, how many bands do a hard-copy newsletter?  People like getting mail, and we can make them like getting our mail.  

I just figure that we ought to make some real good use of our email/mailing list if we have it.  And it ought to be done in ways that stand out a little from what anyone else/any other bands would do.  Statistically speaking, it takes an average of seven to nine marketing messages to get someone to take action on that message.  The more we can bombard the lonely crowd with our message(s), the more likely they are to sit up and take notice . . . at some point . . . as long as we're a shade creative and worthy of their time in how we make contact.  

Just some thoughts from the marketing world.  Of course, we may be doing some of this and I'm just not aware of it.  Any comments, criticisms, amendments, discrepancies or persimmons welcome.

Lonely Trey

WARNING: I sometimes have poor grammar... deal with it.

I'm a fan of the befriending people at shows idea. Going to shows by yourself is terrible (at least in my experience). Befriending people in general is a good way to go. Just having someone to talk to and hangout with goes a long way. I would even say it solves a lot of problems people have, or at least points them in the direction of rectifying problems.

I am not a fan of blogs. Good thing this isn't a blog.

That is all for now.

goals

• Local Impact
• Outward Focus
• Involving Others
• Enduring Influence
• Empower/Enable Others (to start their own expressions/movements)
• Not Event Driven (how do you state this without the negative? Lifestyle Driven?)
• Global Impact (long term)

These are just a start...other thoughts?

Lasting Relationships

I liked the idea that our focus should not be quick fixes to problems, but rather to develop lasting relations with those we aim to help. Also, to have perseverance with our goals and not to expect results so quickly. I think it's especially important to not do this with the hope for people to take notice and say wow these sure are some nice guys, I like them. Hopefully people will want to join us as a byproduct of our sincerity, not because of heavy promotion on our part.

phases

From Jason's notes and our discussions, I came up with a sort of lifecycle for how I think we could engage.

(CONCEPTUALIZE)

ACT
ORGANIZE
PUBLICIZE
MOBILIZE
STABILIZE
TELL

As I see it, we're currently in the conceptualize phase, and will continue throughout (don't think of the waterfall lifecycle--one of these does not have to be complete for the next one to begin...in actuality, as one stage is reached, it will in all likelihood continue from that point forward).

Act is what we're beginning soon--the process of actually doing something, followed by figuring how to involve others, letting them know how they can be involved, getting them involved, figuring out how to make involvement an ongoing (enduring) thing, and then communicating the stories of people (allowing the lonely to be heroes to others--think George Dawson from "Life is So Good" or Zoe)

notes from chilis

Jason's thoughts:

three ministry areas that mean a lot to me
1. Mentally handicapped
2. elderly/widows
3. orphans
4. lonely folks

goals:
1. Focus on local rather than global
2. Be an enduring influence on the life of someone.
3. Help other people come along with us.


Phases
1. Serve wherever possible.
2. Find an organization/or person the band can serve together and have a lasting relationship.
3. Develop a story/website/video around what we do.
4. Find ways to help individuals friends/fans to become apart of the bigger picture

audience.

Jason's right, we need to first determine our audience (age, geography, culture, etc.), and to me this means our initial audience. I think by definition of the concept of Lonely Heroes: of being heroes to the lonely, etc. our audience is already chosen: lonely folks.

That is such a broad topic and range and group of people that there is no way we could attack that with any sort of tangibility as 5 people. Initially we should probably focus in on one (perhaps several over multiple occasions) group and try and gain some substantial ground in that area (as opposed to spreading ourselves thin over many groups but not leaving much of a dent--any other thoughts there?).

Ideas for people groups:

• homeless kids (maybe like house of hope)
• orphans (are there orphanages in metro orlando? is it bad that I don't know?)
• widows (nice serve type activities for people who can't do their own painting, upkeep, cleaning...)
• depressed people (what avenues would we have/what could we do to meet tangible needs?)
• single people (i know this sounds dumb, but some people love being single and wouldn't have it any other way, but there are a lot of people who have a trenchant awareness of their singleness and perpetually have a feeling of loneliness...again i don't know what avenues we'd have to do something for them or what even we would do, but it's just another idea)
  

Another idea (i know this is way outside of my comfort zone) is engaging people who are by themselves at shows (whether we play or not). There's a chance they just couldn't find a friend to come with them, but there's also the chance that they are in need of a friend, too.

any other ideas?

4th place

Have you ever felt like you put in as much time and effort as everyone else around you but still end up coming in fourth place--just enough to get overlooked and to be unrecognized? Just out of reach of a gold, silver, or bronze, and lost in the shuffle?

I think it could be cool to focus on people who are often forgotten...

it's becoming...

..less about music and more about people

...less about fans and more about changing lives

...less about making it big and more about making a difference

You can be a LONELY HERO, too.

Welcome

Lonely Heroes Concept Generation Process:

Write thoughts here. Dream big. Write out good ideas, bad ideas. Look at other people's ideas and then add or comment to them. Begin to write the ethos of our vision and we'll refine as we go.

and FYI, the shorter the post the more likely I am to read it, but don't let that discourage you from going crazy with it.