Nearly five years ago, when my first son Titus was born, we had a decision to make. My mother in law who loved taking care of children and had done so for 25 years in the children’s ministry at church was going to take care of our son while my wife and I worked during the day. My wife was working as a doctor and I was in healthcare administration. Unfortunately, during a routine procedure, she had a stroke and a seizure that resulted in the left side of her body being paralyzed after she came out of a coma.
It was an extremely hard time having our first son and my mother in law’s first grandson born while she was in neurological rehab. We wanted our children to be taken care of by family the first couple of years of their lives so we ultimately made a decision as a family then that I’d be a stay at home dad while Shauntelle would continue her work as a doctor. I officially had a sugar momma!
Pulling Out of a Crash Dive
During this same time, I had the responsibility of taking over an organization called the Passion for Christ Movement. P4CM had been a church that had undergone significant leadership turnover and transitioned from being a church to being a parachurch ministry. The preexisting financial obligations of the church meant that closing down church operations left over $100,000 in debts to pay from things like long term building and equipment leases, long term utility contracts and many other items. With no church members left whose donations the church had relied on, things weren’t looking good.
At this point, I was in the first year of my marriage, my church was gone and I was transitioning to be a stay at home dad. Facing me was the decision of what to do with P4CM, an organization I had not planned on being in charge of. At the same time we had a growing international following, but the financial demands threatened to bankrupt it. I could have made the very easy choice to shut down the website, close the doors and continue on with my life, but I believed God had put me there for a reason and it wasn’t to quit.
P4CM had a successful event called RHETORIC which was a spoken word poetry event where around 1000 people came from around the country to listen to Christian spoken word and music. We had to figure out a way to grow that base and expand from there in order to sustain P4CM and pay the bills!
After the transition from a church in 2011, we went from having hundreds of members who could volunteer and put the event on to a small day to day team of four people. So how in the world could we put on a big event like RHETORIC. My wild idea to pull it off would be based on developing a win win scenario.
RHETORIC As a Leadership Laboratory
We had seen that there was a need for leadership development in the community and we needed volunteers. I had a background as a graduate from the Air Force Academy with an MBA from the University of Southern California and nearly 15 years of leadership and business experience in the military, entrepreneurship and the corporate world. My goal was to recruit team leaders for the various areas of the event planning to include ushers, ticket sales, security, parking, vendor management, show production, etc. I’d take those people though a leadership development program and their final project would be putting on the event. Win Win!
Marketing Magic
Since we had a near zero dollar budget for marketing, we also had to learn two things fast. First, we learned how to do leverage social media for our marketing plan. Second, we had to do a serious guerrilla marketing plan with a foundation in developing a clear understanding of our typical ticket buyer.
The result was a sell out of over 1200 ticket buyers in 2011. Then we expanded our team and our marketing plan and our audience capacity. We sold 2800 tickets in 2012 and sold out the show with nearly 3500 attendees in 2013, 2014, and 2015 with people now coming from around the world. Most of the marketing was again done through social media and email marketing.
I spent an amazing five years volunteering as Executive Director trying to build a foundation for the long lasting future of the success of P4CM. In addition to this leadership laboratory for RHETORIC, I started an internship program to have an extensive ongoing leadership training program. I also developed an ongoing coaching and development program for the growing P4CM team.
Semi Role Reversal
Just as P4CM got on solid ground, my sugar momma began to desire more time with the kids and less time at work. Since P4CM was a volunteer position, that meant I had to find other working opportunities to help support our household. As my wife worked less, I’d work more. We knew this transition was coming eventually and here it was. Time to ramp up.
It was good timing because even though I enjoyed the time I got to spend with my two boys, I was looking forward to exercising my business muscles. Also, as a husband, I was also looking forward to helping support Team Senkungu! But the big question was what was I going to do?
What I’m Doing Next
I’d been thinking about this for awhile so I have three things that I’m going to do to help support the family with my sugar momma.
Business & Executive Coaching. I have used my business experience to coach friends in business and then to coach folks on the P4CM staff, team leaders during RHETORIC preparation, and the interns I had brought on board. I LOVE IT! I am using that same experience now to obtain paid coaching contracts. I will help business owners, church leaders, professionals, and executives push their God Given Gifts to the Limit. I’ve signed one client, am in discussion with a couple of others and will be looking for more.
Marketing Consulting With Facebook Marketing Funnels. If I’ve learned anything over the past few years it’s that Facebook is a powerful tool for amplifying your voice and finding customers to build your business. All of the skills I’ve learned to help move people from interested party to lead, to paying customers, to repeat customer would be a valuable service to offer. I would love to help consult people to design ways to use Facebook to build their business or develop custom solutions for them.
Public Speaking. I love being in front of people to connect with and add value to them. I’ve done it as a pastor and a host of RHETORIC and at conferences. It’s a joy to inspire, motivate, educate, train, teach and uplift groups of people. I’m a clown so I like to make people laugh and once we have that connection, it’s my pleasure to take audiences on a ride.
Time for the Next Phase
That’s the transition I’m making and it’s an exciting time. I turn 40 this year. (I don’t look it, I know. #blackdontcrack) It’s a very pivotal moment in life and I’m looking forward to it and have a ton of nervous energy at the same time.
I’ll be writing about all kinds of things on my site and you’ll get to see a lot of me. Here’s who I am and what I’ll write about that I think will add value to those who read.
- Being a man of God
- Leadership Development
- Marketing, especially using Facebook
- Being a Husband and Father
- I’m a clown so you’ll see a lighter side
What You Can Do to Help
And if you want to support me in this endeavor you can pray for me and send me kind words when you get a chance. Use the comments or email or however else you can get in touch.
Also, you can send me business. I provide service that is worth many times the amount of money you’d pay me to receive it. If you know a businessperson who needs someone to hold them accountable to their next level of success, connect me with him or her. Also, if you need clients to grow your business, I can help you use Facebook to get them. Finally, if you need someone to present at a conference or speak to a business or social group, I could be your guy.
I look forward to the journey and I’ll see you on the road.
