How Can We Help?

If you don’t have the resources—time, people, or finances—to have a qualified speaker present Success That Matters, you may use the videos we provide in place of a live speaker.

The videos feature Brett Clemmer and David Delk; both men have taught Success That Matters dozens of times. The PowerPoint slides are included in the videos and it is made clear where to break for discussion.

That said, the videos are designed to be primarily a speaker-preparation tool.

If you prefer a live speaker but don’t have one—or if you want to bring in an outside speaker for your event—you may also email events@maninthemirror.org or call Man in the Mirror at 407-472-2100 to request a Man in the Mirror faculty member. Every faculty member on the events team is equipped and experienced to teach Success That Matters.

Email, social media posts, flyers, bulletin inserts, and church announcements are all important in that they help lay the groundwork for letting your men know about Success That Matters.

But by far, the #1 thing you can do is personally invite a man to attend. It’s impossible to overstate the effectiveness of this method. At the end of the day, you can do all the marketing you want, but men will come because someone personally invited them to come. And even better—someone offered to meet them and sit with them!

We recommend recruiting a group of men who will commit to each personally inviting 5-10 other men to come—and following up for a yes or no. This group might consist of your event planning team + your men’s leaders + any ministry allies in the church, for example.

Aim for each potential attendee to get five touches. The touch could be a personal text message, a phone call, an in-person invite, a Facebook Message, etc. But the goal is one man inviting another man five times.

The truth is life is busy, especially for men with young children or demanding jobs. They have a lot of things vying for their limited time. By letting them know about Success That Matters at least five times, it will help the event rise above the noise to where they must make a conscious decision whether or not to attend. And if they know someone specifically cares about them being there, they will be more likely to attend.

So whatever you do, don’t leave out this critical part of your promotions plan. Repetition and personal invitations get results!

Churches have effectively done Success That Matters in various types of locations in the past, and we don’t want to limit your creativity! Although most churches use the church as the venue, we have seen churches use community centers, retreat centers, and even the conference room of an outdoor-outfitter retailer.

But we do have some common pitfalls to share that you want to AVOID at all costs:

• Don’t choose a room that doesn’t allow for men to sit at round tables. When churches have used the sanctuary with pews or done classroom-style seating, it makes discussion time difficult. As men often list discussion time as their favorite part of the event, we want to help you foster discussion among small groups of men that will impact them during the event and long after! Make sure men are seated at round tables.
• Don’t choose a room with poor sound quality. A gymnasium, for example, may hold a lot of guys, but the sound will echo and may become a distraction for them. Discuss your A/V requirements, as listed in the Planning Guide, before securing a room or facility for the event. Don’t choose a location that is difficult to find or has inadequate parking.
• Don’t price yourselves out of a well-attended event through your venue choice. A cool hotel or golf course clubhouse may be appealing, but if it takes your ticket price from $20 to $60, it’s probably not worth it.

We understand that for some churches, some of our timelines and practices may be different than what you’re used to doing—in fact, we’re counting on that! After more than 1,400 events, we want to share the best practices and timelines with you so that you can benefit from others’ mistakes, oversights, and successes.

Over the years, we’ve heard statements like, “I know discussion time works for other churches, but our men don’t respond to it so we’re going to skip it,” or “I know you said to build an event team to help with planning, but there’s a lot going on so I’m just going to do most of it myself,” or “We’re going to wait to start our follow-up groups until a month after the event in order to fit in with the church curriculum schedule.” We encourage you to approach this time with an open mind and a commitment to following the Planning Guide closely.

It’s an honor and a privilege to come alongside you as you reach and disciple men, and our greatest hope is that we’d be able to help you be as effective as possible.

We can’t overstate the importance of an early-bird rate. Offering a discount for men who register early does two things.

First, it makes it easier for you to plan for beverages, meals, tables/chairs, and attendee materials. Without an incentive to register early, the fact is most men won’t. It may be human nature to wait until the last minute, but it makes event logistics very difficult when you don’t know whether 10 guys are going to show up at the door or 80! By offering incentive to register early, you’ll ensure a smoother experience for your event team and a better use of your ministry funds (by not over-ordering food, for example).

Second, it increases attendance. When men have incentive to commit and pay ahead of time, they are more likely to follow through and attend.

So what should your early-bird rate be? Use the worksheet “Setting Your Ticket Price” included with your Planning Guide to help you figure out your early-bird rate. The average discount churches offer is $5 per man, with a cutoff of one-two weeks prior to the event date.