On Leverage … Oh, and Dominoes, and Snowballs

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about leverage.

In fact, ever since Tim Stevens, executive pastor at Granger Community Church, used it in an interview I did with him for this Pastors.com article, I’ve been using it a lot more in my conversations with people.

… and, of course, thinking about it a lot more. And its implications for everything I’m doing right now.

Then recently I had the good fortunate to talk with Dawn Nicole Baldwin of AspireOne! (they work with Tim and Granger) and she used the word “leverage” a lot. Confirmation again that I need to post this post.

What is leverage?

Leverage is, according to Wikipedia, “related to force.” And it is a “factor by which [a] lever multiplies a force.”

“Multiplying force.” I like that.

Ever lift a rock or something really heavy using a board or some sort of a pole that you couldn’t otherwise move without it?

… leverage. Multiplying force.

Lately, the way I’ve been thinking about leverage is like dominoes, or better yet, a snowball.

Snowball and dominoes? Yes.

Let me explain the analogy.

First, dominoes.

Like a hundred million others kids, when I was growing up we would stand dominoes up in long rows that were spaced evenly, sometimes in real curvy paths around chairs or toys. Once we had meticulously and delicately lined our creation up, someone would tip the first domino and start the destruction of our marvelous project.

Of course, the joy was in watching that thing go … hoping we made the curves just right. Sometimes it was neat to even try a pattern or trick that might not work, like seeing if we could get them to fall down stairs just right, or off a table to kick start another level.

Ah, the joys of childhood.

I digress … sorry.

Leverage, in the dominoes equation, is tipping that first domino.

Putting aside the fact that it probably took 15-30 minutes to create the domino tipping path, tipping that first domino and watching its multiplying effect is great leverage.

The Internet is optimized for some great leverage.

What’s so incredible about the web is that if the conditions are just right and aligned properly, like those dominoes, tipping over that first domino can produce some super-spectacular leverage for you, your church, your ministry, whatever.

Internet links, for example, are a domino-type of leverage. Get someone to link to you and your force multiplies. Get two people to link to you … and well, your doubling your impact, your force, your influence, your exposure. In effect, you have someone else’s Internet real estate and web efforts working for you.

That’s obvious, right?

OK, so that’s domino leverage.

Second, there’s the snowball.

Admittedly, if you got the domino-type leverage, you probably already understand snowball-type leverage.

But the snowball analogy helps flesh out and illustrate leverage even further.

The story here is that a piece of clumped snow falls off a tree branch located at the top of a powder-covered mountain (Oh great, now I’m thinking about skiing at Taos again).

The little piece of snow hits the powder nestled softly on a steep incline. It collects and gathers a little more snow as it starts to descend down the mountain. It picks up more snow, gathers a little more speed.

… now it’s getting big, but granted, it has taken a little while as it’s traveled down the slope to gain momentum.

Pretty soon though, force is multiplied. Our little snow clump is now a big, round snowball heading with some velocity down the slope.

Leverage.

Multiplication of force.

Momentum.

The potential for exponential momentum.

Again … our efforts might start out with a small clump of snow dropping into this vast powder of potential called the Internet. (Sidebar for another mixed analogy: Powder keg!)

With just the right aim (or luck aka providence) that snow clump could easily hit the perfect pieces of snow, waiting (and dreaming) to become a monster snowball.

I love those words: leverage, momentum and multiplication.

It inspires me to know there’s a lot of potential for my work, my voice, my experience, my influence, my witness to be heard by many, many people through the WebMegaphone.

… and yours too.

With the right leverage, the right conditions, the proper tools … it can be all dominoes and snowballs!

Leverage …

Use it for ministry. For the Gospel. For Jesus’ sake.

November 14, 2006 · Filed Under Church Marketing

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3 Responses to “On Leverage … Oh, and Dominoes, and Snowballs”

  1. Rodd Jefferson on November 15th, 2006 3:05 am

    Cory,

    Great post. I like the keywords too. One question, though: how do you make a snowball? Still chasing that ‘perfect post’ to create the snowball.

  2. Cory Miller on November 15th, 2006 6:43 am

    Rodd, it’s all about trial and error. Tweak and test. Refine. See what works. Check stats. It’s funny what people latch onto … some of the posts I put a lot of effort into actually flopped in terms of clicks.

    And some I thought were actually poorly written, people loved. :-)

    But if you want examples of how to create a dominoe or snowball … see the Blogging 101 series. (Keyword: series.)

    The most popular posts in my opinion resemble magazine content. Go to B&N or wherever and look at some of those popular magazines. They are the best at it and have been doing it longer. (i.e. creating content that their audience wants to read.) Forbes online uses slide shows with great success, I think. And the NYTimes online almost always get links and del.icio.us bookmarks from their stories.

    Also, the web has learned to leverage the power of lists. Create the ultimate top 10 list for your subject (i.e. passion). And just continue to write good content. Hone your unique voice. Give it some spunk too (when I talked about kitties and let some humor emerge, I actually got comments!)

    Work on building a readership over time. And eventually something will happen. Maybe a dominoe.

    I ask myself … what do people want to read about within my subject area? How can I optimize it for links? In otherwords, what stuff would people WANT to link to? How can I “leverage” some expertise I have or contacts or whatever to multiply my efforts. (Again, see the Blogging 101 series.)

  3. Ariel on November 16th, 2006 10:30 am

    Solid post, Cory. You never know which post will “tip the balance” in your favor and send that snowball rolling down the mountainside.

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