00:00:00:00 - 00:00:01:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So you have a 00:00:01:00 - 00:00:03:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry brand new student or 00:00:03:05 - 00:00:04:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry person to your church. 00:00:04:20 - 00:00:05:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Hooray! 00:00:05:01 - 00:00:06:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Congratulations! That's 00:00:06:08 - 00:00:07:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry so exciting. 00:00:08:00 - 00:00:09:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Now how do 00:00:09:24 - 00:00:14:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry we make sure that they return well, without seeming 00:00:14:29 - 00:00:20:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry weird or creepy or old and out of touch? 00:00:20:06 - 00:00:35:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So here's the thing. We all want our students to attend our church. We want them also to feel comfortable and then hopefully ultimately find a home at our church or in our group or with our student ministry. 00:00:35:23 - 00:01:01:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so a visitor is great, but a returning guest even better. See in this podcast, in this episode, what I want to do is I'm going to share with you our step by step guest follow up process and the physical and in-person product that we are using to turn our process hybrid. And I want to give you this box artwork. 00:01:01:17 - 00:01:02:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So go ahead and you 00:01:02:17 - 00:01:08:21 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry can scrub ahead. You can click the link down below in the description or go to I start talking about the box design 00:01:08:21 - 00:01:09:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry in 00:01:09:02 - 00:01:17:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry this YouTube playlist, and you can go ahead and grab that link from us and go check it out. If you're following along here on YouTube, just a reminder there are chapters 00:01:17:14 - 00:01:17:27 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry down 00:01:17:27 - 00:01:22:24 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry along at the bottom so that you can skip straight ahead to the parts of the video that make the most sense to you. 00:01:22:25 - 00:01:28:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry But just as a reminder, hybrid is taking your in-person moment and your digital and finding a way to 00:01:28:10 - 00:01:31:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry intersect them together. So my 00:01:31:18 - 00:01:37:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry guess is give me a like, if you are the type of person who, when you have a student, you send them 00:01:37:00 - 00:01:37:10 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry a 00:01:37:10 - 00:01:40:06 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry postcard or go ahead and give me a 00:01:40:06 - 00:01:43:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry subscribe, if maybe not just a postcard, but 00:01:43:09 - 00:01:45:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry you're also sending a text message, right? 00:01:45:14 - 00:02:05:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So early on I would I would send postcards. That was and I still do send postcards as, the way that I was kind of trained and I even like as a youth group student received postcards and, and I still do believe in the power of the personal touch. And I, I think that mail, does actually play an important role in youth ministry. 00:02:05:05 - 00:02:25:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And I think students don't receive mail very often. So I think it's helpful and beneficial for them to get it. Text messages. I do also believe they're important, especially as we talk about hybrid and the intersection of that hybrid being where, it often lands in the hands and in the palms of a student's cell phone. But I don't know about you, but I send a postcard, and it's like 00:02:27:07 - 00:02:28:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry where I send a text. 00:02:28:18 - 00:02:40:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And one time, literally, I got I sent a text from my personal cell phone number, and I got the word stop like, no, no, this was not an automated text like, this is a human being, but okay. 00:02:40:04 - 00:02:47:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Got it. I'll stop. So enter Covid when Covid hit. For those of you watching 00:02:47:19 - 00:02:50:05 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Linked Up, here is our 100th episode 00:02:50:05 - 00:03:07:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry where I did a recap about where this all sort of hybrid thing started, but we created this full scale and full length digital expression of youth ministry like a full, almost like YouTube variety show, Think like Jimmy Fallon, but youth ministry and YouTube. 00:03:07:26 - 00:03:10:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so our Covid experience was so 00:03:10:22 - 00:03:11:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry of our show. And so therefore we would drop a rubber duck and a postcard, but we would do a physical door drop at their, house and at their, their door. And so, I would then get students, or even parents come talk to me on the weekends and be like, thank you. 00:03:44:00 - 00:04:00:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry our show. And so therefore we would drop a rubber duck and a postcard, but we would do a physical door drop at their, house and at their, their door. And so, I would then get students, or even parents come talk to me on the weekends and be like, thank you. 00:04:00:14 - 00:04:31:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So much. I mean, long gone now were the days of the, unanswered texts or the postcards sent into a black hole. Like, now I'm getting students and parents who are actually acknowledging our efforts and acknowledging us, helping roll out the red carpet to help make them feel welcome. It was a great response, but unfortunately, due to like where I lived and how regionally drawn our churches our church was and how far students drove to to come and attend our campus, and the fact that they could do it online. 00:04:31:26 - 00:04:32:18 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Us they didn't have to 00:04:32:18 - 00:04:52:00 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry get in the car and come drive a certain distance to our church. It took me a whole day like I remember one Thursday. So our youth night was Wednesday, one Thursday I spent like 9 to 5 in the car just doing these, these door drops. And so, I was just, you know, I was like, I guess that's part of the job, right? 00:04:52:01 - 00:05:13:17 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry I was talking to my boss and I was like, hey, like, I spent my whole Thursday driving around new, so great. And I saw him all the great things. And he's like, you spent your whole day driving. I was like, we can on. Yeah. And he's like, oh, let's, let's, let's change that. And so, what we started doing as opposed to like the physical, me getting in my car, taking it and putting it on their doorstep. 00:05:13:24 - 00:05:33:14 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry We started, taking the same concept, getting it to their hands. But instead of me doing it, we started paying the post office to do it as if there were some sort of service that could take something from point A to point B, and that is woven all throughout the fabric of our country being it's the post office. 00:05:33:14 - 00:05:56:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So we started shipping things and it was expensive. Don't get me wrong, we created like a branded box, and now it's like we had to include a little bit more than just a duck in a postcard, so that the box didn't seem boring and empty. But we started shipping it. And so, that that strategy, we kind of laid that over and carried that over, here where I work now. 00:05:56:04 - 00:06:00:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And it's I started for the first probably like two years of my, my tenure here at this church 00:06:00:29 - 00:06:17:20 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry with text message, follow up for first time guess. And I can count on one finger, the amount of times I got a response. And that response was in those two years, the word stop. And so I said, hey, listen, maybe I'm just too old for this. 00:06:17:20 - 00:06:37:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Like I'm in my mid 30s and maybe students are like, I that's weird to text the guy in the in his 30s, or maybe text messages to students who they don't have the contact info from, especially from a phone number that it's not local. I live in DFW, Dallas-Fort worth, Texas. My phone number is from Dayton, Ohio. Like there is a massive difference in those two area codes. 00:06:37:01 - 00:06:52:11 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so they see someone down here with an 807 area code seeing a nine, three seven area code. They don't know what to do with it. So they ghosted as they do. And so I suggest and I propose what if we bring back the boxes. And so what I want to do is I want to share with you this right here. 00:06:52:14 - 00:07:10:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry This is our welcome box. It's branded. It's custom for us. And so if you look on all the sides, it's got a little, it's great to meet you. It's got, you know, yay! You're here. And then the top here, says welcome, along with a return address and a spot for us to put their address. 00:07:10:15 - 00:07:30:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then on the back, it's got our social handles. And what I want to do is I want to go through step by step, item by item, and, boxes here with you. And so, one of the things that we do is every single, every single semester, but three times a year, we do like a four, we do a winter, and then we do a summer calendar. 00:07:30:04 - 00:07:50:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And what we do is we make our calendars into magnets. And so you look here, this is a magnet. It's about eight inches long. And so, truth be told, this box right here is about eight inches, and it's eight inches because the magnet is eight inches. I made the decision to make the box the same size as the magnet. 00:07:50:28 - 00:08:11:12 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so then I made sure that everything from the size of the magnet on down would be able to fit into the box. So, we put the magnet in there. The magnet has all of our events. And you'll also notice here's an opportunity to go hybrid. This right here is just a link to subscribe to the IX or the calendar type things. 00:08:11:14 - 00:08:29:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It's a calendar, extension you can get it from, like creating, a Google calendar, a calendar, a Google calendar calendar. And then you can share that out. And so that's what we did. And so students can add this and subscribe to their calendar. We haven't gotten as many of those from students, but I know we've gotten some scans from parents. 00:08:29:13 - 00:08:48:07 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And also we give specific and particular leader magnet. And so our leaders also can go ahead and scan that. And so that is our magnet. We also have this sticker here, and these frankly, they're just laying around. We got these for free. So these didn't really cost the anything. So so far I want to point out these. 00:08:48:07 - 00:09:08:08 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry We already print like we already pay for these for our students. And these are already laying around. So so far we're $0 into the box. Don't worry. It gets more expensive. This right here is just a little, promo, a nod to our social media. And so down the road, we will send them this postcard that simply says, life can be hard. 00:09:08:15 - 00:09:27:13 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry You don't have to do it alone. This is a QR code to our link tree. And then here's just a little preview of our churches, YouTube handle right there. And, probably our most popular video, which is what is anxiety? What do I do about it if I have it? And we'll just, God have to say about anxiety. 00:09:27:16 - 00:09:44:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so we will send this out a couple weeks after we send the box out. This is, this is a separate pieces doesn't go in the box that sent later. This is an additional kind of piece of merch. And again, once again, we have just some stuff kind of laying around that we inherited from the old regime. 00:09:44:19 - 00:10:07:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so we try to, like, get rid of it. The little guest box checklist that we have this, and like an extra piece of merch from our merch cabinet. So here's a piece of merch from our merch cabinet. Right here. This one's kind of unique. Okay, we have a lanyard. And the reason that we have a lanyard branded and all the things is that right here, we do, we do pins right? 00:10:07:29 - 00:10:29:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Kind of like, think like Disney pin trading. So we'll create pins. And this right here is our little mascot guy. We call him Pugsley the platypus, because a baby platypus is a puggle. So one of our sixth graders one year recommended that we name them Pugsley. And so thus we did. And so we have this lanyard. And I actually have a lanyard for, like, my, staff nametag lanyard. 00:10:29:22 - 00:10:51:01 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And this is full of pins. So like summer camp, Water wars, the Back to School bash, Space Jam night, like any, any event that we deem pin worthy. So coming up, we'll have our Christmas at the movies event. We'll. We've done costume parties. Any of those, they get designed. We just found a dude on Fiverr. He designed these for us. 00:10:51:01 - 00:11:12:29 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then we send these, after sticker mule and sticker mule creates the pins. And so then we stick this pin. This is the, like, og original. Pugsley pin. It's just a traditional guy. He's just wearing, like, our logo on his t shirt there. And, we put the original pin on the lanyard for the students, and then, right here, this has three for free. 00:11:12:29 - 00:11:32:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And this is a, redeemable coupon at our student ministry cafe. They can turn this in and get three things for free. And then, we have these life books and these life books. We've gotten them, from the Gideons, the the Bible translator and the Bible, providers. And so you can actually get these for free. 00:11:32:23 - 00:11:51:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And it's just it's like the book of John with like some notes, and it's designed well and graphically. And so you've probably seen these before, and truth be told, I like these. I also like the life and Six words book, that comes from, dare to share. But these we had like three cases of these again from the old regime. 00:11:51:19 - 00:12:07:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so we're like, let's go ahead and give these away. When these run out, we may reorder these. We may do a different sort of devotional, but but this is like the one sort of like devotional, sort of like spiritual peace. And then that's now the emptiness of the box and say, look down at the box there and you'll see, it's got this word right here. 00:12:07:26 - 00:12:24:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry It's got some copy and it simply says, hey there, we're so glad you joined us. Meet Pugsley, our platypus mascot, voted on and named by our students. We love it when students invest in student ministry. So in this box, you will find everything that you need to get started. And then it's a numbered list. You'll see one, two, three, four. 00:12:24:23 - 00:12:42:09 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Number one. This lanyard is a great spot to hold pins. Number two, we started you with your first one and there's more to come at our Pin events and milestones throughout the year. Number three, this life book is a great place to find out about what Jesus is all about. Number four, some other random stuff because we wanted you to know how glad we are that you joined us. 00:12:42:09 - 00:12:57:25 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry We can't wait to get to know you. And then the very last piece of it, my favorite piece of it, the piece that I think makes it hybrid, is right. When you open the box, you see this QR code here and it just says welcome video, scan me. And so we'll have students who are new the open this up 00:12:57:25 - 00:13:01:23 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry theoretically on their porch, on their patio, wherever they will scan it. 00:13:01:26 - 00:13:24:02 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And then we'll take them to a video right here. If you're watching on YouTube, you'll be able to see a preview of it, but linked right here, linked below is what I want to do is I want to offer you, the art for this box if you want to start creating your own. I'll also, give you like, a detailed tutorial, like where I ordered it from, as well as the copy for the welcome video. 00:13:24:02 - 00:13:49:26 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And you can feel free to film that, throw that on a teleprompter, memorize it however you want to film it, and you can start creating better welcome and better guest returns for your youth ministry and for your student ministry. And once again, here's the reason that I like this is because this, gets them connected to us. This at a very minimum, one of the sections on this video right here says, we're so glad that you came. 00:13:49:29 - 00:14:10:19 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And also welcome to our YouTube channel. And if you've been around this podcast or this YouTube playlist, any link or a YouTube channel, any length of time you know that 95% of teenagers are claiming to be and be active on YouTube. And so therefore, I think we as youth ministries should make that a priority. We and our student ministry have made it a priority. 00:14:10:21 - 00:14:27:22 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry And so, I, I think that that's a fantastic way to expose, in a sort of like, non-threatening way, expose your students to your channel, then maybe next time to log in to the YouTube account. One of our video shows up because they've already watched one. Or maybe they like that video. Maybe they subscribe to that video. 00:14:27:23 - 00:14:52:04 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry Now we're in their subscriptions with all of our teachings and all of those types of things, which, by the way, I can explain and show to you how to start posting your teachings to YouTube so that they live beyond your Sunday or Wednesday services. That video is going to be linked right here on screen, and I can't wait for you to take a look at that, because we're trying to make digital discipleship here at the Hybrid Ministry Podcast easy, possible and accessible. 00:14:52:04 - 00:14:55:28 Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry So as always, don't forget to stay hybrid.