“How to Repeat Yourself Without Being Annoying” (S4Ep10)

As a leader, you have to repeat yourself a lot. People are busy, distracted, overwhelmed, and worrying about a lot of other things. Whatever it is you want to communicate to them, you normally have to say it many times for it to finally break through and sink in—especially the folks who are least engaged. And so, if you’re not very tired of saying it, you have likely not said it enough yet. But how do you repeat yourself over and over again without annoying or boring the people already listening?

In his book, Visioneering, Andy Stanley explains that you need to repeat yourself 21 times in order for your vision and message to really sink in for somebody.

I already repeat myself!

Do you feel like you repeat yourself too much? Do you feel like you’ve talked about the same thing over and over, only to have someone come up to you, shocked as if they’ve never heard it before? There are a few lessons you can learn from this.

1. Yes, you know it and you’ve said it a lot of times, but that doesn’t mean they’ve heard it every single time.
2. A general rule for leaders is, if you’re not tired of saying it, you probably haven’t said it enough.
3. You might think you’ve said it enough because your inner circle understands it. You might be afraid of annoying them by repeating yourself, but then you miss those outside the inner circle who haven’t heard it enough. Just because the most engaged understand, doesn’t mean everyone else does. Push past your inner circle and repeat yourself to those on the outside.
4. Even if your inner circle understands and gets it, doesn’t mean they’ve internalized it enough to share it with others. They still need to hear your message too, so they are capable of passing it on to others (in those outer circles).

How to repeat yourself (21 times or more!) without being annoying

1. You have to earn the right to repeat yourself. If it’s not important, not meaningful, or there’s nothing big at stake, then it’s probably not worth repeating. If it’s convincing and inspiring, then people won’t really be annoyed hearing about it multiple times.
2. Hint: If people are getting annoyed with your message, there might be a problem with it. This can be a good indicator your message needs to be more convincing and inspiring.
3. When you do repeat yourself, make it count. It might be tempting to rush through your message when you’re repeating it for a second or third time. Do the opposite, double down on your message when you repeat it, and say it better and clearer than the first time.
4. Find some ways to creatively repeat yourself. Think of conducting an orchestra, you wouldn’t want only a single instrument playing the same note over and over again. You want harmony. You want different instruments to create a beautiful song together. The same goes for repeating your message. Leaders are like conductors, you have lots of different instruments and notes you can use together to communicate something beautiful.

These concepts should be pervasive because everything your church does should be part of your central goal and overall vision. Every event, message, and activity fits into your mission and is an opportunity to creatively repeat yourself, your vision, and what you are all about.

A Concrete Example

Let’s say you have a big marriage program this upcoming Fall that you want to invite people to. How can you creatively communicate and repeat this invitation to your people?

First Announcement

• Start with a direct announcement on Sunday. Tell people why they should attend and give them all the details.
• Hand out flyers as people are leaving with information in case they were distracted during the announcement.
• Later that day, send a focused email that is only about promoting this marriage program.
• Include a blurb in your bulletin, and maybe put it on the front cover.

Creative Ways to Repeat Yourself

• The following week, include an invitation to the marriage program in your weekly email that contains all your other news and announcements.
• Include another brief reminder during your Sunday announcements.
• Hand out flyers when people are leaving in case they missed them last week.
• The following week, send another standalone email, but with a video testimonial on how someone’s life changed because of this program.
• At Sunday school or CCD, invite the kids to draw pictures of their families and give them to their parents.
• Invite a couple to get up and share why they’re planning to attend the program this year.
• Ask your ministries that couples tend to be involved in to share about the marriage program during their upcoming meetings.
• Give out a free book or pamphlet about marriage on Sunday and include a flyer for the program inside the book.
• Host a launch party like a family movie night to kick off the marriage program.

At this point, your inner circle will understand and probably be signed up for the program, so it’s time to recruit them to have them help invite people in the outer circles to attend.

When you get creative and use different notes to repeat yourself, it helps communicate how important your message is and shows how passionate you are about sharing it with others.

You can say the same thing without saying it the same way. Ultimately, that is how you can repeat yourself without being annoying.

Links from the show

• Did you find Uno? Send us a photo at howdy@findinguno.com.
• Have a general question about church communication? Submit it to our hotline at Findinguno.com/ask-a-question.