Encouraging Others To Become Hope-Dealers
“Everybody wants hope.”
Lathan Craft knows this all too well. As a Student Pastor, the author of The Leper in the Church, and now the host of The Other Side of the Church podcast, he’s encountered countless people with hope-starved stories.
But none have impacted him more than the story of his close friend and mentor, Jarrid.
Jarrid was a Young Adults pastor at Calfornia church with a thriving suicide prevention ministry of his own. Lathan found Jarrid online and began a long-distance friendship and mentorship with him.
After a dear friend of Jarrid’s — a young mother of three — committed suicide one night, her family asked Jarrid to preside over her funeral. Although griefsticken by the event, Jarrid obliged and delivered an eloquent eulogy. But after the service was over, he walked upstairs to his office and killed himself.
Lathan was floored. From the outside, everything looked okay with Jarrid. In fact, Jarrid seemed to be flourishing.
But in a tearful phone call with Jarrid’s wife a few weeks later, Lathan began to see the whole picture. She said, “I feel like Jarrid was just a heartbeat away from hope.”
That was when Lathan realized that all of us need hope to some degree. And he knew he needed to create a community of hope-dealers to meet that need.
Focusing on the Best Ways to Deal Hope
Lathan told us that “every time I think about what Heartbeat From Hope could be, the vision gets bigger and bigger.”
His vision is to create a worldwide movement of hope-dealers trained to share non-industrialized, individualized words of encouragement with anyone who may be one Heartbeat From Hope.
But there were so many ways he could go about accomplishing that vision — almost too many.
School assemblies, pastoral conferences, corporate consulting, books, international “hope houses,” charity drives, podcasts, social media hangouts, live streams.
What he needed most from us was help focusing on what they were about and how they would meet the unique needs of the people they were trying to reach. He needed our help with strategic messaging.
Having already worked with our team on branding and marketing for his podcast, Lathan was eager to see what we could come up with for Heartbeat From Hope.
Strategic Messaging and Visual Branding
Lathan had a myriad of great ideas for “hope-dealer habits” but he had trouble articulating a singular vision that answered the question “What does Heartbeat From Hope do?”
ArtSpeak’s answer: “Heartbeat From Hope teaches individuals and organizations both the mindset and the refreshingly simple habits that bring hope to the hope-deprived.”
Our next goal was to help him see which of those habits made Heartbeat From Hope distinct. Although we saw value in all of his hope-dealer habits, there was one that stood out from the rest:
Personalized, handwritten letters that shared individualized messages of hope.
Lathan wanted us to avoid what he calls “industrialized hope” — the kinds of overgeneralized messages you can buy at Safeway. Instead, he wanted messaging to help him build a culture of hope-dealers that were trained and empowered to deal out “individualized hope.”
Once we identified that distinctive, we needed to create some visual branding that communicates the emotions of his message in one symbol. It needed to be compelling, tactile, and authentic.
Lathan was thrilled with what we landed on. We created a hand-drawn logo with a personalized font, surrounded by the raw-edged imagery of parchment. It perfectly captured Lathan’s desire to feel handcrafted, imperfect, and uplifting.
>>Want a look behind the scenes? See the moodboard that inspired this brand.
Brand Authenticity and Multichannel Synergy
Since finalizing Heartbeat From Hope’s messaging and branding, Lathan has connected with churches and businesses seeking to infuse their own cultures with the hope-dealer habits.
And the best part? These integrations have been authentic. Lathan reported that his vision statement helped position him with his clients. And his habits, once incorporated, feel natural to a multiplicity of organizations.
An additional benefit has been the synergy between Heartbeat From Hope and Latham’s podcast The Other Side of the Church. Although the audiences we helped identify for each brand are distinct, they overlap considerably.
Now, Lathan reaches people that have felt hurt by churches with his podcast. He then uses the Heartbeat From Hope habits to move those people towards healing and positive growth. Being able to provide a next step to his listeners has helped increase his reviews and listenership dramatically.
“Caring Deeply” Produces Great Art
It’s been a joy working with Lathan to bring Heartbeat From Hope’s dream to life, and we’re overjoyed by what they stand for:
Become a Hope Dealer.
Transform lives.
Change the world.
(It’s easier than you think.)
And we think Lathan has been overjoyed with us:
“I’ve loved everything about the process. The people care deeply, and it shows in their art. I highly recommend ArtSpeak to anyone. Best in the business, hands down.”
Lathan Craft
A Heartbeat From Hope
Tyler, TX
