Tag: speaking

  • Speaking & Writing update

    Forgive the pause in my normal posts to share some life updates.

    Speaking & Training

    My 2012 speaking/training schedule is now has it’s own page. As far as I know, everything listed there is available for you to register to attend. There are two primary things which seem to be taking off for me in this area.

    1. A Parents Guide to Social Media – This seminar teaches social media principles, goes over relevant laws, and tries to replace fear with fact, principle, and strategy.
    2. Growing Your Business with MailChimp – This is a 2-hour class, more like an interactive training session on all that MailChimp can do for you. (I also do a ministry version, much the same content just geared for ministry communications.)

    Obviously, I do a lot more than just these two things. But that’s what is bringing the most interest right now. I’d love to come and speak for you. Just send me an email and we can talk about it. Being a small business owner/entrepreneur– I’m pretty creative when it comes to the payment side of things so darn near anyone can afford me.

    Writing

    Short-form writing has really become my specialty. (500-2000 words) Over the past several years I’ve written lots of blog posts, guest posts, and magazine articles. But I’ve stayed away from books because the idea of 40,000 – 60,000 words scared the crap out of me.

    That said, I have two book projects underway in the >15,000 words category.

    1. I’m co-authoring a small book for parents with Marko on social media. (Hence, the seminar above.)
    2. I’m revisiting some of my favorite, most shared blog content and “digitally remastering” it into a beautiful little book on how you and I can become Good News in our neighborhoods.
    I’ll let you know when those have official titles, release dates, etc.

    Curriculum

    I’ve got 2 very creative, very fun, 6-week curriculums in development for high school and college students. (They’d work for middle school too, probably) I’ve got a bit of a manifesto on curriculum and why I’m doing it a certain way, but that’s for another post!

    Both of those are coming out this Spring.

    I’m hunting for collaborators

    There’s no other way to say it. If you have ideas and you want to work with me on something, let’s chat. If you’ve got a great idea for a mobile app, event, book, curriculum, or something else and think working together might be awesome, drop me a line.

  • Speaking Schedule so far this Fall

    I’m definitely not an “on the road all the time” speaker dude. But I do love teaching and training and I’m stoked to have a few opportunities coming this Fall.

    Here’s my next three:

    • WordCamp LA – September 10th, Loyola Marymount University – Tickets – If you’re a WordPress junkie you know WordCamp is the place the local community gathers to learn from one another. I’m leading a workshop on creating and maintaining an online presence for your brand.
    • National Youth Workers Convention San Diego – October 1st – 3rd, Town & Country Resort – Tickets – I’m doing a lot at NYWC! I’m leading a fishbowl discussion called, Expanding the Vision: Rethinking Volunteers. I’m teaching a workshop called, Creating an Online Ministry. And I have a few sessions in the interactive media area, Getting Started as a Blogger, Free and Awesome Communications Tools for Youth Workers, and How to Customize a Facebook Page.
    • National Youth Workers Convention Atlanta – November 18 – 21, Marriott Marquis – Tickets – Same sessions as San Diego.
    If you have a training event, retreat, or even want to bring me in for a day of consultation – Send me a note.  As a reader of my blog, you know I’m not limited to the topics I’m speaking on this Fall.

  • Competitive Advantage

    This clip from Tin Cup highlights the differences between an amateur and a tour professional. 

    Whether you are a casual golfer or a week-to-week preacher in a church. You and the guy on tour are fundamentally different in how you approach your craft.

    What you do is similar! But how you approach it and how it’s carried out are completely different.

    As the movie shows, the tour pro takes calculated risks, repeating the same simple winning swing over and over again, week-to-week, tour stop to tour stop.

    Whereas the casual golfer, even the aspiring professional, has to take greater risks to see lesser rewards, often swinging wildly and taking big risks in hopes that it’ll pay off.

    Having been around PGA and Champions Tour players as a tour volunteer I know that there are a lot of differences between their game and your game. 

    • They will hit +/- 1000 practice balls per day. (Driving range, sand, putting green, chipping)
    • They are surrounded by people who advise them on their game all the time. (People who know what they’re talking about, too.)
    • They only play on courses at the top of their condition. The greenskeeper at a Tour stop builds his whole growth cycle around that week.
    • They have a caddy with them who does all of the math and can tell them exact distances and best approaches to every shot on the golf course.
    • The TV cameras only show the best players on shots that have been edited. Each minute during a tournament 40-50 players take a swing, you only see the best of the best.

    I’m a 12 handicapper on my own. But I guarantee you that if you put me on that stage, in those conditions, with that practice… I’d look a whole lot better than I do normally. Give me a week with those set of circumstances and I’d break 80.

    It’s not that they don’t have skill or talent. It’s that their skill has been put on display in the best possible conditions for them to look good. (They would argue that they rose to this spot just like everyone else. Sure, they take advantage today. But they got to that point with nothing but hard work and rising through the amateur, college, and mini-tour ranks. Fair enough.)

    It’s that the game they play is similar, but completely different from the game I play with my friends. It’s set up for them to look good.

    What’s my point?

    A lot of times we go to a conference, camp, retreat, or a convention and we see a tour pro on their best day, in the best conditions, absolutely NAIL a talk. And we walk away thinking… “Why do I even bother?!? I’ll never be that good. Why not just buy that dude’s DVDs and play them at my church each week?”

    But before you get upset or lament realize this: The talk you’ve just heard has likely been delivered dozens of times. It’s been critically reviewed by an inner circle. It’s been refined, they know when to drop what line, they know how to adapt it to your setting. They have only booked themselves at events they know they’ll play well to. The lighting, sound, and environmental conditions are tailored to their strengths and weaknesses. A professional band set them up. Someone else introduced them. At best, their talk has 1-2 calculated moments of risk.

    It’s not that they are better than you. It’s that given the conditions their talents are amplified and you’re able to see them at their absolute best.

    In the end… the act of speaking at a conference is similar to what you do on a week-to-week basis, but completely different at the same time. They are only thinking about that talk. They didn’t drive the van to the retreat. They don’t have to give a new talk each week. On and on. It’s completely different from what you or I do on a week-to-week basis in our ministry.

    Here’s the fun part: Just like in the movie– you could tell that the tour pros got a kick out of the caddy hitting the big shot on the big stage. There’s a little glimmer in their eye when you take a big risk. They kind of wish they could do it, too. 

  • Hit Me with God’s Hammer Today

    A few weeks back I wrote about something I call, the Pastor Man Up Movement. (PMUM) There’s something about PMUM that annoys me and I’ve been trying to figure out exactly what it is.

    • Is it that its mostly men and I have a strong desire to see women lead? Maybe a little.
    • Is it that its mostly racially homogenous? Maybe a little, but I’m a white male too. So what do I know?

    While both of those things annoy me a tad about PMUM speakers/writes I can’t say that its contributing to the distaste I get when I hear one of these people talk about leadership.

    I’ve been trying to search myself so I can articulate it. (And I want to be careful that I use words like “annoy” and “distaste” so people aren’t thinking I’m just some bizarre hater of well-known PMUM leaders.)

    But here is one thing that I know doesn’t resonate with me when I listen to them talk about leadership:

    Leadership isn’t about celebrating yourself.

    Leadership is about moving people to do something or go somewhere they couldn’t go on their own.

    Ultimately, one thing that bothers me so much is the celebration of self. You hear introductions that laud how much they’ve accomplished. How much money they raised. Where they went to school. How many people go to their church. That they are the founder of their congregation which is larger than yours. How often they meet other famous leaders. And why you should believe that every word flowing from their mouth is like little leftovers that the Holy Spirit forgot to include in the canon saved especially for you, as if it were milk and honey saved just for you… this one time.

    Want to know who I want to admire? I want to admire a person who leaks transparency. I want to hear from a person who doesn’t want the microphone. I want to admire a person who doesn’t know how many books he’s sold or how many people go to his church or how many staff members he has.

    I want to hear a speaker who stands up and tells the audience as her into, “Want to know why people follow me? Me too. I haven’t got a clue. God is doing it through me. I’m just a knucklehead. Know that I’m a sinner and it’s by grace that I’m standing here today. My husband and I argued about me making this appearance, but I guess we just need the money. And the message I’m about to deliver this morning– don’t get hung up on it. I have a staff who helped me and I have delivered it for 14 times. I call this my $22,000 sermon. After today, it’s my $22,500 sermon. Don’t be impressed with me today, be impressed with how God is using me to minister to you today.”

    I know that isn’t exactly inspiring to most. But its the kind of leader I like to follow. (And its the kind of leader I aspire to be.) I don’t know if people would spend $100 to listen to a series of speakers talk like that. But I do know it’s worth $100, for me at least, to hear the truth over and over again.

    Just hit me with the hammer God has gifted you to hit me with.

    Honesty preachers to me.

    Transparency preaches to me.

    Humility preaches to me.

    Checking what I assume against what is clear in Scripture preaches to me.

    Chest-bumping doesn’t.