Catalyst

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A few reasons to attend Catalyst Dallas May 1-3

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I'm so excited about Catalyst Dallas coming up May 1-3, 2013 in Dallas, TX at Bent Tree Bible Fellowship.

If you are considering attending, you'll want to go ahead and REGISTER TODAY to get the BEST RATES on tickets.

TOMORROW, THURSDAY, April 4,  is the early registration deadline, so go ahead and get your team or staff signed up at the lower prices. And when you register, use Rate Code FOB for an additional 10% off. Just for being a part of this blog community.

Here are 11 reasons why I am excited about Catalyst Dallas, and why you should attend:

1. The speaker lineup- Andy Stanley, Dave Ramsey, Emmitt Smith, Louie Giglio, Erwin McManus, Brene Brown (TED talk sensation), Craig Groeschel, Lysa TerKeurst, Mark Driscoll, Amena Brown Owen, Reggie Joiner, Jon Acuff and more. This lineup has me jacked. Seriously. I'm pumped!

2. Matt Redman, David Crowder, North Point band, Johnny Swim, Ryan O'Neal and Propaganda - all will be leading us musically. Epic.

3. Tripp and Tyler- funny guys. funny videos. they will be funny. And our emcee Chris Seay representing the state of Texas and specifically the great city of Houston. Go Rockets!

4. 5 Free Talks- there are 5 FREE talks available to you for FREE on the Catalyst Dallas Website. Go and open your free present NOW!

5. MAKE- this is our theme. And I love it.

6. LABS- wow, the wisdom and know-how that will be presenting on LABS day is humbling. Come a day early on Wednesday May 1 and hear from thought leaders like Bob Goff, Carl Lentz, Jon Acuff, Matt and Beth Redman, David Kinnaman, Tim Elmore, Stasi Eldredge, Matt Carter, Herbert Cooper, Charles Lee, Lynne Hybels, Charles Jenkins, Rachel Cruze, Jeremy Cowart, Stacy Spencer, Bianca Olthoff, Propaganda, Ryan O'Neal, Jo Saxton, Jennie Allen, Angie Smith, Jeff Shinabarger, Carlos Whittaker, Promise Tangeman, Ryan Leak and others!

7. Opening and Closing Session at LABS- Carl Lentz will be presenting in the opening session of Labs, and Bob Goff will be presenting in the closing session on Wednesday. Carl is the lead pastor of Hillsong Church New York City, and Bob is the best-selling author of Love Does and founder of Restore International.

8. 3300 Leaders- Catalyst attracts the doers, the influencers, the cultural architects, and change agents. And when you get 3300 leaders and influencers who are intent on making a difference together, great things happen.

9. Bent Tree Bible Fellowship- a great campus in Carrolton, TX (North Dallas). Top notch facilities, wireless, and a staff that is incredible to work with. The Bent Tree team is family, and we love working with them!

10. Our key partners and causes - at Catalyst we are always intentional about highlighting great organizations and leaders who are making a difference and impacting communities all over the world. Once again we'll have a number of organizations present that you can talk with and get involved with, including Plywood People, Convoy of Hope, The Giving Keys, Gift Card Giver, Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee (free coffee!!), Compassion International, and many more!

 11. The Unexpected- Our prayer is always that God would move in the hearts of the leaders who are part of Catalyst in ways we don't expect or plan for. We love creating what we consider to be a great event, but we trust and know that God shows up in unexpected ways and meets each leader in specific ways. We love hearing stories of life change, of moments of clarity, of great conversations, of powerful times of renewal, of leader's walk with Jesus becoming stronger, etc. The experience of Catalyst is what we all look forward to.

Make sure and Register TODAY. Again, best rates end TOMORROW, so go ahead and register now. You can also call 888.334.6569 to speak to a Catalyst Concierge. And use Rate Code FOB when you register to save some additional $ off your registrations.

Can't wait to see you in Dallas May 1-3!

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Being Great starts with you

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All of us want to be great. Especially as leaders. All of us want to be part of a great team. Have a great family. A great neighborhood. A great church. A great community. A great legacy. There are lots of factors that go into being great. But ultimately, being great starts with you. And since you are your greatest coach and advocate for yourself, here are a few things to always think about when it comes to being great.

1. Be responsible.

2. Be on time.

3. Be a finisher.

4. Be a learner.

5. Be a hustler.

6. Be a role model and carrier of the organizational vision.

7. Be positive.

8. Be self aware and self regulating.

9. Be first.

10. Be someone who "leans in"

11. Be who you are. Know who you are, and lead yourself.

12. Be deeply passionate.

13. Be a courageous risk taker.

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Young Influencers List, March edition

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Here you go, the March edition of the Young Influencers List. You can see all the past month's lists here. 1. Andy Wood- founding pastor, South Bay Church in San Jose.

2. Crystal Paine- founder of the uber popular blog Money Saving Mom, and author and speaker.

3. Adam Braun- founder and CEO, Pencils of Promise.

4. Gary Ward- otherwise known as G-Blest, rapper, hip hop and spoken word artist in Las Vegas. Performs regularly at Central Christian Church.

5. Leighton Ching- design and creative artist guru at Passion Conferences, Passion City Church and sixstepsrecords.

6. Carissa Phelps- attorney, youth advocate, social entrepreneur and author of the book Runaway Girl.

7. Christian Huang- executive director of San Francisco City Impact, a rescue mission intervening in the heart of inner city San Francisco.

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I need your help! Be Part of the Launch Team for The Catalyst Leader book

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Hey friends! It's that time. And I need your help.....

Here we go! Just over one month until my new book The Catalyst Leader hits the shelves on Tuesday, April 16. The official release is at Catalyst West that week.
This is my first book, and I'm truly humbled to bring lessons from the Catalyst leadership movement over the last 14 years to leaders everywhere. I am so excited for leaders all over the US and around the world to really dig into the heart of what it means to truly be a Catalyst leader, and ultimately lead now, and lead well in today's culture.
This is where you come in, and where I need your help in spreading the word.We need a launch team, an incredible group of people willing to lead the charge in changing the way the world views leadership. We need change makers, leaders, innovators, students, dreamers, and believers. If that sounds like you…

Go HERE to join the Book Launch Team.

Book Launch Team Member Benefits

  • A free, electronic copy of the book in advance of the publication date (Kindle, Nook, iPad, or PDF).
  • Exclusive access to me and the Catalyst team members in a Private Facebook Group.
  • A special group phone call teaching session with me prior to the launch of the book.
  • A special THANK YOU mention with link to your blog or website on my blog
  • Audio download of my recent talk on "10 Things I've learned from Leading Catalyst"
  • A free, electronic copy of the Catalyst Leader book accompanying participants guide in advance of the publication date.
  • A 25% off discount on anything in the Catalyst store

Team Member Requirements

  • Write a book review on Amazon.com as well as one other e-tailer site (2 reviews total)
  • Help spread the word about the book through your blog, to your existing network and beyond, starting on April 15th and throughout the week of the book release.
  • Spread the word about the book through Twitter and Facebook with at least 3 mentions the week of the book release, using the hashtag #catalystleader
  • Instagram the cover of the book (we'll send you a pic to use)

That's it!

Again, go here to be part of the Book Launch team and fill out the form. Appreciate your help!

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Young Influencers List, February edition

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Here you go, the February edition of the Young Influencers List. You can see all the past month's lists here. 1. Melissa Fitzpatrick- research assistant and key strategic lead at Living Proof Ministries, and daughter of Beth!!

2. Ben Hardesty- lead singer and founder of the up and coming band The Last Bison.

3. Art Hooker- videographer, filmmaker, and VP Change Design at Citi.

4. Rachel Triska- pastor and executive director of Life in Deep Ellum.

5. Trevor Bayne- NASCAR driver and 2011 winner of the Daytona 500.

6. Jarrod McKenna- Aussie activist, peacemaker, key leader of EPYC (Empowering Peacemakers), and World Vision Australia advisor.

7. Micah Owings- partner and ambassador for My Active Faith and signed recently with Washington Nationals.

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5 Stages for Making Creative Ideas Happen at Catalyst

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We get asked all the time about how we come up with new and fresh ideas for Catalyst. It's a pretty simple process that has proven to be effective. This can be useful in any organization or scenario, whether you are launching ideas, or just looking to make sound decisions. Here you go: 1. Create- we spend a ton of time just brainstorming, which is obviously a very important part of the process. The more ideas on the board, the more opportunities for one of those to make it through the process. All ideas matter at this stage. For example, we have probably 300-350 programming ideas every year for our October conference. And creative meetings are "yes and" meetings, not "no but." Incredibly important!

2. Criticize - every idea, in order to stay in the process, has to be critiqued and criticized significantly. This is key in order to make sure you don't spend tons of time chasing too many rabbits and driving everyone crazy with lots of good ideas but nothing ever happening. And make sure everyone doesn't take things personal- criticizing an idea is much different than criticizing the person who came up with the idea. It's not personal. This stage is a filter, and weeds out lots of possible ideas that just don't have the legs to keep moving up the grid.

3. Optimize- anything that makes it pass the criticize phase has to be built on. In some ways, this is a second and third wave of innovation. Most of the time the original idea will turn into something that looks totally different. And that is okay, and actually important and needed. This is really the essence of putting icing on the cake. A bit of time will usually bring clarity and renewed energy to an idea, so we have to usually let good ideas cook a bit in order to make them great.

4. Validate- every idea has to be validated- financially, operationally, personnel wise, and direction/vision related. Lots of big ideas appropriately get held up in this phase, either to be released later or put on the shelf for good. Conversely, in many organizations, lots of bad ideas make it through this phase because of bad systems and/or leaders who aren't willing to say no, or a team that can't say no to the leader. Leaders- if you are using your position and power to push the wrong ideas through the validation phase, this is a major red flag!

5. Execute- it all comes down to getting things done. Hard work is time consuming and tiring. We take tremendous pride in execution on ideas. If it has gone through the entire process and made it to this point, the idea deserves the attention and focus to make sure it happens. And if every level of the Idea process grid was correctly put in motion, the idea is probably going to be good when turned into reality!

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10 Reasons to attend Catalyst West 2013

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I'm so excited about Catalyst West coming up April 17-19, 2013 in Orange County (Irvine) CA at Mariners Church.

If you are considering attending, you'll want to go ahead and REGISTER TODAY to get the BEST RATES on tickets.

TODAY, February 14th,  is the early registration deadline, so go ahead and get your team or staff signed up at the lower prices. And when you register, use Rate Code FOB for an additional 10% off. Just for being a part of this blog community.

Here are 10 reasons why I am excited about Catalyst West, and why you should attend:

1. The speaker lineup- Andy Stanley, Jim Collins, Louie Giglio, Christine Caine, Chip Heath (author of Made to Stick), Matt Chandler, Jud Wilhite, Dallas Willard, Pranitha Timothy, Manny Ohonme, Tom Shadyac (legendary Hollywood director), and more. This lineup has me jacked. Seriously. I'm pumped!

2. Joel Houston (of Hillsong NYC), David Crowder, and Israel Houghton - all will be leading us musically. Epic.

3. Tripp and Tyler- funny guys. funny videos. they will be funny.

4. 5 Free Talks- there are 5 FREE talks available to you for FREE on the Catalyst West Website. Go and open your free present NOW!

5. MAKE- this is our theme. And I love it.

6. LABS- wow, the wisdom and know-how that will be presenting on LABS day is humbling. Come a day early and hear from thought leaders like Dave Gibbons, Mike Erre, Nancy Ortberg, Carl Lentz, Claire Diaz Ortiz, David Kinnaman, Sergio de la Mora, Jim Daly, Charles Lee, Jeremy Cowart, Bianca Olthoff, Propaganda, Kara Powell, Mark and Jan Foreman, Carlos Whittaker, and many others!

7. Opening and Closing Session at LABS- John Eldredge will be presenting in the opening session of Labs, and Miles McPherson will be presenting in the closing session on Wednesday. John is the author of Wild at Heart and Beautiful Outlaw, and Miles is the author of Do Something! and senior pastor of The Rock Church in San Diego.

8. 3500 Leaders- Catalyst attracts the doers, the influencers, the cultural architects, and change agents. And when you get 3500 leaders and influencers who are intent on making a difference together, great things happen.

9. Mariners Church- a breathtaking campus in Irvine, CA. Lots of green space, and a staff that is incredible to work with. The Mariners team is family, and we love working with them!

10. The Unexpected- Our prayer is always that God would move in the hearts of the leaders who are part of Catalyst in ways we don't expect or plan for. We love creating what we consider to be a great event, but we trust and know that God shows up in unexpected ways and meets each leader in specific ways. We love hearing stories of life change, of moments of clarity, of great conversations, of powerful times of renewal, of leader's walk with Jesus becoming stronger, etc. The experience of Catalyst is what we all look forward to.

Make sure and Register TODAY. Again, best rates end TODAY. You can also call 888.334.6569 to speak to a Catalyst Concierge. And use Rate Code FOB when you register to save some additional $ off your registrations.

Can't wait to see you there!

 

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10 keys on leadership from Chuck Swindoll

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Chuck Swindoll is a hero of mine. A legend. A man of God who has lived it out. And these were 10 Keys he provided for us back in 2010 at Catalyst Atlanta. So practical.

Specifically positioned as things he wanted to pass on to the next generation of leaders- primarily those in their 20's and 30's.

1. It's lonely to lead.

2. It's dangerous to succeed. Especially when you are young.

3. It's hardest at home.

4. It's essential to be real. if there is one area or realm that being fake is personafied, it's among leaders.

5. It's painful to obey.

6. Brokenness and failure are necessary.

7. My attitude is more important than my actions. "Some of us are getting hard to be around."

8. Integrity eclipses image. Every time.

9. God's way is always better than my way. Many times we are just capable and can pull it off ourselves.

10. Christ likeness begins and ends with humility. "for i am meek and lonely of heart."

Thanks Chuck for your example and investing in us!

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