The interview I did with Craig Groeschel, Mark Batterson, Perry Noble, and Steven Furtick is now up on the Catalyst Website as well as on itunes. You can stream the audio on our website or just download for free on the catalyst itunes page. This was a fun interview, considering it was more of a conversation between all four of these great leaders and visionaries. Make sure to check in on the One Prayer Initiative and see the latest happenings.
Check out the video below from Chad Johnson and Dustin Ahkuoi. Some of you may have already viewed this on Ben Arment's blog, but if not, enjoy! [googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6685849728786454868]
"The number one battle for a Leader is overcoming one's selfishness." Jim Blanchard, former CEO of Synovus
Unfortunately, selfishness comes very naturally to all of us.
Course: Augusta National (where the Masters is played)
Time of Year: spring (late March)
Foursome: Me, My dad, Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus (me and Nicklaus vs. my dad and Tiger)
Outcome: all square (my dad wins in a putt off)
How about you?
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. For example, we have probably 300-350 programming ideas every year for our October conference. And creative meetings are "yes and" meetings, not "but or". 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.
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. This is really the essence of putting icing on the cake.
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, lots of bad ideas make it through this phase because of bad systems and/or leaders who aren't willing to say no.
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!
That is quite a title for a post, huh? Well, we decided to go on the road with the Catalyst creative team and spend the day with Lanny Donoho down at Big Stuf Camps in Panama City, Florida. Reggie Joiner was also down teaching at Big Stuf, so he joined us for our creative time. By the way, Lanny just started blogging, so head on over to his site and give him a warm welcome to the blogging world! Road trips should always involve plenty of snacks (at least when I am involved they do), so here is a quick glimpse of what was in the trusty snack bag at one of our stops. Plus, a few signs from the Race Way gas station that provided nuggets of wisdom- only in the Dirty South....
We attended the Big Stuf Camp opening session, and then spent the day really talking about three major areas for the event coming up in October- the opening session, the music/worship, and some general ideas that are so out of the box that no one would ever believe us anyway. It is incredibly stimulating to be around and be involved with creative people, and to watch creativity and innovative ideas appear. And hanging out on the beach having the ocean as a backdrop tends to spur creativity....
I guess the first question is "do you have a tagline?" I have one- "networker." That defines what I love to do, and hopefully adds value to those around me. But it is the tag that most people use who know me well, as well as those who are simply acquaintances.
Let me give a few other examples, strictly based on my opinion:
John Maxwell- leadership; 21 Laws
Don Miller- blue like jazz
Tony Morgan- strategic blogger
Darlene Zschech- Hillsong worship
Lanny Donoho- funny emcee
Beth Moore- women's bible studies
Rick Warren- Purpose Driven
Jeff Shinabarger- ideas
Mark Batterson- DC coffee shop
Marcus Buckingham- strengths
You may argue with some of the "tags" I've given to these folks, but the point is, whether you like it or not, you are being tagged. I believe "branding" and "tagging" are different. Branding is more about identity and emotion, where tagging is more about what I do. Sometimes they overlap, but most of the time they are closely associated but not necessarily the same. A tag is the subtitle of your book, if you were writing a biography. A tag is what comes to mind first when people think of you, that split second chance for someone to properly pull your file from their short or long term memory. A tag is no more than 10 words- a quick and concise snapshot of what someone sees you doing.
So are you creating your own tag, or is someone else creating it for you?
If you don't read Mike Hyatt's blog, then you need to. Mike is the President of Thomas Nelson Publishers, and through his blog puts out some great stuff that is very helpful to leaders. It is one of the few blogs that I subscribe to receive by email, and not just on my bloglines feed. His posts come straight in to the inbox.
In a recent post, he talked about "the how of wow", and ultimately some steps on how to create a WOW experience for your customers, employees, or just overall network. He gives 4 practical steps and a very practical example of how they've done this with their reception area at Thomas Nelson's headquarters. Worth the read.
Here you go, the June edition of the Young Influencers List: 1. Jonathan Acuff- writer/blogger/consultant, and the voice behind the wildly popular Stuff Christians Like blog.
2. Chris Heuertz- International Executive Director of an amazing organization called Word Made Flesh. Chris spends most of the year around the world serving the poorest of the poor, and has a new book out called Simple Spirituality due out in July.
3. Shannon Sedgwick Davis- Shannon is incredibly well connected, and is involved in a number of projects, including The Bridgeway Foundation and The Elders, which boasts some amazing names attached to this high level humanitarian project.
4. Tony Wood - leader of the College/Young Adults ministry at Crossroads Church in Corona, CA.
5. Lecrae- songwriter, rapper, musician and speaker. Lecrae is part of Reach Records, and very involved in the Memphis community.
If you missed last month's May edition, check it out here.
Coffee or Cola? What's your preferred caffeine of choice?
I am a cola junkie. Diet of course..... How about you?
Attended a board meeting this past week for Gift Card Giver. This is an initiative launched by my close friend Jeff Shinabarger and his wife Andre. The focus of GCG is to provide a way for unused credit on gift cards to be given to those in great need. Whether it is $1 or $100 that is left on a card, the collective value of cards being sent in has major potential for greater good. This is an incredibly powerful initiative, and one with multiple areas of impact- helping others, fighting consumerism, leveraging current unused "currency", and ultimately creating generous givers. With the rise of the use of gift cards, and the popularity of giving them to friends and family, I am convinced that Gift Card Giver is going to have a major impact over the next 10-20 years. That is why I am involved.
So dig in the wallet, or the purse, or the kitchen cabinet, or the desk drawer, and gather up the unused cards and send them in. You'll be glad you did. Here are a few pics from the meeting earlier this week.
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Four great leaders 40 and under with four innovative and impactful churches. 
Had the opportunity today to spend 90 minutes on the phone with Craig Groeschel, Steven Furtick, Perry Noble, and Mark Batterson. We were discussing the upcoming One Prayer Campaign, which launches this Sunday, June 8. This unifying initiative now includes 1,400 churches around the world! Four Weeks. Unified. One Prayer.
The interview from today will be released sometime middle of next week in the form of a brand new Catalyst Podcast. I'll let everyone know when it is posted and available for download. It is really good stuff. To hear these leaders talk about the power of churches and leaders praying and serving together was truly inspirational. Make sure to check out the One Prayer blog over the next several weeks while the campaign is in full swing to keep up to date.
Wanted to list a few notes from Kevin Myers' sermon this past weekend at 12Stone Church. It was a great reminder of the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Here are the high points: - The Holy Spirit both inverts and infills.
- It transforms the way we see things; shift is the key word
- It also gives us strength to stick
- We can easily take our eye off the road and focus on lesser things and over time start to drift
- Is it possible that there is too little "Acts" (Biblical) and too much "America" in the Church today? A very strong and pressing question.
- The church in Acts focused first on commitment, and second on convenience. Too many times my tendency is to focus first on convenience, and second on commitment.
- Some closing questions: What burdens me? What does it means for me to win? How am I keeping score? What keeps me up at night?
Interesting article in the New York Times on Sunday talking about the changing face and perspective of younger evangelicals. The article, "Taking Their Faith, but not Their Politics, to the People," highlights in the beginning of the article the The Journey, a Baptist church led by Darrin Patrick, a friend and Catalyst speaker from 2007 labs. A majority of the article justifies the fact that many younger evangelicals are interested in being known for more than just the traditional rhetoric and platform of the Religious right. I think the article is a pretty fair shake overall.
Recently, Kevin Carroll stopped by the Catalyst offices. If you are not familiar with Kevin, he was a speaker at Catalyst in 2006, and had the longest line I have ever seen for a book signing for his book Rules of the Red Rubber Ball- not just a book signing line at Catalyst, but any event I have ever attended or helped produce. I think he signed over 1,200 books- around 4 hours of signing! (As a side note, we set up Kevin's talk in 2006 with the National Dodgeball Champions. Watch the clip of them making an appearance here).
Anyway, Kevin (KC) has become a good friend and continues to do great work through The Katalyst Consultancy and his frequent speaking gigs all over the world. He is also involved with the Homeless World Cup Soccer initiative, which this next year will take place in Sydney, Australia. KC is one of those guys that makes you better every time you are around him. He exudes so much joy and enthusiasm for life. He also has a new book coming out soon that you will want to keep an eye out for.
I am a piler, and also like to use my inbox as my to do list, but also keep an email draft up to date that is truly my to do list. The top of the desk is usually where I keep things for two - three days while considering or looking through the project, opportunity, task, book, or item. Is that necessarily a bad thing?
How about you? Do you clean the ole desk off at the end of every day, or keep stacks and the organic feel for multiple days?
Saw this on Guy Kawasaki's blog. Very interesting. The future of conferences potentially. And for sure the future of conference calls. No more travel for business meetings at some point in the future.... Watch the video now.
That's right, yours truly was at the Indianapolis 500 Race on Sunday this past weekend. Haven't posted anything in the last three days but I'm back! The race was incredible. But the festivities leading up to the race were even more fun. Thanks to Steve Fee for the invite and to Scott Brickell for hooking me up on the ticket. But this wasn't just an ordinary ticket to the Indy 500- we had pit passes, garage passes, and a pagoda suite club pass, which is the ultimate when watching a race at Indy.
Steve was there to lead worship at the three chapel services held before the race for staff, crews, drivers, volunteers and VIP's. Scott is Steve's manager and has provided a worship leader 5 out of the past 6 years for the chapel service. Scott is the founder and CEO of Brickhouse Entertainment, managing bands like Audio Adrenaline, Mercy Me, and now the Fee Band. We had a great time together watching the race as well as visiting with a few celebrities here and there. We also were able to hang out in the driver's area pre-race which was pretty cool getting to see the drivers up close with their friends and families.
Overall, a very cool experience. I guess I am an official Indy racing fan now. Spoiled Indy racing fan for sure! Check out this video below- it will give you a sense of how loud the cars are.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/XLBF1vl9Ch0]
A few shots below of some moments with celebrities!
A few links to find the best notes from the speaker sessions at The Whiteboard Sessions: - Perry Noble has notes on his site
- Tony Morgan - a few of the sessions are missing because he had to leave early
- Tim Stevens- highlights the big idea of each speaker
- Conference Channel- each speaker summarizes their one big idea- make sure to look at the youtube section on the conference channel for all of the videos- some are missing right now from the conference channel list
The Whiteboard Sessions has come and gone. It was a really fun day including tons of conversations with friends, some new connections, interviews live on Conference Channel, and a total letdown movie to end the day (more on that later). So here are some highlights: - had dinner last night with Boyd Bettis, Matt Morgan, Scott Magdelain, LV Hanson (from our team), Terrace Crawford, Ben Arment, Jay Hardwick and his wife Lara Beth (who is a total trooper), and Sam. We had some good laughs. It was like a bloggers convention- not sure how I got the invite.
- got to finally meet Tim Stevens from Granger Church. He was here with several of his team, including Kem Meyer, who is just plain cool. All of their team is cool. I bet Granger is a great place to work.
- Saw Perry Noble, Tony Morgan, and Ron Sylvia in the Atlanta airport on the way up to DC yesterday afternoon. Then got to hang with Perry some today. He is one of the funniest guys I know. We spent the better part of 10 minutes reminiscing about the good old days of professional wrestling. He informed me that Rock n Roll Express and the Midnight Express are wrestling each other in Liberty, SC sometime in the next several days. That is unbelievable! Those guys have to be at least 60 years old at minimum. I believe the match will be at the local high school gym. We are looking into front row seats! And by the way, Perry brought the wood during his session. Major props to him for challenging the audience here at Whiteboard. For a snippet of his talk, go to You Tube.
- Interviewed a bunch of friends for Conference channel including Ron Sylvia, Darrin Patrick, Carlos Whittaker, Tony Morgan and a few other attendees. Carlos and I look like long lost brothers with our shaved heads. And he previews something pretty cool in the video interview that will be happening with his blog community coming up in the next month. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIJzDundH5I&hl=en]
- Actually called in live to the Catalyst Podcast 50th episode recording and had Mark Batterson and Ed Stetzer join us for a few comments. I actually interrupted them while they were doing a live webcast interview (which has since been deleted from the conference channel page...). Steve Fee and Chrystina Fincher were live in the Catalyst studio with Ken Coleman, while I was on location here in DC at Whiteboard. Just call me Geraldo.
- Great to see all the other speakers who were here to present- John Burke, Mark Dever (who I didn't get to meet but was hoping to), and Vince Antonucci, who is hilarious.
- Other folks who I got to catch up with- Joshua Symonette, Scott Hodge, Jeff Shinabarger, Brad Abare, Chris Elrod, Will Mancini, and the infamous Todd Rhoades, who was twittering like a mad man all day long from the Leadership Network VIP Room.
- New friends got to connect with- Stephen Brewster from Integrity (had lunch with him, Shinabarger, Joshua and Ben Arment); had dinner with the guys from Igniter Media Group and Collide Magazine. It was great to meet their team- Rob Thomas (who is the President of Igniter), Kent McKeigg, Barton Damer, and Scott McClellan. These guys are doing some great work and are just cool cats in general.
- Went to see the latest Indiana Jones movie with LV and the Igniter Media Group guys. Pitiful movie. Horrible. Are you kidding me? Now my great memories of Indiana Jones growing up have been tarnished. Boo!
- Wissssshhhhhheeeeewwww! That was something.
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