This is greatness. Too bad no Cubs fan looks like that dude, he’s not yuppie enough.
In honor of his Airness, she’s bringing her A game at the play place. (Taken with instagram)
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
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One thing that really gets me going, in a good way, is when the church speaks up on racial issues. This clip is from the message this weekend at my church, Willow Creek, where our Senior Pastor discusses the intentional transformation of our church from “All White and Alright” to more of what I feel God intends…. a group of people of all races, all backgrounds, all classes, and all ages.
This is a long clip but a good one. The end is the best part where a hero in the Civil Rights front, Dr. John Perkins, speaks about race in the church today. My wife had an amazing opportunity to spend 3 days with this wise man, can you tell I’m kind of jealous.
Click the link above to hear the message by Bill Hybels and Dr Perkins.
Most Useful Apps of 2011
So you might be asking yourself, why is this dufus qualified to write a post regarding apps. Well, I’m glad you asked. I’m not but that’s the beauty of the web, no-one has to be qualified anymore, everything out here is absolute fact. And that my friends is a fact.
Anyway, when I received my first iPad a couple years back I went on an app buying frenzy only to come to find out that most were cool for a minute then utterly useful thereafter. But I’ve managed to hone in on a few that are truly useful in every since of the word, and by that I mean I’ve opened the app more then three times and actually use it very consistently. So here’s my list of the top 5 useful apps of 2011 for lil ole me. Rush out and download these instantly or I will hunt you down, turn off your “find my iPhone” app, and will sell it on the black market for booze.
Twitter - I was leery about Twitter for quite sometime. I’d migrated from MySpace to Facebook and wasn’t ready for yet another Social Network. But Twitter is different in a marvelous way, I find it a great tool to stay in the know in a “quick way” on all topics important to me like my company, my clients, my competition, etc…
Pandora - I plugged my stereo into an AirPort express and now daily wirelessly stream music from my iPad to our living room. It’s on like all day and Pandora so far is my favorite app, while Spotify is a close second. I like Pandora’s random playlist ability a bit more.
Evernote - In my effort towards better documentation, this has been a world of help. I take notes for all sorts of things here, take pictures of receipts, and key info that I seemed to misplace via post it notes but now can search and find it in an instant.
The Daily - I just stumbled upon this recently and am hooked. Something about interactive magazines and papers intrigue me. It’s high level but a good way to get the days news in a fun way.
My Net Dairy - okay I should confess upfront that if I used this more I’d be a bit more slim but when I did it was awesome. Great way to quickly log and track your calories for the day. Has a database that has like every food imaginable and can sync between your PC and iPhone which is really nice.
My lil rockstar, already hitting the bottle while jamming out (Taken with instagram)
Remembering my Mentor
In my view, there’s no one more important thing to achieving success in a career ( or in life for that matter) then finding a mentor. Not just any old mentor but one who takes a vested interest in you as a person and as a colleague. One who finds true joy in walking along side you and coaching you towards success. One that models all that you desire to represent in the marketplace which for me was integrity, tenacity, and diligence. But while doing all that also living out your faith in the nitty gritty world of business.
After my first year on the job of wanting to quit almost daily I found just this sort of mentor. He was 30 years to my later and actually wrote the curriculum for what now is called “IBM Global Sales School” one of the industries most highly recognized sales training programs. He was the lead IBMer for a key electronics manufacturer in the Midwest and I was his “Telecoverage” seller, which in layman’s terms meant I was his over the phone seller, a glorified assistant of sorts. He was an educator at heart (actually a former teacher in a Teach for America like program where he taught at risk youth in Pheonix) and truly taught me most of what I know today. We had a very strategic deal we worked together, one that resulted in a multi-million dollar global contract for our client, and we worked it together daily, or better put he told me what to do and I did it without question. He taught me what it takes to manage a deal, how to keep a team on course, how to build trust-worthy relationships with clients and ask tough questions when needed. He was the best seller I’ve ever seen and had a way with words that captivated anyone that listened. I attribute much of the success I’m having today to the mentorship he provided me early on in my career.
But above all this, the most memorable thing I remember about him was his support during the toughest period of time in my career. My department went through a downsizing and there was a lot of uncertainty as to what would happen. I was quite nervous and didn’t know where to turn. As always, he took me under his wing, invited me to breakfast several times, placed calls to people on my behalf, coached me how to position myself, prayed for me, and assured me that God has an almighty plan for my life despite any chaos the world can appear to provide. That meant more to me then he’ll ever know.
Today we will celebrate the life of my beloved mentor. I’ve missed him incredibly since he took his leave and will do so even more knowing now he’s no longer on this earth. But the good thing is that we know exactly where he is, kicing it upstairs pain free with the big man himself.
Mentoring can be talked about so much that at times it becomes cliche. You’ll hear folks talk about how many mentors they have, in all different areas, like it’s just business as usual and easy to find. But for me, I’ve never found a mentor like this one and can only pray I’ll find another one half the man as he.
A Great Goal Setting & Tracking Process for 2012
Time and time again in my life I’ve found I’ve been most successful when I’ve purposely thought through, documented, and tracked goals. Establishing new habits takes time and repetition is the best way to get new habits to stick. That said, I’m establishing a new process to set and track 4 key goals over the course of the next 3 months and will hold myself accountable daily to taking action on these goals.
I’m enlisting the help of a little resource called “Pick 4” by Zig Ziglar to help with this. It’s a very simple book that helps you identify key goals and track them daily. To be honest, it’s so simple it could be easily done on your own without the book. Part of me feels like I just wasted 10 bucks but if this simple book helps me establish a new pattern then it’s definitely worth way more what I spent.
So here goes nothing… onto 12 weeks of daily accountability of progressing my goals.
IBM’s 100 innovations over the past 100 years. Really interesting stuff.
Link: Getting Control of Your Email Inbox
I’m a sucker for finding ways to squeeze additional productivity out of my days. One of my favorite books on this topic is a book called “The Hamster Revolution” which helps establish a process for better managing and organizing email.
My job is an email heavy one where I typically receive around 150 emails a day, not to mention all the junk that ends up in my personal email account. I found myself confusing responding to email with getting my job done. These sometimes can be two very competing dynamics if not managed carefully. I’d find myself spending an entire day in front of my inbox, thinking I was productive, then realize that I hadn’t spoke to a client all day. That had to stop and this was my way of addressing that. Here are the main tips I have implemented personally.
- Establish a common filing system across all folders in all areas (ie email, your desktop, Evernote, other apps). I use COTA-P which stands for Clients (your customers either internal or external), Output (info on your products), Teams, Admin, and Personnel. Then you ALWAYS file things away in priority order to avoid confusion between emails that might apply to multiple folders.
- If it’s not important, delete it immediately. My inbox is always empty by the end of the day. I think to myself, will I really ever check this email again and if not then I scrap it, but if it is then I file it away.
- Aggressively manage your SPAM and set auto-routing features for regularly occurring emails. I view SPAM as a game now to completely expunge from my life. I never simply delete, I always either press the unsubscribe button or mark it as SPAM. As for regularly received emails (for example, a sales pipeline report that’s received weekly), set a rule to route it to a particular folder automatically. That way you’ll know exactly where it is when you need it and won’t have to have to move it over week after week.
- Only check your email three times a day: first thing in the morning, after lunch, and the end of the day. I’ll confess, this is really hard but can be a good way to ensure you section off the appropriate time for other critical tasks.
- Set a good example by avoiding BCC, CC to non relevant parties, and useless emails. So much email we receive is not pertinent to us so the best way to avoid that is to model it ourselves. Just think before sending, does this person really need this info. If not, don’t CC. And scrap the two word “thank you” emails all together.
