Jim Seybert - Strategic Planning Retreats - Strategy Audits - Executive Coaching

My friend Sam Barry has just published a book.

That isn’t surprising - after all, he’s a bright guy and works for a company that publishes books. Although, they didn’t publish HIS book, which probably made for some really hurt feelings. I mean if you were a cake decorator and your sister went somewhere else to order a birthday cake for her husband, you’d be upset - right?

Anyway. Sam’s book is about playing the harmonica (and other life lessons) and I think his marketing campaign is very creative.

He’s recorded a video series featuring himself on harmonica with various others accompanying. Each clip starts with a brief scan of the book cover - that’s it. Genius.

The music is good enough to enjoy, the video production quality is top notch. This wasn’t a cheap homemade video, but it has a non-marketing feel that compels people like me to write things like this while I share a video clip with you.

Damn - I hate it when other people have good ideas before I do. Especially when they’re my friends and I can’t hate them.

Somewhere along the way we’ve come up with the idea that we were put on the Earth to accomplish every day as much as we possibly can and that the Parable of the Talents admonishes  us to not be seen as “poor stewards” of the time God has given us. The result is a bunch of folks who don’t live abundant lives but merely bounce from one “must do” activity to another.

Not So Fast provides a practical approach to living a life that’s full rather than filled up.

amazon.com

Author Ann Kroeker draws from her own family’s experience of slowing down - a situation forced on them by a medical emergency - and the stories of others who live in “the Slow Zone,” to present a credible scenario for reducing the frenzy that has become a standard of normalcy for too many American families.

We’re entrenched in a society that can’t say no and resists setting limits or placing value on a slower-paced life. We feel that we have no choice in the matter. But we do.

Not So Fast is about adding intentionality to your schedule. It’s about saying YES to what’s important and NO to everything else. “It’s very hard to do,” Kroeker writes, but the benefits are huge.

And you probably will be different from people around you, but you might find that it’s a good different. Instead of being outcasts, your house may become a place of creativity, peace and calm.

Each chapter concludes with Slow Notes - a list of tips for making it work - and a personal case history provided by one of more than a dozen contributors. The tone isn’t preachy, but it’s packed with scriptural references. The writing is down to earth and straightforward, not simplistic.

The sad truth is that the people who really need it will be too busy to read Not So Fast. I hope the publisher releases an audio version soon, so that hurried moms and dads can listen to bits and pieces of Ann Kroeker’s wisdom as they rush from one activity to another, because they really need to hear what she has to say.

Not So Fast: Slow Down Solutions for Frenzied Families
Author: Ann Kroeker
Release: August 1, 2009
Publisher: David C Cook
ISBN: 9781434768889

Michael Abbate’s Gardening Eden is everything I had hoped it would be:

Well-written

Authoritative

Fresh

Honest

Grounded

Abbate combines his experience as a landscape architect and his knowledge of biblical text to present a compelling argument for his assertion that Christians should be at the leading edge of environmental protection.

“People of faith claim to know the the Artist but lack any compunction for protecting the artwork.”

Gardening Eden presents reasoned answers to questions raised by skepticism about motive resulting from political differences.

“It’s not necessary to have complete agreement with any one point of view to be good stewards of our planet. We don’t have to accept a political point of view or oppose another to be advocates for the environment.“

I was challenged by Gardening Eden to think differently about the idea of protecting endangered species of plants and animals. My attitude has been one of concern for the larger animals such as bears, birds and whales, but indifference toward the fate of insignificant insects and pond dwellers. Abbate makes a strong case for the significance of every species by reminding his readers that God created everything and must have had a purpose for every living thing. By ignoring the fate of even the tiniest creature, we are ignoring something that was critical to God’s plan for creation.

For those of us who are in the “green” camp, Gardening Eden is a welcome breath of fresh air, providing conversation starters for dialog with our skeptical friends.

The term “creation care” is being heard more frequently in churches these days and my hope is that Gardening Eden will become a guidebook for people of faith who want to glorify their Creator by protecting His creation.

I’d like to improve conversion rates on my web site. 

SEO is actually pretty good - in some key word combos I show above the fold on Google.

Traffic is decent - between 10 and 30 unique visitors on an average day. Some days less. And I’m OK with that because what I do is fairly narrow. 

The dilemma is the lack of conversions. At least once a day someone hits my page using a search that is DEAD ON for my speciality and it is very rare that they will pursue it any further. They hit the page they’ve searched for, perhaps look at one or two other pages and go away.

So, I’m looking for ideas. We all think our own babies are the cutest and brightest in the nursery, and I think my pages are nice. But nice isn’t worth a bucket of spit if the prospect isn’t compelled to act.

Here’s an offer:

I have two copies of Jay Abraham’s new book The Sticking Point Solution and I will send one each to the first two people who provide me some helpful feedback in the comment section. I reviewed the book last month and highly recommend it.

I’ll send an autographed copy of my latest book Leadership Re:Vision to the next five people who comment. If more than seven people respond, I’ll think of something. If you give me constructive input, I’ll go to my personal library and find books to reward your efforts.

My goal is to have one or two people a month in serious consideration of my services as a retreat facilitator or strategy auditor.

Thanks for your help.

As a kid growing up in a quiet northern California suburb, the early days of the civil rights movement in the late 1950s came only as close as our black & white TV screen and the occasional photo-spread in LIFE magazine. Richard Doster brings those images to real life in Crossing The Lines, his second novel set in the south.

Crossing The Lines continues the story of newspaper reporter Jack Hall whose big break comes when he is asked to join the sports writing team of a major Atlanta daily. Because he had some experience reporting on the “negro” community at his previous paper, Hall’s editor sends him to Montgomery, Alabama to report on a minor incident involving a woman who refused give up her seat in a WHITES ONLY section of a city bus.

There’s news out of Montgomery that there might be a short-lived bus boycott and Hall agrees to go, despite the protestations of his wife.

“I seem to possess an unusual background; I guess I’m one of the few reporters in the world who’s actually seen a boycott, who’s been to a Negro church, and interviewed a Negro pastor.”

Hall meets a young Martin King, a young pastor who impresses the cynical newspaperman with his faith and quiet demeanor. The two form a relationship built on mutual benefit and Hall becomes an eye witness to some of the civil rights movement’s most pivotal events.

Doster weaves his fictional characters into stories of actual events so seamlessly that it is difficult to know where reality ends and fiction begins. The dialog given King and others is historically accurate based on the author’s exhaustive research.

As he sees and learns more about the struggle for justice, Jack Hall also confronts the long-held racial stereotypes of white Christians with whom he goes to church, including his wife Rose Marie who can’t understand why people are making such a fuss.

Doster gives his fictional characters honest feelings and doubts. The dialog between reporters in the newsroom is a bit tamer than I suspect it really is, but other than that, Crossing The Lines is a good read that opened my eyes to an important period of American history I didn’t realize I had missed.

Part of the publicity campaign for my 2007 book The One Year Mini for Leaders was a video interview that captures the essence of the book very nicely.

In addition to talking about my motivation for writing the OYML, this clip can give you a glimpse into my personality and they way I process ideas. They did a good job of allowing the “real me” to show up for this project.

There is nothing more frustrating than being stuck.

Stuck in traffic. Standing in line. Sitting on hold. Like passengers crammed into a crowded plane waiting to take off, there’s often nothing you can do about being stuck. That’s the worst part, isn’t it? Not being able to get UNstuck. Not being able to blast through the status quo.

Nine Great Ideas

Take heart. Jay Abraham tackles nine “sticking points’ in his latest - The Sticking Point Solution (Vanguard Press). 

This guy speaks my language:

When business shifts either up or down, individuals and companies typically take one of two actions: They either do more of the same thing or less of the same thing. But their activities are all tied to doing the same thing, as opposed to doing something different or better, something more profitable, impactful, productive, expedient and preemptive.

Straightforward, very little nonsense and packed with actual case histories from his work with real clients, The Sticking Point Solution is Abraham’s manifesto on getting off your back pockets and going somewhere. 

The author suggests nine areas where businesses and individuals get hung up: Not Selling Enough, Failing to Strategize, Mediocre Marketing, Crisis Economy among them. I started reading each in order and then found that I could jump around to the chapters most relevant to me without missing anything.  

Each chapter concludes with bullet point reminders and a useful Immediate Action Step to help the reader find some quick success at unsticking themselves. 

The Sticking Point Solution is the kind of book we need these days.