Behind the Scenes—The People Who Make It Happen

Women of Faith is a conference designed specifically for women. It is owned by Thomas Nelson. We do about 30 of these events a year in cities all across America.

When I tell people about these conferences for the first time, they usually envision small church meetings with maybe a couple of thousand women. The reality is that these conferences are held in large sports arenas in major metropolitan areas. The average attendance is 13,000-plus. They are as polished and professional as any large performance event you have ever attended.

Creating a Life Plan

I have met very few people who have a plan for their lives. Most are passive spectators, watching their lives unfold a day at a time. They may plan their careers, the building of a new home, or even a vacation. But it never occurs to them to plan their life. As a result, many end up discouraged and disillusioned, wondering where they went wrong.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. You can live your life on purpose. It begins by creating a “Life Plan.” This won’t insulate you from life’s many adversities and unexpected twists and turns, but it will help you become an active participant in your life, intentionally shaping your own future.

The How of WOW

Recently, while on vacation, Gail and I saw two movies in the theater. (I’m not going to mention which movies, because whether you agree with my assessment is not the point.) Both movies sounded great. We eagerly looked forward to seeing them.

Unfortunately, we were disappointed in both movies. We left the theater regretting that we had made the investment in terms of money and the time.

Creating WOW Product Experiences

As I have said before, we don’t need more books. Instead, we need better books. Specifically, we need books that “wow.” But what is wow and how can we develop it?

The first step is learning to recognize it. Most of us have experienced wow moments. We just haven’t taken time to think deeply about them.

The Perfect Moment

Last night, my daughter Mary and her husband, Chris, came over. The weather was unseasonably warm, so we sat out on the porch and talked. We reminisced about their wedding among other things. We laughed. We even cried. It was a rich, full time.

Before long, I opened a bottle of Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc. It’s my very favorite white wine, and I was eager to share it with Mary and Chris. They had never had it before. We savored the hints of peach, passion fruit, and, most of all, grapefruit. We delighted in each drop.

Don’t Leave God Out of Your Plans

I have written much about planning and goal setting. It would be easy to get the idea that if you just plan well enough or persist long enough you will succeed. Frankly, I don’t think this is enough.

I was reminded again this morning of a Bible verse that has become very important to me in recent years:

Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless the LORD guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. (Psalm 127:1)

Leadership: Control vs. Influence

Leadership is about influence not control. I am not the first person to make this observation, but it is worth repeating.

I often hear leaders, particularly younger ones, complaining about their lack of control in various situations. “If only the sales department reported to me, I could consistently hit my budget,” they lament. Or, “If the production department reported to me, I would not have run out of inventory!”

Taking a Stand

There are probably as many different philosophies of creating an annual budget as there are companies. When I came to Thomas Nelson initially, the philosophy was the push-up, pull-down philosophy. Management would try to get the individual units to push up their revenues budget as high as they could and push down their expenses as low as they could go.

This inevitably became a sort of dance. The business unit leaders would propose a low revenue budget and a high expense budget, knowing that they would go through several rounds of negotiations with management. The biggest problem, though, was that once people agreed to a higher revenue budget, it would have the effect of pulling expenses up, too. Then, if the revenues didn’t materialize, the unit had already compromised its margins.

Selling: The Inside Job

Usually, when people think about selling, they think of something that goes on outside the company. Sales reps call on external customers in an attempt to sell the company’s products or services. But what people often forget is the importance of selling people inside the company.

The truth is that internal selling is far more important than external selling. If you can’t sell the people inside your company on your product or service, you don’t have a chance of selling those outside the company.

Why? Because sooner or later you are dependent on other people inside your organization to get the message out. Before you can do that you have to get the message in. If they are not convinced, they can’t be convincing.

Question: How Do You Cope with Your Post-Vacation Workload?

Recently, I took a vacation with my family. I announced on my blog that I would be “unplugged” during this time.

Philip wrote to ask me what I found when I returned and how I managed my “reentry.” He said,

When you were out for a week of vacation, and considering you were unplugged, were you presented with an overwhelming stack of issues, problems, emails, approvals when you returned on Monday? If so, how do you approach, prioritize, and “attack” your accumulated tasks? You have tools and strategies for everything else, is there something you differently to get plugged back in after being unplugged?

Actually, my return to work went smoothly. But I’ve been at this for a few years. During that time, I have developed four strategies for managing my after-vacation workload.

The Seven Levels of Preparation

“Hi. My name is Mike, and I’m a prepaholic.” If there was a support group for people who over-prepare, I would be a charter member.

Much of my job involves making presentations—to boards, banks, investors, authors, agents, customers, employees, vendors, the media—you name it. Each one of these represents an opportunity to make a “brand impression,” for myself and for the company I represent.

The Quarterly Review

The secret to staying on top of your personal and professional life is to schedule regular times for review and reflection. You need to assess where you’ve come from and where you are going.

I wrote about the importance of the Weekly Review a few days ago. Today, I want to address the importance of a Quarterly Review.

The Quarterly Review is more extended version of the Weekly Review. In the Weekly Review, you climb to the top of the trees and peer at the forest. In the Quarterly review you take a hot air balloon up to a thousand feet or so and see how the forest fits into the overall landscape.

The Importance of the Weekly Review

In the fast pace of the modern business world, it is easy to lose your way and become reactive rather than proactive. As a result, you may forget to process notes from your meetings, put assigned tasks on your task list, or, looking forward, anticipate upcoming meetings and events for which you need to prepare.

When this happens, important items fall through the cracks. You end up embarrased. Worse, you may frustrate your customers, colleagues, or even your boss.

Part of the solution to this problem is the “Weekly Review.” This is an opportunity to get your head above the daily blizzard of activities and see where you’ve been and where you’re going. In my view, this is the key to staying on top of your projects and assignments. The result is that you stay in control of your workload and keep your business associates happy.

Why Vision Is More Important Than Strategy

Vision and strategy are both important. But there is a priority to them. Vision always comes first. Always. If you have a clear vision, you will eventually attract the right strategy. If you don’t have a clear vision, no strategy will save you.

I have seen this over and over again in my professional and personal life. Once I got clear on what I wanted, the how almost took care of itself. Let me give you an example.

In July of 2000, my boss suddenly resigned. I was already the Associate Publisher of the division, the second-in-command. With his departure, I was asked to take his job. I became the publisher of Nelson Books, one of the trade book divisions of Thomas Nelson.

It’s the Product, Stupid

One of my favorite marketing gurus, David Ogilvy, once wrote, “Great marketing only makes a bad product fail faster.” How true.

I have argued for years that, “It’s the product, Stupid.” The secret to success in any business is to deliver a great, compelling product. No amount of marketing savvy, salesmanship, or operational excellence can overcome a weak product. This is especially true when it comes to publishing.

The purpose of marketing is to get a book launched—to prime the pump. But if people don’t want to read it and—more importantly—if they won’t recommend it to their friends, you’re hosed. You can’t spend enough money or be creative enough to overcome a lack of word-of-mouth marketing (WOMM).

Embracing Plan B

By nature I am a planner. I plan everything. And then I re-plan.

I probably spend 90 percent of my time thinking about the future and planning for it. I consider my strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. I anticipate problems and consider contingencies. I have a Plan A.

But, unfortunately, Plan A rarely happens. When it does, it is awesome. But usually for me Plan B is the norm. Like an old friend of mine used to say, “Do-do occurs.”

Like today. I'm sitting in the Delta Crown Room in Nashville. My flight to Dallas was cancelled because of ice in Dallas. I am scheduled on the next flight out, but I have a three-hour wait. Ugh.

Slay Your Dragons Before Breakfast

Iawoke this morning to the dragon’s hot breath on my face. I was disoriented, not quite knowing where I was. I struggled to open one eye. Then another.

And there he was. A dragon. A very big dragon. With three heads. Sitting in my bedroom, like so many mornings before, he was waiting. His heads swerved back and forth, dancing in the dim light. Each head alternately belching fire and hissing smoke.

I groaned. Here we go again, I thought. If only I could shut my eyes and will him away. No such luck. His presence only grew more menacing.

I knew that I had to act. I leapt from the bed and ran straight at him. I have learned by experience that my only chance at victory is to slay the dragon while it is still dark. Before the first rays of sunshine strengthen his already substantial advantage. Fortunately, once again I prevailed. But my victory is short-lived. I will face him again tomorrow. And the day after that.

Although this sounds like a fairy tale, it’s not. It’s my reality, day after day.

I face a dragon named Lethargy every morning. It has three heads: Pneuma (spiritual), Soma (physical), and Nous (intellectual). If I don’t slay this dragon before breakfast, he usually gets the best of me. After breakfast—when the days activities are crowding into my life—my chances of doing battle and winning drop dramatically. Sometimes I can emerge victorious. But rarely. My chances are better if I complete in my basic disciplines before I get assaulted with the demands of the workday.

So, before breakfast, I try to complete the following:

Goal-Setting: The 90-Day Challenge

I planned to write a new post on goal-setting today. This is the perfect day for thinking about the year ahead. However, I re-read an article I had written on that topic a couple of years ago on my Working Smart blog. (I recently shut that blog down to focus on this one.) I didn’t think I could improve on what I said there, so I am re-posting it here—with a few minor tweaks. Enjoy!

It’s that time of year again. New Year’s resolutions, diets, exercise—and goal-setting. I continue to be surprised at how few people take time to write down their goals. Despite the fact that numerous studies have shown that there is a direct correlation between goal-setting and success, few people seem to ever get around to it.

I have been setting goals in one form or another for years. Every now and then, I stumble across an old list of goals. I am always fascinated by how many of the things I write down come to pass. And, I must confess, it often happens despite the fact that I do nothing more than write it down. The magic of this is all explained in a very compelling book by Henriette Klauser called Write It Down, Make It Happen.

Even if you don’t create an action plan for each goal and work your plan, there is tremendous power in simply identifying what you want and focusing some thought on the outcome.

For example, at the beginning of 1997, I wrote down this goal: “Write a a New York Times bestselling book.” Now understand: at that time I had never written a book. I had a book idea, but that’s all I had. Though I had worked in the publishing industry my whole career, I was scared to death at the thought of actually trying to write an entire book. Nevertheless, I wrote it down and took a deep breath.

A Better To-Do List

I don’t often devote an entire blog post to someone else’s blog, but this is an exception. One of my favorite bloggers is Merlin Mann at 43Folders. He’s the one that got me into using a Moleskine notebook. He’s also a Mac user and an expert at applying the workflow management principles articulated by David Allen in Getting Things Done.

Today, he wrote the first article in a two-part series, entitled Building a Smarter To-Do List. This should be required reading for everyone in the workplace. I continue to be amazed at the number of people who don’t know how to intelligently manage their workflow. But, then again, where is this kind of thing taught?

The article is very, very basic, but invaluable. I strongly urge you to stop what you are doing now (you’re just surfing, right?) and go read the article. Even as a seasoned GTD practitioner, I learned a number of things. I am eagerly awaiting the second installment tomorrow.

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