The side lights dim in the auditorium and the speaker walks on stage. As they are introduced you notice something different about them. The way they are dressed commands your attention. They start to speak and you are quickly drawn into a powerful story. There is drama, tension, and intrigue.

Soon you are tracking with them. You can relate to their struggles and you marvel at their tenacity. Soon they share how they overcame obstacles and found a way to prosper. And then they do something amazing. They offer to share their secret with you.

You want to know more. You’ve been where they are, you’ve fought the battle, but you haven’t found a solution. As the speaker goes on, they mention they have a book and a step by step course of action you can take to change your own life.

In your mind, you know one thing. You’re not leaving until you have the answer. You pick up the book, follow the instructions, and your life changes.

Have you been there? Have you heard that presentation? Has your life changed?

My name is John Richardson and I’ve been part of a public speaking organization called Toastmasters International for over fifteen years. In that time I’ve heard hundreds of speeches and presentations, from short five-minute monologues to ninety minute keynotes. Yet in that time I’ve only heard about a dozen, truly motivational presentations. Ones that change your life.

As a speaker, I’ve always wanted to be able to give that kind of presentation. To reach deep down inside and share from the heart. To actually be able to motivate people to change their lives for the better. In my journey, I’ve become a student of speaking and motivational styles. I’ve tried many different things and failed many times, yet a few things emerged that I would like to share with you today. If you are a speaker and want to change the world, you’ll definitely need SPARK.

S.P.A.R.K is…

1. Senses: To build rapport with your audience you’ll need to activate their senses. My speaking friend, Sheryl Roush is a master at this. She starts way before the presentation begins. She knows that her audience will have three major learning styles. There are…
   • Visual learners. They intake information by what they see;
   • Audio learners. They intake information by what they hear; and
   • Kinesthetic learners. They intake information by what they feel.

   Sheryl always arrives at least an hour early. She has bright colored visuals in the form of PowerPoint slides or flip charts. She puts on background music for the audio people as they arrive. She has handouts ready for her kinesthetic guests. But Sheryl goes even further by heating up Chocolate Chip cookies and walking them through the room to add a pleasant aroma. She even adds powerful words and numbers to her slides for the analytics.

   Sheryl’s presentations are a sensory joy. She always dresses in bright colors and has a very professional and commanding presence. You know right away who the speaker is. No matter what your learning style is, you’ll come away impressed by her speech.

2. Purpose: People need to know why you are speaking to them. They need to know your purpose. Simon Sinek in his masterful TED speech suggests that we Start with Why. Most speakers start with what or how, but if you can get to the core, and share your why, you’ll have a chance to really impact your audience.

   When you share your why, it affects the part of the brain that deals with emotion. This is a deep set part of the brain can really motivate your audience, yet that part of the brain doesn’t work with words. Your audience may be motivated to action but may not be able to formulate words to describe it.

3. Act it out with stories: The best speakers I know are really actors in disguise. Their presentations are almost like going to a play. They come out from behind a podium and share powerful stories with emotion and action. There is drama and intrigue as they share powerful action words with passion. Their vocal variety is enormous.

   Stories like this are what will truly bring your audience in. They need to include all the senses. Your audience needs to see, hear and feel what is going on.

4. Relate: Stories should relate to your particular audience. Make them conversational and personal. Show us the dark days. Show us your failures. Be real. Almost all of the truly motivational speeches take us into the pain and agony of a situation and contrast it with a solution or new reality. The greater the contrast, the greater the audience impact.

   Nancy Duarte illustrates this concept powerfully in her video post on Presentation Contrast. Contrast is like a sine wave, alternating between what is and what can be. As Nancy shares, if you truly want to change the world, take an idea, add contrast, and share it with others.

5. Knowledge: The best presentations offer something new and unique. There is nothing cliché about them. They offer a take-away, whether that is a handout, book, or video. The audience member has a chance to gain further knowledge. Authors have a definite advantage here. Having a book to sell or a seminar to attend, is a great way to effect change.

Creating a powerful and motivating presentation takes a lot of time, effort, and practice. A great place to start is a local Toastmasters club where you can learn speaking and leadership skills and be able to practice and refine your speech. If you truly want to get up to speed quickly, Ken Davis and Michael Hyatt’s SCORRE conference can teach you powerful presentation skills in just a few days. You’ll be ready for the platform in no time.

I spent the summer before my sophomore year in college as a summer missionary in Galveston, Texas. Each week my team visited a different church in the area and led vacation Bible school. It was fun, rewarding work.

In addition, I was assigned to a local church where I lived with the pastor, his wife, and their two children. They were both in their fifties and made me feel right at home.

After I had been there for about a month, the pastor casually said to me, “Mike, Rhonda and I are going out of town next weekend. I’d like for you to lead the service on Sunday and preach for me.”

I immediately felt the color drain from my face. I was terrified. “But, I’ve never spoken in public,” I stammered.

“Don’t worry. You’ll do fine,” he chuckled. “There’s a first time for everything.” He then got up and walked out of the room. Evidently, not accepting the assignment was not an option!

I remember studying like crazy during that week. I read the Bible and poured over commentaries. I outlined the points I wanted to make. I then revised the outline, then threw it away and started over—several times. I couldn’t sleep. I dreaded facing the congregation on Sunday.

The truth is, I did fine—just as he predicted. My sermon wasn’t great, but I got through it. And with practice I grew better at speaking.

Since that time, I have spoken more than one thousand times. I have also appeared on more than twelve hundred radio and television shows. I have written seven books and over one thousand blog posts. Communication is my life.

If only I could have done something to shorten the learning curve at the beginning. Yes, I read books on speaking and communication. Those helped. But it wasn’t until I attended The SCORRE Conference last spring that I saw the potential of how getting the right training can accelerate your proficiency.

My friend, Ken Davis, invited Gail and me to attend the conference last April. He founded this conference and has been faithfully teaching it for years.

We initially went as participants and were blown away. We learned three essential skills:

1. The SCORRE preparation framework. This is the outlining technique that enables the best communicators to communicate with power. Once you know the secret, you can apply it to any speech and hit a home run every time.
2. The SCORRE illustration method. This is a proven method for collecting compelling illustrations and communicating them in a way that is entertaining, effective, and transformational.
3. The SCORRE delivery technique. This is a collection of best practices for using your voice and body to enhance your message and connect with your audience. I can’t believe I hadn’t learned this stuff before.

But that was only the beginning. If that was all we learned, it would have been worth the price. And then some. But there was more.

What made this particular conference so powerful was we had to prepare and deliver one short speech each day. That may sound scary, but it wasn’t. It was the difference-maker that guaranteed we actually improved as speakers.

After we delivered each talk to our small group, a certified master coach evaluated what we were doing well and where we could improve.

In addition, he video-taped each of our speeches, along with his comments, so we could review them later. Honestly, the improvement was dramatic. Every student left better than when they came—many, dramatically so.

I was so impressed with The SCORRE Conference I am now a full partner with Ken Davis. Whether you are a professional speaker, a pastor, a corporate executive, an author—or are just passionate about a message—you can take your communication skills to the next level by attending this conference.

The next one is scheduled for April 30–May 3, 2012 at WinShape, the beautiful Chick-fil-A conference center at Berry College near Rome, Georgia.

If you register now, you can take advantage of the Early Bird Discount. This will save you $100 off the regular tuition price of $1,099. In addition, if you use the discount code “HYATT,” you can take another $100 off. The Early Bird discount is good through February 15, 2012.

We also offer a money-back guarantee. Here’s the deal: If you attend the conference, participate in all the learning activities, and are not completely satisfied that you got your money’s worth, we will happily refund your tuition. No questions asked.

Note: the tuition is going up after this next conference. One of the first things I told Ken is the conference is way under-priced. As someone who attends a lot of training conferences, I don’t know of anything that provides this kind of value at this price.

I hope you will join us. I will be there again this year for the entire conference. I plan to make myself available to the students during the meals and informal activities. I hope I get a chance to shake your hand and get acquainted.

Update: Here’s what one of our students, Scot Longyear got out of The SCORRE Conference. This was unsolicited: How I Became a Better Communicator.

In 1986 I started my own publishing company with Robert Wolgemuth. We had worked together at Word, Inc. and then at Thomas Nelson. Like a lot of young entrepreneurs, we had a big dream, a business plan, but few resources.

We raised enough money from investors to launch the company, but we were still strapped for cash. Regardless, we soldiered on, believing that God would bless our creativity, hard work, and commitment to excellence.

Our first big break came in 1988 when the Los Angeles Dodgers won the World Series. After the final game, Robert and I miraculously got an appointment with Orel Hershiser, the Dodgers’ pitcher. We met with him in Washington, D.C. just after he met with President Reagan.

Our meeting went well. He hadn’t considered writing a book, but we were able to talk him into it. He seemed genuinely excited.

After our meeting, we visited the Washington Redskins practice field together, where we met Coach Joe Gibbs and watched the Redskins practice. Orel was a major celebrity and everyone on the team wanted to shake his hand.

We then flew with Orel and his agent to New York by private jet where we had dinner together. It was heady stuff for a couple of young businessmen from Nashville.

We were really excited about the idea of publishing Orel’s book, but we knew we would be in competition with the biggest publishers on the planet. They would surely drive up the royalty advance for the book, but we hoped against hope that we could make a favorable enough impression that he would publish with us in spite of the money.

A few days later, Orel’s agent called us. He said, “I have great news. Orel would like to publish his book with you, provided you are willing to pay a royalty advance of $150,000.”

Without a moments hesitation, we both said, “Absolutely. We’re in!” We then promised to get him a contract the next day. We were pumped!

We hung up the phone and high-fived one another. After a few seconds, I said, “Only one problem … where are we going to come up $150,000?”

Robert laughed, “Oh, yea, that!”

We didn’t know if we should celebrate or puke. It was one of those times in business where the line between success and disaster is razor thin.

Robert finally suggested that we call Jack, one of our investors, who also sat on our board. He said, “I’m sure Jack will lend us the money. This is a no-brainer.”

A few minutes later, we had Jack on the phone. We shared with him our story of meeting Orel, and his agent’s decision to give us the book. Jack was enthusiastic. “Way to go guys. I am proud of you!”

Robert then said, “Yea, only one problem, Jack. We need $150,000 for the royalty advance. We’re confident this book will be a bestseller, so we just need a short-term loan. Can you help us out?”

We held our breath.

To our surprise, Jack said, “You bet, guys. This is going to be huge.”

Robert and I pumped our fists and quietly mouthed the word, “Yes!”

“Just one thing I need you to do,” Jack continued. “As part of the loan agreement, I need you to pledge your homes to me as collateral. If you are willing to do that, we can make this happen quickly.”

Uh-oh. We didn’t see that coming.

What Jack understood, and we eventually learned, is that having skin in the game makes it easier for everyone to win. I’ve seen it again and again—in life and in business.

When you have something significant at stake:

1. Your attention is focused. Winning or losing matters.
2. You work harder, because you have a stake in the outcome. If the book didn’t work, we would lose our homes.
3. You won’t walk away as easily. You have to fight until the bitter end. This is good for everyone involved.

As it turns out, we did agree to Jack’s terms. He loaned us the money, and we published Orel’s book, Out of the Blue. It landed on the New York Times list at #4 where it remained for several weeks. The whole process took less than ninety days from the first phone call to hitting the list.

Thankfully, we were able to repay Jack the money we owed him. Our wives were happy too, since we didn’t need to move out and turn our property over to Jack. This was one of those times when everything just worked.

The moral of the story is this: if you want to accomplish big goals, you need to have skin in the game. You don’t have to pledge your house, but you need to have something significant at stake. The more concrete you can make it, the better.

I have written previously about how to go further, faster. One of the best ways is to hire a personal coach. I have used coaches for more than a decade. I credit much of my success to this strategy.

The problem is coaches can be expensive—especially for those in ministry. That’s why I am especially excited about Ministry Coaching International (MCI). It was started by my good friends at Building Champions, the coaching company I use and recommend. MCI has the same philosophy as Building Champions, but it is specifically focused on—and priced for—ministry professionals.

Recently, I had the opportunity to interview Dick Savidge, the president of MCI. Please note that this is not a sponsored post. I simply believe in this ministry and wanted to make you aware of it. My questions below are in bold.

Q: What is personal coaching?

Coaching is a one-on-one relationship that focuses on life and leadership transformation. While it often includes counseling, mentoring, and spiritual direction, coaching has a great emphasis on whole life integration and growth. MCI coaches apply a systematic approach in helping a ministry leader develop in the key aspects of life. The pursuit of increasing excellence and sharpening is always in concert with the Holy Spirit’s leading.

Q: How did you get involved in coaching, Dick?

I got involved in coaching after a friend recommended that I experience coaching as a way to sharpen my skills when working with leaders. Being a life and leadership coach is a logical conclusion to a career that has included family therapist, pastor, and spiritual director.

Q: What is MCI and what makes it unique?

Ministry Coaching is a team of seasoned ministry veterans who have one goal: to help leaders multiply their impact, live well, and finish with excellence. We seek to empower the leader to embrace his or her calling and focus on four essential areas of life and leadership. Our distinctive is our dual commitment to systematic growth and spirit-led experiences.

Q: What are the “core four” and how do they apply in a ministry context?

The core-four are MCI’s foundational pillars for personal and professional growth. First is a life plan. Here an individual deals with who they are and who God is calling them to be and what He is calling them to do. Second is ministry vision. Here an individual deals with where they are going and where their organization is going. Clear vision is the first step toward focused strategy. Third is ministry plan. This involves developing the strategic steps that need to be taken to realize the vision. And four, priority management involves the execution of the plan. This is all about the stewardship of time, energy and gifts. It is about making it happen.

Q: What is the single most important reason a person should be coached?

The greatest reason a person should be coached is so they can maximize their God-given potential. To live, to lead, and to finish well is the essence of being a good steward.

Q: What is the problem that MCI is striving to solve?

Many ministry leaders are being held back from living out their true, God-given potential. We exist to help the leader maximize their potential as they live a balanced life and therefore, avoid the lonely road to burn out.

Q: Assume I want to be a client, how does coaching with MCI work?

First, you will meet with your prospective coach and share expectations and objectives. You will explore potential game plans, as you start to develop chemistry and trust. As this develops you will commit to twenty-four biweekly coaching sessions. During these sessions you will experience the power of the Holy Spirit’s working through your coach to help you achieve all God has for you.

Q: Can you give me an example or two of real results?

Sure. Mike was a pastor, who lived a lonely corner office existence. He discovered that his “high trust” team was anything but. He was devastated when he found out. However, through coaching he made the personal and organizational changes that he needed to make. Today, he has a genuine high-trust team. Jim is another one. He had no real understanding of health and balance. His life was out of control as he tried to be all things to all people. With our coaching, he started to understand that the need is not the call. He learned how to say “no,” so he could unequivocally say yes to the things that matter most.

Q: What kind of person makes the best client?

The best client is a full-time ministry leader who is hungry to grow, learn, and become the person God has called them to be. He realizes that living out his own unique call, with balance and intensity, is the ultimate adventure. By the way, we accept both men and women as clients.

Q: If someone is interested in exploring coaching, what do they need to do next?

The best thing is to call us at (541) 312-5852. They can also explore our website.

The first twenty five people to call our offices will receive a free 30-minute coaching consultation.

You may also want to follow us on Twitter or Facebook.

If you’re an aspiring author, have ever wondered what happens to your book proposal after it arrives at the publishing house? Sometimes, I’m afraid, the acquisition process appears to be a sort of “black box.” Proposals are inserted into the black box and then disappear—for weeks. At some point they pop out. Most are sent back to the author with a rejection letter. A precious few actually become a book.

But what happens while the proposal is inside the box?

In this post I want to describe the internal proposal review process. If you have ever wondered how in the world publishing houses decide what to publish, this post is for you.

First, you need to understand the entire proposal review process is designed to do one thing: kill all but the most worthy projects. This may be hard to accept, but you have to understand the supply of hopeful authors is infinite while the supply of publishing resources is finite. Publishers can only publish a fraction of the proposals they receive.

Therefore, every publisher employs a screening process of some sort. You might think of it as a series of hurdles a proposal must jump before it crosses the finish line and becomes a book. These hurdles may vary in number from publishing house to publishing house. But in most publishing houses there are five.

1. The Acquisitions Editor. Acquisitions editors are the people inside the publishing house specifically charged with finding and developing authors and books that are congruent with the publisher’s mission. Over time, they have developed “noses” for the right projects. They usually see hundreds of proposals every year. Good editors can review a proposal and decide in sixty seconds or less whether it merits further consideration. If it doesn’t, then it gets tossed into the rejection pile.

   Typically, an acquisitions editor has unlimited authority to say “no.” They can reject a proposal without approval from anyone. Conversely, they don’t usually have the absolute authority to approve a proposal for publication. The most they can do is shepherd the proposal through the next step in the process.

   This is why your first objective as an author is to sell the acquisitions editor. He’s the “gatekeeper” to the publishing house. If you can’t do that, you’re dead in the water. This is the one place where you have the most control. You must develop a compelling book proposal that gets the acquisitions editor’s attention. You must demonstrate the content is compelling and there is a viable market for it.

   I recommend you start with one of my ebooks, How to Write a Winning Book Proposal. I have a version for non-fiction proposals and one for fiction. Either of these will help you clear the first hurdle.

2. The Editorial Committee. Once you’ve convinced the acquisitions editor, he or she has to convince an Editorial Committee. This is generally the specific imprint’s in-house staff. It may consist of the publisher, other acquisitions editors, managing editors, marketing people, etc.

   This is a cynical group. They have long memories, especially about projects that didn’t work. They are a little bit like accountants. Show them the donut and the first thing they see is the hole. (I’m speaking as someone who sat on one of these committees for years.)

   The committee’s meetings are a sort of Darwinian process where only the strongest proposals survive. The participants are not looking for reasons to publish a project as much as they are looking for reasons not to publish a project.

   “It’s not very well written.” “The premise isn’t very clear.” “Books on this topic never do well.” “The author doesn’t have the necessary credentials.” And the list goes on. Believe me, there are hundreds of reasons not to publish a particular proposal.

   This is why, to the extent you can, you have to make your proposal “bullet-proof.” You must learn to anticipate the objections and make sure they are addressed in the proposal. The good news is once you have sold this group, you have a team working to clear the remaining hurdles. The goal is to get them on-board.

3. The Publishing Board. When I was at Thomas Nelson, this was a once-a-month meeting between the editorial or publishing leaders and the sales channel leaders. The goal is for acquisitions editors to present their projects to the sales staff, so that they can get an initial reaction. The acquisitions editors are recommending these proposals, so there is an implied endorsement.

   The acquisitions editors focus on all the reasons why the book should be published. They are selling. And they are selling the most important audience to the success of your book. If the sale professionals are sold, they can sell their customers. If they can’t be sold, the book will not succeed. Period.

   Like the Editorial Committee, the sales people are also cynical but usually less so. They’ve seen it all before. The nature of publishing is that more projects fail than work, so they have lots of ready examples of why your project will fail too. But they also must have new products to sell, so they are also looking for the next big idea. They want to believe; they just have to be convinced.

   The acquisitions editor usually gets five or six minutes to pitch your project to the Publishing Board. He may have contacted you for supporting material to help him do the best job possible. It’s not unusual for the acquisitions editor to play a short video clip, pass out a press kit, or show a Web site on the projector.

   Regardless, if you get asked for additional material do everything in your power to get the editor what he needs. He will be representing you, and he only gets one shot at it. You need to help him cast your proposal in the best possible light.

   The project will then be discussed for another few minutes. Then each sales channel leader “votes” on the project by writing down how many books he thinks he can “lay down” (the initial shipment) and then sell in the first six months to a year. (It depends on the type of product. Some have shorter expected life cycles than others.) This is important, because the higher the sales forecast, the higher the probability of your book being published.

   This is not a long process, as you can see. The whole presentation and discussion rarely takes more than ten minutes. Then the proposal moves to the next hurdle.

4. The Financial Pro Forma. Today, no successful publisher can afford to make a decision to publish a book without considering the financial impact. The investment is just too significant.

   The publisher has to consider how much he will have to offer as a royalty advance, how much he will have to pay the author in royalties, and what he will have to spend on marketing and inventory. In addition, he must look at the sales forecasts by channel, since each channel has it’s own discount structure, return rates, and overhead structure.

   All of these variables get plugged into a very sophisticated financial pro forma. It usually takes a few iterations to get it right, but the publisher will quickly assess the investment required, the break-even point, and the profit he will make, given specific variables. Based on this, the publisher will know whether or not the project is financially (or commercially) viable. Assuming it is, the project still must clear one final hurdle.

5. The Publisher’s Sign-Off. Just because the project has cleared the first four hurdles, does not guarantee the book will be published. The publisher has to make the final call. He considers other, more subjective issues: Do I like this project? Do I like the author? Do I like his or her agent? Am I willing to risk this much capital, given the other things we have already committed to? How will my other authors react to this title? Do I really need this title?

   In addition, if the project is big enough, it may require the publisher’s boss to sign-off on the project or perhaps even the CEO. Most publishing houses have various approval levels. If the project exceeds a certain person’s approval level, then it must go up the chain-of-command.

   Once the project has been approved by the publisher, the acquisitions editor will then have the authority to make a formal offer to the author or (more likely) the author’s agent.

Once you understand this process, you can see why the decision to approve a project for publication takes four to six weeks. Yes, it can be fast-tracked when necessary. This often happens with bigger projects where several publishing houses are competing for the same project. But, by and large, it works better if it is not compressed. This process—long as it may seem—is necessary to get the internal buy-in necessary for the entire publishing house to get behind the project.

I have not written this post to discourage you from traditional publishing. Instead, I have written it to empower you. Now that you know what goes on inside the black box called publishing, you can take four specific steps to ensure you clear all five hurdles:

1. Write a killer proposal. This is the foundation of every successful project. You will need this to enlist the support of an agent. Your agent will need it to attract interest from acquisitions editors. It will be used to clear each hurdle in the process.
2. Listen to your agent. Remember, your agent doesn’t get paid until your project is sold. If he has survived for more than a few years, it is because he knows how to get from point A to point B. Therefore, treat him like a trusted guide.
3. Cooperate with your editor. Do everything you can to comply with the acquisition editor’s requests. Once he agrees to present the project to the Editorial Committee, he has become your representative inside the publishing house. You have to equip him to succeed.
4. Be patient. The process takes a while. Hopefully, this post has helped you understand why. There is more happening inside the publishing house than you may have initially thought.

Whatever you do, don’t act entitled. You’re not. No publisher has an obligation to publish your work. In essence, you are the seller; publishers are the buyers. You’re job is to convince them that taking a chance on your book is in their best economic interest.

Hopefully, this knowledge will help you clear the hurdles and get your book into print.

I love my complicated situation. I lead an Internet company based in Poland (Central Europe). Most of our team is located there, with one person in Germany, collaborators in the USA and Japan—and me in Spain. And our customers are all over the world. Leading a company like this is complex but rewarding.

We all work from home. It’s our lifestyle choice. Everyone works the way they want, at the time they want. It gives us all lots of freedom, but it also requires a tremendous amount of focus—and great leadership skills from me. I’m learning as I go, reading this blog every day as well as every leadership book I can find. I’m also a GTD (Getting Things Done) aficionado and this helps, too.

Here are five best practices I’ve learned so far about leading a team remotely:

1. Schedule weekly reviews. In his best seller, Getting Things Done book, David Allen highlights the importance of the “Weekly Review,” a meeting we should schedule with ourselves to review our past week and prepare for the next one. This is indispensable for ensuring that I am focused and on-task.

   Although we’re a small team, my first two team members, my Chief Technology Officer and Customer Service manager, are responsible for day-to-day management of their teams. That’s why every Monday I do an hourly Weekly Review with each of them. This helps us stay focused, summarize last week, and set priorities for the next one.

2. Host a weekly “All-Hands” meeting with the entire team. Every Thursday afternoon we call in for an hour-long conference call where everyone shares how their week has gone so far. This bonds the team and lets everyone know what’s going on. We can also ask questions and just chat. We actually look forward to these meetings every week.
3. Schedule my time strategically. This is really important. Without this you can find yourself being in response-mode all day long, so I decided to divide my day into two parts:
   • Before noon is my creative time. My e-mail application is closed. I don’t schedule any phone calls. I work on our strategy, vision, and product. I also write articles, even code a prototype of an app if needed. No distractions, only my work. And sometimes a run or exercise.
   • After noon is my responsive time. Now I open my e-mail and get it to “inbox zero”. I prepare feedback for my team, schedule phone calls, interviews, brainstorming sessions, I’m all “at my team’s disposal” now.

   Michael has highlighted on this blog several times how he values responsiveness and I try to follow his advice and in this part of my day make sure I respond to everything that needs attention. My team comes always first.

4. Communicate through online collaboration apps. We use apps like Dropbox, Google Docs, Socialcast, and our own project-management application to communicate through these tools instead of e-mail. This way everyone is on the same page as to what is going on in the company and on what we all should be working on. E-mail is great, but it wasn’t built for online collaboration. There are better tools.
5. Embrace the fact that control is good, but trust is better. The Germans are fond of saying, “Trust is good, but control is better” I’d say it’s the other way round. Trust is key. I’m trusting my team to do a great job, and I’m doing my best to help them. If someone doesn’t deliver, sooner or later you’ll notice. It’s hard not to. People also work better when they know you trust them.

As a bonus, once a year we meet for a retreat. We all fly to some nice place to spend a week together. We dedicate around three to four hours a day talking about work and bonding and the rest of the time relaxing. These retreats help us get to know one another on a different level and recharge batteries.

I’m also traveling a lot, so whenever I’m close to someone from my team, I try to make sure we meet, eat lunch, or grab a cup of coffee. We need this in-person contact with one another.

Leading a team remotely is challenging, but it is also rewarding. With the technology currently available—and a little intention—it is very doable.

A few weeks ago, I had to speak five times in one day. I knew it would require a lot of me mentally and emotionally. My goal is always to give 110 percent. I want nothing left on the table when I finish.

But, for some reason, I woke up that morning in a funk. I don’t know why. It was one of those things I couldn’t explain. But I didn’t like it and knew I needed to get myself in a better place if I was going to deliver on my goal.

There was a time when I thought I couldn’t change my attitude. I viewed myself as the victim of mysterious forces that shaped my emotional state. It never occurred to me that I could shift it—almost instantly.

But as I have learned since, we have more control than we think. Moreover, Tony Robbins taught me how to apply this principle to my emotional state. Without question, it is the single most important life skill I have acquired.

Let me elaborate.

You can instantly shift your attitude by taking the following three actions:

1. Shift your mental focus. This is where it starts. I can choose what I think about. For example, I can think, Argh, I have to speak five times today. Or, I can think, Wow, I get to speak five times today. This is so important, that I have literally written down a script that I recite before I speak. This is how I prime the pump:
   • I am not here by accident. God sent me. To these people. At exactly this time.
   • That’s because He has a purpose; therefore, I have a purpose in being here.
   • Through Christ, I can do all things. He has given me every resource I need to succeed.
   • I have the energy, the passion, and the message to make a huge impact—now and for eternity.
   • What I have to share today is vitally important. It matters. To them and to their loved ones.
   • Those that hear it will be changed forever. Years from now, they will look back on today and say, “It started here.”
   • By God’s grace, I am prepared. I am strong. I am energetic. I am outstanding. My heart is wide open. I will connect and make a difference!
2. Change your posture. Do you know that every emotion has physical attributes? For example, if I say to you, “act like you are depressed,” you would likely slump your shoulders, tilt your head down, and rub your face. You would frown and your breathing might slow down.

   If I say to you, “act like you won the lottery,” you would likely jump up and down, thrust your arms up into the air, and scream with joy. You would smile and your breathing might speed up.

   Does the emotion cause the action or does the action cause the emotion? The truth is, it doesn’t matter. If you smile, for example, and hold it for several seconds, it will change your biochemistry.

   In an article published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, a team of psychologists at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, showed that simply having people put their facial muscles in a configuration typical of a given emotion produced the feeling that the expressions represent. (See this article in the New York Times and this one in Scientific American.)

3. Watch your language. Our words are more important than we think. They reflect our thinking. But they sometimes influence our thinking as well.

   Words have tremendous power. King Solomon reminds us, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit (Proverbs 18:21).

   But rarely do we apply these words to the language we use in talking to ourselves. For example, you ask someone, “How are you doing?” They respond, “Well, I’m surviving.” Strangely, those words shape their reality—or at least their perception of it. They end up barely getting by.

   Conversely, I have another friend who always replies, “Outstanding!” This too shapes his reality. He always seems to be doing well. I know he has challenges, but his words empower him and give him the resources he needs to overcome them.

Honestly, this formula works for me every time—almost like a recipe. If I am deliberate about taking these three actions, my emotional state shifts.

The good news is that this puts me—and you—in control. And often this spells the difference between success and failure.

Have your doubts? Take the seven day challenge. Try this for seven days and see if it doesn’t make a difference. Report back with your results. I’d love to hear.

In case you missed them, here are my top ten posts for January 2012, along with my top ten commenters. I am sending each of the top commenters a free copy of the New York Times bestseller, How Do You Kill 11 Million People?: Why the Truth Matters More Than You Think by Andy Andrews.

Here are my top ten posts:

1. How to Setup Google Calendar on Your iPhone 4 (07/05/2010)
2. Creating Your Personal Life Plan (03/11/2011)
3. How Do You Kill 11 Million People (01/03/2012)
4. The Beginner’s Guide to Twitter (11/28/2011)
5. Fix for Wireless Connection Problems on MacBook Pro (01/01/2007)
6. Is It an Obstacle or an Opportunity? (01/25/2012)
7. Slay Your Dragons Before Breakfast (01/10/2012)
8. 10 Mistakes Leaders Should Avoid at All Costs (01/13/2012)
9. How to Organize Evernote for Maximum Efficiency (05/02/2011)
10. The Fastest Way to Get a Book Contract—Guaranteed (10/03/2009)

In the list above, I placed the date the post was first published in parenthesis. Several items worth noting. (This was similar last month.)

• Only four of the top ten were actually written in January. This is a consistent pattern as my archive of content grows.
• Four of the top ten were written more than a year ago. This demonstrates how long blog content can remain relevant.
• The list continues to be eclectic—leadership, tech, social media, life planning. I’d like to focus more, but I enjoy writing on a variety of topics.

Congratulations to the top ten commenters for the month. They were:

• Brandon Weldy
  196 comments
• Jeff Randleman
  153 comments
• Kelly Combs
  130 comments
• TNeal
  122 comments
• Joe Abraham
  115 comments
• Ben Patterson
  91 comments
• Brandon
  79 comments
• Jon Stolpe
  78 comments
• Uma Maheswaran S
  74 comments
• Cheri Gregory
  73 comments

This list does not include my terrific group of Community Leaders, who, by virtue of their role, made more comments than anyone.

For February I’m going to give a free copy of A Chance in the World: An Orphan Boy, a Mysterious Past, and How He Found a Place Called Home by Steve Pemberton to each of my top ten commenters. Thomas Nelson just published this book. So far, there are eighteen reviews on Amazon, and they are all five-star.

Today I was talking with a New York Times bestselling author. He was explaining to me how he had used video to drive his most recent book onto the best sellers list. “Nothing sells like video,” he explained.

Many authors have done this in the past few years, including Brendon Burchard, Gary Vaynerchuck and Chris Brogan.

While I haven’t yet done this yet with a book, I have certainly seen the impact of video on building my email newsletter list and booking speaking engagements.

In less than nine months, I have gone from 2,500 email subscribers to almost 40,000. In addition, I have more than quadrupled the number of booking requests coming in for my speaking engagements. Video was a key component in both campaigns.

The good news is that video is cheaper to produce than ever. You can get professional quality video produced for a fraction of what it used to cost. And the results can be well-worth the investment.

When I started considering video, I went to Joel Smith, a friend whom I have known for many years. He operates a high-end, video production company in Nashville called Comprehensive Media.

I really just went to Joel for advice, thinking his price would likely be out of my range. He explained that he was launching a new brand called SimplyVideo for people like me—”when simple is all you need.”

I wasn’t looking for a slick product demo or a book trailer. Instead, I simply wanted to look into the camera and tell people why they needed a life plan (in the case of my email subscriber campaign) or show them some demos of me speaking.

Get this: As of yesterday, the life plan video has had 156,610 plays on Vimeo. My speaking demo (a much more limited audience) has had 17,400 plays. These have worked so well, that I can’t envision doing any product launch without video as a key component.

Here’s why I think video works, and why you should consider it for your products or services.

• Video is more engaging than other forms of communication. It appeals to more of the senses.
• Video provides an opportunity for you to build trust. You can communicate in a casual, conversational style.
• Video gives you an opportunity to demonstrate the product—especially if that product is you!

This is why I have begun working on a video for my new book, Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World. I see it as a key component in the pre-launch campaign.

By the way, if you are interested in creating a video to promote your brand, product, or service, Joel has offered to extend to my readers a special 15% discount on SimplyVideo between now and February 15th. Just enter the coupon code TAYHO112 in the quote page.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth ten thousand. That’s why I intend to use even more of it this coming year.

This past weekend, I took the eight young men in my mentoring group on a retreat. It was the kickoff to our 2012 season.

We went to Deer Run, a beautiful retreat center in the hills of middle Tennessee. The weather was absolutely gorgeous—mid-40s and plenty of sunshine.

We focused on the topic of life planning. Most of the guys had written a life plan, but we used the time to review the basics and update our work. (A life plan is never done. It must be updated on a regular basis.)

The most memorable part of the retreat for me was the low ropes course. Bob Elder, a local businessman, facilitated the experience and did an outstanding job.

He presented to us a series of five challenges that we had to solve together as a team. They became progressively more difficult as the afternoon wore on.

The last one—and the most difficult of the five—was climbing a twelve-foot wall. We had to get each man over the wall alive. All the men were permitted to help the others until they successfully scaled the wall. Then they could only watch.

This exercise took some serious teamwork and a deliberate strategy. But I’m pleased to report that every man made it.

Here are seven of my leadership take-aways from this experience:

1. Someone must step up and lead. I made it clear on the front end that though I was normally the leader of the group, I wouldn’t be leading during these challenges. I expected them to figure it out. No one really led during the first exercise and it showed. Then the men started appointing a different leader for each challenge, and it made a huge difference.
2. The best leaders solicit ideas from their followers. As we quickly learned, being the leader didn’t mean you had to have the best ideas. Each of the leaders started by asking the team for ideas. (We had a very creative group.) They gave each man a chance to express himself and then made a decision on the goal and the strategy.
3. Alignment is more important than strategy. The leader didn’t always pick the best strategy. As team members, we were not always in agreement with the strategy. Regardless, we voluntarily aligned ourselves around the leader and did our best to execute on the selected strategy. Sometimes, we had to try multiple strategies. Still, we stayed together..
4. Trust makes everything easier. Most of the men in my my group have been meeting together for two years. Many of the men have gone through incredibly difficult life experiences. We have shared in one another’s joy and pain. Through this, we have built trust—something we needed and used in each of the challenges.
5. Debriefing is essential to progress. After each challenge, Bob had us debrief on what he had learned. This was huge and dramatically improved our results with each successive challenge. So often, we fail to do this in life and in our work—and it shows. Perhaps we think we don’t have time. But this actually saves time in the long run.
6. Almost any problem can be solved by teamwork. There were several times that I personally didn’t see how we would solve the problem. This was especially true on the last one. But thankfully, I was not left to my own resources. Someone on the team always had an idea that worked. It made me relax and trust that we could figure it out together.
7. Working together is more satisfying than working alone. Going through these challenges was such a powerful, bonding experience. We were on the course for a little over three hours. It seemed like it was less than an hour. We had a blast, accomplished more than we could have done on our own, and grew closer together. It was a great reminder of the joy of teamwork.

I love reading books on leadership and attending seminars. But as helpful as these are, they are not the same as doing something together with a team. There are some things in life that are best learned by doing.

If you live in the Nashville area, I highly recommend taking advantage of Deer Run. If you don’t live nearby, see if you can find a retreat center with a low (or even high) ropes course. It is well-worth the investment.

The value of a mentor cannot be overestimated. A mentor is someone who is a few laps ahead of you in an area of life where you wish to find success. More than formal training, more than a book or a seminar, a good mentor brings his or her personal experience to bear on your life in a way that may shape it forever.

But how to find one? It’s actually easier than you think. Here are five ways to find a mentor:

1. Don’t Start with Seth Godin or Max Lucado. Yes, we’d all love to have someone at the top of our profession mentor us. But not only is this unrealistic, it’s also unhelpful. Chances are that the advice of someone at the very top would be intimidating or unhelpful to you at your current pace of life. Instead, look for someone a few levels ahead of you in your chosen field. Someone accessible to you. There is a pastor in my community whose church is medium-sized, but not mega. Since I pastor a small church, he’s perfect for me and has the time.
2. Attend trade functions or gatherings in your community. As a pastor, I regularly attend pastor’s gatherings in our area. I’ve also done this in the Christian publishing field. Simply attending and meeting new people has led to many rich mentoring relationships. If you stay inside your office your entire life, you’ll never experience the opportunity to be enriched by the wisdom of others.
3. Make friendships through simple conversation. You don’t find a mentor by asking someone, “Can you be my mentor?” That’s a bit awkward and may seem to put a heavy burden on someone who doesn’t know you very well. Instead, meet people, develop relationships through conversation and let natural human interaction be your guide.
4. Follow up with a request to meet again, one-on-one. If you’ve gotten to know someone you think you can learn from, get his contact information and ask him something like, “Hey, I’d love to sit for coffee and pick your brain on _______.” This is the intentional part of finding a mentor. I’ve done this a number of times both with pastors and with writers and have found them eager to share what they know about their chosen field.
5. Ask questions. When you do meet for coffee, pepper the mentor with questions and then sit back and listen. Ask him questions like, “How did you get into this field?” “What have you learned over the years?” “What do you think of this idea?” Don’t try to wow him with all you’ve done. You’re there to learn from his success.

Mentoring relationships are valuable . . . and they aren’t complicated. They are simply friendships which have the potential to help shape your future.

Oh, and a bonus tip: pick up the tab. The wisdom you gain is well worth the price of a latte.

I often write and speak on workload management. But even I occasionally get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of requests and assignments. I’m in such a state right now.

In the last week I’ve attended board meetings for three different companies. Two were out of town. In addition, I have spoken publicly five times and am right in the middle of reviewing the copy-edited manuscript for my new book.

That doesn’t even count the 669 e-mails I have received in the last week. (Yes, that’s the exact count as of 10 minutes ago. It only represents the ones that have come through to my private account.) No wonder I feel overwhelmed!

But I’ll bet your life is no different. The reality is all of us have more work than we can possibly do. When you add to this the demands of regular exercise, family, church, civic duties, and some semblance of a social life, it becomes impossible.

Here are six things you can do to cope. Trust me, I am preaching to myself!

1. Acknowledge you can’t do it all. The idea that you will eventually get caught up is a myth. It’s impossible. You have more work than you can reasonably expect to get done. And unfortunately, your workload is not static. Even now, while you are reading this post, your inbox is filling up with fresh new tasks.
2. Accept the fact some things won’t get done at all. This flows from the first item. You have to make peace with the fact that you must leave some things undone—for the sake of your own sanity.
3. Practice workload triage. On the battlefield, medics have to decide where to apply their limited resources. They can’t help everyone. According to Dictionary.com, triage is
   

   the process of sorting victims, as of a battle or disaster, to determine medical priority in order to increase the number of survivors.”

   Some patients will survive without medical care. Some won’t survive even if they have medical care. Triage means ignoring these two groups and focusing on those that will only survive with medical care.

   You must know which things you can safely ignore and which things demand your intervention.

4. Categorize your tasks by priority. In my view, this is the one thing missing from David Allen’s system. It assumes all tasks are equal. Or to say it another way, you can only decide a task’s relative priority in the moment.This doesn’t work for me. I end up with scores of tasks I must review every day. My eyes glaze over, and I fall prey to what Charles Ummel calls the Tyranny of the Urgent.

   Instead, I like the Franklin-Covey method of assigning a priority tag to each task:

   A—urgent and important
   B—important but not urgent
   C—urgent but not important
   D—not urgent or important

   I personally categorize each task with one of these tags. At the beginning of each day, I focus on my A’s first. If I get those done, I move to the B’s, then the C’s.

5. Practice intentional neglect.Many people practice the opposite—unintentional neglect. They forget to do something or they are late in meeting their deadlines. They don’t like this behavior and neither do those who are counting on them.But this inevitably happens if you don’t practice intentional neglect. You must decide in advance you will not do category D tasks. They are neither urgent nor important. They are simply not worthy of your time or attention.

   “But,” you may ask, “what about tasks I don’t think are important but someone else does?” Great question. Let me give you an example.

   When I was a CEO, my Board sometimes asked me to do something I thought was a waste of time. I didn’t regard it as important. But, because I served at their pleasure—and wanted to keep my job!—I re-categorized it in my mind as important. Sometimes, it is a simple matter of re-framing the task.

   On the other hand, I recently received a lunch request from a man who is an acquaintance. He is looking for a job and wanted to discuss career possibilities in the publishing industry. This is no doubt important to him and possibly urgent. For me it is neither, so I declined.

   The bottom line is you must learn to say “no” to the unimportant tasks, so you can say “yes” to the important tasks and actually get them done.

6. Do the next most important thing next. Multi-tasking is a myth. You really can’t do more than one thing at a time—at least more than one thing that requires focused attention. So get your list of priorities, do the most important thing first, then move to the next item and work down your list.

For today, I have six things I’d like to accomplish: one of them is an A, four are Bs, and one is a C. I’m starting at the top and working down the list.

If you want to improve the quality of your life or business, planning is essential. You have to be honest about your current reality, envision a better future, and then create a roadmap for getting from one to the other.

But having a solid plan is no guarantee against encountering problems along the way. As a mentor of mine used to say, “Doo-doo occurs.”

In the video above, a classical violist faces the unexpected. Near the end of a concert, a cell phone goes off in the audience. Note what he does:

• He embraces the interruption as an opportunity.
• He uses the unexpected to demonstrate his artistry.
• He wins over the crowd and a creates an unforgettable experience.

The Apostle James encouraged this kind of attitude when he wrote:

When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives my brothers, don’t resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends! Realize that they come to test your faith and to produce in you the quality of endurance (1:2–4, J.B. Phillips New Testament)

The bottom line is that it all comes down to your perspective. Do you see obstacles as problems or opportunities?

I left my role as CEO of Thomas Nelson in April 2011. I thought I could get by without an assistant. Boy, was I wrong.

As a result of greater focus on writing, my blog traffic spiked and my comment load doubled. I started getting more email. I had to book my own travel. I soon felt overwhelmed.

Initially, I thought I’d hire a part-time assistant. I even created a job description and sent it to several people I thought might know of someone. A few people applied.

But then I started counting the cost:

• Where would I put them, since I work out of my house?
• Would I have to supply my assistant with a computer? a cell phone? other equipment?
• Did I want to pay payroll taxes and keep up with the paperwork?

So, I switched gears and considered a virtual assistant (a “VA”). I re-read Tim Ferriss’s excellent chapter on virtual assistants in The 4-Hour Work Week (see Chapter 8).

I had hired a “VA” a few years ago while I was still at Thomas Nelson. I did this more as an experiment than anything else. I hired someone in another country for about $10 an hour. It was cheap, but the service was disappointing. I decided this time that I would hire someone domestically.

I posted on Twitter that I was looking for a virtual assistant. Within an hour, Bryan Miles of eaHELP.com responded. We talked by phone a few minutes later.

I was impressed by Bryan’s responsiveness, personal values, and operating philosophy. After considering a few other options, I decided to give his firm a try.

Bryan assigned Tricia to my account. I was immediately impressed with her. She has worked for me since August, and I couldn’t be happier. People I interact with, assume that we are working out of the same office. She has her own michaelhyatt.com email address. I routinely get compliments on her responsiveness and efficiency.

Here’s what she does:

• She screens my email. She checks my main email accounts, handles what she can, and “redirects” the messages that require my personal attention to my private account. She has reduced my email load by 90 percent.
• She books my travel. She handles all the details, including airline reservations, hotels, car rental, etc. She sets up a trip in TripIt, so I have everything I need in one place.
• She makes calls on my behalf. She makes appointments (both personal and professional), confirms my appointments, checks my voice mail, and follows up as needed.
• She manages my calendar. Almost nothing gets on my calendar unless it passes through her first. We have agreed together that I will only accept appointments on two afternoons a week, and she works to stay within those boundaries.
• She handles other projects as needed. I continue to turn over more and more to her. For example, she recently screened all the people who had applied to be a community leader on my site. She and my manager, Joy, ended up picking the final ten I appointed.

Basically, Tricia can do anything that doesn’t require her physical presence.

I started using her for five hours a week and quickly went to fifteen. I found that I was so much more productive that it was well-worth the additional investment.

Tricia has now become such a partner in my business that I no longer even think of her as virtual. She’s just one of my teammates—and a very valuable one at that.

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.

I knew our division was in bad shape. But I didn’t know how bad things really were until I became the publisher. I took a deep breath and began to assess reality. Here’s what I found:

• We were the least profitable division of fourteen in the Company. We had actually lost money the previous year. People in the other divisions were mumbling about our performance and how we had drug the whole company down.
• Revenue growth had been basically flat for three years. In addition, we had just lost our single biggest author to a competing publishing company. This made revenue growth going forward even less likely.
• As a percentage-of-revenue, inventory and royalty advances were the highest in the company. In other words, we were the least efficient users of working capital. We were consuming enormous corporate resources and providing virtually no return to our shareholders.
• We were publishing about 125 new titles a year with ten people. Everyone was overworked and the quality of our output showed it. We simply had too much to do.

Honestly, things could not have been worse. However, as the new divisional executive, I recognized that things could not have been better for me. This was a great career opportunity. If I turned the division around, I would be a hero. If I didn’t, that would be okay, too. After all, the division was a mess when I inherited it. I couldn’t lose.

The first thing I did was to go off on a private retreat. I had one objective in mind. I wanted to get crystal clear on my vision. What did I want to see happen? What would the division look like in three years? I didn’t care about strategy; I was only concerned with vision.

Through the years, I had learned that if you think about strategy (the “how”) too early, it will actually inhibit your vision (the “what”) and block you from thinking as big as you need to think. What you need is a vision that is so big that it is compelling, not only to others, but to you. If it’s not compelling, you won’t have the motivation to stay the course and you won’t be able to recruit others to help you.

For example, if I had been strategic before I was visionary, I might have said, “Well, I don’t see how we can accomplish much. The situation is so dire. We don’t have many resources to work with. Let’s just try to get to break-even this next year. Maybe we can reduce our working capital some by selling off a little obsolete inventory. And, maybe we can sign a few new authors and get a little revenue growth.”

Do you think anyone would have gotten excited about this? Would this vision have attracted the right authors? Would it have retained the right employees? Would it have secured additional corporate resources? I don’t think so.

The problem is that people get stuck on the how. They don’t see how they could accomplish more, so they throttle back their vision, convinced that they must be “realistic.” And, what they expect becomes their new reality. This is simply faith applied negatively.

I didn’t take this approach. Instead, I developed a vision statement that I found compelling. If I couldn’t get excited about it, I couldn’t sell it to others. Instead, I gave myself permission to envision the perfect future. Here’s what I wrote down:

Once I had this on paper, I came back to the office and called a meeting with my entire staff. I reviewed our current reality. I was brutally honest. The situation was dire, and I didn’t pull any punches.

I then shared the new reality—the vision—and described it in as much detail as I could. I was genuinely enthusiastic and committed. Because I found the vision compelling, most of the them did, too. Some were slow to get on-board, but in the end, even the most reluctant ones came around.

I personally read through this vision daily. I prayed over every part. I asked God to guide us. Little by little, He brought us the strategy and the resources. However, I spent way more time—probably ten-to-one—focused on the what rather than the how.

When people would ask, “How in the world are you going to accomplish this?”, I would just smile and say, “I’m not sure, but I am confident it is going to happen. Just watch.”

And, guess what? It happened. I thought my initial vision would take at least three years to accomplish. Amazingly, we had an almost complete turnaround in eighteen months. We exceeded almost every aspect of our vision.

Over the next six years, Nelson Books was consistently the fastest growing, most profitable division at Thomas Nelson. It had one bestseller after another. It was home to almost all of our company’s bestselling authors during that time.

This didn’t happen because we had a great business strategy. It happened because we had a clear vision of what we wanted to achieve. That’s where it started, and that’s where you have to start if you want to experience a different reality than the one you have now, you have to get clear on what you want.

Here’s what I recommend:

1. Get alone with just a journal and a pen. If you can get a way to a solitary place, so much the better.
2. Make sure you won’t be interrupted. Turn off your cell phone, e-mail, television, etc.
3. Close your eyes and pray. Ask God for inspiration and guidance. What you ultimately want is alignment between His plan and your vision. But don’t make this harder than it needs to be. God usually speaks through our desires. If that’s a new thought, then read John Eldredge’s book, Desire: The Journey We Must Take to Find the Life God Offers.
4. Write down your current reality—all the things that you don’t like. Be brutally honest. It’s difficult to change unless you find your current reality unacceptable.
5. Now write down what you would like to see happen. Write it down in detail. If you can, use all five senses. Write it in the present tense, as though it has already happened. This will make it more believable to you.
6. Share your vision with the people who have a stake in the outcome.
7. Commit to reading your vision daily. This is critically important. “Faith is the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). The more you can “see” this, the more likely it will come to pass.

Remember: Don’t get hung up on how you will accomplish your vision. Just believe God and watch it come to pass.

I am not your average leader. My leadership decisions don’t affect the boardroom, but they do the future of the world because I am raising two future leaders. I am a domestic engineer, a home economist, a housewife, a mom. I have found that my leadership at home has taught me lessons that any leader, whether in the board room or the laundry room, can use.

1. If it stinks, change it. This philosophy applies to diapers and to decisions. As leaders, sometimes we may “own” an idea so tightly, that even when shown data that the idea is failing, we keep holding on to it. A leader should be able to change. As Gary Shapiro, president and chief executive of Consumer Electronics Association and co-author of a book on innovation puts it, “Mistakes are OK—hiding them is not.”

2. Time outs are helpful. Sometimes my kids need a time out. A time out helps them refocus and get ready to carry on—with a new attitude. Sometimes I need a break…from my kids! That doesn’t make me a bad mom. In fact, the “time out” makes me a better mom. Good leaders also recognize the value of a time out or as Michael Hyatt refers to it, The Discipline of Rest.
3. You need to share. A smart mom knows that arguments in the next room can often be stopped just by calling out, “Share!” A 1991 Mercedes commercial conveyed similar advice. When asked why they gave away a basic safety advance for free, by never enforcing their patent on their energy absorbing car body, the engineer replied, “There are some things in life that are too important not to share.” Good leaders understand the importance of sharing.
4. It’s okay to be “mean.” After I took away my daughter’s dessert in punishment for lying, she said, “I am 100 percent sure you are not my real mom.” The assumption, of course, was that a real mom would never be so mean as to take away a child’s dessert. While my daughter couldn’t see past dessert, I was looking at the bigger picture, her integrity. Likewise, when my husband gave pay cuts to his entire company, including himself, during tough economic times he won no popularity contest. However, his hard, but wise decision enabled his company to stay afloat, while many other companies went under. Good leaders sometimes make “mean” decisions, but they are for the best interest of everyone.
5. Leaders know how to follow. My kids love to play follow the leader, knowing before the game starts that they take turns being the leader. In my life, I may be Queen of the Kitchen, but my husband is the one bringing home the bacon. I must respect that. Even if you are a CEO, you still have a board, shareholders, or your client to whom you report. Realize that just like in the game, sometimes you lead, and sometimes you follow.
6. The future is in our hands. My kids will grow up and leave home one day. My job is to prepare them for that. I won’t always be around to rescue them or give advice. I mentor them now, with the goal that they will know what they should do, even when I’m not around to tell them. A good leader trains his people well, because he knows the importance of raising up new leaders.

Sometimes, success is simply a matter of making one small adjustment. For example, at 211 degrees, water is hot. But at 212 degrees it boils. This makes all the difference.

Sam Parker and Mac Anderson expanded on this simple metaphor in their short book, 212°: the Extra Degree. They wrote,

Raising the temperature of water by one extra degree means the difference between something that is simply very hot and something that generates enough force to power a machine—a beautiful, uncomplicated metaphor that ideally should feed every endeavor—consistently pushing us to make the extra effort in every task we undertake…. It reminds us that seemingly small things can make tremendous differences.

Think about it:

• The margin of victory in the Men’s 800-meter Race in the 1984 Summer Olympic Games was only 0.71 seconds—less than one second!
• The average margin of victory in the Daytona 500 and the Indianapolis 500 (combined) over the last ten years has been 1.54 seconds. And the prize money for second place was less than half that of first place.
• The average margin of victory for the last 25 years in all major PGA golf tournaments combined was less than three strokes.

The point is that it doesn’t take that much extra effort to win first place. What could you do if you were willing to push just a little bit more and break ahead of the pack?

Here’s how you can harness the 212° principle in your goal-setting:

1. Choose one goal. Select the one that matters the most to you this year.
2. Identify what’s at stake. Why is accomplishing this goal so important—to you?
3. Write down 2-3 key actions. These are the ones that could propel you into the winner’s circle.
4. Now execute! Stop planning. Stop stalling. Just get out there and do it.

I am reminded of a quote by Thomas Edison (also cited in Parker and Anderson’s book):

Many of life’s failures are men who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.

How close are you right now?

You might want to show the video above to your team and then go through the exercise I’ve outlined together. It could make all the difference in accomplishing your most important goal for this year.

A few weeks ago, I sat down with an old friend to catch up. He lost his job about nine months ago in a recession-induced layoff and has been unable to find another job. He’s had plenty of interviews just no offers.

“What’s wrong with me?” he asked. “Why won’t someone offer me a job?” He was clearly discouraged.

I am sure he wasn’t even conscious of the question he was asking. It just bubbled up from his subconscious. But it was a good example of a bad question.

Questions are powerful tools. They can ignite hope and lead to new insights. They can also destroy hope and keep us stuck in bad assumptions.

The key is to be intentional and choose our questions well.

For example, when something bad happens, you could ask:

• Why does this always happen to me?
• What did I do to deserve this?
• What’s wrong with me?

As soon as we ask these questions, our brains go to work, serving up answers. It is almost automatic. The answers have a way of reinforcing the assumptions behind the question.

For example, if you ask “What’s wrong with me?” you are assuming there IS something wrong with you. Your mind immediately begins proposing possible answers.

Maybe it’s because:

• You’re too old.
• You’re too young.
• You’re inexperienced.
• You’re overqualified.
• You’re too assertive.
• You’re too passive.

Whatever the question, the answers reinforce the assumption and provide an excuse for why you are not getting the results you want.

But what if you ask a different question? For example, my friend could ask:

• What could I do to make my interviews more memorable?
• What are the two or three attributes that make me the best possible candidate for the job?
• How can I follow up in a way that makes it easier for the prospective employer to say “yes”?
• How could my apparent liabilities really be an asset in this situation?

These are constructive questions. They empower and create new possibilities. They lead to action. And they will produce results.

The last question is particularly interesting. How could your apparent liabilities really be an asset in this situation?

For example, if you think you are too old, that could, in fact, be a tremendous asset. You have no doubt made a lot of mistakes and have learned from them. As a result, you have better judgment.

If you think you don’t have enough experience, that too could be a great asset. You aren’t locked into the same assumptions as more experienced candidates. It is easier for you to think “outside the box” and approach problems with a fresh perspective.

Here are four ways to ask better, more empowering questions:

1. Become conscious of the questions you are asking yourself.
2. Evaluate these questions: Is this a good question? If not, what’s a better one?
3. Choose the better question. Be intentional.
4. Write down the answers that your brain serves up. Act on these insghts.

This whole process goes back to a premise I have written about many times:

If you want to change the results you are getting, you must change your thinking.

Everything—everything!—starts there.