Young Influencers List- August edition

Here we go, the August edition of the Young Influencers List. Again, for all of you who like to try and read into things, there is no significance to order- simply listed alphabetical by last name. 1. Chuck Anderson- a great designer/illustrator in Grand Rapids who is doing work for the likes of Puma, Amp Energy Drinks, Honda, VANS, Nike, and Mountain Dew. He's good. 

2. Alex and Brett Harris- twin 19 year old authors who have taken the teen world by storm with their best-selling book Do Hard Things. These guys are the real deal, and are challenging teens around the world to not settle for mediocrity. 

3. Daniel Homrich- founder of The Passport and Innocence Atlanta. Daniel is working on a number of projects in the Atlanta area and globally, specifically to bring attention to and raise awareness of issues of sex trafficking, slavery, and child pornography.

4. Anne Jackson- blog queen of the church leadership world. Anne recently moved to Nashville where she can get her fill of sweet tea on a regular basis!

5. Mark Reddy- founder of Karbon, a film/media company out of Sydney, Australia. Mark is a talented director, and currently working on a great project called The Disposable Ones in conjunction with Compassion International. He also has worked on a number of projects with Hillsong. 

And now you can see the entire archive list of Young Influencers so far in 2008.

Exclusive interview with Mike Huckabee

The latest Catalyst podcast features an exclusive interview with Mike Huckabee, former Governor of Arkansas and recent Presidential candidate. This is not a political interview, although a couple of questions end up with more of a political discussion. Ken Coleman talks with Gov. Huckabee about leadership, his own faith journey, the role of church leaders in politics, and many other topics. And Ken, Ben Arment, and I share a few of our own thoughts on the current face of leadership and politics.  You can listen via streaming or download at itunes.

Airplane Etiquette, Part 2

So it's Part 2 of the Airplane Etiquette series. If you missed the first post in the series, no worries- you can check it out here. We had some great comments on the first post... many of which have influenced Part 2 below. Keep the additional thoughts flowing. 

1.  Can't quit chatting Cathy- is it really necessary that you talk on your phone until the flight attendant has to tell you to turn it off, at which moment you act like you are done and then jump right back on the same phone call. You are such a rebel.... Stop it. Whatever it is can wait. Stop it now. 

2. Move forward 1 or 2 rows when you are in the back Marvin- there is an unwritten rule in airplane etiquette- you cannot advance more than one row past where you were sitting, unless previously allowed through announcement or special circumstances authorized only by the senior flight attendant or captain. Otherwise, stay in your row, and beyond that, just stay in your seat. Is it really that important that you save 7 seconds by moving forward and hacking everyone off? Foreigners are the typical culprits on this one.... there needs to be an international handbook on etiquette written immediately, if not sooner. 

3. Nothing to read, write, or do Danny- honestly, you are on a three hour flight and brought nothing with you to work on, watch, read, write, or listen to. Are you serious? So the entire flight you try to sleep, but can't, so instead you just annoy everyone around you. Buy an ipod, or a walkman, or at least a newspaper. 

Continue to add to the list, or confirm the above with a story or example.

Your Best Tech Discovery

In the last month, what is the best tech discovery or innovation you've found? New iphone? Free software download? Great new site that everyone should know about? My list:

1. Hulu

2. 1Password from Apple

3. Scribd- upload documents to this site for review, archiving, or just for others to see. 

4. Sprout

5. Kindle

How about you? Share the love. 

Interview with Bill Strickland

Recently had the chance to spend some time with Bill Strickland, the founder of the Manchester Bidwell Corporation, author of Make the Impossible Possible, and former Catalyst and Maximum Impact speaker. Bill is a true inspiration, and has helped thousands of kids find hope through his training centers in Pittsburgh. 

Bill has literally transformed an entire neighborhood in a tough area of Pittsburgh, and now is planning to open 100 similar training centers around the country over the next several years. You can listen to the interview here. 

If you have a chance to visit the Pittsburgh area, make sure and stop by the training centers. It is an amazing story and one worth seeing in person.

My favorite convenience store

Alright, I have to admit. When it comes to a gas station/convenience store, I have a pretty significant passion for QuikTrip. In fact, I really won't go anywhere else. I will seek out a QT even if it means going out of my way to find it. 

So why is that? 

1. They deliver on their brand- fast, clean and convenient

2. They are friendly and provide great customer service- they say hello to every person who walks in the door, and actually are pleasant to be around. Seem to actually enjoy their job, which is hard to find in the convenience store industry. 

3. They provide a superior product- the fountain drinks are off the charts. The cubed ice is worth the drive. The coffee is affordable and consistent. The snacks are plenty.

4. They staff and plan effectively- I have never waited in line, and if so, only for a few seconds. It seems that they know exactly when to have more staff on site because of busy times vs. slow times. It always looks like there are more staff than needed, vs. not enough at most gas stations. 

5. There is consistency regardless of location- you can expect a similar experience regardless of which store you visit. This is huge when it comes to consumer trust. I am confident that regardless of city or location, my experience is going to be great. 

Not sure if these are helpful, but we can definitely find parallels between this list and what our organizations or churches should strive for. The reality is, it all starts with the leader. 

The bad news- they're not completely nationwide. The good news- they're all over Atlanta. So do yourself a favor and pull in to a QT and get yourself a fountain drink next time you're in the ATL.

Don't get stagnant

Recently spent some time with Pete Richardson, who is a good friend and consults with tons of ministries, not for profits, and businesses. Pete brought up a great analogy between growing as a spiritual leader and fly fishing, ultimately the inflow and outflow of life. For those who love to fly fish, you know that stagnant water is bad. The best water and ultimately the best fishing is in areas where water is moving and stays pure and filtered- areas that have a current and water flow. Areas of a river that don't have great inflow and outflow tend to get stagnant, dirty, polluted and unpure. 

Similar to our life as a follower of Christ and spiritual leader. How are you creating rhythms in your own personal development, and creating a great inflow and outflow system that keeps you fresh and protects against becoming stagnant? All of us are aware how quickly we can become stagnant- in personal development, in Scriptural study and engagement, in community, in prayer and spiritual disciplines, and many other areas of life. It is important that we are constantly purging the things that are impure, and flowing in to our lives new things that are fresh, clean, and will purify.

Current books to read

Here is a recommendation on some books to read. Thought I'd give these to you by video to make it a little more fun. Chad Johnson, the popular voice and face for Catalyst, joins me.  [vimeo 1429198]

UPDATE: Here are the links to each book as well on Amazon. I just realized the titles are backwards on the video, thanks to Doug. Sorry about that. But all are now listed below. 

1. Just Courage by Gary Haugen 

2. Small Footprint, Big Handprint by Tri Robinson

3. The Sacred Echo by Margaret Feinberg

4. Wide Awake by Erwin McManus 

5. Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris 

6. Make the Impossible Possible by Bill Strickland

Airplane Etiquette, part 1

Ok, I am starting a new series, which will be my insights (highly unobjective of course....) into why most people shouldn't fly on airplanes because they lack airplane etiquette. I have flown in the last 10 years around 600,000 miles, on basically every carrier, and visited 10 countries and almost every US state. Many of you have flown much, much more than me, so feel free to add your own points to this ever evolving list. Power to the flying people on this one. Will make a good coffee table book in the future.....

Part One

1. The middle armrest- here's the deal, middle seat boy always gets first right of refusal on armchair left and armchair right of their seat. If someone is sitting in the middle, the least you can do is allow them to have elbow space. Leaner Larry sitting in the aisle seat has no right to invade your space, nor does Window Wally.

2. Quick draw cellphone man- seriously, this annoys me to no end. Wheels down and cellphone on. Can you wait at least a few minutes before getting on your cell phone and talking as loud as possible so that you seem somewhat important to those around you, when we all know that all you did was just call the person most likely to answer so that you could act like something was incredibly important and couldn't wait. Give me a break. How about 5 minutes of downtime before you jump back into cell phone land- and start making calls once you are off the plane. 

More to follow..... feel free to add your own.

Week Wrap Up

- The Roadtrip team was over at the Ignite Conference held at Perimeter Church in metro Atlanta over the weekend.  - If you are a Thomas Friedman fan (I am) who is a regular columnist for The New York Times, a Pulitzer Prize winning author, and has written books such as The Lexus and the Olive Tree and Longitude and Attitudes, then you'll want to check out this link. You can download a FREE audio mp3 of the book The World is Flat from Friedman, which is one of my favorites. This free download is building momentum for Friedman's upcoming release of his newest book the first week of September. 

- Another great song and incredible story from Hillsong, in regards to their soon to release new album This is our God. 

- If you are a MAC user, you need to download and use the application 1 Password. It is amazingly simple to use and will allow you to keep all of your passwords in one place. Thanks to Chris for helping me set mine up. 

- The Yankees are making a major comeback right now. Red Sox beware.

- Check out our Catalyst Voices video segments on vimeo. Some good stuff on there.

Eat More Chicken today

Our team loves Chick-fil-A. And today was a special day at the local Chick-fil-A.... whatever you bought, keep your receipt and then up until the end of August you can go in and show your receipt and get the same amount of food for FREE! I'm not sure if this is running nationwide, but if so, head to your local Chick-fil-A this evening and get in on the deal. We of course took advantage, as evidenced by the receipts..... 

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Get Outside Your Comfort Zone

When is the last time you got outside your typical routine? Stepped outside the norm and the comfort of a "normal" day, learning environment, or group of friends? When did you last learn from, or for that matter event talk with someone you don't agree with? Are there people in your life who challenge all of your paradigms and stretch your thinking on a consistent basis? Or do you simply surround yourself with "yes" men and women?

Do you typically like to spend time with those whom you feel are inferior to you (in your industry, work environment, and career) or those who are much better than you? Are there certain people who intimidate you? If so, plan a lunch or meeting with them and become a student. Typically those who intimidate us are those we should probably learn from, but aren't sure how. 

Over the next week, make a plan to spend at least one hour in an environment or with a person who stretches you. Nothing morally or ethically sketchy (obviously). I think you'll find it to be a refreshing time. And please report back so we can all learn from your experience.

A visit from Margaret Feinberg

Margaret Feinberg is in town to speak at 7:22 at Buckhead Church tonight, but stopped by the Catalyst offices yesterday to hang with our team a bit. The red couch in our offices is becoming the Catalyst hot seat! Margaret and her husband Leif are great folks. They live in Colorado and are going to end up being on the road speaking 180 days this year. Wow. Her most recent book Sacred Echo is soon to release, and she is working on a very cool book project for 2009 that you'll be hearing more about.  Margaret and Leif also had the chance to ride in the Catalyst Vanagon to Chick-fil-A for lunch, in 100 degree heat with no air conditioning!

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Mandela on leadership

Great article in the latest issue of Time Magazine on Nelson Mandela. I was reading it last night, planning to post about it today. But noticed that Carlos had posted about this very article. So instead of me giving my perspective, head over to Ragamuffin Soul and read the 8 lessons on leadership straight from Carlos' blog. Good stuff. 

Mandela has retired for the most part from the public square but still is involved in a few initiatives. His legacy is undeniable. Most would count him among the greatest leaders of the last 100 years. I sure do.

Brenda Salter McNeil and Chris Heuertz

Check out a recent interview with Brenda Salter McNeil, author of Credible Witness and a frequent speaker at conferences all over the country, and she will be joining us at Catalyst in October. We also sit down with Chris Heuertz, author of Simple Spirituality and Director of Word Made Flesh. 

You can listen via itunes or if not an itunes user, then listen here.

Week ending thoughts

- Wow. Greg Norman has turned back the clock, leading by 2 strokes after 54 holes of the Open Championship.  - A few blogs you should check out: Jeremie, Brian, Chris, and Kristian. 

- The Roadtrip boys are back after 16 states in 8 days. Unbelievable. Plus no air conditioning in the Vanagon during the middle of July. Yikes. 

- Have you heard the song "Jesus Messiah" from Chris Tomlin? It has anthem song of the next 2-3 years written all over it. Sang it (and heard it) for the first time last week with 10,000 other folks at the Forward Conference. You would have thought the crowd had known it for years. 

- Another unbelievable song- Healer from Hillsong. The story behind the song will both inspire you and kick you in the gut. Wow. 

- Two great sites you should frequent: Hulu and Pandora. Hulu has tons of tv shows and movies for free. I have been watching Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip the past couple of weeks. Amazingly well written show- too bad it didn't make it to season 2. Pandora is an online radio station where you can control the kind of songs you hear and program based on artists or genre.

Who is They?

I am walking through the airport 2 days ago, and overhear a conversation among several employees griping about something. Their conversation was centered around "I can't believe THEY decided to make that decision.... they are asking us to show up early but they don't understand." Who is they? 

You hear it all the time.... "they" don't want me to succeed. "they're" the reason the project is failing. It would have worked if "they" wouldn't have messed things up. It wasn't my fault- "they" were supposed to take care of that. 

as leaders, we need to constantly be aware that the idea of "we" and "me" instead of "they" should be our compass. Passing the buck to an unknown entity like "they" just causes confusion and frustration. It's easy to put all the blame on "them" because "they" don't have a name or face or personal connection. The onus is on US, WE and ME, not THEM or THEY, whoever those folks might be.....

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