Get Out. Get Moving. Start.

Action always beats intention.

A dream you don’t have to fight for isn’t a dream—it’s a nap. One changes your afternoon. The other changes your world. Keep fighting.

How do you balance your family and working on your dream?

Quitter June 30, 2011 • Comments

“How do you get your spouse to support your dream?”

“How do you keep your family a priority when you get really busy?”

“How do you stay focused on being a husband or a wife when a dream takes off?”

I’ve been hearing these questions a lot lately. And they’re great questions to ask because you wouldn’t believe the number of marriages that are wrecked when someone chases a dream the wrong way. I’ve written about them a few times, but I can only speak from one side.

To fully answer those questions, I’ve asked a special guest to come speak at the Quitter Conference.

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Want to write a book or a blog? Let’s talk.

Misc June 28, 2011 • Comments

In the last few weeks I’ve received a lot of emails and phone calls about being a writer. From how do you publish a book to how do you create new ideas for blogs, folks have asked some really good questions about writing. I’ve also started to write more about the act of writing on this blog.

In order to answer a lot of the questions and share what I’ve learned about writing, I’m holding a special Writer’s Q&A for attendees of the Quitter Conference. If you sign up for the conference before Tuesday, July 5th, you’ll get a VIP invitation to it. It will be from 4:30 – 5:30PM immediately following the conference. (If you’ve already registered for the conference, you’re already in.)

If you want to write a book, a blog or just really amazing post cards, I encourage you to sign up. I think it will be a fun chance for us to hang out after the conference and will give me an opportunity to share everything I’ve discovered about writing books, blogging and why surprise matters so much in both.

And if you’re thinking, “Oh, great, a writer’s Q&A, my dream job is to be a plumber,” fear not. If you sign up before July 5th we’ll give you a free Quitter notebook in which you can scribble plumbing schematics. (I am assuming there are schematics involved in plumbing.)

The coffee with Jon morning session filled up fast and is already closed. Don’t miss out on the Writer’s Q&A.

Click here to register for the conference.

 

Why don’t people read your blog?

Blogging/ Social Media/ Writing June 24, 2011 • Comments

Sometimes we like to complicate the answer to that question. When we look at our blogs and our traffic, we mystify the relationship between blog writer and blog reader.

But the answer to why people don’t read your blog is actually pretty simple. And it’s a question your readers would ask, if you gave them the opportunity. Here it is:

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4 things to remember if you’re unemployed

Quitter/ Random June 22, 2011 • Comments

Last weekend, Fox & Friends gave me the chance to talk to moms and dads who are unemployed. There are four ideas from that session that I wanted to pass on to you:

1. Remember, you didn’t lose your identity. You lost your job. You can still be a great mom or dad in this season.

2. This isn’t forever. Fear and unemployment will try to tell you it is, but it’s temporary. I promise.

3. This is an underdog moment, and how you react will create the story you get to tell.

4. You need to create conversation boundaries, space where you get to be a husband or a wife at home, not just a job hunter.

I also made a George Costanza Seinfeld block of cheese reference, but I didn’t feel like it needed to be numerical since it was off the cuff.

Check out the video of the show after the jump for a little more background on each point.

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The 5 steps to writing satire.

Writing June 15, 2011 • Comments

What is satire?

Let’s get that out of the way first.

Satire is just humor with a purpose.

That’s all. There’s no mystery involved. It’s not that complicated. Satire is a vehicle you use to take people somewhere.

How do you write it? Here are the 5 steps I use with my satire blog and book Stuff Christians Like:

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The invisible thing you have to give your blog readers.

Blogging/ Creativity/ Social Media June 13, 2011 • Comments

Every blog has an unwritten social contract between the author and the readers.

If you have a blog, you have one.

You got one the minute you got your first reader.

And the challenge is that it’s invisible. It’s built based on every blog post you write, every comment you reply to, every link you share. It’s your unstated, but powerfully communicated, commitment to meet the expectations your actions promise.

Here’s what an excerpt of what mine might look like for my blog Stuff Christians Like:

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