Greg Darley:

Had the opportunity to have lunch with Brad Lomenick today.  If you haven’t heard of Brad, you have heard of his organization and their event.  Brad is the puppet master behind the Catalyst Conference…the cutting edge leadership conference held in Atlanta each year.  I had a great time and got to ask a lot of questions and got posed some tough, but needed questions.  What I really enjoyed about the time with Brad was the fact that he was focused on our conversation.  This is a guy that gets to hang out with the best leaders in the country. Take a look at this year’s speakers for the conference for proof.  He didn’t rush our time and take phone calls and things like that.

It showed a lot about his character and his belief in reaching young leaders. I was challenged but at the same time encouraged.

Thanks Brad for the time and I look forward to hopefully more in the future.

Growing too fast has its downsides.

The up and coming Twitter seems to be over tweeting right now.

Can you plan for something like this? 

Been a little while since I could sit down and post for all you loyal readers (hi mom!). This past weekend we were in D.C. for a friends wedding. My wife was a bridesmaid (she was smoke’n) and I got to hang out most of the weekend. Highlights from the trip:

1. Free Chains Shirts came in right before we left….they look sweet.

2. Ate at 5 Guys for the first time…a dang good burger

3. Ate at Chipotle and saw Indian Jones 4….disappointed to say the least.

4. Ran my long run for the week…longest I’ve run since basketball conditioning in high school

5. Witnessed my first fainting at a wedding….maid of honor went cold on stage (she was ok).

6. Played Frisbee golf Sunday at Clemson with my brother for his birthday…he’s freaking 30

7. Had a foreign student try and steal my frisbee on hole 15…chris got it back…then I won.

I call Tire Kingdom today to see if I can get an oil change…pretty basic request I would assume.

They say, come in in an hour.

I come in in an hour.

They say, can’t touch it for 2 hours. Can you drop it off?

Sure, but I’ll still be here?

They say, come back in 5 hours, we’ll get it done and you wont have to wait long.

I come back in 5 hours.

Lady in front is told her oil will be changed in 2 hours and tires rotated in 4.

(lady in front cusses out “they” and takes up another 10 minutes.)

I step up to the counter.

They say, “do I need to repeat that?”

I say, no, I think I understand. But I have to have it done before noon tomorrow.

They say, can you be here first thing in the morning.

I say, I don’t have a choice.

They say, we’ll do it for free.  See you in the morning.

This past weekend, we had some friends come into town for a day. They are getting married next weekend. It made me think about my wedding and how it seems like yesterday it was all happening. There are some things that I wish I could share with Greg before he got married. Things that would help him be a better husband. Things that would help him lead the type of home he wants to live in. Here are a couple of the things that I wish Greg would have learned back then…

1. If you want something to be a habit for the family, start early and continue often. Here are some things that fall under this umbrella: Budgeting and Spiritual disciplines as a family. If you want to pray together as a married couple/family, then start early and do it often. Do not wait, for habits form very quickly.

2. Learn to listen. Hearing doesn’t count. Listening does. Listen for her point of view before yours. Its amazing how much frustration is eased when you understand where the other person is coming from.

3. Be intentional with your marriage. This includes how you spend time, date nights, praying together, cutting the cell phone off, cutting the computer off, cutting the tv off, etc.

4. Exercise doesn’t fit into your life unless you make it fit. Life gets busy. Make it a priority to stay healthy.

What are some things you would have told yourself the week before you got married?

As a sub note, as I have been implementing these practices into my marriage, our relationship seems to grow at an exponential rate. But, they take time and you need to take a long term view…nothing great happens over night!

Branding is such a buzz word right now.  Maybe it has been for a while and I’m just catching up. Either way, I’ve been paying more attention to it lately and realizing that branding is more than a logo or slogan.  Branding is what people think of when they think of you, your product, your company, your church (yeah, your church is branded too), you ministry, even your family.

What are the things that make up your brand?  Let me give a few observations I’ve seen:

Do you return emails or voice mails?  How soon? I met someone last year that is doing some pretty cool stuff.  I asked if I could take him to lunch or email some questions to get his thoughts.  4 emails, 2 phone calls and 3 more in person conversations and have received no attempt from him.  That’s Branding.

Do you show up for meetings on time? I just left a meeting with someone trying to sell me something and he was 5 minutes late.  No thanks.

Do  you hand out professional materials? I was in a meeting a few weeks ago and met sales person that had his cards printed from a “free” company. Of course I knew this because the company that printed them had their info and logo on the back of the card.  I wonder if he thought no one would look there?

The issue here is that as Christians, we represent the biggest and most important brand ever…the name of Christ.  All the things from emails to websites reflect back on Him.  Are you selling that name short?  That puts a new spin when Paul said to watch your doctrine and  your life carefully.  What you believe and how you live matter.

First day of Ministry @ the Max was just that…sooooooo much information.  There was a lot of good information.  A lot to digest. A lot to dig through.  It was pretty much the opposite of the Q conference last month which centered around big ideas, future thinking, innovation, creativity, etc.  This was more of the nuts and bolts of how to make all that happen. (In other words, all the stuff I’m not good at).  Let me give a brief overview:

-85% of start-up businesses (and ministiries) fail within the first five years because of inadequate planning, structure, and systems.

How do we not become a statistic?

Ministry Venture’s 5 Best Practices are a step.

1. Prayer

God is a God of order.

“Putting things in order is Wise and faithful stewardship”

That is a very convicting statement for us dreamers, visionaries, idea guys, and big thinkers.  Have to work on that.

3 Biblical Principles:

1. Build on a solid foundation of prayerful planning.

2. Build a ministry that can withstand adversity.

3. Build around process and not personality.

I’ll be attending a seminar tomorrow that is supposed to help with the foundational issues of leading a non-profit.  I’ll post notes tomorrow and share all the info that I’m taking in.  Should be a great time of learning about systems and effective communication.

Always striving to get better (and Lord knows I’ve got a long way to go!)

Jim Collins (author of Good to Great) must have been very proud of Sergio Garcia yesterday.  He confronted the brutal facts.  After winning the TPC at Sawgrass, Sergio thanked Tiger Woods for not being there!  He said it does make it easier with Tiger at home.  I loved it.  It’s true.  Not many “professionals” would want to admit it, but its true.

This is an idea that if embraced could have great impact in many areas of life, business, and ministry. Confronting the facts of your current situation will help you make better choices and decisions.  For World Causes we’ve looked at all our current human and financial capital and have seen what we can and cannot do right now. We want to do everything with excellence, which right now is Free Chains.

Check out his speech and think about areas where you need to confront the brutal facts.

Little disappointed with the episode. It was pretty good, but at best average.

Hopefully they’re just setting up for a big finale. Will Jim propose?

: