History in the Making

Alien in New York

Some books just stay in you. A few months ago, I happened into a long layover at an airport and was tired of reading magazines, so I picked up the Innovator's DNA, which describes five characteristics of true innovators.

One of them is Networking.

I'm horrible at networking. My personality type is the task-driven field marshall, so just connecting or just shooting the breeze is really tough for me. I love it when I do. But I don't actively seek out those opportunities in advance. I'd rather walk the quiet streets of a city late at night, deep in my own thoughts.

But darn it if I'm not going to overcome that.

I know some extraordinary connectors who network with people naturally. But it's much more mechanical with me. The action steps for me include:

1. Booking short appointments with people in every city I visit
2. Contacting people I've never met on my twitter feed
3. Looking for good people to follow on twitter
4. Spear-heading creative meet-ups for STORY
5. Scheduling parties with my STORY cohorts
6. Asking my friends to introduce me to their friends

Love to know how you rank on the networking scale and what you do to get better at it...

Wednesday Morning Run-Down

• Photos of the "white party" at Alt Summit
• Thea Nelson did a fun photo recap of Dream Year weekend in Charlotte this past week. What an amazing experience. Speaking of, we're on the hunt for our next city to host Dream Year Weekend this spring or summer
• Excited I get to attend the C2MTL event in May
• Leftover Christmas trees are getting resused as a forest for the Montreal biodome (via @storychicago)
• Mark Clement launched videoannouncements.tv, which creates custom HD video announcements for churches
• Why self-published authors aren't taken seriously (but why the could be) (via Kevin Kaiser). Wouldn't it be fun to own an Espresso Book Maker, by the way?
• "Have friendships that complete you, not compete against you." ~TD Jakes at the Elephant Room
• We talk about this in Dream Year all the time: entrepreneurship is no more risky than trusting your boss or the economy for job security
• It's all I can do not to show you the branding for STORY 2012. I have to keep a supply of Depends on hand to contain my excitement. Put Sept 20-21 on your calendar
• 52% of in-store shoppers use a mobile device to check price and availability on-line before they buy, according to Pew Research. At STORY, we're radically shifting our Resource strategy because of this phenomenon.
• I'm a huge fan of NFL Films's artistry, so in light of the Superbowl, a little Tom Brady vignette (via @tentblogger)
• This girl has her entrepreneurial act together, a portfolio of revenue, physical and digital offerings, a dream team... and a Typepad blog, I'd like to point out =)
• If I were to evaluate Christianity solely by the response to inviting TD Jakes at the Elephant Room, I'd be a Hare Krishna by now. Those of you who have a strong gift of teaching and are reformed, stir up some of some of those other spiritual gifts that are lying dormant inside you
• My former pastor Tony McCollum launched PastorMojo
• I don't ask for much in life, just a warehouse home
• A professional wrestler was on the verge of obsolesence, so he turned to social media and is blowing up
• "Life [I'd argue business] is pretty simple. You try some stuff. Most fails. Some works. You do more of what works. If it works big, others quickly copy it. Then you do something else. The trick is doing something else." ~on Stephen Brewster's Instagram
• I've been referring to the visual style of Four Stones as Saving Private Ryan rather than 300, and wouldn't you know that's exactly how that's how they're describing Spielberg's new Moses film?
• One of Sundance's most controversial films touched on how gullible as people we are
• The camera placement for the Superbowl this Sunday (via @stefantribble)

Wednesday Morning Run-Down

• Hearing tons about the show Downton Abbey, but I'm noticing it's all the non-football people who watch it =)
• One of our special guests at Dream Year Weekend this Friday to Sunday in Charlotte is John Mark McMillan - to talk about his journey as a musical artist. Only 6 tickets left, would love for you to join us. Register HERE
• Spent the past two days consulting with the directors of a national leadership conference who flew into VB. My friend Doug Forehand loaned me his beachfront condo as a workspace, making me look really really good
• The Anthropologist by Anthropologie
• Why I could never play the guitar: I needed more hands
• Interesting quote by UFC's Chael Sonnen: "You know, these guys want to talk about God. 'Oh, I want to thank God. I want to thank God.' Listen, I'm a God-fearing man, go to church every Sunday and have since I was a boy. But if I ever found out that God cared one way or another about a borderline illegal fist-fight on Saturday night, I would be so greatly disappointed that it would make rethink my entire belief system." (@jeremysexton)
• Tripp Crosby told me he wrote a letter to his 50-year old self: "When you're 50, no matter what you're doing, stop. Look around you. Recognize there are younger people who are doing it better than you. Then invest in them."
• Apple’s profit of $13.1 billion in the first quarter of 2012 was equal to their revenue in the last quarter of 2010 (via techcrunch). More people decided to follow Jesus in the 3 months after his death than in the 3 years of his public ministry (@jarrettstevens). Death's a catalyst
• Had to get our minivan towed yesterday. I don't care what you call it, stuff like that is annoying
• Filmed a curriculum in Nashville last Friday with Thomas Nelson at the gorgous Houston Station warehouse. One of my favorite people TK McKamy directed the project. Conversationalists included Pete Wilson, Chris Seay, Leonard Sweet and Ginny Owens
• The robot bird that can fly at TED global 2011
• Creative school environments (via @ainsl3y)
• The impact of words on kids (via @mattwade)
  

Three Kinds of Conferences

I'm over conferences. The way they've always been, that is. Generally, there are three kinds of them:

The How-to Model
Nuts-and-bolts ideas with instructional break-outs and sessions full of fill-in-the-blanks.

The Influence Model
The speakers are the draw. High profile folks. You see them at all the same events... a traveling herd.

The Issues Model
Organized around an issue. When you hear the name of the event, you get the punchline.

But a new day's coming. There's a new kind of experience emerging that is reshaping the whole industry. And it's not the "unconference" where your mom is on the line-up.

But it's a movment that is greatly influencing how we design STORY. More on this soon.

FAQs: Dream Year Weekend

As of this writing, there are only 6 seats remaining at the Magellan Idea Center in Charlotte this Friday-Sun, Jan 27-29 for Dream Year Weekend. I'd love for you to be one of them.

Here are the top five questions I get about the Weekend:

What if I don't know my dream?
This is one of the reasons we created the Weekend. It allows you to explore your dream before you fully commit to it. We talk at length about the history of your dream and which ideas are viable.

Couldn't I just catch the next one?
After Charlotte, we're moving onto cities in the west. So if you live close, here's your chance. Save yourself the airfare and possibly hotel.

What if I can't afford it?
This is the equivalent of a college course in one intensive weekend. If your dream is serious, this will be one of the smallest investments you make. You're also getting all of the meals listed in the schedule, along with some fun surprises. 

Is Dream Year practical?
"Dream Year" makes a better name than "Execution Year" but that's really what it is. This is about putting feet to your idea and making it financially sustainable. We "de-mystify" dreams so you can execute yours this year.

I'm still not sure about it.
You are the product of your surroundings. Here's a chance to surround yourself with people who are determined to make their lives count for something more.

You can register for one of the 6 remaining spots HERE

Scandalous Honor

I love the expression of honor.

But there's a tendency for honor to go up rather than down.

Lavish gifts for people who already have much. A private jet to my conference so you'll spring for a private jet to your conference. @Referring to that baller as my friend on twitter so as to distinguish ourselves from all the other shmucks we ignore and practically grunt at in public... or refer to our assistants.

I think the kind of honor Jesus was talking about was scandalous. It was a reversal of the kind of honor we naturally express. It was directed toward the guy in the lowest seat. Raising him up to the highest seat.

Here in Virginia Beach, there are actual rules against the fraternization of officers and enlisted men. Church is the one safe heaven for breaking those rules. It has to be. It must be.

Whenever scandalous honor happens, it's a fresh wind that blows through the church and gives us a taste of the social economics of Jesus. The other kind stinks to high heaven.

You're Gonna Outwork Me

Most of the time.

You're gonna out-pace me, out-hustle me, out-run me.

And as you're going by, I'll yell, "You go! Do that thing!"

I will gladly lay it down.

Sometimes I forget that my projects are not my children.

But not for long.

Wednesday Morning Run-Down

• I'm getting on a plane today to go to a technical creative meeting for STORY 2012. It's coming again =)
• Working with an amazing church in Hattiesburg, MS for the next year. Love going to places I've never been before
• We just changed the Dream Year Weekend location in Charlotte to the Magellan Idea Center. Register [here]
• Only 12 tickets remaining for the Weekend actually
• Portlandia is a funny, funny show... and true
• An office pod for the backyard
• John Finch (Dream Year '11) just announced a project to tell the story of his father's suicide. See the incredible project [here] and the trailer only [here]
• I don't understand why Panera puts a napkin under your food, rendering it "used"
• Burger King tries home delivery
• A fascinating behind the scenes look at a photo for Fox's new film Chronicle by @isayx3 (via Mike Foster)
• Why solitude is critical to creativity (via Scott Hodge)
• Katie Perry's parents' church (via @SarahWeber1)
• If you're a pastor... and someone on your staff is called to plant a church and you hinder that leader's best possible start because you're fearful of what it will do to your church, pls think about who you're actually opposing
• Love Morgan Spurlock's new show Failure Club... for obvious reasons
• Short one this week, stuff to do =)

The Other Platform Builder

Great post on building a blog platform over on Mike Hyatt's blog today. All of it so true. But so exhausting.

About a year ago, I decided I wasn't going to let this blog wag the dog. My rule of thumb is... if I don't have anything to say, I'm not gonna force it. Permission granted to just skip it.

I've been blogging since 2003 and there were years I wouldn't miss a day. It helped me meet a lot of people. It launched my first conference with no start-up budget. And it's been responsible for every dollar I've earned since 2008.

Years ago, blogging was a much-needed voice in the vast wasteland of silence. Suddenly, we weren't doing it alone. There were others out there. And they were talking. It was like picking up shortwave radio signals. We were grateful for the noise.

But I don't that's the case anymore. Today, there's so much noise that differentiation is the new platform-builder. And with all the tweets, jabs, posts, pokes, jokes, discourse and disagreement, the biggest differentiator is... silence.

Doing more off the feed than on it.

Substance over pontification.

A quiet presence over a noisy one.

Maybe this approach will land me off the map. But I don't want some weird sense of social obligation to dictate my life. I'm most intrigued by the quiet ones. The ones who create in solitude. The ones you have to ask for wisdom, not tune out.

Details on Dream Year Weekend Charlotte

DREAM YEAR WEEKEND
January 27-29, 2012 - Magellan Idea Center - Charlotte, NC

I'd love for you to join me for a 3-day Dream Year retreat in Charlotte, NC. In one weekend, you'll learn the principles behind Dream Year and create a personal plan to pursue your unique vision. You'll hear from special guests, get feedback, and connect with other dreamers to share the journey.

Here's what you'll receive as a part of the experience:

• The entire Dream Year process from start to finish
  (For a comprehensive overview, visit DreamYear.net)
• Opportunity for personal feedback on your dream
• Case studies from successful and failed dreams
• Personal milestones for achieving your dream in a year
• New friends who can share the journey with you
• Tools for managing the progress of your dream
• Analysis of your dream's history and viability
• Ways to overcome the challenges of your industry
• Resources to help guide your journey
• Special guests throughout the weekend
• Meals listed in the weekend schedule below
• A much-needed getaway in an exciting city

A UNIQUE EXPERIENCE

Dream Year weekends are about more than just content. You're joining a fraternity of friends who will come behind you and champion your cause. You'll not only learn how to bring your idea to life, but enjoy off-site meetups and strategic breakfasts with fellow dreamers in your industry.

SPECIAL GUESTS

I'll lead most of the weekend; however, you'll also learn from special guests who can speak into your dream. Photo of A Group president Maurilio Amorim

SCHEDULE

Friday, January 27

6:00 pm - Introductory Dinner
7:00 pm - Session 1
9:00 pm - Dismiss

Saturday, January 28

8:00 am - Breakfast
9:00 am - Session 2
10:15 am - Break
10:45 am - Session 3
12:00 pm - Lunch
1:15 pm - Session 3
3:00 pm - Break
3:30 pm - Surprise
5:00 pm - Night out on your own

Sunday, January 29

9:00 am - Tribe-based breakfasts
12:30 pm - Lunch
1:30 pm - Session 4
3:00 pm - Dismiss

REGISTER

Grab one of the 15 remaining spots HERE. If you have questions, you can email Ben@DreamYear.net.

Dream Year 2010 participant Sam DuRegger shares his story.
Photos by Jay Caruso and Ally Fouts

A New Liturgy

Is there anyone hipper than Aaron Niequist?

Yet he's leveraging all that he has into a remarkable music project called A New Liturgy. I like how he says it: It's not music to be shuffled. It's music to pastor you.

Here's the video where he describes it.

Each Liturgy is a 25-minute journey of music, prayer, scripture, and space that helps open us to The Almighty in any location, season, or emotion. Episodic experiences released every quarter.

This really is an extraordinary project. You don't just listen to it. You get led through it.

Aaron's narrative dips in and out of gorgeous melodies by guest artists. Spoken word, ambient sounds underlaying new hymns, responsive reading... it's a killer concept.

You know me though. I love the behind the behind the... so check out the photos on the site of the making-of.

For more, check out the blog tour on his space.

Dream Year Weekend in Two Weeks

We're hosting Dream Year weekend at the Magellan Idea Center in Charlotte, NC on January 27-29. Still time for you to join the group in two weeks at this creative loft space. Register here.

Who's Doing What

Two years ago, I had the opportunity to work with the team at Harvest Bible Chapel in Elgin, IL in crafting the Elephant Room. We wrestled with the name, the format - would conversations work? - the speakers - can we really put them together? But the result was extraordinary. This year, Luke MacDonald has taken it to a whole other level with over 70 sites across the country. The second one goes down on January 25 in a city near you.

John Finch who was in Dream Year 2011 just released the trailer for his film project called The Father Effect. When John was a young boy, his father committed suicide after dropping him off at school one day. See the trailer here and the crowdsourcing campaign to bring the project to life here.

My friend Mark Clement who came through Dream Year 2010 to make a short film has created a service to provide churches with custom video announcements. I was in Hattiesburg, Mississippi and saw his work first-hand. Really great stuff.

Dream Year Charlotte Moved to the Magellan Idea Center

We just moved Dream Year Weekend in Charlotte to the Magellan Idea Center. Inspirational environment, comfy seating, great food, fun community lots of creative stimulation. Would love for you to join us.

Event: Dream Year Weekend

Date: Friday, January 27, 2012 at 6:00 PM - Sunday, January 29, 2012 at 3:00 PM

Location:
Magellan Idea Center
2108 South Boulevard, Suite 201
Charlotte, NC 28203

For more information click here: Dream Year Weekend

Click to see some hotels close to the venue.

Two Kinds of Designers

In Dream Year, we talk about how to choose a great designer for your brand. I'm oversimplifying this to make a point, but there are two kinds of designers:

1. Those who specialize in lay-out
2. Those who specialize in layering

A lay-out specialist thinks in terms of placement, margin, balance. For them, it's more about how elements are arranged than creating something new. Dream Year is a "lay out" brand.

A layering specialist thinks in dimensions, visual depth, collision. For them, the elements must not retain their original form, but become something entirely new. For me, STORY is a "layered" brand, but I use lay-out designers for "second-unit design" based on the original key art.

If you don't know what you want or what your brand is: you a) drive yourself crazy, and b) become the client from h*ll for designers everywhere.

Social Media Predictions

• The honeymoon is over. Social media fatigue has set-in
• Social media has downgraded the power of the singular voice. I don't even remember that Seth Godin blogs until I happen to catch a retweet. It's like roaming through a crowded party catching a conversation here and there
• Authoritative blogs are on the way out. If everyone's an expert, no one's an expert. Observations are in
• Tumblr is a symbol of the observational approach. Yet there's authority in observational prowess
• Every social media platform is on the way out. Just when I catch on to Instagram, everyone's replacing it with The Path. Twitter's just one SXSW away from obsolescence
• There are four kinds of blogs, in my opinion:
  - The aggregator
  - The community builder
  - The shock jock
  - The teacher
• Shock jocks can't teach you how to blog. They're been mastering "class clown" since the first grade
• The more aware of which kind of blogger you are... and focused on doing it... the more effective you'll be
• Number of Twitter followers is the everyman's approval rating. The more we tweet, the more followers we lose
• The prevailing approach to increasing readership seems to be doing more on the feed. But the most effective way would be to do more "off the feed" ... or in real life

Wednesday Morning Run-Down

• The Ford Bronco is back? Now how am I gonna convince @Ainsl3y to trade-in her minivan?
• What are you waiting for? Join me for Dream Year weekend in Charlotte - January 27-29
• Apple's coming out with TVs which I'm sure will once again create a blue ocean
• Water Missions International is looking for partner churches to host Water Sunday in March
• Jason Yarborough provided these fresh nametags at our Charlotte STORY meet-up, but never mentioned it's a start-up for him. C'mon J. Check out imat.me
• I am so so thankful for the encouragement and faith of my wife @Ainsl3y. Could not do what I do without her
• Sound design for Transformers (via Lifepoint Creative)
• "Do what scares you. That's why I'm on Twitter." ~M. Night Shyamalan (love this)
• Great video of Timothy Ferris on the Chase Jarvis blog talking about differentiating yourself
• A gorgeous abandoned film set in Russia
• My kids' ability to start things is more important to me than whether they go to college
• David Messner wrote a very nice review of his first month of Dream Year, as did John-Erik Moseler
• "We hear it every day: 'The magazine publishing industry is in trouble,' 'Nobody buys magazines,' 'I hate magazines,' 'Magazines suck.' But despite these naysayers, magazines continue to thrive. At one point in 2011, there were more magazines laying around people’s homes than any other year in history." ~ David Rees
• Kate Schmidgall from Dream Year '09 hosted a holiday pop-up shop in her DC loft. Highly recommend subscribing to Bittersweet Zine, her DY project
• Sam Mahlstadt has done an incredible job putting together his forthcoming book Creative Theology
• Bryan Allain has a great offer to win free tickets for the Killer Tribes conference in Nashville on March 31
• A busy schedule is a matter of priorities, not duties. A tough insight when people say they're too busy for you.
• People mostly say no to the asker, not the ask. This is why finding the right asker is important

Solve a Problem

A sneak peek into the content of Dream Year:

"What problem is your dream trying to solve? It doesn’t have to be a social justice issue. It could be the lack of a good restaurant in your city, a rarely addressed subject in books or the absence of a particular kind of church. But your dream must address a problem. If there’s not a problem, why should anyone care?

"Seth Godin once described the difference between marketing Aspirin and vitamins. Aspirin is much easier to sell because it solves a problem. Vitamins, on the other hand, are a harder sell. They don’t resolve an immediate, blaring problem."

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Get the full video lessons each Monday through Dream Year Subscriptions or join me in Charlotte on Jan 27-29

Frustration Shapes a Dream

These are my opening words to each year's Dream Year class:

"As you enter this next year, I’m counting on one thing from you – that you’re frustrated. If you were to say, 'No, I’m doing great. I just want to try out this new idea,' I’d be worried.

"If you weren’t discontented, heartsick, or angry about something in the world, you would have no reason to go after your dream. Without frustration, you’d never even recognize your dream, let alone have the passion to pursue it.

"Going after a dream is hard. And frustration is the fuel that propels you through the challenges when your idealism runs out. There are going to be times when you’ll need it. You'll need a 'worse time' to help you endure the difficult times ahead. Frustration makes you intolerant of the way things were."

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You can get the video-based Dream Year lessons each week online through a Subscription. Or join me in Charlotte, NC on Jan 27-29 for Dream Year weekend

Wednesday Morning Run-Down

• The new Dream Year participants have been selected for 2012, and it's a stellar group of 14 innovators
• "I hate it. If it's bad, I'll hate it because I don't like bad writing. If it's good, I'll be envious and hate it all the more. You don't want the opinion of another writer." ~ Ernest Hemingway's character in Midnight in Paris
• I'm shocked at the number of young kids who are allowed to roam through our neighborhood by themselves. I remember two instances from my childhood where I felt I was seriously in danger. And one local search on FamilyWatchdog for local offenders should put the kabash on it by any sane parent.
• A production video from Peter Jackson's The Hobbit.
• Love at minute 8 the description of building Hobbitown on a New Zealand farm, which allows the owners to offer tours after the filming is over. There's a village in Four Stones that I hope will offer the same opportunity
• The real story behind Apple's "Think Different"
• Steven Speilberg still makes money from Star Wars movies because he won a bet with George Lucas
• I can't stop laughing at this Onion article on the plight of authors at book readings and book signings
• Transmedia advertising for TV's Boardwalk Empire
• The secret to Oregon's football success: the uniforms
• And the newest version of their uniforms which are terrifyingly beautiful (via @nathangonzales)
• McDonalds tried outsourcing drive-thrus to call centers?
• If you're too busy, you're doing something wrong
• "Find your thing and do that thing better than anybody else even if you think it has no value because I promise you that it does. And I promise you that other people will see this value too." ~Chase Jarvis
• I got to tour the Hobby Lobby company headquarters last week in OKC and was blown away by their business model. Immaculate facility. Incredible people
• I spent last week writing another screenplay that I couldn't not write. Love writing visually
• Celebrating 38 years of life today!
• STORY 2012 tickets are only $159 until Dec 31
• What happened to YouTube's foray into live video streaming? After watching Google Plus' new television ads, I think they blew a huge opportunity
• Hollywood's list of the best unproduced screenplays