History in the Making

Twitter Insanity

i missed 'friday twitter insanity' last week due to traveling to charlotte. but here she blows...

it is no longer just about your brand. it is about the cause your brand supports.

streaming movies is where it's at

sarah leaks a hint in reply...

and mars hill's jesse bryan speaks the truth:

(how about all live painting? it's over, I'm afraid)

then jesse goes on to show some incredible venues he's attended recently... mark driscoll speaking at royal albert hall in london

and the patton oswald show - in seattle maybe?

and i love how taylor swift is going theatrical with her new tour... rather than the standard rock show look with LED walls and moving lights. i just may have to slink into this one

public relations is the most overlooked form of promotion in the ministry world

i don't know who this is, but funniest comment about the apocalyptic miscalculation:

i don't trust ANYONE with chops this long

i'm sorry and i'm embarrassed but this is one train that has left without me...

chris thomas' view of the final oprah show...

Photos from Charlotte Weekend

My family and I spent the weekend in Charlotte for a creatives meet-up on Friday... and then a film shoot for STORY in the wee hours of each night. My little Canon Powershot didn't do justice to the beauty of these events. But I saw Bernardo Marentes from Elevation walking around with a 5D so some better shots soon.

Here's the album (more to come)

Nearly 85 Charlotte creatives joined us for lunch at Warehouse 242 where we shared the vision for a new global project. And I got to see filmmaker Jared Hogan work his magic on the short film "Among Us." The playbacks were stunning. Cannot wait for you to see this project at STORY. The best rate ends TODAY.

Wednesday Morning Run-Down

• What day is it again?
• Peek at the creatives coming to our Charlotte meet-up this Friday from 12:30 to 2:00 pm at Warehouse 242
• Spent the day yesterday consulting with Todd Freneaux of the Jeremiah Project and Adam Bradshaw of Spring Branch Community Church in a gorgeous conference room overlooking the water. Great time strategizing
• Came across Austin Kleon's blog last week (via Amy)
• Netflix for art (via @gavinbaker)
• They need to do a better job with doomsday billboards. End-of-the-world design should not be second-rate
• Best rate for STORY ends May 31
• Clark is offering a 50% discount for Creative Collective meet-ups across the country. Enter code: STORY11
• My friend Bryan Allain is launching the Blog Rocket Booster course right now to help hone your blogging voice, engage with your community of readers, and increase your blog traffic 15-20%. Check it out.
• I am convinced that the work of an artist doesn't begin on a canvas presented to her. No one gets that kind of opportunity. It begins with creating the canvas, the opportunity, the idea model, the spreadsheet.
• I'm buying a canoe this summer, darn it.
• I'm in awe of @Ainsl3y's pace of life right now as we go through a lot of changes. She's out-hustling my hustle.
• Got the Dream Year notebook samples from the printer yesterday. I went with thicker, more beautiful paper this round. They're lucious. Not too late to join us
• Heard that Barton Damer is working with my little sister on a project for World Vision. My worlds have collided.
• Our next creative meet-up will be in Nashville in June
• Have we become a culture that thinks that merely retweeting a social cause is actually helping a cause?

Your Stock Goes up Even if You Fail

Everyone stops in their tracks at the thought of "what if I fail?"

The threat of public humiliation...
The risk of losing face...
The fear of owing money...
Or blowing their one shot...

Hear me out on this. No one ever. ever. goes down in stock from attempting something great. Even if they fail.

Our version of security is forgettable, overlooked and not safe at all. In fact, it's safer to take risks than "just do your job."

One time, I got pulled into a meeting where the CEO wrote all the names of those he was considering firing on a whiteboard. The common denominator? They were the ones playing it safe.

They throw parties for people who leave their jobs to do something great, not those who stay, as Jon Acuff pointed out.

I can make the money back. I can get back on my feet. And I can try again. But I can never recover from what I didn't try at all.

---

Only 7 spots remaining at Dream Year weekend DC on June 3-5

Congrats Bobby Gruenewald

A well deserved honor.

The Manifestation of 'Yes'

This is a small sampling of the 'No's' I've gotten over the past six months. (a very small sampling=)

I get probably a hundred of them for every initiative I pursue.

When a project launches... when you finally see it... you are looking at the manifestation of the 'Yes's.'

Thank God for the 'Yes's.'

You've got to make it to them.

Friday Twitter Insanity

Bear with me. I swear I'll get better at these...

so i started tweeting airport codes many moons ago and many friends are now sharing their travel coordinates as well...

but it didn't start with me. i got it from renowned film producer Frank Marshall:

And yesterday, I get a mention from my friend Ben about how I made the highlight reel at 99%

uh oh, i think...

sure enough. right there on the homepage

how embarrassing.

finally, the dosequisman tweets are funny

but keep in mind they're written in an office... within a cubicle... by a much less interesting man

Wednesday Morning Run-Down

• Rooftop films: "underground movies outdoors"
• Excited about the response to our creative meet-up and lunch in Charlotte, NC at Warehouse242 on Fri, May 27.  Reserve your spot and see who's coming.
• If you come, you'll be the first to hear about a global creative project that STORY is launching in 2012
• The problem with most church videos is they're created by people who know how to operate the equipment, not necessarily those who can tell the best stories
• Spent the weekend watching concert footage. Bieber's film is actually pretty good (he said, sheephishly)
• Amazing pinhole projection techniques (via Beth)
• Best rate for STORY ends May 31. I recommend buying tickets now... hotel in July... and airfare 21 days out.
• Just finished consolidating and formatting 44 pages of an outline for the SBCV's new church planting training guide. Meeting with 12 or so incredible planters in Lynchburg tonight to start writing it
• Dream Year weekend in DC on June 3-5 is for 50-75 attendees around tables. It's meant to be a fun, up-close and personalized crash course on figuring out a great idea model, its financial viabilty and how to launch it
• Ainsley and I are moving... again. Within Virginia Beach
• There are two mental shifts that take place throughout Dream Year: a) To initiate great ideas rather than wait for them. b) To see yourself as an "owner" with multiple, increasing revenue streams rather than an "employee" with one fixed paycheck every two weeks
• I keep seeing people tweet about the Elephant Room DVD and how much they're loving it. They should have experienced it live in the studio. It was gripping.
• And I quote: "The reformed camp is going to shoot you. And when they do, here is my cell number. We'll get on the phone with them and see if we can work it out." ~Mark Driscoll to Steven Furtick

i have somehow allowed life to get waaaay too complicated. my 1 year old cody brings me back to simple.

The "Too Early" Ask

I always talk about the "big ask" in Dream Year.

You've gotta make the big ask...

What's stopping you from making the big ask?

But there is also the "too early ask."

It's where you're a wanna-be author and have one shot at a publisher or agent, and you take it too early and blow it.

Or it's the ask where you have a great idea, but it's the seed of the idea, and when you launch it, it's not developed enough. And you blow your one shot.

For my next book, my agent looked through my proposal (about a year ago) and told me to spend another year or two writing it.

I have now been writing for one year and six months. It requires patience. But he and I both believe it's worth getting right.

Oh... there will be an ask. And it will be big.

But it won't be too early.

A Healthy Distrust of One's own Ideas

If you're like me, the minute you have an idea, you want to go to press with it.

To hit send.

To launch it publically.

By the time I'm sharing an idea, I'm already doing it, right?

But nothing could be more dangerous.

Great ideas can fall short when they're not executed properly. There is a wisdom to the art of the start.

There's only one thing that can safeguard against launching a dud: a healthy distrust of one's own ideas.

Most evident through the failure to ask questions.

When we stop asking questions, we stop improving.

Slow down.

Don't say a word... yet.

Ask a trusted friend or a mentor.

Beta-test the idea to a small group.

Hold your own ideas in an open hand.

And assume there's a better way. If there is, you'll find it.

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Don't miss out on Dream Year weekend in DC on June 3-5

Free Lunch for Creatives in Charlotte, NC

STORY and I will be hosting a free lunch for creatives in the greater Charlotte area on Friday, May 27 from 12:30p to 2:00p at Warehouse242... and you're invited.

Come connect with other creatives and learn more about some of STORY's upcoming projects. You'll be the first to hear about one of STORY's new undertakings in 2012.

Our community of artists, authors, innovators, designers, performers and filmmakers will be coming together to produce a global project with huge redemptive potential.

Reserve your spot HERE

The Delicate Art of Harrassment

This is for all the producers out there. Those wranglers who must move people into the corral of project completion. A few pointers for getting better responses:

1. Personal emails, not mass ones
2. No links to show what you mean - just say it
3. And say it "above the fold" - scrolling is your enemy
4. No PDFs. No one reads those. Insert copy below
5. Just when you think you're starting to harrass them, they're just starting to notice you
6. Reminders are their friend
7. Make one clear ask. In bold even. Give them one thing to respond to. One thing by one thing.
8. If at first you don't succeed, try a different medium. Some people are not "email people." They're "text people" or "phone call people." Find their sweet spot.
9. Make it easy for them. Do all the work that leads up to the one thing you need them to do
10. Lead by serving. There is no such thing as an arrogant producer who is effective

Friday Twitter Insanity

I'm one day early, but I'm thinking about making this a regular Friday feature here on the blog. Just some crazy things I find on Twitter along the way...

Okay this isn't twitter. It's my blog stats. But see that spike, which is probably quadruple the amount of blog traffic I have ever gotten? That's the Furtick and Chandler fight clip from Elephant Room. You people are sick. (I kid =)

 

Okay, this is Matt sharing about his wife Lauren's appearance at STORY this year. You know what's remarkable about this tweet? We have an unspoken (until now) cultural expression at STORY which is to always write the word STORY in all caps. Even in text messages. And Matt has unknowingly embraced the culture. I love Matt Chandler...

 Felicity White has done the same thing. I love Felicity White.

I don't know who Jenny Clayville is (yet), but she apparently commandeered my good friend Stephen Brewter's twitter account and had some fun with it. This is hilarious. Especially because Stephen is the king of cool.

And this is an example of a humor fail whale.

Screening Rooms

The cinema is a dying industry. Not movies, but movie theaters.

It could be the rising number of home theater systems, big screen TVs, and surround sound in the living room. 

But I like a community experience. I just don't like a community of junior highers. I want smaller. More private. Comfortable.

How about - not sticky?

Most of the alternatives are not any better. I don't want a dining experience. I like popcorn with movies, not steak.

So the answer is a smaller, private-like experience called a "screening room." And they're starting to pop up in metropolitan locations across the country.

Like the screening room at the Wilt Hotel in Chicago.

And the Silver Screening Room at Toronto's Hazelton Hotel.

What do you think? Would you opt for a screening with 25 other people, 40 other people?

How to Know if Dream Year Weekend in Washington DC is Right for You

1. If you don't know what your dream is.
   (We go over the history of your dream)
   
   
2. If you don't have the money to launch your dream.
   (We'll cover funding strategies)
   
   
3. If you keep dreaming about it, but never act on it.
   (We talk about how to 'eat the elephant')
   
   
4. If you're getting ready to launch anything.
   (We'll examine your "idea model" for effectiveness)
   
   
5. If you have too many dreams.
   (We'll help you get out paralysis from too many ideas)
   
   
6. If what you've already launched isn't working.
   (We talk about "turning the tumblers" to make it click)
   
   
7. If you're insecure about your idea.
   (We'll talk about overcoming fears and insecurities)
   
   
8. If you want to expand your dream.
   (We'll talk about branding, marketing and turning your idea into a sustainable organization)
   
   
9. If you would love to meet other dreamers.
   (We have multiple opportunities for conversation)
   
   
10. If you need a brainstorming getaway in an exciting city.
    (We're right in the heart of Washington DC)

Dream Year weekend will be held in Washington DC on June 3-5 at Ebeneezer's Coffee House. Register HERE.

17 Year Old Dreamer

So a 17 year old pastor's kid from Centreville, Virginia decides he wants to promote rock concerts.

His parents don't tell him no, but to protect him, they begin telling him stories about President Lincoln and all of his failures before his great success.

But on he goes... to organize a music festival.

He secures $25,000 in sponsorships. Some bands start saying yes... like P.O.D. and Brian "Head" Welch.

He signs the contracts in faith. He has to sell at least 3,000 tickets, or he'll be in a huge amount of debt.

As of Monday night, he's sold only about 900 tickets.

The show is this Saturday.

CNN picked up the story on Tuesday.

I believe he'll make it.

Source

What's your dream?

Wednesday Morning Run-Down

• Speaking at Whiteboard today in Atlanta. Weird but thrilling to speak at an event that I created, but now belongs to my friend Jason Young. Can't wait.
• Try getting through airport security with this sketchbook
• Jerry Seinfeld launched a new site with his stand-up
• Was given a nice Behance Circa notebook at 99% Conference which has become my new writing space
• My Dream Year 2011 class is getting a copy of Jon Acuff's new book Quitter this month. It's available today.
• The days when creatives could be eccentric and artistic without being responsible and responsive are over
• Only 25 seats remaining at the Dream Year weekend in Washington DC on June 3-5. Join me for a 3-day intensive
• Quick question: is there any good that comes from those free PDF books that consultants put out? What actions or mind-shifts have been provoked out of you?
• To avoid confusion with Driscoll / Bell, Dan Allender's Mars Hill Grad school is changing it's name to...
• Trust me on this: the "no's" eventually sting less and less
• A beautiful digital novel
• Bryan Allain (Dream Year 2011) is launching Blog Rocket this month, starting today with an online community
• That guy from Depeche Mode is killing it with the online virtual choir performances. Beautiful stuff.
• For creative inspiration, take a quick scan down this page
• The best rate for STORY ends May 31.
• This is pure delight. The head-bobbing, the finger work...
• I'm hosting a free creative meet-up and lunch in Charlotte, NC at the end of May. More info this week.
• This coincides with the shooting of our first short film "Among Us" which will premiere at STORY

Conference Themes

I bumped into Belsky at 99% and he made a quick comment about the fracture between the conference theme and the actual presenters' content. It hardly ever lines up. I felt his pain.

• Conference speakers never stay on theme
• You don't want them to stay on theme if you want them to be good. They're passionate about their own thing.
• You don't want them to stay on theme if you want the conference not to be monotonous and repetitive. If all that's spoken is your theme, you're dead
• There is always an unexpected theme that surfaces during the event if God has anything to do with it.
• Speakers who have written books tend to do better than those who haven't because they have a clear subject which they have researched and rehearsed thoroughly.
• Conference themes serve as a plumbline for branding and some programmatic elements, but that's about it.
• The only thing you can influence as a conference organizer is who you invite.

Your Dream Needs a CEO

A Dream Year participant once told me, “My dream is less about who I am than who I need to be.”

She was right. Dreams require us to step outside of ourselves and become someone greater than we are.

How many of us cringe at the thought of making a call? Or slink out of a room to avoid people rather than walk over to meet them? Or put off tasks that make us uncomfortable?

Pursuing a dream exposes how ordinary we are and how fearful we can be. It’s a humiliating endeavor at times.

But not measuring up to the size of our dream is no reason to give up. It simply means we have to see the dream as its own entity... and start acting like its CEO.

What CEO has trouble picking up the phone to make a call? What CEO is reluctant to delegate tasks or make a big ask? What CEO can’t plan a sales strategy and execute it?

Have you ever meet an insecure CEO?

In a society where we’re trying to cure multiple personality disorders, your dream is the one place you need it.

Your dream requires a clear distinction between ORDINARY YOU and CEO YOU.

ORDINARY YOU lets the dream get sidetracked by personal issues, time constraints and emotional drama. Just as the spoiled child of a millionaire can slack off at his father’s business, you can take your privileged status as the owner of your dream and slack off without anyone saying a word.

But CEO YOU separates your private life from your dream life. She insists that you show up for work.

ORDINARY YOU is stretching to make house payments, pay off car loans, and keep up with credit card debt. No wonder you have such little tolerance for financial risk. When your dream requires start-up capital, ORDINARY YOU looks at the budget and says, “There’s no way I can do it.”

But CEO YOU strips away the dream from your personal finances and lets it live on its own spreadsheet. This allows you to protect the dream from the challenges of ordinary life.

When your dream requires start-up capital, CEO YOU says, “I don’t know how I’m going to fund this, but I have to find a way. I have to fund it somehow.”

We have to strip away the dream from our ordinary selves and let it become an identity in and of itself. We have to protect our dream from the challenges of our own reality by giving it organization and serving as its CEO.

This way, our dream is not being led by whimsy or circumstances. It’s being led by a leader.

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Excerpt from this week's Dream Year lesson to the class of 2012