Assumptions don’t always work out for me.  Well, I could sanitize the word a bit and call it a “myth” or an “erroneous supposition,” but at their core, these are lies that I have treated as facts. Some are as innocuous as “if I train hard I can be a competitive runner.” Well, If I train harder, I could potentially be faster than I am now, but I’ll never be a 5-minute-mile elite athlete. But then there are lies that can derail your entire life. One of them has cost me a lot of pain until I came to grips with it. Somehow early on my childhood I believed that if I couldn’t be the best in doing something, than I shouldn’t even try doing it. If I couldn’t do it at a 100 percent, than I would do nothing at all. That sounds like crazy talk, doesn’t it? After…

They are the most educated and studied generation on earth. Parents, teachers, marketers and communicators want to figure out how to successfully reach millennials. As a parent as well as employer of Gen Yers, I’m always glad to find new, helpful research. Recently, I read in Advertising Age an excellent article by Thomas Pardee on marketing to millennials that I want to share with you. After all, if you’re reading this, your life is and will be impacted by Generation Y. If you want to communicate, sell, or reach them, then: Be Fast Twitter has taught them to write in 140 characters. If you can’t say it fast, then don’t bother, because they can. Be Clever According to Nick Shore, head of research at MTV, funny is the new rock ‘n’ roll. This generation has had access to the best and most clever footage on earth at their fingertips. They…

I heard someone say that his best days were during his high school years. Not for me. My high school years could be described as “awkward” at best. But this exercise created a series of questions in my mind: what were my best days and why? Could they have been my college years, or my early 20’s or the productive 30’s? They all had highlights and yet I couldn’t decide even on a decade. I have struggled with answering that question until I realized that I deeply believe that my best days are still to come. I don’t know about you, but if I allow myself to think that the best life has to offer is already past, I would have a very tough time carrying on the status quo. As part of my Christian faith, I know that my days are ordained and redeemed by God. I also know…

The Fashion Friday post makes a come back. Today’s topic: men’s haircut. This is of personal interest because I decided to grow my hair out six weeks ago, and now I find myself in the awkward transitional stage, or what I call, one-more-bad-hair-day-away from getting it chopped off again. I’ve heard it said that most men will stay with the same hair style of the time in life they felt the most popular. If there’s any truth in that statement then take a look at these pictures, do you see anyone familiar in them? Do you know anyone, even you, who’s stuck with a past due hairdo? Are you considering a new hairstyle? Which one?

I couldn’t help but to eavesdrop during a conversation at the gym locker room last week. I heard a man named Jim asked someone whom I figured was a owner of a marketing agency, if his business was still doing full marketing campaigns. “Yes, we do.” The interested party then followed up with another question, “even social media?” The man’s answer was puzzling to me in its dismissive nature, “we do all that stuff.” By then I was fully engaged in their exchange. Jim went further to prod, “you know social media is a very different strategy.” Then came the confession, “I’m older than 30, so I don’t get social media,” said the business owner. In my opinion, his days are numbered as a professional marketer. Sometime ago, he decided to stop learning and growing. He’s now obsolete. I’m a life-long learner. I have made that commitment years ago when…

Recently, I have been thinking about the bubble I live in. It’s a very homogeneous existence where I associate mostly with middle age people who look, think and act like me. If I’m not careful, I can find myself trapped in conversation about our latest aches and pains and a boil that needs lancing. Lately I have challenged myself to go beyond my natural “habitat” and discover someone else’s perspective. Life is so much fuller when you get off your bubble. I have intentionally spent time with young professionals lately and I have truly enjoyed their perspective. One thing that has stood out and resonated with me is what I call the “power of perspective,” or the ability to dream and to believe that such vision can and will come true. I love engaging 20-somethings and watching them approach their careers full of optimism.  Life has not beaten them down…

I’ve been asked to write about how Christian men should communicate on dates by some of the single readers of this blog (all 3 of them). Since I have not been single in over 20 years, I’ve asked my friend KelcieKay Sberna to help me out by sharing her experience in the dating scene. Here’s her account. This is a list that I have compiled over the past couple years; years filled with bad dates and creepy suitors. I have a career in ministry so I find that my dates are usually evangelical men 25-30 years of age. These are all actual accounts from my dates, however fictitious they might sound. I will marry the man of God who doesn’t commit any of the following crimes. Sending flowers the day of the date is an excellent idea. However, attaching a note that says “Imagine how much more romantic I will…

If you follow me on Twitter or somewhere else in social media, you might have noticed my early morning posts, usually between 4 to 5 a.m. about going on a run or hitting the gym for a workout. There’s always a comment from someone saying “I don’t know how you do this. You must have a lot of self-discipline.” The truth is that I have some self-discipline, but what I have most is a built-in system of accountability and expectations. Left on my own, I can justify staying in bed every morning and postponing my workouts until later in the day. But with my busy agenda at work, heavy travel schedule and family responsibilities, I know that if I don’t exercise early in the morning, I won’t do it at all. Most days getting out of bed at 4:30 for a run in the dark is 10% inspiration and 90%…

Last week I got several messages from Twitter and Facebook friends about getting together during the Catalyst conference. Unfortunately my schedule was packed with meetings in-between sessions and dinner appointments, and I wasn’t able to  meet many of my digital friends face to face. Since then my insecurities have taken hold of me and whispered, “maybe it was for the best. You’re a lot better looking and more interesting online than in real life.” That thought has stayed with me for days now and I can’t seem to shake it. I overheard a co-worker say that she is often disappointed when meeting celebrities in real life situations because they never live up to her expectations. Ok, I’m not a celebrity–I have no paparazzi following me, or even a friendly stalker–but the comment forced me to ask the question, “have I created a better version of myself online?” I’m not sure…

Most Christian leaders I know struggle to find balance in life. They need to find the proper ratio between work and family time, the balance between eating and exercising.  But while most of us would agree that family always comes before work and that overeating and poor exercise habits are not good for anyone, Christian leaders struggle with the elusive, apparently evil, but frequently necessary need for self-promotion. Is self-promotion a symptom of a prideful heart, a necessary evil of ministry, or a simple tool to achieve a mean? Well, it depends. I’m not trying to be evasive when I say, “it depends.” As both a communications expert and a literary agent, I help my clients  develop a platform where their resources (books, videos, blogs, curricula) can be consumed. One of the very first questions publishers ask me about a new author is, “what type of platform does he or…