Guy Richards - Ordinary life with a brand strategist

Jesus Christ... a curse word?

To some, His name is merely a word of exasperation.
To others, His name means good man.

But to me, His name means
friend,
brother,
trainer,
teacher,
shoulder to cry on,
protector,
love of my life,
the one who has never lost a battle,
I would never want as an opponent,
my King,
my Lord,
my Savior.

His smile is what I strive for.
His heart is what I want.
His delight is what I desire.

Who is with me?

Reshaping Our Creatives

My daughter was talking on a make believe phone. As she was talking she said to my wife. “I’m click to the next row.” It was her way of say she was using call waiting.

My wife quickly corrected her and said, “It’s not the next row, it’s clicking over to the next line.” This made me realize how the majority of our population tries to mold our “creative people” to be more like “us.” But in all historic reality, it is our creative people that really lead (innovate) the way.

I’m strongly for teaching my kids right and truly love my wife, but I just can’t turn my brain off. It may be because I had parents who would let me put mustard on my graham crackers, share crazy stories and tell me I could do anything.

My daughter could be the person you view as the crazy idea gal in the next cubical or your general manager that has a hundred ideas a month. Instead of trying to reshape their creative viewpoint, figure out a way to leverage it. Because, their viewpoint may lead to an opportunity that will excel your brand, career or blog far past what you could do on your own.

Want to be the greatest brand on the market?

If so, make sure you are the leader of these two things:

1. Quality of your product/service.
2. Contentment of your customer.

Dedicated to Casey Doyle.

Quitter!

Regardless if you are in the “sweet spot” of your talent or not, you will be faced with obstacles that will challenge you.

There are only three outcomes that can happen when an obstacle surfaces:

1. You decide it is too hard.
2. You try and then quit.
3. You work through the problems and complete it.

I have found that winners (those who complete) are mainly motivated by the process to reach the end. It is about completing the task with the least amount of screw-ups more so than the victory. Because after one victory winners rarely sit on their laurels, they are on to the challenge.

Your Next Step:
For the next 30 days, brush your teeth with the opposite hand you normally use. Within a week you will be faster and more accurate and within 30 days you will probably be working at 70% - 90% of you dominate hand.

Use this little experiment to help you understand your personal learning curve. and breaking point.

Don’t wait for the right...

If you wait for the perfect time, staff or number in your saving account to move forward, you will always be hindered. A part of leading requires risk, or I should say faith.

Who experiences God more? (Sunday Insight #10)

My friend Chris said something to me that echoed in my mind. He said, he believes that evangelists experience God more than anyone else. Because they are constantly depending on Him to talk to people about Him.

I agree with Him. I’m not saying that God only picks specific people to be evangelists, but what I’m saying is that when you ask God to support you in telling others about Him, He shows up.

Yesterday morning I asked God for an opportunity to tell someone about him. Which would be hard because I leave my home, head to the office, eat lunch at the office then head home. On a day like this where I bring my lunch, I rarely see new people.

Well, God set it up. I walked in my office and my heater was broke. I called the managing office and they sent a man out.

I held the flash light for him, moved things, anything he needed. And as I did my heart cared more and more for him.

Then he asked me about how I got were I am. I shared with him, and with in minutes we were talking about eternity.

He told me that he was a good person and I shared with him this story. I asked him if he had a brother. He said yes. Then I said, what if your brother’s girl friend cheated on him, then he killed her and before the cops found him he fled to Puerto Rico. While he was there he started an orphanage, homeless shelter and became well know as a great person.

While he was in Puerto Rico DNA surfaced and your brother was found and expedited back to stand trial. And you are the appointed judge.

Yes, your brother has done great things. But today in court he will be tried on the murder. Now the judge (the man I was talking too) loves his brother, so what does he do?

If the judge is just, he will convict his brother on the murder. All the good things wouldn’t even come into play. And it is the same with God. One day everyone will stand in His court. Though He loves us just like this man loves his brother. He will have to punish sin, and it will break His heart. Because everyone has been born with sin, no one will be able to bypass His courtroom, no matter how many good things we do.

That murder that I pretended the brother committed is the same as a little lie in God’s eyes. It is enough to spend eternity in hell after this life.

But the great news is that our Judge got off the bench and came and took our penalty on the cross. His name is Jesus Christ. It wasn’t the nails that held Him there but His love for us, for you.

Just like a gift can only be owned once it’s received, so Jesus stands at the door of your heart with this gift of eternal life with Him.

Will you receive that gift?

PS. Yes this man stared at me intently as if no one ever told him the truth. And although he couldn’t get past the fact that maybe God would let him in without accepting Jesus as his Savoir, or maybe there is nothing after this world. God gave Him an opportunity to hear truth. And I was privileged to allow God to send me.

Then I challenged him to get alone in the shower, kneel down and ask God if He is real to show him.”

When I saw his eyes I knew God had set this up. And for me the words of Chris echoed in my mind, “the evangelist experiences God more than anyone else.” Let me reframe that, the Christ follower that is willing to do their job, experiences God like no other.

It is hard, scary and inconvenient, but won’t it be worth it when you see that person on the other side of this life? That is worth being laughed at by some.

Memory – more valuable than function (Sledding with my daughter)

If you are in the Northeast, you probably woke up with a half of foot of snow this morning like I did.

We have a long driveway. So after I finished shoveling out the cars, I looked down the driveway and was faced with a decision. “I can spend the next few hours shoveling this long driveway, or I can spend the same time shoveling a ramp for my kids to go sledding down.”

I can’t remember how many times I shoveled out the driveway, but I sure can remember when we made that sledding hill last year.

So I decided to go for the sledding hill instead. :)

Because I realized that experiences are what we remember, and what create bonds.

PS. Yes, my daughter had tons of fun. I couldn’t get my son out yet. But I keep working on it after nap.

PSS. Make a memory this Christmas. Do something that’s out of your character, but will benefit others. Who knows, maybe you will go down the hill. I’m sure that will be talked about past new years.

 

You borrow my stage, I borrow yours (social media…what now???)

The strategy of leveraging audiences hasn’t changed because of social media. But, how it’s done has. Or I should say, who has the audiences. When Larry King, Jay Leno or the trade industry you belong to needs a guest or a keynote, this is how they process the decision.

Choices
A. OK Speaker – Ok Content – Huge Audience
B. Great Speaker – Great Content – Tiny Audience

80% or more of the time they will choose A, because a huge audience means more people, higher ratings and increased revenue. About 20% of the time the gatekeepers will be kind and bring up a person that has a heart-wrenching story, you know, one of those bootstrap to glory tear jerkiers.

Yes, the times have changed, reality TV has taken over glossy flossy actors and Twitter is allowing the average person a tool to gain a following that will soon be compared to Oprah.

But, the one thing that hasn’t changed is this simple equation: Person + Huge Audience = Stage

The advent of social media is like watching the dice in Yahtzee, bouncing around not sure how they will fall. But one thing that will always stay they same is strategy. We are really just watching tactics change!

Measurement

What do we measure? Everything!

We measure how our day is going by our previous experiences of great days we’ve had. Interbrand measures the Top 100 Global Brands and Outreach measures the top 100 Fastest Growing Churches. Every measurement taken has a reference point of worst and best, even if the lines are a little blurry.

It’s really simple. Some people will say, “Well, at least I’m not as bad as…” While others stay in the middle of the indicators, hoping not to stir the pot.

But then, there are those who are not satisfied with the worst and best case scenario. These people have an internal drive that is far greater than those around them. They set their own standard of “GREAT,” which the world has yet to see.

It’s only when a gifted visionary can paint the canvas of “GREAT” that “GREAT” can be achieved. Which pushes the bar of best-case scenario forever.

No longer does the innovations of the competition bring this person fret. It’s because the measurement this person is running off of is so far ahead of the standard that they are looking to God for what is possible.

What is your life’s measurement standard, worst to best? Or is it hard to explain because it’s so far past best that you are redefining the standard daily?

Excitement & Bad Decisions

When decisions have to be made, leaders tend to balance them between good and bad.

I would challenge that to say, when a leader is making a decision a key factor should be the “team’s excitement.”

I will make bad decisions on purpose (from other’s perspective) if it means making my team excited. The reason, is because I understand that team engagement is driven by excitement. What I mean is; say I make a decision to spend more money than necessary to benefit the team. Some could look at that as a wasted resource. But I look at it as a future investment in human resources. People know when you care about them. It is shown in your actions.

A team who knows they are loved is more engaged.