Archives

  • How You Can Create a Fresh Vision for a New Year

    As the new year rolls in, it’s the perfect time to reflect on the past and set new goals for the future. A fresh vision can help provide direction, motivation, and purpose for the months ahead. Here are some tips for creating a powerful and effective vision for the new year. Don’t make last year […]

  • What’s Important To You? Whatever It Is, Invest In It.

    Years ago, after spending most of my career on an airplane, I finally had a meltdown. I thought if I have to get on one more flight I’ll kill myself. But then I felt God spoke very clearly to me and said: “But you have no other skills. This is all you’re good at doing.” […]

  • 4 lessons entrepreneurs can learn from ‘The World’s Greatest Showman’

    Hugh Jackman’s musical ‘The World’s Greatest Showman’ tells the story of PT Barnum’s creation of the Barnum and Bailey circus and is perfect fodder for the ambitious entrepreneur. Aside from being an inspirational story and entertaining film – the use of PR tactics were very present and a great reminder of 4 simple yet timeless […]

  • How to succeed as a Christian in business: a woman’s perspective

    As a Christian woman in business, I hear all the time from women who want to start their business or go to the next level – but they want to do it God’s way. Not the world’s way. One of the questions I get the most asked is: ‘How do I succeed in business?’. The […]

  • What’s the Hard Decision You Need to Make?

    There are business, nonprofit, and church leaders who at this moment have one major obstacle standing between them and success: The inability to make a hard decision. Hard decisions come in all shapes and sizes. They could be a policy that needs to be changed, an approval that needs to be made, an approval that […]

  • Yes, Your Business Needs to be Spirit-Led in These Unpredictable Times

    Becoming so sensitive to the voice of God is so crucial in this unprecedented time. The Spirit if God reveals to us so much truth about our finances and God’s Kingdom. In this time of crisis, with economic uncertainty, the Holy Spirit reveals strategies and plans for you to be in a position not affected […]

  • How to Pitch Your Ideas Successfully

    How can you make your dream their dream?  It’s a great question if you’re a creative person. In many ways, the ability to present or “pitch” your ideas is one of the most important things you can learn in business – or life. Whether you’re trying to produce a movie, publish a book, get a […]

  • A Timeless Message from the Ad World Every Organization Should Hear

    If you were a fan of the TV series “Mad Men” (like I was) then you should know that real life advertising legend Bill Bernbach was one of the models for the character of Don Draper. In May of 1947, Bill was 35 years old and the Creative Director at Grey Advertising in New York […]

  • When it Comes to Your Career or Calling, it’s Never Too Late

    Here’s more proof that you should never give up on your dreams… Just in case you ever wonder (as I sometimes do) that your best work is behind you, here’s an encouraging message from The New England Journal of Medicine: An extensive study in the U.S.A found that the most productive age in human life […]

  • Going through business challenges? You will get to the other side

    Eleven years ago, my wife and I watched a great new Hollywood movie that just had hit the DVD shelves called Fun With Dick and Jane. Our children were much younger at the time and so we used to tuck them into bed and our ‘date night’ was a rented DVD on a Saturday night. […]

  • As a Christian in business, the numbers still matter

    I was reading this article on My Christian Daily recently by church consultant and former Lifeway CEO, Thom Rainer, which, as a businessperson and not a ministry leader, really spoke to me. Thom refers to the importance of numbers and why churches need to keep a close eye on their numbers – both their revenue […]

  • Are you strapped in for the ride of your life as an entrepreneur?

    The life of an entrepreneur is not for everyone, but for those souls brave enough to roll the dice and chase their dream, what an exciting ride it is. The challenge of spotting an opportunity, executing it, then seeing it succeed must be right up there with some of life’s greater achievements. Entrepreneurs often become […]

  • Changing Your Outcome Might Just Change Your Life

    Are you ready for change? Your career, your relationships and even the small details of your life like where you live and what you drive can all be influenced for better or worse by one simple thing: your response. Like the Pavlovian dog, we’ve all been conditioned for response. A text blip. An email ding. […]

  • Leaders: The Window for Change Is Closing

    If you’re a leader, you know just how hard it is to get people to change. There’s a joke in Baptist circles that if you want to plant a new church, just change the color of the carpet, and half the church will split off and start a new one. I wrote my book Jolt! […]

  • Is your opportunity actually right in front of you?

    Many people are amazed by those who are successful in business. Many treat it like it is a science, or there is a secret code that has to be unlocked with a special key – which is only reserved for a select few. I have watched interviews on Youtube with business people, where the interviewer […]

  • The Leadership Lessons from Joe Biden and Afghanistan

    The documentation of President Biden’s decisions surrounding the troop withdrawal from Afghanistan are now legion. But aside from the tragic results those decisions have created, it’s worth looking at what leaders could learn from this debacle. In coming years, we’ll have a chance to see much deeper into this situation and how much it tarnishes […]

  • How badly do you want business success?

    I come across a lot of people with pretty good ideas. While their ideas aren’t quite the next Facebook or Google, they certainly have plenty of potential. With the right mix of hard work and dedication, plus a lot of prayer, their ideas might just stick. Recently, I was at a weekend away with one […]

  • Why leaders must be transparent in today’s age

    Recently, The Wall Street Journal reported on an interesting scandal in the Catholic Church. Monsignor Jeffrey Burrill, a priest of the Diocese of La Crosse, Wis., was elected general secretary of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in November 2020. He’s been described as the highest-ranking American Catholic cleric who is not a bishop. Related: […]

  • Entrepreneurs with side gigs – There’s no shame in having a day job

    For those of you reaching for the creative stars – who want to direct a feature film, write the great American novel, create the ultimate app or turn the world upside down – early in our career, that’s all we can think about. But before long the rising need to pay our bills comes screaming […]

  • How To Lead When Your Team is Smarter Than You

    On numerous projects during my career, the stakes have been high. Once I directed a short film for Dentsu Advertising in Tokyo – at that time the largest advertising agency in the world. Another project was directing an expensive music video that launched a pop album with Universal Music Group. Then there was an live, […]

  • Is there a silver bullet to gaining success?

    We used to have a great staff member on our team, but he was always pressing – and pressuring – me to come up with a “silver bullet” in our business to accelerate growth. His role was made easier with the bigger our network was and thus the more traffic our websites attracted. In his […]

  • The power of a simple pad and pen

    One of the things I distinctly remember about my Dad, who sadly passed away from cancer in 2015, was his pad and pen. Every morning, while he was drinking his cup of coffee, he had a small notepad, and he would sit and make a note of every small thing that needed to be achieved […]

  • Digital Revolution “More Significant Than You Think”

    When technology made the switch from analog to digital, most people thought it was simply about getting a new TV set. But the transformation that was ushered in at that moment was one of the most significant changes in history and it’s important that leaders understand what it means. We all acknowledge the incredible revolution […]

  • When you don’t know where you’re going, will you ask for help?

    We have a large tree on the corner of our property that at about this time of each year, it loses every leaf on it. If the wind blows from the north, the leaves land in the pool, but if the wind is from the south, then they go all over the sidewalk. The wind […]

  • Is there a powerful demographic your business has forgotten about?

    We live in a world obsessed with youth. I am sure you have well and truly recognized it. Sixty year-olds now wasn’t to look like they are 40. Those in their fifties want to look like they are in their 30s, and on it goes. More and more cosmetic companies are marketing injectables and similar […]

  • Do you have the courage it takes to be in business?

    Last summer, I dropped my lawnmower in for a service. We were having a very dry summer and when I asked the owner if it was affecting his business, I could see the color drain from his face. It had not rained all summer and not only were people like me not coming in to […]

  • This Is The Moment To Reinvent Yourself, Your Organization, and Your Career

    Years ago I wrote a book called “Jolt! Get The Jump on a World That’s Constantly Changing.” I wrote it to help people cope with the accelerating change that I saw coming in the culture. One thing I discovered during my research was that for most people, “change” is one of the most difficult challenges […]

  • Leaders: Stop Requiring Your Personal Approval For Everything

    Leaders: Do you trust your team? I’m amazed at the number of projects, presentations, initiatives and other aspects of business and ministry that the top leader requires their personal approval on before the team can move forward. I understand that need in the beginning. Perhaps you’re launching a new social media campaign, podcast, product, logo, […]

  • The truth about grit in business

    When God called me to start my own business, It completely caught my off guard. I had all the ‘success’ boxes checked off my list at this point. I had moved to London, landed my dream job working at the BBC and was about to get married. But a business? Something without a game plan […]

  • The power of advertising: how are you positioning your business?

    We own a number of editorial sites, and like all publishers, we use some of Google’s ad inventory on our sites to bring in extra income. Accordingly, I was reading an article on My Christian Daily just today when two of the ads that were served up were the same – with a slight difference. […]

  • Even The Greatest Leaders Can Be Victims Of Timing

    Watching the draft process for professional sports, you realize pretty quickly that the best college players in the country regularly get selected to pretty poor teams. Even veteran players must adapt to changing personnel as teams shift their roster from year to year. As a result, no matter how great a quarterback may be, he […]

  • The need to avoid greed – why Christians in business aren’t immune

    I met Melissa Caddick almost twenty years ago in an office close to the downtown precinct in Sydney, Australia. My good friend was a successful young financial planner before everyone seemed to be one, and my friend and Melissa, very bright young planners, had become partners in a boutique firm. The older firm’s owner loved […]

  • How to Deal With the Whingers On Your Team

    Most creative teams are going to have at least one member who’s a whiner. Whiner’s focus on the negative, and thrive on complaining – often about the most insignificant things you can imagine. According to the Wall Street Journal, research indicates that productivity can be damaged by working alongside a chronic complainer. Exposure to non-stop […]

  • After 2020, are you waiting for things to return to normal?

    2020 was a tough year. Nobody in business will doubt that. However, as we have kicked over and into 2021, there are a lot of people waiting for things to return to normal. But what if they don’t? There is a very good chance that the business world has changed and that the world we […]

  • In business, are you a cutter or a sewer?

    I am reading an interesting book called Rise, written by one of Australia’s richer men, Mark Bouris. He is the founder of Wizard Home Loans, which was sold to General Electric for millions, and then went on to found and list on the Australian Stock Exchange a financial services company called Yellow Brick Road. In […]

  • Where Are The Churchills Today? The Pandemic and Crisis Leadership

    The other night I watched a fascinating documentary about the relationship between Winston Churchill and film producer Alexander Korda. During the challenging days of World War II, Churchill launched an international effort to use filmmaking to inspire and persuade the United States to join the allied cause against Hitler.  Then the next morning, before boarding […]

  • Repetition: the key to success

    I read a fantastic book recently called The Outliers. Among other pearls of wisdom, I read about The Beatles and how they got their start in music. Back before music really became a ‘thing’, The Beatles formed their band simply as some musician friends wanting to have some fun. A local pub was looking for […]

  • How Freelancers Can Emerge Strong After the COVID Shutdown

    A successful career is as much a mental game as an employment game. That means your mindset is far more important than you may think.  So when we start emerging from the COVID lockdowns, how you approach the job market will be critical, and here’s a few thoughts about why I think freelance professionals will […]

  • Your New Year’s resolution: vow to be a decision-maker

    I am always surprised each new year how people will randomly say how the next year is going to be better than one before, or the ones previous to it. My immediate thought is, why? Why does one year automatically get better than the previous one if you’ve not really done anything different this year […]

  • Kill Me – It’s Another Meeting

    Some meetings should never take place!! When the leader of the meeting has no control over them, they are a waste of time. According to Harvard Business School and the London School of Economics, executives spend upwards of 18 hours per week – a third of their working week – in meetings. And with an […]

  • Are you taking your business to God?

    Business is tough, the economy is about to go through an interesting phase and so there is a lot of uncertainty in our world at present. As a Christian in business, are you bringing your business before God? Do you find a time each day to just stop and sit with your Creator and give […]

  • How Much Would it Take to Buy You Away from Your Dream?

    Words like “stability” and “safety” are what financial advisers try to make happen for their client’s money.  But is that what you’re looking for with your life?  Better yet – what are you willing to risk to accomplish your dream? In my book “Jolt” I tell the story of the movie “Up in the Air” […]

  • Want to be a success in business? Don’t forget this.

    As more and more of the workforce moves towards the gig economy and we see a much larger percentage of people strike out and start their own businesses, the first thing most people think of is the business idea itself, then quickly followed by generating sales. After all, you cannot succeed in business if a) […]

  • Are you praying for new opportunities?

    Opportunities exist everywhere. The question is: are your eyes open to new ideas and opportunities? Recently, my wife and I purchased a new property as an investment. A day after signing the contracts, we received a call from the agent’s ‘concierge’ department offering us landlord insurance on the property. They had made their commission on […]

  • What to Do When People Reject Your Ideas

    If you’re a creative person, at some point you’ll find a boss, investor, studio, or colleague who rejects your ideas. Sometimes it will happen so often you’ll start to question your own ability, and wonder if you’re really creative at all. In these moments (which will definitely come) my advice is: Never base your creativity […]

  • What’s the next play in your business?

    My wife and I had three children very close together. Consequently, when they were little, we ended up buying piles of DVDs to keep them occupied – and us sane – on those long days before pre-school and school. At the time, the kid’s group our kids loved the most, The Wiggles, made the majority […]

  • The 100 Factor of Negativity

    Every negative word has the power of one hundred positive words.  This idea comes from one of my mentors, Brad Waggoner. He challenged me to rethink the way I communicate, both personally and professionally. Think of encouragement and discouragement on different sides of a scale. One hundred pieces of encouragement weigh the same as one […]

  • When they zig, you zag

    Some years ago, there was a book written by Siimon Reynolds, a legend of advertising, titled, ‘When They Zig, You Zag’. The entire point of his book was doing the opposite of what the crowd is doing. Right now, we are right in the middle of Covid and this is the perfect time to do […]

  • The importance of training your team

    Here’s a situation at churches and ministries I encounter from time to time: A leader with great gifts plants a church or launches a ministry. At the start there’s no money, so he or she hires friends, relatives, church members, or eager volunteers – all with very little or no experience.  But the church or […]

  • Alibaba billionaire founder’s advice that might just help you

    I was sent the video below by a colleague recently. My days are very full and I often don’t stop to watch these sorts of videos, but for some reason I did. Jack Ma is no ordinary guy. Forbes states that his net worth is just shy of $50 billion. Just overnight, I read that […]