Leadership, Small Business Fundamentals

What does it look like to live life with purpose and intention?

Depending on your worldview, that question can elicit different thoughts and even emotions. 

In my experience, the average person relinquishes control of their life to chance. 

I think a person tends to do this because they don’t want to make hard choices. They would rather someone or something else determine the outcome of things. 

When we do this, we don’t have to take ownership if and when things don’t turn out the way we want.

How to live life with purpose and intention? 

  1. Be willing to take control of your life. 
  2. Be clear about what you want or feel called to do.
  3. Be willing to make hard decisions.
  4. Be willing to Confront the brutal current reality while maintaining an unwavering faith you will prevail in the end (The Stockdale Paradox).
  5. Be willing to find comfort in times of stillness. 

Scott Peck’s book The Road Less Traveled begins, “Life is difficult.” 

Regardless of whether you live life with purpose and intention or not, life will be difficult.

In The Lord of the Rings, Frodo Baggins complains with regret that he ever began the journey he was on. Gandalf, the wizard, responds by saying, “So do we all in difficult times.” Gandalf continues..”The test is not the challenges we are given, it is how we handle them. It is not about fairness or our efforts, but how we deal with the hand we have been dealt.”

Comment below what this looks like for you. How do you respond to difficulties? Do you plan your life with intention or do you leave the outcome to fate?

Want to create your own Life Plan? Let’s work on it together HERE.

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Small Business Fundamentals

6 steps to build the small business you want to have

When we start or launch a business, we have lots of ideas. We see all the possibilities, so we jump into action mode.

But when we neglect certain areas of our business, we wake up one day and realize that the business we have isn’t the business we wanted to have.

How does that happen?

It happens when we jump into action without taking the time to vet our ideas. Slowing down is hard for entrepreneurs.

So, we wing it while we focus on the stuff we know how to do well. We find ourselves working more and more in the business, doing things we don’t enjoy, and usually not that good at. We don’t have time to work on the business, dreaming up new products or ways to do more of what we love and are good at.

So our business begins to own us rather than us owning the business.

What does it take to make sure we build the business we want to own?

6 Steps to build the business you want to have

Develop a Vision, Mission, and Guiding Principles - If you and your team doesn't know where you are headed, you won't know when you get there. (sounds like a Yogi Berra saying...) Seriously, as the founder or owner, take time to think about your business. Dream and envision what the future could look like. 

Clarify your message so customers will engage - Of course Step 1 is essential for you to do Step 2. Many of my clients want to start on Step 2. Well they want help with marketing and messaging. But...if you aren't clear on where you are going, then it will be impossible to communicate clearly to customers the problem your business solves. 

Learn how to sell by inviting customers into a story - Understand story. Study it. Know the difference between a Hero and a Guide. Know which one you are and which one your customer is. I will give you a hint...most business owners or sales people think they are the hero in the story.

Know if your products are viable (solve a problem) and are profitable in the market - Don't guess on this one. Create short feedback loops to find out quickly if your products and services are wanted in the marketplace.

Manage and operate your business by making a business case for every decision - A common mistake small business owners make is not managing their team well. More than you think even neglect talking to their team. They take the mindset of, " I told you what your job was when I hired you, so I expect you to get the job done." If that describes the way you operate and manage, I guarantee you will end up with the business you don't want to have, if you have one at all.

Establish a clear view of business performance by managing cash flow well - This is probably the number one reason so many small businesses fail. One of my clients called this "back pocket accounting". I know you have good intuitive skills, but if you make business decisions by how much money is in your operating account, you don't have a clear understanding of how your business is performing.

While none of this is new, most small business owners don’t slow down long enough to make sure these fundamental business principles are working effectively in their business.

Curious how your business scores in each of these areas? Take this 15 minute assessment.

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Leadership, Small Business Fundamentals, Strategic Planning

Do you handle business decisions like chess or poker?

A downfall for many business owners is falling into the trap of trying to predict the outcome of their business decisions. 

Not sure you do this?

Ok, answer this question,

“What was your best and worst business decision you made last year?”

I am guessing that you answered that question based on the results you got. If you got a good or great result then you said it was a good decision.

And if you got a terrible result, well, was that your worst decision?.

What does this have to do with chess and poker?

Most business owners make business decisions as if it is like a game of chess. 

You might wonder what is wrong with that. Chess involves critical thinking, strategy, etc.

All true. However, chess is played where every move is seen by both players with predictable outcomes. 

About the only way to lose a chess match is by making a mistake or playing someone who understands the strategy better.

However when we make business decisions, or any decision in life for that matter, we don’t get to see every move played out before us nor can we predict the outcome. 

That is how the game of poker is. We can be the expert in the room with years of experience. We can have a great strategy. Yet many unknowns still exist in poker. 

We can make the best decisions possible and still lose.

That is how running a business is like.

However, far too often business owners will allow the outcome of a decision affect how they make future decisions.

That is called resulting. 

We also fall into the trap of hindsight bias and say things like, “I should have known better, or, I should have made a better decision.”

Here is what I want you to take away from this…

    • Be careful about aligning the results of your decisions closely to your decision process. 

    • Focus on having a good process for making decisions.

    • Learn from the results without allowing the results to influence your decision process.

Want to read more about this? Get the book, Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke.

Feeling stuck in your business and want to talk about it? Schedule a free one-time call with me HERE.

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Uncategorized

Should We Send Short-Term Teams to Unreached Locations?

Often the pushback to sending short-term mission teams to certain parts of the world is that they can do more harm than good. If the objective is to reach people who have never heard the Good News, a group of lightly trained, selfie-taking short-term missionaries, even with good intentions, truly can cause long term damage to the cause of Christ. 

The question is should we send short-term teams into unreached locations?

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Uncategorized

Dad to Dad Interview with Dave Michaelian [Podcast 56]

Dave felt God's challenge to at least look into the idea of international adoption. He easily could have responded by thinking he was too busy, it wasn't what he and his wife had planned, he had already had his hands full with three young children, etc. 

I began the Dad to Dad series (thank you Amy Holman!) We often relinquish our responsibility as a father and miss an opportunity to embrace the possibility to change the destiny of child from a hard place. 

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Uncategorized

3 Reasons Providing High Structure and High Nurture Helps Children

Has anyone ever told you that you are too strict as a parent? Or is it the other extreme, and you notice the looks in your direction when you let your kid swing from the roof-high tree branch?

Sure, you know what you ought to do as a parent. You need to give your child both structure and nurture. Easy to know and say, yet it is the most challenging balancing act to pull off.

I know you have your reasons for whichever way you lean probably having something to do with how your parents raised you. 

But if we keep defaulting to one extreme or the other what does that do for our kids, especially ones that come from a hard place?

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Uncategorized

Nineveh Ministries (Jail to Jobs) Interview with Chris Haskins and Eddie Franz [Podcast 55]

Youthful offenders, as Chris Haskins refers to these young people, need someone to be the hands and feet of Christ to them in a moment of brokenness. However, many times no one is there to fill that void except someone who uses them in the name of community which only deepens and continues the cycle of abuse and criminal activity.

Listen to Chris and Eddie as they share not only what and why Nineveh Ministries exists, but why it should matter to you.

What You Will Hear on the Podcast

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    Why Chris Haskins is called the "Shot Caller"

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    Find out what the one question Chris and Eddie have when they offer a job to a youth

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    Why Chris began Nineveh Ministries

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    Listen to Eddie's personal testimony and why this job is perfect for him

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    How many youth return to some kind of facility

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    Jail to Jobs 4 part process to help youth turn their lives around

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    Stories of transformation

  • How you can partner with Nineveh Ministries to help transform lives and this community

Connect or partner with Nineveh Ministries (Jail to Jobs)

Nineveh Ministries Website - Find more information about how to partner and volunteer. You can also find contact information for Chris and Eddie.

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Thank You for Listening!

To share your thoughts:

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  • Leave an honest review on iTunes. I need all the reviews I can get and they really do help!
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A special thank you to Chris Haskins and Eddie Franz for taking time to join me on this podcast episode!

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Uncategorized

If You Can Follow These Ideas, You Can Succeed as a Short Term Mission Trip Leader

Odds are you have been on a short term mission trip, or at the very least, you have been sent a fundraising letter. Either way you probably have wondered if the trip actually met the intended purpose. I always feel this tension whether I am preparing for a trip myself or considering to financially support someone going. If you want to read some of my thoughts on this tension, check out this blog post – The Shocking Truth about Short-Term Mission Trips

What does it take to successfully lead a short-term mission trip?

 

But what if you are planning or have been asked to lead a short-term mission team? I know you want to not only lead  your team well, but you want the team’s efforts to be worth the time and financial resources applied to the mission trip.

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How Hard Is It to Stay in the Moment? [Podcast 54]

One of the hardest things to do for a foster parent, for anyone for that matter, is to stay in the moment. God uses all kinds of circumstances and experiences to teach me this discipline, and yet I still struggle with it.

When I wrote my first book, Adopting the Father's Heart, I knew I needed to include a chapter on this topic, because it was one of the hardest things for me to do while we fostered our son...Staying in the Moment. 

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Uncategorized

Hey Adoptive Dad! What Will Help You Embrace Your Child?

I am an adoptive dad of a son that came to us through foster care. CPS placed him in our home when he was eight-months-old. We adopted our son when he was almost two-years-old. He is now eight-years-old and full of opinions, creativity, attitude, and intelligence.

Sometimes I look at him overjoyed that he is my son often forgetting that he isn’t my own flesh and blood. Other times I stare at him and wonder where in the world he came from realizing that I might never understand him.

I know that is true for any parent of any child even if that child has your DNA. Simply put…parenting is crazy hard!

Time for Men to Step Up

But why does parenting especially seem so hard for men? Fathers get a reamed on a lot in our society. Not always fair, but oftentimes it is deserved.

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Dad to Dad Interview with Brett Millican [Podcast 53]

Every adoption story has its ups and downs, and Brett and Melissa Millican's story is no different. In this Dad to Dad episode, I ask Brett to tell the story of how he went to Ethiopia uninvited almost two years ago to bring home his daughter. 

Then we spend the second half of the episode talking about what it has been like for Brett to be an adoptive dad. 

Whether you are in the process of international adoption or you are and adoptive dad, you will want to listen in to our conversation.

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A Place I Didn’t Belong: An Interview with Paula Freeman [Podcast 52]

I recently met Paula Freeman who is an author, speaker, and adoption advocate. She graciously sent me a copy of her book, A Place I Didn't Belong - Hope for Adoptive Moms. 

After I read through her book, I knew that many of you would want to hear from Paula, so I invited her to do a podcast interview with me. 

Just like in her book, Paula shares deeply from her heart in a vulnerable and authentic way about how struggles of life will take you to placesPP you don't belong only to find that God meets you there.

Listen to this interview with Paula Freeman, author of A Place I Didn't Belong:

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