by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill (the Gold Standard Collector's Edition) states in their edition that Think and Grow Rich covers five basic concepts.
1. The Carnegie secret. If you hold a thought in your mind, focus positive thoughts toward it, the thing you desire in your mind will be drawn to you and become a reality for you.
2. Infinite Intelligence. When an idea comes to you out of the clear blue, your subconscious mind has presented the idea to you. These hunches, intuitions may have a Spiritual origin giving you insight beyond your natural mind. These are intertwined with others and you have a supreme intelligence at work picking up information you may not consciously be aware of.
3. The Master Mind Alliance. When two or more people put their minds together to solve a problem, they form a master mind that finds superior solutions for a problem. They tap into infinite intelligence, when empowered by harmony, to come up with ideas and solutions that the individual minds would not have come up with on their own.
4. The Ether. It's the belief that all things are interconnected. Since everything is interconnected, your thoughts will find their way to what you strongly desire and think about. Ether then is a powerful connecting source to deliberately use within our mind.
5. Everything is vibrating. Since all material is vibrating, when our mental thoughts or vibrations line up with the material thing, which is also vibrating, these will connect. The deciding factor is the degree and intensity of our thinking that draws them. Hill refers to our ability to concentrate in our imagination is what draws that to us.
This is from Think and Grow Rich: Gold Standard Edition by High Roads Media.
http://www.amazon.com/Think-Grow-Rich-Gold-Standard/dp/1932429654
In the Scriptures, Jesus targeted faith as the key Spiritual virtue, a living benchmark of where we should all live, and when we live at this level we are Spiritual people.
In Matthew, Jesus said with faith we can say to the biggest obstacle in our way to move from us and it will. "You can say to this mountain move, and it will, if you have faith.You can pray for anything and if you have faith, you will receive it." (Matthew 21:21-22)
This is true infinite power. It comes as intelligence, within our strategies. We get miracle producing ideas. This is especially true when two or more agree in Spirit. What we ask for will happen with unity of the same Spirit. In Matthew 18:18-19, the focus is on being centered in the Spirit of God and Jesus. Jesus said He would send the Spirit of God to be with us, when two or more unite in Spirit. The key to this is a quality relationship between each other in Spirit.... that's love, joy and harmony as one. That each person sees the other as more important than himself.
Matthew points out that when a man and wife are united in Spirit they become one. The importance of this (Matthew 19:5) is that the key to all power is an intimate relationship. A married couple should have this depth of an intimate relationship. When two are united in Spirit, intimate in Spirit, it produces a God creating result of power. This applies too to others united in prayer. When two or more, with this Spiritual intimacy, unite in prayer the same result is produced.
The ether as Hill refers to is really the Spirit. When one in Spirit, the Spirit connects us to all things. People may not know from where an idea may come or a person it is directed toward. In many cases, the Spirit of a person in prayer will reach out to or touch another person who responds with the answer to that person... when God's Spirit is in those tapped into His Spirit. The Spirit then communicates, like an ether which is invisible and undefined as to what it is, to create material contact and solutions to our prayers. The Spirit connects all things and intervenes for us in all things. It's a powerful principle, but must be approached with faith.
So a Spiritual intelligence is at work for us, with us, driven by connecting minds in Spirit, using the Spirit to communicate. It is all done through faith as the things we pray for may not be a reality yet. As we intensify prayer, the fervent prayer of a person with great faith will be answered. This too may cause vibrations in the heavenlies, through Spirit, to produce the answer we seek.
This is such an empowering concept. All of Hill's concepts are originated in the Scriptures underlined in the teachings of Jesus. The Gospel of Matthew alone reinforces this character of Spiritual power. Note Matthew 18, 19, 21. The power of faith and two or more in the same faith produces monumental results. It is a Spiritual skill to be developed and employed in our regular routines of life to get those extra ordinary results. Applied as a personal discipline in life we can expect faith, harmony in prayer with another, to produce "the exceptional" in our lives... created Supernaturally by the Spirit.
by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com
Now... Build a Great Business by Brian Tracy and Mark Thompson says now is a great time to build a great business. Times have changed and new doors are open to great opportunities. Many of the best businesses we see today were birthed out of very difficult economic times. Timing is overrated. Opportunities are numerous in a crisis. Instead of gloating over past downturns, find the new opportunities they produce. Now is the time to build a great business.
The authors feature seven steps to maximize a business in any market.
Becoming a great leader is the first step. The three P's of leadership are purpose: why does what you do matter to others; passion: what turns you on and your passion ignites the interest of those you know; performance: create action, goals and keep score.
Develop a business plan. What will you focus on and keep your concentration on? Alexander the Great was extensively outnumbered 5 to 1 in facing his opponent in battle. He was a master strategist. He had skills in keen focus. He followed these seven key principles to out-maneuver his opponent in battle while being tremendously outnumbered.
1. Objective: he had a clear vision on exactly what he wanted to accomplish.
2. Offensive: he initiated attack while using his ability of strategic planning. He launched his plan like throwing a javelin into the heart of the market.
3. Concentration: he concentrated his forces and resources on one key objective.
4. Economy: using brain power, creativity and efficiency of timing and money to achieve his market goals.
5. Flexibility: be ready to quickly change when a new opportunity arises or circumstances change, to meet the changing demands of the market.
6. Surprise: Keep your competition off balance, on their heels with quick maneuvers of price, marketing methods, etc. that your competition isn't expecting. Stay ahead of them and be the one doing it first.
7. Momentum: seize the day and keep moving aggressively forward.
Make your plan practical, measure progress, and be honest in where you really are.
Strategic planning answers six key questions.
1. Where are you now? What is your current situation... sales, productivity, profits, cash available.
2. How did you get to where you are today? Be brutally honest as you reevaluate all your business.
3. Where do you want to go from here? Describe ideal outcomes, earnings, people you'll need, organization and flow of activity, customers, who, where, what are they like.
4. How do you get from where you are today to where you want to be in the future?
5. What obstacles will you have to overcome? What problems will you have to solve?
6. What additional knowledge, skills, resources will you have to acquire to achieve your strategic objective?
Turn cost centers into profit centers. Outsource skills you have in your business to other businesses who can use them too. Peter Drucker suggests five questions to answer. What is your Mission? Who is your customer? What does your customer value? What results are you trying to accomplish? What is your plan?
The business plan process is
1. Your business vision
2. Values you believe in
3. Strategic objectives... activities to get results, sales, profitability, rate of growth.
4. Tactical objectives. Specific products/services, marketing, sales plan, finances, people needed.
5. Strategic variables. Policies for your product and services, customer, promoting, distribution, competitive analysis, pricing, financing, reinvestment.
6. Business plan summary. Executive summary(one page outline of all areas), the business concept, objectives, market analysis, production, marketing, organization/people, financial projections, ownership.
7. Carefully analyze all components, check assumptions. Remember, new things cost twice as much and take three times as long as you may think. Don't trust in luck, be deliberately strategic, proactive, finding your fatal flaws.
The next step is to surround yourself with great people. Find people who are team players, concerned with what's right, results oriented, accept responsibility for outcomes, and see the business as a great place to work with. Offer a great product. Be obsessed with quality. Don't follow the leader, create exclusivity, keep in continuous contact with the customer, constantly test the product/service.
The fifth step is design a great marketing plan.
Is there really a market?
Is the market big enough?
Is it concentrated enough?
Who's your real competition?
Is your product easier to use, does it provide additional benefits with comparable pricing, cheaper than the competition product/service, does it inspire deeper trust than others, and how does it appeal to your customer's desires?
Who exactly is your customer?
Create a profile of what your customer looks like.
The Seven P's of a marketing mix are product/service (what it does), price, promotion (all the ways to advertise), place (where do you sell it), position (image others have of you), packaging (its visual appeal), people (who will carry out your strategies).
Stick within your core competencies. What are your core products/services, core markets, core advertising methods, selling methods, core people?
The marketing plan then should answer these questions.
What exactly do you sell?
What is your competitive advantage, core competencies?
Describe your ideal customer.
What are your most effective marketing methods?
How do you differentiate your product/service from your competition?
How do you create a community for your customers?
Of the seven P's what changes can you make to make the product more desirable?
Steps six and seven include the sales and customer services process. Perfect a great sales process and create a great customer, and build a great life.
For free resources on the seven steps go to Brian Tracy's website and look up Now... Build a Great Business. http://www.briantracy.com/squeezepage.aspx?sqid=22&cmpid=2253
Follow the Joshua Principle.
A daily discipline of fixing our minds on God's principles, renewing our minds, rebuilding our minds, and taking disciplined action every day with the Power principles of Spirit is our driving force.
The first chapter of Joshua and the Psalms emphasize the power behind constant meditation, sharply focused thinking to concentrate on the precepts, principles of the Bible. In Joshua, God guarantees success in efforts that follow this method:
"I promise you what I promised Moses: 'Wherever you set foot, you will be on land I have given you. No one will be able to stand against you as long as you live. For I will be with you as I was with Moses. I will not fail you or abandon you. Be strong and courageous, for you are the one who will lead these people to possess all the land I swore to their ancestors I would give them. Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the instructions Moses gave you. Do not deviate from them, turning either to the right or to the left. Then you will be successful in everything you do. Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do. This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." (Joshua 1: 1-9, NLT)
"But they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night.
They are like trees planted along the riverbank,
bearing fruit each season.
Their leaves never wither,
and they prosper in all they do." (Psalm 1:2,3, NLT)
The Lord told Joshua to check out the territory... get intelligence on what is going on where he was to take the land. " Then Joshua secretly sent out two spies from the Israelite camp at Acacia Grove. He instructed them, "Scout out the land on the other side of the Jordan River, especially around Jericho. So the two men set out and came to the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there that night." (Joshua 2:1, NLT)
And sometimes His methods are unorthodox, out of the ordinary, even a little bizarre. Think of it, God has His Servants stay in a prostitute's house. That definitely would raise a few eyebrows, but the cleverness here is the enemy most certainly wouldn't expect that as Children of God.
With this intelligence, He guarantees that we will be effective when we follow what he tells us strategically to do.
"So Joshua and all the fighting men set out to attack Ai. Joshua chose 30,000 of his best warriors and sent them out at night with these orders:" (Joshua 8:3,4, NLT)
Whenever they followed the orders of the Lord, the Angel of God's Spirit went before them and they had overwhelming success. When they didn't, they had humiliating defeat. The only defeats came when they failed to follow His instructions to the finest detail. We can be assured He, the Spirit, will give us instructions to the finest detail if we seek his strategies first. And then follow them precisely.
The important thing is seeking His Strategies, first.
We then are assured overwhelming victory.
by Dale Shumaker4spirit@gmail.comAccording to Start Your Own Business published by Entrepreneur magazine, most new businesses will succeed when they do the right things. They reveal what it does take to succeed and keep growing.
The first three years are very crucial. So in their fifth edition, they expand to include advice and guidance on what it takes to grow and advance through the first three years. You can achieve financial success and security while working for yourself. Although the journey shouldn't be taken alone. Using Start Your Own Business along with another interacting entrepreneur will give you a good footing to build your business and grow.
You must be determined, patient, persistent, and willing to make sacrifices, then the rewards will eventually come.
Understand your strengths and weaknesses. Focus on strengths, get help where you need it or improve on your weaker area. (Create a personal resume to get a clear picture of what you are best at. Review it like you would a job applicant and figure out from it where would be the best place to put you in your own company.)
As you define your market, practice nichecraft. Make a wish list, focus on a few top areas, describe the customers' world view, synthesize, evaluate, test and then go for it. Keep it fresh, be on a mission (say it in words). Do market research, use your associations, colleagues, people you know, and others who are in touch with your potential market.
Name your business, choose the right structure for you and legalize it. Get advice from attorneys, accountants early on. Funding can be from family, friends, investors, loans, Fed's special programs. The authors go on to cover negotiating, finding the best location if a location is needed, image building, mailing systems, insurances, hiring employees and policies... the rudiments of business details. When they discussion what to buy, technology uses, websites, staying connected... there are over 150 pages of ideas in the book. It's a wealth of detail vital to a business function.
Branding your company is about establishing your reason for being, creating value, simplifying and clarifying your message, fulfilling your promise. To build your branding strategy, set yourself apart, know your target customer, develop a personality. Keep your advertising brand focused, with a consistent look throughout your whole business and operation. Get rid of dead weight in your business and do the essentials... this will make you stronger.
As you create your marketing plan, create a snapshot of your current situation, describe your target audience, list marketing goals, develop a marketing communications strategy with tactics(the specifics actions, steps you will take) that you can use and can afford to do. Figure out a budget and cash flow plan.
When will you need your money, so what method of billing and getting the money from the customer will accommodate that. Where will you advertise... consider all media and avenues, methods to use (the book lists many to explore).
Reach out with email, personal emails are better, and offer good things they want. Give away free things. Make connections, have fun, add value, keep it simple. Provide a map so people can find you.
Engage with social media... like Facebook, Linked In, You Tube. Write articles about things you know so others can know it too. After you have a lot of articles, create and offer an e-book (using the articles as chapters in the book). Create "helping others" blog information, then link your blog to your Facebook, Linked In, Twitter, etc.
Network online, join groups online, connect with fan pages online, and don't forget to re-connect with past friends, high school and college classmates. Find people, professions, groups that are in touch with your market and ask them to help.
The authors then go into profits... how a business keeps score. Set up a bookkeeping system.
Many good software packages exist. Many sole proprietors use the cash method in accounting... that's recording revenues in and expenses paid out as they happen. Be a competent bookkeeper or use someone who is. Computerize, be consistent and be compatible. With a good computerized system, financial statements can be produced monthly, quickly, and easily.
Make sure everything you do is in compliance with the IRS. Record keeping is imperative. It is wise to have an accountant advise you on how to set up your accounting systems, assist in maintaining your financial records, and let you know the best financial methods for making the most money at the level of business you are.
Start Your Own Business provides examples of income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements. Also included are guidelines to figure out how to pay yourself.
The book has a great resource section including government and business resources available. A good place to start is the Entrepreneur magazine website. It's a very thorough, one-stop place to find a lot of practical, necessary business helps.http://www.entrepreneur.com/
Anointed for Business by Ed Silvoso is a book that expresses the value of business owners being equipped as ministers in the marketplace. Everyone has a place to minister, serve others for bringing them into the Kingdom of God. Here's a few of his thoughts.
We need to see that many are anointed to serve in the marketplace. Both, the call to serve in the marketplace and the call to serve in the Church, are valid and interdependent since both involve ministers who partake of the same divine calling. People who are called to serve in the marketplace should be validated as full-fledged ministers because the last revival, the one predicted by Joel and quoted by Peter (Acts 2:17-21), will happen all over the city, not just inside a building. It will be an outpouring of the Spirit of God that will touch all flesh.
Today there are multitudes of believers in the marketplace holding strategic positions in business, education, and politics who need to know that they are called to play a vital part in the establishment of God’s Kingdom on Earth. Without their active participation and leadership, our cities will not be transformed and the Great Commission will not be fulfilled in our generation.
In the marketplace, church is open every day as Christians replicate the model first presented in Acts 2:42, “and they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”
No one is better placed in the city than Christians who operate in the marketplace. God has already given them jurisdiction in businesses, schools, and government circles on account of their occupation. The promise that “Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given it to you” (Joshua. 1:3) applies to them also—and they tread all over the city on a daily basis!
Furthermore, the Lord is in their hearts, the Holy Spirit is imbuing their spirits, and the Word is embedded in their minds. All they need now is to realize that they are anointed to minister in the fullness of the Spirit to push back the spiritual darkness enveloping our cities. When marketplace Christians begin to move in this anointing the whole world will be able to hear the voice of God.
For a full summary of Anointed for Business by Ed Silvoso note this summary provided by the Indiana Christian Chamber...http://www.indianachristianchamber.com/toolbox/anointedforbiz.pdf
(Also look into the Indiana Christian Chamber website. It is an excellent model for building a Christian business network in your area.)
Everyone who circulates in the marketplace is in a key place to be a servant for Jesus in building the Kingdom of God and seeing the Joel prophecy become an existing reality. As church groups and marketplace ministries equip and train their people for these efforts, we will see an expanding influence of God's Power in the marketplace and affecting all people.
by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com
The Mentor Leader by Tony Dungy is a look at how mentor leaders model a style that genuinely cares for others becoming the best they can be. A mentor leader learns skills and principles accessible by anyone. Their focus is on developing the strengths of individuals. It's about shaping, integrity, nurturing, empowering and growing... changing lives.
The mandate of the mentor leader is to focus on significance. "What can I do to make people better, all that God created them to be." Influence involves positive relationships that pass through generations which are seen on down the road. The journey is as important as the destination.
Create a well-cast vision shared by all those around you, your team, combining vision with a mission under girded by values. Truly serve others and be a servant leader.
The mark of the mentor leader is character, being trustworthy, while competent, secure, confident with an inner sense of security. Demonstrating courage, they lead by example, get in the trenches, and get involved. Living by faith, they put belief into action.
Their optimism is due to their faith in God's power working along side them and a desire for continual growth. Adding to trustworthy traits and leadership attributes(which center around being a servant leader), the mentor leader excels in relationship qualities and their ability to interact. Their qualities include being accountable, available, and approachable... a loyalty to those which they lead. This loyalty takes trustworthy and integrity to another level. The mentor leaders protect their followers.
The mentor leader changes the world one life at a time. Every person and what every person does is important in God's eyes. Make the most of all the platforms life may have you on. Opportunities may arise when least expected. Everyone is a role model where ever they are.
Mentor leaders are known by their words and actions. When things are tough, they measure up to their words and actions. They are known by their foundation of strength in their faith in God.
The seven E's of a mentor leader are
Engage: with the right attitude and approachability.
Educate: it's a hands-on, one-on-one approach.
Equip: show people how to do what's expected with the right mind-set and necessary tools.
Encourage: encouragement is more powerful than corrections.
Encouragement is better over used than under used.
Empower: true empowerment is thorough preparation followed by appropriate freedom.
Energize: energize by deliberately inspiring those you lead.
Elevate: raise up other leaders making sure others get credit.
As a mentor leader, everyone may not be happy with their decisions. It's important to remember everyone has a platform, and there is always someone's life to affect. Mentor leaders choose to be that someone.
More from Tony Dungy at http://www.coachdungy.com/
In The Power of a Whisper by Bill Hybels, he shares five filters to double check a thought to make sure what you are hearing in your mind is really God speaking to you, or what you hear from someone else is really from God for you.
Filter #1: Is the Prompting Truly from God? Ask God if the whisper is really from Him. Double check it in your own mind and Spirit. Does it reflect what you know about God and how He works and acts? Is it consistent with your character? Check your own emotions, prejudices, desires and make sure it is from God and not your own mind.
Filter #2: Is it Scriptural? God will not speak to you about something that does not line up with His Word shared in the Bible. Search the Scriptures to get reassurance. Sometimes God will use a verse or section in the Bible to speak directly to you. Be open to the times when a Scripture, during your Bible reading times, seems to jump off the page to you. He guides us many times with Scriptures timely to something going on in our lives at a certain time.
Filter #3: Is it Wise? Take a closer look at something radically different from the norm, to make sure it is really God. When Satan tempted Jesus, he asked him to do something extreme from God's purpose for Jesus. Does it reflect God's purpose in your life, and make sense as it relates to you and your relationship with others around you? Sometimes God is so practical we over look that it may be His direction for us.
Filter #4: Is it in Tune with God's character? Getting to know God and spending time in prayer, meditation on Him is vital. As we get to know Him and His character more and more we flow in tune with that. If it is totally outside how you are wired, your education, skills, double check that it is really a God whisper. He may have us do things different, but have others around us or bring others to us to complement us when needed. Know God's character and flow in line with who He is.
Filter #5: What do the people you most trust think about it? Trusted friends and acquaintances, pastors and those in ministry are good sources to run things by. Listen to what they may share. When it's from God you will many times get a consensus from more than one person. Be sure they are truly Spiritual people. Some people act Spiritual but reflect what they think, and it may be not what God is trying to get across to you. Going back to quiet times with God, reflecting on Him and who He is, will many times give you clarity on whether it is of God... or if it is just man's opinions.
We should be close to God and meditate on the Scriptures to the degree that we can determine when something is of God or not. Learn to trust Him speaking directly to you. Jesus said God's sheep hear His voice. Learn that and learn to trust that.
by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com
Inbound Marketing by Brian Halligan is about getting found by using Google, social media and blogs. Halligan explains why inbound marketing is the most effective way of marketing today including strategies and tactics, how to do it.
Outbound marketing such as mass mailing, email blasts, telemarketing, direct mail, TV, print ads, and trade shows... are becoming less effective. People do not like to be interrupted as these forms of marketing do that.
Inbound marketing creates connections, builds followers, brings people to you. The Internet is the hub where people get to find you. People shop and find information from search, blogs, and social media (such as Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, You Tube and others).
Is your website a megaphone (where you are shouting out your message) or a living room with a library of minds sharing what they know, enjoy or think. Inbound marketing changes your sales message to a collaborate, living, breathing hub for your marketplace. It's not what you say but what others say about you. Make it a place to come, to learn, to interact, to get answers, to relate with like-minded people.
Rethink your website to be a hub for many to many, syndicated across the web. Focus on the rest of the Internet, with many links, fans, followers, and subscribers. So it's an interactive, constantly changing hub for your entire industry which happens to sell a project or service. Be remarkable to your niche that admires you. Create remarkable content. When you are remarkable you attract links from other websites (which is critical for Internet attraction). Remarkable content spreads quickly and easily on other social media. Create content you can produce rapidly and others can effectively spread online. You got to give to get.
A great way to create remarkable content is by starting a blog. A blog establishes you as a thought leader, changes your website to a living breathing hub for your marketplace, providing a place for customers to engage with you while improving search engine ratings. This gives other bloggers a chance to link to you.
Many platforms are available for blogging: Blogger, Typepad, Wordpress. Provide a place for comments. Write about things of interest to your industry or group. Add videos. Make them only two or three minutes long. Invite others to write.
It's best to write on your blog weekly, or at least monthly. Use key words so Google finds you. These are words that your industry or group would use in searching for someone like you. What are the popular phrases in your industry. Use these phrases in titles and subtitles. Follow comments on other blogs to start conversations. Follow comments on your blog and start a conversation. Don't oversell what you do or it drives people away. Stick to great, helpful content others want and find interesting.
Join in the conversation and comment on the blog. Be creative, use catchy phrases others will find appealing. Market your content through email, RSS, social media. Subscribe to blogs from your industry, your profession or special interest groups who like you and relate to you.
Help Google find you. People searching Google are looking for something. You can pay Google so they find you, or with quality content, Google will help them find you. To get people to find you requires search engine optimization.
How does Google work? Google does two things. It crawls the Internet looking for web pages. It processes searches to find the best matching pages. Getting a link on a page being crawled by Google gets you crawled as well. Getting a ranking on Google is a goal. Ranking is based on authority and relevance.
Relevance is based on its match to the term searched... the title page, page content, text of links to the page. Authority is the other thing Google considers. Authority is how important and authoritative the page is in Google's eyes. This authority becomes your page rank. You increase authority when others link you. Authority increases more when the site that linked you has a high authority ranking. To get authority, create as many links as possible. You do this by creating remarkable content others what to share for you from their sites. You become rank worthy when creating remarkable content others want to read.
Pick key words for search optimization. Words that are relevant, the words that the searcher is looking for, typing in the search box. The more times a word is keyed in for search the higher its search value. Use selective words your selective group likes to use and will likely type in for search. Use words in your content, titles and sub-titles that your searcher will think of using to find out what you have to say.
What influences Google is the tag line. When creating your tag line, put most meaningful words first, leave adjectives after them, for example, change "the best and biggest belt business" to "the belt business that is the best and biggest." Make title pages intriguing and accurate. Language too creative may not be found by Google. Use the language your groups use frequently. Word it though that it is something others will want to click on when they find you. Put your company name after your description. They are looking for remarkable content and then want to know who has it. Keep descriptions at one or two sentences, make them unique with key words included first.
Halligan goes into great detail on how to get found by Google.
He continues with getting found in social media including Facebook, Linked In, Twitter, Digg, You Tube. Each of these are a discussion of their own, as Halligan gives you a play by play on how to make them work better for you. He includes specific guidelines for you to follow. The last section of Inbound Marketing is how to convert customers which includes tools and resources at the end of the book.
He has many of these tools and resources on his blog. Note his website and the blog; also check out the "marketing resources" he shares online. http://www.hubspot.com/
Prayer Power by Andrew Murray shows us how to live with Spiritual Power... its origin is Prayer. In prayer, there is power. Without prayer, we lack Spiritual Power. We can conquer everything by prayer.
What are hindrances to prayer? By temptations to curtail or postpone prayer, allowing wandering thoughts to enter the mind, small distractions around us when we want to pray, or just having unbelief and a sense of no hope, a lax spirit.
How do we fight off inattention to payer? God wants a relationship with us. It is as important and regular communication as with a friend. In prayer we communicate with the One who loves us the most and wants to help us the most. It's also tuning to His will for our lives where we enlist His power which makes us the most effective in what we do we.
It's the intimate, spiritual, personal, uninterrupted relationship to the Lord Jesus that manifests itself powerfully in our lives.
Bring to mind these qualities of God, His Spirit, and the One we are connecting with.
1. God is omnipresent. He is everywhere we are and go.
2. He is omnipotent. His power is the supreme power of the universe.
3. God is a holy loving God. Through Jesus, all of His unimaginable love surrounds us constantly. Take time to think over the Word of the Lord. Go into His inner Chamber and enter into the relationship of Jesus in the Father, the Father in Jesus, and Jesus in you. Let Him unveil Himself to you, showing you how to live, and walk and abiding in fellowship with the unseen Lord constantly.
How is the blessing of victory brought through prayer?
1. Maintain an unbroken fellowship with God. We bear His image and we are fit for a life of communion with Him and are prepared to glorify Him.
2. He gives us His Power for the work He has set out for us, He has called us to do. Be diligent in doing His will and fulfilling His mission and purpose Hand Stamped for you. Then we can hold on to "I can do all things through Jesus who strengthens me, and I am more than a conqueror through the power of Jesus Christ who defeated death."
3. We share with God as intercessors to affect His great love for the entire world and the mission many are in motion to fulfill. We impact victory for others, and knowing that Jesus Christ lives in us, through us, we share in the victories for many to conquer the grip evil has on the world.
The great lesson in prayer and for every prayer is to see first of all that we commit ourselves to the leading of the Holy Spirit with an entire dependence on Him, constantly giving Him first place. It is so important that we stay in the right relationship with the Holy Spirit and His outstanding work.
1. Let us firmly believe, as a Divine reality, that the Spirit of God's Son, is the Holy Spirit and the propitious power of this Spirit is in us.
2. With His Great Powerful Spirit with us, and with unquestionable certainty know He dwells in us, we understand what He desires to accomplish through us.
3. We give over to the Spirit full possession of our lives for His Work. His dwelling place, our body and soul, is entirely under His control. We say as the Psalmist said, " I seek Him with all of my heart." We learn to forget ourselves and allow Him to make us a training ground for training as intercessors. So God can entrust us in carrying out His plans as day and night we cry out to Him to avenge the Adversary.
As you enter the inner chamber, going deep into God's presence, keep this in mind to make it a quality, life re-energizing experience.
1. Let your first work be to thank God for the unspeakable love that invites you to come to Him and to converse freely with Him. Reflect on God, Our Father in Heaven, and what that means.
2. Prepare yourself by reading the The Word of God, and prayerful Bible study. The Spirit of God comes through in the Scriptures and it opens the Spirit to be in a flow with God and your spirit.
3. When the confidence and Faith that is build up in you is established, enter into prayer. Let your prayers be something definite, arising out of the Word that you have read, or out of the real needs that you long to have satisfied.
4. Then as you finish, cement the bond of the inner chamber that you and God have established and the outer world. The inner chamber experience must remain in us all day long. As the obedience in faith rule, what you prayed in secret will overtake the challenges of the world. The inner chamber binds man to God and all supply from God is provided. You will see His potential manifested in your day and life.
Time is on your side, if you place time with God along your side. There is no communion with the Holy God, no fellowship between Heaven and earth, no power for salvation and needs to be met, if the day is not spent in time with God. The life of grace depends entirely on the time we are wiling to give to God's Spirit in prayer. This is where the Power is.
by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com
Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin dispels the belief that talent is something we're born with. In reviewing hundreds of studies, Colvin also found out experience and hard work don't create talent. Intelligence is also not a factor. The factor that says most about great performance is deliberate practice. Deliberate practice is hard.
It requires practice in areas needing improvement and skills most important to where we want to excel. Deliberate practice is learning how to train effectively. What's crucial is we understand where extraordinary performance comes from. Inherent talent is a myth, talent is deliberately developed.
So these notions have little to do with performance excellence (talent). It's not experience, specific innate abilities or general abilities and memory.
Talent is developed through deliberate practice. Deliberate practice has the elements of an activity designed specifically to improve performance, often with a teacher's help, repeated a lot, with continuous feedback on results, demanding mentally and in most cases it is not much fun. Deliberate practice can be hard, that's why most people won't do it. But those who do are achievers of superior talent.
How does deliberate practice change a person? With deliberate practice our perception of what will happen in the future expands. We see, hear and feel more. It causes us to pick up on more telling signs than others and grasp more of what future events will be. It enhances our abilities to know more even when we are seeing less, and increasing out ability be more refined in our discrimination than average performers. Although actual knowledge may not exceed others, we find that reasoning and problem solving abilities perform at more advanced levels. In one's field of deliberate practice a person's memory in their field is keener, more precise in detail.
Through deliberate practice, before, during, and after work, great performers possess large, highly developed, intricate mental models of their domains. A rich mental model contributes to great performance. Deliberate practice in your field or specialty will create this rich mental model in you. A rich mental model contributes to great performance in three ways. A framework is formed on which to hang your growing knowledge, it helps you to distinguish relevant information from irrelevant information, and it enables you to project what will happen next. Great performance is built through activities that are specifically designed to improve particular skills. Teachers and coaches are vitally useful in helping you design these activities. People develop best through inspiration, not authority.
Deliberate practice can advance the young to achieve in a field faster and sooner than most, as well as keep the aging person at top performance into old age. Young children can begin acquiring skills with deliberate practice and become an advanced performer early in life and at more greatly advanced levels through life. Aging people can continue to advance their skills into old age when deliberate practice is part of their lives in their chosen field. Deliberate practice makes you never too young or never too old to be a great performer. From the 2 year old to the 80 year old, deliberate practice will enhance life performance.
Deliberate practice is hard. It requires us to do things we can't quite do easily. So a person must work at it at first, stick with the frustrations of slow advances, until the deliberate practice begins taking effect. What drives a person to go through the unpleasant phases of deliberate practice? The difference is the intrinsic perspective.
What are the internal reasons that drive a person to practice for what they want? What drives them to deliberately work at it more than others? The difference is an internal conviction of believing we can and will, if we set all we got to do it. Deliberate practice keeps awakening new ideas, innovations, fresh approaches to achieve a desired personal goal. The more we practice, the better we get. The more we believe and see in our mind what we are certain will happen, we can accomplish.
More from the author: http://www.geoffcolvin.com/
The Great Commission by Jesus exhorted everyone to go and make disciples. A disciple is a person deliberately developed to be very skilled in doing the assignment given them. They were disciplined in the work they did. It required deliberate practice.
Here's the commission Jesus issued.
“I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” ( Matthew 28:18-28, NLT)
To do this, the Apostle Paul said,
"Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect." (Romans 12: 2, NLT)
How to do this is explained by God as directed to Joshua. If you do this you will succeed in all you do. "Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do." (Joshua 1:8. NLT)
What does it take to renew the mind, to change how we think, and be transformed. We must meditate on the Scriptures morning, noon, and night. This takes deliberate activity. If an hour or two a morning, an hour mid-day, and a few hours at night were spent to renew ourselves for the job at hand, we would then be competent, effective disciples. That is, disciplined to do the work set before us. When we use teachers with a strategic plan for us to follow, it increases our effectiveness as disciples.
Try this. Take 30 days and spend an hour in the morning, an hour at noon and a few hours at night to read the Scriptures of the Bible. It takes about 5 hours a day of deliverable practice for star athletes to perform at top performance levels. No less would be needed for us to achieve top performance results Spiritually.
We, as disciples, are called to be completely transformed in mind, a Spiritual people, completing God's mission in our lives requires the same.
Here's a study process to consider to follow for 30 days. After 30 days, you will see the results it brings to you. The idea is to read as much as you can in 30 days. If you don't get what it is saying, keep going. It will create a track in your subconscious for the next time. Then, when you read the same Scriptures again, they come more alive to you.
Start with the Gospel of John, and then read Romans.
Move on to Matthew and follow with Paul's letters to the Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians. (You could save Timothy, Titus and for later.)
Continue with the Gospel of Mark and then read the Apostle's letters of James, Peter (1 and 2) and John (1, 2, 3).
Go back to Luke and then read Corinthians 1 and 2.
Acts gives you the history of the New Testament and Hebrews the foundations for the transition from the Old to the New Testament's transformational power. (You could also save Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, Philemon and Jude for later.) If you devote morning, noon and night for 30 straight days to a deliberate plan, you will have laid the ground work to renew the mind and be transformed. Read as much as you can for 30 days, and create a deliberate plan that you will commit to follow. Later on you will want to go back to each Gospel, etc. and read, meditate, ponder what they say. This is a soaking method.
In an Army of Ordinary People, Felicity Dale explains what the Great commission means for us. As you will see, each part requires deliberate practice to fulfill it. According to Dale, the great commission is not a "take it or leave it" option for Christians. Many live in self-made Christian ghettos, never developing relationships with unbelievers. We somehow think friendships with people in the world will somehow contaminate us. People see right through us when we make them "projects" rather than authentic relationships. We need a healthy DNA for reproducing the Kingdom life around us.
It takes Divine truth in knowing God, the Scriptures and Jesus in us; nurturing relationships and responding to needs of those we meet. And be apostles that God is sending as His representatives to make disciples of all places we are part of and go to. The great commission has four directives:
1. We are to go. Go where people are and create connections with them.
2. We are to make disciples of all nations. A nation could be a city, a professional network or association, a club or recreational group.
3. Baptize new believers. To be so saturated with the Spirit of God that it naturally spills off on others. Wherever we go, we sprinkle others with His love and joy. Do the 30 day Bible reading saturation plan... 1 hour morning, noon, and evening for 30 days straight. This is a mental renewal, baptism.
4.We are to teach others. As we are taught to be trained, equipped, competent disciples, we are to share what we know with others and help them grow to be competent disciples too.
We have good news for a wonderful lifestyle. Learn the lifestyle of Spirit and share it freely with others. That's making disciples.
by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com
Click by Ori and Rom Brafman unveils the magic of instant connections. Some people click with others immediately. In studies, it shows when this happens many of these relationships in life and business remain enduring. They stay solid for a long time. Interviews with couples who say they clicked at the first meeting, and got married soon, had the same romantic feelings for each other years later... just like the first time. They even rated as well and in some cases higher than those with long dating or friendship times, who said they eventually fell in love later.
Why is it that we form close meaningful connections? Why does it feel so intense and pleasurable? Defining characteristics emerge. We can know what they are and click faster with more people.
The five factors that accelerate clinking are vulnerability, proximity, resonance, similarity and a safe place.
Vulnerability. When we willingly expose inner fears and weaknesses (being candid and real), vulnerability and self-disclosure are strengths. They accelerate our ability to connect with those around us. People trust you more and will tend to be more open and vulnerable with you. This fosters a clicking atmosphere. We make ourselves vulnerable to others when we share feeling-based perspectives, revealing our inner most emotions.
Proximity. Informal, unplanned interactions bring people closer. Like when you run into someone you know or work with at the grocery store, coffee shop, etc. When we inadvertently show up at the same place at the same time, a social glue comes in to play that begins a social bonding. This enables us to form a deeper connection. For example, you may run into a work college whose son plays for the same baseball team as yours. Your casual interactions there accelerating clicking. Without spontaneous interactions, it is hard to form relationships with others. Even seeing another person at the same place frequently (like the convenience store, book store) we are more likely to gravitate to that person.
People who live or work close to each other are likely to form relationships. Familiarity actually breeds regard.
Resonance. When we feel a strong connection to everything around us, when we have an overwhelming sense of connection to our environment, that deepens the quality of our interactions. It's a flow. Flow comes when we have achieved mastery and we're challenged. Having a sense of presence... that's being totally in the now when with someone... increases the qualities of resonating with that person. While completely engaged, we're unaware of things and others around us. This is being in the present.
In the present we are intentional. A sense of purpose emerges in our engaging interaction. A conscious awareness exists as we are mutual, open to meet the other person where they are. Some may call this chemistry, although it's that our place in life and experiences are a similar place as the other person.
As we are authentic with genuine emotional reactions, with exclusive attentiveness, which we demonstrate with active involvement, we are present. We arrive with intention, we listen, with mutual interest, and are attentive to the environment of those around us. Presence lasts beyond the the moment of interaction. It seems like the conversation and sense of connection continues even after we leave the person's physical presence.
As we consciously make ourselves more present with others, we achieve a sense of flow, inducing a sense of resonance. We resonate with the person we click with.
Similarity. The more we have in common, the more we feel in the same group. It can be a physical similarity, an intellectual similarity or a personality similarity. We seem to love the same things. The longer the length of time we have known the same people, the more similarity enters into the clicking factor. Common ground in similarity is a powerful attractor. It accelerates the intensity of the click.
Safe place. When a safe place, a neutral place exists, we let our guard down more and click. Wherever two people are and they both feel comfortable and safe there, without the need for pretense, we click more easily. We embrace each other and the same members of the tribe. Feeling safe together, and embracing a similar adversity together, makes a person more open and willing to be vulnerable.
We bond in shared adversity(i.e., military people who were in combat together). When in safe environments (without formal presentations, charts, artificially-designed structures) we will share stories of our lives. We are authentic. A deeper sense of community grows. Bonding is deeper and stronger. When in safe environments, where we feel safe and can be just ourselves with openness and acceptance, we accelerate clicking.
Clicking is when you have a magical moment and you quickly connect, with a greater sense of intimacy than normal. It is like you become close friends in a moment. To summarize, the key aspects of clicking are...
1. It has a magical quality.
2. There's power in vulnerability.
3. The closer, physical proximity, we are to someone, we hit it off faster.
4. Resonance begets resonance... when fully present.
5. Similarity counts; quantity trumps quality. Finding more that's similar contributes to clicking.
6. Be part of a shared community.
7. High self-monitors click faster, i.e., being aware of the other person's mindset, attitude, emotions.
8. When we click with others, we perform at our best.
Visit:http://brafmanbrothers.com/
When Jesus talked about prayer, He emphatically stated that we are to be prayer. In the Gospel of Matthew (21:12,13), as He became quite indigent over how the Temple was being used that He said "my house is to be a house of prayer and you have made it into a marketplace." He was referring to what was to become His Temple, that is us. He also said in John (2:19) that if you destroy this temple I will raise it up.
We sometimes think we must go somewhere to pray. Jesus was trying to redirect our thinking while letting us in on this new phenomenon that was about to come over mankind. We (our bodies) will be the new house for the Spirit of God. Where we go the Spirit goes. And also, we (as united believers), when we come together, are a house of prayer.
The Spirit lives in us and we have access to the most Holy place of God that has created all the universe and every item of physics, biology, life, vegetation, and atmospheric system of the world we live in.The Spirit intercedes continually on our behalf. We then are prayer... it is not so much what we do but what we are. So, we should be careful not to corrupt the vessel God has established for prayer. That is, being too pre-occupied with things of the world, in the marketplace... making money, having things, indulging in what our society indulges in and craves. This is the first part of prayer... to recognize we are prayer. The more we allow the Spirit of God to live in all parts of our lives, the more the Power of Spirit will operate in all its potential through us.
Where does prayer begin? Jesus said to pray like this. (Matthew 6: 9...) Our Father, who is in heaven, how Holy, unique you are, and we honor that. What you want done in Heaven, we stand ready to be part of that and do our part on earth.
As we look at what Jesus said on how to pray, consider the use of the word Father. In the Gospel of John, God was referred to as Father over a hundred times. Jesus repeatedly referred to God as Father. This was an unprecedented choice of words. The Jewish leaders of the day, never used the word Father.
Over and over again, Jesus referred to God as His Father, and He said we should also. He pointed out that the Father lived in Him, and He lived in the Father. He did nothing outside the Father's direction. He depended on the Father's power to do everything He was asked to do. What is remarkable about this is that Jesus said we are in Him and He is in us. In the same way Jesus is in the Father, we now are in the Father. All we see Jesus doing, we can and are to do. We have the same relationship with the Father as Jesus had, and has.
Take a moment and read John 5. Consider how Jesus refers to the Father, the nature of the relationship He has... we have.
Jesus did only what the Father did. What the Father does, Jesus does. The Father Shows Him what He is doing and what Jesus is to do. The Father comes up with even greater things that will be done through Jesus. Every miracle keeps increasing in magnitude. Everyone who Honors the Son, Jesus, honors the Father. He will speak to us, and those who listen to the Voice of the Father and Son will live. The Father has life in Himself, and He has granted the same life giving power to the Son.
And as Jesus said, we will be in Jesus, Jesus in us, which means we also share in the Power of the Father. Now God is like a Father of the most ideal level we can imagine.
Our Father in Heaven connects with us on earth to bring Heaven to earth through us.
It's up to us to join Him.
