Carlos Whittaker

This week was the Backstage Leadership Session with Carlos Whittaker. If you are familiar with Carlos, then you know he lives a lot of his life “online” through his blog, twitter and youtube. It was a great time talking off line and to hear Carlos be very open and raw. There were a lot of great questions asked. I was impressed in a lot, but here are a few favorites.

1. Carlos does weekly evaluations every Sunday of where he invested his time that week. If it is tilting too much in one area and not enough in another, he’ll make necessary corrections. He’s serious about guarding his family time.
2. On creativity he said the best creative meetings happen when you come up with ideas before the meeting.
3. For the creatives, “always be exploring your world.” He is constantly taking notes on things he sees and hears, even if he doesn’t have an obvious use for them yet.

It was an amazing time of learning. If you are interested to learn more about Backstage Leadership and joining private sessions with other great leaders, be sure to check out the current openings here.

Applications are now open for the spring class for Backstage Leadership. Starting in January, you’ll get to ask the questions you want to from an amazing group of leaders. Plus, you get group coaching to help you in the journey of applying all that you learn. Right now its less than $100/mo.  You’ll get to hear from Mark Batterson, Ken Blanchard, Dan Cathy, Mike Foster and Catherine Rohr. This is one of the best deals in leadership development today.  Don’t miss this opportunity.

Sign up today!

If you know someone that could benefit as well, sign them up too!

Here’s an interview with Dave Gibbons, pastor of NewSong Church in southern California. Dave has got some great thoughts on maximizing your time, getting your new venture off to a great start, and what you can learn when you sit in the majority vs the minority. If you are launching a new project, cause, church or business, you need to hear Dave’s thoughts on starting strong.

I love this quote

The Greatest Visions are Divinely Originated- Dave Gibbons

To join other conversations like this, sign up for Backstage Leadership. Spots are limited.

Friend and hilarious blogger Jon Acuff is raising $60,000 to build two kindergartens in Vietnam through Samaritan’s Purse. He’s only $15,000 away from meeting his goal.  Check it out [here] and consider jumping in.

Jon is a great example of using a platform for good. Who are other examples of people that have used their platforms for good?

Welcome to the new blog. Spent a little time getting things reworked and organized, thanks to the help of some good friends. A lot of the conversation here is centered around Backstage Leadership and the journey of young leaders. I’d love for you to join in with comments and suggestions.We’re all in this together.

Be on the look out this week for a video interview I did with Dave Gibbons and highlights from the Backstage Leadership session with Carlos Whittaker!

If you don’t know about Backstage Leadership, click here.

What are topics that you’d like to discuss?

Read a cool quote:

There’s no record of Martin Luther King Jr. or Ghandi whining about credit. Credit isn’t the point. Change is.

I will say this has got to be one of the toughest struggles starting out for a young leader. Do you want the credit or change? If your vision is to reach the city with the Gospel, do you want the city getting the Gospel or do you just want the credit for the city getting the Gospel? If you vision is to help end poverty in Ethiopia, do you want people to eat or credit for them eating?

This is tough and I’ve struggled with it too because we really want to accomplish the vision. I really believe in the message God has given me to share and I want to share it. Here’s the internal struggle that happens: Read more »

The first part of the sentence is great advice for leaders. If you spend time doing what you are great at then you will accelerate your growth and your organization, church, business, vision, etc will all greatly benefit. Marcus Buckingham has done a great job over the past decade preaching that message. But…..

Here’s the problem when it comes to young leaders and new start ups. If you only do what you are good at, then the odds of your vision or leadership going anywhere is slim and none. As a young leader, especially in a start up, you have to do it all. And you should. Its good for  you. Get the mail, pay the bills, type the emails, make the copies, call the designer, make the speech, stack the chairs, pick up the food, send the thank you note, write the contract, return more calls, send out letters, and send more emails. You have to do it all because there’s no one else to do it. That’s not bad, that’s just reality.

How to move towards that position of working in your strengths:

Read more »