Feb 27
I’m going to be micro blogging live from Nashville at NRB 2011. “Micro” as in, my posts will be very short and only a very small segment of the population of earth will even care.
But…If you fit in that tiny NRB demographic that’s into a micro blog like this, then click here to launch the tiny live feed.
You never know who will pop up!
Feb 10
Read this article from Fortune about Conan O’Brian’s use of new media, and we’ll talk about it later.
I was talking with a guy named Dillon today. He asked me: “How have you found media to be effective in mnistry.” Here’s what I said:
“The story-driven nature of media makes it a powerful vehicle for sharing the Story — and for encouraging believers with accounts of others’ faithful lives.
Hebrews 12 talks about the “cloud of witnesses” that surrounds and encourages us. Media can populate that crowd with fellow believers we’d never meet otherwise! To me, this is the value of media in ministry. It’s not a substitute for face-to-face human interaction, but media can widen our perspective and deepen our resolve to persevere together.”
It’s too bad Christian media doesn’t put more effort into telling stories about well-lived lives.
Tuck your napkins into your collar and open wide, people of earth. The time to feast on a delectable blend of all kinds of scrumptious, wild goodness has come. SuperFeed has arrived.
From now on, you’ll never miss a witty comment, charming anecdote, frustrating question, or reality-altering photo from yours truly. Every blog, photo and video. Every random tale of woe, nerdy tech tip, and random feat of human ability. Now available in one mother-of-all RSS feed.
SuperFeed.
I’m really not all that conceited. I just wanted to try out combining the powers of Yahoo Pipes and feedburner to make one grand mashup of all things Wildman to be able to download and store for posterity’s sake. Your ability to stalk me in a silent, creepy way is just an extra bonus.
Grab your fork and dive in to SuperFeed….http://feeds.feedburner.com/wildthoughts/superfeed
One of my old school buddies passed this Ira Glass quote along to me. I found it inspiring, so I thought I’d share:
“All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not.
“But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you.
“A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this.
“And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions.
“And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”
-Ira Glass
Oct 21
Funny story. We were working on this resource promo video for a wall calendar called “The Dawn of a Church Awakening.” And the name of the music pastor at our church is named Don. And he’s like 65. And he’s obsessed with Baroque music.
During the production process, I told Sarah that I was working on the “Dawn” calendar.
“What?” she said. “Who in the world is going to want that on their wall?”
“What do you mean? It’s nice. It has nice pictures…quotes from Chuck…people like that stuff.”
She wrinkled her nose: “There is no way I’d want 12 big, glossy photos of Don on hanging up in my house!”
“Ok, then just think of them as sunsets instead,” I offered. “Don’t you like sunsets?”
Horror turned relief. “Oh, ‘Dawn‘ not ‘Don‘! Wow, I was picturing Don draped over a harpsichord with flowers and candles or something.”
“No, sweetheart…It’s not that kind of calendar shoot.”
Once in a while, it’s fun to give you a peak at a recent project from IFL. This one is a resource promo for our 2011 wall calendar.
I’m really enjoying working with the DSLR format because it let’s me think like a photographer.
Disclosure: I am an IFL employee, but I’m sharing this video of my own free will for illustrative purposes only.
Ideas are like mustangs. Anyone who attempts to capture an idea, harness it’s power, and hitch it to wagon of another mind knows how illusive and stubborn ideas can be. Those who take the challenge of communication lightly are rewarded with frustration.
A long-time pastor friend who has also been a long-time baseball coach is fond of a profound and simple saying that has helped hone my persepctive many, many times. It goes like this:
Success is doing the basics well and doing them consistently.
It’s an axiom that works for life, for sports, and for communication.
Let me make this plain. You might be smart. Your words might be clever. You might have an advanced degree or years of experience. But if you don’t put in the work required to do the basics of communication well, you and your ideas will be trapped inside your own head. You will be marooned on a lonely tropical island of your own fumbling creation.
Not to mention being trampled by herds of wild horses.
Natural, unrefined giftedness is rarely enough to empower someone to communicate effectively. Because, as in sports, success in communication is doing the basics well and consistently.
So, how do you saddle up those horses instead of being dragged through the jungle by them? As I’m thinking about communicators I really admire for their skill, three simple basics they all employ come to mind:
By doing these communication basics well and consistently, a talented writer or speaker becomes compelling, an average one becomes effective, and even a guy like me can expect to successfully saddle a wild horse or two.
Wagons ho!
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