Category: vocation

We moved across town recently (into a fantastic little rental house), and had to go through all of the fun of switching over utilities and services from one residence to the other.

Being self-employed, I swim around in a sea of hustlers and go-getters on a regular basis. I didn’t realize how energizing that was until this week, dealing with the polar opposite: Cable Company employees.

What follows is an open letter to those folks in call centers, corporate jobs they hate, and otherwise disgruntled little fish.

I used to work in retail telecom, so I get it. You are a small cog in a really big wheel, in an environment that breeds negativity and lack of care. You deal with angry, entitled people all day—customers and bosses who don’t seem to understand that you are a human with emotions.

But you don’t have to give in.

Sure, it’s going to take some serious want-to. You’ll have to possibly even avoid the break room and the water cooler all together. But with the right amount of effort, you can care.

I have a magic formula that works a surprising amount of times: if you care, you get promoted to a point where you are working over a group of people you can influence to care, and/or you can build the skill set and experience you need to get a better job at a company where you are encouraged to care and rewarded when you do.

Because the alternative is toxic. Eventually, enough negativity in your life breeds lack of care, which multiplies into anger and depression. It did for me.

I was miserable and 35 pounds overweight, working long hours and though the pay was adequate, I never got to see my family. Weekends were brutal. Nights were brutal.

You know how I got out? I chose to. I jumped with a half-packed parachute because I knew I could hustle my way out of financial trouble faster than I could hustle out of a mental breakdown.

But it all started with caring enough. Choosing each day that my attitude could not be influenced by a customer, or a boss, or a circumstance. I had practice from my previous job as a barista where I creatively washed dishes.

There was also a spiritual component to it, to be sure. (I honestly don’t know how non-Christians get through the day at a job they hate. That’s not a heavy-handed evangelistic push, just an honest observation. I’m way too weak to muscle through this stuff without Jesus.)

But you can start caring today. The next customer you deal with, treat them like your little sister calling in for help with her service. The coworker who is having a rough day, give them an honest compliment. Hold the door for somebody. Make it your life goal for everyone who deals with you today to smile. Start being a part of the solution.

And start hustling on your dream job on the side. Read 5 business books this month. Make the jump. Start to care. Nobody in the corporate office is going to care for you. You’ve got to do it yourself.

Take it from a guy who deals every day with people who love their jobs: it is SO worth it.

Also, in related news, can you please send a technician who cares to get my Internet service to work at my new house? All I’m getting is a blinking DS light on the modem.

One of the highest traffic days in the history of any website of mine was when I posted a critical bit on the Catalyst conference bringing in speakers who I thought were not the best choices in light of their controversial theology.

My piercing insights notwithstanding, the real reason that post got such traffic is that Carlos Whittaker tweeted a link to it:

Trying 2 figure out a way 2 respond 2 ths. http://thelinkisnolongerrelevant.com Evrytime I type, My fingers become possessed by Satan.

— Carlos Whittaker (@loswhit) October 12, 2009

Me and Los go way digitally back, see.

I’ve always watched with curiosity the rise of this particular Christian “celebrity” as he really does seem like the kind of guy I would love to hang out with. He wears a wonderful array of emotions on his sleeve for all to see.

If he had written a book about how to lead music, or about production management (two things he is very good at) there’s no way I would have purchased it. I lead the music at a small, theologically conservative church that would have me out in five minutes after adding flashing lights and synth-pop rhythm to our all-acoustic band. I have no use for the likes of a loswhit set design or even set list.

But that’s not the book he wrote.

What Carlos Whittaker is a leading expert on is not theology, not corporate worship, and not even church culture in general: Carlos is at the top of the game in making moments.

I get frustrated with his forays into theological debates and other things about which brothers can disagree. But I’ve never grown tired of how this man can tear into life and squeeze out every last drop of fun and meaning, and then generously share those moments with the world on his blog.

So when he announced that his book Moment Maker was coming out, I almost immediately pre-ordered, not just because I want to support Carlos and his family, but because I know in this area I can afford to sit at his feet and learn from the master.

This book had me laughing on the first few pages, and crying not long after.

It’s a great look at what it means to live intentionally, and he does a really good job of writing it in that voice you know, if you’ve followed his blog for any amount of time.

The best part is that you can finish it in a long afternoon (though it took me about a week). His informal tone and style (to the border of too informal for some, I’m sure) make the book best read out loud. If you know him from his videos, you can hear his voice reading it.

Do yourself a favor, go grab a copy today. (not an affiliate link)

I recently got my hands on a free, new in-the-box OtterBox Commuter series case for my Republic Wireless Moto X.

I use my phone with just a screen protector, and am generally pretty good with phones without breaking them, so I’m going to give away a perfectly good $35 case. (I have the yellow and black one for giveaway)

When I worked at AT&T, the OtterBox was the go-to. The defender series (not this one) is a bit bulky, and has a built-in screen protector. The Commuter series slides in and out of pockets easily and has a screen protector included, just not built into the case.

So how will I determine who wins the case? Between now and July 3rd, 2014 at 11:59 PM EDT all you have to do to enter is:

1. Sign up for Republic Wireless using my refer-a-friend link (which already and always saves you $20!) and email me with a screen shot verifying that you placed your order (here’s how to take a screen shot). My link is http://benlikes.us/republic

or

2. Like one of my business Facebook pages and email me a screen shot for verification. (BenandJacq or Church Web Help)

People who choose option number 1 are entered into the giveaway 5 times, people who choose option 2 are entered once. So give yourself a better chance (and hundreds of dollars off your monthly phone bill) by choosing option 1. I will choose a winner at random.

But so that the lawyers are happy: you don’t have to pay to play. Also, if this sort of sweepstakes is illegal where you live, please don’t enter (I’m looking at you, Canada). Finally, this is only for people 18 and older. Happy, lawyers?

Oh, and if you have already used my referral link for Republic, email me a screen shot and let me know, and you’ll still be entered 5 times.

Here’s that link again. (note, this case only works on the Moto X, so don’t go buying the Moto G using this link and expect the case to fit.)

Do you know that there is a (relatively simple) trick to making your church’s podcast take 1/10th of the time it is currently taking to download? That one trick exponentially increases the number of people who will actually listen to the content there.

How about this: there is a way to know how many people even opened the email about the meeting this week, and how many of them clicked to see what time it starts. Do you know how to do that?

One last thing: how long does the home page on your church website take to load? If you can count to one (second) before it’s all there, you’re likely being penalized by Google.

As a church staff member in a church with only one full-time person, I’ve been there. In fact, I am there.

I had to teach myself this stuff.

Having immersed myself in learning Linux, Apache, PHP, and Databases until my eyes glazed over, I was shocked when I began to look around the blogosphere and discover how few churches are doing a good job with DIY websites.

In fact, churches fall into one of two groups: ones who are using a great service like Church Plant Media to build and maintain their sites, and ones who have a free site that hasn’t been updated in months or even years. There is sadly not much middle ground.

Once I landed a stellar gig with Socialexis, it gave me (just) enough financial margin to begin trying to help fix the church website problem. I set out to develop a website to help churches do the web better.

Last month, Church Web Help was quietly born. It’s a membership site to come alongside churches who can’t afford to pay a part-time webmaster, but want to effectively use the web to reach their community.

This month only, the price to join is $7 (one-time!!).

If you don’t value the internet in reaching people in your neighborhood with the gospel, yours will be a church that is slowly less and less full. You need to get this right.

The best case is to have a part time staff member whose entire job is to man the website about 5 hours per week. That will cost in the neighborhood of $2000–$5000 annually.

While I’m under no illusion that my content is going to completely replace the value of a part time staffer, it will go a long way toward equipping your existing team with the resources they need to effectively run a thriving web presence.

Hurry, because next month the price goes to a still-bargain $35. Eventually, once there’s enough content in the members area, the price will be a monthly commitment.

If you aren’t the web person at your church, please slap a link to this post into an email and pass it along to the folks at your church who need to read it. I’d really appreciate it!