Tim Tebow: How to Honor God With Your Platform

in case you ever wonder how you can honor God, you do the best you an with what you have. Tim Tebow is a prime example of this. He gets national television and what does he do?

Well this.

You may not have that kind of platform. I don’t either, but what can you do with what you have been given.

Honor God with whatever you get.

The Importance of Creating a Platform: #YourTurnChallenge Day 7

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http://dweisscreative.com

For the last day of #YourTurnChallenge the question was “What are you taking away from this challenge?” The truth is a lot. I’m already a daily blogger on AMOKArts.com, three days a week on dweisscreative.com and five days a week on bewareofartists.org so it wasn’t so much about blogging every day. I’m in a pretty good groove on posting daily.

What I gained was a couple of things. First of all I decided to take the common theme of creativity for each day’s post. Creativity is definitely an area of passion for me and I have a strong desire to create a series of creativity seminars/workshops for businesses, organizations and schools to present this year in addition to the creativity ministry things I already do (interested? contact me at AMOKArts@aol.com). Forcing myself to work in this one topic each day and build on it was pretty helpful. Looking back over this week’s posts, I am relatively sure that I have a decent outline for a pretty good creativity book, (look for it later this year on http://dWeisscreative.com.)

But what I gained most from this challenge was the realization that I need to be more intentional about building my platform. I usually average around 30-40 hits a day on AMOKArts.com, on my best day this week, I had almost 400 I also gained quite a few followers on Twitter and a few more Facebook friends. It just goes to show that even among the hundreds of people that, because of the volume of people who follow Seth Godin and that amazing platform he has built, I got a lot more attention than I usually get. I’m faithful at creating. I’m faithful at shipping. What remains is helping people to find their way to what I am doing. After all, I want to help as many people as possible. The more people I reach, the more people I can help. I need to expand my reach

In this year, I’ve got to apply some of my creativity to creating a larger platform. How about you?

A Resource for Reaching Goals in the New Year

This is different than those flimsy New Year’s Resolutions we all set and most of us drop by Groundhog Day. These are goals, setting the course and direction of your life. Now of course these things are subject to change by God’s leading and should be the subject of much prayer but we should also be trusting the Spirit’s leading and moving forward. I once heard a speaker say, “It’s easier to steer a moving car” and so it is with the Spirit’s leading.

I’ve been following Michael Hyatt for years. He is the former president of Thomas Nelson Publishing, a brother in Christ, and an expert in what it takes to reach and accomplish goals. His brilliant book Platform is a must-read for anyone with a dream. Michael Hyatt has published a free three part video to help us set and achieve goals. I intend to follow it and I think you should check it out too. Michael Hyatt is publishing a lot of great stuff on his blog.

Let’s reach our God-given goals this year and make it the best year ever to the glory of God.

Journey through Michael Hyatt’s Platform: Post 29 Landing Pages

In this chapter of Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World Michael Hyatt looks at the importance of properly setting up your landing pages. I apologize for not posting for a while on this topic, but the truth is I am still working on getting all my landing pages up to standard. I decided the best way to demonstrate this was to set up a new landing page for a new service I am planning on offering soon, Creative Ministry Coaching.

You can see it gathers all the usual information, plus a few added features. I am fairly new to coaching though I’ve done it unofficially as a pastor for years as well as with folks I’ve met through AMOKArts. Because I am new to coaching professionally, I am looking for what my potential clients might see as an acceptable rate for what I have to offer. I am also including a text block to find out what the person expects from a coaching relationship. This way I can decide whether I can meet their expectations or not.

If you’d like to look into coaching, please feel free to fill out the form and I will get back to you soon.

If you haven’t done it yet, check out Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World.

Journey through Michael Hyatt’s Platform: Post 29 Create a Better “About” Page

According to Michael Hyatt in  Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World (and my statistics bear this out) the About page on your blog is one of the most frequently read pages. It is highly important, especially in the  realm of ministry. People want to know your background and whether or not they can trust the orthodoxy of your point of view. They also want to know what your focus is going to be. In short they want to know who you are and what they’re going to be reading.

Hyatt gives ten ways to make a better About page. I decided to compare them to my about page. To be sure it needs some adjustments. He says to write in the first person, mine reads like a press release. He says to write in a conversational style, and once again, mine reads like a press release. He also includes a lot more information than I currently have in mine. What I see is, I have a lot of room for improvement on my About page and I will be highlighting that change in the weeks ahead.

How does your About page look?

Having read the chapter,

If you haven’t done it yet, check out Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World.

Journey through Michael Hyatt’s Platform: Post 28 Avoid Common Blogging Mistakes

In this chapter of Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World Michael Hyatt looks at the mistakes bloggers make. He has a list of 10. To see them all you’ll have to read the book. I am going to focus on just a few. I think the biggest one is people who don’t post enough. Now I realize I may dance on the edge of posting too much, but the idea is to post on a regular basis so that your readers get a consistent flow of information. This blog goes out daily. Hyatt recommends no more than that. Actually right now I am posting twice in some days (Hyatt would say that is too much) but there is a reason for that. And it has to do with another post on Hyatt’s list…

Keep your posts on brand. I am aware that a lot of my readers come here  for posts about art and arts ministry. Because of this I am taking a risk with some of you by posting these posts on Platform. I am posting them because I believe every one of my readers should be trying to build his or her own platform. I feel it’s crucial to our ministries, but I know some may not agree with that sentiment, so on the days I post on Platform, I try to also post something else. I want all my readers to stay engaged.

The last thing from the chapter I want to highlight is the idea that we need to make sure we grab the reader’s attention. Remember most of the reason for this book and these posts is there are so many things vying for your reader’s attention. It”s important that we develop good headlines and a good lead in paragraph, to draw the reader into the story. I am still working on this but it must be the goal if you want to win your readers’ attentions.

If you haven’t done it yet, check out Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World.

Journey through Michael Hyatt’s Platform: Post 27 Protect Your Intellectual Property

This is one of the few places where I part ways with Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World. Michael Hyatt has a lot to say about protecting your work. Of course in order to see that you’ll have  to buy the book. I get  where he’s coming from and I even see a need for it and I suppose if someone were to take all my work and make a best seller pout of it I would be pretty upset and want some payment but here is the larger issue.

To me, I want this message to spread. I want it to go far and wide. Seth Godin says “Ideas that spread, win.” (I’ve asked Mr. Godin for permission to use his stuff on several occasions and he has yet to say no. Incidentally he treats everyone like this and it’s hard to argue with his level of success.) Since my goal is to spread the word, I really hope you’ll spread it around, repost it, take it and run with it. It’d be really nice if you’d credit it to me and AMOKArts.com so that you would help draw people into the tribe and if you make a lot of money off of something, remember who fed you and share the wealth. But above all what really matters to me is that the word is spread and this mission goes forward.

These abilities we have are called gifts for a reason. God has given them to us so that  we can give them to others. That doesn’t mean we can’t or shouldn’t get paid, the Bible says, “the workman is worth his hire” but Jesus also said “freely you have received, freely give.” Consider a piece of art, yes one person may pay for it, maybe you’ll license it and 1,000,000 will pay for it, but it’s still a gift because for every person who pays for it. thousands and millions will appreciate it for free. It’s the same with songs on the radio and books in the library. Creating art is a gift given to the world. Part of the purpose of this site is to build a tribe of creatives who are using their gifts to spread the Gospel, serve the Lord and others and glorify God.

Take these posts for example. I am being very careful to not give you much of what Michael Hyatt wrote. I’m doing my best to honor Michael Hyatt’s intellectual property. At the same time I feel he has written a very important book that every member of my tribe must read, so I am going to great lengths to tell you about it. Why do I do this? So you’ll go out and buy it. Yes I have provided the links here on the page and yes if you click through from this site to buy it, a few cents of the purchase will come back to AMOKArts, but my motivation is not those couple of cents, that will never pay back the effort I’ve put into it. I am posting this because I think if you read and apply this book, your creative ministry will spread and grow and that is part of the mission of AMOKArts.

At the end of the day, you need to know how much you want to protect what you’ve created. One way is not more spiritual than the next, I’ll simply say let the Spirit be your guide.

If you haven’t done it yet, check out Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World.

Journey through Michael Hyatt’s Platform: Post 26 Don’t Hire a Proofreader

In this chapter of Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World Michael Hyatt says something that a lot of writers would view as blasphemy, but I think it’s critical when it comes to blogging. Don’t hire a proofreader. Now of course we want to post the best work we can and we want it to be as clan as possible, but as writers, our perfectionism can keep us from doing what needs to be done. It can keep us tweaking ad infinitum and prevent us from “shipping.”

Remember, a blog is a way of disseminating information quickly. We’re not writing a book, we’re building a platform. It’s more important that we keep our tribes informed and connected that every t is crossed and i dotted. It’s more important that your posts go out when expected than that they be perfect.

The truth of the matter is someone in your tribe will tell you about your errors and unlike printed materials blog posts are easy to correct, and you should correct them. So basically, writer your post, read it, read it again and ship it. Your readers will forgive a typo or help you to correct it. What they may not forgive is spotty, sporadic posting.

Speaking of which, you’ll notice I skipped chapter 25, rest assured I am working on that one too. It is just more involved and I didn’t want to keep my faithful readers waiting.

If you haven’t done it yet, check out Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World.

Journey through Michael Hyatt’s Platform: Post 24 Write Faster

In this chapter of Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World Michael Hyatt gives 11 ways to write faster, all of which are  very useful. Why do you need to write faster? Well as Hyatt points out, most of us are fitting our blogs in, into the small spaces of available  time in our busy lives. If the process of posting becomes long and drawn out, there is a much smaller chance that we will post consistently.

One of the best tips I can give for this is keep it simple. Hopefully you are communicating important, meaningful ideas. The clearer and more concise you can make these ideas, the more likely your readers will remember them and put them into action, not to mention pass them along. Seth Godin says, “Ideas that spread win!” and he’s right. I would add, “Ideas that spread build platforms.”

How can you speed up your writing process to make your work consistent and shareable?

If you haven’t done it yet, check out Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World.

Journey through Michael Hyatt’s Platform: Post 23 Maintain a List of Post Ideas

One of the toughest things about being a daily (or even a regular) blogger is coming up with the ideas. I dealt with ways to come up with ideas in a recent post. In this chapter of Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World Michael Hyatt deals with another great idea, maintain a list of ideas. This is a combination of things like recording the ideas you don’t have time to deal with for future reference and then returning to that list when you’re stuck. He also gives 13 different ways to come up with a post when the well is running a little dry. They’re really excellent but you’ll have to read the book to get them.

Instead I want to give you my top five:

Prayer: I know I keep coming back to this but, glory where glory is due, most of my best stuff comes from prayer.

YouTube: As a creative and a visual learner, I am very triggered visually. I feel that videos are great because they touch two senses at once. Also because this is a creative blog, I love to share videos that show artists in action and give insights into technique.

Quotes: I love to share and expand upon a quote from a famous person, especially those related to the creative life and ministry. It shows the thought process of someone who has been successful in an area in which I would like to succeed.

Reviews: I love to share resources that have been helpful to me in the hopes that they might be helpful to you the reader.

Solving problems and changing attitudes: Facebook will often trigger something for me. When I see trends, especially negative ones, among my “friends” I like to try to offer solutions or at least another point of view. This one is especially helpful to me as a cartoonist. My reactions to some of these posts create excellent fodder for snappy one liners that translate into good cartoons. The caution with this one, is it’s easy to take it negative, but don’t. Be a part of the solution.

Those are my top five. What about you? What triggers your best work?

If you haven’t done it yet, check out Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World.