Are You a Responsive Person?

Unresponsive people drive me crazy. I hate sending an email to someone and then waiting days to hear anything back. (Admittedly, I have sometimes been guilty of this myself.) This is particularly maddening when you don’t hear anything at all.

Tennis Ball Fying Over the Net Photo courtesy of ©iStockphoto.com/cscredon, Image #2862985

Photo courtesy of ©iStockphoto.com/cscredon

Recently I was interviewing candidates to be my virtual assistant. One of the questions I asked was this: “Do you consider yourself a responsive person?” For me, this is a must-have attribute. Naturally, everyone says, “yes.” However, you can tell a lot by how they answer the question.

The good people at TwelveSouth sent me a case similar to this for my MacBook Air. It is incredible. When I am out and about with it, this always turns people’s heads.

Now they have come out with this tasty case for the iPhone. Currently, I don’t use any case at all. However, I this is making me think twice. I love the contrast between the new world of Apple technology and the old world of book publishing. I know, big surprise.

An Interview with John Maxwell [Video]

Several weeks ago, I had the privilege of hosting the Chick-fil-A Leadercast Backstage program. I interviewed several notable authors as they came off the stage, including Seth Godin, Sir Ken Robinson, Dan Cathy, Suzy Welch, Frans Johansson, and John Maxwell. I am continuing to share these on a weekly basis.

In this interview, I talk to John Maxwell, New York Times bestselling author and uber-popular leadership speaker. I first met John in 1998, when I came to Thomas Nelson as the Senior Vice President of Marketing for the Nelson Books division. John’s breakout book, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, was one of my first projects. He has since become a good friend and mentor.

Buffer is a smarter way to Twitter, without over whelming your followers

BufferApp.com
July 25, 2011

This is one of those ideas that is so simple and so elegant, you slap yourself on the forehead and say, “Of course!” You add tweets to your Buffer whenever you want. It then spreads them out during the day, so it doesn’t overwhelm your followers. (I’ve been guilty of this!) You set the times you want to tweet.

The Chrome extension makes it drop-dead easy. The interface is simple and beautiful. You can even use your bit.ly account with a custom URL shortener (like I do with mhyatt.us). I upgraded to the Pro version, which allows 50 tweets in the buffer at one time.

Are You Tired of Feeling Overwhelmed?

Over the last few months, people have asked how I am doing since leaving my CEO post at Thomas Nelson. For the most part, great. I am really enjoying this new phase of my life.

A Frustrated, Over-worked Manager - Photo courtesy of ©iStockphoto.com/OtmarW, Image #15900242

Photo courtesy of ©iStockphoto.com/OtmarW

But last week, I was feeling overwhelmed. It seemed that I was spending all day, every day mired in administrative detail—responding to emails, making travel plans, and filling out expense reports. Ugh.

In this short video clip, Bill Hybels challenges leaders to read leadership books and to spend time with other leaders. Certainly in my experience, both are key to growing your leadership. What are you reading? Who are you meeting with? Maybe we should set some goals in these two areas this next month.

I will be speaking at the first ever Evernote Trunk Conference. (Did I mention I am an Evernote fan?) I will be speaking along with Tim Ferriss, Guy Kawasaki, and Brett Kelly. I hope you can come!

Date: August 18, 2011
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Event: Evernote Trunk Conference
Topic: How I Use Evernote for Blogging and Public Speaking
Sponsor: Evernote Corporation
Venue: Terra SF
Location: San Francisco CA
Public: Public
Registration: Click here to register.
More Info: Click here for more information.

Click here for more information about having me speak at your event.

3 Non-Physical Benefits to Running

We all know the physical benefits to running. I won’t waste your time by repeating them here. However, people who don’t run, often miss the non-physical benefits. To me, these are even more valuable than the physical ones.

Close-up of a Woman’s Running Shoe - Photo courtesy of ©iStockphoto.com/asiseeit, Image #12014469

Photo courtesy of ©iStockphoto.com/asiseeit

This week, I have been running outdoors. I have chosen to run in the heat of the day—usually when the temperatures are 90° or more. I know, I’m crazy. But I am loving it.