Big Is The New Small

Business or Location:

• On The Border:   Buckhead  www.ontheborder.com

The Receipt: Check #0099

• $5.39    Brownie Sundae          
• $9.79    Carne Asada Taco    
• $15.18  Subtotal
• $1.21    Sales Tax
• $5.00   Tip
• $21.39  TOTAL

 The Experience: 

• My wife and I split the Carne Asada Tacos and we substituted one of the Carne Asada tacos for a Buffalo Chicken Taco.  We also had some of the hotter salsa made up.  “Shawn” our server said “This is what the people in the kitchen make up and eat themselves.”  It was green and made w/ avocados (it was excellent).  We always try to split meals and sometimes even order off of the kids menu.  The server “Shawn” was excellent, he kept my water and chips full at all times and he had great interpersonal skills.  He even got some extra brownie points; keep reading in Special Notes.  We enjoyed eating on the patio and the overall experience and it was definitely worth the $21.39

Special Notes:

• As we were eating we overheard two ladies at the table behind us talking about the Bible and one lady was trying to convince the other lady how the book of Genisis couldn’t be true because of the dinosaurs, some Oprah stuff and yada, yada, yada.  Our Server “Shawn” engaged in the conversation and just flat broke them off with some teaching and preaching that you wouldn’t believe.  If you are ever in Atlanta or live in Atlanta; go to the Buckhead On The Border and ask for “Shawn.”  He told us that he attends World Changers Church with Pastor Creflo Dollar.

The Question:

• Do you generally split your meal when you go out to restaurants?
• Do you engage in uninvited conversations; with topics like the one “Shawn” engaged in? Thoughts?

There is something about spending your money and the experience/interactions that you have during each and every transaction.  Receipts are often indicators or reminders of those experiences; or at least they are a reminder of how much you are spending.  This week I will be posting some receipts; since I am in ATL w/out a fax and scanner I will just give you a virtual receipt.

Business or Location:

• Eminence Nails and Spa:   3495 Buckhead Loop N.E.  Suite 230; Atlanta, GA 30326; 404.846-1555 www.enailsspa.com

The Receipt: (Grand Opening Sale)

• $26.00 Spa Pedicure w/ French Manicure (Wife)
• $21.00 Spa Pedicure (Me)
• $47.00 Total

 The Experience: 

• My wife and I both got Spa Pedicures and massage chair massages.  The place was new, extremely nice and customer service was great.  We also got some kinda bamboo massages, with some pressure-point foot thing  (highly recommended).  We both enjoyed the overall experience and it was definitely worth the $47.00

Special Notes:

• Apparently some of the Atlanta Braves, Falcons and Hawks go to this place; and the lady who did my feet did Sean “P-Diddy” Combs not long ago.  My wife and I caught the train to attend Buckhead Church and walked across the street from the church to find this place.  We did get to hang with Mr. Ragamuffin Soul himself Carlos Whitaker; he gave us the tour of their “Big Time” Buckhead facility.   

The Question:

• Fellas do you get pedicures/manicures and ladies do you want your guys to get pedicures/manicures?  Comments, thoughts; go ahead, call me metrosexual!

RANDOM BULLETS: Friday Drive-by (21) 

LifeChurch.tv Northwest Oklahoma City Campus: “N-dub”

• Week Three of One Prayer “Ed Young” is Speaking!

• Over 200 People from the “N-dub” are going on the “One Prayer” Oak Grove micro-mission.

• Looking for a new LifeKids Director; my current LifeKids Pastor is going to be my Campus Admin.  If you are interested, you can check out the Job Description here.

My Life:

• Campus Pastor Forum is tonight and tomm. 

• We are going to Atlanta Tomorrow; I’m looking forward to the time off. 

• My boys basketball season starts this coming week.

Featured Bloggers & Frequent Commenters: Check out their sites!

• Dusty: The Randomness of Dusty Takle
• Jonathan: The Little Pastor
• Roger: Roll Mental Camera
• Bert: Men On Purpose
• Mike: Indescript

 Blog Ramblings:

• BigIsTheNewSmall will have it’s 1st. Birthday June 30th.  (LinkLuv and comments on Birthday will be appreciated)
• If you have linked BigIsTheNewSmall, let me know so that I can show you some LinkLuv.  Be sure you subscribe to my blog by clicking the subscribe button at the top right or click here.
• Follow me on Twitter: click here
• Facebook (Let’s be friends… click here)

Quotes:

You can’t get where you need to be until you recognize where you are.  Me

Get Your Drive-by On!

If you have any random thoughts or comments, please share!

Question:

Do you or your church participate in small groups?  Do you feel that small groups are helpful, necessary, effective… Why or Why Not?

Have a great weekend, I’ll be blogging from the ATL next week! 

Okay my wife and I are leaving this Saturday and going to Atlanta for about a week get-a-way.  We are going w/ another couple, who are good friends of both of ours and the wife is actually on staff at the LifeChurch.tv Tulsa Campus.  We will be staying in downtown Atlanta.  I might go check out this guy at Buckhead while I am in town. 

I would like to get your input on some must do’s for entertainment, sight-seeing and dining in Atlanta.  Please share!

• 5:00 Wake-up, Read, God Time, Thinking
• 6:30-8:00 Breakfast Meeting w/ LifeChurch.tv OKC Metro Campus Pastors and Regional Campus Pastor
• 8:00-8:15 Transition drive home
• 8:15-9:00 E-mails and minor work details
• 9:00-10:00 Message Preparation for Switch (Student Ministry Message I’m speaking tonight)
• 10:00-10:30 Transition drive to Campus
• 10:30-11:00 Talk through message again w/ my youth pastors
• 11:00-11:30 Meeting w/ team member
• 11:30-11:45 Transition to lunch appt.
• 11:45-1:00 Lunch Meeting
• 1:00-2:00 Message Preparation
• 2:00-3:00 Hangin’ w/ my team
• 3:00-3:45 Strategy time and preparation for me being off this weekend
• 3:45-4:00 Transition to accountability meeting at Starbuck’s
• 4:00-5:15 Accountability Meeting
• 5:15-5:35 Transition to meet my wife and boys at Karate
• 5:35-6:35 Hang w/ wife while watching boys do their Karate
• 6:35-6:55 Transition back to campus to Speak at Switch (Student Ministry)
• 6:55-7:20 Hangin’ w/ students and preparing to speak
• 7:20-7:45 Speak Message “Rebellion and Grace”
• 7:45-8:00 Hang w/ students
• 8:00-8:30 Transition to Starbucks or dinner to meet this lady’s husband who is in town for the Campus Pastor Forum.  The Forum features 15 different campus pastors, 1 representative from 15 different multi-site churches around the country, hosted by this group.
• 8:30-9:30  Chat w/ Chris over dinner
• 9:30-9:45 Go Home
• 9:45-10:30 Hang w/ family
• 10:30-12:15ish (Or until they fall asleep) Movie time w/ boys (Wife has to get some cases closed so we can go out of town to the ATL)
• 12:15ish to 12:45 Late night reading, ramblings and writing
• Bed Time and do some version of this all over again… Tomm. evening LaKendria and I are hosting a dinner event at our house; with all of our LifeKids Experience Captain volunteers and their spouses.

What does your day look like or at least what does part of your day look like!

My two son’s and I had stopped by the local 7-Eleven to get a couple of Big Gulps after Karate; they are on sale for .59 cents.  As they were going to get their drinks, I went ahead and stopped by the counter to pay for the drinks.  My oldest son Wesley(9) saw me pay for them; however Jayden(5) didn’t see me pay because he was still getting his drink; probably making a suicide (mixing flavors) or something.  Here goes the conversation before leaving the store:

• Wesley: This is good!
• Jayden: You can’t drink that yet
• Wesley: Yes I can
• Jayden: No you can’t; daddy has to pay for it
• Wesley: Daddy has already paid for it
• Jayden: No he didn’t, what are you talking about
• Wesley: You know like Jesus has already paid for our sins; Duh!
• Jayden: Oh

Lessons Learned From Kids! 

Do you have kids? If so, how many and how old?  What lessons are they teaching you? 

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus! 

I will just be upfront and let you  know that I think tiger Woods is one of the most amazing athletes of all times and that we need to appreciate the years that we get to watch him do his magic.  I have always admired the mental toughness and resilience that it takes to line up against the best golfers in the world and time after time he is in the hunt or wins the tournament. 

Nike just released a new commercial entitled “Never” that has a recorded voice of Tiger’s late father Earl Woods and this commercial is a 60 second life lesson.  Watch the video now (Only 60 seconds) and read on:

Earl would say to his son “You will never meet a person as mentally tough as you in your entire life.’ and He hasn’t and he never will.”  After watching Tiger over and over and especially during his weekend’s tournament: with Tiger just obliterating the competition with his mental toughness, I totally agree with Earl.  Tiger just came back from knee surgery, sometimes using his clubs a cane, no excuses, playing through the pain, “Eye of the Tiger” and getting it done.  It was some of the best golf to watch ever and I’m not a golfer.

At LifeChurch.tv we conduct a pre-hiring test called the CDAT; which stands for “Can-Do” Attitude Test.  This test measures attitude, resilience, toughness… and in my opinion is one of the single most accurate tests in determining the success of an employee in a fast-paced organization that demands optimism and excellence.

I will share two thoughts and then please share your thoughts on Tiger, The Nike Ad “Never” or Mental Toughness.

• Mental Toughness Matters More Than You think
• Attitude Reflects Leader

I thought I would share some ways to increase your blog traffic, these are a combination of things that I have read and things that I have done.  Here you go:

1. Be Original and Consistent- Don’t try to be another blogger, be yourself.  Share information that is unique, personal, be an expert on a subject, be funny, be random, be real, find your niche and make your posts stand out.  Be consistent with your posts, you don’t have to post every day, just consistently post or readers will not come back.  There are more readers during the week than weekends.
2. Blogroll- Add other good blogs to your blogroll, rotate your blogroll, and encourage your friends to add you to theirs. Write challenging/interesting content that encourages your readers to provide links to your blog.
3. Guest Blog- Be a guest blogger for friends and other blogs in the blogsphere.  Make sure that your content is good, challenging or hard-hitting.  Allow other bloggers to be featured guest bloggers on your site.  Share and link interesting blog posts to yours.
4. Take a Stand- Make sure that some of your posts clearly take a stand on a topic or issue.  Readers will return to a site that has strong, unique and relative opinions.
5. Submit to Search Engines- Submit your site to search engines, submit it to as many as you can, understanding that Google is the “Grand Daddy.”  There are a number of manual ways to submit your site, as well as paid services.  A couple of sites to consider are AdMe    SubmitExpress    TrafficZap   Google AdWords   BuildTraffic   There are many other sites and services to consider.
6. Use Media- Use images, links to images, YouTube videos and graphics.
7. Allow Comments- Allow readers to comment and respond to all comments.  Be prepared to articulately respond to adversarial comments and don’t take it personal.  Comment on blogs that you read.
8. Add Link Tools & Subscribing Options- Allow readers the opportunity to subscribe via Rss or e-mail. Subscribe to BigIsTheNewSmall by clicking here or the subscribe button in the top right corner. Consider using some or all of the following, one in addition to using Twitter.  Here are some free services, links, communities and tools to consider: Technorati    StubleUpon    DiggThis    Delicious   BlogExplosion   Blogs4God    BlogRush   FriendFeed
9. Evaluate- Ask an educated Digerati and fellow bloggers to evaluate your site and recommend necessary changes. Tweak your template; if someone is visiting for the first time will they like what they see?
10. Blog About Interesting Topics-  Technology, I-Phone 3G, Apple/MAC, Google, Religion, Current Issues, “Don’t Taze Me Bro,” Breaking News, Sports, Stupid Stuff, Church Trends and How To Increase Blog Traffic.  According to Anne Jackson write about Boobies, Sex and Jesus.  Titles are important, make sure your titles grab your readers attention. 
11. Bonus: Don’t give up!  You keep writing good content, use spellcheck and people will start reading!

What are some things that you have done to increase your blog traffic?  Share your thoughts! 

For those of you who don’t have a blog, how do you come across the blogs that you read?

Here are some random things that you might not know about me “Randomly Me” (1):

1. I met my wife over 12 years ago during her first week of college (She’s Gorgeous)
2. I accepted my calling to vocational ministry about 4 years after I felt called
3. I used to be a registered lobbyist and political consultant
4. I don’t eat pork
5. I can’t swim
6. I used to be a warden in both the Adult and Juvenile Correctional System
7. I have a Masters Degree in Criminal Justice Management and Administration
8. Chicken fried steak is one of my favorite dishes (The good kind w/ white gravy!)
9. I am an OU Sooners Fan
10. I listen to Sports Radio when I’m driving (WWLS The Sports Animal)

Now that’s “Randomly Me.”  What’s “Randomly You?” Please Share!

BigIsTheNewSmall

If you are wondering where the title for this blog post came from; obviously there has to be a hidden agenda…  that agenda: It will definitely increase blog traffic!  If you want to know about blog titles you can check out my friend Terry Storch’s blog; Terry actually wrote book on blogging.   Terry has several posts where he talks about blog titles; you can check them out here.

I would actually like to here from all you who read this blog; even those of you who read through rss readers.  Here is the question and yes it relates to the title:

What are some good books that you are reading or have recently read?   It doesn’t matter if they are leadership, self-help, ministry…  just share some good reads, so we don’t have to go to Barnes & Nobles or Borders wandering/looking around for a good book.  I will share a bunch of books that I have read this year, recently read or am currently reading; check the comments later.