Welcome back. I missed you this week. The excitement is building, and it’s getting real. I am WEEK MINDED and I try to BE WEEK MINDED daily.
We stood up a temporary website at www.BranchWaterPress.com. That is where this blog resides, but it is also the beginning work on the marketing and branding of “Be Week Minded.” We endeavor to have a “BUY NOW” button when we have a presale or product launch that is settled. As with most things, there is much to learn about the website structure and the actual sale process of the book. With my personal mantra of “Never Stop Learning” as featured on my rubber bracelet I wear every day, this feels good and doesn’t feel like a burden at all.
This week, the creative Rockstars at Epiphany, Stephanie and Ginny, and I did a deep dive on the book cover art. We explored the many themes of music, connection, and life lessons as compared to a drawing board or a classroom chalkboard. The stories will ultimately be used as business learnings, and that aligns with my ideas to do workshops with groups of employees on personal and departmental branding, or with church groups and non-profits on purpose and ownership of their cause. We looked at mountain summits — appreciating the climb. Then we kept seeing the trumpet (cornet) creeping back into the picture as a metaphor for so many of the stories – THE THING that allowed my dad to attend college at all.
It wasn’t until after the book draft was finished that we discovered the recurrence of the red threads in my life and the lives of others featured in this book. Red threads are at the intersection of what we are good at and we love. My friend Dick Lynn’s love for sports created pathways to relationships that enhanced his career. My volunteer work for the Republican National Convention in 1992, my music career, and my zeal for public speaking, each had a role in the relationships that developed and some significant course corrections or enhancements to my careers. And it’s very strange how they emerge like a treasure chest at the bottom of a receding lakeshore with a significance often understood only as we look backward (Søren Kierkegaard). Each of these avocations or hobbies put us in a slightly different orbit in society. Some introduce us to a new network of like-minded and differently minded people and enhance our understanding of ourselves and our work. As Mark Twain is often quoted, “The two most important days in our lives are the day we are born and the day we find out why.” This bit of writing was a self-discovery of my personal why.
As Bob Sullivan captures in Who, Not How, legacy doesn’t live in what you created or how you created it. That’s just the bookmark. Legacy lives in who you helped and who helped you. It lives in front porch coffees, long walks, and deep conversations. It grows through listening, the kind of listening that invites someone to lean in, to trust, and to feel valued. That is the secret sauce of building lasting relationships. They will remember how you made them feel – oh, and they will remember the learnings – why they feel that way. It sticks like Saint Louis barbeque sauce on a white shirt.
The mind is interesting. As a struggling engineering student who had to out-work the smart people in the classes, I found I had to rewrite my notes and rework the problems as Nick Saban says, “not until I got it right, but until I couldn’t get it wrong!” Ed Mylett repeats his goals daily, believing that repetition is the key to keeping ideas in front of us and relevant. Each week I learn more about myself as I work with my publishing mentor, Stephanie Huffman, at Epiphany Creative Services. That is the greatest gift of all!