January, 2015 Archive

The 12 Best Songs You’ve Never Heard

January 16, 2015• Life

sharing-music

Music is one of my first loves, and even though I’m not performing or writing music at the moment, I am still terribly addicted to incessantly searching for new, amazing songs.

Over the holiday break, I was sharing great tunes back and forth with a good friend in Michigan, and it occurred to me just how much phenomenal music is out there — and how difficult it can be to find it if we’re not actively sharing with each other!

So, to that end, I thought I’d share 12 of my current favorites with you. I hope you enjoy!

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1) Where Rainbows Never Die by The Steeldrivers

I’m pretty sure this contains the best vocal track I heard in all of 2014, and it’s also one of my favorite songs from the last few years, period. Just… beautiful. The bridge = goosebumps.

2) Violin by Amos Lee

For me, this Amos Lee at his best. Simple structure, great groove, awesome melody. Love it.

3) My Heart’s A Cannonball by Lelia Broussard

One of the most enjoyable songs I’ve heard in the last couple years. Turn it up, and maybe even dance a little.

4) Apocalypse Lullaby by The Wailin’ Jennys

The Wailin’ Jennys have become one of my favorite groups over the last year or so. This is the song you want with you at the end of the world. Drink it up… and then go listen to everything else they’ve ever recorded (seriously).

5) Hammond Song by The Roches

So unique. I’m captivated by this one; it transports me… where, I’m not exactly sure, but I keep going back, so I must like it there…!

6) You And I by Paper Route

Why this song isn’t a hit on mainstream radio, I have no idea. Hooky as all hell… I keep playing it over and over and over and I just don’t get sick of it.

7) I Am Mountain by Gungor

This one makes me think all kinds of crazy, awesome metaphysical thoughts. (I don’t do that enough these days.) Everything I love about the power of music is here.

8) Sing Along by Virginia Coalition

If you like solid folk/acoustic-y pop, this whole album is phenomenal. There are very few albums that I can put on shuffle and enjoy every single track; this is one of them.

9) Don’t Ask Me Why by Great Caesar

I had the great fortune to share a stage with this amazing band during a CreativWeek showcase in Vegas. I am not easily impressed when it comes to live music, but these guys blew me away. Do yourself a favor and watch the music video, too — it gives the song a whole other dimension.

10) Slipping Away by Switchfoot

Switchfoot had a couple of mainstream hits a few years ago which you might remember, but I’m not sure most people have heard much from them since then…? In any case, I love this track from their latest album.

11) The Way by Matchbox Twenty

Yes, it’s that Matchbox Twenty. But this song is like nothing you’ve ever heard from them, because it’s not written or sung by Rob Thomas, but co-written and sung by Kyle Cook. Fantastic.

12) Beth/Rest by Bon Iver

Haunting in all the right ways. There are quite a few good tracks on this album, but I think this is my favorite.

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2014: Year In Review

January 9, 2015• Life

My goals for 2014, and a reflection on each:

1) Increase overall revenue 50% over 2013

Made it! In 2014 my business revenue increased 64%.

2) Increase speaking revenue percentage from 5% to 15% of overall revenue

I didn’t make this goal—it only bumped from 5% to 8%. Though I will say (as I also mentioned last year), a big increase in consulting revenue impacts this pretty dramatically; meaning, even though the percentage increase isn’t large, the speaking revenue itself actually doubled from 2013. I feel pretty good about this, AND I will be putting a lot more energy behind building this side of my business over the next couple years. I find speaking to be quite enjoyable!

3) Clarify and integrate the consulting side of my business brand

I made huge strides on this goal in 2014—in fact, I’d say all the work I did here is what took the requisite energy away from meeting other goals where I missed the mark.

In a nutshell, I’ve decided to merge my solo consulting practice with another small consulting group owned by a good friend of mine, consolidating all my consulting work under the new brand we’ll be launching together. I’m going to write a whole post about this soon…!

4) Post one new blog entry every week (some of these will probably be links to new articles of mine in other publications)

I definitely failed here. I finished the year with 23 posts — which may not sound terrible, until you realize this means I made it only 44% of the way to my goal. Hardly a passing grade!

To celebrate my spectacular failure, here are my 4 favorite posts of 2014! ;-)

5) Record and release audiobook version of Igniting the Invisible Tribe

Not even close. Maybe crossed my mind once. Still something I’d love to get done, though!

6) Sell 1000 books (i.e. roughly double 2013 sales)

Looks like I moved about 750 print copies and another 50 digital in 2014. Not too far off!

7) Grow the Work Revolution movement via (at least) one large event, through doubling our tribe size, and by doubling our Revolutionary interview database

It’s a little hard to measure this one, as I (stupidly) forgot to note what the tribe size was when I wrote the goal. (So I don’t repeat that mistake, here’s our current numbers: 540 Mailchimp / 450 Twitter / 300 Facebook.) Overall, I’d say we “kinda sorta” achieved the goal. While we didn’t have an official Work Revolution event, we did co-host a pretty cool partnership event with a large HR group in California, which will likely inform a new series we’ll be sponsoring in the future. We published 13 new Feature Interviews in 2014, which is more than 1x/month, but we should have published 2x that many to meet our goal of doubling the database. I’m pretty sure our social media tribe at least doubled.

Accomplishments & fun things from 2014:

  • Spent 6 days at Disneyland — 2 of those days were with my parents, my sister and nephew, and of course my own little family. That trip in particular provided some pretty special memories!
  • Traveled to San Diego (7x), San Francisco/Sonoma (5x), Kansas City (4x), Seattle (4x), Denver (2x), Coeur d’Alene (2x), Detroit (2x), Tulsa, Monterrey, Ann Arbor, Omaha, Atlanta, Las Vegas, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for a deliciously unplugged vacation
  • Helped start the Conscious Capitalism LA chapter
  • Published my first piece in The Huffington Post
  • Attended the Conscious Capitalism Conference in San Diego
  • Attended the Positive Business Conference
  • Visited the Downtown Project — and left Vegas incredibly inspired (which is not the feeling I expect to have when leaving Vegas)
  • Piloted the Future Of Work: Unplugged idea in Orange County
  • Got summer vacations with both my family and my wife’s family
  • Had 3 first birthday parties for my (then) 1-year-old… because one party just isn’t enough when your family is spread across 3 states!
  • Saw John Williams at the Hollywood Bowl
  • Attended a private Into The Woods screening on the Disney Studio Lot (which I’ve been wanting to visit)

2015-ahead

Goals For 2015:

  1. Maintain my take-home income from 2014
  2. Sell 1500 books (doubling 2014)
  3. Have at least one baby-free date with my wife every month (harder than it sounds when there’s no family nearby!)
  4. Develop consulting methodology and clear product lines for the new brand
  5. Increase speaking revenues 4x over 2014
  6. Read at least 2 nonfiction and 2 fiction books (seems like such a sad goal, but I think it’s realistic for what’s on my plate this year)
  7. Blog 1x/month here and 1x/month on the new company website
  8. Host Work Revolution Summit 2 and double the tribe size
  9. Create the outline for Book 2 — follow-up to Igniting the Invisible Tribe

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