Celebrating with Bishop T.D. Jakes at The Potter's House's 16th church anniversary picnic at Circle R Ranch 6.30.12
First, let’s use the Babylon Business Dictionary’s definition of the word “innovator.” “n. one who innovates, one who makes changes, one who introduces new methods or procedures” Innovative megapastor, entrepreneur and author Bishop T.D. Jakes is preaching memorable sermons that can be translated into strategic lessons for innovators. The July 1, 2012 sermon “Commitment” coincided with the 16th anniversary of The Potter’s House’s founding. Jakes issued a call to service for members in the 30,000-plus megachurch. The July 15, 2012 sermon “Is There Not a Cause?” provided insight into the damaging effects of narcissism. Using that backdrop, here are 12 lessons for innovators that I gleaned from listening to Bishop Jakes, whose comments are in quotation marks: 1. Step out on faith – “You will get a great return because there’s been a great investment.” 2. Embrace sacrifice; make it work for you – “Be sacrificial of your time [and] resources.” 3. Put everything into achieving your dreams – “People won’t believe in your dream unless you do.” 4. Find something beyond you to contribute to –“Do you believe in anything other than you?” 5. Give your way through –“I put my whole check into my first church. I didn’t have but seven members.” 6. Keep your promises and commitments—“What do people get when they get you?” 7. Pay the price to be great—“Greatness costs what it costs.” 8. Share in the responsibility AND the benefits –“You want the benefits but you don’t want the responsibility.” 9. Expect no reward – “Stop expecting to be rewarded for [doing] what you’re supposed to do.” 10. Demonstrate that you value relationships by reciprocating -“Any relationship that has no reciprocity will die.” 11. Use social media intelligently – “Say something that makes me want to follow you [on Twitter].” 12. It’s not about you – “Marriage is about sacrifice.” Also of interest: 4 insights gleaned from the friendship of Bishop T.D. Jakes and Rev. Joel Osteen SharePoint 2010 – Level 1 In an effort to continually expand my technological education, I am pursuing a Project Management certification. Recently, I completed a SharePoint 2010 – Level 1 class and plan on taking SharePoint Level 2. And speaking of SharePoint, I was especially interested to see this headline: From PCWorld: NewsGator to Integrate Its SharePoint Add-on With Yammer My Summer Reading/Listening List Tony Award nominee and funnyman David Alan Grier’s “Barack Like Me: The Chocolate-Covered Truth” audiobook caught my attention during a recent library visit. It’s a frank and edgy breakdown on President Obama’s election to going ballistic after being voted off of “Dancing With the Stars.” Flickr photo by Alipyon  PR measurement guru K.D. Paine spoke to the May 31, 2012 Joint Communicator’s Luncheon at Thanksgiving Tower (Tower Club), where I bought her book " Measure What Matters." It’s an excellent resource for anyone engaged in marketing, social media and PR. Photo from Ms. Paine's Twitter profile  I discovered strength strategist, author and researcher Marcus Buckingham on the “Oprah” show and his audiobook “The One Thing You Need to Know About Great Managing, Great Leading, and Sustained Individual Success” is a keeper. His research is sound and this is an excellent tool for innovators. Photo from Mr. Buckingham's Twitter profile View my other book-related blog posts
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 Screen capture from NewsEngin's website The Dallas Morning News uses software from a company founded by former journalists to report scores online in "real time" for area high school football teams, resulting in “millions of page views,” according to a newspaper online editor. The Morning News is the “only newspaper in America with real-time scoring,” said Kyle Whitfield, SportsDayHS's interactive community editor. He said the newspaper uses software from NewsEngin[Inc.], “a third party vendor in St. Louis” coupled with a squadron of freelancers that cover 200 Dallas-Fort Worth-area high schools. NewsEngin TeamPlayer “NewsEngin TeamPlayer is a browser-based application that couples the passion of high-school sports with intuitive technology to give news organizations a powerful backbone for their community Web sites and print publications. TeamPlayer can collect, organize and automatically reverse-publish all of a region’s high school sports scores and statistics,” according to NewsEngin's website. NewsEngin recently announced it has added "70 publications to the roster of news organizations that rely on its Ampere suite of cloud-based content production services." High School Football Sells SportsDayHS’s freelancers cover football games from August through December including reporting statistics and writing brief stories. The statistics go into a database and show up on SportsDayHS’s website. Whitfield said the information can be accessed on smartphones also. With so many eyeballs piercing the website and smartphones to get this unique content, high school is “easiest to sell and most profitable,” according to Whitfield, adding, advertisers want a local audience. Want a PT Job? In fact, the newspaper's sports department will host training sessions this summer for freelancers covering the upcoming season. Are you interested in earning some extra cash and having fun at the same time? According to an email Whitfield sent me, this is a part-time job that pays. College students and others who have experience covering high school football and already live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area should apply, especially if you can write well on deadline and have solid computer skills. To apply, send your resume and clips to SportsDayHS online editor Kyle Whitfield- kwhitfield@dallasnews.com.  Richland College students and me with Photo editor Michael Hamtil (kneeling) at "The Dallas Morning News" 2.23.12, courtesy of "The Dallas Morning News" Richland College Students Tour Newspaper Whitfield, a LSU graduate, told some of my Richland College students about his job and how he got it during a Feb. 23, 2012 tour of the Morning News. He talked about editing his college newspaper, studying late into the night and having a strong work ethic. Richland students observed a morning news meeting and also met Photo editor Michael Hamtil (in picture above) who showed us the photo selection process. Deputy Managing Editor/Sports Bob Yates was our gracious tour guide. He gave us a detailed overview of the newspaper's operation and sections. Did you know the Morning News has won nine Pulitzer Prizes? (I was in the building the day David Leeson won his Pulitzer and it was a wonderful experience watching his elation.) Some of my students want to pursue careers in journalism, others are interested in public relations. Yates asked whether they wanted to be reporters or writers? After listening to their answers Yates said, “Be a great reporter, editors can help you [write well].” I recently joined Richland's adjunct faculty and I'm having a good time teaching news writing and, of course, weaving in New Media when it works. Sidebars and Pluses March is Women's History Month and I'm rereading excerpts of "With Ossie & Ruby: In This Life Together," a dual-memoir by Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis. Their rich journey in American theater continues to inspire. ### I recently learned that abolitionist Frederick Douglass was among several pioneering black newspaper editors. According to William S. McFeely, author of Frederick Douglass, "At least four other newspapers edited by African Americans were in existence when Douglass announced that the North Star would be published." Douglass announced his intention to publish North Star in a letter dated Oct. 28, 1847 to abolitionist and Quaker Amy Post, according to the book. ### From the Newseum's website: 'Up From Slavery: The Black Press'  At a Meetup on 12.21.11 hosted by Dallas-based LevelTen Interactive, Tom McCracken gave an excellent presentation on results oriented Web content strategy.
Here are 4 ideas I found especially intriguing: 1. Hire journalists. He said journalists are his favorite people because we can “blend the art of storytelling (literature) with the science of reporting (journalism).” Amen brother. I could not have said it better. Beyond that nice pat on the back, the craft of gathering information through interviews and other sources, preparing it and sharing it with targeted digital audiences is essentially New Media. 2. Focus on your target audiences. This is standard practice. McCracken divided this category based on the primary audience, secondary audience and tertiary audience. I was interested in his advice to set objectives for your content, such as "getting revenue or generating excitement." My goals for this blog are to generate sales, especially for my consulting services, and to educate my audiences. 3. Use visuals. Video and photos generate more interest, McCracken indicated. Check out this Yahoo! eye-tracking study about the way people browse webpages: http://goo.gl/pxzO. It will be helpful in developing your content. 4. Promote your content. McCracken touched briefly on search engine optimization and social media for promotional purposes. He said he planned to delve deeper at the next Meetup. Some practices I found beneficial are: sharing content on Twitter and other social sites, paying attention to the uniqueness of each platform and speaking the lingo accordingly. Another tactic is to use highly searched keywords. More Resources The Zen of Social Media Marketing by Shama Hyder Kabani I heard Shama speak at a Social Media Club of Dallas event on 4.22.10. I bought and quickly devoured The Zen. It's a must-have because it's practical and filled with effective case studies. World Wide Rave: Creating Triggers That Get Millions of People to Spread Your Ideas and Share Your Stories by David Meerman Scott This summer my brother turned me on to this book and it's a gold mine because David's ideas are fun, first of all, and unique. He, too, says "hire a journalist." Yay! |
 About the Author:Regina L. Burns, M.A., Project+, is an award-winning multimedia editor and journalist, specializing in Black history and African American stories at Harvest Reapers Communications. Her work has been published in Texas Highways magazine, WFAA-TV, The Dallas Morning News, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram as well as The Commercial Appeal, the Tri-State Defender and The Flyer, among others. Categories
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