Your Message Matters

Are you one of the many people who long to ditch the cubicle and go to work for yourself, on your own terms? What's holding you back? Self-doubt, fear, technology challenges, the feeling that there are already too many other people doing what you want to do? It's time to face those things head-on and transform your passion into a thriving business. Why? Because your message matters. In this uplifting and practical book, blogger, speaker, and business coach Jonathan Milligan gives you a simple 4-step framework to rise above the noise and build a real business. He shows you how to believe, define, craft, and market your message so that you can fulfill your unique purpose in this life. With plenty of helpful assessment tools and proven strategies--including how to create 7 perpetual income streams in 12 months from just one message--this is your go-to guide for living your dreams and impacting the world for good.

Demonstrating how candidates and their campaigns affect the economic vote, this book provides a different way of understanding past elections - and predicting future ones. It offers a theory of campaigns that explains why electoral victory requires more than simply being the candidate favored by prevailing economic conditions.

Learn how to get your listener’s attention, keep her interest, and make your point—all in thirty seconds! Milo Frank, America’s foremost business communications consultant, shows you how to focus your objectives, utilize the “hook” technique, use the secrets of TV and advertising writers, tell terrific anecdotes that make your point, shine in meetings and question-and-answer sessions, and more! These proven techniques give you the edge that successful people share—the art of communicating quickly, precisely, and powerfully!

What makes young people care about themselves, others, their communities, and their futures? In Why Theatre Matters, Kathleen Gallagher uses the drama classroom as a window into the daily challenges of marginalized youth in Toronto, Boston, Taipei, and Lucknow. An ethnographic study which mixes quantitative and qualitative methodology in an international multi-site project, Why Theatre Matters ties together the issues of urban and arts education through the lens of student engagement. Gallagher’s research presents a framework for understanding student involvement at school in the context of students’ families and communities, as well as changing social, political, and economic realities around the world. Taking the reader into the classroom through the voices of the students themselves, Gallagher illustrates how creative expression through theatre can act as a rehearsal space for real, material struggles and for democratic participation. Why Theatre Matters is an invigorating challenge to the myths that surround urban youth and an impressive study of theatre’s transformative potential.

“Looking to make a career change? Pivot is a book you will turn to again and again.”—Daniel H. Pink, author of To Sell Is Human and Drive If you've got the perfect job or business, congratulations. But if you are even a little bit uncertain that your current gig is the right one, it is time to start thinking about your next move. In the new world of work, it's the only move that matters. What's next? is a question we all have to ask and answer more frequently in an economy where the average job tenure is only four years, roles change constantly even within that time, and smart, motivated people find themselves hitting professional plateaus. But how do you evaluate options and move forward without getting stuck? Jenny Blake's solution: it's about small steps, not big leaps—and the answer is already right under your feet. This book will teach you how to pivot from a base of your existing strengths. Pivoting is a crucial strategy for Silicon Valley tech companies and startups. Jenny Blake—a former training and career development specialist at Google who now runs her own company as a career and business consultant and speaker—shows how pivoting can also be a successful strategy for individuals looking to make changes in their work lives, whether within their role, organization or business, or setting their sights on bigger shifts. When you pivot, you double down on your existing strengths and interests to move in a new, related direction, instead of looking so far outside of yourself for answers that you skip over your hard-won expertise and experience. It empowers you to navigate changes with flexibility and strength—now and throughout your entire career. Much like the lean business principles that took Silicon Valley by storm, pivoting is the crucial skill you need to stay agile, whether or not you are actively looking for a new position. No matter your age, industry, or bank account balance, Jenny's advice will help you move forward strategically. Her Pivot Method will teach you how to: · Double down on existing strengths, interests, and experiences. Identify what is working best and where you want to end up, then start to bridge the gap between the two. · Scan for opportunities and identify new skills without falling prey to analysis paralysis or compare and despair. Explore options by leveraging the network and experience you already have. · Run small experiments to determine next steps. Do side projects to test ideas for your next move, taking the pressure off so you don't need to have the entire answer up front. · Take smart risks to launch with confidence in a new direction. Set benchmarks to decide when the time is right to go all-in on your new direction. Pivot also includes valuable insight for leaders who want to have more frequent career conversations with their teams to help talented people pivot within their roles and the broader organization. No matter your current position, one thing is clear: your career success and satisfaction depends on your ability to determine your next best move. If change is the only constant, let's get better at it.

It's a common nonprofit complaint, "When we're dealing with such important issues why aren't more people listening?" It may be true that everyone should care about your mission, but virtue alone wont catch the attention of your target audiences or prompt their action. Message Matters: Succeeding at the Crossroads of Mission and Market helps you do both. It shows you how to develop messages that resonate with your audiences desires so they take the action you want. Message Matters gives you a simple framework for making strategic decisions and guides you through five steps to produce a powerful, activating message. You'll learn how to: 1. Clarify the action you want, 2. Pinpoint who you want to take action, 3. Discover what your audience wants, hopes for, and desires, 4. Find the shared desires between your organization and your audience, 5. Convey your message effectively. The ideas and approach in Message Matters build on the authors years of work across the spectrum of professional communications and management and address the everyday challenges facing todays organizations. Examples and a case study bring key points to life Examples from more than a dozen associations, nonprofit organizations, foundations, and government agencies show how they have advanced their causes by using the framework in this book. A special chapter brings the theory and process to life in a case study showing how an organization used strategic messages to build a nationwide movement to change the paradigm for preventing child abuse. Whether you want people to fund you, participate in your programs, vote your way, quote you, collaborate with you, or volunteer for you, moving people to action is essential to achieving your mission. Compelling communications is the starting point. Use Message Matters and start connecting to people in a way that moves them to action. For more about the author, Rebecca K. Leet, visit: www.leetassociates.com.

More than a decluttering guide, this book “speaks to the heart and soul of the minimalist lifestyle . . . a must-have manual for serenity in the modern world!” (Anne Sage, author of Sage Living). For anyone looking to declutter, organize, and simplify, author Erin Boyle shares practical guidance and personal insights on small-space living and conscious consumption. At once pragmatic and philosophical, Simple Matters is an essential manual for anyone who wants to bring more purpose and sustainability to their daily lives. Boyle demonstrates how the benefits of “living small” are accessible to us all—whether we’re renting a tiny apartment or purchasing a three-story house. Filled with personal essays, projects, and helpful advice on how to be inventive and resourceful in a tight space, Simple Matters shows that living simply is about making do with less and ending up with more: more free time, more time with loved ones, more savings, and more things of beauty.

Your Story Matters presents a dynamic and spiritually formative process for understanding and redeeming the past in order to live well in the present and into the future. Leslie Leyland Fields has used and taught this practical and inspiring writing process for decades, helping people from all walks of life to access memory and sift through the truth of their stories. This is not just a book for writers. Each one of us has a story, and understanding God's work in our stories is a vital part of our faith. Through the spiritual practice of writing, we can "remember" his acts among us, "declare his glory among the nations," and pass on to others what we have witnessed of God in this life: the mysterious, the tragic, the miraculous, the ordinary. With a companion video curriculum from RightNow Media, this is a "why not" book as opposed to a "how to" book. Leslie asks each of us an important question: "Why not learn to tell your story, in the context of the grander story of God?"