Author Archives: Thelma Bowlen

About Thelma Bowlen

I'm a former radio morning show host turned communications architect at Every Nation Ministries. When I'm not at a day job, I've been a voiceover since 1989.

Now Reading: 99U’s Manage Your Day-to-Day

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I get emails from 99U the “education” arm of Bēhance so when an offer to pre-order their new book landed in my inbox on May 10, I pounced and waited patiently for May 21. I mean, who could not resist a title like “Manage Your Day-to-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus, and Sharpen Your Creative Mind”? I couldn’t. If there’s one thing that’s been bugging me lately, it’s the feeling that my schedule and priorities are running me and not the other way around. Cue hair pulling and gnashing of teeth.

At midnight this morning, my email announced that my book was ready to be downloaded. I sighed and squealed.

Yay!

(I was so inspired I opened up GoodReads and immediately added it to my Currently-Reading shelf. And promptly got distracted and added short reviews to the last three books I read: Henry Cloud’s “Integrity” and “Boundaries,” and Patrick Lencioni’s “Death By Meeting.” Of course, I had to add “The Advantage” to my Currently-Reading shelf, too, because we’re doing a book duel at the office where two teams each take on a book and share their insights every week in a big group discussion.)

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Be the Best at What Matters Most

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I saw a post on the Social Media Group I’m part of on Facebook inviting people to check out an event at E|SPACES in Cool Springs. Since it was at 7:30am, which is before work, I figured I’d check it out.

What I thought would be a social networking event turned out to be an author talk from Joe Calloway on his book, “Be the Best at What Matters Most: The Only Strategy You will Ever Need.” He was joined by Nashville company bites of knowledge’s, Julie May and Gary Hornbuckle. Bites of Knowledge is the case study featured in the book.

E|SPACES at Cool Springs

View from the back of the packed E|SPACES author talk with Joe Calloway featuring Julie May and Gary Hornbuckle of bites of knowledge

Here are the takeaways I took home, I mean, to work:

  • Check-in with clients and team, contact clients proactively, communicate for accountability, repeat
  • Good connecting includes frequent: asset managing, issue managing, project managing
  • Understand what the business or need is first before trying to resolve issues
  • Reward performance and incentivize behavior of employees
  • Clarity and accountability go hand in hand
  • Value reliability first before “singing on the plane like Southwest”

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Project Management Convo #1023

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Boss: “We’re to go to the hurting, empty streets.” — How can streets hurt, and, if they’re empty, why would we go there? Needs a little rewrite…

Me: Yes, streets can hurt… because they’re empty and want to be walked on! Did you not take a poetry class in college?!

Kyera Got Married

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Coming down from a roller coaster of a weekend. I gave my daughter away at her wedding on Saturday. It was a small, relaxed event with close friends and family. I’ll be blogging more about it on my Tumblr but I wanted to share this video I made here on WordPress.

We felt awkward about doing a mother-daughter dance so I made a video instead. I had a band in college called Angel Witch and we used to do a cover of a Guns N’ Roses song. My daughter found a cover by Taken By Trees which I was going to sing. I decided to use it as the backdrop of photos from our life, her life.

I finished it on Saturday night and she finally got to see the secret I was putting together after the wedding.

My life is in transition! I’m looking forward to whatever is on the horizon for me.

 

Revamping an Old Blog Hubspot Style

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On my recent call with our HubSpot consultant, I got pointers on how to make an old post better. We took something my assistant wrote in November from our old staff blog, “The God Test in Seattle,” and gave it a makeover.

Here’s what it was before:

The God Test in Seattle

The old version of this post on our old Staff Blog on WordPress.

Our consultant reminded me of a crucial point. “Who is the post about?”

Us.

Her recommendation was to revamp it into something that would be an answer to someone’s potential question. She suggested changing the title and the content to, “Five Ways to Get Involved in Campus Ministry.”

I spent half of my afternoon rewriting the entire post and making it less about us, and more about helping someone find information on getting involved in campus ministry.

Hello, Google Search. Come find it.

Here’s what it is now:

The God Test in Seattle

Here’s the new version of the same post.

Not only is it a more engaging post, but it actually offers five tips for anyone looking for information on campus ministry. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that it was easy putting this together. Without our consultant’s advice, I wouldn’t have been able to turn this post into something people will hopefully find useful.

Now, to come up with seventy-five more posts like this that potentially help people find answers to their questions.

What I’m Learning from HubSpot

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Our organization joined HubSpot this year to help us whip our inbound marketing strategy into a well-oiled machine. While other, more experienced internet marketers organically understand SEO (search engine optimization), Google Analytics, and keywords, I haven’t had the luxury of giving inbound marketing my full concentration. We’re doing a decent job with our social networking presence but I know we’re only scratching the surface of our full potential.

It’s symptomatic of small nonprofits, particularly small nonprofit Christian ministries. Limited staff are outnumbered by responsibilities. So you make the best use of your time, work more than the recommended forty hours per week, and focus on putting out fires or almost erupting blazes. (When my department assistant came on board, she would ask me, “How did you do all these things by yourself?!”)

I digress.

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Why I’ve Moved Part-Time to Tumblr

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I’ve decided to use this space exclusively for my professional life so almost all traces of my personal life, including single parenting my daughter, are now on my Tumblr. This blog gets found for searches on “geddy lee daughter,” “kyera bowlen,” and “zack and joey nu,” among other things, so I figured I’d let everyone know where you can find my other, more private stuff these days.

I still have old posts here on radio and earlier posts from 2007 but hereon in, I’m keeping it focused on communications.

I’d love to see you on Tumblr! I post music and my insights on faith there, and a bunch of other things that just don’t fit here anymore.

My oldest Tumblr is from 2007. I don’t know what to do with it at the moment but you’re welcome to poke around. My not-so-secret fitness Tumblr is Fat Lady Working Out.

Compartmentalizing is good. Keeps everything separate.

Every Nation’s World Conference

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We have a major conference happening this year in Orlando, Florida, at Walt Disney World Resort. North America will be hosting the Every Nation 2013 World Conference, and yes, we’re expecting delegates from around the world to be joining us at the happiest place on earth this summer.

Here’s the current promo video we pushed out to raise the excitement bar on registration.

Script: Thelma Bowlen
Editing: Jay Kim

There’s still time to take advantage of our Early Bird Rate! Register by March 31 to qualify for our iPad mini raffle!

The Best One for the Job

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In a recent department heads strategic meeting, my colleagues discovered just how many plates I spin at work: social strategy, internal communications, video production, regional news site, quarterly partner newsletter, monthly partner thank-you receipts, global coordination, writing, editing, events promotions, and a myriad of other things.

My boss made a comment that summarized our discussion as we identified the opportunity costs of a new organizational effort I am leading:

“You’re the best one for the job, but these jobs are not the best use of your time.”

It got me thinking about the importance of finding balance and focusing on tasks that are the most productive use of my time.

What other things have I been struggling to make happen that I should not even be working on in the first place? How does one transition from doer to manager to director in a traditional office setting?