churnOn pub: Thinking and writing projects focused on longevity, well-being, and business success.
It’s a book about relevance, not the social-media kind, but the deeper question of whether your life truly matters to people over time. It’s for that stage when you’ve accomplished many of the things you set out to do, but you begin asking different questions about meaning, contribution, and what you’re passing on.
Releasing the Churn: Reflections on a Journey Rounding Second Base was self-published in December 2006. I was indeed rounding second base in 2006. Now, I suppose I am rounding third base, in this blink of an eye journey of life. It will be fun to dust this project off and take another swing of the bat. Click below to learn more.
I’ve enjoyed my career in sales. In 2011, I wrote a blog series titled, Six Characteristics of The Champion Sales Professional. I dedicated it to my grandfather, William Patton McDowell Jr. (Poppy.) I recently repurposed the series on LinkedIn and enjoyed thinking about what has changed. Click here to learn more.
How do you find and enjoy a place of purpose when you start your career, throughout your career, and when you stop ‘working’ and use your wisdom, resources, and skills to give back to the world? That’s right, from beginning to end. You don’t have to settle for doing things you do not enjoy. Click below to learn more.
Releasing the Churn: Reflections on a Journey Rounding Second Base was self-published in December 2006. I was rounding second base in 2006. Now, I might be rounding third base! It will be fun to dust this project off and take another swing of the bat. Click below to learn more.
I’ve enjoyed my career in sales. In 2011, I wrote a blog series titled, Six Characteristics of The Champion Sales Professional. I dedicated it to my grandfather, William Patton McDowell Jr. (Poppy.) I recently repurposed the series on LinkedIn and enjoyed thinking about what has changed. Click here to learn more.
I’ve been churning on this question and studying some individuals who seem to have figured it out.
I call it my ‘RELEVANCE project.’ Relevance, like a tree with deep roots and expansive branches, represents growth, stability, and the spreading of wisdom and resources.
How do some people always know what they want and have a deep passion for life? It’s a question worth exploring and something I encourage younger professionals, those just starting their careers, to think deeply about.
Below are three individuals who exemplify this idea that we can enjoy our work, excel at our work, and use what we have learned (our wisdom) and accumulated (our wealth) to give back to our communities and try to make the world a better place.
Learn more about Charles S. McDowell, Jim Chapman, and Ricky May. An attorney, an architect, and a sports business entrepreneur – amazing examples of individuals finding RELEVANCE throughout their careers, and then finding unique ways to share their wisdom and resources with their communities.
This might just be THE secret to a long and happy life.
Dear Dad: This is a story about my journey, which ultimately is a story about your journey, your father’s journey, his father’s journey, and so on . . .
It was an ordinary story but told in an interesting enough way that it impacted some who chose to read it. I dedicated the writing to my father but shared it with hundreds of others. Many took time to write back and, in essence, reflect on my reflections. I saved those responses and plan to one day make time to return to the project and churnOn it some more.
Releasing the Churn – A Journey Rounding Second Base began as a writing project in the fall of 2006. It was a way for a middle-aged entrepreneur to celebrate some remarkable men: my father, my father-in-law, my two grandfathers, my uncles, my little league coach, my mentors, and my best friend.
I call this group of men, my ‘cheeroes’. A cheero is a word I made up that means a hero who cheers you onward and upward. We all have heroes, like for me, the greatest catcher who ever played baseball, Johnny Bench, and the legendary basketball coach Dean Smith of the North Carolina Tar Heels. But we also have cheeroes, those unique individuals who look at you and your current situation, and say ‘yes, you can’ when you most need to hear those words.
The original writing was about slowing down and reflecting on a life that had covered ten states in four and a half decades. A churned-up journey that continues to this day. Two years ago, we set sail for London, leaving Austin, TX after 20 years.
My wife (Cathy) and our girls (Sally, Emily, and Lucy) were the first to refer to Releasing the Churn as ‘Dad’s Book.’ They encouraged me to share it with others. I love them for this encouragement and for putting up with me.
After sending the original manuscript to my father and my other cheeroes, I began sharing the story with friends. I am a connector by nature, so my list was several hundred individuals, mostly men, but some special women as well. Many were kind enough to share their reflections back to me, by email or a handwritten note. I tossed each response in a box and went back to churning through life.
A cheero is a word I made up. Cheeros, like my father, Gene P Singletary (above left), my Little League Coach, Paul Rogers (above center), and former UNC Ram’s Club Executive Director, Moyer Smith (above right) are people who cheered me on in my life from a young age. The people who said, ‘Yes, you can!’ Who were your cheeros? Have you told them thanks?
I’ve been in sales my whole career and I love the profession. Back in 2011, I wrote a blog series titled, Six Characteristics of The Champion Sales Professional. I have repurposed the series on LinkedIn. If you are in sales, or thinking about sales as a career, check it out here.
Regardless of where you are in your career, you can benefit from the Six Characteristics of the Champion Sales Professional. This series is dedicated to Billy McDowell, my grandfather.
From my ‘Poppy,’ I first learned about sales. I spent time with Poppy as a child, riding in his Oldsmobile, talking on his rotary-dial ‘car’ phone, flipping through his presentation materials, and learning the fundamentals of selling. Poppy would say, “A good salesperson always has a pen . . . listen more than you talk . . . and remember son . . . what’s behind the door, I am not sure, but this I know and know it well, the more I open, the more I sell.”
Links to posts in the series:
Why I’m so interested in selling?
Energy: Six Characteristics of Champion Sales Professionals
Energy (Oscillation): Six Characteristics of Champion Sales Professionals
Learn the Language of Enthusiasm
What gets in our way?
Be Likable
Do you love what you do?
Be unique, extraordinary, and apply urgency
