Literary Grilled Cheese

It Takes What It Takes: How to Think Neutrally and Gain Control of Your Life by Trevor Moawad

This book came at the recommendation of Ryan Holiday. The premise is a good one: Winners do what it takes to win. They don’t whine or complain. They don’t pick and choose what parts of the process to follow. Once you have decided to do what it takes, you no longer have choices. It takes what it takes.

Trevor Moawad is a passionate, talented, ambitious young man. He’s an amazing force of nature. The fact that he spends so much time in the book focused on “neutral thinking” rather than positive or negative thinking shows how much he struggles with keeping his emotions in check every minute of the day. He’s found a way to conquer it and thrive.

The problem with the book is that it’s just too personal. So personal that it was hard for me — a 45 year old woman — to see myself or relate to any of his examples. The book promised to show how his sports philosophy would apply to business, but time after time, his examples were entirely about sports. At times, it seemed like you needed to know Trevor and all of the inside baseball about who coached where and who attended some training camp to even understand the anecdotes.

I understand the philosophy and see the value in it. If I were a 25 year old man, this book would be my everything. But it just wasn’t for me. Hopefully he takes another shot at it because the world could use some more Trevor.

The Jane Austen Society: A Novel by Natalie Jenner

This debut novel by Natalie Jenner was an easy, heartwarming read, like the literary version of grilled cheese and tomato soup.

This novel is set in the small English town of Chawton, the final home of Jane Austen for the last decade of her life. Set in the early Post War years, each characters has faced a devastating loss and has found comfort in Austen’s works.

This motley crew including a farmer, a house girl, teacher, doctor, movie star, and heiress joins together with the goal of preserving Austen’s legacy and creating a permanent museum and memorial. The building of the museum proves to be the rebuilding of their lives.

Just pure escapist pleasure. Perfect pandemic timing. Look forward to reading more from Natalie Jenner. This is a great one for Rep. Elise Stefanik— a relaxing read after spending the day defending our country from those who wish to destroy it.

Battling a Pandemic and a Tough Opponent

With our current global climate and intense pressure from leaders all over our nation recommending individuals stay at home to stop the spread of COVID-19, we are left with candidates up and down the ballot unable to communicate with 2020 General Election voters.

The Republic is in jeopardy and our Nation comes down to the 2020 Election! How can you spread your message, but not your germs with voters? CampaignHQ can help!

CampaignHQ is open and spreading the message for hundreds of candidates across the nation!

We are helping elected officials and candidates have a real-time interactive conversation with thousands of people via telephone townhall.

These telephone townhalls allow constituents to engage by asking their questions, answering polls, and voicing their opinions. By using CampaignHQ for your telephone townhalls you will receive a copy of your recording, data, and executive report shortly after your call.

With this information you have the ability to keep the conversation going even after the event has ended by having CampaignHQ send a 30 second sound file via automated call or developing an mp4 video using the same recording to text out to thousands who missed it!

CampaignHQ can help you to have the effective Voter ID, advocacy, and GOTV you planned for!

ID your voters with a quick automated survey or conTEXT peer to peer text message. Advocate for your candidate with live calls, automated calls, and conTEXT messaging. Get Out The Vote with a telephone townhall, live calls, automated calls, and conTEXT.

Whether you’re battling a global pandemic or a tough opponent, you can count on CampaignHQ to help you devise a strategy to effectively communicate with your audience.

Give me a call at (888) 722-4704, and let’s set up a time to talk.

Book Review Time

Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen by Dan Heath

I began reading this oddly prescient book on March 8th, just a few weeks before Governors across the country closed schools and businesses, forcing millions of people out of work.

It is a discussion about why societies continually deal with problems downstream, putting out fires that are already ablaze instead of preventing them from starting in the first place. The primary problem remains that you cannot mandate upstream action in a free society. Unless you are the leader of the Chinese Communist party or a member of the Kim Family in North Korea, you do not get to decide what is “good” for others and force your worldview upon them, no matter how much you believe you know best.

To his credit, Dan Heath does not try to use his cry for upstream, preventative action as a rallying cry for big government overlords. His examples are, for the most part, local, voluntary, and effective.

This is one of many great reads by Dan Heath and his brother Chip.

https://www.amazon.com/Upstream-Quest-Problems-Before-Happen-ebook/dp/B07THBM1M6/ref=sr_1_2?crid=EOW47YH6C5MD&dchild=1&keywords=upstream+dan+heath&qid=1593901799&s=digital-text&sprefix=upstream+dan+%2Cdigital-text%2C160&sr=1-2

You may also want to check out: The Power of Moments Why Certain Experiences have Extraordinary Impact.

Fix This Next: Make the Vital Change That Will Level Up Your Business by Mike Michalowicz

Mike Michalowicz (Author of Profit First) understands what it’s like to build a business from a crazy idea into a real thing that exists in the world.

If that’s your dream and your struggle, go out and get yourself a copy of Fix This Next.

As entrepreneurs, we see many challenges and opportunities all at once. The question (or problem) is which one to tackle first.

Mike has adapted Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to business and given entrepreneurs a quick, effective decision-making framework to help you figure out what’s next. Being an entrepreneur is a lonely job. Even when you have a great team around you, the ultimate responsibly lies with you and you alone. So a framework like this is like having a trusted mentor and friend, like having a Yoda on your shoulder in those important moments. Let Mike be your Yoda. You won’t be disappointed.

If you haven’t read Mike Michalowicz’s other books, you should check them out. If you are just getting started, read The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur. If you are spending every penny that comes into your business paddling like a dog underwater just to stay alive, try Profit First. And if your business is running, but all the gears require you to spin them, stop EVERYTHING you are doing and read Clockwork. Check out my review here.

Fun Friday – Logo Throwback

Ten years ago, I updated the CampaignHQ logo. These were the three we had it narrowed down to.

Personally, I was partial to #3. Which one is your favorite?

Have a good weekend,

Nicole Schlinger

4 Easy Steps for your Telephone Townhall

As the country continues opening up, news headlines tell the story of an ongoing spike in Covid cases. This continues to be a challenge for traditional campaign ground-games and has led many to rethink how door-to-door and in-person events will be received.

Now more than ever, you need a Telephone Townhall strategy.

Put in the work before the event

The most active and involved participants in any telephone townhall are those who proactively dial in to the event, so focus on getting the word to people who will be interested.

Send peer-to-peer text messages, including your toll-free phone number that participants can click to join. Consider an MMS, using an image or GIF to draw focus and attention.
Email your list 48 hours in advance, and again the morning of the event.
Post on social media several times in advance and 10 minutes before the event begins. Ask followers to post and share.
Send an automated call to the people who will be receiving your outbound dial to join the event. Let them know all they need to do is simply wait by the phone and answer when you call.

Prepare, Prepare, Prepare

Approaching a telephone townhall with the same level of preparation as any in-person event will ensure it’s successful and worth the effort. CampaignHQ are the experts when it comes to:

Planning the flow and structure of questions as well as laying out the rules for the discussion and notifying the participants ahead of time are all key.
Producing quality line-by-lines and including notes for opening remarks will help guide the conversation and cover important topics.
Acting as a moderator to open the call, instruct people on how to participate, call on members of the audience for you and keeping the conversation moving forward.

Have an interesting conversation

We can help you to ensure you hold your audience with a conversation WORTH having:

Keep the conversation fast and lively.
Have responses ready for questions that are likely to come up.
Responses to each question or comment should be no longer than 2-3 minutes.
Give the audience several ways to participate. You can ask the audience their opinion with a poll question and gather email addresses.
Speak with thousands of constituents, share valuable information, and make your telephone townhall interactive and memorable.

Keep it going after the event

After your successful event, CampaignHQ can help you take it to the next level.

Now is the time to take the most valuable segments of your interactive conversation and share them with an even larger audience. Here’s how:

Use the recording of your event and a static image to create MP4 videos that you can post to your YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter pages. Encourage your followers to post, share, and ReTweet.
Send peer-to-peer text messages of your video, along with a link to listen to the entire event. Ask people to reply to your text to let you know what they think.

Email supporters a synopsis along with a link to listen to the entire event or pertinent clips.

In the uncharted waters of campaigning during a pandemic, spiking case numbers and open/closed communities, now more than ever telephone townhalls are a powerful, effective way to communicate your message to an audience of thousands, over the phone and online.

This strategy allows for a meaningful connection regardless of who you are: a candidate, an incumbent, an advocacy group – or what goal you have in mind: reaching voters or hosting a forum.

Another Day, Another Book Review

In Five Years: A Novel by Rebecca Serle

After Rebecca Serle’s last dumpster fire of a book, you may wonder why I picked this one up. Once again the premise for the book seemed so compelling, the execution just had to be worth the ride. Once again, disappointment.

As the story opens, “Type -A Manhattan lawyer” Dannie Kohan is on the cusp of getting everything she wants. She is about to get the job she has not only dreamed of, but doggedly, determinedly worked towards every day of her life. She is about to get engaged to a man who by all rights, seems perfect for her. Not a wallflower. Not a lazy lout. But content with Dannie being the one whose career takes precedence in their upcoming marriage. On the eve of all this joy, Dannie has a weird dream where she wakes up five years in the future, in a different apartment, next to a different man. From there, the rest of the book is a journey of discover to find out what happens to screw up her life so that it does not end up as planned. I won’t spoil the surprises if you plan to read the book.

Here’s my problem with the premise of this book. Just because she has this weird dream, just because some terrible things happen to people she cares about, does not mean that the career she’s fought for and man she picked suddenly is not good enough. This woman goes from being completely all there and put together to being a typical Chick-Lit “Bridget Jones” mess. I just don’t buy it. Read my prior review here:

The Queen’s Fortune: A Novel of Desiree, Napoleon, and the Dynasty That Outlasted the Empire by Allison Pataki

This book had everything I look for in historical fiction: action, suspense, and an education.

I’d never heard of Desiree Clary and her amazing, lifelong connection to Napoleon Bonaparte. She was Napoleon’s first fiancé and eventually his sister in law. She was a lady in waiting at the court of Empress Josephine. And it was Napoleon himself who introduced her to her eventual husband, Jean Baptiste Bernadotte, the future King of Sweden.

Fun side note — Allison Pataki is the daughter of former NY Governor, George Pataki. He was given little chance of defeating Mario Cuomo in 1994, that glorious year of the Republican revolution. He came to Syracuse University where we few college Republicans valiantly waved signs on his behalf. Unbelievably, he won and became the longest serving Republican Governor of the State of New York. It was George Pataki who suggested Desiree would make an incredibly subject for Allison’s next book. Once again, he was right.

Fun Friday – Goal Check

It’s an Election Year. It’s a pandemic year. All of this could be a great excuse.

Why you didn’t win your election.

Why you didn’t meet your revenue targets.

Why you didn’t use the opportunity of the entire world shutting down to make the changes you needed to make to get the life you wanted to live, the business you were destined to build.

If there was ever a year, you could claim your problems are someone else’s fault … this is it.

No thank you.

The year is half over. Are you halfway to your goals?

Have a good weekend,

Nicole Schlinger

The Prosper Group Pop In

I was so honored to share some “expert” advice with my friends at the Prosper Group a few weeks ago.

If you don’t know them – you need to!

From their blog: “The Prosper Group is an internationally-recognized, award-winning digital marketing agency headquartered in Indianapolis, specializing in online media, strategy, and fundraising for Republican political candidates, advocacy organizations, associations, and non-profits. The Prosper Group’s best-in-industry work has been recognized for awards dozens of times by prestigious organizations such as the American Association of Political Consultants and Campaigns & Elections.

The firm has worked in tandem with President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, Senator Ted Cruz, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, Congressman Will Hurd, the National Association of Manufacturers, Fox News, and many other candidates and organizations.”

As PG was discussing different opportunities to overcome voter contact challenges in the run up to Election Day, they featured a blog post from me regarding Telephone Townhalls. Here’s a sample:

Getting your audience on the line is just the first step.

Your telephone townhall is only successful if it results in actionable data on which you can follow up and drive turnout. To be successful, determine what actions you want this audience to take and inspire them to do so.

Call to action examples:

Plan to vote

Press 1 if you plan to request a mail-in ballot
Press 2 if you plan to vote in person
Press 3 if you aren’t sure

Pledge to vote

Press 1 to pledge your vote to Donald Trump + the GOP Ticket
Press 2 if you aren’t sure
Press 3 if you are voting for Joe Biden

Based on your goals, your townhall provider should create and distribute a detailed line by line agenda for the telephone townhall.

Prior to the event, make sure you conduct a thorough training on how to use the townhall platform, watch your real-time results, and communicate during the event.

Go to their blog to check out the full piece. Thanks again to the Prosper Group for letting me weigh in.

Nicole Schlinger

The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday

And then the pandemic started.

If this was your first existential crisis … welcome. Hope it didn’t kick you too hard.

For those of us in the arena, whose backs have been up against the wall before, who have had to make the decision “do I live or die today?” … do I put up my hands in surrender or do I turn and fight? We’ve been practicing for this our whole lives. We’re made for this. Like Marcus Aurelius says, “What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for — the things I was brought into the world to do?

So when it felt like the walls were closing in, I picked up my copy of the Daily Stoic, ironically on March 20th. “Ready and At Home.”

I read the entire year again in under a week. If you want to come out the other side of this mess as a winner, read this now. If you need further convincing, check out my prior review.

Thanks for reading,

Nicole Schlinger

P.S. – If you’re looking for some page turners, check out my complete book list for 2018 for a good place to start.