Today's episode is Part 1 of a two-part interview with best-selling author Frank Viola. Frank has long been one my favorite authors, and in this episode I get to “grill” him about questions writers always want to know about other writers…

• Why do you write?
• How do  you write?
• Are you a “word count guy” or are you a “time at keyboard” guy?
• How do you get published?
• And so much more…

Resources Mentioned In This Episode

1. Frank Viola's website.
2. The “Christ Is All” podcast.
3. The definitive guide to Frank Viola's books.
4. Frank Viola's list of the Best 100 Christian Books.
5. The Buzz Seminar Course. (I get paid a commission if you buy this – just sayin'.)

Can I Ask A Big Favor?

Subscribe to the show in iTunes and give us a rating and review. Go ahead and subscribe now, and give us your star rating and review on iTunes. We will definitely mention you on this show.

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It often feels as though we're faced with the choice to either win or lose. What if you could always win?

Regardless of the outcome, whether you are winning or losing is mostly a matter of your own choice. In this show, I'll give you “The 828 Tool” for always winning. Other reasons to listen:

• How to have more peace.
• How to use your computer power supply to become more productive.

Spiritual Foundations

Don't Let Your Heart Be Troubled

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you… Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
John 14:27

Tip Of the Week

How to use your computer power supply to become more productive.

Feature Presentation: How to Always Win

The challenge: more and more we feel as if we're losing.

1. Higher standards
2. Instant comparison
3. More scores to keep
4. More information
5. Always on
6. Never enough
7. Impossible false standards

It isn't about living the perfect life – it's about understanding the perfection of life.

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
– Romans 8:28

If that's too “churchy” for you, this wisdom is recognized by great  thinkers in different ways.

“Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.”
– Napoleon Hill

“One who gains strength by overcoming obstacles possesses the only strength which can overcome adversity.”
– Albert Schweitzer

“If you are pained by external things, it is not they that disturb you, but your own judgement of them. And it is in your power to wipe out that judgment now.”
– Marcus Aurelius

So how can you see the good in adversity? How can you transform the obstacle from being in the way to being the way?

Use The 828 Tool. 

Click here to download the tool now, for free.

Use The 828 Tool and share your results.

Can I Ask A Big Favor?

Subscribe to the show in iTunes and give us a rating and review. Go ahead and subscribe now, and give us your star rating and review on iTunes. We will definitely mention you on this show.

We are also BACK on Stitcher.com, so if you prefer Stitcher, please subscribe there.

If you don't already get the email newsletter, sign up for that and get the new free video: “3 Keys to Change the World and Make Your Business Grow.”

Connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or LinkedIn.

Get The Transcript

Click here to get the transcript. Transcripts provided by SuccessTranscripts – a great solution if you need your podcast, sermon, speech, or other audio transcribed.

Writers love apps. We can waste countless hours testing and researching them. Before apps, it was pens, paper, and especially notebooks. The truth is, the tools we use are not nearly as important as the act of writing.

The only indispensable pen, notebook, or app is the one that you will use to do actual writing. In this show, I'll share my personal 7 indispensable writing apps. Other reasons to listen:

• How to know God's not angry with you.
• An app that changes your negative thinking into positive thinking.

Spiritual Foundations

God's Not Angry With You

One of my ancestors, Jonathan Edwards, is famous for a sermon called “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” This is a mischaracterization of God that pervades the church.

1. God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
2. If you don't understand the Bible through the lens of covenant and context, you can't understand it at all.
3. God's unchanging attitude toward you is love and mercy.

Remember you are a saint in the arms of a happy God!

Tip Of the Week

WinStreak is an app that is the brainchild of Dan Sullivan of Strategic Coach. According to Dan & the app's website:

We live in a world where there’s a lot of negative information. WinStreak is a simple tool for making sure that, at the end of every day, you feel positive about your accomplishments and excited for the next day.

At the end of each day, regardless of what happened, record what your biggest “wins” were. Then, plan what your biggest wins will be for tomorrow. This will keep you focused on your goals while recognizing and celebrating your achievements—or wins—along the way. It’s that easy.

Even if you experience setbacks, disappointments, or obstacles during the day, you know you’ll always have wins from today and have a plan to accomplish more wins tomorrow. Tracking your progress in terms of wins will undoubtedly maximize your productivity and kick-start your motivation.

The way you interpret your days is entirely up to you. Would you rather see your days as wins or as losses? It’s a phenomenal breakthrough to realize that you’re in control of the story of your life.

The premise it’s based on is simple: Life is a game, and we can set it up every day so we’re always winning. Our experience is that making this kind of thinking a habit actually leads to people being more effective, fun to be around, and enjoyable to work with.

The app is free, and you can get the full impact in less than five minutes per day.

Grab the app and get on a Winstreak!

Feature Presentation: 7 Indispensable Apps For Writers

1. Scrivener. Scrivener is a powerful content-generation tool for writers that allows you to concentrate on composing and structuring long and difficult documents.
2. TextExpander. Type more with less effort! TextExpander saves your fingers and your keyboard, expanding custom keyboard shortcuts into frequently-used text and pictures.
3. Drafts. Drafts is a different kind of note taking app. In Drafts, text comes first – open the app and get a new, blank draft. Get your text down quickly, then act on it with powerful actions.
4. Evernote. For everything you do, Evernote is the workspace to get it done.
5. Byword. Simple and efficient text editing for Mac, iPhone and iPad.
6. Microsoft Word. Bloated, buggy, and necessary.
7. Pages. Pages for Mac is a powerful word processor that gives you everything you need to create documents that look beautiful.

What writing apps do you find indispensable?

Can I Ask A Big Favor?

Subscribe to the show in iTunes and give us a rating and review. Go ahead and subscribe now, and give us your star rating and review on iTunes. We will definitely mention you on this show.

We are also BACK on Stitcher.com, so if you prefer Stitcher, please subscribe there.

If you don't already get the email newsletter, sign up for that and get the new free video: “3 Keys to Change the World and Make Your Business Grow.”

Connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or LinkedIn.

Get The Transcript

Click here to get the transcript. Transcripts provided by SuccessTranscripts – a great solution if you need your podcast, sermon, speech, or other audio transcribed.

“So, what do you do every day? What's typical  day like in your life?”

I am asked this question, or something similar, often enough that I thought it might be worth answering in a podcast episode. This show is entitled, “A Day in the Life of Ray”. Other reasons to listen:

• How to see more good days than bad, from now on.
• A service that allows you to easily build beautiful process documentation for your business and your team.
• An encore presentation of the Masterclass, “How To Write A Sales Page That Rakes In $10 Million”.
• How to get promoted on this show to my audience.

Spiritual Foundations

No More Bad Days

Recently I've seen two friends go through a battle with cancer, and I saw first hand how we are in control of our response to what happens to us. Regardless of your circumstances, whether you have a good day or a bad day is really up to you

Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet that, “there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

Proverbs 23:7 says, “For as he thinks within himself, so he is.” (NASB)

There are 3 keys to stepping into a life with no more bad days.

Key #1: Set Up a Rule You Can Always Meet In Order to Have a Good Day.

Tony Robbins tells the story of two different gentlemen who attended one of his exclusive seminars in Fiji.

One gentleman was a billionaire, a high achiever. The other was successful in many ways, but not someone with extraordinary income.

Tony noticed that the billionaire seemed to be miserable, while the more average gentleman seemed to be extraordinarily happy. So Tony asked each man what was required in order for him to have a good day.

The billionaire gave a long list of requirements that had to be met, including the amount of time he exercised, his target heart rate, his perfect diet, achieving certain financial milestones in his business, certain processes that had to happen correctly without fail, and a long list of things that must happen in order for him to have a good day.

When Tony asked the gentleman who was a more moderate financial success about his rule for having a good day, the man replied with a big smile: “It's simple. Every day above ground is a good day.”

You get to set up the rule for what makes a good day. Why not make it one you can meet?

Key #2: Change the Way You Interpret What Happens to You.

The lens we used to look at the world tends to control what we see. There is the story that is told about to traveling salesmen, each of whom had a conversation with the same farmer at the corner of his field near the road. The first asked him, “Hey! What kind of people live around here?”

The farmer replied, “Well, what kind of people did you find in the last place you visited?”

The salesman grimaced and said, “A bunch of dishonest, ornery, inhospitable scoundrels.”

The farmer nodded, and said, “I expect you'll find the same sort of people around here.”

The next day, a different traveling salesman encountered that same farmer at the corner of his field. This new salesman had a big smile on his face and said, “Hello! What a beautiful day, and what a beautiful farm you have! I wonder if I might ask you, what sort of people will I find around here?”

Farmer grinned, and asked, “what sort of people did you find in the last place you visited?”

“A lot of generous, happy, open hearted and welcoming people. That place was a real joy to visit!”

The farmer smiled, and said, “I expect you'll find the same sort of people around here.”

What we expect informs our interpretation of what we experience. The environment inside our heads controls the environment outside our heads. What we think about tends to be what we experience.

Key #3: Have Biblical Hope.

The word “hope” means something different in the Bible than what we typically mean by the word hope in our culture.

In modern culture, “hope” is a wishy-washy, half in, half out milquetoast way of thinking. If we say we “hope” something will happen in a certain way, what we are really saying is, in effect, “I wish it would happen this way, but I know it probably won't.”

On the other hand, typical hope can be defined as “the positive expectation of good things.” That's why our life of faith is referred to as “hope that does not disappoint”. And there are plenty of reasons to believe this hope of the Bible is for real.

In the book of Romans, we are told that God makes “all things work for the good of those who love Him.”

Jesus exhorted us not to worry about things we need in everyday life, but to trust that our Father in heaven is a good father, and he knows how to take care of his children, and that he will always give us what is best for us.

Sometimes we may not be able to see how that is true, because we don't have his perspective. Just as a child might be upset when a parent roughly grabs them by the arms, yanks them off the ground, and throws them to the ground. The child may believe this was mean and cruel behavior, not realizing that their father just yanked them out of the way of an oncoming car, and saved their life.

What's more, according to the Bible we know that the things that we speak and think have spiritual power to change what actually happens to us. I would encourage you to think about things that are good and positive. You may not be able to control your feelings, but you can certainly take control of your thoughts.

The Apostle Paul put it this way: “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” Philippians 4:8 (ESV)

I don't have “zero bad days” just yet… But I have many more good days than bad ones, and that ratio is always improving. I believe it is because I use the 3 keys to unlock the door to more good days:

1. Set up an easy-to-meet rule for what makes a good day.
2. Change the way you interpret what happens to you.
3. Have biblical hope. A “positive expectation of good things.”

Tip Of the Week

SweetProcess is a service that allows you to easily build beautiful process documentation for your business and your team. 7 reasons I am back with them after a brief hiatus.

1. Frees up my time, I can stop spending time on repetitive tasks. Get them documented and out of my head, so someone else can do them. Now I'm free to focus on growing my business.
2. I can endure employee turnover without the setbacks. When an employee leaves, training their replacement is a breeze since all of their tasks have been documented and refined over time.
3. Easy for team refinement. The system makes it easy for my team to make processes more efficient over time as we hone each step in any given process.
4. Reduces errors and re-do’s. Procedures are easy to follow, illustrated with screenshots, videos and checkboxes to ensure no steps are missed.
5. Adds value to my business. A business built on a foundation of well-documented Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) has a higher value, which grows over time.
6. Forces me to evaluate processes. As I think through the steps, I am forced to ask, “Is this the best way to do this?” I have discovered and eliminated many inefficiencies as a result.
7. Better than Word, Google Docs, or other apps. SweetProcess is more elegant, custom-built for the task, easy to use and keep up to date, and “siloed” from other systems. And it's just more fun to use!

Feature Presentation: A Day in the Life of Ray

1. Rise at 4 AM
2. Make bed
3. Pray
4. Meditate
5. Brush teeth, shave
6. Take care of dogs
7. Drink 12 ounces of water
8. Take communion
9. Worship
10. Make declarations
11. Protein shake
12. Bulletproof coffee
13. Bible
14. Classical music
15. Read spiritual book
16. Read nonfiction book
17. Take morning meds at 6AM
18. Journal
19. Listen to a grace centered message
20. Lumosity
21. Check mint
22. Create content starting at 7AM – Noon
23. Lunch NOON – 1PM
24. Do admin work
25. Exercise for 60 minutes 3PM
26. Spend time with family 4:30 PM
27. In bed by 9pm

What's a day in your life like? What are some parts of your daily routine your consider non-negotiable?

Announcements

Some useful announcements…

• Great feedback on the format. We're definitely going to keep things tight, but we are moving to a 48 minute length, and here's why: we are making the show available for distribution on radio. It's free to you a a radio station, and we leave you space for your commercial breaks. If you want to run the show on your station, simply reach out to us  at support@rayedwards.com
• An encore presentation of the Masterclass, “How To Write A Sales Page That Rakes In $10 Million”. Next Monday at 4pm Pacific. Click here to register.
• How to get promoted on this show to my audience. We're having a testimonial contest: video, results based, with examples you can show. Make a video, and tell the following story:

Make a video, and tell the following story:

1. What problem you faced before you “met” me…
2. What would have happened if you hadn't solved that problem…
3. What you did that you learned from me…
4. And the specific results that happened…

Then post the video to YouTube, and send us a link to the video along with your conact information. Send it to support@rayedwards.com.

Can I Ask A Big Favor?

Subscribe to the show in iTunes and give us a rating and review. Go ahead and subscribe now, and give us your star rating and review on iTunes. We will definitely mention you on this show.

We are also BACK on Stitcher.com, so if you prefer Stitcher, please subscribe there.

If you don't already get the email newsletter, sign up for that and get the new free video: “3 Keys to Change the World and Make Your Business Grow.”

Connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or LinkedIn.

Get The Transcript

Click here to get the transcript. Transcripts provided by SuccessTranscripts – a great solution if you need your podcast, sermon, speech, or other audio transcribed.