QUESTION ONE: “Who were your mentors?”

Mentor is a word I never use. It smells of apprenticeship, that wafting, submissive aroma that arises from a servant who adores his master. By this definition, I have never had a mentor, but I do have many heroes I study from a distance, and I have a lot of friends who have spoken valuable things into my life.

QUESTION TWO: “What is your writing method?”

1. I descend into the depths of the client/character in whose voice I will be writing. This takes awhile.

2. When I have lost contact with my surroundings and found that character and become that character, I write what that character would say. I do this in the middle of the night because there are fewer interruptions.

3. When the character is finished talking, I ascend from the deep waters into the air and sunlight of my surroundings, walk into the kitchen, make a cup of hot tea, and add the juice of a Key Lime. This little ritual helps me find myself. Then I look at the digital clock on the microwave to find out how long I have been away, because time does not exist in that alternate realm.

Sometimes, when Pennie is visiting her sisters, I will awaken in the wintertime post-midnight darkness, work for awhile, rise to make tea, and notice that it is not yet light. But when I finally realize it is the darkness of evening, not morning, and that an entire day has disappeared while I was underwater, I have to reorient my mind.

QUESTION THREE: “Is your health okay?”

“Are you pulling back? Are you stepping away from Wizard Academy and the Wizard of Ads partners? Your recent Monday Morning Memos make me feel like you are preparing to say goodbye.”

I fear you have me confused with Mentor R. Williams.

Mentor Ralph Williams (yes, Mentor was his first name) wrote “Drift Away,” one of the gold record hits of the 70’s. Dobie Gray sang it to #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1973.

“Day after day I’m more confused, yet I look for the light through the pouring rain. You know that’s a game that I hate to lose. And I’m feeling the strain. Ain’t it a shame.”

“Beginning to think that I’m wasting time. I don’t understand the things I do. The world outside looks so unkind. And I’m counting on you to carry me through.”

When you read these next words, you will likely hear Dobie Gray’s voice in your mind:

“Oh, give me the beat, boys, and free my soul, I want to get lost in your rock and roll and drift away.”

This is not my day to be Dobie Gray. I am not feeling blue and I am not preparing to die. But I do appreciate your concern. Thank you for caring.

A few weeks ago I wrote, “The important is rarely urgent, and the urgent is rarely important. Do not become a slave to the merely urgent.”

I’m sure I will shift gears at some point and shoot off in a new direction, but right now I am writing about things that are important, rather than merely urgent. I hope to speak valuable things into your life, just as other people have spoken into mine.

But first we need to make a deal, okay?

The agreement I need from you is this: If you promise not to think I am feeling blue, stepping back, or preparing to die, I will share some of the valuable things that people have spoken into my life. I will tell you what they said, when they said it, and how I found value in their words.

Does that sound okay to you? If so, raise your hand.

I saw that hand, even though you raised it only in your mind.

Indy says Aroo, and I do,...

Aim their laughter like a cannon that booms out over the water.

Aim their sorrow like a rainbow that follows a storm.

Aim their anger like a lightning bolt that kills a man standing under a tree.

Be careful not to stand under trees.

People would rather be angry that bored.

This is why we pay attention to politics.

People would rather be frightened than bored.

This is why we watch scary movies.

People would rather be sad than bored.

This is why we read books that break our hearts.

People would rather be laughing than bored.

This is why we have comedians and memes and YouTube and TikTok.

Why is it so profoundly difficult

to simply sit still in silence?

Because whenever we are silent

for more than a few minutes,

all of our shadows and secrets and sins

come to the surface of our consciousness.

Jesus says, “Whenever you pray,

go into the closet and shut the door.”1

Surely, Jesus knows about all the

skeletons we like to hide in our closets.

And Jesus wants prayer to be the place

where we confront those skeletons

and face our fears.

If we do not confront the skeletons in our closets,

then they will control the whole house.

If we do not control our shadows,

then they will run the whole show.

This is why some say

that all of humanity’s problems

stem from our inability to sit quietly

in a room alone. 2

– Daniel DeForest London,

The Cloud of Unknowing, Distilled

Anger, fear, sorrow, and laughter are forms of excitement.

Excite people and you will be the center of attention.

But the happiest thing to do, if you can do it,

is fill people with a sense of wonder.

Wonder is a feeling without skeletons or shadows.

Wonder is a reaction, not an emotion.

Wonder is triggered by realizations that are bigger than our minds can contain.

Roy H. Williams

HOT TIP – Make Yourself Happy. Sign up for Jeffrey’s class Aug. 13-14 at WizardAcademy.org. It will give you more confidence, competence, and consideration. Your teeth will be whiter and you’ll be a better dancer. – Indy Beagle

1 Matthew ch 6, verse 6

2 Blaise Pascal, (1623 – 1662)

“It’s what you choose to believe that makes you the person you are.“

– Karen Marie Moning

Nick-Anthony Zamucen has launched four successful franchises: a pizza chain, a home care business, a crime scene cleaner, and a water and fire damage repair company. According to Nick-Anthony, there is a proven formula for running a successful franchise, whether you buy into someone else’s concept or decide to start a franchise of your own. What should you look for in a franchise? What do you need to launch one? And what should you absolutely avoid? Make some popcorn because the show is about to start as Nick Anthony Zamucen tells all to our own roving reporter Rotbart at MondayMorningRadio.com

Any person who relays messages to you from the boss, is now your new boss.

An excellent messenger might relay exactly what the big boss asked them to tell you, but only after they have reframed it, recharacterized it, and added their own slant.

Every messenger does this. Whether they do it consciously or unconsciously is irrelevant. Whether they do it maliciously or innocently is irrelevant. What matters is that it happens.

When a person speaks for the boss, you work for that person. You must do what they say.

If a messenger gives you a handwritten note from the big boss, your response to that message will be reframed, recharacterized, and delivered as interpreted by the mind of the messenger. The big boss is going to hear their words, not yours.

And God help you if you entrust an innocent question to a messenger. By the time that question enters the ear of the emperor, it will sound like a childish challenge or an anger-inflaming insult. The only thing you can do now is kneel down, put your head between your knees, and kiss your ass goodbye.

Have I put the matter too strongly? If so, let me soften it with this short summary: You are forever at the messenger’s mercy.

Which is perfectly okay if you do not love your job.

Are you putting in your 8 hours then going home to begin living your real life? If so, you are incredibly lucky. Do your 40, collect your check, live your life.

I envy you.

But if you are cursed with ideas, innovations, and experiences you believe have value, you will forever be frustrated by the bleak barrier that separates you from that pristine person who can say “absolutely yes.” Your cheeks will be chapped by silly slaps from interfering intermediaries. Your days will be darkened by dullards. Your mind will be massacred by meetings with morons. (Yes, I am toying with alliteration today.)

You need to get a different job. You need to have direct contact with that one special person who can say absolutely yes without having to clear it with someone else.

I spent my youth writing ads for clients who grew too big and became too busy to speak with me directly. When I became weary of living in the leg-irons and handcuffs imposed by messengers, I cut two tablets of stone from the heart of Mount Moriah. Those tablets contain two sentences:

1. “I cannot work my magic unless I am in direct contact with the person who has unconditional authority to say ‘absolutely yes’ without having to check with someone else.”
2. “If that person is too busy to speak with me personally, I am too busy to write his ads.”

You have felt what I am describing, or you have not.

Again, I envy you if you have not.

If you have felt that frustration:

1. Get a job working with an entrepreneur who will take the time to hear you.
2. Honor that person by giving them your best.
3. If that person’s success causes them to feel the need to insert a messenger between them and you…
4. Take your stonemason’s hammer and your stonecarver’s chisel to the ancient mines of Mount Moriah. Sit down and think for awhile in the shadow of the Almighty. Then carve what you feel.

If Mount Moriah frightens you, then you must learn to live with chapped cheeks, darkened days, and a massacred mind.

I will leave you to make your own decision.

As for me, I’m placing my stone tablets in my front window where everyone can see them.

Roy H. Williams

NOTE FROM INDY BEAGLE: August 13-14: Only 15 people will be allowed to attend an extremely special business class taught by Jeffrey...