I read a fun quote the other day.

"Before I got married, I had six theories about bringing up children: now I have six children, and no theories." - John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester

Jason and I have not yet been blessed with the humbling task of raising children, so of course we are filled with theories of how it can be done. That being said, I have a story to share…

The other day we were at the San Diego Zoo and I saw something that drew my attention more than the adorable pandas. We were in line for the bus and I happened to notice that the fifteen-year-old girl in front of us was wearing a light colored shirt and a black bra. I had two ways of knowing it was a black bra. First, you could see it through her light colored shirt. Second, you could see about 1/2 inch of it peaking above her low cut v-neck. Now, I’m not so out of it to realize that today’s fifteen is yesterday’s seventeen. Scary…but a reality. The thing that really disturbed me was that she was with her mom and her twelve-year-old brother.

What?! How did that mom let her out of the house?

Believe me, the teenage years scare me. Jason and I joke that we will have to find a nice home to ship our kids to when they hit those years. This may come off as harsh, but I think the key to parenting a teenager is that you must have more self-confidence than the teenager, which, sadly, really isn’t much! I know what that mom is suffering from…something I’ve labeled as CMS, Cool Mom Syndrome. You may have seen this condition before. Moms suffering from CMS often overlook certain parenting duties (involving "tough love") such as teaching modesty, in order to stay "cool" in the eyes of their teenage children. These are also the same moms that host the drinking party after prom. My mom did NOT suffer from this condition and I am so blessed that she didn’t. By the time I hit the teenage years, she was savvy. (I have three older sisters.) She would never have let me leave the house like that. In fact, I don’t think I would’ve had the guts to even try, knowing what her reaction would be.

I’ve heard moms say, as their oldest daughters are approaching the unapproachable moody years, that they are scared to death and saddened that they will loose the solid connections with their daughters that they formed throughout their early years. That has to be a hard reality that moms face, losing their daughters to the teenage years. There is hope, though. They do come back with maturity.

I think it’s all about mutual respect. Teenage daughters must show respect to their parents (even if their eyes are rolling behind your back as they walk out of the room) and parents must show respect to them by creating expectations, accountability and consistent follow-through. These are the same things needed throughout the younger years, it’s just tougher to be strong when they pull the attitude card again and again…and again.

My mom (and dad) gave me and my three sisters quite the gift by having expectations of us. As much as I may have rolled my eyes, I can now see that sometimes the best parenting strategies are the most unpopular. Teenagers have enough friends, but they only have one set of parents.

Technorati Tags: teenagers, parenting, tough love, San Diego Zoo, John Wilmot

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In this episode of Escape Plan TV, filmed in Clearwater, Florida, Kim and Jason demonstrate several fun and exciting ways to annihilate the Adultitis in your life. The ideas are all based on the world-famous Escape Plan.

In this installment of Escape Plan TV, the duo conducts a silly experiment, tries to fly a kite, and throws a spontaneous party.

Become a K&J Insider and we’ll let you know when new episodes are released!

Learn how to bring Kim & Jason in to speak to your group
for a dynamic, entertaining presentation about living life with less stress
and more fun that won’t soon be forgotten!

Technorati Tags: escape plan tv, stress, escape adulthood, Adultitis, Kim & Jason, Clearwater, Florida, beach, kites

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Kim and I just got home from San Diego late last night. We’ve had a crazy busy past few months on the speaking circuit, and are happy to be home and looking forward to a week off. On Wednesday, we had a chance to visit the world-famous San Diego Zoo. We got to see pandas for the first time and collected some great footage for an upcoming episode of Escape Plan TV.

I love zoos. Every time I go to one, I always find myself thinking, "Man, God is awesome." I have always been a big fan of God’s boundless creativity (big surprise coming from an artist, huh?). One of the latest entries in the "He Thought of Everything" category is a little tidbit I picked up from the tour guide about vultures. She said that most birds of prey have bald heads, which helps keep them from picking up disease-carrying bacteria while digging in to their meal.

And here I thought it was because they were big Stone Cold Steve Austin fans.

Another thought that came to mind as Kim and I marveled at things like anteaters, meerkats, and hippos was how obvious it was that God sure had fun with his creation. It shows in his work.

And I wonder how many of us can have the same said about us.

Do you enjoy your work? Are you having fun? Does it show?

Technorati Tags: San Diego Zoo, pandas, hippos, meerkats, anteaters, vultures, God, faith, fun

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My dad is a part-time real estate agent (look out Donald Trump!) The other day he was showing a house, and spotted this saying in a little girl’s bedroom:

"Always kiss me goodnight." 

My dad offers us this wisdom: "Just think where we would be if parents made that a rule before they walked out of their children’s room?"

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We are told that money won’t buy lots of things. For instance, money can’t buy you happiness. Or love. Or a second chance at your secret crush in high school.

Somewhere along the line, however, we fall into the trap of believing that money WILL buy you security. Sure, that job you have may not be a dream job, or even something that makes you spring out of bed in the morning, but it pays the bills. It covers the mortgage, helps you pay off your loans, inflates your retirement fund, and provides the all-important holy grail known as Benefits.

So what happens if the stock — and your 401k — plummets (it happened to the Enron folks), you get downsized (it happened to my brother’s father-in-law), or if the company cuts those great benefits (it happened to my dad)?

Oops. I guess money, although helpful and quite important, really CAN’T buy you security. Nor can it buy you your dreams or the years spent not pursuing them.

I found a great post by Sarah Winfrey entitled, "Can you afford to follow your dreams? Can you afford NOT to?" Sarah talks about things money does and doesn’t buy, and shares the decision she and her husband made about going after a dream, even thought it would mean making some big sacrifices and carrying some loans a little while longer. Here is the rationale that pushed them over the edge:

In the end, the decision hinged on what we want to be able to say at the end of our lives. When I’m dying I don’t think I’ll care much about the size of my house (or even if I owned one), the make and model of my car, or even how nicely I was able to dress my children. I’ll care a lot more about who I am and who Dave is, who we helped each other become and how we got there. I’ll care about what we tried just because we loved it and how many times we were able to bankrupt ourselves traveling (that’s the only thing I ever totally and completely bankrupt myself for, but that’s another post). I’ll care about whether or not we took the risks our dreams required, whether we were willing to put it all on the line for something we believed in. When I looked at it that way, I couldn’t bear to walk the safe road just for the sake of safety any longer.

Good for you, Sarah. Sometimes we can be lulled into taking the easy, safe, traditional path in life because it’s deemed responsible, wise, and promises heaping piles of security. And it also doesn’t scare the crap out of us (which is a reason that can’t be underestimated).

When you make decisions as you go through life, be sure to examine the whole picture. Certainly consider the things money can buy, but be sure to also keep in mind the things money can’t buy. Like love, happiness, and the years spent not pursuing your dreams.

Technorati Tags: money, finance, afford, dreams, chasing your dreams, follow your dreams, Sarah Winfrey, Wisebread.com

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Vince McMahon. Sam Walton. P.T. Barnum.

These three men have something in common, and that connection is the very reason I have been inspired by them. They are all great promoters. But even more than that, their style of promotion always contained within it a spirit of childlike fun.

I grew up watching pro wrestling. (My favorites? Bret "The Hitman" Hart, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, and Randy "Macho Man" Savage.) Vince McMahon, the owner of the WWF (now known as the WWE), has always impressed me with his promotional abilities. It’s unfortunate that he tends to get some of his ideas straight from the gutter, but in the heyday of the WWF, he brilliantly created characters and crafted story lines that really pulled you in and got you excited. Wrestling was colorful, larger-than-life, and fun.

I read a book a few years back by Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart. Of course, depending on who you talk to these days, Sam and his company are now carrying out Satan’s plan to rule the world. But Wal-Mart’s current humongousness causes folks to easily forget that at one time not long ago, Wal-Mart was a scrappy start-up, and few people believed Mr. Walton had any chance to succeed with his "wacky" business model of putting department stores in small town with tiny populations. What stood out to me as I read the book was learning about Walton’s creative and fun approach to promotions. Here is an excerpt from his book, about his very first venture running a Ben Franklin variety store:

We tried a lot of promotional things that worked really well. First, we put a popcorn machine out on the sidewalk, and we sold that stuff like crazy. So I thought about it and finally decided what we needed was a soft ice cream machine out there too. I screwed my courage up and and went down to the bank and borrowed what at the time seemed like the astronomical sum of $1,800 to buy that thing. That was the first money I ever borrowed from a bank. Then we rolled the ice cream machine out there on the sidewalk next to the popcorn machine, and I mean we attracted some attention with those two. It was new and different — another experiment — and we really turned a profit on it. I paid off that $1,800 note in two or three years, and I felt great about it. I really didn’t want to be remembered as the guy who lost his shirt on some crazy ice cream machine.

I recently finished up a book by Joe Vitale about P.T. Barnum (of Barnum & Bailey circus fame), and again was impressed by the outlandish, creative, and downright childlike promotional ideas he used to promote his various businesses. Like the time he had an elephant plowing the field on his property to attract the attention of train passengers speeding by on their way to the city. Or when he became the first person to bring live hippopotamuses to America to promote his museum. He also was one of the first people to have a man in a hot air balloon attempt to cross the Atlantic.

It is from this inspiring sense of fun and spectacle that we devised the idea of our most recent Lemonade Stand event. I think it all started from a discussion I had one night wiith my brother Doug. We were trying to come up with some fun marketing ideas, and I blurted out, "You know what would be awesome? Giving away a freakin’ hot air balloon ride." Maybe the spirit of P.T. Barnum was being channeled, but we both loved the idea. It took several weeks to decide that the idea was actually actionable, and thus we launched our Kim & Jason Easter Egg Hunt, with the grand prize being a trip in a hot air balloon.

The prize was awarded sooner than I imagined (I guess I need to do a better job of hiding it next time;) Yesterday, Kimberly Sellers from Pennsylvania e-mailed with the secret code word indicating that she had found the prize egg. An excerpt of her e-mail is priceless:

I had to keep reading this. Are you serious? I won? I so can’t believe it. oh my gosh. I think I am just sitting here having trouble typing. My husband isn’t going to believe me! This is so cool!!!!!!!!!

Yep, that is pretty cool. And I am left with a few thoughts. Every business is trying to get the word out about what they do. We could have easily spent several hundreds of dollars on a boring newspaper ad that would be glanced at by a small percentage of people and then be pooped on by dogs all over Dane County the next day.

I’d rather put my marketing budget into something fun like this. The buzz spreads, somebody wins something really cool, and a story gets passed on. Meanwhile, the very prize we gave away empowers the winner to do exactly what we advocate: to embrace a more childlike way of living life with less stress and more fun. This (and the previous promotion in which we gave away someone’s wishlist) have been fun and educational experiments.

Fasten your seatbelts kids, because more stuff just like this is on it’s way.

(By the way, even though the hot air balloon ride has been rewarded, there are still plenty of eggs that contain some neat prizes hidden throught the store. Have fun!)

Technorati Tags: Wal-Mart, WWE, Vince McMahon, Sam Walton, P.T. Barnum, promotion, marketing, buzz, hot air balloon, childlike, dog poop

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Today as I went on a morning walk I was overcome by spring.

It was a feast of the senses. The crisp morning air found it’s way deep into my lungs. It was like an internal spring cleaning.

The sky was a bright blue canvas with white feathers scattered randomly.

I saw a robin!

One of my favorite things about spring is the sound of the birds chirping, as if to say “Hey guys…we’re back!” When I was little we had a contest in my household every year about this time. Who would spot the first robin? Between the ages of four and nine this was a big deal. I would actually sit at the window and inspect the many trees that made up our backyard. Robins are a sign of hope. Their sheer presence tells us that the cold, dark winter is over.

I even saw a long wriggly worm slowly making it’s way across the sidewalk and taking a page out of my childlike husband’s book, I stopped to inspect it a little closer.

Those things are weird!

I realized as I walked that I was being captured by wonder and awe.
Kids have this down. Ever try going on a walk with a two or three year old? It’ll be a while. They find so many wonderful treasures.

(Photo from Kristin La Flamme’s Blog)

I am guilty, as are many adults, of often moving too quickly to notice the feathers up above, the squirmy and icky worm, and the music of the birds.

I’m glad I slowed down.

Technorati Tags: spring, robins, clouds, worms, slowing down

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It’s true: We are giving away a hot air balloon ride!

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In this episode, brought to you from studio 203 in Madison, Wisconsin, we interview Make It Great guy Phil Gerbyshak, who is an author, speaker, and President of the National Help Desk Association. We talk to Phil about mixing work and play on the job. We also discuss dodgeball, easter eggs, and lots of ways to have fun at work.

Show Notes:

• Check out Justonemorebook.com to discover some great read-aloud children’s books. • DIY Office Space (Business 2.0)

• Are Fun and Work Oxymoronic? by Christopher Noxon

• Learn how to add some more fun to your workplace with the classic book, Fish!

• Visit Phil Gerbyshak’s official website to learn more about him and how you can Make It Great! You may also want to get a copy of Phil’s book, 10 Ways to Make It Great!

• Phil also recommends Dogpoopinitiative.com

• Win a hot air balloon ride — participate in the Kim & Jason Easter Egg Hunt!

• Stop by the Clubhouse and discover all of the amazing benefits of the brand new Club K&J.

• Read the brand new blog by Jenna Regis, aka Chief Sales Servant. And don’t miss the awesome dodgeball video she recently shared. Oh, and check out Dodge ‘Em, our cool new desktop toy.

Win Stuff: A listener named Jennifer won a $20 gift certificate to the Lemonade Stand for answering the question, “What was your favorite children’s book as a kid?” (It was Mandy, by Julie Edwards, by the way.) You can win a $20 gift certificate to the Lemonade Stand by letting us know, “What is your favorite way to have fun at work?” E-mail us or leave us a message at 608-554-0803.

Vote For Us: We’d really really appreciate it if you took a few moments to vote for us over at Podcast Alley. Thanks!

Show Music: Coyote Sleeps by Ethan Elkind

Show Length: 47 minutes, 20 seconds

Shout Outs: Thanks to everyone who shared their favorite children’s books from the last episode, and Phil for the GREAT interview!

Feedback: We’d love to hear your thoughts! Add a comment below, e-mail us, or give us a jingle at 608-554-0803.

Technorati Tags: podcast, stress, escape adulthood, Adultitis, Ethan Elkind, Phil Gerbyshak, Make It Great, work, fun at work, dodgeball, easter egg hunt

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I wanted to officially invite you to check out a new blog that can be found here at KimandJason.com. aka Chief Sales Servant is written by Jenna Regis, one of my best friends who also happens to be the head honcho of The Kim & Jason Lemonade Stand. Her approach to customer service is remarkable, and I’m extremely proud to have her on the team.

Jenna’s blog will introduce some of our newest and coolest products and offer fun and insightful stories about her behind the scenes vantage point working here at JBiRD iNK. She truly does have a servant’s heart, and I think you’ll benefit greatly by reading her blog regularly. She also has a knack for finding really cool things, such as this AWESOME dodgeball themed video. You don’t want to miss it!

Technorati Tags: Jenna Regis, Kim & Jason Lemonade Stand, customer service, servant, dogeball

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Growing up, I was terribly shy and afraid of new situations. In high school, I became very anxious when I realized that there may be a very good chance that in order to pursue my dream of becoming a freelance illustrator, it might be necessary to move to a big city… alone. Something like that was galaxies away from my pretty small comfort zone, and just thinking about it petrified me.

With that being said, I am astounded that I am actually seriously considering a trip to the other side of the world. To Africa.

Ethiopia, to be exact.

Kim and I were in Colorado Springs this past week. We spent a free morning touring the headquarters of Compassion International, an organization that works to free children all over the world from the bondage of poverty. We also had the fortune of speaking with one of Compassion’s vice presidents about our past and current work with the organization, and possible opportunities for increased future involvement.

We’ve been sponsoring a boy from Ethiopia named Hailemariam (we call him Hal) for over eight years. It has been so cool to see him grow up over the years, and read about his development through his personal letters.

Compassion regularly arranges trips for people to go visit their sponsored children, and we recently heard that a trip to Ethiopia had been scheduled for early ‘08. It has been a pipe dream of ours to visit Hal someday.

In his last letter, Hal mentioned — for the first time — his desire to meet US someday.

Thursday’s Compassion visit stirred our hearts even more. The work they do is inspiring. Their outreach is child-centered, rather than community-centered, which may seem like semantics but is a important difference to us. They focus on impacting the physical, social, economic and spiritual aspects of children’s lives, championing a very smart, but deceptively simple approach to breaking the circle of poverty. Rather than just providing free food to satisfy their hunger (which is important), they are using their resources to help people help themselves, building up communities from the inside, using children as the catalyst.

Ever since recommitting myself to God when I was in college, I have slowly learned to notice and hear His gentle whispers. I have learned that He likes to move his children out of their comfort zones, but that He always provides enough tools and grace for the almost always frightening journey. And this nudge to visit Ethiopia is a whisper that grows ever louder as the days go by.

As far as Kim and I are concerned, the idea of traveling to Ethiopia has suddenly become a very real possibility. A lot of things could happen between now and then, but right now, the only sticking point is the price tag of anywhere from $4,000 - $8,000. -Gulp!- But we know that if it’s meant to be, it’ll somehow work out.

We both have a sense that we are destined for big things. We both have a sense that our involvement with Compassion will grow. And we both have a sense that a trip like this will change our lives forever, even though we don’t have a clue of what that transformation will look like. It simultaneously scares the stuffing out of me and makes me laugh at the anxiety I once felt about the prospects of relocating to Los Angeles…

For now, we’ll continue writing Hal encouraging letters, and sending him the photos he so loves to receive. And we will take the advice of the Compassion rep who showed us around, and let Hal know that we would like to visit him, too, and ask him to pray for us to do just that.

Because another thing I’ve learned about God over the years is that he listens to the prayers of children.

Technorati Tags: Compassion International, Africa, poverty, Ethiopia, faith, comfort zone, Colorado Springs

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Last week we were flying to Denver. We ended up missing our connecting flight in Chicago because our first flight of the day in Madison was delayed. We literally sprinted through O’Hare Airport to get to our gate (which was super far away) only to find the doors to the jet bridge being closed right before our eyes. One of the American Airlines workers saw us run up, huffing and puffing, and after finding out our names began typing in the computer. She didn’t say a word. We asked if we could still get on and she told us that our seats were already given away, as it was an overbooked flight.

Typing…more typing…no communicating.

About ten full minutes later, as the plane was backing away from the jet bridge, the woman at the counter handed us our new tickets for the next flight to Denver a few hours later. The woman had no emotion. No apology. No anything. She was about as pleasant as a robot. I asked her if this could’ve been avoided and tried to get some more information about their policies regarding connecting flights that have landed, knowing that the computer knew that we had landed and were making our way to the gate. She stated a rote corporate policy and handed us our tickets, as if to say, "Leave now." At least computers ask you, "Are you sure you want to exit?" This woman didn’t even give us much choice. Once a "robot worker" states corporate policy at you, there’s not much you can say. Game over.

I know I’m certainly not the first one to be frustrated with the airline’s "corporate policies" of overbooking their flights and whatnot, but one thing I am upset about is the lack of communication and emotion (and possibly a pulse). In the end, as we were finally boarding for our later flight, we looked closer at our new tickets to see what group we were in. The lady had managed to upgrade us to first class on this flight. That was a nice surprise and it immediately led us to wonder why in the world she wouldn’t have told us that when we were visually upset at the counter about their "corporate policies."

Lifeless and emotionless workers are poison. They poison their company, their coworkers, the general public, their families and their friends. It’s such a shame.

Here’s how it should’ve gone…

We get to the gate huffing and puffing. She notices that we had obviously ran to the gate trying to make the connection. She says, "I’m sorry to tell you, you just missed the chance to get on. We had to give your seat away because it was an overbooked flight. Let me see when the next flight goes out. (pause for typing) Hey, great news guys, I can get you first class seats on the next flight! Hopefully that will help ease the frustration of missing this flight."

That doesn’t seem very hard.

One could argue that her employer is to blame, as they are not doing a good enough job keeping their employees accountable to being friendly and helpful. One could argue that the government is to blame for working so closely with the airlines and making them so rigid, rote and corporate policy. One could also ague that this woman’s parents are to blame for raising her to lack general skills of kindness, consideration, and common sense.

I think this is a obvious case of Adultitis. This woman is in an advanced stage and is dealing with a Full-blown case.

The description for Full-blown Adultitis is as follows:
This is really serious. Your life is spiraling out of control and people no longer enjoy being around you.

It fits. She needs help. I should’ve given her a business card! If you are wondering what stage you are in or if you have any form of Adultitis, take a minute to find out.

Technorati Tags: Adultitis, empoyees, American Airlines, O’Hare, flying, customer service

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