How To Turn Hate Into Love

/ Alex Doriot / 2 Comments

What happens when the commercial you’ve produced to promote your graham cracker company ignites a firestorm over gay marriage?

You turn hate into love. 

Earlier this year Honey Maid released a commercial called “This Is Wholesome”. It depicted a number of modern families enjoying their products including an interracial family and a child with two dads.

(Click Here if you can’t see the video above)

Of course, as everything does on the internet these days, this simple commercial caused some extremists to lose their minds spouting off hateful tweets and emails about the company’s lack of morals.

It’s incredible. The things we work so hard on to share with the world can sometimes be completely rejected. What we planned to be beautiful and inspiring often becomes ugly and falls on deaf ears.

So what do you do when the gift you offer to the world gets rejected?

You do this: Continue reading →

How To Change Someone’s Life 35 Years From Now

/ Alex Doriot / 2 Comments

Here’s the weirdest headline you’ll see today:

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Yep. That’s international recording star Lorde and baseball Hall of Famer George Brett. Of all the people in the world to meet yesterday, they did too.

Here’s where it gets really weird. Apparently Lorde was inspired to write her smash hit song “Royals” because she saw a picture of George Brett in his Kansas City Royals uniform signing autographs to kids. So she wrote her song about fame and success and culled the idea of Royals from Brett’s jersey.

I’m not kidding. Apparently this is all true. 

There is no possible way George Brett could have known back in 1979 the just by doing his day job of playing baseball that he would one day inspire a 17-year-old from New Zealand to write the hit song that would make her famous. But it happened.

Here’s the lesson: Continue reading →

POP GOD POPcast: Episode 16 – Ellie Holcomb

/ Alex Doriot / 2 Comments

slide.001Welcome to Episode 16 of the POP GOD POPcast – an exploration of into the lives of people seeking God in the present tense.

This week’s guest is Ellie Holcomb. Ellie recently released her first full-length solo record entitled “As Sure As The Sun”. We talk about what led to her branching out from her husband and their band to record this album and the incredible amount of support she received. Ellie also shares how she came onto the music scene, her fears and doubts about hitting the road, the way a newborn changes everything, and what it’s like to have your music played at department stores across the country. Plus since it’s Ellie’s first solo album we play a game of Firsts to reveal some things you probably never knew about her like her first job, first concert, and more! Enjoy this deeper look inside the life of a musician truly seeking God in the present tense.

Listen to the podcast here:

Or Subscribe and Download on iTunes Or Listen on Podbean

Check out Ellie Holcomb’s site for tour information and pick up As Sure As The Sun on iTunes

Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, rate it, leave a comment, listen to all the other episodes, share it on Twitter and Facebook and anywhere else. I’d really appreciate it. Thanks.

I love sharing stories of people seeking God in the present tense. Let me hear your feedback. Leave me a comment and let me know how to improve things, what you’d like to hear discussed, and give me your ideas as to who you’d like to see on the next episode of the POPcast.

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The Only Coupon You’ll Ever Need

/ Alex Doriot / 3 Comments

IMG_3235There’s a sale going on this weekend.

The coupons are out there circulating around.

You may not be a charge card holder. You may not have gotten any in the mail. But if you search around you can find a good deal.

Yet some people will make their purchases this weekend without a coupon.

I don’t get it. When I work at the cash register I just want to scream at people to wait until there’s a sale or go find a coupon before making their big purchase.

Because believe me – if there’s not a sale today just give it a few days. There is one coming.

97% of the time what you think you need to buy today can wait until there’s a sale. I think Dave Ramsey told me that. Or maybe I just made it up. But it’s true.

Why would you buy anything without a coupon?  Continue reading →

6 Words To Remember When Nothing Make Sense

/ Alex Doriot / 1 Comment

Millais_Boyhood_of_RaleighI listen to a lot of podcasts. Sometimes with athletes, sometimes authors, sometimes celebrities. (And yes, sometimes professional wrestlers.)

I just love hearing people share their stories. The various paths to success and unexpected detours people face along the way that lead them to their current lot in life fascinate me.

As I listen to more and more of these interviews, there’s one phrase I hear repeated over and over again by the people telling their story- 6 words that I think more of us should remember when life throws us a curveball: Continue reading →

How To Stay Below Par

/ Alex Doriot / 1 Comment

IMG_4032.JPGBogey. Birdie. Duffer. Mulligan.

The world of golf is full of funny terminology.

I think the funniest of all is the word par.

I know par is not just a golf term. The definition of par is simply “an equality in value or standing”.

But when you hear the terms above par and below par, your mind travels to golf – especially if you live in Augusta.

When you say something is below par, you typically mean it’s below average. If you tell someone the lunch you had was really below par, you’re basically telling someone not to eat where you did.

This has always been confusing to me. Because in golf it’s the complete opposite. Continue reading →

The Difference Between Ultimate And Ordinary

/ Alex Doriot / 1 Comment

warrior_hof.0_cinema_1050.0The Ultimate Warrior is finally going into the WWE Hall Of Fame this year.

The Warrior is a bit of a controversial candidate for induction. He certainly was not an outstanding in-ring performer.

But there’s a reason why The Ultimate Warrior is remembered so fondly by a certain generation of wrestling fans.

The Ultimate Warrior dared to be different. 

While other wrestlers wore plain tights and boring boots to the ring, The Ultimate Warrior wore wacky tassels and neon colors and flashy face paint.

While other wrestlers walked slowly to the ring, The Ultimate Warrior rushed down the ramp like a wild animal unleashed.

While other wrestlers delivered promos like this: Continue reading →

Don’t Be A Diva

/ Alex Doriot / Leave a comment

 (It’s WrestleWeek on POP GOD! In celebration of Wrestlemania XXX this Sunday we’ll be looking at the intersection of faith and wrestling. You don’t have to be a fan to hop in the ring on this journey. Read on and see how this fake sport provides rich lessons for anyone who’s grappling with God.)

New-Total-Divas-LogoWrestling has pretty much always been a guy thing in my life.

So when my fiancé started getting into “Total Divas”, I was kind of excited.

“Total Divas” is a reality show on E! which focuses on the women of the WWE, their romantic relationships with other wrestlers, and all sorts of other backstage drama.

At first I thought it was just a great way for my fiancé to get excited about wrestling so she wouldn’t give me crap for watching it. Maybe she’d even want to watch wrestling with me sometime!

Then, of course, I got sucked into watching “Total Divas”.

You might think as an obsessive wrestling fan that I would love watching anything associated with WWE. And “Total Divas” does entertain me sometimes.

But mainly “Total Divas” just makes me mad because of how fake it is. Continue reading →

The One Lesson Anyone Can Learn From Wrestling

/ Alex Doriot / 1 Comment

P2- Hulk Hogan llega al ring en WrestleMania IIIIf I could sum up everything I’ve ever learned from pro wrestling in one sentence it would be this:

The face beats the heel. 

In wrestling terminology there are two types of characters – faces and heels.

The face (short for babyface) is the good guy. Think Hulk Hogan, The Ultimate Warrior, John Cena.

The heel is the villain. People like The Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase, Ric Flair, and Mr. McMahon were great heels.

Wrestling at it’s core is the story of a good guy versus a bad guy. Almost every single wrestling match in history consists of a face versus a heel. And the face beets the heel.

The heel may get the upper hand. He may vanquish a few good-hearted men along a path of destruction. But in the end the heel always goes down.

This is the cycle of wrestling, a never-ending story where the characters change but the outline stays the same each week. Continue reading →