Laurie Beth Jones

Laurie Beth Jones is an internationally acclaimed author and lecturer. She has published nine books, four of which-including the mega bestseller Jesus CEO and the newly-released The Four Elements of Success. Her titles also include The Path, Jesus Life Coach, Jesus in Blue Jeans, Teach your Team to Fish and Jesus Entrepreneur.

Ms. Jones has been the keynote speaker at hundreds of national venues for corporate, philanthropic and leadership conferences and meetings. She has lectured professionally since 1990, and is heralded as an inspiring and practical sage who brings everyday wisdom into boardrooms, the workplace, classrooms and homes.

After launching and running her own successful advertising agency for 15 years, Laurie Beth Jones burst onto the national scene with Jesus CEO, a book which espoused bringing spiritual principles back into the business world. That book, and subsequent ones that followed, spent more than thirteen months on the Business Week Bestseller List.

Using practical wisdom, grounded humor and reality-based thinking, Ms. Jones has become one of the world’s leading consultants for businesses that want to take their work, and their workers, to unparalleled levels of performance, satisfaction and success.

Her work has reached as high as the White House, the Pentagon, the halls of the US Congress and Senate, as well as the depths of workers in the streets of Calcutta, Bosnia and South Africa. She has been called upon my billionaires and kings, pastors, students, housewives and prisoners to help discern their spiritual path, and live out her mission daily, which is to “recognize, promote, and inspire the divine connection in myself and others.

Learn more about Laurie at lauriebethjones.com.

Pamela Bolen

Psychotherapist Pamela J. Bolen is a popular speaker at churches, school districts and corporate events. She has been speaking since the age of 17 with a conviction that her audience must be entertained if they are going to learn anything! Her down-to-earth and humorous style is an instant hit wherever she goes.

In addition to speaking, Pamela actively counsels individuals, couples and families. She has been in private practice since she was 21 years old. Her credentials include Licensed Professional Counselor, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Board Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist and Certified Mental Health Service Provider in the Field of Sports Counseling. All her licenses were achieved in Texas.

Pamela graduated from Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth, Texas with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology. She then attended Texas Woman’s University in Denton, Texas and graduated with a Master’s degree in Psychology. Pamela has been married to Dr. Carlos Ramirez for 23 years. They have 3 wonderful teenagers. Pamelabolen.com.

Learn more about Pamela at pamelabolen.com.

Allison Bottke

When Allison Bottke’s life changed, it wasn’t merely another bend in the journey. It was a brake-locking, tire-screaming U-turn in the middle of a fast moving highway in order to head in a completely opposite direction. Affectionately known as the “God Allows U-Turns Poster Girl,” Allison’s story is one of triumph over tragedy. A frequent guest on radio and TV programs around the country, the 700 Club featured her life story in what has become one of their highest rated programs ever, and she has appeared on the covers of such national magazines as Writer’s Digest, BOND, Obesity Health (OH), The Christian Communicator and Christian Women Online (CWO).

Allison heads up God Allows U-Turns, an international outreach that includes books, tracts, logo merchandise, a line of greeting cards, a speaking ministry and a foundation. The cornerstone of God Allows U-Turns is an inspirational book series many are calling “the next Chicken Soup.” The God Allows U-Turns book series is available around the world with over a dozen books in the U-Turns “brand” currently available for adults, kids and youth. Allison’s first novel in the “hip-lit” genre, A Stitch in Time premiered in 2006, as well as a new non-fiction book, I Can’t Do It All, based on the lies women believe being co-written with Tracie Peterson and Dianne O’Brian. Her second novel, One Little Secret, was released in August 2007. With her move to fiction, Allison has defined the genre of “Contemporary women’s fiction-with-an-attitude!” Her next non-fiction book, Setting Boundaries with Your Adult Children, released February 2008. Allison speaks and teaches at conferences and writer’s events around the country, often attending as an Acquisitions Editor for books in the God Allows U-Turns true short story compilation book series.

Prior to her full-time writing and speaking career, Allison made her primary living as a professional fund-raiser for non-profit organizations. She also writes for the stage and screen, with several of her plays produced on Southern California stages and she is presently completing a romantic comedy screenplay. Allison is married, has 4 children and lives a suburb of Dallas, Texas.

Learn more about Allison at sanitysupport.com.

Jody Capehart

Jody Capehart has been involved in education for over 35 years. She has started several private Christian schools in the Dallas area over the past 37 years including Grace Academy, Prestonwood Christian Academy in Plano, and Legacy Christian Academy in Frisco, TX and served as their administrators. She served as a minister to children for 8 years and has been involved with Child Evangelism for 25 years. Jody is the author of 12 books/video series on education and parenting, including Teaching With Heart (Gold Medallion Nominee), Discipline by Design, You and Your ADD Child, Cherishing and Challenging Your Children. She is currently writing books on brain research and Christian Charm for Girls. She is the Director of the Biblical Counseling Training Program for Hope for the Heart in Dallas, Texas, and serves as the Founder and Ambassador for Legacy Christian Academy.

Jody’s wisdom, education training and experience, warmth, humor and practical ideas make her a popular speaker for conferences. Jody is the Education Host for the new webTV4Women which launches in January. Jody’s heart-felt goal is to equip educators, empower parents, energize grandparents, and encourage children and teens as she provides enriching education programs on the Education Channel.

Jody’s ministry is Capehart Connection and her website is capehartconnection.com.

Shaunti Feldhahn

Shaunti Feldhahn is a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist, public speaker, and a
best-selling author of For Women Only. Shaunti holds a masters degree in public policy
from Harvard University, and worked on Wall Street and Capitol Hill before becoming a
surprise bestselling non-fiction author in 1998. This wife of attorney and co-author Jeff
Feldhahn and mother of two, now applies her analytical skills to illuminating those
important, surprising truths that people really need to understand about each other.

Her books for adults include For Women Only, For Men Only and For Parents Only; and for
teens – For Young Women Only and For Young Men Only. Each book is based on a
nationwide survey and more than1,000 personal interviews. The result: candid
expressions of the difficult-to-communicate-but-true inner feelings and thoughts of the
men, women and teens surveyed.

What makes Shaunti’s books and speaking events so successful is her ability to communicate so clearly what she learned from the survey about the inner longings, the reasons behind the exasperating words, and what your spouse or teen would tell you if only they could trust you to truly listen … what they say will surprise you! Shaunti’s newest book in the works is for women in the workplace, Hidden in Plain Sight: What Men in the Workplace Are Thinking But Will Never Tell
You, to be released January 2010. This book is a startling exploration of what men
privately think in the workplace but rarely share; perceptions that often fundamentally
affect their female colleagues. Shaunti is now speaking to corporate groups and sharing
this new research, so that women in the workplace can avoid unintentional self-sabotage
and be particularly effective and influential with male bosses, colleagues, clients or
subordinates.

Ron Hall

As a graduate of TCU, I managed to avoid classes on art, literature, or creative writing while pursuing fraternity parties…which made my resume prime for the job of Private in Uncle Sam’s Army. With a little smooth talkin´ I landed a job in Colorado as a TOP SECRET nuclear weapons inspector! Using all the skills I learned in the Army, back in Fort Worth I landed a job selling Campbell soup. I dusted off Tomato Soup cans for $500 per month, while Andy Warhol made millions in New York painting them! In 1969, I married Deborah Short, my college sweetheart, who was embarrassed by the feather duster I had to carry in my back pocket, so I quit and got an MBA to become a municipal bond trader at the local bank.

In 1971, in Houston on a mission to buy water and sewer bonds for my bank, I happened on an art gallery where I bought my first original oil painting. Eighty-nine days later, under pressure, I sold it for a $2,000 profit, accidentally launching my art career. Actually, Debbie threatened to divorce me after finding out that I bought it on a 90 day loan by pledging the 50 shares of Ford stock her daddy gave her for a graduation present. I used the entire profit to smooth her ruffled feathers with diamonds and furs!

After twenty-five years I put art on the back burner to chase my dream of being a cowboy. My days were filled with ranching, team roping, cowboy poetry and anything else Debbie asked me to do, like being Denver’s friend. After her death in November 2000, and unable to sleep, I began writing the book and making sculpture. I would stay up writing all night, and when writer’s block set in I would fashion tiny sculptures from card board, Post-it-Notes, straight pins, Elmer’s glue and paper clips. One day I took these to a welding shop near the ranch and with the help of a real welder began making them into large steel sculptures, “yard art” as my cowboy friends like to call it.

But with the success of our book Same Kind of Different as Me, I no longer find time for welding, selling or anything else but carrying Debbie’s torch to cities all across America and playin´ with grand kids who have tagged me “Rocky Pop.”

And thanks to folks from coast to coast the books are selling as fast as we can print them. That’s the good news. However, most of the sculptures haven’t found a home so they dot the landscape at Rocky Top providing buzzard roosts until the Sierra Club finds them unnatural and demands their removal.