Jeff Calloway

Exactly!

Well, this was a pretty nice way to start the week! A special thank you to the The News-Herald and Jean Bonchak for taking the time to share the story behind *Saturday Morning Leadership*. When I started writing about the lessons we can learn from the cartoon characters we grew up with, I never imagined I'd end up in the newspaper holding a Charlie Brown doll! But that's part of what makes this journey so much fun. Sometimes the simplest stories have a way of teaching us lessons that stick with us for a lifetime. I'm grateful for the opportunity to share a little of that story with our Lake County community. Thanks again, Jean, and everyone at The News-Herald! news-herald.com/2026/11/02/l…

My next newsletter "More Than Getting Well" is coming tomorrow. Subscribe to get it and stay in the loop on everything I'm creating. jeff-calloway.kit.com

Seven months earlier, I wasn't sure I'd ever feel normal again. In May 2019, I went into the hospital for what was supposed to be a relatively routine colon surgery. What followed was a nightmare of complications, emergency surgery, infections, an ileostomy, and months of recovery. By August, I'd lost 35 pounds and was seriously ill. Then a surgeon named Dr. Patrick Huck entered my life. Before he operated, I had just one request: I wanted to be strong enough to walk my daughter Emily down the aisle at her October wedding. He told me he didn't think that would be a problem. He was right. And by December, Julie and I were walking all 3.1 miles of Cleveland's A Christmas Story 5K with our neighbors. That's us in the picture, proudly showing off our medals. But there's more to this story, including a surgeon who rarely smiled, an unusual companion named George, and a farewell message that finally made an entire operating room laugh. My latest installment of The Heroes Who Showed Up is about Dr. Huck, the man who helped me get back on my feet. Read “The Surgeon Who Got Me Back on My Feet” here: jeffcalloway.com/the-surgeon… #TheHeroesWhoShowedUp #Gratitude #Recovery

DID YOU KNOW LUCY ACTUALLY LET CHARLIE BROWN KICK THE FOOTBALL? Yep. It really happened. For years, Lucy held the football for Charlie Brown, promised she wouldn't pull it away, and then did exactly what we all expected. Charlie Brown would come running, Lucy would yank the ball away, and poor Charlie Brown would end up flat on his back. But in July 1979, Charles Schulz did something different. Charlie Brown had been sick. Lucy promised that if he got well, she would never pull the football away again. And when the moment finally came, she kept her word. She held the football. Charlie Brown came running, swung his leg with everything he had, and... Missed. Not because Lucy pulled the ball away. She didn't. Charlie Brown simply missed the football and kicked Lucy's hand instead! I love that story. And the older I get, the more I appreciate what Schulz was showing us. Sometimes we spend years waiting for an opportunity. We keep trying, keep hoping, and keep getting knocked down. We tell ourselves that if we could just get one fair chance, everything would finally work out. And then the opportunity comes. And we still miss. I've lived long enough to know that getting back up doesn't guarantee you'll succeed the next time. Sometimes you get knocked down again. Sometimes you make the wrong decision. Sometimes, despite your best efforts, things simply don't work out. But that doesn't mean you stop trying. The lesson isn't that you'll eventually kick the football. It's that you don't let missing it become the end of your story. That's one of the reasons I wrote Saturday Morning Leadership: What Cartoon Characters Can Teach Us About Life, Leadership, and Getting Back Up. In the book, I revisit familiar cartoon characters and the surprising lessons they have to teach us about perseverance, relationships, purpose, leadership, and life. Charlie Brown is where the journey begins. If you've ever had the football pulled away—or finally had your chance and missed anyway—I think you'll find something in these pages that speaks to you. Get your copy of Saturday Morning Leadership today and btw - see the cartoon strips showing Charlie's attempt at kicking the football. SaturdayMorningLeadership.co… And tell me something: Have you ever finally gotten the opportunity you were waiting for, only to discover it didn't turn out the way you expected?

Photo to be used in upcoming newspaper article - will keep you posted

**Remember Saturday mornings when the biggest decision was which cartoon to watch first?** Charlie Brown, Winnie the Pooh, Batman, and a whole cast of familiar characters entertained us as kids. Funny thing is, I've discovered they still have quite a bit to teach us as adults. That's what inspired my book, *Saturday Morning Leadership: What Cartoon Characters Can Teach Us About Life, Leadership, and Getting Back Up.* But I didn't want the conversation to end with the last page. So I've created a little more room for us to keep it going. **The Book** introduces the stories and lessons about resilience, responsibility, relationships, purpose, and the choices we make. **The Companion Website** takes those lessons further with behind-the-scenes stories, photographs, reflections, discussion questions, and practical ways to put what we've learned into action. Because sooner or later, we all ask, "Yes, but how?" **Saturday Morning Notes** is my newsletter, delivered to your inbox on Saturday mornings. Think of it as pulling up a chair, pouring another cup of coffee, and having a conversation about life. I'll share personal stories, a little humor, things I'm learning (sometimes the hard way), and an occasional question worth carrying into the week ahead. You don't have to own the book to subscribe, and there's no homework or endless stream of emails. Just a few minutes together on a Saturday morning. The book is where the conversation begins. The companion website is where we dig a little deeper. And Saturday Morning Notes is how we stay in touch. I'd love for you to join me. **Sign up for Saturday Morning Notes at:** jeff-calloway.kit.com/profil… The coffee's on you. The stories are on me.

There are hidden Easter eggs on the cover of Saturday Morning Leadership. So far, nobody has figured them all out. Can you spot them? I'm not giving any hints… yet!

From @FacingEastMin I think it's time for Christians in America and throughout the West to abandon conservatism and go back to being CHRISTIANS... Because Politics Is A False Religion. And I know that's going to upset some people, so before you ruffle all of the pages in your bible, read the whole thing... and hear me out. We don't need to be conservatives if we're Christians, because Christianity is already an entire and superior governmental system and way of life. It has its own moral standards, its own understanding of government, its own economic principles, and its own way of caring for people and building communities. In fact, historically, being a Christian meant understanding that you were part of something separate from the secular state and its affairs. Your first allegiance was to Christ and His Church, and that came with certain responsibilities. We supported our own. We cared for our own. We took care of the widows and orphans, the homeless and hungry, those who were sick and those who were in prison. We understood that being a Christian meant more than believing certain things about Jesus. It meant actually living as He commanded us to live. And so, in a sense, we don't need socialism or capitalism to tell us how to live. Sure, we participate in economic systems, and personally, I believe a free market society is probably the best means of creating the resources necessary to accomplish many of these things. But Christianity already tells us what we're supposed to do with those resources and what our obligations are to one another. All of these other "isms" have become sources of division, and I think we've allowed them to shape our Christianity rather than allowing our Christianity to shape how we engage with the world. And here's where I think one of the biggest problems is, especially among evangelical Christians and those who identify as Protestants today. They rejected the Pope, only to now replace him with the President... Think about that for a minute. They moved away from the Catholic Church and rejected the idea of being under the spiritual leadership of the Pope, but somehow, over time, many have placed themselves under the spiritual influence and leadership of the president, a political party, or some political movement. And this happens on BOTH sides. For those on the left, whether they're liberals, progressives, or Democrats, their political leaders and movements often determine what is culturally and morally acceptable, and increasingly, what their Christianity is supposed to look like. And the same thing happens on the right, among conservatives, Republicans, and those who want to "Make America Great Again." Their political leaders have become the voices they look to for direction, for what they should stand for, what they should oppose, and even how they should understand certain moral and spiritual issues. So instead of looking to Christ and the teachings of His Church, they're looking to the STATE. And that's what I find so troubling. We've gotten to a place where the secular state and its political institutions are helping determine what Christians believe, what they defend, what they condemn, and sometimes even which parts of Christianity they're willing to practice. And somehow we've convinced ourselves that this is what it means to stand up for the faith. I believe with my whole heart that Christians need to abandon this way of thinking. We need to abandon this obsession with being conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat, right or left, and get back to simply being CHRISTIANS.

Some heroes wear scrubs. Mine showed up at my front door In May 2019, after two major surgeries and 13 days in the hospital, I came home facing a recovery that would prove far more difficult than anyone imagined. That's when I met Christel Hamilton. She was assigned to be my home healthcare nurse. What neither of us knew was that over the next several months, she would become much more than that. There were painful days, frustrating setbacks, conversations around our kitchen table, laughter, and prayers. And there was one particular Monday in August when Christel made a decision I'll never forget. But our story didn't end when my medical care did. A few days ago, Christel posted a picture of her copy of Saturday Morning Leadership and mentioned wanting me to sign it. Christel, I'll gladly sign your book. But first, there's something I've wanted to tell you. I've written a personal letter to Christel on my blog. It's the first in a series I'm calling **The Heroes Who Showed Up**, about some remarkable people who helped me through one of the most difficult seasons of my life. That's us in the picture, on her last day as my home healthcare nurse. She came into our lives because I needed a nurse. She stayed because she became a friend. Read the full story: Dear Christel, You Were One of My Heroes DON'T JUST READ THIS POST WITHOUT CLICKING THE LINK - TRUST ME :) jeffcalloway.com/dear-christ…

Well, it took a little longer than I expected, but you can now order a personally signed copy of Saturday Morning Leadership directly from me! I've had several people ask about signed copies, so I finally got everything set up on my website. You can choose a simple signature or have me personalize the book for you or someone you're giving it to. If you haven't picked up a copy yet, Saturday Morning Leadership takes some familiar cartoon characters—Charlie Brown, Winnie the Pooh, Batman, Uncle Iroh, Phineas and Ferb, and a few others—and looks at what they can teach us about life, leadership, perseverance, and getting back up when life knocks us down. There's a little nostalgia, plenty of stories, and practical things you can put to work in your own life. Signed paperback: $19.99 + $4.99 shipping anywhere in the U.S. Order yours here: jeffcalloway.com/signed-copy… I'll personally sign it, package it, and send it your way. And thank you to everyone who has encouraged me, purchased a book, shared a post, or taken the time to leave a review. I appreciate it more than you know. Jeff Bring your own coffee. ☕

I realized something this week. I've spent a lot of time telling you the stories behind Saturday Morning Leadership — how it came together, why I wrote it, and some of the lessons inside it. But I've probably been pretty lousy at doing one simple thing: Asking you to buy the book. 🙂 So I'm asking. If you've enjoyed the stories I've shared, if leadership matters to you, or if you're in one of those seasons where you could use a reminder to keep getting back up, I'd love for you to read Saturday Morning Leadership. It's not really a book about cartoon characters. It's a book about us — resilience, contentment, courage, wisdom, creativity, persistence, and figuring out what matters as we make our way through life. And if you've already bought and read it, could I ask one more favor? Please take a couple of minutes and leave an Amazon review. Those reviews make a bigger difference for a new book than most people realize. You can get Saturday Morning Leadership here: a.co/d/0bl21i3w Thanks to everybody who has encouraged me, bought a copy, shared a post, or told somebody about the book. I really do appreciate it. Now I'm going to get better at actually asking people to buy the thing. 😄

Some trips end when you get home. Others don't. I’ve been home from Mexico City for a little while now, and I’m finding that I’m still carrying pieces of the trip with me. The people. The conversations. The opportunities. The food — definitely the food. But mostly I keep thinking about how easy it is to settle into the little world we build around ourselves. Our routines. Our people. Our problems. Our plans. Then you go somewhere different, sit across the table from someone whose life looks nothing like yours, and discover how much you have in common. I went to Mexico City hoping I might be useful. I came home reminded that sometimes the person who goes to help is the one who gets changed. I’m still figuring out what all of that means. At 65, I kind of like knowing there are still experiences that can rearrange a few things inside you. Maybe that’s part of staying alive — not just breathing, but remaining willing to be changed. I wrote a little more about something that happened in Mexico City that I haven't been able to shake. jeffcalloway.com/they-starte…

My next newsletter "They Started Calling Her Oma" is coming tomorrow. Subscribe to get it and stay in the loop on everything I'm creating. jeff-calloway.kit.com

Hey — quick favor. If you've had a chance to read any of Saturday Morning Leadership, would you consider leaving an honest review on Amazon? I'm learning pretty quickly that reviews make a real difference in helping a new book get discovered. It doesn't need to be long or polished — just a few sentences about what you thought of it. And genuinely, I'm asking for an honest review, not a five-star review. I appreciate you reading it in the first place. amazon.com/review/create-rev…

Bobby is in the book. I won’t tell you where, you will have to read it 😁

For the better part of the last year, I’ve spent an awful lot of time with Charlie Brown, Winnie the Pooh, Batman, Uncle Iroh, Moana, Phineas and Ferb, Geppetto, Sam I Am and Grandpa Phil. That’s a strange sentence for a 64-year-old man to write. 😂 Somewhere along the way, though, those characters became more than the cartoons I remembered from Saturday mornings. I started seeing things in them I hadn’t noticed when I was a kid. Charlie Brown kept getting back up. Pooh seemed perfectly content with a very small world and a few good friends. Batman understood that having the ability to do something creates a responsibility to do something. Iroh had learned enough from his failures that he no longer needed to pretend he had all the answers. Seeing those things was the easy part. Writing them down was harder. There’s a romantic idea about writing a book — a quiet room, a cup of coffee and somebody sitting at a desk while brilliant thoughts somehow find their way onto the page. There were a few mornings like that. There were also a lot of mornings when I read something I had written the day before and wondered who in the world had written that garbage. 😂 Then I’d fix it. And sometimes fixing it made it worse. Somewhere in all that writing and rewriting, I came up with a question that eventually became the standard for the whole book: Yes—but how? It wasn’t enough to say Charlie Brown teaches us resilience. How do you actually get back up when life knocks you down? It wasn’t enough to say Pooh teaches contentment. What does contentment look like on Monday morning when you’re already thinking about the next thing you want? And it wasn’t enough for Iroh to be wise. How do the rest of us recognize the wisdom we’ve already paid for through our own mistakes? That question made the book harder to write. It also made it better. Eventually, though, you reach the strangest part of writing a book: You have to stop writing it. There will always be another sentence you could change, another story you could polish, another idea you could squeeze in. At some point you have to decide the thing you’ve been making is ready to leave your hands. That happened for me this week. Saturday Morning Leadership is out there now. Charlie Brown, Pooh and the rest of them aren’t sitting on my computer anymore. They’re sitting on somebody else’s nightstand, riding around in somebody’s Kindle, or maybe waiting beside somebody’s Saturday morning cup of coffee. And now those readers get to decide what the stories mean to them. That’s both a little terrifying and a whole lot of fun. Maybe you aren’t writing a book. But I’ll bet there’s something you’ve thought about making, starting, writing, building or doing. What’s keeping you from beginning? Or maybe the harder question: How will you know when it’s time to stop making it better and finally let it go?

I handed Julie a copy of Saturday Morning Leadership and asked her if she could find the Easter egg I hid on the cover. She looked for a minute and found the fingerprint. Nope. 😂 There’s another one. It’s hidden in plain sight, and I’m pretty sure most people will look right at it without realizing it means anything at all. If you have a copy of the book, take a good look at the cover — front, back and spine. See if you can figure out what doesn’t quite belong. And if you do figure it out, there’s still another question to answer: Why is it there? If you think you’ve got it, send me a message. But please don’t give it away in the comments. I’m curious who finds it first. 😄