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Today's guest blogger is Suzanne Schmieding, our Regional Conference Speaker in Philadelphia, PA.

Last month marked my 2-year anniversary with Logos. I thank God for this company and the Bible software Bob and Dale Pritchett and their families have brought to the world. They have hired a team of nearly 200 employees, all working to help send Logos Bible Software around the world.

I first became aware of Logos Bible Software in 1999. Right away, I saw the magnitude and potential of this biblical software. Not only had I already owned and regularly used several other Bible software programs, I had already graduated Valley Forge Christian College in 1993 with a B.S. in Bible and was working in ministry. But after purchasing Logos' top-of-the-line package—which at that time was Scholar’s Library—I didn’t need the other Bible programs anymore. Logos did it all and more.

Having worked in sales over 25 years, I called Logos and asked if they had any job openings for sales representatives. At that time, I was told there were no openings. That shot my idea down, or so I thought. God is so good; 7 years later, I was looking for jobs online and saw an ad for a Logos Bible Software Field Sales Representative for the Philadelphia, PA area. I jumped at the chance to send in my resume, and the rest is history.

Now, as a Regional Conference Speaker for Logos, it is my job to present Logos at churches and conferences and to area pastors, church leadership, lay leaders, and Sunday school teachers—really to anyone who will listen to me. I talk about God wherever I am, and I always mention Logos, the best Bible software in the world. How can you talk about God and not talk about the Bible? When I talk about God, Logos Bible Software comes up. They work hand in hand.

There have been many wonderful experiences in my 2 years with Logos, but let me tell you of just this one. It symbolizes what I have found over and over again. When people buy Logos, they are excited, inspired, and grateful for what Logos can do for them and their walk with God. I recently went to a conference and a youth leader came up to me and told me (paraphrased), “You inspired me to dig into God’s Word using Logos when you came to my church a year ago. I saw the passion that you have and the tears in your eyes when you spoke of God’s love and how using Logos would inspire us to know God more intimately so I purchased Logos, and I was glad I did!” He said, “I’m not just saying this; it was your passionate presentation that inspired me to buy Logos and to study and draw closer to God.” Then he thanked me.

His words touched my heart. That is what I want for everyone; to see how Logos can transform their relationship with God. I think I have the best job: to be able to help people see and learn about the love of God more than they ever thought they could. Logos Bible Software transforms sermon preparation, personal Bible study, and theological research. It enables you to dig even deeper into the riches of God’s Word within seconds, so you can learn to be everything God wants you to be in Him, all for the glory of God.

Regional Conference Speakers introduce the Body of Christ to Logos Bible Software and promote and facilitate deeper study of God’s Word. It would be our privilege to come to your church, ministry, school or community event to conduct a Logos Bible Study Workshop. There is no cost for these events, and in fact, those in attendance will receive a discount on their purchase of a Logos base package. Our speakers are located in:

• Atlanta
• Chicago
• Dallas
• Los Angeles
• Philadelphia
• Seattle

If you live near any of our locations, give us a call today, and make arrangements with Andy Anderson at 800-875-6467 ext. 2334 or aanderson@logos.com.

I’m Kent Hendricks, and I work in the marketing department here at Logos, where I’m responsible for marketing Pre-Pubs. I spend most of my days in the office researching books and authors, writing and editing copy, and corresponding with bloggers, Logos users, authors, and just about anyone I can find to help us promote the books we sell. In fact, many of you have probably already heard from me in the form of Last Chance NewsWires announcing soon-to-be-shipping Pre-Pubs. Now, I’ll be contributing regularly to the blog as well, so I hope you look forward to hearing more from me. :)

My wife, Shelly, and I moved back to northwest Washington two years ago after spending six years in Grand Rapids, Michigan at Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary, where I got an undergraduate degree in Religion and English, took lots of Greek and linguistics classes, and almost finished an M.Div. (I’m still working on that last one.)

Since I can’t resist a little name dropping, some major works by a couple of my former professors are currently on Pre-Pub—Richard Muller’s Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics and Herman Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics. True, Herman Bavinck isn’t a professor at Calvin Seminary, but John Bolt is, and he’s the editor of the new English translation of RD. There are also some other great books in the works that I can’t tell you about yet, but keep checking the Pre-Pub page to find out when they’re available!

Rick Brannan is no stranger to longtime users and readers of the Logos blog. He’s been with Logos since 1993 and is approaching his 16th anniversary of employment with the company. Rick is an information architect in our design and editorial department and blogs at Ricoblog and PastoralEpistles.com.

Though he’s a regular contributor to the Logos blog and has done dozens of videos, most of his posts and videos are about Greek and not about Rick. In this People behind the Product video, you’ll get to find out a little bit about one of Logos’ earliest employees.

Other Posts about Rick:

• Video Interview with Rick: What's So Cool about the LGNTI?
• Fourteen Years and Counting
• Time for an Introduction

So far we’ve introduced you to Deborah Mickens, Jim Straatman, and Jana Gering. In today’s People behind the Product video, you’ll meet Jim-Ray Higginson, one of our end-user sales representatives.

It’s been a while since the last post in our People behind the Product series, but you should start seeing more in the months to come. In this brief interview, you’ll meet Jana Gering, the project manager for our Electronic Text Development department, a past guest blogger here, and the winner of this year’s chili cook-off.

YouTube is currently being a little finicky. If you get the message, "An error occurred, please try again later," try clicking the little HQ button, which should launch the video in high quality.

After posting a couple videos on the blog, I realized that I hadn't actually introduced myself (and neither had Phil . . . thanks Phil). So, by way of introduction, I'm Ryan Burns, and I'm the new guy in the office. I joined Logos about 2 months ago and have been loving it up here. I say, "up here" because prior to taking this job at Logos I was attending a Seminary 3,200 miles from Bellingham, in the sunny city of Orlando, FL. Now, while I do occasionally miss the sun, I'm more than happy to trade the sun for the cool temperature and amazing beauty of the Pacific Northwest. That, and Logos has a sweet coffee maker, and I love coffee.

In all seriousness though, I'm really thrilled to be a part of the Logos family. I've been a user of Logos for a little over a year, and every day I get more and more excited about our product. Most specifically though, I'm excited about Logos for Mac. As a mac user myself, I've had to join many of you in booting up windows on my mac in order to run Logos. Thankfully, mac users, our day is coming . . . soon. With beta testing wrapped up, the second release candidate being run through the ringer, and pre-orders coming in daily, the finish line is in sight. It is almost here.

While it might sound silly, I think the thing I'm most excited about is being able to quickly launch Logos. I mean, no more starting Parallels and waiting. Starting windows and waiting. Logging in and waiting. Then, finally, getting to start Logos. In all, it usually took me 4 or 5 minutes to go through that whole fiasco just to run my beloved Logos. Top that off with the fact that I never really figured out how to run parallels efficiently and probably have far too few system resources allocated to it, thus Logos (and all my other Windows programs) always run slow. That friends, however, is all about to change. Soon, we'll all simply look down in our dock (unless you put your dock on the side) and with one simple click of the mouse, we'll be running Logos. That is just beautiful.

So, mac users, be excited. Our day is coming. If you haven't pre-ordered, there is still time. And, I'd also remind you about our special deal for those of you who are already Logos users and are crossgrading.

These are exciting times at Logos. I'm happy to be here and be part of the family. And every day I come into work I sit down at my desk, pull my Macbook out of my bag, place it on the corner of my desk, and launch the latest build of Logos for Mac. It is my way of saying, "I love Logos . . . and I Iove it on my mac."

Today we continue our People behind the Product series. In this interview we meet Jim Straatman, Logos' IT Manager. As you'll see, Jim is an avid biker. However, what didn't make the cut in today's video are Jim's mad scooter skills. A lesser known fact about the IT department is that there is a large space in the work area that is perfect for scooter races. It's no Indy 500, but winning a few laps around the desks can earn you some serious respect. Next time you drop by our office, be sure to challenge Jim to a race.

I'm a people person. Maybe it comes from my years as a college pastor, but I really love to just sit down and hear people's stories. Finding out the little (and big) things in people's lives makes me appreciate them at a level that is deeper than the passing, "Hey, how ya doing? Nice weather today, huh?"

So, as a new employee at Logos, I've enjoyed getting the chance to meet lots of new people. It got me thinking that maybe some of you would like to meet them as well. I mean, sure, knowing that the VP of marketing is a die hard Flyers fan and top-notch ping pong player or that most of the customer service department has a Nerf gun at their desk won't help you with your Anderson-Forbes syntax resources or getting more out of your Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary but it might help you get to know some of the people who help make Logos more than just a software company.

With that in mind, we're going to start a regular feature on the Logos blog that will introduce you to some of the people behind Logos Bible Software. From kite surfers to PhDs, you'll get a chance to see Logos from a whole new angle. We hope you enjoy it.

For our first video I want to introduce you to Deborah. Deborah is a member of our customer service department and has been with Logos for a little over a year. Here is some footage from when I stopped by her desk the other day.

From time to time we like to give you the opportunity to get to know the people here at Logos. Today we want to introduce you to Dave Kaplan. Dave has been with Logos since December of 1993, just four months short of veteran Rick Brannan, who recently celebrated 14 years at Logos. The way Logos takes care of its employees and the great people and work environment are two things that make Dave love working at Logos.

Dave spends most of his time on the phone talking with our wonderful customers. Interacting with so many different people makes his job a joy, but he finds it especially rewarding knowing that he is helping to provide thousands of people with a phenomenal tool that can assist them in their walk with God.

In his spare time, Dave enjoys playing chess, which he describes as "the most personal game ever invented," and building Popsicle stick houses and burning them down with his son, Gregory (so he can learn how quickly a fire can consume a house). He also loves peppers and usually has a couple in his pocket.

"Kaplanisms"

Dave is perhaps best known by those in the sales department for his unique sayings, affectionately called "Kaplanisms." Dave has a gift—a lot like Yogi Berra did—of unintentionally modifying well-known expressions, combining them together, or just making up his own!

Here's an example. One morning Dave came into the office apparently wearing too much cologne, and the other guys were giving him a hard time. Dave responded, "I only put a dab on both of my necks."

The guys in the sales department have been compiling a list of sayings over the last year or so. We were originally going to share them anonymously, but the guys were able to convince Dave that he might get some good publicity and increase his sales!

So without further ado, here are Dave's "Kaplanisms":

• Talking with a customer whom he couldn't understand at all: "I’m as deaf as a bat!"
• "I cannot count the countless evenings I spent talking . . . ."
• Trying to convince a customer: "Sir, I can assure you that I seriously doubt I can’t make you happy."
• "That’s like shootin' an arrow through a bale of hay and not hittin' any straw!"
• Explaining to customers to wait until they get the software before worrying about how to install it: "You’re trying to land an airplane, and we haven’t even gotten into the cockpit yet."
• Explaining to customers to close down the software before installing an update: "It’s like changing the spark plugs while the motor is runnin'."
• " . . . as happy as a tornado in a cornfield."
• "I walked outside this morning and my woods smelled so woodsy!"
• "If someone buys you a car, you don’t really own it."
• "For once I’m finishing my day with my i’s crossed and my t’s . . . how does that saying go again?"
• "Let's get down to logic here."
• "I can guarantee you we don’t print like the other guy’s software!"
• "That’s on Pre-Publication—that’s short for Pre-Pub."
• "Yeah, it’s all over. Now I can stop being less paranoid."
• "I heard very clearly, in my peripheral vision, someone say . . . ."
• "Are you ready for this? Let me put it this way . . . . I will say this . . . ."
• "That's as messed up as a soup sandwich."
• Telling people about his flight to Belgium: "It was a 9 hour drive flying!"

During my interview with Dave, I had the privilege of experiencing a new "Kaplanism" firsthand. Dave explained why he never oversells or undersells, but always directs people to the product that is best suited for them: "I have to sleep with myself at night" (an obvious conflation of "I have to live with myself" and "I have to sleep at night").

If you know Dave or have dealt with him on the phone, leave him a message in the comments!

If you'd like to work with one of Logos' best sales employees, you can reach Dave directly at (360) 685-2304.