I was at the beach house this weekend, and stumbled across a bunch of my old audiobooks… actually books on tape – yep, old skool.

Like I said in the video, I devour about 2 books a week.. and was inspired recently by a couple of peoples reading lists – in particular Tucker Max, Ryan Holiday’s Reading List, Hoehn’s Musings, Seth Godin’s Book Roundup and Tim Ferriss & Kevin Roses’ Top 5 Books.

So with all that rolling around in my head, and finding those old audio books I listened to during high-school and uni, I thought I’d tie this in with a short video covering the most influential books I’ve devoured over the years.

As Ryan says “I’d recommend starting with these and then following my chain-method, which is to read as your next book, one that is cited by the book your currently reading.”

If you are interested in getting into the whole audiobook thing, and ‘hacking’ your reading I suggest you check out www.Audible.com

Enjoy.

Pete

The Best Business Books + Audio Books is a post from: Preneur Marketing - The Blog of Entrepreneur Pete Williams
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It was an amazing success, with tonnes of great feedback and huge amount of #30DCHOME tweets.

My presentation will be online (somewhere) shortly; so I’ll be sure to let you know where you can get it then.

Since the event, there has also been a bunch on chatter online about it.. so I thought I’d collate some of it here…

Enjoy.





Three marketers who I highly respect flew in for the event and this is there notes:
Yaro Starak:
http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com/2333/ed-dale-internet-marketing-seminar/
Lynn Terry
http://www.clicknewz.com/2262/coming-home-seminar/
Suzi Dafnis
http://blog.abn.org.au/grow-your-business/useful-resources-from-ed-dales-internet-marketing-seminar

Now when it comes to highlights… It had to be when Brent Hodgson showed his true Samurai skills by saving Ed’s laptop…

The ‘Coming Home 2′ Seminar with Ed Dale + Co… is a post from: Preneur Marketing - The Blog of Entrepreneur Pete Williams
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I just came across these Twitter Nike Dunks and oh do I want them.

It’s my birthday next week – So if anyone can magically make a size 12 appear in my office I’ll give you free consulting for a year or a really long back massage – which ever you see more value in.

My New ‘Must Have’ Shoe is a post from: Preneur Marketing - The Blog of Entrepreneur Pete Williams
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See, I’ve been looking for a way to implement the same automated follow-up marketing offline via direct mail for about a year, and not a single direct mail print company (in Australia or USA) offered a solution. They all offered the ability to do a mail merge (variable data) print run, if I wanted to arrange a once off promotion, but nothing that even resembled an automated follow up sequence of post-cards and/or greeting cards.

Anyway, a friend ‘pitched’ a card sending business model to me over a year ago, which I completely blew off. It was an MLM business-model and he used the standard network marketing pitch as well – I had too many other projects on the go, didn’t want another income opportunity chewing up my time, and felt that I’d have to sell ‘snake oil’

BUT, then after helping him out in a completely unrelated area, I got one of these cards as a small thank-you note… and the thing that stood out for me was:

The cards (and envelope) were printed in his own Handwriting – With a Local Postage Stamp !!

Yep, the platform they use to print these cards allows customers to fill out a form and have their handwriting uploaded as a custom font — blew my mind ! Just imagine how high the ‘open rates’ of these cards are – 98%+ ? (Puts the open rates of even the best email copywriters to shame.)

So, after a quick conversation I also learned that the platform allows clients all over the world, to not only send out single cards, bulk mailings, birthday/anniversary cards on pre-set date (which is cool in itself) …

BUT you can set-up an auto-responders style sequence, where clients can get a ‘thank you for buying’ postcard immediately, 17 days later a ‘hope it’s all going well’ two-fold card, then a ‘it’s probably time for a refill’ postcard 45 days later etc etc etc.

As I talk about in the ‘Preneur Hierarchy’ section of the book, the easiest people sell to are your existing customers, right ? Well, this is that follow-up, stay-in-touch, up-sell, back-end real-world marketing program on auto-pilot.

The thing that really annoys me, is they don’t really ‘pitch’ the auto-responder feature of their service – They are more focused on people sending one-off thank you cards to friends and family.

The other amazing thing is that it costs a lot less than $1 per card… and that includes postage!! (You won’t find hallmark anywhere near that price – and the quality is identical to me)

There library has over 10,000 card designs, but you can obviously upload your own designs (in under 2mins) for custom promotional mailings.

This is one of the best direct response marketing services I’ve ever seen…

Now regarding, the often dirty term ‘Multi-Level Marketing’ – Firstly, let me say:

You can become a customer of their service WITHOUT joining the MLM structure.

I wanted to make this clear again, because I am not trying to pitch you on ‘joining my downline’, I really do believe the direct marketing service they offer is a powerful one.

If you want to also have a opportunity to make some (good) coin along the way, great… They offer some very healthy sign-up commissions, plus a (residual income) $% of every card printed and sent from people (customers) in your downline. But, that side of things is all explained on a video over at their site.

Either way, I really encourage you to check out their direct mail services.

I’ve arranged a 7 Day Free Trial, so you can send 2 or 3 one-off cards to friends, customers or even yourself (to see the quality first hand) and trial their direct mail marketing platform.

Just visit http://bit.ly/7DayCardTrial, ignore the crappy site layout, and click the big banner at the top of the page, then follow the simple sign-up process.

If you have any questions at all, feel free to shoot me an email anytime – I’d really love your thoughts and feedback.

That link again is http://bit.ly/7DayCardTrial

Speak soon.

Pete

P.S. Did I mention that once you’re a client they upload your OWN friggin handwriting as a font – and include a couple of signatures too !!!

P.P.S. Direct Mail Auto-Responders = No Spam Filters + Really High Open Rates + Less Competition (no one get’s “handwritten” mail anymore, unless it’s a bill)

P.P.P.S. Go and visit http://bit.ly/7DayCardTrial

P.P.P.S. And yes… given that it’s an MLM model, when you sign up for an account and implement this offline auto-responder service in your business, I will make a few bucks. But if you join their entrepreneur program I’m more than happy to ‘coach’ and help you grow your MLM business.

Forget Email – Offline AutoResponders Is Where It’s At In 2010… is a post from: Preneur Marketing - The Blog of Entrepreneur Pete Williams
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It’s all about going where your customers are looking; NOT where they are…

Yeah, customers are on facebook and twitter, but that’s not where they are looking.

Marketing and advertising on social media sites is, in most cases, as effective as billboard advertising on the freeway.

Just because people are on the freeway (twitter/facebook) doesn’t mean they are actively looking for your products…

It’s not about being where they are, it’ about being where they are looking.

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This is an amazing video created by Jesse (@pickupdance or http://www.risingbean.com) compiled from clips of his recent adventures and activities.

It’s been 10 years since this song, ‘Everybodies Free To Wear Sunscreen’ was released, and this is Jesse’s tribute saying “I’m not trying to tell everyone to do everything possible, but rather inspire people to live more freely – and that you can start today by doing something simple, such as dancing in your living room!”


The Origins of Sunscreen

Wear Sunscreen or the Sunscreen Speech are the common names of an essay actually called “Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young” written by Mary Schmich and published in the Chicago Tribune as a column in 1997.

The most popular and well-known form of the essay is the successful music single released in 1999, credited to Baz Luhrmann.

Mary Schmich’s “Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young” was published in the Chicago Tribune as a column on June 1, 1997. In her introduction to the column, she described it as the commencement address she would give if she were asked to give one.

The column soon became the subject of an urban legend, in which it was alleged to be an MIT commencement speech given by author Kurt Vonnegut in that same year (in truth, MIT’s commencement speaker that year was Kofi Annan). Despite a follow-up article by Mary Schmich on August 3, 1997, in which she referred to the “lawless swamp of cyberspace” that had made her and Kurt Vonnegut “one”, by 1999 the falsely attributed story was widespread.

The essay was used in its entirety by Australian film director Baz Luhrmann on his 1998 album Something for Everybody, as “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen).” The song sampled Luhrmann’s remixed version of the song “Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good)” by Rozalla

The song was a worldwide hit, reaching number 45 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, and number one in the United Kingdom and Ireland, partly due to a media campaign by Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles.

For more information visit:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wear_Sun… & thanks to Tim Ferriss‘ 4HWW contest for bringing this to everyones attention

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New Year’s Resolutions are a great way to set your intent for a positive, fulfilling year of growth and accomplishment. But, on the other hand, when the year ends, if you haven’t completely fulfilled your resolutions, it can be frustrating. This usually happens because New Year’s resolutions are often too vague, and don’t include practical steps that lead to a clearly defined goal.

So today, by all means, make your usual big-picture resolutions.

But, in addition, I’m going to suggest you make some sub-resolutions.

Each of these sub-resolutions is designed to give you a long-term benefit (some of them even for a lifetime) with a minimum amount of time and effort.

In fact, each of these sub-resolutions can be completed in anything from a few minutes to, at the very most, a few hours. And they’re all either free or very cheap.

For most of you, many of these items fall into the category of things you’ve “been meaning to do.” Since chances are that you’ve already accomplished at least a few of the items on the list below, there’s no reason why you can’t take half a day this week and get at least six more of the items below done.

So, in the interest of the betterment of your future, the management of your life, and the fresh start of a new year, here are:

SIXTEEN THINGS YOU CAN DO IN ONE DAY TO IMPROVE YOUR LIFE

1. Register your full name as a web domain if you haven’t yet.
You never know when you’re going to want your personal website. If www.neilstrauss.com (or whatever your name is) is already taken, don’t worry – there are alternatives.

For example, who owns jamesjoyce.com? Answer: A bar in Dublin beat the author’s estate to it. But there are always other options, like hyphenating the name and getting james-joyce.net or james-joyce.org (check those sites now if you’d like), or choosing less common TLDs (or end letters) like .ws or .me. And you can get own for your very own name for less than the price of a meal at www.godaddy.com, www.networksolutions.com, and elsewhere.

2. Call your cell phone provider. Ask if you can get a better calling plan based on your usage. This way you can afford to do the next item on this list.

3. Subscribe to a newspaper or magazine. Choose a topic that you don’t know about – be it politics, fashion, culture, or technology
- and sign up for the best periodical covering that topic. Rather than choosing the most popular magazine, select one that offers the most in-depth and interesting coverage, like Wired
for technology or Foreign Affairs for politics or Mental Floss for general culture or New Scientist (which last month had a handy article on how to win at rock paper scissors) for science.
Yes, you could read it all online, but it’s great to have a physical magazine to read when you’re on the subway or on an airplane or waiting in line for the restroom at Denny’s.

4. Get a passport if you don’t have one. If yours has expired, get it renewed now. You never know when that great travel opportunity is going to occur, and you don’t want to get stuck at home while your friends are at some great concert at the Acropolis in Greece. If you’re in America, you can simply go to most post offices with two acceptable photos of yourself, proof of U.S. citizenship, and a valid form of photo identification. You can find more information here: http://travel.state.gov/passport. And, for those of you who’ve read Emergency and qualify for a passport to a second country (if, for example, you have a parent or grandparent who was born in Ireland), take advantage of that opportunity now, before the rules change.

5. Back it up. Most people don’t take the time to do this, and regret it later. So copy your entire hard drive onto an external drive immediately; if possible, download a program like Acronis True Image that will simplify the restoring process and regularly make backups (or for Mac owners, start using Time Machine or SuperDuper). Also backup your cellphone, PDA, and any other personal-information-storing device.

6. While you’re at it, make photocopies of your credit cards, passport, drivers license, social security card, birth certificate, and other important papers. If you keep a journal or anything similarly irreplaceable, photocopy that. Keep these in a safe deposit box, parent’s house, locked file cabinet, or any other secure location, preferably outside your own house. They’ll be invaluable in the event of theft, loss, fire, dinosaur attack, or any other unplanned disaster.

7. Look through your refrigerator and cabinets. Read the labels on the food. Stop buying anything high in saturated fats, trans fats, cholesterol, and sodium. And start shopping healthier today. Here’s a handy free e-book from the government on how to eat healthy: http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/dga2005/document/pdf/DGA2005.pdf

8. Get business cards. Don’t have a business? It doesn’t matter. Sites like vistaprint.com will send you 250 free ones (though there’s a shipping fee of under $6). Never hurts to look professional. And if you know the number close from Rules of the Game, these will come in particularly handy.

9. Sign up for US Airway’s e-Saver, Southwest’s Ding!, American Airlines’ Net SAAver, or any other wackily-named airline program that offers last-minute, low-cost travel options so you can take quick weekend getaway whenever you feel like it. Flights can be as low as $15.

10. Check your credit report for identity theft, or any other misinformation or errors that could harm your financial status and options. You are entitled to one free check a year at www.annualcreditreport.com.

11. Learn how you work: I’m often asked at signings what books I found the most useful for learning The Game. Here are the ones I’ve recommended:

Mastering Your Hidden Self by Serge “Kahili” King;
The Art of Seduction by Robert Greene;
Introducing NLP by Joseph O’Connor and
John Seymour; and a book on evolutionary psychology, such as The Red Queen, Sperm Wars, or The Selfish Gene.

12. Make an appointment to get a physical exam from a trusted doctor. Head off any potential medical problems that may hinder an active, fun year. Also recommended: make an appointment with a dentist to get your teeth cleaned if you haven’t done so in the last six months. You may also want to call for an eye exam if you haven’t had one in the last four years. (Make sure you get a second opinion if any of the above tries to talk you into any costly procedure.)

13. This is not for everyone, but some of you–and you know who you are–definitely need to do this: Throw out all your socks. Every last one. Now go buy new pairs that actually match and don’t have holes in them. You’ll feel like a new man. Remember, get black socks. White socks are for athletic activities only. I don’t want to catch any of you guys here wearing white socks in the bars or clubs!

14. Get prepped: You’ve read Emergency by now, so go sign up for a local CERT class (or an equivalent if you live outside the U.S.). It’s free and will teach you the basics of survival and disaster preparedness so you can be a local hero. Plus you’ll get a nifty green uniform like in this photo: http://www.citizencorps.gov/cert/
While you’re there, enter your zip code in the box to find CERT classes in your area.

15. If you want to improve your appearance, you’ve probably already resolved to work out or join a gym. So here’s a sub-resolution:Buy a suit. (Or a dress if you’re a woman.) But don’t just get any suit. Get one that’s slightly closer to the size you want to be this year, whether it be a little bigger or a little smaller than your current measurements. Try it on every Saturday morning as a reminder to stick with your fitness program; until, one day, it fits perfectly, and you wear it out and feel like a million dollars.

16. And as long as you feel like a million dollars, you might as well figure out how to make a million dollars. You can find out how much money you’ll need to tuck away here: http://partners.leadfusion.com/tools/kiplinger/savings01/tool.fcs

Afterward, you should know just exactly what you’re worth so you can figure out where you stand financially at the start of this year. You can do so here: http://cgi.money.cnn.com/tools/networth/networth.html

Phew. That looks like a lot. But set half a day aside, and knock them off the to-do list one at a time. You’ll wake up the next day a new man. (Unless, of course, you’re a woman.)

Alright, get cracking.

And have a great 2010.

Talk to you all soon.

Best,
Neil

P.S. None of the above constitutes an endorsement of any of the websites mentioned or the content therein. They are provided solely as possible starting points to make the implementation of these subresolutions easier.

And Don’t Forget Your, um, Subresolutions? is a post from: Preneur Marketing - The Blog of Entrepreneur Pete Williams
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(thanks @Ed_Dale for the heads up)

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“What’s the difference between the Thirty Day Challenge and the 4 Hour Work Week?”

Before I jump down this rabbit hole, for those who are not familiar with the phenomenon that is Tim Ferriss’ Four Hour Work Week…

The 4HWW in a nutshell talks around the acronym DEAL (coined by Ferriss) which stands for: Definition, Elimination, Automation, and Liberation.

The book (like the acronym) starts with Definition; figuring out what you really want for your lifestyle, and doing the sums to figure out what it will really cost to get there. It’s amazing how much it doesn’t cost to live like a king in Argentina.

Elimination is all about time management, or rather about not managing time. In my opinion this is the main take-away from the book; and is achieved by applying the 80/20 rule to focus YOUR time only on those tasks that contribute to your goal; and leaving the rest to an outsourced team (by taking advantage of geo-arbitrage)

The thirst section of the book is focused on Automation; and is about building a sustainable, automatic source of income. It’s here that the similarities with the 30DC appear.

Finally Tim ties everything together with Liberation; the goal of the ‘new rich’ = successful automation of one’s lifestyle and the liberation from a geographical location and job.

As I said above, The 30 Day Challenge relates to only one element of the 4HWW D.E.A.L. – the Automation component.

It’s in this section of the book that Tim does a great job of giving an overview of the ‘online business building’ process in the context of the entire ‘new rich’ philosophy, and making the process look achievable for everyone, because it really is.

This new rich philosophy, presented in the ‘Definition’ section, really drives home the ‘why’ in ‘why should I be doing this’ …

And it’s the WHY which is missing around the current 30DC format, which in my opinion, is one of the driving factors behind us putting together our own book (due out mid 2010) – Although Ed try’s to set the context during the pre-season and Day 1, the book will give us an outlet to give a much more detailed, detached and objective commentary on the 30DC philosophy, what it takes to create a successful business online, and our definition of ‘WHY’

Having said that, there is only so much step-by-step you can cover in a book – and where the 4HWW is weak the 30DC is strong (stronger than any other online training program period. Paid or Free) The 30 days of the 30DC is a lot more detailed on the ’steps’ you need to do it get your ‘muse’ off the ground and make your first $1 online.

Tim provides links to some great ‘tools’ in his book, but can’t go into a lot of detail on ‘how (and why) to use these tools’, which leaves the reader fending for themselves – and this is the void which the 30DC fundamentally fills.

With over 20 hours of free step-by-step (screen capture) video tutorials, the 30DC is the best partner for implementing the ‘Automation’ section of the 4HWW, and making a dent in that automated income goal.

… but more than simply being a online course (library), the 30DC is as much about ‘testing a niche’ as it is about starting a business – but more on this in the upcoming book.

So… What’s your take on the 4HWW and the 30DC – and how have either made a difference to your life? [Leave a comment below]

The 30 Day Challenge vs 4-Hour Work Week is a post from: Preneur Marketing - The Blog of Entrepreneur Pete Williams
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