MINDCUE

This Site is About to Self-Destruct

Tim Gary — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 02:05:38 +0000

First, thank you for being here!

I don't know why you came, but I do appreciate it. My guess is that someone sent you here.

Second, and more importantly, I want to thank everyone* who has referred people to me, and mentioned me on Twitter or their own site. It's hard to tell you how much it means to me. Well, actually I can hint: It means EVERYTHING. Not figuratively, but literally everything because my business exsits solely via referrals. Not SEO, not blog posts (duh), not magic or positive thinking. Just because you are referring me to others, and because you trust me with an important part of your own business.

In the coming days or weeks, I will be revising this site. It could be a simple theme change, or it could be a totla revamp. I'm exploring it now.

What I do know is that it will strive to be a place for you to both get to know me, and form me to learn who you are and what you want.

Until then, please contact me with any technical questions or comments and tell me!

Thanks,

Tim

* The list is long, and I will be thanking you individuallly upon re-launch. THANK YOU.

Profitable Idealism Bonus to Push You OFF The Fence

Tim Gary — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 08:01:09 +0000

I'm just going to cut to the chase, simple as that may be.

I want to push you off the fence in the most positive way I know how.

Two people I highly admire, Johnny B Truant and Pace Smith, have something new up their collective sleeves. It's not your typical get rich quick, or self help offering, and that's a very very good thing. I've got a pretty sweet bonus for people who sign up through my link.

It's a new program called Profitable Idealism, which they can describe much better than me. Let's call it an invitation to learn how to improve your business by helping yourself, and others, at the same time. Take a look at their site linked above, and come back to find out how I'm about to make it even more irresistible to sign up.

I'm itching to get my hands on it myself, and want to provide a little incentive to others who may be interested, but sitting on the fence.

First, you should be aware that this program's early registration ends on February 22nd. This alone saves you a full $200 off of the regular registration price.

Second, I usually don't recommend anything that I haven't already experienced, or used. This is different because it's a live course. There will be recordings, but they've not happened yet. All I can do is go by past experience with Johnny and Pace's products, to know that it will be more than worth the investment. Considering the prices for one-on-one coaching with either of them, getting similar information in a course is just plain smart.

Third, to sweeten the pot and push you off the indecision fence, if you sign up to Profitable Idealism via my link, I'll do something really cool for you. I'll personally provide one of the following services depending on your needs. Think of it as a 100% discount on:

The Security Lockdown service for your blog (protect yourself from hackers, create an automated off-site backup plan, etc)
or Install a new website/blog
or work on whatever technical project you like for up to an hour. Web configurations, site moves, etc.. I'll do an hour's worth.

To get your bonus (100% discount on one of my services), just sign up for Profitable Idealism by clicking on one of the links in this post. Then send the order information to me via my contact form for verification, and let me know which offering of mine you'd like to take advantage of.

If you have quesitons, be sure to ask!

-Tim

(Clearly I will get compensated when you use my link to sign up. This pays me for the work I'll do for you)

What's Feedback Worth?

Tim Gary — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 06:43:04 +0000

You may find it hard to believe, but the teen movie Summer School from 23 years ago has at least one valuable lesson I was reminded of recently.

For those who haven't seen the flick, I'll recap briefly.

Eclectic group of "bad students" (aka, future entrepreneurs) has to go to Summer School because of their grades during the regular school year. Fun and meaningful life lessons are learned--even though their grades improve.

I'll wait while you absorb the pure depth, originality and bravado... Really, I will... [twiddles thumbs]

In the movie, "Chainsaw" (Dean Cameron) and Dave (Gary Riley) have a problem with some cheap sunglasses that break too easily. They complain to the teacher, and he suggests as part of the class homework, that they write to the company to tell them about their problem. Surprise, surprise! A few weeks later, they get a box full of sunglasses, and a nice note thanking them for their feedback. Everyone gets a pair, and capitalism is shown at its best.

Lest you think this is some movie bullshit, let me tell you a few real word stories that back up the story.

Recently I started feeding our handsome and debonair kitty Milo some *very* high end cat food. He certainly prefers this over his typical high end food, and we'll give it to him a few times a week because, well because he's old, part of our family, and cuter than heck. The only problem with this food is that it's a pain in the ass to open. I don't know if it's altitude (we're at 5000 ft above sea level), or just technique, but it's virtually impossible to open a container without squirting a good amount of fish or chicken flavored juice all over the place. We've gotten used to it, and open in the sink, but it's still a pain.

For months, every time I open a container of this food, I swore that I'd write the company and tell them what's up. Finally a few weeks ago I did. These days you can actually fill out a customer service form, and send your feedback instantly, and without a written letter.

So, I go to the company site, fill out the form, and tell them that I'm not sure if I'm the only one, but I'm frustrated with how the juice squirts out when opening the container. Maybe it's altitude that causes the packaging to expand and spray fluid, maybe it's just poor packaging, but it's frustrating, and I was hoping they could do something about it.

About a week later (maybe they print and mail the form to someone?) I got an email back thanking me for my feedback, and telling me that new packaging was in the works for the new year (note to self: look for sales on this food with current packaging). They also said that they'd be sending some coupons for future purchases. A couple of weeks later (still much better than the response time from Bing Local*) we got coupons in the mail worth about $9.50 retail. These weren't for a discount, these were for free products (almost refrained from adding a 4th parenthesis from this paragraph, but was hoping for a laugh),

Clearly, feedback was worth a great deal to the company. How else can you explain almost $10 for 2 minutes of work? $300/hr?! Are you kidding me?

Lest you think this is a fluke, I can first hand confirm similar responses from a wide variety of companies:

1) Free chicken (!) from a common supermarket chicken brand.
2) Free replacement parts for personal head flashlights from a Mountaineering Company.
3) Big discounts or free access to various online products.

My question to you is, if these big companies can reward their customers for unsolicited feedback, what is similar feedback worth to you? What do you do to reward feedback?

I have some ideas of my own, and I look forward to your thoughts via comments below. I'll run a follow up post on the subject soon.

Can't wait to hear your thoughts!
-Tim

P.S. I hope the Nigerian Spam Scam Scam comes back! It was awesome to meet Chainsaw, and laugh til it hurt during the performance in Reno a couple of years ago.

My Poor Neglected Blog (not)

Tim Gary — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 04:37:02 +0000

It's probably quite clear that I haven't spent a whole lot of time fussing with this site. I don't write regularly, and as for its "design", well, let's just say that I know it's got some issues. Those things are slowly getting fixed, but they haven't been priorities.

Pretty strange, all things considered. But hey, I'm a computer guy, not a graphic designer. I like following other people's direction when it comes to building their sites. There are too many cool designs out there, and I have a hard time pinning anything down. So you get to see a mishmash of ideas, and directions. The fact that it's a little rough around the edges is just fine with me. In fact, it's working out pretty well.

Not because I get organic search traffic for keywords I don't optimize for. (and I still subscribe to ScribeSEO for when the time comes...)
Not because it's a brilliant exhibition of brilliant web "design" (ahem).
Not because it shows off my technical and computer skills.

Nope.

But I don't care about such things at the moment! I don't care because I'm doing other stuff that I consider much more important. If you have a "Neglected Blog", maybe you are in the same boat. Maybe you're doing more immediate things that are paying dividends that perfecting your blog may can't touch.

As much as this might sound like an excuse, I can assure you that it's not.

I have a wonderful graphic designer working on a new logo and color palette. When's the last time you heard that a client was the one holding up a project?

I have a laundry list of additions to make to the site. Some of these are visual issues, some are functional. For the time being, they are all minor to me, and I don't have the traffic to imagine otherwise.

There are links coming from a few great friends on the net. Having these is the closest thing I have to pressure in getting everything sorted out quicker than my current pace. But still, I continue with other things.

Let's just say that there are other ways to monetize a blog than regular posts, a consistent interface, and lots of content. Those ways are not always easy to spot, but they are extremely effective. In my case, the blog isn't the focus, it's actually a supporting player. Almost a brochure, with functional perks.

Here's what I've been doing.

I've been talking to people, online and off.
I let them know what I'm good at and offer to help out if I can help.
I follow up as best I can. If I let something slide, and realize it, I do what I can to rekindle the communication.
If I talk to someone who is somehow a great match to someone else I talked to, I hook them up. As long as I see a win-win for them, it could be a win-win-win for me someday.
I try new things to expand my reach. In the past month I've been intereviewed about Computer Troubleshooting, and did an almost 3 hour private webinar on building website for local/offline clinets. Both of which came about simply by putting myself out there via forums and email. They weren't even my ideas!
I've kept in touch with prospects who have been on the fence for months, as well as those that may have decided to work with someone else.
I've done things for free or super cheap to gain more experience in certain areas.
I've posted the occational comment on other blogs, and on Twitter.
I've helped spread the word on Twitter about people I want to see do well becaue they are great at what they do, and deserve it.
One of my off-the-radar email chats has led me to creating a service which could help hundreds of bloggers stay a few steps ahead of hackers always looking to ruin someone's day. This has been my focus the past week. The sooner I can get everything in place, the more people I can help. In this case, the blog will also act as an ordering center, and data collection tool.
When I get a referral, I point them to the blog so they can read a little background information about me. I'll often also point them to a link or a related service that is similar in nature to what they are looking to do. This saves me from one of my least favorite things: talking about how much an investment in my services will cost. It's not always a one-to-one corespondence, but it's usually close--with various options.

In all honesty, this post is a mess and I know it. Every time I try and write because I "have to write" something, it turns out this way. Time pressure and content guidelines are not my idea of relaxed and fun blogging. And still I experiment with opportunities that arise, both in terms of pushing myself to new things, and the posibility of meeting some awesome new people.

Not sure if I'll get in under the wire for Cori and Joella's blog carnival (deadline=now), but I've seen the power of these traffic tools in the past, and it's one more grand experiment and challenge on my ever fluid path.

Because I expect to re-read this post in the morning and correct all sorts of typos (and add appropriate links to deserving destinations), I hope that anyone who actually reads it before then forgive me for now. I can only blame a little wine, a little pressure, and a whole lot of my waiting until the last second for the inevitable hard to read bits.

What do you do "off the radar" with your blog's help? I'd love to know!

-Tim

Simple Approach to Troubleshooting Computer Problems

Tim Gary — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 22:16:55 +0000

I recently did a quick interview on troubleshooting website/computer problems with LaVonne Ellis of The Complete Flake (she's not).

It's definitely much easier for me to *do* the troubleshooting than explain the exact process. Partly because each situation is unique. There are some commonalities, but it's a challenge coming up with things that work in all cases.

General Approach to Debugging Computer Problems

Gather info
- Did this *ever* work? When? What's changed since then (no matter how minor it seems)
- Program version numbers, product details, etc...
- Operating System, web host name, etc..
- Login details
Eliminate "interference" (narrow down problem location) if exact problem location unknown
- If anything's been changed, undo the change if possible
- Disable or remove potentially related devices, plugins, and other software
- Verify any related configuration settings (volume/mute controls, userid's and passwords, etc). Surprisingly often you'll be able to fix things during this step.
- If it works elsewhere, see if settings differ, and note any other differences between the machines
Search for others having similar problems
- Use as many keywords as you can to narrow the results (you want the results that are as close to your problem as possible)
- Include any error messages and numbers
- Exclude anything that may relate specifically to your computer/website... Don't include your domain, etc in any of the keywords
- Experiment with variations on keywords if you aren't getting useful results (eg, "account", "userid", "user", "login")
- When clicking on a search result, do a Right-Click and open it in a new window or tab. You will often need to visit a fair number of sites to find the answers you seek. Being able to go back to your search results list and continue can come in handy. I often open up the top 3 or 4 promising results first, then go and view them.
Keep experimenting and trying things until the issue is solved. This is the real "secret" to solving your computer problems. I can't tell you how many people have told me how patient I am in dealing with this stuff. Seriously, if I gave up early, I'd have far fewer positive results. The more success you have, the quicker it will be next time. Your new knowledge builds to help each time you have a new problem.

The Computer Troubleshooting Interview has a few other tips sprinkled in, and as LaVonne points out, I blurted out something at the end, for her listeners which can help get you a real head start. The offer may disappear once I've gathered the variety of case-studies I need to take things to the next step.

I know the list above isn't complete by a long shot, but it's a good start.

What other ideas and tools have you found to help you solve a computer or website problem?

-Tim

Work and Play #1

Tim Gary — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 23:14:09 +0000

This is the first of many super quick posts on work and play.

Karen, over at Effa Diet, passed this quote to me yesterday "because it made me think of you and your mission."

“Too much of our work amounts to the drudgery of arranging means toward ends, mechanically placing the right foot in front of the left and the left in front of the right, moving down narrow corridors toward narrow goals. Play widens the halls. Work will always be with us, and many works are worthy. But the worthiest works of all often reflect an artful creativity that looks more like play than work.”
— James Ogilvy

One way I'm doing it is by allowing things to be in a state of flux as I experiment with ideas. This website is currently a perfect example of this. On any given day you may see new colors, graphics, menus, functionality or goofs.

I know there is "work" to be done in cleaning up how certain pages look, and I will get to all of those. However if I waited for everything to settle down and be nearly perfect, there would be no site to see. By playing with my ideas I can try them on to see how they fit. I'm flexible, and can get quick feedback.

I'm well aware of the adage "You never have a second chance to make a good first impression." and in many cases it makes sense. But what's worse... Making no impression at all, or making some impression and having a chance that it will resonate with your right people?

Your turn.

How could you use play in your work to "widen the halls"?

Free Tech Hotline Calls

Tim Gary — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 05:06:30 +0000

[this offer is over, but you can get even more time with me by heading over to the Tech Hotline page and signing up!]

I really like talking to people about tech stuff on the phone. Whether it's the very basics of deciphering geek-speak terminology, or making sense of various WordPress, Drupal or general website problems and troubleshooting, it never fails to be interesting and fun.

With this in mind, and as a way to introduce myself to you, I'd like to offer FREE ($65 real world value) 30 minute Tech Hotline calls to everyone who either requests one in comments below, or tweets about it via twitter (@mindcue) between now and Tuesday Thursday midnight Pacific Standard Time.Offer closed.

If you tweet about it, please either also leave a comment below, or send a message via the contact form so I don't miss it. If this is too much tech for you, just go to the contact form and request it there.

You can get some ideas from the Tech Hotline info page, or take a cue from these starting points:

Website beginner: "I want a website, technology scares me, Tim, help!"
Website novice: "I have a website, I think it oculd be better, Tim, help me rock it."
Website professional: "I'm scoping out my competition, I want to know how they have this cool thing on their site and if I can do the same on mine".
Anyone with computer troubles: "This doohickey is not working the way I expect, help!"

In reality, we can talk about anything, it's OUR 30 minutes to use in whatever way fits! Often there will be follow-up via email, since it's virtually impossible to know details of every situation while on the call (and who wants those long pauses while something is being looked up?)

Remember, the window closes soon, so don't wait. Your questions and thoughts don't have to be formulated yet. You can wing it!

Details will be send via email once you comment or tweet. I prefer calls done through Skype, and I don't care what country or time zone you are in. If you don't have a Skype account, we can arrange calls via regular phone lines (or other services), no problem.

The fine print: There's no way to guarantee that I'll have or be able to find the answer to everything you ask, especially in just 30 minutes. BUT I promise to do my best, and to follow through on any lingering items via email. Fair enough?

Now.

3.....2....1....GO!

-Tim

Your New Website Doesn't Have to Hurt!

Tim Gary — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 20:39:39 +0000

I recently had a wonderful consultation with Catherine of Be Awesome Online.

It was fun. It was a little scary. It was revealing.

Quickly, it became clear that something was missing in the typical buzzword driven web design offerings. Often it is frightening and overwhelming to the businessperson who is faced with sorting through lists of features, computer words, and sample sites. They have enough on their plate already in forming a new business or revamping an existing one.

Additionally, she pointed out some of the phrases I was using indicated that I was looking for a different kind of offering that would be both fun and productive for everyone. Words like play, fun, experiment, learn, enjoy, passion, energy, partner, friend kept coming up. This is quite the opposite of what many may think of when "having" to get a website setup.

And why not? It really should be fun and feel good to create something new. It shouldn't hurt!

Building your website should be fun. Instead of work, it should be play. I love it when I can just soak up the energy of my partner (aka client), and start trying things to see what fits. Doing things this way can lead to new discoveries and clarifies what we want to accomplish together, and allows it to happen.

You are faced with thousands of choices for web designers/developers. Many of them are highly skilled and great at what they do. But how many of them can give you a fun, motivating and productive experience while creating something uniquely yours?

That's what I aim to deliver.

How does that sound?

More to come...

-Tim

P.S. This site's progress is a work-in-process using some of the same ideas as I talk to myself about what I want to accomplish, and how I want it to look. It'll settle down at some point, but for now expect lots of little changes as I play with it.

Changing Your Outlook

Tim Gary — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 05:30:19 +0000

Well, I did it. I sold my childhood Hot Wheels collection last week.

Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but it was still somewhat of an emotional roller coaster ride, which had a big dip for me this week.

When I was a kid, I used to spend most of my free money on Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars. Every sale one of the local stores had, I was in there looking for ones I didn't have. Luckily I could ride my bike to most of them.

From time to time, I actually played with them, but mostly I collected, and admired them. So much so that I even build a special stepped stand for them. We're talking something like 300+ cars! So the stand was either 8' or 10' long, with something like 4 two inch wide steps.

I'd sold the matchbox cars, and some of the newer, non "red line" cars for pennies on the dollar when I was a little older. Probably not one of my better moves, but whatever. This left me with a little over 100 cars left. The oldest, and most interesting ones.

About a year ago I started pricing them out on ebay, and found that I had some rare/valuable ones. Hmm... I could continue to keep them in the garage, or sell them and make a few bucks.

A year later. Last week, that's just what I did.

OVERNIGHT via buy-it-now.

Now, normally I might take that as good news, but I was actually somewhat distraught. My thoughts kept going to the fact that I probably drastically under priced them, as anyone on ebay can tell you when something sells that fast--it's probably the case.

Then there's the packing up, individually wrapping each car, and getting the box ready to ship. I misjudged the shipping price as well...

Jeeze Tim GET TO THE POINT ALREADY!

Ok, so I get it shipped out, and put it towards the back of my mind.

Then, I get what I at first interpreted to be one of the absolute worst notes I could have received from the buyer:

I got the box today no problems.

I have just two words………………..UNBELIEVABLY AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!

These cars are much better than expected.

These are the best group of cars I have come across in a long time.

I am very happy and glad I splurged on myself.

I will be leaving positive feedback for you and would appreciate the same.

Hopefully you're having a good laugh, but let me explain.

You may have figured out why I at first considered this to be horrible. I already suspected that I did a piss poor job of pricing the collection, and I still felt a strong emotional connection to the cars. This just confirmed that I probably could have received substantially more for them, and my lack of knowledge in the condition grading process probably ruined any chance I had of getting a better price.

But what's really going on here? Realistically, this:

I made some pretty good money for something that was sitting in my garage
I made someone extremely happy for splurging on them self
I learned a valuable lesson about how to sell collectibles on ebay
I freed up some room in the garage
I got some positive ebay feedback
I have a unique story and lesson to talk about on this site

Instead of bitching and moaning that through my own fault, I got ripped off, instead I realized that I really got a lot of benefit from the experience. I reframed things in the positive, and most importantly in my mind, I made some ones day!

Sometimes it's not easy to do when there are emotional attachments.

What helped me in this case was realizing a few things. The first of which was that it made more sense for someone who would continue to admire and enjoy them to own them. Additionally, I tend to be pretty altruistic in nature, and there are many times I've done things with no expectation of payment at all, just to help someone out, or to make someone happy. These things come easily for me.

There's no reason I can't change my outlook, and view this as a super win-win, so that's what I've done. I'm glad to have passed them on to the right person!

Similarly, you can do this in all kinds of outwardly negative or challenging situations...

Car brakes need replacing? -- good thing you had them checked, and even better that you didn't lose control because they failed on the road
Lost your job? -- Now you have time and motivation to create your own ideal business
Having trouble finding time to do *all* of the things you *want* to do? -- You have a creative mind, and will stay mentally young because you'll always be keeping active!
fill in your own blanks here (it's late and this was an impromptu post!) _______
________________

The easiest way to do this (for me) is to make a list of the positives and the negatives, and then simply chose to focus on the positive, and consider the negatives as just noise trying to get in my way. Another good way is to step back and look at yourself as you would a friend (you are you own best friend, are you not?) and follow through with what you would say to them--but tell it to yourself.

I'm sure these are just tips of the iceberg.

Check out Tim Borwnson's A Daring Adventure blog and coaching for many more (and potentially better) examples if this line of thought resonates with you. I can't do justice to him and the amount of awesome content is on his site.

Cheers!

Questioning Johnny and Lee's Rules

Tim Gary — Fri, 21 May 2010 05:34:10 +0000

I've started this post several times, but each one has sounded and felt like I was writing sales copy, which is the one thing I really wanted to avoid. Hopefully this time I'll get it right. Note: because I've started and stopped several times, I'm going to also keep it really short!

A quick thought: It's easy to fall into a trap of following the crowd (convention) when living your life, instead of actually building YOUR life. You've probably heard it before, and maybe you even agree. It sounds good. Just build your life the way you want it. But it's not always easy to figure out where to start...

If you are unfamiliar with Johnny B Truant or Lee Stranahan, I'm in luck. I get to introduce you to a couple of genuine characters. Ok, characters isn't that great. Awesome characters? No, that just sucks. Even the word awesome doesn't help. For now, lets go with something simply descriptive like Nonconformist Evangelists.

They have a new course out called Question the Rules. It could very well have been called Break the Rules, or Make Your Own Rules, or many other permutations. The basic premise is that if your life is not what you want it to be, it's probably because you're following someone else's rules--and you should question them.

I've consulted with Johnny several times in the past year, and have been consistently impressed with his up front style and honesty when talking one-on-one. My hope was that this course would be a relatively inexpensive extension of those sessions. In my estimation, it went far beyond that, because it addressed questions I didn't know I had.

There's a lot of information out there which gives you step by step methods of achieving a certain goal. Whether it be money, lifestyle, dating or whatever. The one thing most of those have in common is that they often leave out the uniqueness of the individual. They assume *everyone* can follow the same steps, and get the same results.

That's bullshit. Yes, it'll work for *some* people, but not for *everyone*. For example, if you are not a chef, and are handed a cookbook and ingredients, do you think you have a chance in hell of making a better dinner than a top chef? Why do you think diets often don't work? Same idea. The rules aren't your own... They are someone else's.

Question the Rules primes your mind to look at what you are doing, and how you are doing it. What's working, what's not. Then it gives you tools to use in building your new life...

Something I really appreciated were their examples and stories that backed up what they taught. Not boring stories either. The stories provide context for the lessons, and help you see similar scenarios you may have missed in your own life.

I can personally vouch for the benefits of networking, and their 3 part section on it rocks. My life has been enriched through meeting interesting people of all types, as I hope theirs has in meeting me. Some of the ideas were new to me, others weren't, but served as great reminders. I can't imagine anyone who wouldn't get their money's worth out of the course just for this section alone.

Damn... I'm doing it again.. After I swore not to. I'm sounding like a fricking sales letter, and worse, I'm editing while I type. Dang. Too late to turn back now. In fact, it's getting too late... I need to get some other things done, and fall asleep next to my lovely wife.

Suffice it to say, I'm impressed, as I thought I would be. I wouldn't have bought the course if I didn't expect something great.

Is this course for everyone? No. Not everyone.
...if you are stuck in your ways, and have no interest in changing. Forget it.
...if you are squeamish about a few cuss words here and there. Forget it.
...if you love what you do, follow your own rules, and want to help others...you should have them (or me) interview you instead! Can't wait to hear about how you questioned the rules!

BUT
... if you are antsy as hell to have validation for your own ideas (you shouldn't, but this'll help)
... if you really want to change your life by looking at things differently
... if you are ready to take responsibility for your situation, and can't wait to make that situation 1000% better

...then you should definitely check it out.

If you are reading this in May, you'll notice my site is pretty bare bones and plain. One thing which keeps hammering me on the head is that you just need to take action towards your goals, regardless how little or much. If you just sit in the perfectionist/planning stages you are guaranteed to fail. This course was just one more reminder of this fact, and it resulted in this post. Onward!

One thing I know for sure. If Question The Rules doesn't light your brain on fire, you're made of mud.

-Tim

P.S. (Yes. Those are affiliate links, and it'd be totally sweet if you used them, but it's ok if you don't)

P.P.S. An excellent complement to this course is the How to be Rich and Happy book by Tim Brownson and John P. Strelecky. I'll be talking about that more in the future.