Here's another in my series of marketing and business book reviews - but not just any old business books.

Fire starters...

Game changers...

Show stoppers...

Books that will transform the way you think about your work, about your business, and - yes - about your life.

Ready? Take a look...

What do you think? Please leave a COMMENT below to share your experiences with this book, with this author, or with other game changing books that YOU recommend...

Here's the first in a series of marketing and business book reviews - but not just any old business books.

Fire starters...

Game changers...

Show stoppers...

Books that will transform the way you think about your work, about your business, and - yes - about your life.

Ready? Take a look...

What do you think? Please leave a COMMENT below to share your experiences with this book, with this author, or with other game changing books that YOU recommend...

No step is too small...

No effort goes unnoticed...

So just TAKE the first step...

MAKE the initial effort...

Because action gives you traction. 

Two quick things for you:

1. NEW Group on LinkedIn for "Professionals Who Speak"- if you're a speaker, author, independent professional, corporate executive or entrepreneur, the conversations, resources and people you'll connect with here are top-notch.

We are up to over 300 members in just over 5 weeks. Great community and great content is being posted and discussed daily.

Join us here: http://bit.ly/LI-ProSpeak 

2. We still have a few seats open for next week's zero-cost teleseminar called "Product Development Roadmap." If you or someone in your circle is looking to write a book, produce audio, video, or online assets, package a coaching or consulting program, or otherwise "productize" your expertise, this may be worth a look. Especially because it's FREE...

Register here:

http://www.doitmarketing.com/product-development-roadmap 

Have a great weekend!

1. Drink more water.
2. Watch less TV.
3. Action makes traction.
4. Try new things.
5. Hang in there. 
6. Get better daily.
7. Begin with enthusiasm. 
8. Finish with flair.
9. Celebrate small wins.
10. Eliminate wasted steps.
11. Aim higher sooner.
12. Never stop learning.
13. Start fresh today.
14. Write that letter. 
15. Practice deep listening.
16. Pay yourself first.
17. Seize the day.
18. Cashflow is king.
19. Life is good.
20. Eat more vegetables.
21. Thank your Mom.
22. Make others shine.
23. Ask me anything.
24. Think WAY bigger.
25. Focus your energies.
26. Now beats later.
27. Tweet more often.
28. Zig don't zag.
29. Marketing comes first.  
30. Hug your kids. 
31. Content before commerce.
32. Never sell alone. 
33. Don't get distracted.
34. Always ask "Why?"
35. Amp it up!
36. How doesn't matter.
37. Invite and engage.
38. You're already there. 
39. Make silly faces.
40. Get off email.
41. See the sunrise.
42. Simplify, eliminate, outsource.
43. Kiss your dog.
44. Fascinate to dominate.
45. Write it down. 
46. Keep on truckin'!
47. Love your clients.
48. Ask for help.
49. Value follows fee.
50. Never give up.
51. Decide, organize, act.
52. Sharpen your edge.
53. Lose some weight.
54. Hammer it out.
55. Doodle more often.
56. Drink hot coffee.
57. Expand your circles.
58. Consider crazy alternatives.
59. Chinese food rocks!
60. Use beautiful things.
61. Not so fast. 
62. Get a massage.
63. Unlock, unblock, unleash
64. Go for no. 
65. Blow 'em away.
66. More chocolate, please.
67. Fill your buckets. 
68. Don't shy away.
69. Give more generously.
70. Don't be scared.
71. Freshen it up. 
72. Go play outside. 
73. Thank your heroes.
74. Respond, don't react.
75. Sing real loud.
76. Schedule "me" time.
77. Bake a cake.
78. Live the dream.
79. Invest in yourself.
80. Fall in love. 
81. Seek the truth.
82. Avoid the obvious. 
83. Laminate your kudos.
84. Birds gotta fly. 
85. Fish gotta swim.
86. Potential ain't performance. 
87. Relationships are perishable. 
88. Kill your television.
89. Make that call. 
90. Hire the weirdo.
91. Speak more honestly.
92. Track your progress. 
93. Decisions drive momentum.
94. Take notes everywhere.
95. Look further ahead.
96. Stop playing small.
97. Sell the dream.
98. Deliver the goods. 
99. Never shortchange yourself.
100. You're so ready.
101. DO IT. Now!

Marketing Concept: Writing Page One

Today you are writing the first page of a 365-page book. 

Make it a good one. 

Inspired by my pal Michael Goldberg of Building Blocks Consulting - who wrote this post - here are the Top 5 things to get excited about in YOUR business for the New Year and all of Lucky '13!

1. Books

Reading 'em. Writing 'em. Ebooks. Hardcopy books. All kinds of books.

As you may know, the DO IT! Marketing book is coming this summer from AMACOM and there's lots of cool developments brewing there... but let's talk about YOU... 

• Do YOU want to write a book? 
• Have YOU written a book that's under-marketed? 
• Do YOU have an ebook or information product that you're working on and just can't seem to finish?
• Do YOU have plans to develop a NEW book or information product - and just don't know where to begin?

Don't get stuck - let me help you take your first (or next) ebook, book, or information product over the finish line.

As for books to read - here are five recommendations for YOUR 2013 reading list:

2. Focus

Focus on a specific target market.

Focus on your "secret sauce" of expertise.

Focus on your most fun and profitable projects, prospects and programs.

And...

     Let...

          Everything...    

               Else...

                    Go...

3. Fitness, Toughness, Accountability 

As you may know, I've lost a tremendous amount of weight recently.

Sidebar: OK, my wife Vanessa HATES when I say that to people - it's 18 pounds in 90 days to be exact. (She thinks I make it sound like 100 pounds and she further thinks it makes people feel awkward when they haven't noticed. On the other hand, people whom I haven't seen in YEARS are shocked by my total weight loss of almost 40 pounds since 2008 - so to ME, it IS a "tremendous" amount!!)

The secret? The Charlie Newman hardass eating program plus twice weekly workouts at Nick's Gym.

What's the Charlie Newman program? Three things - all simple but not easy: 

1. No white stuff (dramatically reduce carbs, breads, sugars, etc.)
2. Drink a ton of water daily. More than is comfortable. More than is fun. More than you want to. Like you need to go pee 10 times a day. That is the right amount.
3. No food after 7pm.

The toughness comes at times like Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Eve - when it's EASY (or even expected) that you'll go overboard and do things you should not do. Toughness says you don't go there. 

Accountability is the fact that I live with Charlie Newman - he's my son - and he SEES what I eat, HOW much, WHEN I eat it... and there aren't enough places to hide in our kitchen. 

So consider one of your goals - what's going to fuel YOUR fitness (financial fitness, marketing fitness, relationship fitness, physical fitness, etc)? And which kinds of built-in toughness and accountability mechanisms will you use to ensure your success?

4. Travel + Leisure

Yes, I mean both the concept - and the magazine. We get this magazine and it has opened my eyes to an undiscovered opportunity that YOU have if business travel is part of YOUR work...

In my work as a professional speaker and marketing coach, travel is a given.

How much you enjoy it and exploit it is 100% up to YOU... 

2012 trips have taken me to Columbus OH, NYC, Toronto, Denver, Shelton CT, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Atlantic City, and Winnipeg ("Brrr...") Future trips already planned for 2013 include Atlanta, Vancouver, NYC, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, and Chicago.

But there is a HUGE difference between the two words "trips" and "travel." You can take business trips and they look like this:

• Get to airport in your home city 
• Go through security
• Swallow stale air in thin metal tube for between 1-8 hours
• Land 
• Taxi to hotel
• See inside of hotel
• See inside of conference rooms
• Eat inside hotel
• Eat inside conference rooms
• Taxi to airport
• Go through security
• Swallow stale air in thin metal tube for between 1-8 hours
• Land
• Go home. Hug spouse. Kiss dog. Fall into own bed.
• Repeat as needed to meet your career or entrepreneurial goals

THAT, my friends, is not travel.

Travel is sightseeing, museums, restaurants, cafes, bars, shopping, exploring new places and discovering local experiences.

Question for you: How can you bake more TRAVEL into your TRIPS during 2013? I'll do my best - and hope you do, too.

Let's check in with each other over the next few months to see how we're both doing!

5. Giving away WAY more FREE stuff

Since November, I have made a commitment to sharing MORE experiences of value - for free - and making MORE profit-rich resources available - again, for free.

If you know me at all, you know I've always done this BIG-time. But I wanted to see what would happen if I ramped this UP to near-ridiculous levels.

• Would I burn out? (No)
• Would you? (Not yet - but we're just starting)
• Would anybody come (Yes - see below) 
• Would there be anything left for me to monetize and sell? (Apparently)
• Would people tell their friends and colleagues? (Yes - and thank you!)

Early Results:

In November, I presented the "Marketing Strategy Blueprint for 2013." We had 169 people register for that info-packed training call and it generated $4500 of client work. Good for you - and good for me. 

In December, I presented the "Sponsorship Strategy Blueprint." We had 161 people register for that training call where I laid out my VERY BEST fee-paid advice with no holds barred. That call generated $8100 of client work. Again good for you - and good for me.

Coming up later this week, YOU are invited to "Your Speaking Business in 2013" with my friend and colleague Andrea Gold of Gold Star Speakers Bureau and author of "The Business of Successful Speaking."

Join us - you don't need to buy anything and there's no catch. If we provide value and you want more, you'll know what to do.

Questions for you:

• Are you strategically giving away RIDICULOUS amounts of value? 
• How could you give even MORE? 
• What could you do to AMPLIFY your impact with your target market? 
• Whose HELP do you need? Partners, affiliates, mentors?
• WHEN will you launch your "WAY More FREE Stuff" campaign?
• HOW will you measure its success?

What do you think?

Use the COMMENTS area below to share what YOU are most excited about in YOUR business for 2013 and... 

Two quick things for you:

1. NEW Group on LinkedIn for "Professionals Who Speak" - if you're a speaker, author, independent professional, corporate executive or entrepreneur, the conversations, resources and people you'll connect with here are top-notch. Join us here:

2. There is still time to register for Speaker Liftoff - the program begins Dec. 7 and all the details are waiting for you online here: 

One of the many pleasures of writing a book is writing the Acknowledgements section where you get to thank all the folks who have helped you at every point in your journey, whether it was last week, last year or all the way back to your childhood.

As you may know, I'm finishing up the final edits on my new book being published by AMACOM next summer. The Acknowledgements section has been top of mind for me this Thanksgiving week. 

Personally, I can't understand authors who write a slim paragraph and then end with "I have too many people to thank and their names could fill this book." REALLY? If that's the case, why don't you at least TRY?

I sure did...  and to celebrate this Thanksgiving week, here it is in its entirety - LARGE, LOUD, and PUBLIC!

Acknowledgements

The first acknowledgement has to go to YOU—for buying this book, for reading this book, and for applying its strategies, tactics and tools to grow your business.

After you, it gets harder to count all the individuals, friends, clients, collaborators, mentors, trusted advisors, and supporters who have made this book—and all the rest of my work—so easy, effortless and enjoyable. Unlike some authors who don’t even try… here goes.

First I’d like to thank my parents for not having a stroke when I announced I was leaving the pre-med program at Franklin & Marshall College to pursue a career in theater. Thank you to Dr. Gordon Wickstrom who modeled the highest gift of catalyzing the best in others while making them feel personally important and professionally capable. What do you get when you cross healing with drama? Of course, you get marketing.

My amazing partner, Vanessa Christman, gets a ton of credit for sticking with her lunatic husband through thick (my waistline) and thin (my hairline). Without you, none of this would be any fun at all. Truly.

My two awesome kids, Becca and Charlie, Woofie the Wonder Dog, and Mimi the cat also went to heroic lengths to put up with me long before, during and after the writing of this book. I love you guys like bananas.

Professionally, the list is even longer. Big thanks to my book agent, Michael Snell. He does business the old-fashioned way and it works amazingly well for all concerned. I’m grateful to my pal Gene Marks for sharing Mike’s genius with me. At AMACOM, Ellen Kadin is a rock star. She knows what works and she makes sure I DO IT. Her steady dedication to our shared vision of a “business book with attitude” shows up on every page. Big thanks and kudos to the AMACOM design team for realizing that vision with the bold design of this book.

And for you aspiring or experienced authors – especially those of you who, like me, HATE to be edited – meet my editor extraordinaire, Christopher Murray. Chris “got” this book right from the start and was an amazing collaborator, organizer and advocate for the business-building ideas you are about to profit from. Find Chris online at www.ChrisMurrayEditor.com and put your project in the hands of a supremely insightful editor and the best friend your writing ever had.

I deeply thank Dr. Michael Ray of Stanford Business School for introducing me to the Creativity in Business MBA course that changed my life. The very best advice he gave me was, “Stop starting things and get more into DOING.” The DNA of Michael’s wisdom runs throughout my work, my life, and by extension, this book!

Thank you to my pals from my corporate days: Sandy Frick, Trish Koons, Neal Duffy, Kim Nuzzaci and Benjamin Laden who were crazy enough to hire me, work with me, and recruit me away from one job into the next for a great 10-year run. I don’t know what you were thinking, but I’m grateful for all the fun we had “working for the man.”

Thank you to four very special people who helped me at every point in my entrepreneurial journey including the good, the bad and the ugly – in mind (Terry Fisher), body (Nick Odorisio), spirit (Scott Simons) and career (Ford R. Myers).

My involvement in the National Speakers Association (NSA) and Canadian Association of Professional Speakers (CAPS) has been an invaluable source of inspiration, insights and friendships. Thank you to my mentors, role models and friends Laurie Brown, Gideon Grunfeld, Michael Roby, Kirstin Carey, Steve Coscia, Avish Parashar, Michael Goldberg, Todd Cohen, Brian Walter, John Reddish, Marvin LeBlanc, Carol Fredrickson, Tom Stoyan, Toni Newman, Brian Lee, Scott McKain, Alan Zimmerman, Frank Bucaro, LeAnn Thieman, Thom Winninger, Patricia Fripp, Alan Weiss, Bob Burg, John Jantsch, David Meerman Scott, Brian Tracy, Randy Gage and Jeffrey Gitomer.

Thank you to my speaker bureau partners and friends – Andrea Gold, Shawn Ellis, Katrina Mitchell, and Nancy Vogl. You are the sharpest, most dedicated folks in the business and you model excellence and integrity in everything you do.

Thank you to my expert contributors: Jay Baer, Scott Ginsberg, Corey Perlman, Dan Janal, Mark LeBlanc, Barry Moltz, Mark Hunter, Henry DeVries, Tom Searcy, Melinda Emerson, Stephanie Chandler, Mary Foley, Gene Marks and Viveka Von Rosen. You are each superheroes in your own realm and I hugely appreciate your generosity of expertise.

Thank you to my colleagues in Vistage International, the world’s largest CEO peer group organization: Jose Palomino, Gerry Lantz, Chris Farias, Scott Messer, Brian Carney, Skip Lange, Carl Francis, Marcia O’Connor, Michael Gidlewski, Steve Van Valin and Jim Lucas. You’ve shared your insights and advice with me even when I didn’t want to hear it, didn’t follow it, and didn’t want to believe it. However, you were right four times out of five. I’m learning.

Thank you to my Do It! Marketing team members, past and present. Especially the uber-awesome Catherine Bernard, the ultra-amazing Katie Hanna, the super-productive Rachel Rodden, and Liz Crider aka “the one that got away.” I love working with you and appreciate you more than you know.

Thank you to my amazing clients. Man, when YOU work, this program works! I’m continually humbled and grateful for your confidence, your business, your friendship, and the credit that you bring to our work by DOING IT consistently, smartly, bravely, and quickly. You are the embodiment of my mantra that “Only action creates results.” Thank you for the privilege of working alongside you as you create your next level of success. 

Sooo... even if you're not writing a book at the moment, you will experience BIG gratitude if YOU write the Acknowledgements section of your (future) book. 

Let me know what you think in the COMMENTS area below. Happy Thanksgiving!

Marketing Coach: Grow Your Business with Selective Access

There's an old marketing saying - create services around your products and productize your services. 

This is good advice because it works for big businesses like IBM and it works for smaller businesses - like yours. 

IBM used to be in the computer hardware business... They were struggling and almost went under in the early 1990's when IT hardware was becoming commoditized. Under new CEO Louis Gerstner, they decided they were in the business of solving business problems, not selling boxes. Within a few short years, their services and consulting revenue dwarfed their hardware sales.

For most small and solo professional service providers, our commodity is our time. Yet our value lies in our expertise.

So how YOU package, market and distribute your expertise become central to your lead-generating and revenue-generating success.

And the best way to do that is to implement a model I call "Selective Access."

Imagine you are running a 5-star restaurant. Your flagship offering is a 7-course gourmet dinner. You also offer lunch which is less fancy (and less expensive). And perhaps you have an up-scale catering or to-go division too.

Prices vary depending on the following four factors:

1. Quality and quantity of ingredients

2. Complexity of preparation

3. Level of service

4. Level of access to the dining environment

Put simply - dinner costs more than lunch which costs more than a snack to-go. 

In my own business, I offer 1-on-1 marketing mentoring (dinner), I run group marketing programs several times each year (lunch) and I work with a few people each month via 1-hour pinpoint sessions (just-enough, just-in-time power snacks!)

Plus I occasionally throw in a "happy meal" which is a free high-value session that's open to everyone. 

Now let's turn the spotlight on YOUR business. Think about - or grab a piece of paper and jot down - what the following looks like in your world: 

1. YOUR Flagship investable opportunity: 

2. YOUR Secondary investable opportunity: 

3. YOUR "To-go" offering (high-value, low-risk, fast, affordable)

4. YOUR FREE happy meal (think of this as a high-value "gift" you can offer to folks who might be good prospects.) 

YOU'RE INVITED: The next "happy meal" coming your way is Tuesday 10/30 at 2pm Eastern. It's a zero-cost high-impact Marketing Blueprint Session and you can read about it here. 

Hope you'll join us on 10/30.