Stephen King. He is the Charles Dickens of this century. People either love him or hate him.

My churchgoing friends are often shocked to learn that I read his work, and admire it. In today's show I share some business lessons I have learned from King. Also on today's episode…

• Are you a Madman? Or a Madwoman? Copywriters wanted.
• And the always award-winning, much much more.

Announcements:

• I am updating my copywriting course… I will announce our winners next week.
• Next week's show will be about what could be the most important topic I have ever covered.  Don't miss it.

Conferences where I will be attending and/or speaking:

• NMX, Jan 4-6, 2014, Las Vegas, NV
• Strategic Influence Jan 14-16, 2014, Phoenix, AZ
• NAMS 11 February 7-9, 2014, Atlanta, GA
• Social Media Marketing World, March 26-28, 2014, San Diego, CA

Tip Of The Week – Again!

Digital Photography School. A great site for all things photo.

Spiritual Foundations

1 John 4:18: “perfect love casts out fear.”.

Have you ever been told by someone that you should have more of the “fear of the Lord”? The implication is that your Christian walk cannot be correct unless you're constantly afraid that God is going to “whack you” when you screw up.

It’s true, The Bible talks about the “fear of the Lord”. Let's take a look at what it actually says.

As believers who live under the new covenant, and followers of Jesus, we should let Jesus himself define what the “fear of the Lord” actually is. When the devil tempted Jesus in the desert, and asked Jesus to worship him, Jesus says, “it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God…”. You'll find that in Matthew 4:10.

If you have a modern Bible with cross references, you'll notice that Jesus is actually quoting from the Old Testament. He's quoting his favorite book of the Bible (the book he quoted most often), and the passage he's pointing to is Deuteronomy 6:13. That passage says, “you shall fear the Lord your God and serve him.

But wait a minute! That's not what Jesus said… He said you shall WORSHIP the Lord your God. What's going on here?

While there are plenty of theologians who will argue with me, it seems clear that Jesus is explaining what the passage in Deuteronomy actually means. To fear God is to worship him.

I trust the theology of Jesus more than I trust any other earthly theologian. He has interpreted the “fear of the Lord” for me, and that settles the matter.

One last point worth noting: every single time the disciples were afraid of Jesus, he said the same thing. “Fear not.”

Seven Lessons From Stephen King

Stephen King is a writing and marketing machine, having accomplished the unusual feat of being successful as a craftsman, and as an entrepreneur.  He has sold well over 350 million books, and spawned countless movies and television shows. His latest novel-to-screen adaptation is Under The Dome. How?

I have written extensively elsewhere about writing for the purpose of strategic influence. I can point to no better model of how to do this right than King.

There are seven key lessons you can learn from Stephen King, and the way he conducts his business (the business of writing). And for those of you who are offended by my saying “the business of writing”… perhaps if you thought about your writing as a business, you wouldn’t be so easily offended. Food for thought.

1. Learn your craft. Whether his subject matter is always to your taste or not, you would have to be willfully ignorant to declare Stephen King anything other than a master of the art of writing stories. He has honed his craft to a fine edge, and without this particular weapon in his arsenal, the rest of what you’re about to read would not be possible. You must master the craft.
2. Be prolific. King has stated that he writes every day, including his birthday and Christmas day. He has since admitted that this might be a bit of an exaggeration, but not much. His ethic of working every day is plainly demonstrated by his amazing output. You don’t publish 50 novels,  five nonfiction works, and over 200 short stories by goofing off.  you do it by applying liberal amounts of fingers to keyboard.
3. Be real. One reason people are often uncomfortable with King’s writing is that he tends to bring heavy doses of reality into his stories. I’m not talking about the vampires, giant spiders, and ghosts, of course. I’m talking about the sometimes embarrassing, sometimes offensive, sometimes infuriatingly irrational ways that people talk and behave. King unabashedly presents people as they really are. And this makes his detractors uncomfortable… And his fans love him.
4. Have a personality. When King began his career, he decided to be exactly who he is. I have no way of knowing this, but I’m pretty certain this was a conscious decision made in the full knowledge that it might backfire financially. He could have been more “respectable” by writing that vaguely named thing called “literary fiction”, but instead he chose to write what fascinated him.
5. Be fearless. Stephen King has never shied away from the potential criticism he might get from atheists, believers, Democrats, Republicans, or  the League of Decency. He’s written some ugly scenes, and seems that many writers would have shied away from because they didn’t want to be associated with that material. For better or worse, that fearlessness has catapulted him from the mass of mediocrity to the pinnacle of literary success.
6. Try new things. King was one of the first to take advantage of the digital publishing medium. He was one of the first to publish a novel in serial form online. He has branched out into music, comic books, and of course films and television. Some of his experiments have fallen flat. Others have been a meteoric success, both critically and financially (remember Stand by Me and The Green Mile?)
7. Do many things simultaneously. One of the ways King manages to stay so prolific is that he is doing many things simultaneously. He’s always working on a new book or story, and usually has more than one project cooking in the background (a movie, a TV series, and audiobook, or the radio stations that he owns in Maine).

While you may or may not ever be his equal on the bestseller lists (he has a pretty strong head start on most of us), you definitely can learn from the career and methodologies of Stephen King.

Question: what have you learned about writing, or the business of writing, from Stephen King… Or any other modern writers? Share below…

What To Do Now

If you enjoy the podcast, I would consider it a great favor if you subscribe (and leave a review) in iTunes. This helps new people discover the podcast. You can also find the podcast on Stitcher.

Question:   What worked, and what didn't work, for you this year? Click here to leave your comments.

In this weeks podcast I will reveal to you what worked for me in 2013…  as well as what didn't work.

You get to profit not only from my success stories, but even from my failures. Also on today's episode…

• Are you a Madman? Or a Madwoman? Copywriters wanted.
• An exciting new guide on how to form your own mastermind group… reduxe.
• What is the truth about so-called “greasy grace”?
• And the always award-winning, much much more.

Announcements:

• I am updating my copywriting course… win free access with your comments between now and Christmas.
• Next week's show will be about what could be the most important topic I have ever covered.  Don't miss it.
• The return of listener questions! How to promote yourself on my show!

Conferences where I will be attending and/or speaking:

• NMX, Jan 4-6, 2014, Las Vegas, NV
• Strategic Influence Jan 14-16, 2014, Phoenix, AZ
• NAMS 11 February 7-9, 2014, Atlanta, GA
• Social Media Marketing World, March 26-28, 2014, San Diego, CA
• “Permission to Prosper” April 8-10, 2014, Spokane, WA

Tip Of The Week – Again!

One of the most powerful things you can do to accelerate your success in 2014 is to form an intentional mastermind group.

Click here and take a look at Dan Miller's new course on how to do just that. It's worth 10 times the investment he's asking.

Spiritual Foundations

Is the so-called “new grace movement” cheapening the concept of grace? Is it promoting something we know as “greasy grace”?

In the podcast, I give my answers to these questions.

Feature Segment:  What Worked (and What Didn't) In 2013

I share my most successful… and also my LEAST successful business moves in 2013. Here's where they'll mean to you and your success in 2014…

What worked:

1. This podcast.  High leverage, high engagement, premium content delivery vehicle.
2. Facebook.  Believe it or not, this was my number one source of traffic in 2013.
3. Premium pricing.  Over 80% of the revenue we generated came from the most expensive 5% of services and products we offer.

What didn't work:

1. Busyness.  Over committing led to me making a few poor tactical decisions, and was a severe drain on my mental focus, emotional well-being, and physical health.
2. Complexity. Complexity is the mother frustration, and the father of fatigue.
3.  Rugged individualism.  It's an American ideal.  It's romantic. It feels heroic. The only problem is, it doesn't work.

What To Do Now

If you enjoy the podcast, I would consider it a great favor if you subscribe (and leave a review) in iTunes. This helps new people discover the podcast. You can also find the podcast on Stitcher.

Question:   What worked, and what didn't work, for you this year? Click here to leave your comments.

When your blog is the cornerstone of your business (as it is for mine, and I recommend it be for yours), creating  enough content can be a challenge.

In today's episode, I will share 10 different ways you can create more content, more consistently, and more easily. Also on today's episode…

• How to get my newly updated copywriting course for free.
• How to become an apprentice and work directly for me.
• An exciting new guide on how to form your own mastermind group.
• Answer the question: why are Christians so cheap?
• And the always award-winning, much much more.

Announcements:

• I am updating my copywriting course… win free access with your comments between now and Christmas.
• Want to finally finish your book, and get it published by New York publisher? Want to get that accomplished before the end of January?  Click here and fill out this application. We'll talk.
• Next week's show will be about what worked great for me in 2013, and what didn't work so well… and how you can directly benefit from some of my embarrassing admissions.
• The return of listener questions! How to promote yourself on my show!

Conferences where I will be attending and/or speaking:

• NMX, Jan 4-6, 2014, Las Vegas, NV
• Strategic Influence Jan 14-16, 2014, Phoenix, AZ
• NAMS 11 February 7-9, 2014, Atlanta, GA
• Social Media Marketing World, March 26-28, 2014, San Diego, CA
• “Permission to Prosper” April 8-10, 2014, Spokane, WA

Tip Of The Week

One of the most powerful things you can do to accelerate your success in 2014 is to form an intentional mastermind group.

Click here and take a look at Dan Miller's new course on how to do just that. It's worth 10 times the investment he's asking.

Spiritual Foundations

Give freely and become more wealthy;
be stingy and lose everything.” Proverbs 11:24

In a recent discussion, a couple of my friends brought up the fact that selling things to the Christian market is not a good idea. Christians, they said, are cheap. One brought up a statistic they heard from a retail bookstore owner, who said the number one category of books that are stolen our Christian books. Three questions:

1. Is this true?
2. If it's not true, why is it so widely believed?
3. Either way, what should we do about it?

In the podcast, I give my answers to these questions.

Feature Segment:  10 Ways to Create More Content

The cornerstone of your online business is the creation of great content. But that creation is not always easy, especially if you have a goal of producing a lot of content consistently.

Here are 10 ways to produce more content, more consistently, and more easily. Especially when your ideas are running dry.

1. See a movie. This can result in posts like “The Hobbit's Guide to Online Marketing” or even “What Ironman Can Teach You about List Building”.
2. Tell a personal story. Make a list of the most exciting, shocking, or embarrassing stories that have happened to you. This list should give you the starting point for many a blog post.
3. Be the interviewer. Pick the people you would most like to learn from, and set up interviews with them.
4. Write a review. You can review a book, a training program, a seminar, software… Anything applicable to your audience. The more detail, the better.
5. Publish a how to. We love tutorials, especially the granular, step-by-step kind.
6. Ask your audience. Just ask what they would most like to hear from you about. Other great ways to phrase the question include: what's your biggest problem? What's holding you back? What your number one question?
7. Curate some content. Simply collect and share links of your 10 favorite blog posts on subject X. Variations: “The 10 Best Posts On…”, “Four Distinctly Different Views About…”, “Seven Approaches To…”
8. Case studies. They can be your clients, or they can be other companies. Talk about what they're doing right, why you think it's right, and summarize some takeaways.
9. Opposite day. Make a list of your most popular posts, and ask yourself, “what if I took the opposite view on this?”
10. Guest posts. Solicit for guest posts on your blog. Just make sure what they write will be interesting to your audience. But if they come from your audience, they most assuredly will be.

What To Do Now

If you enjoy the podcast, I would consider it a great favor if you subscribe (and leave a review) in iTunes. This helps new people discover the podcast. You can also find the podcast on Stitcher.

Question:  Which of these ideas can you put into practice and use today? Click here to leave your comments.

What most people do this time of year: run around in a frenzied chaos, and slide into the finish line of the current year battered, bruised, and confused.

I have discovered three crucial actions that if, intentionally taken, can quite literally multiply the success and fulfillment you enjoy in 2014. Today, I'll share with they are and how you can use them.

•  A favorite productivity app revisited… and why.
•  Why I love sinners.
•  And the always award-winning, much much more.

Announcements:

• I am updating my copywriting course… win free access with your comments between now and Christmas.
• Seats available for Strategic & Tactical Influence (STI) — dates January 14-16 in Phoenix, AZ.

Conferences where I will be attending and/or speaking:

• NMX, Jan 4-6, 2014, Las Vegas, NV
• Strategic Influence Jan 14-16, 2014, Phoenix, AZ
• NAMS 11 February 7-9, 2014, Atlanta, GA
• Social Media Marketing World, March 26-28, 2014, San Diego, CA
• “Permission to Prosper” April 8-10, 2014, Spokane, WA

Tip Of The Week

There's nothing like a little peer pressure to get you to do the right thing. Like exercise, for instance. Listen to the podcast to find out why I'm revisiting a favorite productivity app, with renewed vigor ( the app is Lift.)

Spiritual Foundations

And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, ³⁸ and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment.” Luke 7:37-38

I love sinners –  here is why and how.

Feature Segment:  3 Crucial Actions To Prepare You For 2014

There are three actions that, if taken, will dramatically shift the experience you have of 2014. Most to listen to this show will agree with these actions, and proceed to never take them. How about you?

1. Pause
2. Ponder
3. Prepare.

What To Do Now

Grab your calendar and schedule a spot for each of these three. Then, if you wouldn't mind, report back your experience here.

If you enjoy the podcast, I would consider it a great favor if you subscribe (and leave a review) in iTunes. This helps new people discover the podcast. You can also find the podcast on Stitcher.

Question:    What did you discover when you took time to pause, ponder, and prepare? Click here to leave your comments.