My “one word” for this year is: simplify. Why did I choose that word, and what does it mean to you?

In this episode, I will share five good reasons why you should consider simplifying, too. Also coming up…

• How to write like Hemingway.
• Stu McLaren with the Lifestyle Business Report.
• The One Copywriting Rule That You Must Follow.
• Now let's get on with it…

Announcements:

• Thanks to all who have left a review of the Ray Edwards Show in iTunes.
• For more info about the one-day mastermind with me and 11 other people, where we make radical progress in your business… is on. Click this link to make your deposit and application.

Conferences where I will be attending and/or speaking:

• Social Media Marketing World, March 26-28, 2014, San Diego, CA
• The Launch Conference, April 7-10, 2014, Orlando, FL
• SCORRE Conference May 5-8, Orlando, FL

Tip Of The Week 

The app that helps you write like Hemingway.

Lifestyle Business Segment 

With Stu McLaren

Copywriting Corner

This week I share  “The One Copywriting Rule You Must Follow”. I explain how to use the Rule on today's show.

Spiritual Foundations

It's not necessary to debate people into the Kingdom.

“Christ is all in all.”— Colossians 3:11

In the end, a debate about salvation, the existence of God, or who Jesus is, will be fruitless. Only a direct revelation, illuminated by the Holy Spirit, brings people into the Kingdom.

And inside the church, all our focus on leadership programs, small groups, building programs, social justice, church growth initiatives, etc. miss the mark. We have,  when we focus on these things, abandon our first love. A good test: simply count the number of times a pastor (or a book, or teaching series) references the name Jesus.

“Christ is all I need. You can strip away everything else from me, and I would still be left with Christ. Take away my gifts and my ministry; take away signs and wonders; take away the sense of His presence; take away my ability to read; take away every spiritual and religious pursuit I have, and I will still have Christ. And having Him, I have everything.”
~  Jesus Manifesto by Frank Viola and Leonard Sweet

Feature Segment:  5 Good Reasons To Simplify

The word I chose to guide 2014 was simplify. In this episode, I explain why I chose it, and five reasons why you should consider simplifying too.

1. Simplifying your possessions and give you clarity, energy, and peace.
2. Complexity in any area of your life weighs you down.
3. Simplicity is the best preparation for the future.
4. Simplicity gives you the broadest range of choices in any decision.
5. Simplicity creates margin.

In the episode I talk about my  journey toward simplification, where it will lead, and how you can benefit.

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 show. You can also find the podcast on Stitcher.

Question:    Do you feel you would benefit from simplifying? How will you start? Click here to leave your comments.

I believe the way you start your day determines how it will end; productive and happy, or frustrated and fruitless.  That's why I put so much focus on my morning routine,  which is the foundation of my personal “Productivity Protocol”.  My morning routine is an intentional set of activities designed to set me up for the best possible day. With the right routine in place, I believe we can make our best days better, and perhaps even salvage what might have been a “bad day.”

If you are familiar with my work, I have written about this before. But my routine has changed , and I have refined my process. On today's show, I will pull back the curtain on my newly re-engineered morning routine. Also coming up…

• The Post-It Note ToDo System.
• Stu McLaren returns.
• A super-simple copy outline.
• Now let's get on with it…

Announcements:

• Thanks to all who have left a review of the Ray Edwards Show in iTunes.
• For more info about the one-day mastermind with me and 11 other people, where we make radical progress in your business… is on. Click this link to make your deposit and application.

Conferences where I will be attending and/or speaking:

• Social Media Marketing World, March 26-28, 2014, San Diego, CA
• The Launch Conference, April 7-10, 2014, Orlando, FL
• SCORRE Conference May 5-8, Orlando, FL

Tip Of The Week 

The Post-It Note Planning System.

Lifestyle Business Segment 

With Stu McLaren

Copywriting Corner

This week I share a “super simple copywriting outline”. It goes like this:

1. Headline: How to Get the Thing You Want, In Three Easy Steps
2. Here's the problem, and what happens if you don't solve it…
3. I solved the problem, and here's how…
4. Who the heck am I, and why should you believe me?
5. Introducing my Fancy New Problem-Solving System
6. It's worked for me, for my other customers, and it will work for you…
7. Here's exactly what you get
8. How much it costs, and why it's worth 10 times more
9. I will take all the risk
10. Here's exactly what to do now

Sure, there are lots of nuances to writing great copy. But this basic outline will help you quickly write a sales message. I flesh out the process and explain how to use the outline on today's show.

Spiritual Foundations

I have been accused of being a “hyper grace teacher”. According to this accusation, I have overemphasized the importance of the grace of Jesus Christ at the expense of his Lordship. Of course, I vehemently disagree with this criticism.

I recently had a discussion about this for a topic with my friend Frank Viola, and I asked him if he would be willing to join us on the show so we could talk about the controversy over so-called “greasy grace”. To hear this fascinating interview, you'll need to listen to the audio of this week's show.

You can find the course Frank mentioned by clicking here.

Feature Segment: Create A Morning Routine That Sets You Up For Success

The purpose of creating an intentional morning routine is to develop an habitual set of activities to start each day. The way you start the day sets the tone for the way you will finish out the rest of the day. A good routine in the morning will give you momentum for the rest the day, that increases the likelihood for productivity and success.

My own routine has gone through considerable evolution over the last few years. Recently, I found my previous routine had become stale and somewhat out of alignment with my current priorities. So I've decided to reengineer it. This new routine will also undoubtedly evolve over time, but this is what I'm doing now, and what seems to be working for me.

1. Get up early. I don't use an alarm clock, but I tend to naturally awaken between 4 and 5 AM. Most days, my day starts at 5 AM.
2. Drink 24 ounces of water. Most of us live in a constant state of mild dehydration. This is bad for your body, and bad for your brain. I intentionally hydrate first thing in the morning. Especially considering the next part of my routine…
3. Drink a cup of Bulletproof Coffee.  This is a blend of organic coffee, high quality MCT oil, and butter, blended into a delightful, flavorful, and creamy beverage. It tastes better than a latte, and  supports the healthy functioning of your brain.  there is a great deal of research about the benefits of Medium Chain Triglycerides (MCT), especially for preventing or alleviating the symptoms of conditions such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. The best part, though, is that drinking Bulletproof Coffee gives me a great jolt of energy and mental clarity and focus.
4. Prayer and mindfulness. This is where, in the words of Brother Lawrence, I “practice the presence” of Jesus. I'm listening for what he has to say to me today.
5. Execute the Morning Reading Process. I'm currently reading nine books simultaneously, and I have written about this process recently. If you'd like to know more about how I managed to read as many as 40 books in a week, refer to this post. Quickly, though, I start by reading the Bible, then a devotional, and follow that up with some kind of theological work. Then I read a chapter in each of the other books I'm currently working through.
6.  Write in my journal. I use the journaling app Day One, a template for each station journal entry that I adapted from one Michael Hyatt wrote about his blog, and usually spend only about 15 minutes journaling. The template is key. Before, whenever I attempted to Journal, I felt as though it was some sort of “artsy crafty” thing and really couldn't get into it. Having a template gives me an intentional set of data and/or thoughts that I want to record each day, and makes the journaling process as easy as filling in the blanks. It also means that later in life, when I refer back to this journal, it will have context and meaning.
7. Plan my day. I still plan my day the night before. Planning tomorrow is the last activity I will do today. However, I have found it is extremely useful to review that plan at this step in my morning routine. I often end up changing the plan, because I have a fresh perspective on the day. While I am a big proponent of David Allen's GTD methodology, I'm afraid I still use a daily task list. I know GTD devotees will be disappointed to hear this, but this is what works for me. Years ago, I learned the “6 Most Important Things” to-do list method from Earl Nightingale (if memory serves correctly.) Robert Plank and Lance Tamashiro teach a system they call “4 Daily Tasks”, which I think is a better refinement of Nightingale's original idea. I simply make a list of “5 Things”. Each day, I have 5 things I want to accomplish, no matter what else happens. I start with number 1 and don't work on anything else until that is done. Then I move to number 2, and so on until I get to number 5. Once I've completed number 5, I am free to do whatever I want for the rest of the day. The key to making the system work is to make sure that they really are 5 “things”, and not 5 “projects”.
8. Exercise.  By this time it is around 8 AM. At least four days out of the week, but ideally seven, I either go to the gym or hit the road for 40 minutes of physical exercise. It's good for your body,  it's good for your brain, and it's good for your emotional well-being. If I don't do it at this point in my day, it becomes much less likely that I will do it at all.
9. Start working on my “5 Things.” Once upon a time, I wrote my 5 Things on a whiteboard, and at the end of the day would take a photo with my iPhone of the 5 Things crossed out. These days I use the Post-it note system I described in the Tip of the Week. I admit that I still cross off the items… but I don't take a picture. I just throw the Post-Its away.
10.  Stop working at 3 PM. This is more of a goal than it is a reality as of this writing. This represents a big change in my modus operandi. But having a hard stop at the end of the day, and making it this early, give me the freedom to engage in other activities that are important to me that otherwise get shortchanged by work.

That's my morning routine, and how transitions into the rest of my productivity protocol for the day. It's a new revision, I just started working this routine, and I will update you let you know how it's going somewhere down the line (if you're interested.)

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 show. You can also find the podcast on Stitcher.

Question:   What is your morning routine, and is it time to reengineer it? Click here to leave your comments.

This is episode 100… 100 weeks in a row, we've cranked out a new show. While Episode 104 will mark the 2-year anniversary of the show, I felt we had to do something special for #100… so that's what we're doing.

And on today's episode I'm going to do  our usual segments, but the feature presentation segment will be exclusively your questions. Also coming up…

• How to know what your market wants.
• How to not waste your life.
• One of the most powerful copy secrets I know.
• Now let's get on with it…

Announcements:

• Thanks to all who have left a review of the Ray Edwards Show in iTunes.
• For more info about the one-day mastermind with me and 11 other people, where we make radical progress in your business… is on. You can get the full story here.

Conferences where I will be attending and/or speaking:

• Social Media Marketing World, March 26-28, 2014, San Diego, CA
• The Launch Conference, April 7-10, 2014, Orlando, FL
• JV Alert: The Perfect Game April 24-27, Denver, CO
• SCORRE Conference May 5-8, Orlando, FL

Tip Of The Week 

Survey your customers!

Copywriting Corner

The power of “reason why”.

Spiritual Foundations

Don't waste your life.

“Only one life, ’twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.”

The good news is that includes being an entrepreneur!

Feature Segment: Nothin' But “Q&A With Ray”

With questions from:

1. Michael Hyatt
2. Cliff Ravenscraft
3. Dr. Kenny Handelman
4. Kirk Bowman
5. Dan Miller
6. Alejandro Reyes
7. Frank Viola
8. Annett Bone
9. Martin Howey
10. Jeff Sanders
11. Ian Bone
12. Jason Nicholas
13. Joel Comm
14. Ken McArthur
15. Tracy Childers
16. Ryan Eidson
17. Mike McMahon
18. Marshall Bone
19. Phil Drysdale
20. Tor Constantino
21. Stu McLaren

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 show. You can also find the podcast on Stitcher.

Question:  What are your big questions about how to monetize your message? Click here to leave your comments.

I'm pleased to have Michael Stelzner as my guest on today's show. If you don't know who Michael is… well in the words of Ron Burgundy, he's “kind of a big deal.” Don't act like you're not impressed.

The Networking Party that kicks off this year's Social Media Marketing World in San Diego will happen on the deck of the USS Midway!

We'll get to Michael's interview in a few minutes, but first I want to tell you about the upcoming celebration, and a few other reasons to keep listening, such as…

• The most compressive goal-setting and tracking software I have found.
• The number 166.
• One of my NEW top Copywriting book recommedations.
• Now let's get on with it…

Announcements:

• Thanks to all who have left a review of the podcast in iTunes. This week I would like to thank:  Kirk Bowman, Eric Dingler, “Lady J” Jevonnah Ellison.
• It looks like the one-day mastermind with me and 11 other people, where we make radical progress in your business… is on. You can get the full story here.
• Next week's show is number 100, and we will be devoting it exclusively to listener questions. I'm turning the microphone over to you.

Conferences where I will be attending and/or speaking:

• NAMS 11 February 7-9, 2014, Atlanta, GA
• Social Media Marketing World, March 26-28, 2014, San Diego, CA
• The Launch Conference, April 7-10, 2014, Orlando, FL
• JV Alert: The Perfect Game April 24-27, Denver, CO
• SCORRE Conference May 5-8, Orlando, FL

Tip Of The Week 

I have been experimenting with a number of different goal-setting apps, and so far the most full-featured of the bunch is GoalsOnTrack.

Things I like about GoalsOnTrack:

• It has a great little iPhone app.
• It syncs my due dates with Google Calendar.
• It's hierarchical, so it works like an outline.
• I can track my goal, the purpose that drives the goal, the start and end dates… and most importantly, the habits and action plans needed to support the goal.

I do wish they offered a native iPad app, but other than those two points I love GoalsOnTrack.

Copywriting Corner

Accidental Genius: Using Writing to Generate Your Best Ideas, Insight, and Content

One of the problems I see in the world of copywriting and marketing today is a lack of original ideas. Look, folks, John Caples and David Ogilvy did not achieve their greatness by using somebody else's “swipe file”. They got their breakthrough ideas by dipping into a deeper well, where they probably found ideas swimming around that grew out of reading books (you remember those, stories like Moby Dick, Huckleberry Finn, The Stand, Fahrenheit 451, Etc.?)

I suggest you dip into those wells for yourself.

The best copy, in my humble but accurate opinion, is between the covers of the best novels. But, I digress.

Would you like a shortcut to writing better copy?

This great book was recommended to me by my friend Andy Traub. In the book, Levy teaches a concept and technique he calls freewriting. His claim is that it helps you produce breakthrough ideas and solve problems in minutes. This book has literally changed my writing process. I'm using the freewriting technique to generate material for my blog posts, podcasts, books, seminars, and products.

What I was shocked to discover is that even if we consider ourselves creative, we tend to hold ourselves back. Inside each of us lives The Editor. Her job (yes, I'm afraid it's always a her) is to tell us that our writing is not perfect, that we need to go back and revise it, that we need to make sure we never sound stupid. Heaven forbid if anybody thought we were crazy.

What results from that kind of limiting belief is limited thinking. Careful thinking. Thinking that wants to make sure we fit in. Thinking that keeps us stuck.

Free writing, on the other hand, starts with you writing as fast as you can, for as long as you can, about something that's important to you and ignoring the standard rules of grammar and spelling and what you learned in English class and what your mother might think and what the Ladies' Society For Literary Decency might think.

I freewrote that last sentence. Notice that it was longer than most of my more controlled writing. It also, I think, had a little sparkle. I'm not going to polish it fix it, I'm going to leave it here as an example that perhaps will tease you into buying this book.

I've only scratched the surface of Levy's work. He has six big “secrets” that help render your Editor unconscious and let your genius run around for a while, naked and free. There are also a score of other exercises and techniques. And yes, he does teach you how to refine your free writing into something that you would share with somebody without fear or embarrassment.

Spiritual Foundations

2 hours.

That's the amount of time each week the average businessperson, manager, or entrepreneur spends  inside of church. If you've done the math already you realize that there are only 168 hours in a week. That means that 166 hours are spent outside the church for most modern Christians.

There's nothing wrong with that. In fact, that's my point in this week's Spiritual Foundations. Jesus never told us, “go to church.” In fact, he said something quite opposite:

And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.” Mark 16:15

Most modern Christians act as if “ministry” is a job title that preachers have. But according to the Bible, the job of the preacher is to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. The saints (that's you and me) are the ones doing the ministry.

As a minister in the marketplace, you are quite literally going “into all the world.”

In future episodes, we're going to focus a lot more intently on what it means to do marketplace ministry without being preachy or repulsive to other people. We're going to focus on how you show the love of Christ to others in such a way they are changed by it… they are changed by him.

For now, I leave you with something to think about. Just like Jesus,  your meant to be out there, doing your father's business. So how's business?

Feature Segment: Social Media Marketing With Michael Stelzner

Michael Stelzner is the founder of Social Media Examiner, the world’s largest online social media magazine. Michael is also the author of the books Launch and Writing White Papers… and the man behind some large events, such as Social Media Marketing World (the most influential physical event in the industry, and I am thrilled to be speaking there next month), and Social Media Success Summit, the largest online conference. He is also host of the Social Media Marketing podcast show.

Get your tickets by clicking here. 

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 show. You can also find the podcast on Stitcher.

Question:  What are your big questions about how to monetize your message? Click here to leave your comments.