Friends and Colleagues Who Want to Give You Stuff
Maybe the stars are aligned differently, or something–I’ve got a ton of people wanting to give you stuff this month, both on the marketing side (including a couple of resources from some of the world’s top marketers that will really change the whole way you think about marketing) and for lovers of frugal fun.
Let’s start with the frugal fun:
1. I’ve been authorized to give away five copies of a cool new book called “The Fortune Cookie Chronicles”–a Chinese-American woman goes on a quest for perfect Chinese restaurants, and takes a look at the role of Chinese restaurants in society.
To win a copy, click here to submit a frugal fun idea that’s not in my e-book The Penny-Pinching Hedonist: How to Live Like Royalty with a Peasant’s Pocketbook, my previous tipsheets or the Frugal Fun Day Ideas page of frugalfun.com, no later than March 30. Please select “General Comment or Question” from the drop-down subject menu. You don’t have to purchase to enter, but of course that will make it easier for you to know if I already have your idea. (Submission constitutes nonexclusive permission to publish your idea, with credit unless you ask not to be identified). I’ll pick the five I like best.
If you’d like to sample the book, I’ve put an excerpt here.
2. My new friend David Gruder, author of The New IQ: How Integrity Intelligence Serves You, Your Relationships, and Our World, put together a cool tool to assess the integrity of all presidential candidates. Because this aggregates the results and he doesn’t want anyone to cheat, this does require (no-cost) registration.
3. Don’t forget our new games, at the top of the FrugalFun homepage — no fees to play, prizes to win, and you help me continue to bring all this good information to you.
On to the business giveaways:
1. Maven is a Yiddish word that translates more-or-less as “knowledgeable expert that you turn to when you want the best advice”–there’s no one more deserving of the title than the one and only Jay Abraham--perhaps the world’s foremost expert on leveraging JV partnerships…borrowing best practices from one industry and harnessing them with incredible results in someplace completely different (like the way the fast-food industry grabbed the drive-up window from the banks that had it first)…and showing businesses how to be the preeminent force in the market. Jay and Rich Schefren have partnered to bring you this very useful no-cost 88-page e-book/workbook, “The Maven Matrix Manifesto.” In nine steps, it tells you how to become a maven, an the happy business consequences.
2. My friend Ben Mack and his friend Paulie Sabol have teamed up with the one and only Jay Conrad Levinson–yes, the same guy who invented Guerrilla Marketing (and co-invented the Marlboro Man) to bring you the Guerrilla Balance Sheet, an amazing 24-page report that shows you how to get paid to do your own marketing. I am actually developing two new products as a direct result of reading this report.
Now you now why any time I hear about anything either of the Jays are giving away, I am right there. Yes, both of those reports are selling a program–but there’s so much useful information just in the reports themselves that I didn’t mind the pitch at all.
The last two are in the boatload-of-bonuses-with-small-purchase category.
4. I met Mari Smith when she attended a conference where I was speaking. She’s a Facebook guru who finally convinced me to give it a whirl, and I’ve been pretty happy abut that decision. She’s one of 12 authors who contributed to a new book by Mike Jay, called Upping the Downside: 64 Strategies for Creating Professional Resilience by Design. Resilience is the ability to bounce back from adversity; Mari’s essay is about resilience in a marriage; others cover various other aspects–dealing with such topics as grace, recovering your energy, emotional intelligence, and more. Part two of the book explores Mike Jay’s own model for taking that resilience into every aspect of your life, including business.
5. Kathleen Gage sent me a copy of Dr. Joe Capista’s new book, What Can a Dentist Teach You about Business, Life and Success?: Discover Secrets To Achieving Total Success! What I like about this book is that Joe is an ordinary working-class guy, an underachiever in high school and into college, who set himself some goals and went after them–with attitudes of high ethics and service, and understanding that money is not the goal, but a means.
Here’s a tiny taste:
Of the five basic skills listed for success, money is not included for specific reasons. Success is not a result of making money; making money is a result of success. Money is not necessarily a part of success; it can be a way of keeping score. I truly believe that success is the result of providing value and service. We are paid based on the amount of value and service we provide. Money is a measure of that value and service.
When we work with our customers, we should be paid directly for the amount of value and service we provide. In reality, we should be providing more value and service than we are being paid. If you do that, money will never be an issue. You will always be paid the fee you deserve because you are providing more to your customer based on the amount of value and service you provide to them. Henry Ford said, “Wealth, like happiness, is never attained when sought after directly. It comes as a byproduct of providing a useful service.”
The reason I know that money is not part of success is because one of the most successful people I know is my father. My father worked in a factory and never had the opportunity to make much money. Yet he is still a success.
$2551 worth of bonuses–and the offer is still up as of 10:28 p.m. Eastern time March 25 (it was supposed to expire already).
Some of the opportunities mentioned may pay commissions. If you’d like to know if a particular program is commissionable, you’re welcome to ask us.
Book Reviews