Shut The Fuck Up And Other Advice For 2012

by Matthew on December 14, 2011

20111214-120624.jpgThese are my own rules for the new year. How many of them resonate with you?

1. Shut The Fuck Up

Enough with the pontificating and pratulations and post-experiential “lessons learnt’ blog-posts, Twitter chats and backslapping, circle-jerking, profuse fuckwittery masqerading as work.

Get on with the work. Shut up a bit. Nose. Grindstone.

2. Sell Sell Sell

If you’ve started your business, and 90% of your time is currently being taken up with product development, process-fucking-aboutery and “networking”, then you haven’t started your business.

Until you know where the next client is coming from and how much they’re going to spend with you, and how long your existing clients are sticking about with you, and what you’re going to sell them next so that they’ll love you even more, then you haven’t got a business.

3. Selective Hero Selection: Choose Your Heroes Wisely

You can’t do it on your own. And you shouldn’t. Problems shared pale, and strengths combined soar.

But be cautious: everyone’s a fucking expert.

Never a trust a man who tells you endlessly on loop how good he is before you have the chance to find out yourself.

Pare down your list of “thought leaders” to zero. Pare down your list of those who are catologing their post-adolescent journey to freedom to those you’d share a beer with, or look out for like a kid brother.

Then, identify somebody who’s had what you want and hound them until they share how they got it.

4. Spades Are Spades

Skive off. Muck about. Enjoy. Kick back. Drink beer.

But call it what it is.

Not everything you do is about your inner journey, your personal development, your life lessons or your “biz”. Sometimes you’re just fucking about. That’s OK.

Only those guilty of underwork reframe fun into work.

5. Simplify

Cut out 80% of your good ideas. Lock them in a jar for your retirement.

Get a red pen out and go over your last six months of software purchases, memberships, subscriptions, bank statements and “must-have” apps.

Pare, excise, cannibalize, streamline.

Take the single thing you do: the thing you’re known for, the result you deliver, and deliver it better.

Ask the insurance broker who lives at the end of your street how he’s managed to take his wife and six kids to Cabo three times a year for the last eight years without running his own company or finding his passion or joining Twitter or mastering mobile affiliate marketing.

He did it by doing his job, which was selling insurance.

Anything to add?

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52 Business Books To Read In 2012

by Matthew on December 8, 2011

I could take the time to read a fiction book, but I don’t. I would rather read websites, newspapers, magazines, looking for ideas and concepts that I can use. I spend time in bookstores because one idea from a book or magazine can make me money.

The edge is knowing that you have to be the smartest guy in the room when you have your meeting and you are going to put in the effort to learn whatever you need to learn to get there.

Mark Cuban, How To Win At The Sport Of Business

I’m starting a book club.

If you want in, sign up for my list. After all, if you’re not learning, you’re not earning.

Below is the list of books I’ll be reading (or in some cases, re-reading) in 2012.

I aim for five a month, and will read them in the order they appear below. In addition, I aim to review them in this order as well.

It’s unlikely I’ll put all the reviews on the blog, but if you want a summary each month of my brain food, for inspiration and education, enter your email address into the box on the right and I’ll push them through to you as soon as they’re done.

52 Business Books To Read In 2012

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How To Sell – brand new, totally free ebook

by Matthew on November 17, 2011

Download link at the bottom of this postYou need to know how to sell. 

Marketing – getting people to know about you and your stuff – is one thing. Selling is quite different.

True, a good marketing campaign will make the sale easier, but without being able to close that sale, the marketing is all for nothing.

How To Sell – the eBook

I used to sell this. Now I’ve revised it so it’s brand spanking new and I’m giving it away. Oh, the irony …

I’m working on bigger stuff now, and am keen to get some of my best existing stuff into new hands, so please share with everyone who might be interested.

50 pages, 5000 words, totally free, no opt-in.

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Last week, after announcing my Infusionsoft discount offer, I got a ton of emails asking about the other tools you might need to run your business.

So I decided to share my little black book.

In it, you’ll find:

  • The designers I work with and recommend.
  • The only resources you’ll need to get started with a kick-ass effective social media plan.
  • The single best copywriting education you can get (for free).
  • How to get a website up and earning in under a day.
  • The 11 books every business owner needs to own.
  • How to get a free weekly marketing education from the comfort of your car;
  • Which virtual assistant company I use – and strongly recommend.
  • Where you can get dirt-cheap and rapid transcription.
  • The 7 cheap or free tools you need to get your multimedia empire started.

There’s no opt-in, you can download it here, give it away, share it with your clients or give it to your list.

Enjoy!

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