You’ll find much more in-depth reviews of recent books that Matthew has been reading. As you can tell he has quite a specific reading tatse in the business area. Although every now and then a random title appears.

You can view Matthews full book library in his Book and Kindle library on this very site.

If you have any suggestions on reading materials, Matthew has found some fantastic books by personal recommendations and would value your suggestions, you can contact him on his dedicated Contact Matthew page.

The Ultimate Guide to Multi Channel Software Book

The Ultimate Guide to MUlti Channel SoftwareHowdy,

I know that Multi Channel software can help you work smarter, save you time and help make your business grow.

However… Do you find Multi Channel Software confusing too?

One of the challenges that I have had and I’m sure you’ve struggled with over the past few years is working how which Multi Channel software is right for you and your business.

So I’ve written the Ultimate Guide to Multi Channel software especially for you.

If you already know myself & that any such book is going to be worth the read, click here to download your free +70 page copy.

If not, here’s an insight into the book you can currently download for free and have in your hands in seconds.

Use the form below to download your +70 page, Plain English guide to Multi Channel software:

Enter your details to download immediately:

We respect your privacy

The Ultimate Guide to Multi Channel Software

Honeycomb-of-magento-ebay-and-amazonThe book is broken up into 12 chapters and first five chapters explain everything you need to know about Multi Channel software.

In chapter 1 you’ll learn:

  • What is Multi Channel software
  • The typical path that businesses follow to using software
  • The “Be Everywhere” strategy (more on this shortly)
  • What is the “Best” Multi Channel software
  • And how Multi Channel software can help your business

This entire book assumes no prior knowledge to Multi Channel software and I don’t stop at just an overview, you’ll also learn that:

  • You need a key, aka the Stock Number to keep stock levels in-sync
  • There are risks to being everywhere & that these can be reduced by using rules
  • An inventory management system can help you manage small & large numbers of products
  • Templates will great speed up the listing process and add “quality” for each and every listing
  • By combining orders into a single screen can help you process orders in bulk, saving you time
  • Couriers can be integrated and you can apply business rules to orders to change the delivery method

I’m keeping this brief as there are over 70 pages explaining how Multi Channel software can help you, how this software works and how it can help your business in 100% “Plain English”

Then together we’ll look at the different generations of Multi Channel software and I’ve included two simple to use tools that you can use for your business to help you work out which Multi Channel software is right for your business today and in a years time.

The Be Everywhere Strategy

In the previous book that I wrote on the “One Simple Rule to Sell More Online” we homed in on how your business is being seen by customers.

The “Be-Everywhere” strategy is the other side to this, this is being everywhere where your customers are when they’re in buying mode.

So this isn’t social media marketing on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc… where your customers are in “social mode”, this is on eBay, on Amazon and on your own eCommerce website where your customer is in “buying mode“.

The math here is really simple:

More sales channels
= More eyeballs looking at your products
= A higher chance of selling
= More sales
= More profit

It helps you “be everywhere” your customers are and manage the processes in the background to help you work smarter each day.

Be there with them too.

Grow Your Business

I know that that Multi Channel software can appear confusing to begin. However, Multi Channel software can help you and your business grow.

The Ultimate Guide to Multi Channel SoftwareIt’s a decision that I personally put off for several months and it cost me thousands. Ask anyone in this industry and they’ll tell you immediately that the businesses, that employ the tools that you find in Multi Channel software will help you and your business grow.

With Multi Channel software you can:

  • Create better quality listings
  • Leverage templates to expedite the listing process
  • Open your business to cheaper resources, such as outsourcing
  • Sell on eBay, Sell on Amazon
  • Sell on your own website(s)
  • Manage orders from ALL your sales channels
  • Keep stock levels correct across them all
  • Work smarter each day

And I’m only scratching the surface here for everything you’re about to learn in your copy of this book.

Which Software is Right for You?

The simple to use tools in this book will help you work out the true cost of how much Multi Channel software is going to cost you.

You can compare one provider against the other and while it will take you a couple of weeks to fully leverage the tools you’ll find in Multi Channel software, it doesn’t need to be expensive anymore. You can start on a tiny budget of just £302 for an entire year (or £25.17, 31.36€, $42.09 USD or $45.07 AUD if worked out monthly).

I’ve also included a tool that you can use to compare the features by giving you all the questions you need the answers to and compare any 2nd Generation Multi Channel software this includes Linnworks, Seller Express, StoreFeeder, ChannelGrabber, BrightPearl, ChannelAdvisor, eSellerPro, Cascade, ChannelUnity, Seller Dynamics and the 3rd Generation too.

Download Your Copy Right Now

Use the form below to download your +70 page, Plain English guide to Multi Channel software:

Enter your details to download immediately:

We respect your privacy

You can start reading this book immediately and I’ll also email a copy over to as well so that you can read it at anytime you wish to.

I want your business to be a success too and I’ll be in touch a few days after you have downloaded the book to see how you’re getting on and including some extra tips & suggestions to accompany the book.

This really is the “Ultimate” guide to Multi Channel software, nothing like this has been written before and with that said,

To your success!

Matthew Ogborne
Author of The Ultimate Guide to Multi Channel Software

How to Break Habits, Stop Pointless Tasks & Quit Smoking

Habits, we need them to survive, I’m also using several to type this article, to sip luke warm coffee at 6am on Sunday morning and you’ve most likely used one or more habits to find this article.

These are good habits, but smoking is bad and so is cleaning out the spam folder 19 times in one day, read on to see how I escaped both.

 

The Habit Routine

Andy lent me a book a few weeks back, it had just been published by one of his friends it was called “The Power of Habit“, it sounded pretty cool so I skimmed it and then sat down and read it back to back in a day. Turned out for me, it’s been one of the best books I’ve read yet.

As Charles Duhigg’s explains in the book, each habit has a queue, routine and a reward. Always in that path. Once you have this simple tool to work with, suddenly things become a lot easier to notice and then to change.

In the video below, Charles explains the process, with his addition to cookies and how he tackled it,

Email Spam & Smoking

At the beginning of last week, I found myself checking the spam folder every few hours and deleting the mail in there. Somehow it felt tidy to so and only once in the past say month I have found an email that I was not expecting in there, so generally in Gmail, spam really is spam.

It was curious, as I realised I was in a habit routine, I would notice the number next to the spam folder in the top left of Gmail and that number, was inviting, I had to click on it, sometimes even if it was just one, it was an untidy folder.

I kept score on Friday, NINETEEN times I emptied that folder in one day, a completely pointless exercise checking, spotting the number next to the folder skimming junk and then deleting it, with a reward that I now had a tidy spam box.

Cue -> Action -> Reward
or
See a Number -> Clean them out -> The feeling I accomplished something

We all know working for ourselves can be tough at times and that little win of empty the spam folder seems like a huge win at times. As Charles points out in his book, if we stop this cycle completely, the cue still exists and the desire for the reward also exists. So you can’t just get rid of them and expect cold-turkey to work.

With the emails, changing the cycle I was in was easy. I was avoiding answering the more important emails, so hiding the GMail spam folder (which you can do in Settings > Labels and then set to ‘hide’), so now the cue was gone, but the desire for the reward was there, so instead, I swapped my attention to the inbox, the folder I was avoiding and now I’ve happily replaced my spam folder addiction with the far better habit of answering the main email queue.

But that’s just one instance of a habit routine I’ve changed through using this simple process, I actually used it to quit smoking as well, by flipping Charles’ process on its head in a way I’m guessing he didn’t envisage.

As Charles explains in the book and in the video above we have a simple 3-step process:

The Habit Cycle

When it comes to smoking, the cue could be anything from a fag butt to a wiff of smoke from a neighbour, for anyone who has smoked and quit, you know all these queues all to well.

Breaking the Habit, with the Process itself!

It’s important to note that I had wanted to quit for some time and was preparing to go cold turkey. Even Charles explains that just stopping a habit won’t work alone, one necessary ingredient is required, that is “belief”. So I had the belief and now the tool to quit, but it wasn’t going to be a normal quit either.

What I decided to do was flip the entire idea of a habit on top of itself and I used Charles’s “habit cycle” process as a habit to replace a habit. Sounds odd? Actually it’s dead easy.

Every time I wanted a ciggy, I recognised that I was at the action stage, this was the previous action was to roll and smoke, now instead I had a process. And in this process I had sometimes missed the cue, but I my new action was that I had noticed that I wanted to smoke and there in lies the final key stage, the reward. I had recognised that I wanted to smoke, and that alone was my reward. I was using the new tool of a process to quit.

I don’t think the process was designed to be used like I use it, actually envisaging the process as a piece of paper to replace the habit process so literally, but the thing it is worked and continues to work. Yes I’ve lapsed in a few places, mainly due to alcohol, but when I did I could see my process falling apart and I hate broken processes so have rarely ventured past the first few drags and it’s been months now.

I use this simple process everyday, sometimes I know I’m in a habit loop, I like coffee and my little habit that I through several times a day, I indulge in and that’s OK. But other habits, they can be bad and now I have a simple tool that I use every day to either indulge in habits or to use them to stop smoking and stop wasting soo much time looking at spam.

You can buy “The Power of Habit: Why We do What we Do, and How to Change” on Amazon for around £8.50 and the Kindle version is around £8.00. For me, a complete bargain as I have my own copy now and I have a tool that I use daily.

I have quit smoking, stopped looking at spam emails and fully indulge in my habit loop that involves caffeine.

Exclusive Interview with John Hayes – Author of “Becoming THE Expert”

John: “Matt I’ve written a book”
Matt: “You’ve done what?”
John: “Written a book on thought leadership marketing”
Matt: “WTF is that? Can I have a read?”

That’s pretty much how the conversation went as John passed over the draft version of the book he had been writing for the past few months on Skype.

It’s a draft mind Matt, it got spelling mistakes” John quickly added. Like that was going to bother myself, have you seen the appalling spelling and use of grammar (<= joke, honest) on this site?

I was more curious on John had been writing and what on earth is this “Thought Leadership Marketing” jazz.

“I couldn’t put it down and blitzed it that evening”

I think I finished around 2am, I couldn’t put it down and blitzed it that evening, that was about two months ago and I’m super excited that it’s now been published and you can read it too.

Below is a unique interview with John Hayes about his book, “Becoming THE Expert” that is published today.

Oh my god John, I’m so jealous, you book is coming out today and you can wear the label as an bonafide book author. Tell us, what inspired you to write your first book?

Thanks Matt. My main source of inspiration came from meeting so many great entrepreneurs over the years while working for companies like ChannelAdvisor and in my current role at iContact.

Many of these people are building amazing businesses but have complained to me about hitting a glass ceiling in terms of how far their traditional marketing could take them forward.

“I believe the one thing that holds them back is a lack of confidence in their ability to tell a good story about their product or service”

In many cases, I believe the one thing that holds them back is a lack of confidence in their ability to tell a good story about their product or service and position themselves as the go-to person or thought leader in their particular industry.

If they can learn to do this (and it is pretty much an exercise in believing in your own ability and drawing on your industry knowledge) they can enhance their existing marketing efforts, shorten sales cycles and reduce their reliance on old-school business techniques like cold calling and paid advertising to acquire new customers.

“a pipe dream for me to write a book since I was a small child”

It’s also been a bit of a pipe dream for me to write a book since I was a small child. I decided last year that dreaming wouldn’t get me published and set myself a goal of writing and publishing a book before my 40th birthday (September this year).

Originally I was going to self-publish but was fortunate enough to meet a publisher at an email marketing event I was speaking at and I took the opportunity to pitch the book. To my surprise, they liked the idea and contracts were quickly signed.

Working with a publisher has been a steep and at times frustrating learning curve – but I’m glad I went down this path as it gives the book greater credibility and thanks to my editor’s input, I think we have produced a much better book.

Can you tell us what Thought Leadership Marketing is and how we can use it to become The Expert?

Thought Leadership Marketing takes this insight and uses it to build brand, generate leads and ultimately drive sales. I believe any business can benefit from a little Thought Leadership Marketing.

“Thought Leaders position themselves as experts in a particular industry or discipline and share their insight with a wider community.”

When you see a reputed expert on a subject quoted in a news article, or a video on YouTube instructing you how to do a task, or a blog post offering insight into the latest trends or advances in a particular industry, this is very often part of a wider Thought Leadership Marketing strategy. They are positioning themselves as experts and hopefully setting themselves up as a potential business partner for interested parties.

If there is only one thing that you could tell us to do today using Thought Leadership Marketing, what would it be?

If you are only going to do one thing today using Thought Leadership, I would suggest you start blogging.

I believe a blog gives your business a pulse and makes it stand out from the millions of static websites that litter the Internet. Because Google loves fresh, original content, a good blog is SEO gold.

A well-maintained blog will also give you great content to populate your social media activity and email marketing campaigns. Finally, a short blog post can help you test thought leadership concepts which you can then develop into larger pieces of work such as detailed white papers, videos or even your own book.

So where can we purchase a copy John?

Becoming THE ExpertThe book is currently available in eBook format from Amazon (for Kindle) and the Apple iBookstore (for iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch).

You can try before you buy from either of these sites by downloading a sample of the book first.

Direct Links:

Your Feedback

Have you come across “Thought Leadership Marketing” before? Have you, like myself been doing  this all along and not realising it (well at least attempting to anyway)?

Let us know in the comments box below.

Time for a Site Redesign & to Refocus

I watched an amazing video over on ProBlogger a few days ago (its 30mins long) and three simple questions were asked, these were:

  • Can you tell me what your blog stands for?
  • … and what problems it solves for people?
  • … and how do you solve them?

Frankly I was dumbstruck by the entire video. Up until now I have not even considered the majority of the parts of the mind map and have taken it as a kick up the ass to get things in order.

Again, as with a few of the recent posts published, this is about myself and me working out what is going on and where to focus. By publishing this, I am intending for a couple of things to happen:

  1. You gain a better understanding of where this blog is going and what to expect
  2. I understand the above more fully

Site logo & design

The site design has carried me along up until now, however “is a dead fly with blood drips really the right impression that I wish to give readers?” Probably not… is the honest answer. The design came from the urgency to just get on and get writing almost a year ago and whether right or wrong, its been the header & logo since then.

The logo nor header area really reflect the new image that I wish to portray and I’ve pulled in the assistance of a good friend and design expert Rob Cubbon.

Working from experience and also looking for some assistance for a discounted rate, saying “I need a logo designed” wasn’t going to be particularly helpful to Rob or myself for that matter and after a few doodles in the note pad, I came up with a rough outline, which I’ve included below:

Yes this is pretty basic, however incorporates the key elements that I am aiming for, which is more control over the font being used, an actual logo, ink splatters, although I’m aiming for these to be coloured ink splats like found in this image so that I can increase the colour palette used on the site and some form of digital aspect, either through the use of a barcode or pixelation.

I’ve been quiet taken with the use of the author faces in the header area after reading this article on the 13 best and most powerful blog header designs on the internet, although I’m not sure if you’ll be seeing my face in this sites header just yet, or at least past the stock image I use for most sites currently.

Also, we’re playing with a “ripped paper”cross section to the site to separate the header & navigation menu from the content area. Not entirely sure what the finished version is going to look like and probably by the time you read this article, it’ll be live & I’m sure you’ll agree, it’ll be a marked improvement on the old design.

Who is the audience?

A screen shot from the video is below showing the mind map which is discussed:

problogger-mindmapWhile several of the parts I’m not going to discuss publicly, one part in particular I’m going to share as it defines what you’re going to find on this site from now on and crucially when.

In a brainstorm, I came to the conclusion that the following are the audience types & persona’s that vist this site:

  1. eCommerce business owners
  2. People looking for help with eBay & Amazon
  3. Current clients
  4. Former clients
  5. Potential clients
  6. Colleagues from former roles I’ve held
  7. Friends
  8. Head hunters
  9. CEO’s & Directors of products & services in the eCommerce arena
  10. PR firms

There really is quite a mixture from what I can tell from the interactions through email, comments, calls and the web statistics. However I feel that I’m failing them all and I’ll cover that in more detail shortly.

What problems do these have?

A really interesting brainstorming exercise was work out and detail the different problems each of these persona’s have and where they fit with the content that I have been producing up until now.

Again, these are results from the brainstorming exercise:

  1. Problems using eSellerPro
  2. Understanding eSellerPro
  3. Making best use of eSellerPro
  4. Selecting the right backend tool to help their business
  5. Checking up to see if I have posted something defamatory
  6. Looking for help with eBay
  7. ” ” ” ” ”  with Amazon
  8. ” ” ” ” ” with eCommerce
  9. Making the best use of the online marketplaces
  10. Marketing their businesses
  11. Making their businesses more efficient

Whether it is users with general questions or stemming by their desire to use the application more effectively, after three years with the team at eSellerPro, I suppose such a weighting is to be expected. There were one or two others that I’ve not included, however this was the general jist of the problems that I could come up with the the visitors that arrive here.

Note: If you can suggest any other types or reasons, I’d value you help, either in the comments at the bottom or directly via the Contact Matthew page

Frequency

Predictably IrrationalI just finished reading an excellent book called “Predictably Irrational“, it was recommended by Rick, the head of a US based PPC company called “CPC Strategy“. Actually I’ve not spoken to Rick in a while now and as its not a bank holiday for him, I’ll drop him a line when he gets in. I’m not sure how we met, but we spoke and hit it off, really nice chap.

Back on topic, one of the differences to this book was Dan’s actual inclusion of the data from the experiments that she performed, this was sometimes lacking in other books on a similar topic, like “Why we Buy” and “Inside the mind of the shopper”. I used to think that psychology was a load of bollocks, how wrong was I and eagerly learned about the “Skinner Box” created by a graduate student at Havard, called “B. F. Skinner“.

This box, used to condition animals (oh don’t feel bad about this, the next bit is or rather was a revelation to me) through reward/punishment mechanisms. What was found that rats that performed the “correct” action and were rewarded would carry out the action required when they felt like it (as it was generally food, although I suspect punishment was used here as well), however the most interesting part was when the subject was not rewarded for the action and the reward happened randomly. Oh how this hit home.

Dan used a couple of brilliant examples in her book, the first was a fruit machine, if you knew that you’d win 9 out of 10 times, would you continue to play? When was the last time you played bingo? Did you win? When was the last time you checked your iPhone or Android for email, knowing full well there is no email because it makes a sound to notify you of a new message?

SKINNER BOX!

Which leads me to my original point, frequency. Frequency of posting here has been hap-hazard, sometimes I’d skip whole weeks and not post anything. With the full dive-into #ProjectE and the desire to improve my own brand and that of the new project I’ve committed to, the sources of content are abound, however I was considering setting up a routine for posting here, to let you know exactly when I would be posting and dividing it into two or three post types, however you (as I) can be the subject to the same process.

Now will this be the only post you’ll find here this week?

Back to the original questions

I identified several key audiences and also some of the problems that the audience have or experience, which allowed me to answer the original three questions. One of them was quite concerning and I’m looking forward to working on this one specifically in the next few weeks to try and amend some scorched bridges.

I do have an overlap between the content that I create here and that I have been creating for #ProjectE, as this becomes more public you’ll see why, however it’ll be fun crossing the two over.

New site layout

I started writing this article yesterday, since then you’ll have noticed that the site has now been altered. For one a new logo has been added and I have redesigned the header area completely. The homepage article layouts were tweaked and the footer is more substantial.

I’ve also realised that I am failing badly on numerous of the key pages on the site, I’m working on these today, so expect a couple of new video’s to be added.

Summary

I’ve just been back through and re-read this article, while I do ramble, it was what helped me refocus on what this blog means and where its going. I’ve got a lot of work to complete on the site if I want it to take me where I want it to go.

Overall, I’m quite pleased with the new look, however what do you think?

 

 

Thank you! Re: The Book Responsible for Where I am Now

I just wanted to say “thanks” for the feedback on the video from Friday. I really enjoyed discussing this with so many people over the weekend, it was quite the conversational piece.

I have always wanted to learn another language, say Spanish or German, but as it was pointed out, I now know several programming & markup languages instead. Result!

That book really did change the game for me and even though its over ten years old, learning HTML, in a caravan with no computer, in a week (not a weekend as the title suggested) was possible and if I could do it with no computer, I’m sure you can learn it too (with a computer of course!).

If you missed the video, I’ve posted the updated version below, the original was “stuttery, but still managed to get the point across. This one has an updated slide as well, so I don’t look like a hamster on the opening image yay (thanks Nick for pointing that out).

PS: This book can still be found on Amazon for 1p + £2.80 delivery, go to lastdropofink.co.uk/htmlbook (aff link) to buy it.

The Book Responsible for Where I am Now

“I owe everything to this book and if I can learn its contents in a week, in a caravan with no computer, you can too.

I’m going to share with you the book that is solely responsible for where I am today and it just might have the same effect for you too. However before I spill-the-beans on the name of the actual book, I’d like to share the events that happened after reading the book.

After reading this book, I ended up going back to college, now this wasn’t “I’ll do a course on…” this was “I’ll do EVERY course that interests me” and I promptly did. I did a dozen or more short courses at Bristol College, from HTML to Visual Basic, from graphic design to Java, I even did two courses on ASP and three courses on C++.

At one point I was spending four nights a week on these and still found room to start the revision needed to set myself on the way of studying for a MCSE through self revision. I still remember punching the air and that thrill of passing all those exams. They weren’t cheap and I failed a few but I got through a fair amount of them in a relatively short time. One set of books cost me over a £130 and contained 12 or so books and I still have a romance with Windows 2000.

This book also provoked me to make a computer, I wasn’t going to buy a computer I was going to make a computer, by pure fluke the latest copy of PC Advisor was covering this and over the next two issues I built my first computer. I still have it in my roof!

With the new computer, the first thing I wanted to do was get on the “Internet”, I had spent so much time at Uni covering the fundamentals (a HND in Electrical & Electronic Communications Engineering apparently) but had spent so little time actually working out how this[the Internet] could help me.

With the combination of the book that promoted me to go on a education bender, I ended up finding eBay, starting a business on eBay, quitting my (what was well paid) job, burning myself out, working for two SaaS companies and now starting a new business, that encompasses everything I’ve learned along the way.

So what was the book?

Learn HTML in a weekend. Ironically I did not learn it in a weekend with a computer, no I learnt it in a CARAVAN in a week with no computer. I can still write HTML without editors and enjoying playing with it today.

Of course, there are other distractions, such as PHP, Pyhon, CSS and so on that follow similar structures, but they all end up back at HTML and I sincerely do not believe for one moment that I’d be where I am without this book.

I checked this morning and you can pick this book up on Amazon for 1p, well 1p plus £2.80 postage (make sure you pick a UK seller if possible, the delivery time sucks from the US). Seems somewhat a bargain now considering the changes it made to me.

Have you had a similar experience with a single book before? If so what was it?

People don’t want Email they Want ME-Mail – Seth Godin

Seth Godin a complete genius in my eyes. I’m current reading his book called ‘Tribes, We need you to lead us‘ and it is, he is, amazing, correction, the correct word is ‘remarkable’.

I’m going to keep this article short, but don’t think you’re going to be lucky today, I’m leaving you with three videos from Ted.com, grab yourself a cuppa and watch these. They’ll be the most well spent 20 minutes of your entire week. Well, besides calling me on (0)7527 680 153 to help grow your business.

There are too many brilliant quotes to list them all here, but look out for this quote:

People don’t want Email, they want ME-MAIL. Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me-Mail

Think about it, I want, as you want, to read email that is about you. Me Mail. Oh and the purple cow. Oh and the Lava lamp. What am I talking about? Watch the videos.

Seth Godin on the tribes we lead

Seth Godin: This is broken

Seth Godin at Gel 2006 from Gel Conference on Vimeo.

Seth Godin on standing out

Would you go?

Well would you, would you go and see a massive lava lamp? Pretty remarkable eh?

Your Marketing Sucks – Book Review

Your Marketing Sucks” is a brilliant book written by Mark Stevens and really hammers home the hum-drum sucky marketing out there.

While on my way back from a relaxing few hours in the coffee shop where I finished off a different book called Consumerology that takes a psychological approach to why we buy I spotted this sign. I had to stop, I immediately realised it sucked:

your-marketing-sucks

This sucks

Mark highlights why there is a high turn over of Marketing managers out there, its because they have become accountable. Not only does he point out how people camouflage spending as marketing, but also how to implement a plan to make sure that your marketing does not also suck.

A brilliant quote from the book is below:

The only way to gauge marketing is to ask if it generates a significant return on investment and in turn helps to grow your business.

Its only a 200 page read and I’ve re-read it twice now, this is a must read for anyone with a small business.

Your Feedback

Read a great book recently? Add a comment or shoot me an email I’ve picked up some outstanding books on personal recommendations and would like to hear from you.

Seth Godin on Good Marketing – Marketing Upside Down?

Wow, I wished every Monday started off with an interview like this, I think I should go looking for an interview like this every Monday, as Seth turns the traditional thinking on its head.

Who needs another webstore? Who needs another book shop? Who needs another, another, another… Find 2000 people interested in a certain area and then find them the product they are looking for, completely turns what we class as the normal world upside down.

Interesting comments in part three on the e-Myth book, I reviewed the e-Myth book recently, Seths thinking doesn’t render the thinking useless, just that he indicates that things have moved on since it it was written. For those who have read the book, I can still imagine walking from the reception to the dining room at the Hotel and sipping coffee with Sarah and her thinking of her orchard and how its going to feed her chain of yummy pie stores.

Did I buy his book ‘LINCHPIN‘ after watching this interview, you betcha!

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

The original article is here and Seth’s blog is here

Book Review: I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell – Not for the ‘Faint of Heart’

I Hope They Serve Beer in HellThis is no understatement:
Oh my word, this book has to be the #1 on the craziest of books I have ever read.

Lately I have read some brilliantly inspirational books from the leaders in almost every business field. But this… Its something else.

“Utterly Insane Experiences” would be an understatement. There is absolutely no way someone could have made any of the contents up, they’re soo crazy.

While on Holiday in a stunning cottage in  Wadebridge a few weeks back when I red this book; I was literally beaten by my partner at 4am for screaming with laughter two nights on the trot as I sped my way through it.

The back cover opener, does not even give you the glimpse of the insanity that the book contains.

Tucker Max drinks to excess at inappropriate times, disregards social norms, indulges every whim, takes no responsibility for his actions, rebels against any authority, mocks idiots and posers, sleeps with more women than is safe or reasonable and generally just acts like an asshole.

I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell contains everything the modern-day bounder that is Tucker Max has written since he started sharing his depraved reality with an audience of millions.

After reading this book, I sadly feel that no night that I have ever been on or will ever go on will ever compare to anything Tucker Max has done. I did buy the DVD, but besides the midget eye-up scene, it was nothing on actually reading the book.

I’ve lent this book out today to a friend that is off to the states, I have given her a stark warning, “take a sock and chew it, you are going to wet yourself with laughter, cringing and complete disbelief on that plane” she looked at me oddly. Read it, you’ll find out why.

E-myth Revisited Book Review

Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It Review

e-Myth RevisitedI’ve just sent a copy of this to a client, my copy is out on loan currently!

I just love how it reads, I enjoy how Sarah actually takes what Michael is describing and transforms it into her picture of how ‘All About Pies’ business will become, I even think regularly of the orchard is to nurture.

The part where Michael describes the hotel owners game is brilliant, you don’t actually meet the owner, but you meet his amazing ‘game’ and the people that play his game. Its extremely inspiring.

In realising that there any several parts to play in a business and ‘technician’ is only a small part, getting your butt out and working ON your business rather than IN your business is a revelation to all (well it was to me!).

I don’t just recommend this book, I categorically state you should read it, its THAT good.

You can pick the E-myth Revisited on Amazon for around £6 herea tip here is to go careful with the non Amazon sellers, the first six or so are from the US & Canada and the last book I picked up from bookcloseout took three weeks to arrive, my point is, the extra pennies spent in this case are well worth it for massive increase in speed of delivery.

PS: Don’t just take my word for it, check the reviews out for this book, steal yours today.