I was really excited to read Permission Marketing by Seth Godin for two reasons. First, Seth Godin is a wonderful author who has written many marketing books applicable to all size businesses. Second, I am a HUGE believer in using permission in marketing campaigns to establish a relationship and build trust throughout interactions with prospects and clients. “Turning strangers into friends, and friends into customers” is an ambitious focus for a book and I felt that Seth provided some solid information, but was a little short on practical, real-world applications.

Seth does a nice job creating the argument for why permission marketing is so important to a company’s marketing efforts, but for people who already agree that permission marketing is a great philosophy in marketing the book is a little light on a simple road map to implement a permission marketing campaign.

Understand the benefits of salsa dancing, watch the basic salsa step and follow a simple plan to becoming a salsa dancer.

The Wolf of Wall Street- Stock Market Millionaire at 26, Federal Convict at 36 was out of the scope of my normal reading. I do enjoy reading biographies of successful entrepreneurs, but I was a little confused when Frank Kern and Trey Smith sent me a copy as part of List Control program. After reading the book and meeting Jordon Belfort in person this past weekend at the List Control event at Hard Rock Hotel in San Diego, I realize that Jordan’s incredible story is much more than just how he lived like a rock star and parties like a king.

The stories of Jordan’s life such as his drug use and his ability to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars like the rest of the world spends for a cup of coffee is very entertaining. After speaking with Jordan this weekend, I realize that he is a successful entrepreneur who has had his past challenges like all of us, but continues to utilize his strength of influencing others to change corporations and dramatically increase sales.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys real stories that stretch the mind of what is currently possible though a very crazy string of life events.

Learn how we can help small businesses get 1 More Customer if we follow the principles laid out by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Dangerous Law Practice Myths, Lies and Stupidity – What you absolutely DON’t want to do when STARTING, GROWING , or RUNNING your law practice is a quick read that highlights the critical aspects of running a successful business of a law firm from people who have been there and done it already. Judd Kessler, Gunter Enz, Lawrence Kohn, Thomas Kauck, Albert Barsocchini, Brian Whitaker and Michael Quadee detail 35 key components of building a successful law practice through stories about fictional law firms that illustrate real life situations.

This book is a great read for lawyers who are great lawyers but could use some support in running a successful law practice. When talking with my friends who persevered through law school and are now lawyers all over the USA, law schools typically do a good job at teaching the law but the business side of a law firm is missing from a complete law school education.

Call With Frank Kern

Enjoy my recent conference call with Internet Marketing legend Frank Kern and his cousin Trey Smith to discuss a marketing strategy for the launch of my newest membership site based on helping salespeople around the world be more effective and close more deals.  Frank Kern averages about $6 Million in revenue for each product launch he manages, so I felt confident that Frank and Trey would offer some valuable advice, which they over delivered as always.

I look forward to seeing Frank and Trey as well as 500 other Internet Marketing superstars at the List Control Live event at the Hard Rock Hotel in San Diego Memorial Day Weekend.

Learn how to build a warm network in simple steps for 25 minutes per day, Monday through Friday. Go out and built your warm network so you can connect with the world.

Harvey Mackay is a legend when it comes to networking strategies and teaching easy to follow principles on how to build a strong network before you ever need it. This is a great book for people who want to understand the actions that need to be taken to create deep relationships with family, friends and business contacts.

Harvey Mackay is famous for the idea that a person’s network is only as strong as the amount of people that you can call at 2 AM and ask for $20,000. A network is not about the amount of people you know, but the strength of a relationship to each member in your network. Calling someone at 2 AM and asking for $20,000 is a symbol of a person being ‘thirsty’ and it is only possible to ask someone for $20,000 at 2 AM if you have spent your career ‘digging your well’ by cultivating these relationships before you will ever need them.

Here are a couple of the highlights from the book:

• what kinds of network exist
• how to start a network, and how to wring the most from it
• the smart way to downsize your list- who to keep, who to dump
• how to keep track of favors done and favors owed- is it my lunch or yours?
• what you can do if you are not good at small talk