Just made a video to explain where I’m going this weekend and why I’m so excited!
And after you finish watching… I just want to be clear that there are MANY meta systems, and I don’t think any is “one size fits all”. The more meta systems you know, the more you can understand people, I think… so this is just another tool to add to my arsenal. 
A few days ago someone asked me, “What are your all time Top 10 (or more) favourite books for life and business? I have heard or read you mention the odd one here and there but thought a list would be so great. Probably doesn’t warrant a vlog but would be a really interesting and wonderful blog post?”
I set out to make a list and realized it’s MUCH harder than I thought it would be.
That’s because some books had a HUGE influence on me at one point in my life… but would no longer be that useful. At the time though, I really needed them for my evolution!
So with that said, here’s a list of lifelong list of the most influential books for me… and why:
Secrets Of The Millionaire Mind – This book led me to go to a Millionaire Mind Intensive, which led me to Warrior Camp. Warrior Camp was amongst one of the top 2 or 3 life experiences I’ve ever had. The book also helped start me on my journey to spirituality.
Influence – Everyone cites this book, I know, but it is a marketer’s DREAM. It tells you all the emotional points on how people act the way that they do. It’s amazing.
Predictably Irrational – This book gives more amazing insight into why people act the way they do with absolutely brilliant examples.
4 Hour Workweek – This is the only book that I’ve ever finished reading and then opened right back up to read again (even with my waiting list of books to read). It’s UNBELIEVABLY AMAZING and totally transformed my life. I’ve gotten to live the 4HWW lifestyle for so long thanks to the principles I got here.
Psycho Cybernetics – Awesome book about the power of visualization. The regular book is beyond boring to read but the audiobook is actually REALLY good.
Anything by Dan Kennedy – He is BRILLIANT. The first book I read of his was “The Ultimate Sales Letter” but I really glean out so much from everything he writes.
Rhinoceros Success – Philip Cordova sent this book to me a while ago. He said it’s his #1 business book and really helps motivate him. For a while I had index cards with the “Rhinoceros” sayings around my bed. It was very motivational and brilliant in its simplicity.
Crush It – This book is SO MOTIVATIONAL and really gives an awesome step-by-step plan outline on how to prosper with your passions online.
Three Cups Of Tea – The story in this is not only amazing to hear, but it inspired me to be a better person. It’s the reason I am so passionate about building a school and why I’m working with someone now to deliver backpacks to underprivileged children in Brazil.
Mother Teresa Autobiography – I lent my book out and haven’t gotten it back, and Ican’t remember the title. All I know is reading the biography I read (there are a few) was so impactful and life-changing for me. It was so amazing to see how Mother Teresa got so much done with just sheer willpower and faith. She inspired me beyond words.
Attractor Factor – This is a book that seems so elementary spiritual-wise, but it really helped me. I don’t know what it is about the book, but good things seem to happen whenever I read it. In my opinion Joe Vitale doesn’t always come across the best online… but his books are REALLY good. Hypnotic Writing is also a phenomenal book of his.
The Big Leap – This is a GREAT book on getting out of your self imposed limitations and really shining your greatest gifts to the world.
Trust Your Vibes (or any book by Sonia Choquette) – When I first got into the whole world of spirituality I read Sonia’s books nonstop. They helped me out a lot.
Celestine Prophecy – This is a book I don’t know if I’d vibe with now, but at the time it was really huge for me. I found it randomly, in an all-Portuguese bookstore when I was living in Brazil, and it seemed to pop out at me.
Conversations With God – My mentor at the time recommended this book to me and it was so nourishing for me. I often think about things I read in there.
The Shack – This is actually a more religious book (I am NOT religious), but at the time, I really needed the message. I haven’t read it in years but still think about it fondly.
Like The Flowing River – After reading Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist, I was in love with him. This book just makes me love him more and more. He writes so beautifully, he is so eloquent, and the stories that he shares are like food for my soul. I absolutely LOVE this book and refer to it often.
The Psychology Of Self Esteem – This is a GREAT book that has been really helping me boost up my self esteem.
Do Gentlemen Really Prefer Blondes? – I LOVED this book. It read almost like a “Cosmo”, and I think it’s underrated because of that, but I learned so much about male psychology from it.
Using The Power Of Pleasure To Have Your Way With The World – Jena LaFlamme sent this book to me and I absolutely love it. It’s so great in coming to terms with my greatest desires, and being such a better woman because of it.
Keys To The Kingdom – I learned SO MUCH about men and how to relate to men because of this book. It seriously changed my relationships in a very profound way.
How To Make Anyone Fall In Love With You – I got brilliant psychological insights from this book.
Wisdom Of Your Face – People underestimate face reading, but it’s really quite remarkable how much you can tell from what someone looks like. Just by looking at someone, you can change how you convey your message to make sure it gets delivered. The author of this book started using face reading to be able to better communicate with her clients but the uses for this run rampant. I’m going to a face reading workshop of Jean’s later this month and cannot wait!
Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think – This had really fascinating insights into why we eat the way we do and how we can stop acting out of subconscious autopilot so often. The stories and case studies in here were REALLY thought provoking.
12 Steps To Raw Foods – This book is REALLY simple, but it helped me a lot. It helped me understand why raw food is so important and exactly how much wisdom there is in our bodies.
Prakriti – I’m learning a ton about ayurveda through this book. The messages in here are super-interesting and I love that it does NOT offer a “one size fits all” approach to health.
The Hidden Messages In Water – I learned so much about how water is affected by different things here. The book shows how water molecules actually change when exposed to negative words, different types of music, etc… it’s SO fascinating and totally scientifically backed.
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Wow… making this list was really interesting. There are SO MANY more books I could add!!! I have a feeling I might be forgetting some of my favorites, too, and will have to come back and edit when I think of them.
It’s also really interesting that two of the authors here (Neale Donald Walsch and Victoria Boutenko) live in Ashland, where I live. I should go see them before we move.
About a month ago I went to an awesome seminar by Eben Pagan and Wyatt Woodsmall. It was all about Personality Patterns, and I learned a TON – both about myself and how to relate with people.
One of the things we learned was the “Enneagram”.
This is a personality system that was actually started in Bolivia as a spiritual practice. The guy who created it said that we all have certain energy fixations in our body, and knowing what they are can help us move them.
Some psychotherapists got a hold of his teachings and started mass-marketing it to everyone.
The reason I really like this is because it’s so thorough. The Enneagram states that whenever you get in a relationship with someone, you’re really getting in a relationship with 3 people. It talks about how people act differently under normal situations and then under intimacy and stress.
The reason the Enneagram is so powerful is because once you know your patterns, you can change them. Thing is, our subconscious dictates about 95% of what we do every single day. We just automatically make comments, say things, etc… without even thinking about it.
When you’re aware of what your subconscious is doing, you can observe it (without shame) and then double-think if that’s how you really want to respond.
The ultimate goal of the Enneagram is to break free of all the fixations (NOT to move to another fixation) and choose your reactions in each moment – not subconsciously.
I got approval from Wyatt to post all my notes here, so I’m going to give a brief description of each one and then you can read further to see which one resonates with you.
Tip: If you’re feeling unsure, look at how each type acts under Stress and Intimacy and that will usually tell you which one you are.
Tip 2: Wyatt says if you don’t like one, it’s probably yours 
– though that wasn’t the case with me.
I should warn you that they gave mostly the NEGATIVE aspects of all of these, but obviously nothing is all good or bad.
Anyway, here are the types:
Type 1: The Perfectionists – These are people that want everything to be perfect. They often speak in terms of, “You should do this” or “You should do that”. They’re often very angry, but because it’s not perfect to be angry, they stuff their anger. You can read more here.
Type 2: The Nurturers – These are your typical Jewish mothers. They give, give, give, all the time. They think of themselves as the “ideal person”, but deep underneath they’re doing everything for love. They need almost constant words of affirmation. You can read more here.
Type 3: The Workaholics – These people have the most energy from any other group and are always go, go, go. They often want everyone to think of them as amazing and put up a mask to protect themselves from being vulnerable. You can read more here.
Type 4: The Melancholies – These are people who wear a lot of black, are usually highly psychic, and have an underlying depression about them often. They see the world as one way in their heads and get depressed that the world is actually NOT like that. You can read more here.
Type 5: The Over-Observers – These are people who like to sit back and watch but don’t like to participate. They’re often brilliant people and can tell you anything you want about the mechanics of a situation – they just won’t because they’re not super-social. You can read more here.
Type 6: The Paranoid’s – These are people who want security, security, security. They’re the type of people who want the best water filtration systems, get freaked out if a car is too close to them, and are the perfect Boy Scouts. They were either in trouble with the law at one point and did a complete reversal, or they’ve always been that way. They also love adventure. You can read more here.
Type 7: The Idealists – These are people who only want to see the good in life and refuse to acknowledge anything negative. They believe life is good, people are good, and everything’s just… good. They’re often very gluttonous. They’re also usually the life of the party and great at entertaining (although if they’re introverts that might not be as obvious). You can read more here.
Type 8: The Justice Makers – These are people who are vigilant about making sure there’s justice for all. They often go VERY far with their beliefs and are the types of people who want pain amplifiers for people in jail. They often have a very “tough” look to them. You can read more here.
Type 9: The Indolents – These are people who see all sides to every situation. Because they see all sides, they often do nothing (think of a donkey standing in between 2 bales of hay and not knowing which one to go to, so he goes nowhere). They’re perceived as lazy, are often monotone, and ramble a lot. You can read more here.
Any guesses on what I am? I think lots of people are gonna pick the wrong one.
Hope you get a ton out of this!
This is my first guest post on my blog. I’m glad Justin Brooke was the one to do it because he is freaking AWESOME – absolutely brilliant, smart, and one of the best marketing minds online. He’s also author of SEO Lies: A Book About SEO Truths. Justin has helped everyone from home business start-ups to 9 figure earning CEOs and can be contacted on Facebook here.
Ever feel like you’re hitting a plateau in your online success? Or are you still waiting for “take off?” If you’ve ever felt either of these two then it can be very discouraging. I only know from experience. When I first started with working from home 4 years ago I went 5 months without making a single dollar. Then when I finally started to see some success, I just kept hitting this plateau that I couldn’t over some.
The first plateau was at $1500 a month. I spent 6 months at that level trying to push over to a higher monthly income. The next plateau was $5,000 and after that it was $10,000. When I talk with my coaching students about these plateaus they always have one question – How’d you do it?
The answer is simple… you have to take out the trash. You see, everyone has their own experiences as they build their online business, but so many have the same preconceived notions that certain techniques will or will not work for “them.” I call these mental garbage piles.
These “mental garbage piles” start to pile up (similar to those hoarders you see on tv)… when the stacks get to overwhelming you hit a plateau that looks miles high and way too hard to overcome. Today, I’m going to take you through a few mental garbage piles that I struggled with in hopes that you’ll avoid them or take out the trash now.
The first three are “garbage piles” I hear often from beginners just starting out online.
1. Why would someone buy information when you can get it for free on internet?
When I first started online, I bought rights to a video training program for Joomla. Now, Joomla is an open source software that anyone can use. They also have a support forum for their users to get help.
The only problem is that using this open source software has a HUGE learning curve for beginners. So, I saw a need, bought the rights to the training course, wrote a salesletter and started selling.
It was a pretty popular website. I was making sales regularly with little advertising costs. That’s when I started looking at other sources of traffic – I created a video showing the benefits of the course and everything you learned inside and posted it up on Youtube.
The video has been up there for years and is still out there somewhere – to this day I get comments on the video (112,000+ views!!!) of people bashing me for selling something that people can access for free.
What they don’t understand is that the software is free – yes. But the training on how to learn to use the software faster is a knowledge not everyone has, but others want and pay for willingly.
You see, there will always be training out there for free. But the Internet is massive and is growing more massive every day. If you can narrow down someones work load or help them apply the knowledge specifically to their case – they are willing to pay for your time.
Another thing I should point out here is if you have a specific knowledge on how to do something faster or better… when you know how to get something done faster, better, and with less headaches than another – that is what people are looking for.
Take decorating for example. Everyone can go to their local home depot to buy paint, shelves. You also have all your local stores for furniture and curtains etc. But you don’t have the knowledge to piece it all together to actually look good – which is why you hire a designer to come in to make your house amazing.
The information is always there – but finding the time to apply it in your life can be a hassle – which is why people pay for information they can often find for free.
2. If someone is passionate about a topic – wouldn’t they already have the information they need to be successful?
Wow I can’t begin to tell you how this is hurting your success. Let’s see, if you are a high school baseball player and you’re top of your team.
Does that make you best in the world? No, there are always more techniques you can improve on, more skill to master, etc.
Don’t assume that the customers in your niche know everything from beginning to end. Just as in life- everyone has different experiences. This also applies to the people in your niche as well.
This is often why you get the same “rehashed” content in every product. It’s not that they are trying to rehash everything every time. They are normally trying to give everyone the same foundation to build on in later lessons.
The same applies to any niche. There will always be a basic technique that everyone needs to know and build on. Then there are different skills, and skill levels. So when moving into a niche, look for what the people are asking for – not what you think they already know and need to know.
All it takes is about a day of your time scouring forums and question sites to see what people are asking for in your niche.
When I first move into a niche, the first day is spent researching the forums in the niche, and then going over to Answers.yahoo.com where I search various keywords in the niche to see what people are saying and asking about.
This is normally where I get the ideas for chapters in an ebook, or free reports for list building etc. That way I know the content I am giving them is what they are looking for.
3. This isn’t the best product I can make – I need to keep working on it first.
Hmm… this one is always a hard “garbage pile” to tackle, but one you must. You see it has two bad sides – you either put out a product you know isn’t completely perfect or you continue to make no money while you perfect it.
All I can say is look at Apple. The iphone first came out in January 2007. In June 2008 – the 3G was released, in June 2009 3GS was released, and now June 2010, Iphone 4. Each product awesome – were they perfect? No. But the lesson here is put the best you have right now and then continue to listen to your customers and improve your product every month, every year, or as needed.
Think of the fan base that apple has created. Not only did their customers buy the first, but they continued to buy each upgrade as they came available – making the iphone into the success it is today. Your products will never be perfect, but you can show your quality in continually striving to make them better.
Here’s a couple recent garbage piles I found and conquered within my own mind…
1. I have to do all the work myself.
You see, I am quite picky when it comes to “my” business, just as you probably are with yours. However, one very important lesson is to let go – you can not do everything in the business and you shouldn’t. Your focus is on quality and money. You need to complete the tasks that are making you money, and as the business owner you need to keep an eye on the quality of the work being done by people that represent you.
That’s it. The rest can be handed off to someone that can specialize in that task. Lets take your computer as an example. When you open too many programs, what happens? Your computer starts to slow down and has a hard time processing the tasks you need to get done.
Well, now pretend you’re a computer… if you open your seo tasks, your customer relationship tasks, social media, product creation, paid advertising, coaching, phone calls, accounting etc. (you see where I’m going with this list).
When you have all those tasks running at one time, you’ll slow down and have a hard time processing the important tasks that need to get done. Are you having an “aha” moment yet? You should be!
To over come this – start giving out repetitive tasks to someone else. If it is tasks that can be done the same way over and over again then it can be outsourced to someone else and taken off your plate.
Not only that, but set them up for success by adding bonuses if they find better, faster ways to do things, while not effecting your quality. This is a lesson in a lesson – by adding the “get better” bonus you encourage your assistants to grow with your company.
If you only hire your assistant to do a specific task then they’ll continue to do this over and over and you’ll eventually choose to let them go because your company has grown, but not that assistant and you’ll see them as less valuable. When you encourage them to get better you encourage them to make your company better too.
2. My customers would never pay high prices
This lesson hit me like a brick to the face. About a year ago, a friend came to me and asked me to promote his product. I knew it was a decent product because I had a hand in building it, but I just didn’t like his price point – it was $97/month.
I just thought he had overpriced it, and I wouldn’t get good conversions with my list because of it. I couldn’t talk him down from the price, so I mailed out for him and ended up putting over 180 people into his site.
I didn’t expect those kind of results – it was more than I expected and I appreciated the recurring commissions. However, that was100 people I could have put on MY continuity site – $17,460/month I sent to someone else all because I “thought” my subscribers wouldn’t pay that much per month.
YOWCH! I learned a hard lesson there…
The lesson here is to never underestimate your subscribers. If you’re providing quality, and show them the value they will follow. Test different price points and find out what works well with your niche.
Now that you’ve seen some of my mental garbage piles and some common ones, I hope you realize that its normally you that is blocking your success. This doesn’t have to be a bad thing – it is just something you need to learn to recognize and stop in it in its tracks.
When you hit a plateau take a good look at what your “problem” really is and try to see if it isn’t just a “mental garbage pile” that needs to be dumped.
Start realizing your “mental garbage” and take out the trash. Sometimes the only way to take out those trash piles is to do exactly what it is you are afraid of, so that you see the REAL results for yourself. THEN you can make whatever judgments you want, based on facts you have seen for yourself.
I hope this has been helpful and any feedback or questions are greatly appreciated. Leave them as comments and I’ll hang around for the next couple days to answer them. I also accept all variations of compliments
Go Bigger,
Justin Brooke
Internet Mad Scientist
