I got Tim Ferriss’s new book The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman from the bookstore. I didn’t want to wait for Amazon to ship it so I actually drove to Barnes and Noble. When they handed it to me, I was surprised how big it was (you could use in place of a kettlebell a pinch). For the next week during Christmas I pretty much took it everywhere I went.

I love the idea that 95% of results come from 5% of the effort. This book stalks the 5% you need to do to get the best health.

After reading that I can lose 3% bodyfat with a few quick workouts at the gym, I realized the gym is now part of my routine and that I’d miss going if I didn’t go for at least half an hour a day. But the results aren’t coming as quickly and I struggle to not regain what I lose. So I’m looking for a cure and I’m not the only one. Plus this one comes in very entertaining ways. Do I believe them all? Hell no. But I hope. And hope sells.

Surprises from the Book

My chiropractor was mentioned and I agree he is expensive. I went to the assistant who was great but it cost me over $500 in a month. My family has been going to Dr. Buhler for at least 20 years.

My brother-in-law’s ski timing system is mentioned and pictured in a chapter about increasing speed. Brower Timing is used by the US ski team and all over the world.

There were some moments of TMI (too much information) if that’s possible.

Lots of Praise, Some Criticism
While many people rave about the book, there is some harsh criticism.

Penelope Trunk said this about Tim:

He just came out with a new book. It’s just as slimy as the first book. The reason is that Tim has no soul. He thinks life is a game, and he is going to be the winner every time, and we want to know how to do it.

The problem is that Tim makes the rules. He’s like a four-year-old playing Candyland and making sure that he gets the Gingerbread man, and the candy cane, and the sort-of-melty ice cream at the end.

So for the Four-Hour-Work-Week the rule is that it’s only work if you hate what you’re doing. So Tim only does stuff he hates four hours a week. He can do this because he has no relationships, so he doesn’t have to accommodate anyone else in his life. It’s amazing, actually, that he even has to “work” for four hours given that he runs his life like a four-year-old.

Now, with the diet book, Tim tells us how we can take out all the emotional and mental health benefits of fitness and understanding your own body. But look. I have a better plan. You can get plastic surgery, and you can take Creatine, and you can use diuretics, and you will get the physical fitness results Tim promises in LESS than four hours a week. I should write a book.

She hasn’t ever liked him…and I can see why from this post: http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2009/01/08/5-time-management-tricks-i-learned-from-years-of-hating-tim-ferriss/

How the 4-Hour Body is Like Las Vegas
The thing is  this book makes me feel how I feel about Las Vegas. It’s hard to tell what is real and what isn’t. Whenever I’m in Vegas I wonder if the doors at the New York New York hotel front are actual doors to the inside or part of the set. I want to open them. Can I go inside the Statue of Liberty replica or just the Eiffel Tower one? I feel the plants in the hotel lobbies and shopping centers. They are so perfect that I wonder if they’re fake (they aren’t). People have spent a lot of cash making beautiful illusions in this town.

Tim is called a digital era Indiana Jones, and I think he’s an entertainer. He tells fascinating stories. He consults experts. He tests and pokes himself relentlessly. Still there’s always some doubt if it’s a façade.

What to Believe?
One part that throws me is the different advice. I find myself fact checking. Is it because he’s bucking conventional wisdom? Like I want to go back and check: Did he say he’s been his self-experimentation 3 years ago or was it 10 years ago as he claims on his home page?

Preliminary Results
I try the kettle bell 2-arm lift. I thought I was in decent shape but I was so sore for two days from only doing 40. I had ice packs on my shoulders on Christmas day (which should be good for losing weight, right?). I try choosing beans at least one time per day and let’s just say I’ve never smelled worse after one serving.

I Have so Many Questions!

I wanted a guide, a visual or chart to keep track of all the advice. Maybe Tim will do a wacky brand of reality TV show that is all about self-experimentation…

Should I eat breakfast or not? If yes, should it be high in protein? Does it matter if it’s within 30 mins. Of waking up?

Is it really a good idea to cut fruit from my diet?

Can I lose weight by getting super cold? (see this segment with Tim on Nightline)

What is a “clean Mormon breakfast”?

Can I really lose 3% body fat by doing one exercise a few times a week?

How can I keep track of all the supplements he talks about and are they healthy/safe?

Killer Resources
What I love are the resources and links Tim has in every chapter. Even his blog (see the end of this post) has a lot of interesting information. Plus the comments are fascinating. I joined the 4-Hour Body group on Facebook. I’ve joined the experimenters (and I need to find the right app for that). First I need to get some tests done.

The Best Tim Ferriss Interview
I could write a whole blog post about this interview (and I probably will) from the Rise to the Top blog. Tim is quite a marketer (check out what I wrote about him in this post).

Have you read the 4-Hour Body or tried out some of the recommendations? Let me know what you think.

credit: http://futuresounds.com

I know this is a hodgepodge of a list – but then that’s me. I like variety. I get bored easily. This year I’ve ventured into the PR side of SEO and it’s been interesting to test what I’ve learned. I guess I was successful in focusing on that part of my work more because I learned to embrace rather than bristle when someone refers to me as a PR pro.

In 2010 I was a bit obsessed with mom bloggers as a marketing channel. I loved every blogger event I planned or attended (oh, except one but I’m not going to mention it). I also loved the year of Groupon, where social coupon sites exploded. I signed up for deal sites in both Salt Lake and Las Vegas – the cities I frequent most. This means trying new things like rafting and walking tours (yes, I’m into high adventure).

Best conference
Evo ended up being one of my favorite conferences of the year. It’s one of the few I attend that is not male-dominated plus it was only an hour drive. It even edged out Affiliate Summit, which has been a long-standing favorite. EVO had the swag and the speakers (and some drama when Oprah producers were confronted by social media moms about being too old school). We ate well, we laughed and we learned. It was interrupted by a pretty hurtful personal attack (but thankfully it ended right).

Best 60 Minutes Episodes
I usually set the kitchen timer on Sunday’s so I don’t forget to watch it every week (but I still do sometimes). It’s a tough day when it’s a rerun. It proves that older people can be hip too and they have that misfit flirty reporter just to try to balance out the average age and to compensate for Andy Rooney.

Ex-NBA Ref Tim Donaghy’s Personal Foul – This took some guts but it also set the world straight when someone who cheated owned up to it. It should be shown in ethics classes. I usually don’t like sports stories but this one had an impact. I was so moved how well he showed us what repentence looked like and in stark contrast to people like Rod Blagojevich or Bernie Madolf.

FBI Wiseguy Fooled The Mob – Ever wonder what it’s like to be in the mafia? This guy Jack Garcia is so entertaining. He tells the best stories and he made it out of the mafia alive. He reformed and became a family man. That’s the part of the story I like most.

Show I hated: the one on Medicare fraud. We could reduce the deficit if we could get a handle on this. I felt like this show and a few others were primers for would-be crooks and that didn’t sit well with me.

The show about Mark Zuckerberg was also a standout, partly because I didn’t expect it to run on 60 mins. but it makes sense because its demographic is trending older.

Best Social Media Small Business Success Story
Orabrush – this may be because I know Austin Craig and it’s a great success story in my own back yard. Short story: 76 year old Robert Wagstaff made a brush to get salmonella off chicken. Wants to cure bad breath, so invents a brush to clean the tongue. Fails, tries again and builds a million dollar company in a year using YouTube ads. Lands a mention in the New York Times that turns into a storm of publicity and sales. Walmart doesn’t charge them for advertising on an endcap and uses their YouTube video in the display.

Note how they named their Facebook channel “cure bad breath” which people search on, not Orabrush. That both solves a problem and is good for YouTube (so far not as well on Google) SEO.

Most Effective Marketer
Tim Ferriss did well with the 4-Hour Work Week and just came out with the 4-Hour Body which I feel is part fiction part fantasy. It became a bestseller within days. I think this book does well because it has a gripping story behind the book. The man turned himself into a human drug trial. He’s so off-the-wall that you can’t help but be intrigued although there are times I feel some TMI (too much information).

He was on another one of my favorite tv shows this year – Nightline. I think the reporter was hoping he’d try out the “Improving Sex” chapter on her. We got to see Tim actually take an ice bath at home in his swimming suit. His bathroom is pretty ordinary – I think all his money went into expensive tests. A review of his book coming soon.

Books

Crush It by Gary V – I also feel like Gary Vee is on uppers. He’s a high strung wine sipper and his book makes it seem like it’s easy to be him. I doubt it. How many kids do you know would work so hard in a family business even though he was too young to drink the product (wine)?? He’s the opposite of the 4-Hour Workweek, he’s the 100 hour workweek, but to him it’s mostly pleasure. He also values family, which I can appreciate. If you feel down this year, watch one of his videos, it will re-energize you.

The best news is that he partnered with Virgin Airlines to develop an in-flight wine menu. I’m surprised none of the Vegas hotels haven’t partnered with him to create a custom wine list in his name.

There are many more books, blog posts and magazine articles that inspired me. I just can’t recall them all – they fill pages of my blog and especially my tweets.

Thank Yous/Influencers
I wrote my own book in 2010. Though I’m aware of its flaws it was a major accomplishment. It has helped small businesses, which was my goal. If you bought or shared a copy, thank you.

I also owe a big thanks to Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends. She wrote the forward for my book and I have been a contributor to her site. I admire her because she’s not the typical picture of who you see as an online marketer. Plus she is classy, gracious and a savvy business owner.

I also really appreciate Joan Stewart. I did a webinar with her and it was nerve wracking for me (I was new to doing webinars). I thought it was a lot of work for me but she worked much harder, putting in hours and hours to get the most value for her audience.

Peter Shankman is also on my list. I met him at the last Affiliate Summit West and I must admit I was taken back. I thought he’d be very different than he was. I had the wrong impression. I was already a HARO fan but after meeting him I became a fan of Peter’s too.

Another local favorite is finding out that there are championship skydivers in my backyard and trying to get them to land for the Peter Shankman Jump! event in a few weeks. Insurance costs proved too high so I have another trick planned. Must be present to see.

New Year’s resolutions: I wanted to stick to one but I have two. Blog weekly and review David Meerman Scott’s books about social networks and the web have changed PR. I start them along with a dozen other books but I’m too ADD to finish. I feel guilty for reviewing a book I didn’t complete so I put it off. But what I have read has been a big influence on my career. I love being on his press list and vow to make up for not blogging about his books (yet).

Your turn. Blog about the highlights of your year professionally, personally or however you want. Then leave a comment with a link to your post. Or just tell us in the comments.

No it’s not Santa Claus but it’s still good news. Peter Shankman is coming to town (Utah) to speak. If you don’t know Peter Shankman he founded HARO (helpareporter.com). He’s become one of my entrepreneur heroes.

First I tried to get actual championship skydivers to dive at the event. But we wanted to keep it free and that immediately put us over budget. Even without the skydivers it will be fun.

So please join OrangeSoda internet marketing, and me at:

Jump Into Social Media with Peter Shankman, Jet Setter, Skydiver

Peter will discuss social networking, viral marketing, and all the “fun ways” to use them (or not use them) for your business.

More details and RSVP here: http://skydiver.eventbrite.com

Related Articles:

• Peter Shankman: Social Media: Are We Ever Going to “Get it?” (huffingtonpost.com)
• Helping a reporter out is big business for HARO (socialmedia.biz)
• How To Become A Millionaire By ‘Helping’ Reporters [Public Relations] (gawker.com)
• Microsoft Sponsors New Media Guru Peter Shankman for June PR Conference (eon.businesswire.com)
• Peter Shankman and Janet Muto Join Pixability’s Advisory Board – Shankman Invests in the Promising Video Marketing Company (prweb.com)

I’ve been thinking about clients – the good ones and the not so good ones (which can be subjective).

In Joan Stewart’s free PR tips ebook she mentions the dilemma we face when deciding if we want to take on a new client that we have doubts about. Many times this is obvious – it’s a yes. Then there are clients you have doubts about. There doesn’t seem to be good communication from the start or your prices are too far of a stretch.

Here are some reasons that you might pass on a new client:

1. They have unrealistically high expectations (like that their press release will go viral).
2. The client doesn’t appreciate your skills or think your work or time is valuable.
3. They keep expecting more and more for the same price or even less.
4. The client isn’t willing to pay your fees and try to talk you down (there are all levels in the marketplace – what you think is too low is someone else’s target market. There are also people priced much higher).
5. The client asks you provide service or products that you do not offer.
6. You share different values.
7. You cannot accommodate the volume of work requested.

Any of these sound familiar to you? I wonder if the recession and need for money might tempt you to say yes even when you know it should be a no (but try to talk yourself into).

Are you taking on clients you might otherwise pass on because you need the work? Please share your stories in the comments.

Yesterday I interviewed Craig Wolfe, the Buddhist entrepreneur who’s made millions selling rubber ducks that look like people. He capitalizes on getting license agreements to put the likeness of pop culture icons, celebrities and sports team’s insignia on the ducks. He ties his ducks into what is in the news (an idea I promote in my online pr book) and in the process he regularly gets some amazing press.

He’s one of the first people I’ve talked to who truly built PR into his product. He answers every phone call and email, treats people with respect, and continually improves his product and packaging. The result is he’s often doing push marketing – because more often than not, new customers seek him out. He built CelebriDucks that he runs out of his home with no permanent employees or staff into a big success.

Wolfe started our call by stating that he had made time for me to do the interview and to take as much time as I needed. In our world that is rare – people are generally in a hurry and they are too busy to talk long. The message they send is that there is always something more important than what they are doing. Or that you aren’t important enough to get much time or attention. So he established good karma.

He doesn’t measure ROI or track things – he simply plants a million seeds. Or should I say he tosses a lot of ducks on the water to see what floats. He started the company by sending a pitch to every single newspaper in the country. Only one responded – the local paper (I always say start local first and then leverage that coverage into bigger media outlets). But that one story led to a big deal and stories like that continue to send him more deals. Once the kindling started he constantly stokes the fire by looking for and writing about other places his ducks show up (or giving story ideas to journalists).

His packaging is now custom for each duck. So a penguin duck is sitting on an iceberg with a vivid ocean scene around it. The new WordPress has a bug and I can’t upload the picture but my favorite duck is the glow in the dark “Scream” duck. On the back of each box there’s an ad for the chocolate duck that you can send with some chocolates.

Unlike other kitschy promo items that get throw away, people save his. In fact, they collect them. Some are works of art. Most are funny. But they all have incredible attention to detail and all of his packaging sells the product.

Craig starts his day with a simple to do list and outsources anything he’s not good at. Talking to him it’s a little hard to pin him down. I’m drawn to his stories but I called with a purpose – to find out how he does his PR. I came away feeling that if he could make this business work then I have hope! He’s an idea guy and he’s well, very zen (something I could use more of).

I told him his story could make a great book about the Buddhist entrepreneur. He tells me that he runs a side business free of charge for someone who he considers very enlightened – just so he can be around him. You see, it doesn’t matter anyway because to Craig his job is to direct energy and this guy has a lot of good energy. Besides (this is my favorite part) the money part isn’t that much of an issue. In the end, he plans to give it all to Buddhism anyway.

Related articles

• PR Pros: Will you Blend? (newspapergrl.com)
• On Giving Referrals (newspapergrl.com)
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I recently saw an interview on Nightline with Judge Judy and then read an interview with Oprah. Both are enormously successful, but have very different shows and demands. They are both vying for #1 for queen of daytime TV.

Quick Facts about Judge Judy
15 years on the air – started being a family law judge and her style was profiled in an LA Times article then picked up on 60 Minutes. That publicity led to her reality TV show. It started slowly but has risen to the top rated show on daytime TV.

Watched by ten million people daily.

When asked about Oprah Judge Judy says: Her talents are boundless, I think she works 24/7 – it’s not for me. I like my life of balance.

Married with kids and grandkids.

She frequently beats Oprah in the ratings. 13^th Emmy nomination (no wins). Here’s the Nightline interview  of Judge Judy on Hulu.

She doesn’t try to form a relationship with the audience really and it’s not her entire life. Her audience is made up of paid extras which are carefully orchestrated to be part of the show

Her straightforward style that can be abrasive is said to start the mean TV style of Dr. Phil and others.

Salary: $25 million/year

Quick facts about Oprah

24 years on the air

Salary put at $385 million (according to Wikipedia) and is one of the highest paid TV stars and much more than Judge Judy (but after several million who’s counting, right?)

By her own admission she works hard and her work is her life. “I would like to have a little more balance…My obligations have become my life.”

I keep saying yes to everything, and managing it all gets to be overwhelming. A typical day for me starts here with a 6:30 workout; by 7:30 I’m in the makeup chair. And then I don’t usually get in the car to leave until 9, 10 o’clock at night. Get home just in time to breathe, get the damn puppy thing done—I don’t know what I was thinking, getting a puppy—then go to bed, get up, and start the whole process all over again. It’s too much.

Single, no children…”I do feel like I am a mother in a broader sense—to a generation of viewers who’ve grown up with me.”

7.4 million watch daily

I’m always curious about the most successful people in an industry. What it says to me is that you can be successful being Gary V and making your work your entire life. Or you can be Tim Ferris and pair down work to a minimum 4 hour work week so you can play the rest of the time. You can make your millions connecting with people, updating Twitter and not sleeping or you can do it on your terms.

I’m more Judge Judy than Oprah in terms of I want the balance. I don’t want my ambitions or work to consume my life. I’m also more Tim Ferris – it’s much easier for me to make money when I take myself out of it and let it run (which is why I love affiliate marketing.)

What about you – are you more Judge Judy or Oprah?

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I have to tell this story. Nigel Swaby and I were going to interview Pounder’s Grill in Salt Lake City Utah about their social media success last week. I’m fascinated by the expansion of restaurants in Utah and the common thread of the ones I know of, is that they use social media. Mo Bettah Stakes, Smashburger, Pounder’s and other restaurants are thriving in a tough economy and opening new locations in Utah while so many are closing. I wanted to explore the correlation between their growth and how they engage their audience through social media.

But it didn’t happen. Why? This gets interesting. One of the owner’s of Pounder’s Googled Nigel’s name. Or perhaps it was Google Suggested his name. In 2006 Nigel wrote about and befriended and controversial figure Casey Serin during the real estate boom. That was enough to cancel the interview. Note that Nigel didn’t actually do anything wrong.

If you start typing my name into Google you’ll see that it says “Janet Thaeler Smashburger” which means that people have searched for that phrase. Yes even though I have been writing about online PR and internet marketing for over 5 years, Smashburger is what people have linked with my name (in searches). Thankfully it’s tame, not something not true but making me look bad, or someone with my name that is a convict. Janet Thaeler isn’t easy to spell or remember but it is unique.

Thankfully there is only 1 video I know of that could haunt me – I wouldn’t want it to show up when I’m running for pubic office. But when I was in college no one I knew was snapping photos and posting them online.  It wasn’t as easy as it is now. My phone didn’t have a camera. I didn’t even have a cell phone. But my son’s generation – that is a fact of life. Cell phones will get cheaper and more powerful and most things will be mobile. We must assume that anything we do could be posted and shared with the world – and yes – show up in search results when someone searches on our name. FOREVER.

I just heard Marty Cooper, inventor of the cell phone say this on 60 Minutes,: “Sorry, privacy is a thing of the past…” That means that your mistakes, associations, guilty or not are there for anyone to see. It also means that we’ll know that no one is perfect and it will be harder to escape your past.

You are what Google, Facebook and Twitter say you are (or whatever tools will be in vogue). What we really need to be private is our financial information – but the rest of it is up for grabs. Even if you don’t sign up to be online – there is no opt-out. I like how Chris Brogan puts it that you can delete your Facebook profile – just like you can opt-out of the cash society. Nigel reminded me that the phone book (while the reach is much more limited) is opt-out too. You are there with your name, your address and phone. You have to pay to have it removed.

Privacy is outdated. Anything you do can be used against you online. That’s why trust is such a big deal – because the internet is still the wild west where anything goes. We want to know who we can trust and who we cannot trust. Sometimes that decision will be made based on such tenuous things as the words that are associated with your name in Google Suggest. While I like the concept of transparency we cannot bury Google Suggest results – nor do we have any control over what they show. That’s more disconcerting. That point was driven home this week.

The Women Tech Council has invited 3 social media experts (who happen to be men) to speak in Salt Lake City on May 11. That is on Tuesday. It’s a half day conference that you should not miss if you are in marketing. You heard Seth Godin, now it’s time to hear Chris Brogan. He’s one of the biggest names in the industry.

Speakers:

• Chris Brogan, here is Chris Brogan on Twitter
• Julien Smith, here is Julien on Twitter
• Mitch Joel, here is Mitch Joel on Twitter

Price of admission includes breakfast and 2 books: Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith and Six Pixels of Separation by Mitch Joel. This will also be a good time to network with other social networking geeks like me, Josh Peters, Pete Codella and Nigel Swaby. Yes, even women like Carina W., Kelly Anderson, Jyl Pattee, and Marie LeBaron.

Register Now

This Tuesday, May 11
7:30-8:30 a.m.
Registration and Breakfast Networking

8:30am-12:00 p.m. Speakers and roundtable Q&A

Location:
Noah’s
322 West 11000 South
South Jordan, UT 84095 USA

Event Cost: $65 for members, $75 for non-members
Sponsorship opportunities and group discounts are available.

I hope I’ll see you there! In the meantime here’s a taste of what’s coming:

Since becoming an author I read even more books – mostly nonfiction. I’m also a part of a book club so I read fiction once a month too.

Lately with business books I seem to read them in pairs. I find myself reading books at the same time with what seem like polar opposite messages. Before it was “The 4 Hour Work Week” by Tim Ferris and “Crush It” by Gary Vaynerchuk. One says to work far less hours and one advocates working a lot more than the average work week of 40 hours.

Now the paradox comes from “Linchpin” by Seth Godin and “The Referral Engine” by John Jantsch. They both have the same color orange covers and I carry them around together. The Referral Engine talks about a system that is predictably delivers well. Linchpin is about making your own way and being remarkable.

Another example: I alternatively read Godin praise Bob Dylan  and listened to a CD on my way to work about how inconsistent Bob Dylan is (as in fail).

From an interview with Seth Godin:

Seth Godin: Well, you know, a lot of people want competence, and certainly people on Wall Street seem to, and competence being someone who they think is good at things. Unfortunately, competence is the enemy of greatness because people who are competent like being competent. They like doing a good enough job all the time.

Bob Dylan is serially incompetent. He got booed off the stage in the ’60s. He got booed off the stage when he became a born-again Christian. He was ignored for years because he keeps taking risks, because he keeps doing things he is not good at and then getting good at them. When we look at corporations, which a Motley Fool person spends a lot of time doing, Wall Street keeps putting pressure on corporations to be average and then they’re surprised when they hit the wall when, in fact, it’s the corporations that have strong leaders who ignore Wall Street, the Apple Computers (Nasdaq: AAPL) of the world, the Googles (Nasdaq: GOOG) of the world — those are the people who keep confounding expectations by overdelivering because they’re willing to be incompetent.

Mac Greer: And along those lines, Seth, I have a friend who’s seen Bob Dylan multiple times and said that sometimes he’s been great and sometimes it’s just been awful. I’ve only seen him once and he was great, but it sounds like there’s a hit-and-miss quality to his performing.

Seth Godin: Oh, yeah, I took my son to see him and we left halfway through because it was horrible. (Laughter.) But the point is that human beings would rather have glimpses of genius than day-to-day mediocrity.

Seth Godin is the guy who doesn’t match his socks!

Anyway, I suppose I’ve been going through a bit of an identity crisis. I’m more of a Seth Godin type who wishes she were more of a John Jantsch type. I married a John Jantsch type to compensate. His business does really well and its fueled by referrals. Mine…I’m still (as a new author & with new products) trying to figure it out.

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