Last week we started a conversation about the tools, resources and systems that have been the most helpful to us. This week we conclude that conversation with a slew of killer resources.

Again, if you or someone you know suffers from Infoprepassionprodlearning Syndrome, this conversation is the healing balm to get you:

• out of “I’m looking for the magic bullet,”
• away from “I’m worried I’m missing out on information I should have before I build my thing”
• and into “what are the bare necessities before I get started (because I know the most important bits will be learned on the job, as I build my thing).”

This episode gets a bit wild. Some hilarious bits, including my favorite Caleb Wojcik moment (or “Woj bomb” for short) to date. You have been warned.

“‘The most powerful force in humanity just might be a deadline.’ Maybe. BUT, this was hilarious”
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Resources Mentioned (others here)

The Lean Startup by Eric Ries

This book radically reduces your risk of making something nobody wants. The ideas here informed how we launched Fizzle a great deal. There’s some gems from us in the audio around 3m in about exactly how we did it, what the results were, what it was like to do it, etc. This is a great book. Do it.

Relationships

I know, I know, this probably feels like a cop out to you. But there’s some good points made about this (especially when Corbett starts talking about it) around 22m in.

Sometimes a relationship leads to a breakthrough. Changing the people you hangout with can be the most powerful system there is. If you want to change your life change your surroundings.

Paul Graham’s Essays

Tons of amazing perspective in here. Paul Graham founded Y Combinator (one of the sexiest and best known startup accelerators/incubators) and he’s worked with a ton of entrepreneurs. I get lost in these things from time to time. You don’t have to agree with everything to walk away with a different mindset about your business and yourself as an entrepreneur.

If Struggling to Quit Something or Not:

This is the beginning of a few resources from Caleb which are targeted at specific issues/problems.

• Know When to Quit, Pivot or Persevere (FS017) — a great episode of this here podcast sussing through the angles, issues and our experiences with this question.
• The Dip by Seth Godin — “Winners quit fast, quit often, and quit without guilt-until they commit to beating the right Dip for the right reasons. In fact, winners seek out the Dip. They realize that the bigger the barrier, the bigger the reward for getting past it.”

If Struggling With Procrastination or Sticking With Something

• The War of Art by Steven Pressfield — just do it. (don’t take that brevity as uncare, take it as the most mostness of care about this book).
• The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg — how to break bad habits and make good ones.

If Struggling With Building Relationships

• How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie — “You learn how to make people like you, win people over to your way of thinking, and change people without causing offense or arousing resentment.”
• Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzis — Caleb read both these books before going to World Dominatrix Summit for the first time… we really wanted to make long term relationships. It worked and now he speaks highly of these books.

If Struggling With Building Your Audience

• Tribes by Seth Godin — “A tribe is any group of people, large or small, who are connected to one another, a leader, and an idea.”
• 1,000 True Fans (blog post) by Kevin Kelly — all three of us cited this article as an important turning point for how we thought about building an audience.
• The Thank You Economy by Gary Vaynerchuk — “The Internet, where The Thank You Economy was born, has given consumers back their voice, and the tremendous power of their opinions via social media means that companies and brands have to compete on a whole different level than they used to.”

Fizzle.co – Honest Online Biz Training

Listen, we have to include our thing here. Why? Because we’re building the best possible all-in-one resource for someone with an idea to bring to life. That’s all i’m gonna say about it besides this: you can sign up for $1… if you care about your thing and actually want to build it, what do you have to lose?

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What Did We Miss?

If you ONLY had 3 resources to share with someone you cared about who wanted to start up their own thing. What would you share with them? Honestly?

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Show Notes

Richard Boehmcke of Vibrant Motion — “a prize winning video creator who has made videos for the travel, digital, book publishing industries and many more.”

The Four Steps to the Epiphany by Steve Blank — this is the book that preceded the Lean Startup and most of the other stuff that’s out there. It’s a bit technical, but really solid.

David Ogilvy: We Sell or Else – YouTube — David Ogilvy on what really sells.

Scott Dinsmore on How Relationships Upgraded His Business — “Since I met Corbett, and a few others, this blog has grown from 10 visits a day to 2,000. From 111 subscribers to over 10,000. From a side project to a full-blown business. It now ranks among the top .03% all sites on the planet.”

Running Lean and Lean Canvas — two interesting offshoots of the Lean Startup methodology. Good stuff but tends to lacks a little of the heart.

Know When to Quit, Pivot or Persevere (FS017) — “We all face what Eric Ries calls the hardest part of any startup: deciding whether to quit, pivot or persevere.”

Frank Oz – Wikipedia — “an English-born American voice actor, film director and puppeteer who created and performed the characters Miss Piggy and Fozzie Bear along with Jim Henson in The Muppet Show, as well as Cookie Monster, Bert, and Grover in Sesame Street.” I laugh every time I think of Corbett doing the “Near… far” thing.

What Technology Wants by Kevin Kelly — deep and heavy, like a Woj bomb.

Web 2.0 Expo NY: Gary Vaynerchuk — “clap that up cuz it’s the real shit.”

Eric Ries of Lean Startup – TWiST #199 – YouTube — great interview with Eric. The tension between him and Jason is palpable.

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Learn how to set goals that actually stick!

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The Top 10 Mistakes in Online Business

Every week we talk with entrepreneurs. We talk about what’s working and what isn’t. We talk about successes and failures. We spend time with complete newbies, seasoned veterans, and everything in between.

One topic that comes up over and over again with both groups is mistakes made in starting businesses. Newbies love to learn about mistakes so they can avoid them. Veterans love to talk about what they wish they had known when starting out.

These conversations have been fascinating, so we compiled a list of the 10 mistakes we hear most often into a nifty lil' guide. Get the 10 Most Common Mistakes in Starting an Online Business here »