Top 3 Light Bulb Moments with Tim Ferriss

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Updated on November 21st, 2013

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Like many business owners, web marketers and lifestyle-advocates, I am a devout Tim Ferriss disciple. I read his books, and am always trying to be implementing his status quo defying techniques.

Thanks to The Growth Faculty, Tim spoke in Sydney this morning.

Here are my top ‘light bulb’ Tim Ferriss moments
(NB. I’ve read his books so won’t rehash stuff I already was aware of, unless it’s inspired me to take a different tack)

1. Reality is negotiable – test, test, test

Outside of science and the law, reality is negotiable… and even then Tim challenges it sometime! He urged us to ask the right questions. For example he measures all his marketing, and tests out ‘best practice’ assumptions to see if they hold true for him. For example, he finds the best time to post content on his blog is 7am and 6pm EDT on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. [Bluewire News readers will know that I love to test subject lines, from name, content, formats and send times, so I will certainly continue doing this!]

2. Get bloggers drunk at live events (to launch your book)

Readers may know that Toby and I have a marketing book coming out with Wiley in 2014, so this advice was very relevant. He rocked up at the massive geek fest that is CES, and hung out inside the BlogHaus and got chatting with bloggers. His disarming approach of explaining “I’m just trying to figure all this stuff out and maybe, just maybe there’s a 10% chance you may like a few sections of my book. Why don’t I send you a copy when it’s out?” This approach took him from an unknown to a New York Times bestseller with The Four Work Week.

I’d read some of it before and we’ve been attending conferences like Inbound12 where many great bloggers congregate, but love that this approach of “in the flesh networking” works so well.

3. Put a 4-8 week holiday in the calendar for 2014. Plan your weekends on Wednesday.

This was a real a-ha moment for me. Tim said “if its in the calendar, it’s real.” Simple advice, and VERY practical. So from here on in I’ll schedule my weekends in advance, and get that holiday INTO the calendar.

Bonus idea: Do the opposite

What if you did the opposite for 48 hours? Tim took this approach in ‘sales’ and made calls 7-8am and 6-7pm, as opposed to everyone else who called 9-5. In a quarter of the time (2 hours vs 8 hours) he reached all the decision makers because the receptionists had gone home. He landed the most sales in the company.

Tim Ferriss’s toolkit

The books that Tim Ferriss uses as his toolkit.

Tim, thank you for flying down under, and readers stay tuned for Toby’s report on his VIP experience. [I had to leave early to fly up to the Gold Coast for a presentation!]

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About Adam Franklin

Adam Franklin is the bestselling author of Web Marketing That Works. He is an international social media speaker and CEO of Bluewire Media. His blog was Australia's #1 Business Blog and his podcast was #9 on the top marketing podcasts in Entrepreneur magazine. His work has featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur, The Australian, Sydney Morning Herald, Huffington Post and iTunes. Download the popular Web Strategy Planning Template which has been used by hundreds of thousands of businesses worldwide. His weekly 'Bluewire News' email goes out to over 32,000 readers.