There are millions of guitar players out there. How could anyone hope to breakthrough and make a living playing guitar? Not lead guitar in band, just straight up guitar?

This video of Andy McKee playing Drifting is your answer.

Play it like nobody else plays it. Turn one instrument into an entire band, build upon but then transcend what every teacher has ever taught you. Create an immersive experience that defines your own genre. And, devote yourself to mastery on a level that, along with your unique take, makes you remarkable.

Then share your abilities with the world…

What I’m talking about here isn’t about playing guitar. And, it isn’t about music.

It’s about a commitment to mastery, passion and remarkability. It’s about playing by and mastering someone else’s rules on a level that affords you the craft and insight to then leave those rules behind and create your own boundless solutions and experiences.

And, it’s very likely about thousands of hours and a whole lotta years.

Is that asking a lot? Yes.

But, if you’re someone who’s driven by extraordinary visions, that’s very likely what it’ll take.

My question is…are you prepared to do what it takes to create on that level?

P.S. – This video has been viewed more than 32 million times.

Amazing, the marketing power of stunning.

So, the tremendous conversation in the comments to Alison’s post about how what you wear impacts how others perceive you got me thinking. Like it or not, what we wear does seem to impact how others perceive and even value us.

But, there’s something more, something deeper that seems to be going on, too.

What we wear may change how others perceive us, at least in part, because it also changes how we act and interact with the world. It effects what goes on in our own internal psychic ecosphere.

And, I began to wonder…

How does what you wear impact what you create?

Legendary copywriter, John Carlton, tells the story of how he used to have a very specific outfit that he’d to wear to write copy. And, he had to wear the same thing every time, right down to his hat in order to get into that place where, as he says, he literally stalked and attacked his writing.

Could it really be that what you wear changes how you feel enough to impact what you create?

And, what about other factors like where you work, what your view is, how light or dark or loud or quiet it is. Do these things change your creative output, too? In my experience, everything from what I wear to where I am and what I eat have a pretty profound impact on my creative output.

These things form my Optimal Creative Modus Operandi (MO).

Click here to read the full post (652 words, 1 image 2:36 mins)

Just had to share this with you guys…

Career Renegade was just published in Traditional Chinese, which is the main language in Taiwan and Hong Kong (from what I’m told, going on faith, here).

Pretty cool, huh?

I’ve posted the two covers side-by-side below. Kinda fascinating to see how they changed the cover to try to maximize appeal to the local market. Radically different than the U.S. version.

If you  live in that part of the world, you can buy it at Books.com.tw And, if you’re a publisher looking to bring the renegade message to your tribe in Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portugese, Hindi, Bahasa or any other language, I’ve been secretly harboring a burning desire to wear a t-shirt that says, “I’m huge in [your country]!”

Let’s make it happen…hit me up at (646) DRIVE-08, @jonathanfields on twitter or jonathan @ jonathanfields dot com.

Oh, and anyone want to translate the cover for me in the comments, lol?

This week’s guest contributor is my friend, Alison Kramer, owner of Nummies and Mama to three beautiful little ones. A writer, Waldorf parent, lover of hot yoga, reluctant runner and certified twitter addict, you can read more stuff by and about Alison on her blog here and on her “What I Learned Today” posts.

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We use our senses to make decisions and whether we like it or not, how something looks matters.

How we look matters. Our perception of others is rarely clear, or vise versa. Rather we see one another through a series of culturally created lenses.

Whether we build relationships online or not, we usually will eventually come face to face.  At which point there are no logos to hide behind and no airbrush that can help us.

We all start with a basic collection of features and things that make us who we are.  Gender, ethnicity, race, ability, size and others are all parts of a package we carry around with us in the world.  These shape not only our experience, but how we are perceived and experienced by others.  Of course, these are not changeable, nor should they be.  If you don’t want to do business with a short Jewish woman than that is your problem, not mine.

The question arises when we look at things we can change, like how we dress.

Click here to read the full post (869 words, 1 image 3:29 mins)

Ever try to sell a product or service to a company?

Three words - Ack! Oy! Dohhh!

When I graduated college, I got a job selling long-distance telephone service to companies. Every day, I had to pick a building in my territory, take the elevator to the top floor, then start knocking on doors, saying, “Hi, I’m just stopping by to talk to the president about your telecommunications needs.”

By the end of the day, I’d been shown a sign that read, “Every 4th salesperson will be shot, the 3rd just left,” no less than a dozen times. Cute. Made me want to throw up, give up and go home.

To say I sucked at that job would be an understatement.

I didn’t last that long, but still, I think everyone should have to spend even a smallish bit of time in the rough and tumble world of outside sales. Because it forces you to remember there’s another human being on the other end of every conversation.

And, to realize sales is about listening and solving, not speaking and forcing.

Since then, I’ve learned a smidge more about selling ideas, services and products, both to individuals and companies. And, I’ve also become more than a little obsessed with the psychology of influence and persuasion.

That, in fact, is what underlies my obsession with marketing and copywriting. I’m fascinated by what it takes to move someone from cold prospect to happy and sold.

Click here to read the full post (622 words, 1 image 2:29 mins)

Part of growing and evolving is intentionally testing the boundaries of an experience that’s perceived outwardly as success, but that’s begun to feel inwardly complacent.

Doing that means taking a risk, both in ego and ease.

It means going from being on top of your game (or, at least the perception) to potentially stumbling, falling down, not knowing which way is up.

Thing is, if you never feel that way, there’s a good chance you’re in a sideways trend.

And, sideways kills.

We all need to rattle our own cages on a pretty regular basis. The beginning of nearly every move from a period of sustained-success to evolutionary-quest is defined by waves of uncertainty, questioning everything you know, often realizing what you thought until recently was relative mastery was really…dumbass-plus-one. The first rung on a ladder, the end of which lies beyond sight.

That awakening screws with you.

It lays you bare. It forces you to start exploring the foundation of everything you believe in and everywhere you’ve sought to go and grow. On the surface, it’s not a good feeling. At least while you’re in it.

And, that’s where I am right now.

It’s not that I don’t have fantastic projects going on and brilliant family and friends to support me. I do. On those fronts, I’m blessed. But, my heart and gut are tugging me into a lot of uncharted territory these days. Into a more aggressive evolutionary stage.

Click here to read the full post (747 words, 1 image 2:59 mins)

This Friday’s guest contributor is Joel D Canfield. Joel writes about his family’s experiment with a location-independent life at http://CanfieldOfDreams.com. Because he and his location-independent wife Sue believe everyone should make a great living doing what they love, they mentor and train virtual workers who want to choose where and when they work

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Benjamin Franklin was a serial entrepreneur, regularly seeing huge success implementing ideas which others thought were impossible or pointless.

At one point, an acquaintance asked Franklin’s advice about who he should ask for donations for a worthy cause. Franklin replied,

“I advise you to apply to all those whom you know will give something; next, to those whom you are uncertain whether they will give any thing or not, and show them the list of those who have given; and, lastly, do not neglect those who you are sure will give nothing, for in some of them you may be mistaken.”

I’d like to set the record straight about my complete failure to get the real message from that.

Some time ago I wrote a piece saying what great marketing advice that was; start with success, use social proof to enlist further support, leave no stone unturned; the piece was good enough, as far as it went.

It just didn’t go nearly far enough.

Marketing, I thought, is not about persuasion. It’s not so much evangelism as a search-and-rescue mission. Instead of trying to convince unbelievers, search for those who already have the right mindset, and simply need the tools to implement what they already know.

Click here to read the full post (904 words, 1 image 3:37 mins)

A little over 2 months ago, I interviewed article marketing expert, Elysia Brooker from Pajama Team.

She laid bare a lot of myths and truths about article marketing, and opened my eyes to it’s potential impact. But I was still suspect, so I issued her a public challenge to take a site that I owned and get it ranked high up on google for two of the top search terms in the niche using article marketing.

It was all up to her, I didn’t want any involvement.

Even though Elysia had set me straight on a lot of article marketing lore, I have to confess to not expecting a whole lot. Man, was I wrong.

Here’s what she accomplished in 60 days:

• Search ranking for the top keyword in the niche (approximately 130,000 searches a month) moved from position #9 to position #2 on the first page of google.
• Search ranking for the second keyword went from being buried way back on some undetermined page to ranking #3 on the first page of google search results.
• Daily search-driven traffic doubled.

Wow, those are some pretty stunning results!

So, I circled back to Elysia to debrief after the challenge and to ask her how she did it. And, here’s what unfolded:

Click here to read the full post (1371 words, 1 image 5:29 mins)

The moment you want someone to buy something from you, you take on a Herculean burden…

The burden of proof. You need to prove to a potential customer, client, patient, reader or visitor that the solution you’re offering will solve their problem better, faster, easier, more-effectively or less-expensively than others.

You can answer every other question, grab attention, build rapport, establish though leadership, disqualify others, differentiate your offering, share benefit after benefit, claim superiority, reverse risk, create scarcity, incentivize immediate buying and call people to act.

But if you stumble on the issue of proof…you still lose the sale.

Because folks need a rational hat upon which to justify an emotional buy.

That’s not a good thing or a bad thing, it’s just a thing. Simple human nature. We buy emotionally, but feel strongly compelled to be able to point to something rational as the outward basis of our purchases.

So, here are the 7 ways you can offer up the proof needed to close the loop on nearly any sale:

1. Actual Proof / Track Record

Point to examples, case-studies, research or other data that demonstrates objectively that your solution (a) works, and (b) works better than anyone else’s. If you’re a direct-response copywriter, for example, reveal your track record or conversion ratio for the recent campaigns you’ve written. If you’ve got a product that’s been studied and the data support your claims, share the results of the research. If you’ve got a product you can demonstrate, go ahead and demonstrate, let a potential buyer experience the results firsthand.

Click here to read the full post (1080 words, 1 image 4:19 mins)

Guest post from Peter Shallard, the Shrink for Entrepreneurs. Check out his blog or for mini Jedi-mind-tricks, follow @PeterShallard on Twitter

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The idea to write this post started with a twitter conversation Jonathan kicked off with these words of wisdom:

Don’t lead with “how’m I gonna make money?” Instead, ask “how’m I gonna blow people away and change lives?”

Most of us can agree that this principal is spot on for entrepreneurs with big dreams.

When Nathan Hangen added

Sometimes internal motivators aren’t aligned with success

…I knew he had put his finger on an issue I’ve personally witnessed time and time again. He was talking about something that goes on inside the minds of business owners. Something that makes or breaks dreams.

It’s time to shed some light on the psychology that motivates entrepreneurs.

In my experience there are only ever three reasons that people get into the business game:

1.  To have an impact

2.  To make money

3.  To win freedom

This is what I call the “hat-trick for entrepreneurs”.

Lining up the hierarchy of impact, money and freedom is crucial to building a successful business. It’s even more of a non-negotiable if you want your business to have a positive social and ecological impact.

Successful entrepreneurs score the hat-trick every time

Click here to read the full post (741 words, 1 image 2:58 mins)