productivity

February 2019 Performance Report

March 7, 2019 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

We are two months into 2019 and the momentum is still strong. February was a great month for me that gave me an idea of what’s possible when I graduate college. Here’s a recap of that month…

My First Virtual Summit Of 2019 Was A Success

The Profitable Podcasting Summit was a big success. 20+ speakers shared their top strategies for growing and monetizing your podcast.

We already rolled out the evergreen version, so if you missed it the first time, you can claim your free ticket to the summit here.

I have the ever greening process dialed down which will help me attract more speakers for past summits and promote the evergreen versions of past summits sooner.

We’ve still got 9 more summits left for 2019. The Biz Blog Summit kicks off in a few days, and after an April summit launch, I’ll have a two month gap before the next one.

That two month gap will be critical as I’ll be reaching out to speakers for the rest of the summits. I’d rather be far ahead with my summit sessions than scrambling at the last second.

I learned that lesson with the Content Marketing Success Summit. Although it was my best summit, I conducted 33 interviews for that summit in the final two weeks leading up to the initial launch.

I Was An Icon Of Influence At The New Media Summit

This event was a game changer for me and showed me what’s possible in 2019. For those of you who don’t know, the New Media Summit is an event where attendees pitch podcasters and get booked on the spot.

As an Icon of Influence, I heard the attendees’ pitches and booked many of them on the spot. With that said, a few awesome things happened at my first New Media Summit…

I booked around 40 guests for Breakthrough Success at the New Media Summit. That’s over 3 months of content, and since not everyone is scheduling their interview at the same time, I can still do some outreach to some of my role models who I want on the show.
I felt inspired to launch a second podcast. What is that podcast going to be about? I already know, and if you guess the name of the podcast, I’ll give you a free copy of my Podcast Domination book. See this Instagram post for a clue.
There was an Icon exclusive mastermind the day after the New Media Summit. My goals were bumped higher and I learned a lot from that mastermind. To me, that mastermind was more valuable than all of the training courses I have ever taken combined.

Catching Up With Stuff

While I loved the New Media Summit and am eager to return for their September event, I worked on some catch up towards the end of the month.

The biggest areas I needed to catch up on were my upcoming virtual summits and mastermind. I came up with ways to massively improve the mastermind that will soon drive the price up from $47/mo to $97/mo. If you want to join the mastermind while it’s still $47/mo, shoot me an email marc@marcguberti.com

While I plan on conducting 10 virtual summits in 2019, I realized that it’s not sustainable moving into future years. I’ll have no problem pulling it off this year, but as my public speaking career expands, I’ll have less time to work on each virtual summit.

The good part about that is that in 2020, I’ll have 13 evergreen virtual summits. At that point, I can introduce new speakers for those summits and promote them on occasion. I will still do plenty of virtual summits in 2020 (i.e. at least one per quarter), but this will probably be the only year I commit to 10 virtual summits in 2019 unless I get involved in some collaborations.

I was also busy catching up with emails, but I’m always catching up with those 😉

My Public Speaking Career

This is the biggest inspiration I walked out with after the New Media Summit. I’ve always had the goal of going on some kind of public speaking tour the moment I graduate college.

I was already doing my research and preparing for 2020 since that’s when I graduate.

But then I asked myself, “Why not 2019?”

The big issue with an all-out 2019 public speaking campaign is that if I miss enough classes, I’d automatically fail them. That’s why 2020 had the bigger emphasis, but I’m looking for more 2019 opportunities, especially ones in the summer.

I already have an event locked down for April and possible 2-3 events in June. For events I can’t speak at (i.e. they start in less than a month or are during the school year), I am writing down a list of events for me to reach out to before 2020.

I’m doing all of the outreach and relationship building now so I am better set up for a ton of public speaking in 2020.

In my opinion, it is not farfetched for me to speak on over 30 stages in 2020. I am working on that goal now because I know if I actually start working on it in 2020 my chances are greatly reduced.

If you know someone organizing an event or are an event organizer, please let me know. I want to impact as many attendees as I possibly can.

We’ll have to see how I balance podcast and summit interviews, but I know it will be done 😉

In Conclusion

I am still a bit in the catch up phase and this Performance Report was certainly a part of it.

One of my goals for March is to be ahead of schedule again. While I’ve done a solid job at this with Breakthrough Success, I need to get better in this area for the rest of my business.

For me to speak at 30 events each year, it would easily be a 90-100 day commitment since almost no event is a “leave the same day you get there” kind of event.

That means I need to get further ahead with my content production and marketing. Practicing this skill now will ensure I have it ready when I need it for 2020.

What are your thoughts on this Performance Report? Do you have any questions for me? Sound off in the comments section below.

January 2019 Performance Report

February 4, 2019 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

This month was all about setting the framework for 2019. While I’ve set a bunch of big goals in 2019, the biggest goal and one I’m the most adamant about is hosting 10 virtual summits in 2019.

I am at a point where I can prepare for a virtual summit 1-2 months in advance and make it an incredible experience. This is because I’ve already hosted three virtual summits and each of my future summits will only showcase 20+ speakers instead of the usual 50+ speakers.

The 10 Virtual Summits

They’re all going to happen. The first summit, Profitable Podcasting Summit, takes place at the start of February. I have all of the speakers and backend lined up.

The goal for that summit and future ones is to get at least 1,000 attendees and get even more attendees from the evergreen promotion.

The great part about my summit set-up is that I use the same few pages for the entire backend. This makes it easy for me to copy existing templates and cut down on the amount of work it takes to set everything up.

I currently have virtual summits slated for the following dates:

February 5-8, 2019
March 4-7, 2019
April 8-11, 2019
June 17-20, 2019
July 16-19, 2019
August 19-22, 2019
September 23-26, 2019
October 14-17, 2019
November 4-11, 2019
December 9-12, 2019

No virtual summits are scheduled for May 2019 because that’s the launch for my Content Marketing Plaza. I am going all-out on that program.

Right now I am beginning to plan for the next three virtual summits. Since I’m back in school (although, a much less packed schedule than the previous semester), it’s not as easy to invest as much time as I did during the winter break. That’s why I am planning for all three of them now instead of waiting until a month before for all three of them.

Delegation

Many people ask me how I find the time to do what I do. The answer is a combination of work ethic and delegation. I recognize that hosting 10 virtual summits will be easier if I delegate more tasks. That’s why I’m setting the goal to delegate at least one new task per month.

Right now I delegate social media posts and outreach for my books. The next task I delegate will be related to virtual summits or a task that takes a considerable amount of time on my end.

But by delegating one task each month, it will open more doors for me. Furthermore, delegating one new task each month allows me to ease into more spending than if I decided to delegate most of my business overnight.

Breakthrough Success Sponsors

I am going to be very careful with this. Sponsorships are great for massive podcasts to bring in massive returns. For smaller and medium sized podcasts, the path to sponsorships is more challenging.

However, I have found a way to attract sponsors to the show.

People often reach out and ask for a link placement on this blog. I almost never provide these link placements because they are somewhat related to my business but not a perfect fit for most blog posts.

These same businesses work better for Breakthrough Success than for this blog. While this blog is heavily focused on digital marketing, Breakthrough Success explores marketing, personal development, some finance, and a few other topics depending on the episode.

I’ve experimented with telling people that they can be a sponsor on Breakthrough Success and get their link in the show notes on my blog. So far I have a few people who are interested.

I’ll test this out and see what happens. The goal is to boost revenue from the podcast while still providing a great experience for listeners. Sponsorships can become a big stream of revenue, but I’m not going to stuff my episodes with ads either because that wouldn’t be fun to listen to.

It’s a delicate balance, but one that I believe may pay off. We’ll see what happens.

Coaching And The Mastermind

Starting in 2019, I began asking myself this question before starting a new project:

“Will this allow me to make recurring income?”

More of my launches are going to focus on my coaching and mastermind. The Advanced Influencer Mastermind comes to $47/mo after the 30 day free trial.

If you want to know the price of my coaching, shoot me an email marc@marcguberti.com and we’ll schedule a call to talk about what you want from the experience.

I’m focusing on recurring income because I noticed that my income would spike when I launched a virtual summit or promoted an affiliate product that performed very well…

…only to not make that same income the following month.

This is one of the reasons I decided to host 10 virtual summits in 2019. Hosting a virtual summit each month leads to more revenue. Making more revenue allows me to spread my message, reach more people, and spend more of my money on good causes (something I will work harder on in 2019).

Plus, I promote offers during the virtual summit that allow me to make recurring revenue (i.e. the coaching and mastermind).

The reason I’m focusing on recurring income is because how much easier and reliable it is. As I mentioned earlier, the Advanced Influencer Mastermind comes to $47/mo after the 30 day free trial. $47 happens to be the same price of most of my Early Bird All-Access Passes.

For the All-Access Passes, I need roughly 177 sales each month to make 6-figures.

Hitting that number gets easier with multiple evergreen summits and the fact that I’m hosting 10 virtual summits in 2019.

But for the mastermind, I need roughly 177 members to make 6-figures.

That means, even if I get 177 members and never get an extra member for the rest of my life (and the same 177 stay signed up), I make 6-figures.

One scenario requires 2,127 sales each year, and you’ll have to hit that same number next year just to make the same amount of revenue.

The other scenario just involves 177 members, and each time you add a member, you increase your annual income, guaranteed (as long as each member sticks around).

In Conclusion

My themes of 2019 are increased joint ventures and recurring income. Honing in on those two key areas will help me accomplish all of the major goals I set for myself in 2019.

If I have to drop all of my non-related business related goals to accomplish my goals for joint ventures and recurring income, I will not hesitate to do so.

Those two themes are so important for any business, and they are my priorities for 2019.

What are your thoughts on this performance report? Do you have any questions for me? Sound off in the comments section below.

November 2018 Performance Report

December 10, 2018 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Some of November was spent preparing for 2019. However, I still made progress in November. The Wealthy Author Summit performed very well and I got to interview incredible people for Breakthrough Success…including Seth Godin who is literally my role model for entrepreneurship.

Before we jump into the Performance Report, I want to leave you with this: One of the big mistakes people make is dedicating most of November and December to preparing for the new year. While it’s great to plan ahead, stay focused on the time you have left for the year.

With that said, here’s a recap of November…

Post Wealthy Author Summit

The Wealthy Author Summit was a great success. Over 1,000 attendees joined in and we got 30 speakers to share top self-publishing strategies to grow an audience and sell more books.

The best part about this summit is that the attendees shared their key takeaways from each day. This was a top priority for me—getting attendees more involved while benefitting the speakers.

The way most summits work is a win-win-lose scenario. The organizer grows his/her audience, attendees get a lot of valuable content, but the speakers don’t usually grow their audiences from virtual summits. That’s why I promoted all of the speakers’ resources on Day 5.

My Future With Virtual Summits

I enjoy hosting virtual summits and providing that awesome experience. I’ve done summits in the past that got over 50 speakers. While I enjoy those summits, they take a lot of time to pull off (interviewing 50+ people and finding enough people who will say yes, orchestrating it behind the scenes, etc.)

For 2019, my goal is to host at least 4 virtual summits. However, instead of the 50+ speaker summits I’ve produced in the past, these summits will be closer to 20-30 speakers. That will make it easier for me to provide you with more high value summits and experiences.

Evergreening My Other Summits

Of the three virtual summits I’ve hosted, the Content Marketing Success Summit is the only evergreen summit.

That will change in December as I make my other two summits (Productivity Virtual Summit and Wealthy Author Summit) evergreen. Most virtual summits die after they are over and hours of valuable evergreen content gets zero traction.

I have set monthly income goals for each of my evergreen summits that will go up each month. My policy is to not reveal income numbers which is something I was taught to avoid at a young age.

I have a few plans for how to turn my past summits into passive revenue producers which include emails, FB ads, inviting new speakers, affiliates, and other approaches as well.

Addressing Some Of The Backend

While I hosted the summit in November and got a few other things accomplished, my biggest weakness in November was addressing some of the backend. More specifically, the post-sale stuff.

If you bought the All-Access Pass to the Wealthy Author Summit, you will get that video from me by the end of the year where I talk about the behind-the-scenes stuff.

I also have to address the mastermind and the people who won a copy of my book Podcast Domination.

Some of the reason I haven’t been able to address the backend is that I’m preparing for finals at my university. The semester will be over in about two weeks but until then I won’t have as much time to work on my business.

With that said, I can find time between now and the end of the semester to address the issues I mentioned. I’ve honestly been in a funk on the business side for the past few days that I am not proud of but will be out of it soon. I will have more flexibility in future semesters (3 left after this one) since I will take fewer classes than what I’m currently taking.

5 Year Goals

One of the exciting things I got to do before November ended was write down some 5-Year Goals for myself. What gets me excited about 5-Year Goals is that you can truly shoot for the stars.

And when you shoot for the stars with your 5-Year Goals, you force yourself to work backwards and set bigger challenges for yourself each year.

The big 5-Year Goal that I’m happy to share with you is to turn the Content Marketing Plaza into an Inc 5000 Company. There will be a fully dedicated launch for the Plaza some time in May, and I couldn’t be more excited.

5 Year Goals make you think bigger dreams, and I look at mine every day. I hope you take the time to set ambitious 5 Year Goals for yourself before you set your 2019 goals. That way, you can have your 2019 goals align with the big picture.

In Conclusion

I was very happy with how the Wealthy Author Summit went. After that, it was more difficult for me to maintain productivity as I’m closing in on final exams.

This will probably be the last time final exams have a significant impact on my productivity for the business since I’m taking fewer classes in future semesters and just one class in my final semester.

What are your thoughts on this performance report? Do you have any questions for me? Sound off in the comments section below.

September 2018 Monthly Performance Report

October 1, 2018 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

September was my first full month of school, so I’m back to juggling school work with growing the business. I feel more prepared for this semester than I’ve felt in the past, and I used this month to set myself up for a strong 2018 finish.

Here’s what happened this month…

My First Audiobook

I am happy to announce that I launched my first audiobook in September. A few people asked me if I could turn Content Marketing Secrets into an audiobook. And while this took me months to pull off, I finally have the audiobook up on Audible.

audiobook creation

The book came at literally just under 7 hours. I attribute it to fast narrating towards the end, but I am happy with the audiobook I put out for you.

I had a lot of fun producing the audiobook. Reading word for word what you see on your screen can be entertaining. However, it did get tedious at time as I completed the entire audiobook in one week.

With that said, I did get to include some exclusive content in the audiobook because I inserted some of my 2018 expertise in a book I originally released in 2017. Audio editing isn’t my strong suite, so I handed that baton to my incredible audio editor.

Audiobooks are going to keep growing year after year as more people listen to content as they travel, shop, drive, and do other things where reading in the traditional sense isn’t an option.

You can also expect an audiobook for Podcast Domination which comes out on October 16th.

Podcast Domination Timeline

I put the finishing touches on Podcast Domination this week. The hard work is over. Here’s what I still have to do:

Narrate the audiobook (I count this as editing since you get to see all of your mistakes when you narrate).
Format the finished book for KDP and CreateSpace
Tell my assistant to create the CreateSpace cover

I’m getting all of this done by October 5th. One reason for this deadline is that I need to submit the book’s contents to KDP before October 12th. If I don’t do that, then all of the readers who pre-ordered their copies will get a notification from Amazon saying their pre-orders were cancelled, and I won’t be able to offer another book for pre-order for the next 365 days.

That’s why I aim to get everything done earlier than I need to.

Podcast Domination is the first book I put up for pre-order. My normal approach would have been to create the sales page 1-2 nights before and then start promoting it. Podcast Domination has already gotten dozens of pre-order sales which wouldn’t have been possible with my previous strategy.

I plan on making all of my books available for pre-order in the future. The looming deadline and customers eagerly waiting for your book to release also boosts my motivation to spend more time working on the book.

With a virtual summit and bundle on the way, I don’t know what my next book will be on yet. However, I may announce the pre-order date for my next book by the end of the year.

Content, Content, Content

At my core, I am a content creator. I enjoy creating content and turn as much of my marketing into content creation as possible. For instance, when I create a Breakthrough Success episode, that’s marketing. I get to build relationships, learn new things, and provide my audience with content all at the same time.

I want to provide you with more content. That’s why I’m making a conscious effort to publish more blog posts, create more YouTube videos, and release the Breakthrough Business Mentor Podcast this month (I also mention that podcast in Podcast Domination, so I better release it soon 😉 )

My goal is to provide you with more value. Even with my school schedule, I’ll have more free time now that the baseball regular season has concluded. Yes, I will be watching the Red Sox throughout the postseason and into the World Series, but now the MLB Fantasy season is over (one of my few hobbies outside of the business and working out).

I know my two best seasons for productivity are the summer and winter. Summer because I have much more time available and winter because there’s no baseball for me to watch.

More FB Lives

I aim to do at least two Facebook Lives each week in the Official Breakthrough Success Group. The great thing about these FB Lives is that I announce them in advance and have a set time to create the content.

One observation I recently made in one of my interviews is that I’ve interviewed over 400 people for my podcast and summits, and yet I’ve probably done less than 100 videos during that same timeframe.

It’s easy to show up when you know someone’s waiting for you. When you’ve got your role models expecting you to show up, you find a way to show up.

That’s not the story with solo videos. To remedy the issue, I decided to conduct more FB Lives and tell everyone in the group about those live videos.

If you join the group now, you’ll be able to see some of those videos including two of the expert interviews I’ve published.

My 3 KPIs

KPI stands for Key Performance Indicator. These are the stats that I care about the most. Previously, I mentioned that I had five goals for the rest of the year.

That’s no longer the case. Now I only focus on three things:

Email list growth (Goal: 16K subscribers by the end of the year)
Breakthrough Success Group (Goal: 3K members by the end of the year)
Revenue: (Goal: private)

If a project doesn’t help me with any of those three goals, I won’t pursue it. I am narrowing my focus on these key indicators so I can focus on the things that will lead to the most results.

Ultimately, revenue is my most important KPI. Without revenue, you don’t have a business. With more revenue, you can spread your message, impact more people, and support more assistants on your payroll.

I also have a desire to become a real estate investor, but I’m not aggressively pursuing it yet. I’m in the learning and research stage, and that’s on the back burner in relation to the other goals I’m pursuing.

In Conclusion

I’m providing more value while narrowing my focus on the few areas that matter the most. That sentence sums up my September.

What were your thoughts on this Performance Report? Do you have any questions for me? Sound off in the comments section below.

The Best Content Creation Calendar Strategy…PERIOD

November 4, 2017 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

Consistent bloggers often decide between writing all of their content at once, shortly before their due dates, or writing several blog posts in advance.

The problem with writing all of your content just before their due dates is rushing or missing the mark. The problem with writing all of your content in advance is missing out on new trends.

I admit that for the first time in my blogging journey, these problems caused me to be inconsistent.

And not because I was slacking off – I was in the middle of organizing my first virtual summit. In fact, since I’m quite good at planning ahead, I had scheduled the summit’s launch one month before final exams (basically preparing for the summit while studying for my finals).

And now that I am back to blogging — and getting more contributors at the same time — my publishing schedule has become more complicated (when do I post? when do my contributors post?)

Mark Asquith to the rescue!

Mark was one of more than 50 speakers at my Content Marketing Success Summit. And he spoke about consistently creating epic content.

One of the questions I asked Mark was what he considers the best approach to creating a content calendar, addressing the two problems I mentioned above—cramming versus planning ahead.

His response blew my mind. In October of 2016, Mark had identified all of the blog posts he would write for 2017. And by the end of the year, he had written all of them.

Mark began 2017 with all 24 blog posts he’s publishing this year. He publishes one every other week.

But let’s say I pre-wrote all of my content for 2018, and then something significant happens in the industry: SnapChat comes out with another revolutionary feature. Facebook advertising comes out with even more targeting.

How can I write about these major updates if I have all of 2018’s content waiting in the queue? Here’s the answer…

If, like Mark, you schedule all of your new blog posts for every other week, you can simply write new blog posts in between.

For instance, if you’ve scheduled blog posts for October 1st and October 15th many months in advance, you can publish a new blog post about a recent trend on October 8th.

This way, you can incorporate new content while having the bulk of your content scheduled in advance. And if all of the blog posts you write in advance are evergreen, then it doesn’t matter whether you publish them in 2017 or 2027.

For example, a blog post about productivity will be relevant every year because productivity tips do not rely on trends.

So, why is this such a great strategy? Let’s capture the scope of its impact:

#1: You Can Write About Trends Without Content Calendar Conflicts

As mentioned before, you can publish trend related articles in between the content you schedule in advance. You don’t have to tinker around with rescheduling content; you schedule in advance intentionally leaving room for gaps.

#2: You Can Warm Up Your Audience To Launches

I promote several products in any given year. Yet my 2018 calendar remains fairly open apart from a February launch that I’m participating in. I can prepare for that launch now by writing relevant content.

But let’ say Chandler Bolt asks me to promote Self-Publishing School in April, and my pre-written blog posts have NOTHING to do with writing a book (or even writing content)?

I can still write relevant content ahead of time and insert it into my content creation calendar. In fact, writing about content creation, and how to become a successful author, will warm up my audience up to this promotion.

#3: You Can Enjoy More Freedom

I wrote this entire blog post off the cuff without an outline. Of course, I still sent it to my editor, but the post remains a case of “just cuz.”

Not only will you have your content scheduled far in advance, but you will also have the freedom to write and publish additional content anytime you feel like it. Win-win!

I believe too many people miss out on this part of blogging. They are so focused on planning and writing their next blog post that they don’t truly feel free when writing.

This feeling of freedom is based on the fact that you can write about a topic that interests you while not feeling pressured to schedule the post you’re working on.

It’s more of a choice and less of “I need to publish this piece of content so my blog gets new content.”

In Conclusion

Mark’s concept got me thinking about my 2018 publishing schedule …even though we were in May of 2017 when we pre-recorded the interview.

The ability to have all of my content scheduled in advance removes most of the stress associated with being a blogger. And it’s easier to write from the heart because I’ll have so much more time.

Another concept that came up during our interview was batching. This is something also used by John Lee Dumas (discussed in Episode 38 of the Breakthrough Success Podcast).

All Mark needed to do was write all of the blog posts he’d planned for 2017 from October 2016 to December 2016 (with the exception of additional content).

Similarly, John Lee Dumas chooses two days a month to interview the 28-31 guests he has on his podcast every month.

You can choose one week to write blog posts for two months. And if you follow Mark’s posting strategy, you only have to publish one blog post every other week (or two blog posts per month). Then you’re covered for two months!

You can take this concept even further and write 12 blog posts in one week — it’s very possible if you believe in yourself — and that would give you a total of six month’s worth of content!

You can fill in the gaps by writing content about trends, inviting contributors, or by not filling them at all. Only fill in the gaps when it’s relevant to do so.

What are your thoughts on Mark’s strategy? Have any advice on carrying this strategy even further? Sound off in the comments section below.

Case Study: How To Read 30 Books In 30 Days

September 19, 2017 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

After my first year of college, I decided to do something different over the summer—read a lot of books.

I used a portion of my Monthly Performance Reports to put my reading lists on full display. While I normally read 5-10 books in a given month, the summer days allowed that reading list to morph into 30 books every month.

I didn’t take time off from my business during this time. In fact, I dramatically increased the amount of books I read while preparing to lead a Content Marketing Success Summit, one of the biggest projects of my life up to that point.

In this blog post, I’ll share my story so you can reap the benefits of reading 30 books every month without feeling overwhelmed by work, your personal life, or anything else.

#1: Have The Books On Hand

Before I began my 30-book per month reading journey, I knew I needed to have all of the books readily accessible. So, to put it bluntly, I went on a bargain buying spree.

I knew that by the time I finished reading any given book it would be filled with notes and underlines, so I didn’t mind buying used books (as long as they didn’t have any underlining or highlighting included).

My adventure began on eBay where some people are desperate to part ways with their books. Because the bulk lots included anywhere from 10-20 books per order, I bought books at a rate from $1 to $4 per book depending on who was selling them.

And all of these books were LEGIT, not aged books that are no longer relevant. In fact, I published several books before social media taught me the marketing tactics that work today (often overlooked in the new age of digital marketing).

If you prefer to read books on a device, you’re all set. You can buy all of your books in a few clicks. I prefer reading paperback editions, which is why I decided to purchase books in bulk on eBay.

Buy in bulk

The only problem with book lots is that you don’t get to choose the books on offer; I have multiple copies of the same books because they were a part of a bulk order.

But eventually I learned about Thrift Books, which help you avoid that problem as well as enjoy a wider range of choices and ridiculous bargains.

You may think it’s not worth going through the trouble to find book bargains, but if you want to read 30 books per month, that’s 360 books every year.

In a worst case scenario, saving an average of $10 per book (very possible with book lots and Thrift Books) results in a savings of $3,600 every year!

Don’t Read Word-For-Word

Once you have assembled all of your books, it’s time to read them. But don’t read them in the traditional word-for-word style. Sure, you’ll absorb all of the material if you do, but it will take a longer period of time before you move onto the next book.

When I read books, I skim through them for the most pertinent information. If there’s a section that explains how to create a Twitter account, for example, I skip it because I already have a Twitter account. There’s no need to waste time reading things that you already know.

Similarly, when I buy a productivity book I skip through familiar tips like setting deadlines, 3-Year Plans, and how to set SMART goals. Unless the author shares these common tactics with a very different flavor, I skip to the next part of the book.

Skip Entire Chapters

Not only should you skip over things you already know, you should also get into the habit of skipping portions, or even chapters, of books containing information you don’t want to learn. For instance, I don’t want to learn much about Vine because Vine is a dead social network.

And yet, many of these books have entire chapters dedicated to Vine. Some books are dedicated entirely to the social network. Just remember that information that was once relevant may be outdated today.

You can also skip chapters outlining tasks you don’t want to perform. For instance, I’ll skip a chapter in a podcasting book about editing episodes because I already have a trustworthy freelancer who edits my podcast episodes.

Skipping that chapter allows me to move to the next chapter sooner and, ultimately, to a new book.

Write In Your Book

For a long time I resisted writing in my books, especially signed copies. While I rarely write in books, I often underline with a pencil.

Underlining important points in each of your books makes the re-reading process easier. After all, you have a plan to re-read the best books, right?

At the beginning of each month, I go through my favorite books from the previous month. I skim through what I underlined, and brainstorm ideas. I commit a few hours of one day to this task.

Underlining important text makes this process much faster as I can literally skip hundreds of pages of content. I only focus on what I’d underlined previously because my past self regarded only those points as important.

A Technicality On Book Length

One thing to remember when reading 30 books in 30 days is that book length matters. It’s much easier to read 30 books that average 200 pages than to read 30 books that average 600 pages.

When dozens of books are delivered to me in one day, I start by reading the shorter books first. It’s likely a good thing that I read Tools Of Titans before I began taking my reading goal seriously.

I like reading the shorter books first because finishing a shorter book gives me the dopamine rush to start reading (and finishing) another book.

Get a string of small wins, and it won’t be long before you can read the occasional 400-600 page book with ease.

It It’s Not Scheduled, It Won’t Happen

If you want reading to become a habit, you must schedule it into your day. I schedule at least one hour of reading time every day.

You should also choose one day a week to dedicate entirely to reading books, no professional work. I designate Fridays as my reading days. And even though I spend several hours reading books on Fridays, it doesn’t feel rigorous. Why? Because Fridays feel like a day off from work.

It’s important to find what works for you, but don’t forget that if it’s not scheduled, it won’t happen.

Turn Your TV And Surfing Time Into Reading Time

Professional work can take up hours of your day, but so can TV and internet surfing. You need to eliminate digital surfing from your life because you’re simply watching life happen instead of making life happen. Spectators watch, superstars perform.

The average American watches 32 hours of television every week. If we all switched from digital surfing to reading self-development books, the world would truly be a better place.

The next time you want to watch a marathon, the last episode of a series, or reruns, crack open a book instead. Repeat the process with other bad habits, and with greater intensity, and you’ll have no problem reading 30 books in 30 days.

In Conclusion

Reading 30 books every 30 days will dramatically expand your knowledge and open the door to a variety of possibilities. Reading all of these books requires a mindset shift and the elimination of bad habits. And, of course, the 30+ books you’ll need on hand before you get started.

What are your thoughts on reading 30 books every day? Have any good book recommendations for us? Please share how you plan to implement this habit into your own life. Sound off in the comments section below.