Timothy Ferriss's Blog, page 125

The Value of Self-Experimentation [Plus: Extreme Videos - Do Not Try This At Home]

Today (Saturday) is the last day that The 4-Hour Body has to beat Guinness on the New York Times' bestseller list. Although my book has done well on Amazon, Guinness OWNS retail, which is at least 60% of our total reported sales.

For three years, I went through hell and back for this book (100s of experiments like the above), so I'll kindly ask for your help one last time.

If you've been on the fence, I implore you to please take a look at the book and consider ordering. If you've been enjoying the book but haven't told any friends, I implore you to please share your enthusiasm or favorite tips with them in the next 12 hours, if you can. If you really liked it, please consider getting copies as a gift this Saturday.

That said, I really hope you enjoy the following excerpt from the appendices, which explores a common question: isn't self-experimentation valueless if it's just one person's experience?

As we shall see, self-experimentation need not be extreme (I do the extremes so you don't have to), and you can make significant discoveries with a sample size of one.

I'll let a professional explain how: Dr. Seth Roberts…

The Value of Self-Experimentation

"All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better." —Ralph Waldo Emerson

"It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter how smart you are. If it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong." —Richard Feynman

This is an excerpt from The 4-Hour Body, written by Dr. Seth Roberts, professor emeritus of psychology at the University of California–Berkeley and professor of psychology at Tsinghua University. His work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine and The Scientist, and he is on the editorial board of the journal Nutrition.

###

I started self-experimentation when I was a grad student. I was studying experimental psychology; self-experimentation was a way to learn how to do experiments.

One of my first self-experiments was about acne. My dermatologist had prescribed tetracycline, an antibiotic. Just for practice, I did an experiment to measure its effect. I varied the dosage of tetracycline—the number of pills per day—and counted the number of pimples on my face each morning. First I compared six pills per day (a high dose) and four pills per day (the prescribed dose). Somewhat to my surprise, they produced the same number of pimples. I tried other dosages. Eventually I tried zero pills per day. To my shock, zero pills per day produced the same number of pimples as four or six pills per day. The conclusion was unavoidable: the drug had no effect. (Many years later, research articles about antibiotic-resistant acne began to appear.) Tetracycline is a prescription drug; it's not completely safe. I'd been taking it for months.

My dermatologist had also prescribed benzoyl peroxide, which comes in a cream. When my self-experimentation started, I believed that tetracycline was powerful and benzoyl peroxide weak, so I rarely used the cream. One day I ran low on tetracycline. Better use the cream, I thought. For the first time, I used the cream regularly. Again I was shocked: it worked well. Two days after I started using it, the number of pimples clearly went down. When I stopped the cream, two days later the number of pimples rose. When I restarted the cream, the number of pimples went down again.

My data left no doubt that (a) tetracycline didn't work and (b) benzoyl peroxide did work—the opposite of my original beliefs. My dermatologist thought both worked. He'd seen hundreds of acne patients and had probably read hundreds of articles about acne. Yet in a few months I'd learned something important he didn't know.

This wasn't the usual line about self-experimentation. Read any book about it, such as Lawrence Altman's Who Goes First? The Story of Self-Experimentation in Medicine, and you will come away thinking that self-experimentation is done by selfless doctors to test new and dangerous treatments. My experience was different. I wasn't a doctor. I wasn't trying to help someone else. I didn't test a dangerous new treatment. Unlike the better-known sort of self-experimentation, which usually confirms what the experimenter believes, my self-experiments had shown I was wrong.

From my acne research I learned that self-experimentation can be used by non-experts to (a) see if the experts are right and (b) learn something they don't know. I hadn't realized such things were possible. The next problem I tried to solve this way was early awakening. For years, starting in my twenties, I woke up early in the morning, such as 4 a.m., still tired but unable to go back to sleep. Only a few dreary hours later would I be able to fall back asleep. This happened about half of all mornings. It showed no sign of going away. I didn't want to take a pill for the rest of my life—not that there are any good pills for this—so I didn't bother seeing a doctor. The only hope for a good solution, as far as I could tell, was self-experimentation.

So I did two things:

I recorded a few details about my sleep. The main one was whether I fell back asleep after getting up. How often this happened was my measure of the severity of the problem. In the beginning, I couldn't fall back asleep about half of all mornings.
I tested possible solutions.

The first thing I tried was aerobic exercise. It didn't help. Early awakening was just as common after a day with exercise as after a day without exercise. I tried eating cheese in the evening. It didn't help. I tried several more possible remedies.

None helped. After several years, I ran out of things to try. All my ideas about what might help had proved wrong.

Yet I managed to make progress. For unrelated reasons, I changed my breakfast from oatmeal to fruit. A few days later, I started waking up too early every morning instead of half the time. The problem was now much worse. This had never happened before. I recorded the breakfast change on the same piece of paper I used to keep track of my sleep, so the correlation was easy to see. To make sure the correlation reflected causality, I went back and forth between fruit and oatmeal. The results showed it was cause and effect. Fruit for breakfast caused more early awakening than oatmeal for breakfast. After ten years when nothing I'd done had made a difference, this was a big step forward. I eventually figured out that any breakfast made early awakening more likely. A long experiment confirmed this. The best breakfast was no breakfast.

I was less surprised than you might think. I knew that in a wide range of animals, including rats, a laboratory result called anticipatory activity is well established. If you feed a rat every day at the same time, it will become active about three hours earlier. If you feed it at noon, it will become active about 9 a.m. I had been eating breakfast at about 7 a.m. and waking up about 4 a.m. I had essentially found that humans were like other animals in this regard.

Not eating breakfast reduced early awakening but didn't eliminate it. In the following years, self-experimentation taught me more about what caused it. By accident, I found that standing helped. If I stood more than eight hours in a day, I slept better that night. That wasn't practical—after trying to stand that much for several years, I gave up—but the realization helped me make another accidental discovery 10 years later: standing on one leg to exhaustion helps. If I do this four times (left leg twice, right leg twice) during a day, even in the morning, I sleep much better that night. More recently, I've found that animal fat makes me sleep better.

Both effects are dose-dependent. I can get great sleep if I stand enough and great sleep if I eat enough animal fat.

How much animal fat is "enough"? I've just started trying to figure this out using pig fat, which I consume in a cut called pork belly (the part of the pig used for bacon). I found that 150 grams of pork belly had a little effect; 250 grams of pork belly had a much clearer effect. The effect seems to get larger with more pork belly (e.g., 350 grams). Because pork belly may be more than 90% fat by calories (there is great variation from one piece to the next), it's a lot of calories of fat to get the maximum possible effect. I need to burn a lot of calories per day to make that many calories easy to eat, but it's in some respects more convenient than standing on one foot.

Acne and sleep were my first self-experimental topics. Later I studied mood, weight control, and the effects of omega-3 on brain function. I learned that self-experimentation has three uses:

To test ideas. I tested the idea that tetracycline helps acne. I tested ideas about how to sleep better. And I've tested ideas derived from surprises. A few years ago, while trying to put on my shoes standing up, I realized my balance was much better than usual. I'd been putting on my shoes standing up for more than a year; that morning it was much easier than usual. The previous evening I'd swallowed six flaxseed-oil capsules. I did self-experiments to test the idea that flaxseed oil improves balance. (It did.)
To generate new ideas. By its nature, self-experimentation involves making sharp changes in your life: you don't do X for several weeks, then you do X for several weeks. This, plus the fact that we monitor ourselves in a hundred ways, makes it easy for self-experimentation to reveal unexpected side effects. This has happened to me five times. Moreover, daily measurements—of acne, sleep, or anything else—supply a baseline that makes it even easier to see unexpected changes.
To develop ideas. That is, to determine the best way to use a discovery and to learn about the underlying mechanism. After I found that flaxseed oil improved balance, I used self-experimentation to figure out the best dose (three to four tablespoons per day).

One complaint about self-experimentation is that you're not "blind." Maybe the treatment works because you expect it to work. A placebo effect. I have never seen a case where this appeared to have happened. When treatment 10 helps after treatments 1 through 9 have failed to help (my usual experience), it's unlikely to be a placebo effect. Accidental discoveries cannot be placebo effects.

My experience has shown that improve-your-life self-experimentation is remarkably powerful. I wasn't an expert in anything I studied—I'm not a sleep expert, for example—but I repeatedly found useful cause-and-effect relationships (breakfast causes early awakening, flaxseed oil improves balance, etc.) that the experts had missed. This isn't supposed to happen, of course, but it made a lot of sense. My self-experimentation had three big advantages over conventional research done by experts:

More power. Self-experiments are far better at determining causality (does X cause Y?) than conventional experiments. Obviously they're much faster and cheaper. If I have an idea about how to sleep better, I can test it on myself in a few weeks for free. Conventional sleep experiments take a year or more (getting funding takes time) and cost thousands of dollars. A less obvious advantage of self-experimentation is that more wisdom is acquired. We learn from our mistakes. Fast self-experimentation means you make more mistakes. One lesson I learned stands out: Always do the minimum—the simplest, easiest experiment that will make progress. Few professional scientists seem to know this. Finally, as I mentioned earlier, self-experimentation is much more sensitive to unexpected side effects.
Stone Age–like treatments are easy to test. I repeatedly found that simple environmental changes, such as avoiding breakfast and standing more, had big and surprising benefits. In each case, the change I'd made resembled a return to Stone Age life, when no one ate breakfast and everyone stood a lot. There are plenty of reasons to think that many common health problems, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and cancer, are caused by differences between modern life and Stone Age life. Modern life and Stone Age life differ in many ways, of course; the fraction of differences that influence our health is probably low. If so, to find aspects of Stone Age life that matter, you have to do many tests. Self-experiments, fast and cheap, can do this; conventional experiments, slow and expensive, cannot. In addition, conventional research is slanted toward treatments that can make money for someone. Because conventional research is expensive, funding is needed. Drug companies will fund research about drugs, so lots of conventional research involves drugs. Elements of Stone Age life (such as no breakfast) are cheap and widely available. No company will fund research about their effectiveness.
Better motivation. I studied my sleep for 10 years before making clear progress. That sort of persistence never happens in conventional health research. The reason is a difference in motivation. Part of the difference is how much the researcher cares about finding solutions. When you study your own problem (e.g., acne), you care more about finding a solution than others are likely to care. Acne researchers rarely have acne. And part of the motivation difference is the importance of goals other than solving the problem. When I studied my sleep, my only goal was to sleep better. Professional scientists have other goals, which are enormously constraining.

One set of prison bars involves employment and research funding. To keep their jobs (e.g., get tenure, get promoted, get jobs for their students, and get grants), professional scientists must publish several research papers per year. Research that can't provide this is undoable. Another set of prison bars involves status. Professional scientists derive most of their status from their job. When they have a choice, they try to enhance or protect their status. Some sorts of research have more status than others. Large grants have more status than small grants, so professional scientists prefer expensive research to cheap research. High-tech has more status than low-tech, so they prefer high-tech. As Thorstein Veblen emphasized in The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), useless research has higher status than useful research. Doing useless work, Veblen said, shows that you are higher-status than those who must do useful work. So researchers prefer useless research, thus the term "ivory tower." Fear of loss of job, grant, or status also makes it hard for professional scientists to propose radical new ideas. Self-experimenters, trying to solve their own problem on their own time, are not trapped like this.

Acne illustrates the problem. The dermatological party line is that diet doesn't cause acne. According to a website of the American Academy of Dermatology, "extensive scientific studies" show it's a "myth" that "acne is caused by diet." According to "guidelines for care" for dermatologists published in 2007, "dietary restriction (either specific foods or food classes) has not been demonstrated to be of benefit in the treatment of acne." In fact, there is overwhelming evidence linking diet and acne. Starting in the 1970s, a Connecticut doctor named William Danby collected evidence connecting dairy consumption and acne; it is telling that Danby wasn't a professional scientist. When his patients gave up dairy, it often helped. In 2002, six scientists (none a dermatologist) published a paper with the Weston Price–like conclusion that two isolated groups of people (Kitava Islanders and Ache hunter-gatherers) had no acne at all. They had examined more than 1,000 subjects over the age of 10 and found no acne. When people in these groups left their communities and ate differently, they did get acne. These observations suggest that a lot of acne—maybe all of it—can be cured and prevented by diet.

Why is the official line so wrong? Because the painstaking research needed to show the many ways diet causes acne is the sort of research that professional researchers can't do and don't want to do. They can't do it because the research would be hard to fund (no one makes money when patients avoid dairy) and because the trial and error required would take too long per publication. They don't want to do it because it would be low-tech, low-cost, and very useful—and therefore low-status. While research doctors in other specialties study high-tech expensive treatments, they would be doing low-cost studies of what happens when you avoid certain foods. Humiliating. Colleagues in other specialties might make fun of them. To justify their avoidance of embarrassment, the whole profession tells the rest of us, based on "extensive scientific studies," that black is white. Self-experimentation allows acne sufferers to ignore the strange claims of dermatologists, not to mention their dangerous drugs (such as Accutane). Persons with acne can simply change their diets until they figure out what foods cause the problem.

Gregor Mendel was a monk. He was under no pressure to publish; he could say whatever he wanted about horticulture without fear for his job. Charles Darwin was wealthy. He had no job to lose. He could write On the Origin of Species very slowly. Alfred Wegener, who proposed continental drift, was a meteorologist. Geology was a hobby of his. Because they had total freedom and plenty of time, and professional biologists and geologists did not (just as now), Mendel, Darwin, and Wegener were able to use the accumulated knowledge of their time better than the professionals. The accumulated knowledge of our time is more accessible than ever before. Self-experimenters, with total freedom, plenty of time, and easy access to empirical tests, are in a great position to take advantage of it.

The above is an excerpt from the new book The 4-Hour Body

###

Tools and Tricks

Seth Roberts, "Self-Experimentation as a Source of New Ideas: Ten Examples Involving Sleep, Mood, Health, and Weight," Behavioral and Brain Science 27 (2004): 227–88 (www.fourhourbody.com/new-ideas) This 61-page document about self-experimentation provides an overview of some of Seth's findings, including actionable sleep examples.

The Quantified Self (www.quantifiedself.com) Curated by Wired cofounding editor Kevin Kelly and Gary Wolf, a managing editor of Wired, this is the perfect home for all self-experimenters. The resources section alone is worth a trip to this site, which provides the most comprehensive list of data-tracking tools and services on the web (www.fourhourbody.com/quantified).

Alexandra Carmichael, "How to Run a Successful Self-Experiment" (www.fourhourbody.com/self-experiment) Most people have never systematically done a self-experiment. And yet, it's one of the easiest methods for discovering what variables are affecting your well-being. This article shows you the five principles that will help you get started in running successful self-experiments. Bonus: an 11-minute video from Seth Roberts, discussing experiment design.

CureTogether (www.curetogether.com) CureTogether, which won the Mayo Clinic iSpot Competition for Ideas That Will Transform Healthcare (2009), helps people anonymously track and compare health data to better understand their bodies and make more informed treatment decisions. Think you're alone with a condition? Chances are you'll find dozens of others with the same problem on CureTogether.

Daytum (www.daytum.com) Conceived by Ryan Case and Nicholas Felton, Daytum is an elegant and intuitive service for examining and visualizing your everyday habits and routines.

Data Logger (http://apps.pachube.com/datalogger) Data Logger for iPhone enables you to store and graph any data of your choosing along with a time-stamp and location. It can be used for anything, whether food-related, animal sightings, or temperature sensor readings around your neighborhood. If you can think of it, it can be recorded and tracked.

Resources

[How Seth Roberts' self-experimentation began]. Roberts, Seth.  Surprises from self-experimentation: Sleep, mood, and weight. Chance.  2001; 4(2):7-18. UC Berkeley: Available from: http://escholarship.org/uc/item/5bv8c7p3
[The first of many papers to show antibiotic-resistant acne was a significant problem]. Eady EA, Cove JH, Blake J, Holland KT, Cunliffe WJ. Recalcitrant acne vulgaris. Clinical, biochemical and microbiological investigation of patients not responding to antibiotic treatment.  Br J Dermatol. 1988; 118:415-23.
Roberts, Seth. Self-experimentation as a source of new ideas: Ten examples about sleep, mood, health, and weight. Behavioral and Brain Sciences.  2004; 27(2), 227-288. UC Berkeley: Available from http://repositories.cdlib.org/postprints/117/
Boulos Z, Rosenwasser AM, Terman M. Feeding schedules and the circadian organization of behavior in the rat. Behav Brain Res. 1980; 1:39–65.
Seth Roberts' blog: http://blog.sethroberts.net.
Acne myths: http://www.skincarephysicians.com/acnenet/myths.html on 2009-09-13.
Guidelines of care: http://www.aad.org/research/_doc/ClinicalResearch_Acne%20Vulgaris.pdf on 2009-09-17.
Danby: http://www.boston.com/news/health/articles/2007/12/16/a_clear_connection?mode=PF on 2009-09-17.
No acne among two isolated groups: Cordain L, Lindeberg S, Hurtado M, Hill K, Eaton SB, Brand-Miller J. Acne vulgaris: a disease of Western civilization. Arch Dermatol. 2002; 138:1584-90.
Dangers of Accutane: http://www.accutane-side-effects.net/ on 2009-09-13.
Wegener: http://www.pangaea.org/wegener.htm on 2009-09-17.

The 4-Hour Body is NOW OUT – Live Q&A Today, New Trailer, Free Books, and Much More

Trailer concepted and produced by the amazing Epipheo Studios for Traileo.tv

Today is the day.

After three years of work, The 4-Hour Body is available everywhere!

I work very hard on my books. My first and previous book, The 4-Hour Workweek, has an 5-star average on Amazon with more than 1,000 reviews, and it has been a Top-10 Amazon Customer Favorite:

Compared to that book, I spent 3 TIMES longer on the new book — The 4-Hour Body — to ensure it worked with men and women, with young and old.

It is the definitive choose-your-own-adventure guide to the human body, ranging from fat-loss and muscular gain to sex and sleep. Everything is tested and it all works.

I have now negotiated the price down to a mere $14.50.

Why? Because I'm proud of this book and want it to be #1 on The New York Times bestseller list. That said, I have a very tough opponent. The Guinness Book of World Records is #1 for this week every year. Last I looked, Guinness was barely ahead of me:

With your help, I can beat them.

In this post, and for the next 48 hours, I will:

- Offer complementary "thank you" gifts to anyone who has, or will, buy a copy of The 4-Hour Body.

- Offer $260 of kick-ass goods to anyone who buys 3 copies (costs less than $45).

- Offer a free $16,000 trip to the person who promotes The 4-Hour Body best this week.

- Do a two-hour live Q&A about the book today (Tues), starting at 2:30pm EST on Facebook (www.facebook.com/timferriss).

In addition to getting new readers, I also want to reward people who pre-ordered long ago, and help readers who missed past prizes due to tech glitches. So, here we go, one at a time…

One Book

If you buy, or have bought, The 4-Hour Body in any format:

For the next 48 hours only, you can get a FREE digital PDF copy of The 4-Hour Workweek (usually $20) and a free copy of "The Slow-Carb Diet: Volume 1″ (not available anywhere else), both hosted by E-Junkie.

STEP ONE:

If you haven't already, buy The 4-Hour Body for about $14.50 on Amazon, Barnes and Noble (1,000 signed copies at this page! See "Overview" "Product Details"), or through any other retailer. If you buy it in a book store, keep the receipt. Only hardcover counts for the bestseller lists, so it's easily the most helpful for me (please!), but you can buy any format: Audiobook (abridged), Kindle, Nook, etc..

STEP TWO – LAST STEP:

Fill out this short form. You'll get the PDFs within 72 hours.

Three Books (First 1,000 people get it; US shipping addresses for the books, please)

If you want to buy 3 copies, you can get $260 of bonuses for less than $45 of books:

- 1 bottle of Super Cissus RX ($45), one of my staple supplements.

- 3-month Daily Burn Pro membership ($30)

- 1-year of 'Performance Menu Journal' Magazine ($30)

- 3 months Evernote Premium (first 500 only!) ($15)

- "Find Your First Profitable Idea" with Ramit Sethi ($100 for full course)

- Digital copy of "The 4-Hour Workweek" ($20)

- The Slow-Carb Cookbook ($20)

STEP ONE:

Buy three copies on Amazon or elsewhere.

STEP TWO – LAST STEP:

Fill out this short form. Done.

Promote your heart out, live like a rockstar

If you want to go for the gold, get amped and promote The 4-Hour Body this week (deadline is 12 midnight PST, Friday) and tell me what you did in the comments. Measure your impact (clicks, sales, etc.) whenever possible.

If you are the best promoter, judged by me and a panel of friends, you get to pick one trip of a lifetime… for free. I will almost definitely be in attendance:

8-Day Argentina Snow Adventure in Patagonia

10-Day Private Tour of India, including Miss India

How to promote? That's up to you. E-mail your friends, share links (like www.fourhourbody.com) on Facebook, join relevant LinkedIn groups, give a copy to a popular radio station as a giveaway… it's entirely up to you!

Here are the descriptions:

8-Day Argentina Snow Adventure in Patagonia

Eight-day guided ski-snowboard adventure in mystical Patagonia, Argentina. Your guides introduce you to the best skiing, local culture, outstanding meals and red wines. Visit charming villages, situated on glacier cut lakes and national parks.

Also includes roundtrip economy airfare from and back to the U.S. I'm almost 100% that I'll be there, as I LOVE Argentina, especially Patagonia. Provided by Powderquest — check 'em out. Yoga in between runs, if you like? Malbec or hot chocolate? Yes, please.

Date: TBD based on your availability.

(Photo: DJ DeepS)

10-Day Private Tour of India, including Miss India

10-day "SamaSundarbans" trip to West Bengal with Tim Ferriss and his friends, where you will meet some of Samasource's Service Partners and experience the beauty of India. After two days visiting Samasource's Service Partners in Kolkata, enjoy a five-day tour across the Sundarbans.

Bengali for "beautiful forests," the Sundarbans are an "alluvial archipelago" of 102 islands settled between the Ganga and Brahmaputra rivers and accessible only by boat. Take a river cruise and observe the region's diverse wildlife including saltwater crocodiles, bullsharks, and the Royal Bengal Tiger. After enjoying your eco-friendly expedition and luxury lodging in the Sundarbans, journey back to Kolkata and let our field associates and former Miss India Sandhya Chib give you an authentic taste of India! Long known as the cultural capital of India, Kolkata is the main business, commercial, and financial hub of eastern India and burgeoning urban metropolis. After exploring the city's historical and popular landmarks, enjoy a special South Asian dinner in your honor, hosted by Miss India and special guests.

Includes: Economy airfare to and from India. Accommodations and internal transportation for entire trip in West Bengal, meals during Sundarbans tour, dinner with Miss India, Tim Ferriss, and special guests.

Date: TBD based on your availability.

###

Which adventure will you choose in this choose-your-own-adventure post?

No matter what, there's one starting point: The 4-Hour Body.

Start a domino effect that will make 2011 your best year yet.

Enjoy!

Engineering a "Muse" – Volume 2: Case Studies of Successful Cash-Flow Businesses

The "LapDawg" earns $10,000-$25,000 per month for Tonny Shin.

In the last four years, I've received hundreds of successful case studies via e-mail, and more than 1,000 new businesses were created during a recent Shopify competition, but I've presented only a handful of a case studies.

In this post, I'll showcase three successful muses inspired by The 4-Hour Workweek, including lessons learned, what worked, and what didn't. Income ranges from $1,500 – $25,000 per month…

"LapDawg" by Tonny Shin

Describe your muse in 1-3 sentences.

Portable laptop table(s).

What is the website for your muse?

http://lapdawg.com

How much revenue is your muse currently generating per month (on average)?

$10,000 – $25,000 per month

To get to this monthly revenue number, how long did it take after the idea struck?

6 months.

How did you decide on this muse?

I got injured one day, severely twisting my ankle while playing tennis. The doctor said to stay in bed with minimal movement. Well, there is not much to do in bed lying around all day, and I needed my laptop. But it was super uncomfortable to use! Your groin area heats up a lot when it's on your lap, which is no good for a male.  I tried propping it up on a pillow but the laptop would overheat.  I also got sore in a hurry when I was on my stomach.  I needed something to hold my laptop that was portable, ergonomically comfortable, and easy to adjust to any position I wanted.

What ideas did you consider but reject, and why?

Starting an internet marketing and consulting business. There were just too many negatives. It turned out to be: (1) Un-scalable, since there is only one of me; (2) Time-consuming, not only in the technical/maintenance side, but also educating the client; (3) Cost heavy. You need to find good web designers and skilled programmers, and pay them a good hourly rate; (4) Research heavy. You need to keep up with this stuff all the time; (5) On call. You have to be around if you want to bring in sales and keep your clients happy, no matter what situation comes up.

My most important goal for me planning my own business was all about "ROE," or Return On Effort, and NOT just "ROI."  The ROE for consulting would have been way too low, while LapDawg happens to be very high!

What were some of the main tipping points (if any) or "A-ha!" moments? How did they come about?

The main "A-ha" was realizing that starting with the right complementary partners was key to long-term success!  Fortunately, my job at the time gave me access to talented web designers and programmers. Selling them on the idea, getting the right agreements in place, and then splitting the work involved took time to develop.  But in the end, you have to trust that people will do what they are best at.

To this degree, it substantially cut our initial costs as I partnered up with a web designer, and business analyst/programmer who, by profession, allowed maximum efficiency in getting things done right!

What resources or tools did you find most helpful when you were getting started?

Since my partners lived far away from each other in our city, it was hard to get together face-to-face on a regular basis. We decided that a private online collaboration tool would help us communicate better getting the project up and running.  So we signed up for Central Desktop.  At the time, they allowed one project to be free. Anymore and you had to pay. We definitely maxed out that one free project!

We had good private discussions and everything was documented. It turned out to be valuable in that I can now look back and see what I did wrong or right.

What were your biggest mistakes, or biggest wastes of time/money?

Getting the pricing of our product right. Our initial price included shipping. It turned out that, due to the dramatic variations in shipping costs, we were not making any money and actually lost some in our first month.

Raising the price, splitting shipping separately, and changing the value proposition on our website helped significantly.

What have been your key marketing and/or manufacturing lessons learned?

Very important: For Chinese manufacturers, make sure they are the original manufacturer. A lot of Chinese companies will claim they are manufacturers but are in fact middlemen. They will take your requests and modifications, then outsource them to the lowest priced manufacturer who may not produce the best quality, but will give them the best deal. They will go to great lengths to produce authentic proof that they are the original manufacturer, and you have no way of knowing unless you physically visit them.

Hire a consultant who will check them out in person and report their findings back to you.

If you used a manufacturer, how did you find them? What are your suggestions for first-timers?

Make travel plans to visit Canton Fair. Not only is it one of the largest in the world, it's also a real eye-opener on what brand names companies use to produce their stuff. Each booth will have brochures and catalogs on what they manufacturer, which are free to pick up in exchange for your business card. Make sure to bring LOTS of business cards!

Any key PR wins? Media, well-known users, or company partnerships, etc.? How did they happen?

We were mentioned in Kevin Kelly's newsletter (contacted him).

Placement in "The Shop" in Rolling Stone Magazine for 2 months. (Paid advertisement)

Hands-on reviews from The Gadgeteer, Virtual Hideout, About.com's Mobile Office, and Digital Trends (all contacted via email).

Where did you register your domain (URL)?

http://moniker.com

Where did you decide to host your domain?

http://softlayer.com

If you used a web designer, where did you find them?

I partnered with one.

If you were to do it all over again, what would you do differently?

Make sure that you have your business basics down first. Proper business bank account(s), incorporate earlier, record expenses properly, keep receipts, and get your accounting straight. It's very hard to switch things over later, so invest some time at the outset and get it right.

Although obvious in practice, it's hard to do as it is detail-oriented work and requires patience. It takes away from the "real" work that needs to be done but come tax time, you will absolutely regret that you did not do this from the start. It becomes much more error prone and harder to do everything at the end of the corporate year.

What's next?!

Develop more products, improve our current products, create more product videos, try affiliate marketing, and experiment more with social media.  There is a whole world of exposure methods online.  You have to dig in and try them all!

"Butterfly Repellent" by Timothy Spencer

Describe your muse in 1-3 sentences.

Natural Defense against social anxiety and stage fright. Safe alternative to beta blockers (when used for stage fright).

What is the website for your muse?

http://butterflyrepellent.com

How much revenue is your muse currently generating per month (on average)?

$1,000 – $2,500 per month

To get to this monthly revenue number, how long did it take after the idea struck?

1 year (2 months on market)

How did you decide on this muse?

After watching the documentary "Bigger, Stronger, Faster," I learned about a growing problem of musicians and actors abusing prescription beta blockers to mediate the effects of stage fright. I looked to see if there was a natural alternative on the market, and there wasn't.

What ideas did you consider but reject, and why?

I was originally working on a relaxation drink (think anti-Red Bull). I had contacted manufacturers and was just about to order product when I learned about the growing problem of beta-blocker abuse. I saw a niche and my business made a major pivot.

What were some of the main tipping points (if any) or "A-ha!" moments? How did they come about?

1. I play volleyball for my university and tested the initial batches on my team. Positive feedback from the team was very encouraging.

2. I was so excited after having my first logo designed (outsourced on eLance). I made the logo my wallpaper on my computer and iPhone, and showed it to everyone. I don't actually use it anymore, but it gave real life to the product and motivated me to keep pushing forward.

3. Getting my first few sales online was easily one of the most motivating experiences I've had.

What resources or tools did you find most helpful when you were getting started?

The podcast "Automate My Small Business" is GREAT. Youtube tutorials for learning WordPress and Photoshop. ODesk.com for outsourcing and managing VA's.

What were your biggest mistakes, or biggest wastes of time/money?

Waiting until things were "perfect" before going ahead with them. Market presence was held off for months because we kept fine-tuning the website. I eventually realized that things will never be perfect, and most hang ups are self-imposed.

What have been your key marketing and/or manufacturing lessons learned?

Prompt, positive, and courteous customer service is invaluable. I've had great success with providing personalized coupon codes for whoever emails with a question.  For instance, if I receive an email with questions from Amber, I tell her in the response that she can enter the coupon code "amberisawesome" for 10 dollars off. A little more work but well worth it.

If you used a manufacturer, how did you find them? What are your suggestions for first-timers?

I used thomas.net to contact dozens of manufacturers around the country. I found one that was local and we were able to meet face-to-face. He loved the business idea and liked me a lot. My starting budget was very small and I was able to talk him into developing and manufacturing the smallest order he had ever done. He was happy to do so, which would have never happened without a face-to-face meeting.

Any key PR wins? Media, well-known users, or company partnerships, etc.? How did they happen?

I have tried reaching out to local newspapers, attempting to spin an interesting story for them (e.g. "Local student-athlete finds creative way to pay tuition"). No takers yet, but the effort continues.

Where did you register your domain (URL)?

http://godaddy.com

Where did you decide to host your domain?

http://godaddy.com

If you were to do it all over again, what would you do differently?

Move things forward quicker. I think I could be 6 months ahead of where I am now if I had made bolder decisions and taken action instead of waiting for everything to fall into place.

What's next?!

The next big goal is to try and land product on retail shelves.

The company is very young and I see a bright future. November was the first $1,000+ month and with a continued effort in Adwords and SEO, these numbers will only go up.

"ClockSpot" by Jason Ho

Describe your muse in 1-3 sentences.

Clockspot is a web-based employee time tracking tool, designed for business owners. Employees clock in from any phone or computer. Managers can then check timesheets online instantly.

What is the website for your muse?

http://www.clockspot.com

How much revenue is your muse currently generating per month (on average)?

More than $25,000 per month

To get to this monthly revenue number, how long did it take after the idea struck?

12 months.

How did you decide on this muse?

I originally came up with Clockspot because my parents needed a way to track time for different employees at different offices. Being a techie, I insisted that they hold off on buying physical time clocks, and instead wait for me to make them a simple web-based time clock. Within 3 days, I had a rough but usable prototype.

What ideas did you consider but reject, and why?

Out of college, I started a social Question & Answer website called Qaboom.com (pronounced "Kaboom!"). It didn't work out for a number of reasons: partner conflicts, difficulties gaining traction, a failed partnership, etc. I learned a whole lot, but had to cut my losses and move on.

I dabbled in a couple of startup projects/ideas after that, then eventually came up with Clockspot.  I've been running it ever since.

What were some of the main tipping points (if any) or "A-ha!" moments? How did they come about?

"The 4-Hour Workweek" really struck a chord with me because my company was growing quickly, and there was this forever-growing list of things that needed to get done. I was working 80+ hour weeks, at the expense of everything else around me: my relationships, my social life, my body… Being a perfectionist, I was very reluctant to delegate tasks to anyone but myself.

After reading the book, particularly the lesson about "The Art of Letting Bad Things Happen," I decided to outsource support. The obvious benefit was that I no longer had to answer emails and phone calls myself. The most surprising benefit, however, was that it actually increased my focus and productivity by an order of magnitude, which was so much more valuable than the actual hours outsourcing saved me (~20-30 hours/week).

Because I didn't have to directly deal with customers, I could actually think clearer and make better decisions about the overall direction of the product. Anyone who's had a startup can probably relate to this: it's really hard to say "no" to a customer when you don't have that many of them. Because I wanted to please every customer and acquire every prospect that came in, I had this never-ending list of features to implement. I ended up scrapping this enormous list, and decided to only concentrate on the top 5 items.

Outsourcing support was the stimulus to my four hour work week. I delegated all tasks that weren't core to my business, moved to Taiwan, then spent the next two years traveling Asia and South America, working only 4 hours/month while my company continued to grow. "A-ha!" is an understatement!

What resources or tools did you find most helpful when you were getting started?

I read a lot of books. About one every two weeks. I had no business experience or real mentors, so I had a lot to learn a lot on my own.

The most influential books I read were:

1) The 4-Hour Workweek (Tim Ferriss)

2) Crossing the Chasm (Geoffrey A. Moore)

3) The World is Flat (Thomas Friedman)

I have since moved to Silicon Valley, so my best resources now are other talented entrepreneurs.

What were your biggest mistakes, or biggest wastes of time/money?

I experimented with many different types of advertising: newspaper, magazine, buying leads, and even hiring a company to cold call. They were all a huge waste of money, but I wouldn't consider any of them to be mistakes… unless I did them all over again!

My biggest mistake was trying to save money on hosting. When I first started, I went with a budget host, and never bothered to switch until my server crashed one day. After being on hold for hours with the hosting company and being transferred a thousand times, they finally fixed the issue 8 hours later. I lost 15% of my customer base that week.

Clockspot is now hosted on Rackspace, which we pay an arm and a leg for, but now our service is 100% solid. High-end servers, hardware redundancy, load balancing, dedicated firewall, daily security scans, etc. We've never had a downtime ever since switching to Rackspace.

What have been your key marketing and/or manufacturing lessons learned?

Track everything. A/B test everything. I am consistently surprised at how wrong my assumptions are.

A good example is to always track the performance of your keywords from start to finish. I used to pay for the keyword "time clock" because it brought a lot of traffic, and a decent amount of sign ups. However, it wasn't until I started tracking actual account activations (when a sign up becomes a paying customer) that I realized "time clock" wasn't converting at all, compared to the lower traffic key phrase "online time clock," which was converting many times more than "time clock".

If you track enough data, you'll eventually be able to quantify each action a visitor takes into a dollar amount. For example, I know customers that searched "online time clock" and signed up for our newsletter will have a X% chance of signing up, which converts Y% of the time, which translates to $Z/month in earnings.

Now if Clockspot's monthly growth ever fluctuates, I know exactly which levers caused it.

Where did you register your domain (URL)?

http://www.godaddy.com

Where did you decide to host your domain?

http://www.rackspace.com

If you used a web designer, where did you find them?

I am both the designer and developer.

If you were to do it all over again, what would you do differently?

Drop out of college to start Clockspot sooner! Just kidding, if mom and dad are reading…

Honestly nothing. I have a tendency to not listen to good advice, which causes me to try and fail, then start preaching that same advice. But as a result, I never really regret anything that I do.

What's next?!

During my two years of travel, my main accomplishments were:

1) Climbing Mount Everest to Basecamp (where the oxygen is 50% that of sea level).

2) Biked the circumference of Taiwan (~1000 km).

3) Volunteered in the relief effort for Haiti.

I ended up moving to Silicon Valley and plan to start other businesses, as well as get involved in more humanitarian work.

Life plan = loop { create_value(); have_fun(); }

###

Need help with developing or perfecting your "muse"?

This following offer is only available for the next 12 hours.

Click here to learn how you can get a complete site review from me and one of the best site testers in the world… or a one-hour phone call with me. Ridiculous as it might seem (it is ridiculous), I get at least $50,000 per 60-minute speaking engagement, so this is something I never do.

Want to also get your X-mas shopping done in one shot?

Click here to learn how… and also get a 1-hour group conference call with me.

The Big Bang: Blow-out Launch Party in NYC, Next Tuesday

It's time to celebrate! Three years in the making, The 4-Hour Body debuts next Tuesday.

I'm throwing a blow-out party in New York City that evening to thank readers who can attend. I hope to do more parties around the world in the coming months to thank you all. My sincerest gratitude to The King Collective for producing this event and making it gorgeous.

Here are the details — first the basics, then the fun stuff…

Date: Tues, December 14th

Time: 8pm – 11pm

Open bar (free drinks): 8pm – 10pm

RSVP: RSVPs are required to gain entrance. See below for details.

NOTE: Since we are serving alcohol, this sadly means we cannot admit anyone under the age of 21. Sorry!

Location: Greenhouse (we have the entire 6,000 square-foot club)

150 Varick St.

New York, New York 10013

Pics

Goodies:

- In addition to the free bar from 8-10pm,

- The first few hundred attendees will get gift bags (not free books, but other fun)

- There will be exclusive drinks available that include:

Edible Green Tea Leaves

Entropy

Cheribundi

I will be hanging out with everyone for the majority of the event, and I'll do some Q&A if people would like. If you've never seen me drunk, it's pretty funny.

RSVPs

The last time I bought out a movie theater for Waiting for Superman, 400 people reserved free tickets and 100 people didn't show up. This meant 100 people who could have gone got screwed, and $1,000+ dollars were wasted.

To minimize the no-show problems, every attendee must RSVP and it costs $10.

In NYC, this will obviously be paid back with your first drink. I will not earn a single dollar — this will be used to cover staff costs, and the remainder (at least 50%) will be donated to the non-profit DonorsChoose.org to help high-need classrooms in the US.

To RSVP, please go here. Hope to see you there!

Abrazo fuerte :)

Tim

###

Odds and Ends: 48 Hours Left for $4,000,000 in Prizes!

If you haven't taken a close look at some of these book giveaway packages — including trips around the world, gadgets and gizmos from The 4-Hour Body, and much more — you should check them out here. Offers end on Sunday and they're going fast.

The Land Rush: 48 Hours to Claim $4,000,000 in Prizes

Have you ever gone on safari in Africa?

Been trained by world champions?

Crossed the Atlantic on a 119-foot schooner?

Taken a private tour of an Indian archipelago, complete with tigers, crocodiles, and… Miss India?

Now you can. Or… if you simply want thousands of dollars of cutting-edge gadgets, you can have those, too.

Welcome to "The Land Rush," intended to be the largest book promotion in history.

The goal of this post is to offer the prizes of a lifetime, and to help The 4-Hour Body beat The Guinness Book of World Records on The New York Times bestseller list. Every package is worth at least twice the cost of the books, often up to 10x. More than $4,000,000 in prizes are up for grabs.

Every year, Guinness owns the NY Times list the week of 12/14. This year, I want that to change.

This is THE promotion for the book, and it will not be repeated. Pub day will not offer anything better. My World Series starts now.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

- For the NY Times, the book bonuses can only apply to HARDCOVER copies shipped to US addresses. Sorry!

- Copies of the new book will all ship starting 12/14. All bonuses will be delivered the week of 12/14 (digital) or the week of 12/21 (non-book physical goods).

- For the Barnes and Noble signed copies, it says "Signed Edition" on the "Overview" tab of the page.

- If you don't need all of the books you buy, I am happy to donate the remainder to a worthwhile organization (library, school, company, event, etc.) on your behalf.

This giveaway lasts exactly 48 hours and ends at midnight on Sunday. It's strictly first come, first served, and "limited to 5 spots" means the sixth person doesn't get it.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed putting it together. Grab what you can!

Ready? Set? Go.

+++
Bonus Packages for 1 to 300 books

Click the links below to jump to their full description. All are over-the-top, but the 30-book deal is particularly ridiculous.

+++
Bonus Packages for 1,000 books

Though it depends on schedule, I will try to join as many of these as possible — I'll obviously be at the first! Every package is amazing, and they will go quickly.

+++

If you can't afford the Superman Showcases listed above, here's your chance to win whatever isn't bought: promote The 4-Hour Body like your life depends on selling 50,000 copies (without spamming), and describe what you did in the comments. The same 48-hour deadline applies. Try and measure the impact (clicks, sales, etc.) whenever possible, and put "CONTEST" at the top of your comment.

+++
Bonus Packages for 5,000 to 10,000 books

+++

Spots: Unlimited spots available

Having trouble reading the slides? Just click the Menu button and select "View Fullscreen."

- Digital copy of 'The 4-Hour Workweek' ($20)

- Slow-Carb Cookbook ($20)

- "Find Your First Profitable Idea" with Ramit Sethi ($100 for full course)

Total value: $140 (for a $16 book)

INSTRUCTIONS:

Buy one copy at either Barnes and Noble (2,000 signed copies available!) or Amazon.
Fill out this form.

Back to the list

+++

Spots: Limited to 4,000 people

Having trouble reading the slides? Just click the Menu button and select "View Fullscreen."

- 1 bottle of Super Cissus RX ($45)

- 3-month Daily Burn Pro membership ($30)

- 1-year of 'Performance Menu Journal' Magazine ($30)

- 3 months Evernote Premium (first 1,000 only!) ($15)

- The 4-Hour Body thong from American Apparel (first 250 buyers get this!) (Priceless)

- "Find Your First Profitable Idea" with Ramit Sethi ($100 for full course)

- Digital copy of 'The 4-Hour Workweek' ($20)

- Slow-Carb Cookbook ($20)

Total value: $260 (for $48 of books)

INSTRUCTIONS:

Buy three copies at either Barnes and Noble (2,000 signed copies available!) or Amazon.
Fill out this form.

Back to the list

+++

Spots: Limited to 1,000 people

Having trouble reading the slides? Just click the Menu button and select "View Fullscreen."

- 1-hour group Q&A conference call with Tim (Priceless)

- 1-year Evernote Premium ($45)

- 1 bottle of BodyQuick ($50)

- 1 bottle of Super Cissus RX ($45)

- 3-month Daily Burn Pro membership ($30)

- 1-year of 'Performance Menu Journal' Magazine ($30)

- "Find Your First Profitable Idea" with Ramit Sethi ($100 for full course)

- Digital copy of 'The 4-Hour Workweek' ($20)

- Slow-Carb Cookbook ($20)

Total value: $340 (for $80 of books)

INSTRUCTIONS: Book your spot on EventBrite.

Back to the list

+++

Spots: Limited to 500 people

Having trouble reading the slides? Just click the Menu button and select "View Fullscreen."

- AppSumo bundle (see Slideshare above for details), courtesy of Matt Smith and Noah Kagan ($160)

- 1-month virtual assistant with RentASmile.com ($55)

- 1-hour group Q&A conference call with Tim (Priceless)

- 1-year of 'Performance Menu Journal' Magazine ($30)

- "Find Your First Profitable Idea" with Ramit Sethi ($100 for full course)

- Digital copy of 'The 4-Hour Workweek' (first 48 hours of promotion only!) ($20)

- Slow-Carb Cookbook ($20)

Total value: $385 (for $160 of books)

INSTRUCTIONS: Book your spot on EventBrite.

Back to the list

+++

Spots: Limited to 100 people

Having trouble reading the slides? Just click the Menu button and select "View Fullscreen."

- My Zeo sleep device ($300)

- Dragon Door Kettlebell ($110)

- Premium vibrator from Jimmyjane ($145)

- 2-Total Immersion swimming DVDs ($80)

- FatGripz ($50)

- StumbleUpon ad credit ($100)

- Online B.J.J. & grappling training with Marcelo Garcia ($75)

- 1-year of 'Power Magazine' by Mark Bell ($30)

- THE MUSE SUITE:

+++ – Ra Vision Gear sunglasses ($290)

+++ – Southern Thread jeans ($80)

+++ – WiseCovers Kindle case ($50)

+++ – Edible green tea leaves ($25)

+++ – Physicool ice pack ($20)

+++ – Antoine Amrani chocolates ($20)

+++ – Kankuamo coffee ($15)

+++ – EarPeace ear plugs ($13)

+++ – Sir Richard's condoms ($13)

+++ – Solar F/X sport spray ($12)

+++ – SlantShack beef jerky ($10)

+++ – Steve's Original PaleoKit ($7)

+++ – Salazon chocolate ($4)

+++ – Venus Dream lip balm ($4)

More:

- 1-hour group Q&A conference call with Tim (Priceless)

- 1-year of 'Performance Menu Journal' Magazine ($30)

- "Find Your First Profitable Idea" with Ramit Sethi ($100 for full course)

- Digital copy of 'The 4-Hour Workweek' ($20)

- Slow-Carb Cookbook ($20)

Total value: $1,623 (for $480 of books)

INSTRUCTIONS: Book your spot on EventBrite. This offer is only available to those with shipping addresses in the United States.

Back to the list

+++

Spots: Limited to 10 people

Having trouble reading the slides? Just click the Menu button and select "View Fullscreen."

FIRST, CHOOSE ONE OF TWO:

- Site or blog review from Tim Ferriss and Hiten Shah, CEO of KissMetrics (Priceless)

OR

- 1-hour Skype call with Tim Ferriss (Priceless)

Then, more bonus gifts:

- One bottle of limited edition Fledgling wine, signed by founders of Twitter, with 4 Hour Body laser-engraved case (Priceless)

- Sous Vide Supreme or Demi (Up to $450)

- DNA imprint self-portrait ($300)

- Limited edition 4-Hour Body Macbook Pro case ($130)

- Custom tango shoes ($160)

- Airbak backpack ($150)

- 4-Hour Body Youbars ($33)

- 1-hour group Q&A conference call with Tim (Priceless)

- 1-year of 'Performance Menu Journal' Magazine ($30)

- Digital copy of 'The 4-Hour Workweek' ($20)

- Slow-Carb Cookbook ($20)

Total value: Priceless (for $4,800 of books)

INSTRUCTIONS: Book your spot on EventBrite.

Back to the list

+++

1,000 books ($16,000)

Spots: Limited to 5 people

Having trouble reading the slides? Just click the Menu button and select "View Fullscreen."

- An evening in San Francisco with Tim to discuss anything you want. This could be a two hour dinner at one of Tim's favorite restaurants, followed by two hours of talking over wine, or something as wild as enjoying a trampoline park after overdosing on green tea. You're welcome to invite one friend or colleague to join in on the fun. Tim's most recent 60-minute speaking engagements range from $60,000 – $80,000, and he rarely does consulting. This is an exclusive offer. Included FOR 1-PERSON: Hotel, food, drink, and roundtrip economy airfare from anywhere in the U.S. (Priceless)

- Limited edition wine, signed by founders of Twitter (Priceless)

- 1-year of 'Performance Menu Journal' Magazine ($30)

- Digital copy of 'The 4-Hour Workweek' ($20)

- Slow-Carb Cookbook ($20)

Total value: Priceless (for $16,000 of books)

INSTRUCTIONS: Click here to book 4 Hours in S.F. with Tim Ferriss.

Back to the list

+++

1,000 books ($16,000)

Spots: Limited to 1 person

Having trouble reading the slides? Just click the Menu button and select "View Fullscreen."

- 8-day guided ski-snowboard adventure in Patagonia, Argentina. Your guides will introduce you to the best skiing, local culture, outstanding meals and red wines. Visit charming villages, situated on glacier cut lakes and national parks. Roundtrip economy airfare included. (Priceless)

- Limited edition wine, signed by founders of Twitter (Priceless)

- 1-hour group Q&A conference call with Tim (Priceless)

- 1-year of 'Performance Menu Journal' Magazine ($30)

- Digital copy of 'The 4-Hour Workweek' ($20)

- Slow-Carb Cookbook ($20)

Total value: Priceless (for $16,000 of books)

INSTRUCTIONS: Click here to book the Argentina Snow Adventure.

Back to the list

+++

1,000 books ($16,000)

Spots: Limited to 1 person

Having trouble reading the slides? Just click the Menu button and select "View Fullscreen."

- Ultrarunning trip with world-class ultrarunner, Marshall Ulrich. Marsh is offering two possible trips for any runner that wants to improve their skills. First option is a day cruise to the Galapagos in January, 2011 or dates of the winner's choosing. Second option is The Dreams in Action Running Camp in Death Valley in October, 2011. Roundtrip economy airfare included. See above Slideshare for more details. (Priceless)

- Limited edition wine, signed by founders of Twitter (Priceless)

- 1-hour group Q&A conference call with Tim (Priceless)

- 1-year of 'Performance Menu Journal' Magazine ($30)

- Digital copy of 'The 4-Hour Workweek' ($20)

- Slow-Carb Cookbook ($20)

Total value: Priceless (for $16,000 of books)

INSTRUCTIONS: Click here to book the Ultrarunning Trip with Marshall Ulrich.

Back to the list

+++

1,000 books ($16,000)

Spots: Limited to 1 person

Having trouble reading the slides? Just click the Menu button and select "View Fullscreen."

- Two week wellness and writing retreat in Italy. A unique experience to live and work (both creatively and personally) in one of the most beautiful, expansive natural locations in the world. From June 12-25, 2011. Roundtrip economy airfare included. (Priceless)

- Limited edition wine (1 bottle), signed by founders of Twitter (Priceless)

- 1-hour group Q&A conference call with Tim (Priceless)

- 1-year of 'Performance Menu Journal' Magazine ($30)

- Digital copy of 'The 4-Hour Workweek' ($20)

- Slow-Carb Cookbook ($20)

Total value: Priceless (for $16,000 of books)

INSTRUCTIONS: Click here to book the Italian Wellness and Writing Retreat.

Back to the list

+++

1,000 books ($16,000)

Spots: Limited to 3 people

Having trouble reading the slides? Just click the Menu button and select "View Fullscreen."

- Ticket to the Indy 500 with VIP access to the race team pit area, hospitality suite, lap around the track in pace car, driver autographs, signed hats and shirts, etc. Roundtrip economy airfare included. (Priceless)

- Limited edition wine (1 bottle), signed by founders of Twitter (Priceless)

- 1-hour group Q&A conference call with Tim (Priceless)

- 1-year of 'Performance Menu Journal' Magazine ($30)

- Digital copy of 'The 4-Hour Workweek' ($20)

- Slow-Carb Cookbook ($20)

Total value: Priceless (for $16,000 of books)

INSTRUCTIONS: Click here to book one of three Indy 500 VIP tickets.

Back to the list

+++

1,000 books ($16,000)

Spots: Limited to 1 person

Having trouble reading the slides? Just click the Menu button and select "View Fullscreen."

- Spend an afternoon in NYC learning Brazilian Ju-Jitsu and grappling from Marcelo Garcia, the 4-time world champion who is widely considered to be one of the best pound-for-pound submission grapplers in the world. This will include private lessons. Afterwards, enjoy lunch or dinner with Josh Waitzkin, world chess master, subject of the film Searching for Bobby Fischer, 5-time national champion & 1-time world champion in Tai Chi Chaun, and author of The Art of Learning. (Priceless)

- Limited edition wine (1 bottle), signed by founders of Twitter (Priceless)

- 1-hour group Q&A conference call with Tim (Priceless)

- 1-year of 'Performance Menu Journal' Magazine ($30)

- Digital copy of 'The 4-Hour Workweek' ($20)

- Slow-Carb Cookbook ($20)

Total value: Priceless (for $16,000 of books)

INSTRUCTIONS: Click here to book Training with Marcelo Garcia & Dining with Josh Waitzkin.

Back to the list

+++

1,000 books ($16,000)

Spots: Limited to 2 people

Having trouble reading the slides? Just click the Menu button and select "View Fullscreen."

- 10-day "SamaSundarbans" trip to West Bengal with Tim Ferriss and two companions, where you will meet some of Samasource's Service Partners and experience the beauty of India. After two days visiting Samasource's Service Partners in Kolkata, enjoy a five-day tour across the Sundarbans. Bengali for "beautiful forests," the Sundarbans are an "alluvial archipelago" of 102 islands settled between the Ganga and Brahmaputra rivers and accessible only by boat. Take a river cruise and observe the region's diverse wildlife including saltwater crocodiles, bullsharks, and the Royal Bengal Tiger. After enjoying your eco-friendly expedition and luxury lodging in the Sundarbans, journey back to Kolkata and let our field associates and former Miss India Sandhya Chib give you an authentic taste of India! Long known as the cultural capital of India, Kolkata is the main business, commercial, and financial hub of eastern India and burgeoning urban metropolis. After exploring the city's historical and popular landmarks, enjoy a special South Asian dinner in your honor, hosted by Miss India and special guests. Includes (for three): Accommodations and internal transportation for entire trip in West Bengal, meals during Sundarbans tour, dinner for three with Miss India, Tim Ferriss, and special guests. Does not include: Airfare to and from India. (Priceless)

- Limited edition wine (1 bottle), signed by founders of Twitter (Priceless)

- 1-hour group Q&A conference call with Tim (Priceless)

- 1-year of 'Performance Menu Journal' Magazine ($30)

- Digital copy of 'The 4-Hour Workweek' ($20)

- Slow-Carb Cookbook ($20)

Total value: Priceless (for $16,000 of books)

INSTRUCTIONS: Click here to book the 10-Day India Tour.

Back to the list

+++

1,000 books ($16,000)

Spots: Limited to 2 people

Having trouble reading the slides? Just click the Menu button and select "View Fullscreen."

- Explore the beauty of Kenya, home of the Masai Mara National Reserve, and Mount Kenya. Leila Janah, founder and CEO of Samasource, will accompany you and Tim on this ten day "Samasafari," which includes two days meeting Samasource's Service Partners in Nairobi and eight days exploring Kenya's wild side! Take your sense of adventure to new heights on a trekking tour of Mount Kenya, Kenya's tallest peak at over 17,000 feet, and surrounding national parks. Don't miss the chance to see Mount Kenya's magnificent glaciers in their last years, before they disappear forever. After your trek around Mount Kenya, relax and experience the breathtaking wildlife of Kenya during a safari through the Masai Mara, home to a diversity of wildlife including large prides of lions, cheetahs, leopards, hyenas, and more. With its rolling grasslands and wide-open savannah, the Masai Mara promises a picturesque African safari experience. Accommodations and meals during the safari will be provided by your Masai Mara safari lodge. Finish your trip in Kenya on the beautiful beaches of Lamu, Kenya's oldest living town and a UN World Heritage Site. Includes: Accommodations and internal transportation for four in Kenya for trip to Service Partners, Mt. Kenya trek, Masai Mara tour and Lamu trip; meals for Masai Mara tour; park entrance fees; English speaking guide. Not included: Airfare to and from Africa. (Priceless)

- Limited edition wine (1 bottle), signed by founders of Twitter (Priceless)

- 1-hour group Q&A conference call with Tim (Priceless)

- 1-year of 'Performance Menu Journal' Magazine ($30)

- Digital copy of 'The 4-Hour Workweek' ($20)

- Slow-Carb Cookbook ($20)

Total value: Priceless (for $16,000 of books)

INSTRUCTIONS: Click here to book the 10-Day African Safari.

Back to the list

+++
The Big Kahunas: 5,000 and 10,000
+++

Spots: Limited to 2 people

Having trouble reading the slides? Just click the Menu button and select "View Fullscreen."

- Two full days in San Francisco with Tim Ferriss. "Experience San Francisco with me as I like to enjoy it. My favorite activities, my friends, my favorite hidden spots — all expenses paid, everything taken care of. You will have a full 48 hours to ask me anything you like, and it's up to you how much work and how much play you want to enjoy. This will be a San Francisco experience you will never forget!"

- Warriors game with Peter Guber and Tim Ferriss. The first person to purchase the 5,000-book package will have the option, if they wish, of joining Tim Ferriss for an evening at a Golden State Warriors game at Oracle Arena with the new co-owner, Hollywood icon, Peter Guber. Saturday, February 5th is the most likely Saturday home game, and you & Tim would join Peter in the owner's suite: Golden State Warriors vs. the Chicago Bulls. PETER GUBER has produced or executive produced a long list of award-winning films, including "Rain Man," "Batman," "Midnight Express," "The Color Purple," and "Gorillas in the Mist." He has had an extraordinarily varied and successful career, serving as Studio Chief at Columbia Pictures; Co-Chairman of Casablanca Records and Filmworks; CEO of Polygram Entertainment; Chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures; and Chairman and CEO of his current venture, Mandalay Entertainment Group. Guber is now the owner and co-executive chairman of the NBA's Golden State Warriors and oversees one of the largest combinations of professional baseball teams and venues nationwide. He is also a longtime professor at UCLA and a Harvard Business Review contributor. Learn more about Peter here.

- Private sailing lesson in San Francisco. OCSC Sailing, a school that's trained thousands of sailors around the world, is offering 1-day private lessons in the San Francisco Bay. ($1,150)

- VIP access to Tim's next party. Tim is known for throwing great parties and successful events, from Australia to South Africa, with a "who's who" guest list. You can expect a great time and a high-profile crowd for his next party. Date TBD.

- Elliptigo 8S. The Elliptigo is the world's first elliptical bicycle.  It combines the handling and maneuverability of a road bike with the cardiovascular intensity of running outside.  Used by top marathoners, including Dean Karnazes, with a similar training effect as running without injuries. ($2,200)

- Limited edition wine (1 bottle), signed by founders of Twitter (Priceless)

- 1-hour group Q&A conference call with Tim (Priceless)

- 1-year of 'Performance Menu Journal' Magazine ($30)

- Digital copy of 'The 4-Hour Workweek' ($20)

- Slow-Carb Cookbook ($20)

Total value: Priceless (for $80,000 of books)

INSTRUCTIONS: Click here to apply for one of two "Inflection Point" spots.

Back to the list

+++

Spots: Limited to 1 person.

Having trouble reading the slides? Just click the Menu button and select "View Fullscreen."

- The Uberman: Full body testing. This is the big one. Super-exclusive and all-inclusive body testing — genetics, nutrients, hormones — with a top secret start-up. Nothing like this has ever existed before. This offer is not only completely inaccessible to the general public, it's also unavailable for purchase ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD. Truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

- Transatlantic Crossing. Sail across the Atlantic with Tim aboard the 119 ft. schooner Argo. Passage starts in Antigua and finishes in Nice, with stops in the Azores and Gibraltar. This is a hands-on experience, taking turns at the helm, holding watches, and being a part of the crew. Participant must be in good health with no serious illness, disability, or previous serious medical history. Includes roundtrip economy airfare from the US to Antigua and back from Nice to the US.

- Personal portrait painting. Be immortalized with your very own personal watercolor portrait, featuring you and one of your obsessions/hobbies. Kelly Eddington (the artist) has had her paintings displayed in galleries throughout the United States, and her work is often noted by Roger Ebert on his blog. ($3,200)

- VIP access to Tim's next party. Tim is known for throwing great parties and successful events, from Australia to South Africa, with a "who's who" guest list. You can expect a great time and a high-profile crowd for his next party.

- Elliptigo 8S. The Elliptigo is the world's first elliptical bicycle.  It combines the handling and maneuverability of a road bike with the cardiovascular intensity of running outside.  Used by top marathoners, including Dean Karnazes, with a similar training effect as running without injuries. ($2,200)

- Limited edition wine (1 bottle), signed by founders of Twitter (Priceless)

- 1-hour group Q&A conference call with Tim (Priceless)

- 1-year of 'Performance Menu Journal' Magazine ($30)

- Digital copy of 'The 4-Hour Workweek' ($20)

- Slow-Carb Cookbook ($20)

Total value: Priceless (for $160,000 of books)

INSTRUCTIONS: Click here to apply for UBERMAN.

Back to the list

The Land Rush: 72 Hours to Claim $4,000,000 in Prizes

Have you ever gone on safari in Africa?

Been trained by world champions?

Crossed the Atlantic on a 119-foot schooner?

Taken a private tour of an Indian archipelago, complete with tigers, crocodiles, and… Miss India?

Now you can. Or… if you simply want thousands of dollars of cutting-edge gadgets, you can have those, too.

Welcome to "The Land Rush," intended to be the largest book promotion in history.

The goal of this post is to offer the prizes of a lifetime, and to help The 4-Hour Body beat The Guinness Book of World Records on The New York Times bestseller list. Every package is worth at least twice the cost of the books, often up to 10x. More than $4,000,000 in prizes are up for grabs.

Every year, Guinness owns the NY Times list the week of 12/14. This year, I want that to change.

This is THE promotion for the book, and it will not be repeated. Pub day will not offer anything better. My World Series starts now.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

- All bonuses will be delivered the week of 12/14 (digital) or the week of 12/21 (physical goods).

- Exact book price varies depending on your shipping address, but it usually averages out to approx. $16.

- The Barnes and Noble signed copies are limited to 2,000 copies, and it says "Signed Edition" on the "Overview" tab of the page.

This giveaway lasts exactly 72 hours, and it's strictly first come, first served. "Limited to 5 spots" means the sixth person doesn't get it.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed putting it together. Grab what you can!

Ready? Set? Go.

+++
Bonus Packages for 1 to 300 books

Click the links below to jump to their full description:

+++
Bonus Packages for 1,000 books

Though it depends on schedule, I will try to join as many of these as possible — I'll obviously be at the first! Every package is amazing, and they will go quickly.

+++

If you can't afford the Superman Showcases listed above, here's your chance to win whatever isn't bought: promote The 4-Hour Body like your life depends on selling 50,000 copies (without spamming), and describe what you did in the comments. The same 72-hour deadline applies. Try and measure the impact (clicks, sales, etc.) whenever possible, and put "CONTEST" at the top of your comment.

+++
Bonus Packages for 5,000 to 10,000 books

+++

Spots: Unlimited spots available

Having trouble reading the slides? Just click the Menu button and select "View Fullscreen."

- Digital copy of 'The 4-Hour Workweek' ($20)

- Slow-Carb Cookbook ($20)

- "Find Your First Profitable Idea" with Ramit Sethi ($100 for full course)

Total value: $140 (for a $16 book)

INSTRUCTIONS:

Buy one copy at either Barnes and Noble (2,000 signed copies available!) or Amazon.
Fill out this form.

Back to the list

+++

Spots: Limited to 4,000 people

Having trouble reading the slides? Just click the Menu button and select "View Fullscreen."

- 1 bottle of Super Cissus RX ($45)

- 3-month Daily Burn Pro membership ($30)

- 1-year of 'Performance Menu Journal' Magazine ($360)

- 3 months Evernote Premium (first 1,000 only!) ($15)

- The 4-Hour Body thong from American Apparel (first 250 buyers get this!) (Priceless)

- "Find Your First Profitable Idea" with Ramit Sethi ($100 for full course)

- Digital copy of 'The 4-Hour Workweek' ($20)

- Slow-Carb Cookbook ($20)

Total value: $590 (for $48 of books)

INSTRUCTIONS:

Buy three copies at either Barnes and Noble (2,000 signed copies available!) or Amazon.
Fill out this form.

Back to the list

+++

Spots: Limited to 1,000 people

Having trouble reading the slides? Just click the Menu button and select "View Fullscreen."

- 1-hour group Q&A conference call with Tim (Priceless)

- 1-year Evernote Premium ($45)

- 1 bottle of BodyQuick ($50)

- 1 bottle of Super Cissus RX ($45)

- 3-month Daily Burn Pro membership ($30)

- 1-year of 'Performance Menu Journal' Magazine ($360)

- "Find Your First Profitable Idea" with Ramit Sethi ($100 for full course)

- Digital copy of 'The 4-Hour Workweek' ($20)

- Slow-Carb Cookbook ($20)

Total value: $670 (for $80 of books)

INSTRUCTIONS: Book your spot on EventBrite.

Back to the list

+++

Spots: Limited to 500 people

Having trouble reading the slides? Just click the Menu button and select "View Fullscreen."

- AppSumo bundle (see Slideshare above for details), courtesy of Matt Smith and Noah Kagan ($160)

- 1-month virtual assistant with RentASmile.com ($55)

- 1-hour group Q&A conference call with Tim (Priceless)

- 1-year of 'Performance Menu Journal' Magazine ($360)

- "Find Your First Profitable Idea" with Ramit Sethi ($100 for full course)

- Digital copy of 'The 4-Hour Workweek' (first 48 hours of promotion only!) ($20)

- Slow-Carb Cookbook ($20)

Total value: $715 (for $160 of books)

INSTRUCTIONS: Book your spot on EventBrite.

Back to the list

+++

Spots: Limited to 100 people

Having trouble reading the slides? Just click the Menu button and select "View Fullscreen."

- My Zeo sleep device ($300)

- Dragon Door Kettlebell ($110)

- Premium vibrator from Jimmyjane ($145)

- 2-Total Immersion swimming DVDs ($80)

- FatGripz ($50)

- StumbleUpon ad credit ($100)

- Online B.J.J. & grappling training with Marcelo Garcia ($75)

- 1-year of 'Power Magazine' by Mark Bell ($30)

- THE MUSE SUITE:

+++ – Ra Vision Gear sunglasses ($290)

+++ – Southern Thread jeans ($80)

+++ – WiseCovers Kindle case ($50)

+++ – Edible green tea leaves ($25)

+++ – Physicool ice pack ($20)

+++ – Antoine Amrani chocolates ($20)

+++ – Kankuamo coffee ($15)

+++ – EarPeace ear plugs ($13)

+++ – Sir Richard's condoms ($13)

+++ – Solar F/X sport spray ($12)

+++ – SlantShack beef jerky ($10)

+++ – Steve's Original PaleoKit ($7)

+++ – Salazon chocolate ($4)

+++ – Venus Dream lip balm ($4)

More:

- 1-hour group Q&A conference call with Tim (Priceless)

- 1-year of 'Performance Menu Journal' Magazine ($360)

- "Find Your First Profitable Idea" with Ramit Sethi ($100 for full course)

- Digital copy of 'The 4-Hour Workweek' ($20)

- Slow-Carb Cookbook ($20)

Total value: $1,953 (for $480 of books)

INSTRUCTIONS: Book your spot on EventBrite. This offer is only available to those with shipping addresses in the United States.

Back to the list

+++

Spots: Limited to 10 people

Having trouble reading the slides? Just click the Menu button and select "View Fullscreen."

FIRST, CHOOSE ONE OF TWO:

- Site or blog review from Tim Ferriss and Hiten Shah, CEO of KissMetrics (Priceless)

OR

- 1-hour Skype call with Tim Ferriss (Priceless)

Then, more bonus gifts:

- One bottle of limited edition Fledgling wine, signed by founders of Twitter, with 4 Hour Body laser-engraved case (Priceless)

- Sous Vide Supreme or Demi (Up to $450)

- DNA imprint self-portrait ($300)

- Limited edition 4-Hour Body Macbook Pro case ($130)

- Custom tango shoes ($160)

- Airbak backpack ($150)

- 4-Hour Body Youbars ($33)

- 1-hour group Q&A conference call with Tim (Priceless)

- 1-year of 'Performance Menu Journal' Magazine ($360)

- Digital copy of 'The 4-Hour Workweek' ($20)

- Slow-Carb Cookbook ($20)

Total value: Priceless (for $4,800 of books)

INSTRUCTIONS: Book your spot on EventBrite.

Back to the list

+++

1,000 books ($16,000)

Spots: Limited to 5 people

Having trouble reading the slides? Just click the Menu button and select "View Fullscreen."

- An evening in San Francisco with Tim to discuss anything you want. This could be a two hour dinner at one of Tim's favorite restaurants, followed by two hours of talking over wine, or something as wild as enjoying a trampoline park after overdosing on green tea. You're welcome to invite one friend or colleague to join in on the fun. Tim's most recent 60-minute speaking engagements range from $60,000 – $80,000, and he rarely does consulting. This is an exclusive offer. Included FOR 1-PERSON: Hotel, food, drink, and roundtrip economy airfare from anywhere in the U.S. (Priceless)

- Limited edition wine, signed by founders of Twitter (Priceless)

- 1-year of 'Performance Menu Journal' Magazine ($360)

- Digital copy of 'The 4-Hour Workweek' ($20)

- Slow-Carb Cookbook ($20)

Total value: Priceless (for $16,000 of books)

INSTRUCTIONS: Click here to book 4 Hours in S.F. with Tim Ferriss.

Back to the list

+++

1,000 books ($16,000)

Spots: Limited to 1 person

Having trouble reading the slides? Just click the Menu button and select "View Fullscreen."

- 8-day guided ski-snowboard adventure in Patagonia, Argentina. Your guides will introduce you to the best skiing, local culture, outstanding meals and red wines. Visit charming villages, situated on glacier cut lakes and national parks. Roundtrip economy airfare included. (Priceless)

- Limited edition wine, signed by founders of Twitter (Priceless)

- 1-hour group Q&A conference call with Tim (Priceless)

- 1-year of 'Performance Menu Journal' Magazine ($360)

- Digital copy of 'The 4-Hour Workweek' ($20)

- Slow-Carb Cookbook ($20)

Total value: Priceless (for $16,000 of books)

INSTRUCTIONS: Click here to book the Argentina Snow Adventure.

Back to the list

+++

1,000 books ($16,000)

Spots: Limited to 1 person

Having trouble reading the slides? Just click the Menu button and select "View Fullscreen."

- Ultrarunning trip with world-class ultrarunner, Marshall Ulrich. Marsh is offering two possible trips for any runner that wants to improve their skills. First option is a day cruise to the Galapagos in January, 2011 or dates of the winner's choosing. Second option is The Dreams in Action Running Camp in Death Valley in October, 2011. Roundtrip economy airfare included. See above Slideshare for more details. (Priceless)

- Limited edition wine, signed by founders of Twitter (Priceless)

- 1-hour group Q&A conference call with Tim (Priceless)

- 1-year of 'Performance Menu Journal' Magazine ($360)

- Digital copy of 'The 4-Hour Workweek' ($20)

- Slow-Carb Cookbook ($20)

Total value: Priceless (for $16,000 of books)

INSTRUCTIONS: Click here to book the Ultrarunning Trip with Marshall Ulrich.

Back to the list

+++

1,000 books ($16,000)

Spots: Limited to 1 person

Having trouble reading the slides? Just click the Menu button and select "View Fullscreen."

- Two week wellness and writing retreat in Italy. A unique experience to live and work (both creatively and personally) in one of the most beautiful, expansive natural locations in the world. From June 12-25, 2011. Roundtrip economy airfare included. (Priceless)

- Limited edition wine (1 bottle), signed by founders of Twitter (Priceless)

- 1-hour group Q&A conference call with Tim (Priceless)

- 1-year of 'Performance Menu Journal' Magazine ($360)

- Digital copy of 'The 4-Hour Workweek' ($20)

- Slow-Carb Cookbook ($20)

Total value: Priceless (for $16,000 of books)

INSTRUCTIONS: Click here to book the Italian Wellness and Writing Retreat.

Back to the list

+++

1,000 books ($16,000)

Spots: Limited to 3 people

Having trouble reading the slides? Just click the Menu button and select "View Fullscreen."

- Ticket to the Indy 500 with VIP access to the race team pit area, hospitality suite, lap around the track in pace car, driver autographs, signed hats and shirts, etc. Roundtrip economy airfare included. (Priceless)

- Limited edition wine (1 bottle), signed by founders of Twitter (Priceless)

- 1-hour group Q&A conference call with Tim (Priceless)

- 1-year of 'Performance Menu Journal' Magazine ($360)

- Digital copy of 'The 4-Hour Workweek' ($20)

- Slow-Carb Cookbook ($20)

Total value: Priceless (for $16,000 of books)

INSTRUCTIONS: Click here to book one of three Indy 500 VIP tickets.

Back to the list

+++

1,000 books ($16,000)

Spots: Limited to 1 person

Having trouble reading the slides? Just click the Menu button and select "View Fullscreen."

- Spend an afternoon in NYC learning Brazilian Ju-Jitsu and grappling from Marcelo Garcia, the 4-time world champion who is widely considered to be one of the best pound-for-pound submission grapplers in the world. This will include private lessons. Afterwards, enjoy lunch or dinner with Josh Waitzkin, world chess master, subject of the film Searching for Bobby Fischer, 5-time national champion & 1-time world champion in Tai Chi Chaun, and author of The Art of Learning. (Priceless)

- Limited edition wine (1 bottle), signed by founders of Twitter (Priceless)

- 1-hour group Q&A conference call with Tim (Priceless)

- 1-year of 'Performance Menu Journal' Magazine ($360)

- Digital copy of 'The 4-Hour Workweek' ($20)

- Slow-Carb Cookbook ($20)

Total value: Priceless (for $16,000 of books)

INSTRUCTIONS: Click here to book Training with Marcelo Garcia & Dining with Josh Waitzkin.

Back to the list

+++

1,000 books ($16,000)

Spots: Limited to 2 people

Having trouble reading the slides? Just click the Menu button and select "View Fullscreen."

- 10-day "SamaSundarbans" trip to West Bengal with Tim Ferriss and two companions, where you will meet some of Samasource's Service Partners and experience the beauty of India. After two days visiting Samasource's Service Partners in Kolkata, enjoy a five-day tour across the Sundarbans. Bengali for "beautiful forests," the Sundarbans are an "alluvial archipelago" of 102 islands settled between the Ganga and Brahmaputra rivers and accessible only by boat. Take a river cruise and observe the region's diverse wildlife including saltwater crocodiles, bullsharks, and the Royal Bengal Tiger. After enjoying your eco-friendly expedition and luxury lodging in the Sundarbans, journey back to Kolkata and let our field associates and former Miss India Sandhya Chib give you an authentic taste of India! Long known as the cultural capital of India, Kolkata is the main business, commercial, and financial hub of eastern India and burgeoning urban metropolis. After exploring the city's historical and popular landmarks, enjoy a special South Asian dinner in your honor, hosted by Miss India and special guests. Includes (for three): Accommodations and internal transportation for entire trip in West Bengal, meals during Sundarbans tour, dinner for three with Miss India, Tim Ferriss, and special guests. Does not include: Airfare to and from India. (Priceless)

- Limited edition wine (1 bottle), signed by founders of Twitter (Priceless)

- 1-hour group Q&A conference call with Tim (Priceless)

- 1-year of 'Performance Menu Journal' Magazine ($360)

- Digital copy of 'The 4-Hour Workweek' ($20)

- Slow-Carb Cookbook ($20)

Total value: Priceless (for $16,000 of books)

INSTRUCTIONS: Click here to book the 10-Day India Tour.

Back to the list

+++

1,000 books ($16,000)

Spots: Limited to 2 people

Having trouble reading the slides? Just click the Menu button and select "View Fullscreen."

- Explore the beauty of Kenya, home of the Masai Mara National Reserve, and Mount Kenya. Leila Janah, founder and CEO of Samasource, will accompany you, Tim, and two friends on this ten day "Samasafari," which includes two days meeting Samasource's Service Partners in Nairobi and eight days exploring Kenya's wild side! Take your sense of adventure to new heights on a trekking tour of Mount Kenya, Kenya's tallest peak at over 17,000 feet, and surrounding national parks. Don't miss the chance to see Mount Kenya's magnificent glaciers in their last years, before they disappear forever. After your trek around Mount Kenya, relax and experience the breathtaking wildlife of Kenya during a safari through the Masai Mara, home to a diversity of wildlife including large prides of lions, cheetahs, leopards, hyenas, and more. With its rolling grasslands and wide-open savannah, the Masai Mara promises a picturesque African safari experience. Accommodations and meals during the safari will be provided by your Masai Mara safari lodge. Finish your trip in Kenya on the beautiful beaches of Lamu, Kenya's oldest living town and a UN World Heritage Site. Includes: Accommodations and internal transportation for four in Kenya for trip to Service Partners, Mt. Kenya trek, Masai Mara tour and Lamu trip; meals for Masai Mara tour; park entrance fees; English speaking guide. Not included: Airfare to and from Africa. (Priceless)

- Limited edition wine (1 bottle), signed by founders of Twitter (Priceless)

- 1-hour group Q&A conference call with Tim (Priceless)

- 1-year of 'Performance Menu Journal' Magazine ($360)

- Digital copy of 'The 4-Hour Workweek' ($20)

- Slow-Carb Cookbook ($20)

Total value: Priceless (for $16,000 of books)

INSTRUCTIONS: Click here to book the 10-Day African Safari.

Back to the list

+++
The Big Kahunas: 5,000 and 10,000
+++

Spots: Limited to 2 people

Having trouble reading the slides? Just click the Menu button and select "View Fullscreen."

- Two full days in San Francisco with Tim Ferriss. "Experience San Francisco with me as I like to enjoy it. My favorite activities, my friends, my favorite hidden spots — all expenses paid, everything taken care of. You will have a full 48 hours to ask me anything you like, and it's up to you how much work and how much play you want to enjoy. This will be a San Francisco experience you will never forget!"

- Warriors game with Peter Guber and Tim Ferriss. The first person to purchase the 5,000-book package will have the option, if they wish, of joining Tim Ferriss for an evening at a Golden State Warriors game at Oracle Arena with the new co-owner, Hollywood icon, Peter Guber. Saturday, February 5th is the most likely Saturday home game, and you & Tim would join Peter in the owner's suite: Golden State Warriors vs. the Chicago Bulls. PETER GUBER has produced or executive produced a long list of award-winning films, including "Rain Man," "Batman," "Midnight Express," "The Color Purple," and "Gorillas in the Mist." He has had an extraordinarily varied and successful career, serving as Studio Chief at Columbia Pictures; Co-Chairman of Casablanca Records and Filmworks; CEO of Polygram Entertainment; Chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures; and Chairman and CEO of his current venture, Mandalay Entertainment Group. Guber is now the owner and co-executive chairman of the NBA's Golden State Warriors and oversees one of the largest combinations of professional baseball teams and venues nationwide. He is also a longtime professor at UCLA and a Harvard Business Review contributor. Learn more about Peter here.

- Private sailing lesson in San Francisco. OCSC Sailing, a school that's trained thousands of sailors around the world, is offering 1-day private lessons in the San Francisco Bay. ($1,150)

- VIP access to Tim's next party. Tim is known for throwing great parties and successful events, from Australia to South Africa, with a "who's who" guest list. You can expect a great time and a high-profile crowd for his next party. Date TBD.

- Elliptigo 8S. The Elliptigo is the world's first elliptical bicycle.  It combines the handling and maneuverability of a road bike with the cardiovascular intensity of running outside.  Used by top marathoners, including Dean Karnazes, with a similar training effect as running without injuries. ($2,200)

- Limited edition wine (1 bottle), signed by founders of Twitter (Priceless)

- 1-hour group Q&A conference call with Tim (Priceless)

- 1-year of 'Performance Menu Journal' Magazine ($360)

- Digital copy of 'The 4-Hour Workweek' ($20)

- Slow-Carb Cookbook ($20)

Total value: Priceless (for $80,000 of books)

INSTRUCTIONS: Click here to apply for one of two "Inflection Point" spots.

Back to the list

+++

Spots: Limited to 1 person.

Having trouble reading the slides? Just click the Menu button and select "View Fullscreen."

- The Uberman: Full body testing. This is the big one. Super-exclusive and all-inclusive body testing — genetics, nutrients, hormones — with a top secret start-up. Nothing like this has ever existed before. This offer is not only completely inaccessible to the general public, it's also unavailable for purchase ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD. Truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

- Transatlantic Crossing. Sail across the Atlantic with Tim aboard the 119 ft. schooner Argo. Passage starts in Antigua and finishes in Nice, with stops in the Azores and Gibraltar. This is a hands-on experience, taking turns at the helm, holding watches, and being a part of the crew. Participant must be in good health with no serious illness, disability, or previous serious medical history. Includes roundtrip economy airfare from the US to Antigua and back from Nice to the US.

- Personal portrait painting. Be immortalized with your very own personal watercolor portrait, featuring you and one of your obsessions/hobbies. Kelly Eddington (the artist) has had her paintings displayed in galleries throughout the United States, and her work is often noted by Roger Ebert on his blog. ($3,200)

- VIP access to Tim's next party. Tim is known for throwing great parties and successful events, from Australia to South Africa, with a "who's who" guest list. You can expect a great time and a high-profile crowd for his next party.

- Elliptigo 8S. The Elliptigo is the world's first elliptical bicycle.  It combines the handling and maneuverability of a road bike with the cardiovascular intensity of running outside.  Used by top marathoners, including Dean Karnazes, with a similar training effect as running without injuries. ($2,200)

- Limited edition wine (1 bottle), signed by founders of Twitter (Priceless)

- 1-hour group Q&A conference call with Tim (Priceless)

- 1-year of 'Performance Menu Journal' Magazine ($360)

- Digital copy of 'The 4-Hour Workweek' ($20)

- Slow-Carb Cookbook ($20)

Total value: Priceless (for $160,000 of books)

INSTRUCTIONS: Click here to apply for UBERMAN.

Back to the list

The 4-Hour Body – Sample Chapter and Full Table of Contents

A taste of things to come… (Photo: Blackbox Cases)

I'm excited to present the full table of contents from The 4-Hour Body, as well as the first chapter. Enjoy! …

Sample Chapter

Start Here

Thinner, Bigger, Faster, Stronger? How to Use This Book

Fundamentals – First and Foremost

The Minimum Effective Dose: From Microwaves to Fat-loss

Rules That Change the Rules: Everything Popular Is Wrong

Ground Zero-Getting Started and Swaraj

The Harajuku Moment: The Decision to Become a Complete Human

Elusive Bodyfat: Where Are You Really?

From Photos to Fear: Making Failure Impossible

Subtracting Fat: Basics

The Slow- Carb Diet I: How to Lose 20 Pounds in 30 Days Without Exercise

The Slow-Carb Diet II: The Finer Points and Common Questions

Damage Control: Preventing Fat Gain When You Binge

The Four Horsemen of Fat-Loss

Subtracting Fat: Advanced

Ice Age: Mastering Temperature to Manipulate Weight

The Glucose Switch: Beautiful Number 100

The Last Mile: Losing the Final 5-10 Pounds

Adding Muscle

Building the Perfect Posterior (or Losing 100+ Pounds)

Six-Minute Abs: Two Exercises That Actually Work

From Geek to Freak: How to Gain 34 Pounds in 28 Days

Occam's Protocol I: A Minimalist Approach to Mass

Occam's Protocol II: The Finer Points

Improving Sex

The 15-Minute Female Orgasm-Part Un

The 15-Minute Female Orgasm-Part Deux

Sex Machine I: Adventures in Tripling Testosterone

Happy Endings and Doubling Sperm Count

Perfecting Sleep

Engineering the Perfect Night's Sleep

Becoming Uberman: Sleeping Less with Polyphasic Sleep

Reversing Injuries

Reversing "Permanent" Injuries

How to Pay for a Beach Vacation with One Hospital Visit

Pre-Hab: Injury-Proofing the Body

Running Faster and Farther

Hacking the NFL Combine I: Preliminaries—Jumping Higher

Hacking the NFL Combine II: Running Faster

Ultraendurance I: Going from 5K to 50K in 12 Weeks—Phase I

Ultraendurance II: Going from 5K to 50K in 12 Weeks—Phase II

Getting Stronger

Effortless Superhuman: Breaking World Records with Barry Ross

Eating the Elephant: How to Add 100 Pounds to Your Bench Press

From Swimming to Swinging

How I Learned to Swim Effortlessly in 10 Days

The Architecture of Babe Ruth

How to Hold Your Breath Longer Than Houdini

On Longer and Better Life

Living Forever: Vaccines, Bleeding, and Other Fun

Closing Thoughts

Closing Thoughts: The Trojan Horse

Appendices and Extras

Helpful Measurements and Conversions

Getting Tested—From Nutrients to Muscle Fibers

Muscles of the Body

The Value of Self-Experimentation

Spotting Bad Science 101: How Not to Trick Yourself

Spotting Bad Science 102: So You Have a Pill . . .

The Slow-Carb Diet—194 People

Sex Machine II: Details and Dangers

The Meatless Machine I: Reasons to Try a Plant-Based Diet for Two Weeks

The Meatless Machine II: A 28-Day Experiment

Bonus Material

Spot Reduction Revisited: Removing Stubborn Thigh Fat

Becoming Brad Pitt: Uses and Abuses of DNA

The China Study: A Well-Intentioned Critique

Heavy Metal: Your Personal Toxin Map

The Top 10 Reasons Why BMI Is Bogus

Hyperclocking and Related Mischief: How to Increase Strength 10% in One Workout

Creativity on Demand: The Promises and Dangers of Smart Drugs

An Alternative to Dieting: The Bodyfat Set Point and Tricking the Hypothalamus

Get The 4-Hour Body for less than $15 by clicking here

Get The 4-Hour Body, plus $113 in total bonuses, for $19 by clicking here.

Back to Top

How to Use This Book

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, 10 P.M., FRIDAY

Shoreline Amphitheater was rocking. More than 20,000 people had turned out at northern California's largest music venue to hear Nine Inch Nails, loud and in charge, on what was expected to be their last tour.

Backstage, there was more unusual entertainment.

"Dude, I go into the stall to take care of business, and I look over and see the top of Tim's head popping above the divider. He was doing f*cking air squats in the men's room in complete silence."

Glenn, a videographer and friend, burst out laughing as he reenacted my technique. To be honest, he needed to get his thighs closer to parallel.

"Forty air squats, to be exact," I offered.

Kevin Rose, founder of Digg, one of the top-500 most popular websites in the world, joined in the laughter and raised a beer to toast the incident. I, on the other hand, was eager to move on to the main event.

In the next 45 minutes, I consumed almost two full-size barbecue chicken pizzas and three handfuls of mixed nuts, for a cumulative total of about 4,400 calories. It was my fourth meal of the day, breakfast having consisted of two glasses of grapefruit juice, a large cup of coffee with cinnamon, two chocolate croissants, and two bear claws.

The more interesting portion of the story started well after Trent Reznor left the stage.

Roughly 72 hours later, I tested my bodyfat percentage with an ultrasound analyzer designed by a physicist out of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Charting the progress on my latest experiment, I'd dropped from 11.9% to 10.2% bodyfat, a 14% reduction of the total fat on my body, in 14 days.

How? Timed doses of garlic, sugar cane, and tea extracts, among other things.

The process wasn't punishing. It wasn't hard. Tiny changes were all it took. Tiny changes that, while small in isolation, produced enormous changes when used in combination.

Want to extend the fat-burning half-life of caffeine? Naringenin, a useful little molecule in grapefruit juice, does just the trick.

Need to increase insulin sensitivity before bingeing once per week? Just add some cinnamon to your pastries on Saturday morning, and you can get the job done.

Want to blunt your blood glucose for 60 minutes while you eat a high-carb meal guilt-free? There are a half-dozen options.

But 2% bodyfat in two weeks? How can that be possible if many general practitioners claim that it's impossible to lose more than two pounds of fat per week? Here's the sad truth: most of the one-size-fits-all rules, this being one example, haven't been field-tested for exceptions.

You can't change your muscle fiber type? Sure you can. Genetics be damned.

Calories in and calories out? It's incomplete at best. I've lost fat while grossly overfeeding. Cheesecake be praised.

The list goes on and on.

It's obvious that the rules require some rewriting.

That's what this book is for.

Diary of a Madman

The spring of 2007 was an exciting time for me.

My first book, after being turned down by 26 out of 27 publishers, had just hit the New York Times bestseller list and seemed headed for #1 on the business list, where it landed several months later. No one was more dumbfounded than me.

One particularly beautiful morning in San Jose, I had my first major media phone interview with Clive Thompson of Wired magazine. During our pre-interview small chat, I apologized if I sounded buzzed. I was. I had just finished a 10-minute workout following a double espresso on an empty stomach. It was a new experiment that would take me to single-digit body-fat with two such sessions per week.

Clive wanted to talk to me about e-mail and websites like Twitter. Before we got started, and as a segue from the workout comment, I joked that the major fears of modern man could be boiled down to two things: too much e-mail and getting fat. Clive laughed and agreed. Then we moved on.

The interview went well, but it was this offhand joke that stuck with me. I retold it to dozens of people over the subsequent month, and the response was always the same: agreement and nodding.

This book, it seemed, had to be written.

The wider world thinks I'm obsessed with time management, but they haven't seen the other—much more legitimate, much more ridiculous—obsession.

I've recorded almost every workout I've done since age 18. I've had more than 1,000 blood tests performed since 2004, sometimes as often as every two weeks, tracking everything from complete lipid panels, insulin, and hemoglobin A1c, to IGF-1 and free testosterone. I've had stem cell growth factors imported from Israel to reverse "permanent" injuries, and I've flown to rural tea farmers in China to discuss Pu-Erh tea's effects on fat-loss. All said and done, I've spent more than $250,000 on testing and tweaking over the last decade.

Just as some people have avant-garde furniture or artwork to decorate their homes, I have pulse oximeters, ultrasound machines, and medical devices for measuring everything from galvanic skin response to REM sleep.

The kitchen and bathroom look like an ER.

If you think that's craziness, you're right. Fortunately, you don't need to be a guinea pig to benefit from one.

Hundreds of men and women have tested the techniques in

The 4-Hour Body – Official Movie Trailer

"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to reform."

- Mark Twain, 1904 notebook

For The 4-Hour Body, I wanted to do things a little differently. The above video trailer is one of those things.

It was directed, edited, and animated by the incredible Adam Patch. Detailed bios of the athletes featured are coming in a more in-depth "behind the scenes" post on how the video was made.

The music is a new track — Splinter — from one of my all-time favorite bands, Sevendust. How did I finally connect with them? Through Twitter with your help, of course :) Sincere thanks to the uber-consigliere Aaron Ray at The Collective in LA for making the permissions happen.

I wrote at least 50% of the new book to Sevendust's music, depending heavily on the latest Cold Day Memory album and their virtuosic live acoustic album, Southside Double-Wide.

So, what do you think of the trailer? I was even considering doing some Ninja Scroll-style animated shorts.

Should I do more video or animation? For a rare change, I ask that you don't tell me here…

Please let me know in the video comments on YouTube! (There are even some amusing haters you can chat with) For a host of reasons, I only have 24 hours left to make the video "pop" on YouTube, and comments are extremely helpful for this, as is traffic and views.

Please take 30 seconds to share your thoughts and help a brother out!

But for the readers: need a winter escape, trip across the world, or 48 hours with me? Quite a lot coming in the next few posts…

Engineering a "Muse": Case Studies of Successful Cash-Flow Businesses

This post has been in the works for a while.

One common challenge for readers of The 4-Hour Workweek is the creation of a "muse": a low-maintenance business that generates significant income. Such a muse is leveraged to finance your ideal lifestyle, which we calculate precisely based on Target Monthly Income (TMI).

In the last four years, I've received hundreds of successful case studies via e-mail, and more than 1,000 new businesses were created during a recent Shopify competition, but I've presented only a handful of a case studies. Here are a few dozen we've covered:

How to Sell 10,000 iPad Cases at $60 Each (and Other Lessons Learned)

18 Real-World Lifestyle Design Case Studies [VIDEOS]

In this post, I'll showcase four successful muses inspired by The 4-Hour Workweek, including lessons learned, what worked, and what didn't…

In the comments, please let me know: Is this helpful, and would you like more of these posts? What's missing? If you'd like to submit your own muse for being highlighted, please see the end of this post.

All suggestions are welcome, and I hope you enjoy these as much as I did.

"EarPeace" by Jay Clark

Describe your muse in 1-3 sentences.

EarPeace improves any loud live music or nightlife experience. EarPeace is high fidelity hearing protection that turns down the volume without distorting the sound, it's virtually invisible, comfortable, reusable, and comes in fantastic packaging.

What is the website for your muse?

http://www.earpeace.com

How much revenue is your muse currently generating per month (on average)?

$5,000 – $10,000 per month

How did you decide on this muse?

My muse solved my problem. I spent carnival in Port of Spain with my beautiful Trinidadian girlfriend and danced for days in costume next to tractor trailers converted to giant rolling speaker stacks. We recovered in Tobago and the ringing in my ears was louder than the waves. I turned to her and asked if she had ever seen 'stylish' hearing protection. She hadn't. Right then I found my muse.

After all the research, I was confident I could inexpensively design a better product, deliver superior marketing, and construct an infrastructure that would run itself. EarPeace solved the three major problems that people have with hearing protection – it destroys sound quality, looks stupid, and isn't comfortable. When you use EarPeace, live music is crystal clear (you can even hear your friends), people can't see you wear it (color of your skin and very low profile), and they are very comfortable (and reusable – high value!). I could also wrap it in beautiful packaging and keep a reasonable margin. And, it's small, inexpensive to ship, and easy to maintain inventory. EarPeace has proven itself a winner.

What ideas did you consider but reject, and why?

I was on the verge of opening a yoga studio in Amsterdam. In January 2008, I flew to Amsterdam to do the final walk-throughs, meetings with business attorneys, real estate agents, real estate attorneys, pay roll processors, personnel managers, accountants, special accountants, other people to help me stay in code for the byzantine list of regulations around hiring people and paying them, and the list goes on… TO OPEN A YOGA STUDIO (insert total exasperation). I read half of "The 4-Hour Workweek" on the way out, and the other half on the way home. I knew right then that the yoga studio (especially in Amsterdam) was not the way. I spent the first two weeks of October 2008 in southern China doing factory tours for EarPeace.

What were some of the main tipping points (if any) or "A-ha!" moments? How did they come about?

The main A-ha moment was the realization that I couldn't be tied down to a space. A yoga studio (as much as I love my practice) makes you immobile. I grew up overseas and the wanderlust is still strong. I have to run my business from anywhere. EarPeace allowed me to do that.

The other tipping points were making the right decisions about staying tethered to the corporate mother ship. Overdoing it on vacation and taking as much unpaid leave as possible were critical.

What were your biggest mistakes, or biggest wastes of time/money?

Over-ordering inventory. This was the biggest mistake. As soon as you get your first run of product, you are already tweaking it and making it better. Bargain and promise the moon on future sales, and keep the inventory low. On the second order (blister packed EarPeace for venues), I over did it. Thank BUDDHA the initial run of boxed EarPeace for internet sales are still almost perfect.

What have been your key marketing and/or manufacturing lessons learned?

Ask as many smart people for their opinion as you can. The forest quickly gets lost for the trees when you are in the thick of operational, distribution, creative, and financial decision-making. Give 5% of the company to a couple of clutch advisers that will give you 1-2 hours per week to review strategy, make introductions, and help drive sales. You CAN NOT do it all by yourself. There are so many marketing communications decisions that make it impossible to do everything alone. And, as quickly as possible, hire someone part-time to do continuous PR.

Any key PR wins? Media, well-known users, or company partnerships, etc.? How did they happen?

- "A Ringing Endorsement for Earplugs" on Mashable

- Patrick Dierson on the Jay-Z tour

- The Bowery Presents venues in NYC carry EarPeace

- Thievery Corporation has custom EarPeace

- I am making custom EarPeace for SXSW

These all happened through adviser introductions, lots of blind phone calls, and PR. And, being out there. EarPeace had a presence at every major music festival in the late summer. That is a phenomenal work lifestyle.

If you were to do it all over again, what would you do differently?

I would have brought on advisers sooner, ordered less inventory to enable faster product innovation, and spent more money on PR.

What's next?!

EarPeace is a great product. I am very proud of it. It really works and it's designed uniquely enough that competing 'high-fidelity' products just can't touch it for normal lifespan. We're going to transition EarPeace into a consumer, mass-market product. Right now it's still relatively niche, but EVERYONE needs this. Foam earplugs are great for sleeping, for instance, but you need hearing protection when you are out and about all the time. Whether it's the movies, the basketball stadium, a loud bar, a restaurant, or the subway. We still need to hear, we just need to turn down the volume. EarPeace does that, discretely, and in a high value way. I want EarPeace at CVS, Walgreens, and Wal-Mart by the end of next year.

Then, I'm taking a break. I'm going back to my favorite Vipassana retreat in Thailand. When I come out after 10 days of no speaking, 10 hours of meditation and 2 hours of yoga per day, and fabulous vegetarian food… the next muse will have manifested itself.

"Summer Jasmines" by Alissa Kraisosky

Describe your muse in 1-3 sentences.

My muse is a foldable, compactable evening and pedicure sandal. It is patent pending, is launched in the US and currently launching in Japan.

What is the website for your muse?

http://www.summerjasmines.com

How much revenue is your muse currently generating per month (on average)?

$1,000 – $2,500 per month

How did you decide on this muse?

I had read Tim's book on a flight back from a Paris vacation in 2007. I was stuck in a job that was getting more toxic, and Tim's book got me excited again – kind of like when I was in college and felt like anything was possible. About a year later, necessity became the mother of invention. My feet were hurting walking back to my hotel at a Las Vegas convention center. I wished there was a stylish shoe I could just pull out of an evening bag and wear for comfort. I also wanted something that would easily separate the toes during a pedicure. I pulled out Tim's book and re-read the chapters on starting a muse, and voilà!

I also used PRLeads and HARO to gain exposure for the product (as mentioned in the book). The idea was put into motion, and Summer Jasmines has since appeared in the Style Network website, attracted the attention of celebrity stylists, and is in the hands of Paris Hilton.

What ideas did you consider but reject, and why?

I thought about doing something in the medical field (my day job is as a physician-psychiatrist) but read Tim's experiences with BrainQuicken and decided against it. I didn't want to do something that was too similar to my day job.

What were some of the main tipping points (if any) or "A-ha!" moments? How did they come about?

I was walking back to my hotel from a convention in Las Vegas and my feet were killing me – that was my "A-ha!" moment. I did not want to walk back barefoot, so I limped back to the hotel with my uncomfortable shoes on. I did some searching online and found nothing similar to what I developed. I wanted a shoe that could be worn in emergencies, but also daily or to pedicures.

What were your biggest mistakes, or biggest wastes of time/money?

I hired a PR agency, but found they needed micromanaging and it was not helpful at all. I did much better with Tim's recommendations in the book, such as HARO and PRLeads.

What have been your key marketing and/or manufacturing lessons learned?

My product needs to really be demonstrated or else it just seems like another shoe that's joining the masses.

Any key PR wins? Media, well-known users, or company partnerships, etc.?

Joe Robinson at "Entrepreneur" magazine recently interviewed me on surviving multitasking and setting boundaries. Again, it happened via PRLeads, recommended by Tim.

If you were to do it all over again, what would you do differently?

I would have not hired the PR firm.

What's next?!

I want to keep designing more shoes, and figuring out how to integrate this into medicine to increase wellness. I know it will happen somehow!

"Hewley L-Carnitine Shampoo" by Daniel Bradley

Describe your muse in 1-3 sentences.

Hewley products (L-Carnitine Shampoo and Saw Palmetto Conditioner) help men and women combat thin, lifeless and limp hair with a daily 2-step regimen for thicker, healthier hair, as well as new hair growth.

What is the website for your muse?

http://www.hewley.com

How much revenue is your muse currently generating per month (on average)?

$2,500 – $5,000 per month

How did you decide on this muse?

We did research on scientific journals and studies with respect to stimulating blood flow to the scalp. We discovered some exciting results and found that there was a viable niche, and that the pricing of the products allowed for necessary margins.

What ideas did you consider but reject, and why?

Our first muse concept was fish oil. We found a great Icelandic company that has a terrific product that they would sell to us in bulk. We tested the concept using 4HWW tools, but found there was too much competition and not enough differentiation.

What were some of the main tipping points (if any) or "A-ha!" moments? How did they come about?

The main tipping point was finding that we could 'name' our product with an exciting and key ingredient and also own the domain (e.g., L-Carnitine Shampoo – the domain lcarnintineshampoo.com was available). Tying together the domain and the product name seemed like a great way to 'own' a niche. We then realized that having a 'brand" (in our case Hewley) would add the flexibility of playing around with our products and product line.

What were your biggest mistakes, or biggest wastes of time/money?

The biggest trouble has been trying to outsource website design work. We outsourced our product label design to a great firm, and are super excited about the results. But in the web design world, we've not had the best luck. We've tried a few firms on eLance and a couple of Shopify designers, but we struggled with finding a designer who knew how to 'design' for maximum conversion. This has been our biggest waste of time and money.

[Note from Tim: This is where advisors can be very helpful. First, have an advising conversion expert help you put together "wireframes" or sketches of pages that should convert (using pen and paper, or something like Balsamiq). Then have a designer implement and add aesthetic flavor, after which you have a developer chop it up and create the functioning site.]

We are still struggling with the concept of a brand.  We probably would have stuck to 'L-Carnitine Shampoo' instead of 'Hewley.'  Getting people to understand what Hewley is will ultimately be a positive for us, but right now it's just a hurdle to get over.

What have been your key marketing and/or manufacturing lessons learned?

Twitter! There are firms out there that will manage your Twitter account for $1500+ per month (yikes!). We found SocialOomph and a couple other firms that troll for followers for about $50/month.  In one month, they helped us build our Twitter following from 10 to 1,400 followers, and it is now a major source of traffic to our website.

We also used a marketer on eLance to develop a brochure for us. That saved us a lot of time, and the marketer knew how to use clear, concise, and powerful language.  The brochure came out great!

Any key PR wins? Media, well-known users, or company partnerships, etc.? How did they happen?

We are going to be featured in an upcoming issue of Aspen magazine. It came about by reaching out to a rep from the magazine and showing her the brochure. We have also been approached by other sites looking to add our product, but are cautious to protect our margins (4HWW).

If you were to do it all over again, what would you do differently?

We would have had our product manufactured faster.  We spent too much time in "test mode" by mixing and fulfilling orders on our own. Once this was automated, it was a huge weight off our backs. We could focus on selling and marketing instead of fulfilling.

What's next?!

We have learned so much since we started.  We've been working with a chemist on a much-improved product that includes a concentrated serum, and it's backed up by some pretty impressive results. We will be rolling this out early next year, and couldn't be more excited!

"Shred Soles" by Nate Musson

Describe your muse in 1-3 sentences.

Comfortable, canted, performance, snowboard boot insoles.

What is the website for your muse?

http://www.shredsoles.com

How much revenue is your muse currently generating per month (on average)?

$1,000 – $2,500 per month

How did you decide on this muse?

I had the idea for this product in the back of my mind since winter of 2005. After reading 4HWW in 2007, I started to hand-make and test different degrees of canted insoles in my snowboarding boots. I know it sounds cliché, but the idea was kind of like an itch that wouldn't go away – I just had to keep taking steps towards it, and 4HWW gave me the "road map" along the way! I also felt that this product could fit the 4HWW muse criteria, so I went with it.

What ideas did you consider but reject, and why?

I'd considered making a more versatile, non-canted, non-snowboarding specific insole with cool art printed on it. It would have been way easier to make, but I just didn't feel that it was niche enough. I really wanted to have something that was snowboarding-specific.

What were some of the main tipping points (if any) or "A-ha!" moments? How did they come about?

First, my own personal testing. I personally made and tried out hundreds of different insoles with different degrees of canting. Second, the affirmation that I was on to something by a professional boot fitter whose classes I'd attended. I kind of had to dance around the topic since I didn't have a patent at the time. Third, customer feedback! The very first online sale happened before I even had inventory or marketed the site (the site wasn't even done!).  I had to send the customer my last sample in my size. A couple months later, he emailed me with this unsolicited feedback: "After 2 foot surgeries, I didn't think my feet would be able to handle snowboarding, but thanks to the Shred Soles, I'm carving up the mountain. Thanks again."

What were your biggest mistakes, or biggest wastes of time/money?

$600 phone call to a trademark attorney just to have him tell me that "I'll never be able to trademark Shred Soles." He was wrong. I just kept pursuing it with the USPTO and it worked out. Paying for services that I didn't need yet (or ever), like shopping carts, 1-800#, and a podcasting account. Buying business cards too early, and now the info on them is outdated. Getting stuck on patents and trademarks and not moving forward with the rest of the business because I was concerned that they wouldn't work out.

What have been your key marketing and/or manufacturing lessons learned?

Manufacturing- Keep making calls/emails until you find the right fit. I made 30 or more manufacturing contacts until I found the right one! I had guys tell me that what I was trying to do was stupid, impossible, and that it's just not the way things are done!

Marketing- Facebook ads and fan page, Twitter, Email list, submitting to product reviews, posting in snowboarding forums, and a little SEO!

Any key PR wins? Media, well-known users, or company partnerships, etc.? How did they happen?

I've got some big coverage lined up with the #1 snowboarding magazine through a lucky industry connection. Shred Soles has also been covered by the #1 and #2 independent snowboarding bloggers.

If you were to do it all over again, what would you do differently?

I'd get set up with a mastermind group from the start! That alone would have made the biggest overall impact in every area of the business, IMO!

What's next?!

The new site just went up, and it has a much cleaner look! I'm going to add some new items into the mix (socks, for instance), as well as a new secret product!  I'd love to do some kind of information product in the future, and have a couple of ideas on the back burner.

###

IMPORTANT AFTERWORD:

Do you have a successful muse that's generating more than $1,000 per month?

Please tell me about it! If it stands out (meaning you give specific details of lessons learned and what's worked vs. what didn't), I'm happy to promote you and help further increase your revenue. If you qualify and this sounds like fun, please fill out this form here.

Both physical and digital goods are welcome, as are services, as long as they're low-maintenance, income-generating "muses" as described in The 4-Hour Workweek.

How to Become a Model Photographer in Brazil

Photo: Jeremiah Thompson

Before hiring one of my assistants, Charlie, I asked him where he wanted to be in 6 and 12 months.

I made him define what he wanted to have and what he wanted to do in both timeframes. At the top of the list was a mini-retirement to Thailand or South America.

Done and done.

Charlie just returned three weeks ago from Buenos Aires. It was there he developed a rather keen interest in Brazilian girls, who were visiting Argentina as tourists. Two weeks ago at around 2am, while preparing the new book launch at my house, he somehow accidentally (riiiiight) got stuck in a Flickr slideshow of Brazilian models.

The photos belonged to someone named Jeremiah Thompson.

Digging a little deeper, it turned out that Jeremiah had an incredible story. Two years ago, he decided he wanted to become a professional photographer of Brazilian bikini models. That, and he wanted to get married. Despite the fact that he was from Montana and had no training, he made both happen in record time.

This is his story…

An Interview with Jeremiah Thompson

What's your background?

I was born in Missoula, Montana, a small college town in the heart of the Rocky Mountains. My Dad was a colonel in the Army so I grew up all over the place, including a couple of stints in Germany. I definitely have a strong entrepreneurial background and have been in business in one form or another all my life, starting at a very young age. The internet has helped me open up .

Did you have much experience as a photographer?

If I thought I could make it rich taking photos, I would have gone into this profession a long time ago. But really, photography has always just been a hobby.

How did you choose Brazil as your destination?

Learning how to surf was, believe it or not, a real stepping stone in my life. About four years ago, I learned how to surf behind an artificial wave put up by a wakeboarding boat. I really got into the sport and wanted to carry my surfing aspirations into the ocean. I narrowed my choices down to Australia and Brazil. A 15-minute phone call to Hans Keeling of Nexus Surf convinced me that Florianopolis, Brazil would be the perfect place for me to go.

[Editor: Some of you might recall that Hans, a recovered ex-lawyer, is a case study in The 4-Hour Workweek]

How did the calendar idea come about?

Arriving in Florianopolis in January of 2008, I was amazed by the sheer quantity of beautiful women — they were everywhere! I'd always had this dream of photographing models, so it was a perfect opportunity to make that dream come true.  I coined the calendar name "Girls of Brazil" and so the adventure began. Then I just needed to find the models.

Photo: Jeremiah Thompson

So, how and where did you find the models?

The first model really set everything into motion.

I was hanging out with Hans Keeling (the owner of Nexus Surf) at Praia Mole Beach, when we passed a super sexy woman working at a fresco paddle rental stand. I had already mentioned my swimsuit calendar idea to Hans, and he happens to speak perfect Portuguese. I asked him if he would help me talk to her and pitch the idea. At this point, I had no product or business cards — just a pair of board shorts, my camera, and some photos of wildlife I had taken in Montana. But that was all I needed. It worked. She agreed to meet me the next day! She was even going to hitchhike to my house at 5:00 AM! I convinced her to let me pick her up, and we shot the next day from 5:30 AM till 8:30 PM. It was a great start to my project.

Photo: Jeremiah Thompson

After that, I found most of the girls on my own, speaking to them in very basic (if not completely broken) Portuguese. I was able to find girls almost everywhere – at the beaches, clubs, supermarkets, walking down the street, and even online. It was too easy. Once I had a few great shots under my belt, I was able to show these same photos to other girls, and most wanted to participate just to get their own pictures taken.

Were they professional models?

The girls were, for the most part, your everyday gals. I did shoot one girl who was actually an international model. I found her while I was driving down the street. I jumped out of my car, chased after her, and asked if she wanted to participate. You would think someone like that would laugh at me, but she ended up making the photos:

Photo: Jeremiah Thompson

Quite a few of the models had experience as event girls. I had the best luck finding those girls online.

But my best photos came from the girls with no professional experience. They always came to the shoots with the most energy. Their openness allowed me more freedom to infuse my own ideas into the photo shoot. This definitely made things more fun, and the results were always great.

Did you pay them for the shoots?

During the first year, I never paid any of the models. By the second year, I started paying a little. I had been dating one of the models and she helped me realize that many of the girls were actually using their own money just to prepare for the photos. They were paying to get their hair done, manicures/pedicures, new bikinis, etc. It was expensive. I started paying them 500 Brazilian reais, which amounted to approximately $250 US dollars. And because I shot many of the girls multiple times, it was a very small price to pay. However, I'm convinced that even if I didn't pay anything, I would have just as much success or possibly even more. The girls, especially in the first year, really got excited about the opportunity, even though there was no money involved.

Critics might say you were taking advantage of them. What would you say to that?

One of the cool things about this project is the success they've had using my photos afterward.

Four of the girls went on to pose for Playboy Brasil. One of the girls got hired on as a dancer for the top television show in Brazil on Sunday afternoons. Many got modeling jobs. And they've all appreciated the opportunity, so that's one of the best things about doing this.

Furthermore, it is not as if I was making money myself. The first few years of this project were big losses. Frankly I couldn't afford to pay the girls to participate. This was a project I started more out of my desire to be a swimsuit photographer than to make another dollar. The girls loved the project and the photos. Many participated in multiple years. There weren't any victims here.

Photo: Jeremiah Thompson

For those who've dreamed about being a swimsuit photographer but have never had the chance, can you describe the atmosphere of a shoot?

The atmosphere is definitely one of the best things. It starts when the girls come to my house. I need to see them in their bikinis before we head out so I can prepare for the shoot. In the first year, all of the girls used their own bikinis and that worked great 90% of the time. But I started buying bikinis for the girls in year two. So the first step was always to pick out the best bikinis. We would usually find 2-4 bikinis that we would take to the shoot. After that, we either walked to a nearby local beach or took my car to a more private beach.

Usually, we would arrive before sunrise. This meant the girls had been up since 2:30 AM preparing! I typically rolled out of bed around 5:00 AM. Not an easy thing to do, but when the moment comes and those first rays of light hit a beautiful girl in a tiny bikini, it's worth it.

Photo: Jeremiah Thompson

Posing the girls was always the most difficult part. I wanted to bring out the best in each girl. I would put them through as many poses as possible, mentally noting how they looked best. Then when the best lighting conditions occurred, I would get the girls into what I already knew would be their best pose. This system worked great.

After the shoots, the first question from the girls was always: "When will the photos be ready?"

They were thrilled to have shots for their portfolio that would otherwise have cost them at least a week's pay.

Were there any methods you used to produce better results (i.e. humor to loosen up the model, etc.)?

I enjoyed bringing out the genuine smiles of each girl.

Most model photos always have that super serious look, which is supposed to be sexy. I don't know if I'm different in this regard, but I always enjoy seeing a girl's smile more. So for half the photos, I would get the girls smiling their biggest smiles possible, and the other half I would let them revert to that serious but "sexy" look you see in all the magazines. Getting the girls to smile was easy: I would just say "mais sexo!" For two years I thought that phrase meant "sexier!" but I guess it really means "more sex!" So it usually made the girls laugh before going into an even sexier pose. That's how I discovered the girls' natural smile and how great it looked in the photos.

Photo: Jeremiah Thompson

What have been some of the more memorable moments from your shoots?

I've shot something like 30-40 girls now, and there are so many memories with each girl.

Fernanda was my first model and she will always be one of the best memories of this project. Actually, the first photo I took of her is, to this day, one of the best I have ever taken:

Photo: Jeremiah Thompson

Then there was Iris, who showed up an hour and a half late to our shoot. We jumped in my car and she changed into her bikini as I sped off. When we arrived at the beach, I quickly put her into a pose, and we made this photo [below] in about 10 minutes. It was not a minute too soon, as the sun set right after.

Photo: Jeremiah Thompson

When I think about how much preparation goes into a Sports Illustrated shoot and compare it to some of the photos I've taken, I'm amazed by the results I've had as a one-man operation. It really is a credit to the beauty of these girls and the environment I am working with down in Brazil.

Last but not least, there's Dayana. 

She and I ended up getting married, so how could I not mention this as one of my best memories?!  We were really connected right from the beginning. It was a goal of mine to find a woman like Dayana to marry, so having this dream come true as a result of this project was incredible, to say the least.

Photo: Jeremiah Thompson

Photo: Jeremiah Thompson

What sales channels have you used for distribution of the calendar?

I've never had the opportunity of getting into the main calendar distribution channels, due to my lateness of releasing the calendars.  I learned afterward that most calendars get released almost a year before the calendar year.

That meant the calendar had been shot as early as two years before. Since I was doing this more for fun than to make money, I decided to release the calendars as close to the calendar year as possible. The models were happy with this, as they didn't have to wait two years to see their photos debut.  It wasn't smart business on my part, but again, I wasn't doing the project to make the most money.

Having said that, we've enjoyed being one of the top calendars through Amazon for a couple of years now. We're giving "Sports Illustrated" a run for their money (at least with Amazon) and I feel a great amount of pride seeing that and knowing how small my operation is compared to them.

Have you done any unique promotions to get the word out?

In 2009, we sent 20,000 calendars to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2010, we sent approximately 3,000 (I was working with a bigger personal budget in 2009 than in 2010). I hope to get these numbers back up in future years if I stay involved in the project. I always get troop requests and have a list of soldiers who have already requested their copies for 2011. It feels great helping these guys out. Hopefully seeing the beautiful girls on their walls keeps them motivated to stay strong and finish out their missions safe.

What's the "Girls of Brazil" contest you mentioned to me?

The idea behind the contest is to give someone the chance to live the dream of being a swimsuit photographer. There really is no better place than Brazil for this.

I'd help the lucky winner of this contest along with each step. First, we'll recruit the girls and find the models he'll be shooting. Then I'll give him my camera equipment and teach him how to photograph the girls. The winner will be shooting the girls on his own, but I'll be around if he needs my help. And afterward, we'll celebrate the results "Brazilian style"!

The contest doesn't exist yet, but I'm hoping to get sponsored by a magazine who can feature it. It would make a great story and fill several issues of their magazine with content guys will love.

That sounds like a once-in-a-lifetime experience. If a magazine doesn't pick up the contest, perhaps we can make it happen :)

—

So, how did his calendars turn out? Take a look at Girls of Brazil website or visit Amazon.  If you want a taste of his photos on Facebook, here's your fix.

Question of the Day (QOD): If you're happily married, how did you meet your husband or wife, and do you think someone could engineer the same? Share in the comments!

###

Odds and Ends: Blogging Lessons and New Stickers

This post produced a lot of strong responses. Please see my comments below in orange, as well as Jeremiah's. Related to that, here are a few guidelines I follow while blogging:

Blog Lesson 1 – Please Everyone to Interest No One



If this post put your knickers in a twist, before leaving a snarky comment, realize this: when everyone is your customer, no one is your customer. This is true in business and writing. Bloggers often make the mistake of trying to generalize every post to every person. This is slow suicide and results in plain vanilla posts that offend no one and interest roughly the same. Expect that blog to disappear within two years, whether from reader attrition or blogger boredom.

I prefer to write posts that strongly appeal to at least a portion of my readers, and simply rotate to hit different demographics/psychographics with different posts. If I perfectly hit the nail on the head by educating (or entertaining) 20% of my readership, and they share it with their friends, does it matter if I lose 2-5%? Not in my experience. From what I've seen, this is precisely how you build an uberstrong community comprised of readers who actually speak their minds and show an unusual degree of tolerance (by Internet standards, at least).

If you'd like to read the female perspective on the mating and marrying game, here's another post on this very same blog.

Blog Lesson 2- Strategic Redating of Posts

Some of you have asked, where did the last two posts go? The posts on GetGlue stickers and book promotion parties?

Here's the answer: I redated them in WordPress so they wouldn't appear on the homepage. Once time-dependent promotional posts have been up for 48-72 hours, and my core audience has seen them, I redate them, as these posts aren't valuable to new visitors. There's only one chance to make a first impression, so I always want strong stand-alone content to dominate my blog homepage. I'd used redating in this fashion for more than two years. Some bloggers go so far as to ensure one of their most popular posts is always displayed first on the homepage, followed then by their most recent.

Hope that explains things.

Eat drink and be merry. Happy Thanksgiving!

New Stickers – The 4-Hour Body

The 4-Hour Body is almost exactly three weeks away, which means a new sticker from GetGlue! This one is of reader, Nathan. To learn how to get it (and all the others) for free, read this: