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 I entered and completed seven fitness contests and lost eighty pounds because of one man — a man I finally got to meet a week or so ago.

I was a featured speaker at the World Wellness Weekend event in Austin, along with Marianne Williamson, Marci Shimoff, and Bill Phillips.

Bill Phillips created the Body for Life challenge over a decade ago. It was a brilliant movement to get people to transform their bodies and their lives in only twelve weeks.

His book became a six million copy bestseller and the movement captured the imagination of an estimated two million people.

I still remember reading his magazine, Muscle Media, and seeing all those before and after pictures of average people who were now stunning looking.

I got the bug and the dream, and went for it. I couldn’t complete the first two challenges. Working out and dieting for twelve weeks was too much for my mind and body at that time.

But when I combined the Body for Life system with the Mental Toughness Institute for Weight Control‘s support and education, I got results.

As I mentioned above, I entered and completed seven contests. I lost 80 pounds. And I received an honorable mention for one contest.

So you can imagine how much I wanted to meet the man behind all this: Bill Phillips.

My friend Mark Ryan and I went to the event on Friday night to set up my booth. I didn’t know it but Bill was speaking that night. We figured we’d go see the room where I’d be speaking on Sunday. As we wandered around, I thought I saw Bill Phillips over in the corner.

But the guy I saw looked too young. This might be Bill’s son, or younger brother. But not Bill. He looked like a California surfer dude. Was that Bill?

I tried not to stare but my eyes kept wandering back to the guy. I wanted to know if it was Bill. If so, he sure seemed unassuming, humble, and natural.

After a while he went on stage to have a sound check. That’s when I knew the young fella I had been watching was in fact my hero: the legend himself, Bill Phillips.

He wasn’t ready to speak yet so I felt this was my moment. I took a deep breath, looked at Mark, and said, “I’m going in.”

I took two steps up the stairs to the stage, looked at Bill and said, “My Phillips, I’m –”

“Hi Joe,” he said, smiling.

I almost fell down the steps.

“You know me?” I asked.

“Oh, I’m well aware of who you are.”

He was smiling a little sheepish, shy smile but his eyes glowed.

“How do you know me?” I asked, baffled that this fitness inspiration would know my name. “From the movie The Secret?”

“No, I knew you before that,” he said. “From your marketing books and methods.”

Now THAT was flattering.

The man behind one of the most legendary movements to get people in the gym, who’s marketing is brilliant, knew me from my marketing.

“I saw you in the movie, too” he said. “We call that movie the Joe and Michael show, since you and Michael Beckwith are the stand-outs in it.”

I was stunned.

But I also wanted Bill to know how he helped me.

“Bill, I want you to know you transformed my life. I entered your contest seven times and dropped eighty pounds.”

“No!” he exclaimed, truly impressed.

We made some small talk for a while, had our photos taken together, and exchanged information so we could stay in touch.

It was a historic moment for me: meeting one of the heroes of my life.

Thank you, Bill Phillips.

Ao Akua,

Joe
www.mrfire.com

PS — Bill has another movement in the works and another book coming out. He wants to transform the nation’s youth from childhood obesity to healthy and fit. See www.transformation.com 

Brian Clark just ran an interesting contest.

The idea behind his Twitter Writing Contest was simple: compose a story in exactly 140 characters and post it on Twitter. That’s it.

But notice the story had to be exactly 140 characters. No more. No less.

I loved the idea and told Brian I’d offer a signed copy of my book, Hypnotic Writing, to the winner. He agreed.

I just learned the winner was Derek Dysat.

His winning Twitter was:

The priest at the funeral home asked if she had been a loving mother. The children all stared at each other. The silence spoke volumes.

I wrote to Derek, congratulated him, and asked for his address.

He gave it. He then surprised me by saying, “I have to be honest and say I’m not familiar with any of your work, so I’m actually looking forward to the book.”

Not familiar with any of my work?

After writing about thirty books, being in five movies, appearing on national television, in countless newspapers and magazines, and running hundreds of websites and international publicity campaigns and writing hundreds of articles and blog posts, he never heard of me?

Never?

I’m not really surprised.

It’s a wake up call to all of us: you must keep marketing.

There’s an entire world of people who never heard of you (or me) who would probably like you, love you, or even buy from you.

But they never heard of you.

And they never heard of you because you’re not marketing enough.

Most people have a bad attitude toward marketing. But I’ve redefined it:

Marketing is sharing your love for what you do with the people who will most celebrate hearing about it.

Think about it.

Marketing to people who don’t care about your product or service is where marketing becomes tainted. People don’t like it. You can feel it. So you don’t like it, either.

But marketing to people who want to hear about your product or service, when you love your product or service, is true passion. It’s divine. And it’s a win-win you can celebrate.

I wrote back to Derek and said, “I’ll work harder on my marketing in the future.” 🙂

Ao Akua,

Joe
www.mrfire.com

PS – Brian Clark is at www.copyblogger.com He posts numerous wise ideas and insights about copywriting there. Well worth repeated visiting. Go see.

PPS – You can follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/mrfire 

 I’ve been waiting since last July — almost an entire year — for the release of Transformation, the documentary about est founder Werner Erhard.

It’s finally out and I finally saw it.

It’s riveting, inspiring, and unforgettable.

Seeing the old clips of Werner delivering est trainings in the 1970s, hearing him today, getting the inside story on how the media exploited him, was eye-opening.

I’m pleased to see Werner is still around and still awakening people.

He’s still ruthless in confronting people about forgiving the past, taking full responsibility for life, and taking a stand for something in the world.

That’s his mission and his calling, and he’s still walking his talk.

My biggest problem with the guy was he never smiled. Virtually all enlightened teachers smile.

At the end of this terrific film, as the credits are rolling, Werner says “There’s something great sitting in your chair,” and he smiles a little as he reflects on that exciting idea.

Get this movie.

See www.transformationfilm.com

And remember, there’s something great sitting in your chair.

Ao Akua,

Joe
www.mrfire.com

PS — Werner sold the rights to his est trainings to Landmark Education, which continues his work without his involvement through a course called The Forum. I’ve taken it. So has Nerissa. So have most of my Miracles Coaches. Check it out, too. www.landmarkeducation.com

  I guess it’s time to make my announcement.

This is not going to be easy…
 
I’ll just put it bluntly.
 
I had an encounter.
 
What if in one single moment… while walking down a deserted road, a flash of light and a burst of energy hits you and nearly sends you to the ground?
 
What if this power consumes your very being, and as quickly as it hit you, it leaves… but upon its exit, it leaves something inside of you?
 
Would you share this experience with others?
 
And what if… what if you were able to quickly snap two photos of what caused this?
 
Believe me, I thought a lot about keeping my encounter to myself.  I’ve never been one to fully believe some of the stories you often hear from people.
 
But what happened to me changed my life.
 
It changed my thinking. It changed my business.  It changed everything.
 
And I reveal everything here:

www.hypnoticmarketing.com/bignews/ 
 
Now at the very least, I need to address one of the most common questions that I see being asked since my last blof post.
 
The question is, what is “It”?
 
As you’ll see in my letter where I explain everything to you, “It” is actually many things.
 
And I’d be curious as to what you think “It” is after reading the story of how everything went down that warm, sunny day.

www.hypnoticmarketing.com/bignews/ 
 
If I had more time, there’s a lot more that I would like to talk to you about, but I have a lot going on today.

Ao Akua,

 Joe
www.mrfire.com

PS — I know. I know. It’s best to just go see www.hypnoticmarketing.com/bignews/

Circles…

Everywhere I looked, I kept seeing circles…

The flowers…

The drawings…

Some sort of mind control…

What happened to me that sunny afternoon was something that has taken me quite some time to get a grip on.

I mean… Why me?  Why did IT choose me?

However, I feel that it’s time for me to share this with you – although doing so is “high risk” because I know that if the local and national media learned about what happened to me, they’d be at my door within a hour.

I have thought about all of the consequences that I may be faced with in making this public.  And I have even thought about what is going to happen to the small town of Wimberley, Texas where this event on that sunny, Sunday afternoon took place.

I have no doubt that if this story reaches beyond this blog, the small quiet town of Wimberley may become a destination for thousands of people, including the media, all trying to find IT this coming weekend.

And what about my clients or my publishers?

What if they learn about what happened to me?

Will they believe me – or write me off completely?

So much at risk…

I cannot put into words how I feel.  I am torn in two because I want to share what happened to me, but on the other hand, in doing so, I understand that I am risking everything. 

Everything.

However, I have chosen to share it.  I feel that in making this public, this will become what I am known for, and I am OK with that.

Back on that sunny day, I left my house to go for a walk to take a break from what had been a very busy morning for me.

Fast forward about 45 minutes and I was running back inside my house to get my camera.

I was sweating…

I was cold…

My hands were shaking…

I went back outside to the exact location where I saw IT, and where IT happened to me, and I snapped two photos.

I still get chills up my spine remembering that day.  And as I write this to you, I’m staring at the two photos that I took that day – wondering what you’re going to think when I release the photos.

The photos are 100% real.  They have not been doctored.  They have not been edited.  Although many will question the photos if they reach the media.  I’m sure there will be investigations.

Before I made the final decision to make all of this public, I ran this by three of my friends during a weekly lunch meeting.

They didn’t believe me.  They thought I was joking around… but when I asked if they wanted to see the photos, their jaws dropped.

So after lunch, we went back to my house and I showed them the two photos that I took that day and also showed them what IT did to me.

Because we had been friends for so long, they knew that I wouldn’t have any reason for me to try and fake everything that happened to me that day.

We discussed everything that happened and brainstormed on what to do.  It was decided that I needed to share this with the world, even though the risks were high that no one would believe me.

And that’s what I’m going to do.  In order for me to prepare for what might become the busiest days of my life, I need a few days to prepare here.

If everything goes right, I am going to share EVERYTHING with you on this Friday, May 30th.

The photos… circles… drawings… flowers… what IT did to me…

All made public on May 30th, 2008 at:

www.hypnoticmarketing.com/bignews/

I can assure you, this is REAL.

Ao Akua,

Joe
www.mrfire.com

PS – Please don’t tell anyone else about this just yet. Thank you.