Steve’s 60th; My Ruckus/Rant; Advisor to Presidents; Summit Room Shortage – Book Now

"…out-learning the competition"

HEADLINES:

Urgent, Hotel Rooms — if you're planning to attend our upcoming gathering of scale-ups – our May 12 – 13 Leadership Summit co-hosted with Fortune — book your hotel rooms now. The hotel is already running low on May 12 and we're expecting another record group of CEOs and executives – the best scale-ups just keep getting smarter! Links and additional info below, but first…

Ruckusmaker Day — today would have been Steve Jobs' 60th birthday. In honor of Steve, marketing guru Seth Godin has declared it the first annual "Ruckusmaker Day." Seth announced this yesterday in his blog, encouraging people to have a point of view, the genius capacity he pins on Jobs. Take one minute to read Seth's inspirational blog and then speak up about something.

OK, so my Ruckus! — or really a question. Given that Mark Cuban reads three hours per day; given that Warren Buffett reads 500 pages per day; given that Mark Zuckerberg has set his personal goal in 2015 to read a book every two weeks; given that the most successful are learners; and given that we work tirelessly to identify the best biz authors of the best dozen books (Lean, Sales, Tribes, Billionaires, etc.), from the thousands printed each year, and bring these authors (listed below) to an affordable resort setting where you can absorb their ideas in 48 hours! – my question – why are some of you missing this opportunity to learn and network with some of the best mid-market scale-ups around the world? Are you nuts (OK, maybe a little strong, but I'm passionate about the power of learning)? We see the same super successful teams each time – so wondering if you simply don't feel invited or welcome. Please email me at [email protected] – I would love to learn. And read on to see if I can make a case for dropping everything and getting you and your team to our Summits twice/year – four days out of 365!

But We Can't Implement Any More Stuff — yes, we're all busy – and I imagine Zuckerberg and Buffett and Cuban have plenty on their plates. So why do they keep learning? It's about making sure you avoid the mistakes that come with NOT knowing. Nothing creative can come out of your brain that wasn't put in first. And learning isn't linear. It's about piling in as much as you can (Bill Gates' infamous Think Weeks) and then letting the magic happen. I never know when I'm going to need to access an idea – but I have to know about it in the first place.

We Don't Repeat Content — miss a Summit; miss an entire body of knowledge. We don't invite a speaker back unless they have new and original content aka a new book (like David Meerman Scott's new book on sales). And the goal is to bring gurus that have gone deep in a narrow topic, like Adam Grant with givers and takers. We promise more practical ideas per minute to scale up your business and life than any other executive education program you can find in the world (and several CEOs have tested this and confirmed).

Village of Gurus — Our belief is that it takes a "village of gurus" to scale-up a company. The Rockefeller Habits 2.0 doesn't have all the answers. Instead, it provides a framework upon which additional ideas can be layered. The Summits expose leaders to the authors of the most recent books, like The Self-Made Billionaire Effect, which just published a month ago. And it's much more powerful (and fun) to learn directly from the authors – and then read the book for additional details if warranted.

Most Important Two Days — going into our 14th year of hosting these Summits, we've had hundreds of executives tell us that our Summits are two of the most important days to scaling up their businesses (and many are now bringing along clients – two days to talk biz). Most of the ideas that have powered the decisions I've made have come from the Summits. Below is the outstanding faculty for the next Summit. And if you don't recognize these authors or books, this is an additional reason why you might consider attending. They are all bestsellers (so I'll not repeat that line for each book):

• Nir Eyal — author of Hooked: How to Build Habit Forming Products (the must-read book in Silicon Valley)
• Christine Comaford — serial entrepreneur and author of SmartTribes: How Teams Become Brilliant Together (Bill Gates calls her "super high bandwidth" and she has advised two US Presidents)
• John Sviokla — author of The Self-Made Billionaire Effect: How Extreme Producers Create Massive Value (John and his co-author have special access to these billionaires)
• David Meerman Scott — author of The New Rules of Sales and Service: How to Use Agile Selling, Real-Time Customer Engagement, Big Data, Content and Storytelling to Grow Your Business (David has done for sales in this book what he did for marketing in his first book).
• Paul Akers — author of 2 Second Lean: How to Grow People and Build a Fun Lean Culture at Work & at Home (this is some cool, simple, stuff – check him out on YouTube).
• Nick Nanton — 3 time Emmy Award winner and author of Story Selling: Hollywood Secrets Revealed How To Sell Without Selling (with over 2200 clients in 33 countries, Nick's firm has produced large scale events and television shows with the likes of Steve Forbes, Brian Tracy, President George H.W. Bush, Jack Canfield (Creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul Series), Michael E. Gerber, Tom Hopkins and many more.)
• John Warrillow — author of what I consider will be the best biz book in 2015, The Automatic Customer: Creating a Subscription Business in Any Industry, and;
• Me — author of Scaling Up (Rockefeller Habits 2.0): How a Few Companies Make It…and Why the Rest Don't

Plus Randy Nelson, author of The Second Decision, will be there to say a few words and sign books.

Please clear your (or someone on your team's) calendar and join 600+ CEOs and executives of leading scale-ups in Orlando, May 12 – 13 (8am – 5pm each day). And pencil in Oct 20 – 21, Dallas for the Growth Summit co-hosted with Fortune. Just $250/seat deposit to hold a spot – and seating based on first to register (and biggest teams).

Summit Hotel — even though there's an April 17 cut-off, the hotel alerted us that they are running low on rooms May 12. If you're planning to attend, grab rooms now.

See you and your team in Orlando (and Dallas).

TECHNOLOGY:

Better Book Club — What's your team reading? Increase your books read per team member. Easy, Proven, and in the Cloud at http://www.BetterBookClub.com.

Align Dashboard — Want to keep track of your plans and progress in the cloud? The complete Growth Tools and Rockefeller Habits disciplines in a SaaS offering.

COACHING:

Need help implementing the Rockefeller Habits?