I'm advised each week by some of the most notable, distinguished business owners, writers, marketers and thinkers alive today.
Here's how I get Guy Kawasaki, Seth Godin, Chris Brogan, Valerie Maltoni (and more) to work for me:
- I created a free Google Reader account.
- I subscribed to the blogs of all of my favorite mentors by clicking on their feed. Feed buttons look like the radar button you see on websites (mine is right below my photo). Each time one of my mentors posts a new thought to their blog or website, I automagically receive it in my Google Reader.
- Within my Google Reader I created a folder and titled it 'The Board'.
- I scan these each week (sometimes twice a week) to look for articles that might be of benefit to me, I use Google Reader for my laptop and MobileRSS for my iPhone and iPad - most times I read these updates on my iPad, sometimes, I'll read them on my iPhone.
My board includes over forty people. You might think that's a bit much but it is easy to quickly scan the updates and decide what to read. You could also do something similar with Twitter. (My Twitter list of board members is here). I don't review my Twitter list often because I prefer to read the feeds from their blog; Twitter is more conversation than think tank, blogs are perfect vehicles for thought leadership.
My list features the aforementioned thinkers plus people like Dave Winer (technology) Doc Searls (educator), Mitch Joel and John Jantsch (marketing), Michael Hyatt and Ev Williams (business leaders), Jill Konrath (sales) and even writers like Margaret Atwood.
No meetings. No agendas. Only the sharpest, most intelligent minds advising me on a variety of topics every week.
Guess this would make me the Chairman of this illustrious board. Eat your heart out, Frank.
