I have said this many times before, but never have I felt it more than now: “I have the coolest list in the business!” (“List” is just marketing terms for subscribers and readers.) I have been utterly overwhelmed by the response my post from yesterday regarding the passing of my mom has received.

Obviously there’s no way to respond to every one of you, but I want you to know with utter sincerity how valuable each and every message is to me. How much this helps. How much value it holds. And how reassuring it is that in some small way I can touch or empower your life.

Basically I’m saying YOU have helped me to keep going. Do better. Raise my own standards. Give more to this “extended family” as I refer to it.

Let me be honest (as if I could do otherwise) — as some of you eluded, the Internet can be a cold and sterile place. One gentleman stated that he never trusts internet marketers… yet he did this one time I suppose. Earning your trust means the world to me. And I do ‘not’ consider myself an “internet marketer”—I’m a guy who is passionate about helping others live better and healthier lives who just so happens to (by necessity) employ marketing via the web. It’s no different than Sam’s marketing via the Sunday paper really. The bottom line is simple: Is what you’re delivering helping others or not?

I do love marketing as it’s just…well, fun. Kinda goofy in places. But it’s really fun to do when you know for a fact you’ll be delivering something of substance and quality. I always said I’d stand in the rain in a Girl Scout’s dress if it would help someone decide to buy a book I know would change their life. Just…well, don’t hold me to that one!

That being said, I’m really going to focus on taking care of you — my ‘extended family’ if you will — and that is a wonderfully rewarding process. I’ve been fortunate to be able to make a living doing what I love to do and helping others in the process. That will continue. In fact, work is a solace right now, and we already have exciting things in store for all of you in the coming weeks and months.

Life must go on, and that’s exactly what my mom would have wanted. She was one of the first “working women”—way ahead of her time in that regard. She learned morse code. She dove into a career when most women married right away (especially given her looks… ; )

Then she met my dad. Lights out. She said at that moment, “I’m with him.” Pretty amazing story really. Of course my father was a stud, so go figure. She never regretted that decision, and even went back to work before and after I was born. My dad? 36 years in the same job. Outside in the Texas heat and cold. Never missed a day. EVER.

Man, he was a rock.

I say these things to stress two issues: First, I was raised with a hell of a work ethic. I hope that shows in the quality of work I produce, at least most of the time. Second, I’m a real guy. Real values. Real everything. Don’t let the marketing fool you: It’s all true, to be sure, but the guy on the other side is, well, quite human.

That said, here’s an update on where I’m at with things many of you have been asking me about:

I’ll be in touch next week with some updates on the Second Edition of EODD which was put on sudden hold two weeks ago when all of this started and will be picked back up again this weekend as soon as my focus returns.

“Yes”, there is actually going to be a 7 Minute Muscle Body Transformation Contest. About 500 or so folks emailed about that as it leaked out in an interview I did. I can’t wait — this will be fun. We’re just working through the legalese and so-forth, but it’s for anyone who uses the 7 Minute Muscle System and has the will and passion to change their body over 90 days. The Grand Prize will be … well, there’s “7s” in there. I’ll put it that way. Details coming soon.

“Yes” to Scale The World — people have been asking about the upcoming videos. In case you have not gone through this free program I created (without my name on it except in the press release), just click here. For the past two years this free program has circled the world (ha) and you would not believe the mail I get. I can’t even read it most of the time as it’s just too much to take in.

I wanted to make this free, and did, so as many people could benefit from it as possible. I’ll make some of the videos free as well, but obviously filming 30 videos is expensive. Still… it will be affordable to just about anyone. I want to keep this as a gift to the world. Not to sound like an arrogant guy, but it’s the best gift I can give being a lowly writer. Heh. More than fitness, Scale The World is about our “personal mountains”. Feel free to go through the course now and enjoy the 32 days (35 actually) of free content. Let me know how it helps you out.

“Yes”—M-Power lives. And it’s about to live all 48 audios at a time. The work was done prior to the events of this month. Had a big announcement set up. Can’t wait to share this one with you all.

My “Top 500” get it free. My gift to you. Who are the Top 500? 250 are the oldest subscribers (not in age, but by date.) Some of you guys/gals have been around since 2004! You deserve this big-time.

The other 250 are the ones who have supported me and my books/products over the years the most. Again, you deserve it. But many of you already did M-Power.

If you went through M-Power already, I’d like to use your coupon and give it to someone who simply cannot afford to go through it at all. I’ll make sure you’re covered with a gift you can use.

My goal is to give away at least 100 memberships to those without jobs or on fixed income who are lucky enough to have a computer or access to one via the library. So let’s make that happen.

“Yes” — there actually IS a CoreAerobics.com DVD series coming out. No, really. My partner Clark Bartram was booked on a fitness and video tour in China for quite some time, and then all of this other stuff happened with my mom, so it too got pushed back. But we’re cranking it back up and you’ll be hearing about it very soon.

I get about 100 emails a week from people asking about “working out at home”, so Clark and I shot these DVDs on location in San Diego last year with a really “throw-back” style of core work (hence the word “aerobics”… very retro, very effective!) We built this to ensure that total beginners (5 minutes of work made for anyone in any shape, literally) to the truly advanced (45 minutes that I cannot even get through) would be something that’s fun and doable without any equipment, right in your den.

I’ve been excited about this for a while now. Putting it off wasn’t easy. After I get past this week, we’ll be back on track for release.

There’s more — including several free gifts I will be giving everyone on my lists. No strings man… just a sincere from the heart “thank you” for allowing me to do what I do, and for allowing me to help you do what you do even better.

In fact, I’m making it a policy to ensure at least a gift every quarter to everyone. Not a cheesy 5-page something or other, but something really valuable. I’ll figure it out.

Finally (wow, long blog…. sorry…) I want more interaction with you guys. Not just blogs — videos and audios.

So I want to set up a 100% always free Teleseminar for anyone who wants to come. I want to call it the Fitness Town Meeting. There are probably better names, and feel free to shoot them over to me, but the idea is solid. Just an hour-long chat with questions about whatever you want to talk about.

The only challenge is volume. I think I can get 500 lines, but there are gobs and gobs of you…and then there’s the wonderful folks in Australia, New Zealand, the UK — so many of you guys and gals email me all the time and I love it. Honored to have you! Given your time zone I’ll have to work around this somehow. I’ll probably schedule one month’s call in the afternoon US time to help you out and the next in the early evening. Something like that.

Give me a month on this one. I need to line up the tools to do it right. But I think this will be a lot of fun and something you can always count on to be free, informative, and exciting.

Okay, gotta go.

In case you’re wondering… yes. I write to recover and heal. It helps. Even the “business” stuff helps.

Most of all you help.

Thank you all for that.

[jB]