The Free Book That Changed My Life

TLDR: I’m giving my book, ​Burn the Playbook​, away for free.

Throughout my life, I knew I wanted to start a business. I remember jotting down on a scratch piece of paper that I wanted to be a farmer when I was six or seven.

By the time I reached my teen years, I started writing down all sorts of ideas, from creating a sports memorabilia company to an investment newsletter for beginning investors. They were more dreams than plans, but that brainstorming kept my motivation up so that, someday, I’d start a business.

In 2005, I began to get serious. I believed that a “content marketing” revolution was coming. With the rise of Google and nascent social media beginning to take off, I believed that businesses of all sizes would need to create content to fill those content pipes, to both attract new customers and keep current customers loyal. I also believed that a new business model was being created, where a company would build an audience first (through content) and launch products second (​I later wrote this as Content Inc.​).

I wanted to launch a business in that area, and even though I’d always wanted to start a business, I knew nothing about the mechanics of making it happen.

A friend of mine recommended The Bootstrapper’s Bible by Seth Godin as a great place to start. Better yet, Seth was giving it away for free (and it still is, ​available here​).

I printed it out, read it several times, and marked it up.

It changed my life.

There were other books that had a major impact on my entrepreneurial career, like Think and Grow Rich, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and Stranger in a Strange Land (a story for another day), but Seth’s book was by far the most influential.

Two years later, my wife and I launched what ultimately became the Content Marketing Institute, and the rest is history. We successfully exited from CMI in 2016.

Would that have happened without Seth’s book? I’m not sure.

Would I have read the book if it wasn’t free? Probably not.

Since then, I’ve followed Seth, read his blog, purchased almost all of his books, and tried for years to get him to speak at our events. Alas, it never happened.

The Art of Giving Away a Book

​​Seth was a recent guest on the Mel Robbins podcast​. Mel asked for his thoughts on book publishing strategy.

Seth’s advice, paraphrased, was: send the book to twenty people for free and ask them to share it. If the book is good, great things will happen.

Of course, he’s right. Actually, I just recommended that strategy to a friend of mine.

That conversation reminded me why I wrote Burn the Playbook in the first place, and why I want to remove every barrier I can to getting it into more hands.

Burn the Playbook, my latest book, was written for my adult children. I wanted to say so many things, but often the words and the timing didn’t match.

They were the first two to read it. They gave me feedback and I treasured it. I hope some of my advice stuck.

Then I decided to publish it. It’s done well and has sold thousands of copies in print, digital, and audio.

But what matters most to me is the message.

I believe, to put it bluntly, that most of us have been sold a bill of goods when it comes to our careers, our finances, our health, and our futures. Burn the Playbook was written to challenge those myths and offer a different path: stop living by systems and scripts you didn’t choose, and start building a life you actually control.

Safe is not always safe. Ownership matters. Meaning matters. And freedom comes from building something that is truly yours.

I’ve been humbled by the feedback this book has received, and I want to get it into more hands.

So, like Seth, I’m giving Burn the Playbook away for free. ​You can download the PDF and EPUB versions here​. No catch.

My only ask is that you share it with one person who might need it. Someone just out of school. Someone stuck in a job they no longer believe in. Someone ready for a different path. I’m hoping this book can help.