Episode Details

Stephen King. He is the Charles Dickens of this century. People either love him or hate him.

My churchgoing friends are often shocked to learn that I read his work, and admire it. In today's show I share some business lessons I have learned from King. Also on today's episode…

• Are you a Madman? Or a Madwoman? Copywriters wanted.
• And the always award-winning, much much more.

• I am updating my copywriting course… I will announce our winners next week.
• Next week's show will be about what could be the most important topic I have ever covered. Don't miss it.

Conferences where I will be attending and/or speaking:

• NMX, Jan 4-6, 2014, Las Vegas, NV
• Strategic Influence Jan 14-16, 2014, Phoenix, AZ
• NAMS 11 February 7-9, 2014, Atlanta, GA
• Social Media Marketing World, March 26-28, 2014, San Diego, CA

Digital Photography School. A great site for all things photo.

Spiritual Foundations

1 John 4:18: "perfect love casts out fear.".

Have you ever been told by someone that you should have more of the "fear of the Lord"? The implication is that your Christian walk cannot be correct unless you're constantly afraid that God is going to "whack you" when you screw up.

It's true, The Bible talks about the "fear of the Lord". Let's take a look at what it actually says.

As believers who live under the new covenant, and followers of Jesus, we should let Jesus himself define what the "fear of the Lord" actually is. When the devil tempted Jesus in the desert, and asked Jesus to worship him, Jesus says, "it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God…". You'll find that in Matthew 4:10.

If you have a modern Bible with cross references, you'll notice that Jesus is actually quoting from the Old Testament. He's quoting his favorite book of the Bible (the book he quoted most often), and the passage he's pointing to is Deuteronomy 6:13. That passage says, "you shall fear the Lord your God and serve him.

But wait a minute! That's not what Jesus said… He said you shall WORSHIP the Lord your God. What's going on here?

While there are plenty of theologians who will argue with me, it seems clear that Jesus is explaining what the passage in Deuteronomy actually means. To fear God is to worship him.

I trust the theology of Jesus more than I trust any other earthly theologian. He has interpreted the "fear of the Lord" for me, and that settles the matter.

One last point worth noting: every single time the disciples were afraid of Jesus, he said the same thing. "Fear not."

Stephen King is a writing and marketing machine, having accomplished the unusual feat of being successful as a craftsman, and as an entrepreneur. He has sold well over 350 million books, and spawned countless movies and television shows. His latest novel-to-screen adaptation is Under The Dome. How?

I have written extensively elsewhere about writing for the purpose of strategic influence. I can point to no better model of how to do this right than King.

There are seven key lessons you can learn from Stephen King, and the way he conducts his business (the business of writing). And for those of you who are offended by my sayin