I don’t think “Bunko” is pejorative anymore. ;}

(John made this video. Isn’t it fantastic!?)

When we started, we were in last place. Over the course of the last few days, we brought ourselves up 30+ percentage points—and we were leading by at least 1% before somebody special dropped a bomb. A good bomb. Now, well…

You never really know what’s going to happen (and hell, voting doesn’t close until tomorrow) but I’m pretty damn proud of us. I have had such a FUN week! Becky and Marty, who worked their asses off, and the folks who helped us out, and the Triiibe that got behind us. Man, you people are awesome.

Don’t even get me started on the freaking ebook...!

So if you haven’t voted yet… you might take a minute to go be a part of something. (And no matter what happens now, Stay Hungry!)

The embed isn’t perfect (and the links aren’t clickable, it seems), but you can download the ebook yourself right here. So please do! ;}

My latest last-minute, three day project: Becky Blanton’s Stay Hungry campaign.

Let’s pretend you’ve read all about Daniel Pink and Johnny Bunko, and skip forward to the good stuff. Do it now? Say “Thanks”? Or Stay Hungry?

This one’s a no-brainer. I’ll explain why.

You can tell yourself to “do it now”, filled with determination, but if you are truly staying hungry for more growth, more challenge, more change, you won’t have to convince yourself of anything. It will happen, because it has to.

You can give thanks for everything you have, every day (and I’d recommend you do). I bet the world has already given you much to be grateful for. But if you do not have, first and foremost, a desire to move forward, to create, to experience more… if you are interested only in your current set of understandings and experiences… isn’t that a little… ungrateful?

Let the world be abundant. Don’t shut it out—stay hungry for more.

The desire to stay hungry is what makes all other precepts function. A driving hunger is at the root of all growth, all success. It keeps you off the couch and out in the world, discovering, learning. It’s what makes us better. Not the hunger you associate with poverty and scarcity—I mean the hunger in wanting something. Wanting something more than ever before, knowing that you’ll do whatever it takes to make it come to pass. A dream. A passion. A project. That hunger is essential to your process. You’ve felt it before. But you need to feel it again.

Again and again and again.

Becky did the crazy thing (the wonderful thing) and actually wrote her idea for Lesson Seven. She even put together a website. At Becky’s request Marty went ahead and illustrated her idea, manga. There were mucho project goings-on with enthusiastic assistance from many. And then I packed it all into a PDF, along with stories about all the people Becky has written about—people who are staying hungry, people who are doing something—and here it is, all finished. It’s been a hell of a ride. I strongly suggest you read this ebook. (Pretty short—LOADS of fun. And zombies!!)

And if you want to really support us—Becky, who deserves it more than anyone I know, and Marty, who has worked generously and incredibly hard to finish so hugely much in one weekend—you can go to JohnnyBunko.com and vote for Stay Hungry. I’d appreciate it if you would.

Don’t settle. Don’t stay satisfied for too long. Press forward, make something happen.

And dammit, stay hungry.

Becky Blanton is an amazing freelance writer who works with the Danville Small Business Development Center in Virginia and serves as webmaster, photographer and writer in residence for SIPS of America. Like me, she works for herself and has full responsibility for getting her bills paid, but she’s still going strong—and she has awesome things planned.

Becky is one of the applicants to Seth’s Alternative MBA program, and probably the most visible applicant belonging to Triiibes. She is hugely motivated and exceedingly persistent. (I am 100% certain that she will, in the end, get exactly what she wants. And, well—I’m rooting for her!) Because of the uncertain nature of this undertaking, her goal is two-fold: She is raising funds to participate in Seth’s Alternative MBA, and if that doesn’t work out—for any reason—she is raising the same funds for her small business road trip, an absolutely fantastic concept that I’ll explain in a moment. Those who contribute funds (at her Fundable page) should be willing to support either project, but I assure you they are both incredibly worth it.

Becky’s road trip just blows my mind, and I’m hoping against hope that she’ll come through Austin on her way. She’s going into rural areas to film and write about a variety of different small businesses to find out what they’re doing and how it’s working for them. Ultimately she’ll use this information to teach small business owners how to use the internet to connect with their tribes, their communities and other businesses in the name of helping them grow. (I’m all about growth, as you well know.) If you’d like to be one of Becky’s stops and let her showcase your business, contact her here!

It’s so important to me that we “use our powers for good”, and Becky is totally aligned with that. She’s all about using the work she does to empower other people to change the world. The stories she tells are astonishingly touching and inspiring, and I’ve been choked up more than once reading her blog (in Triiibes, and on her public sites). She has overcome some hardcore obstacles to be where she is today, and I see her going much farther. Donations, resources, encouragement—ANYTHING you can provide to her, two bucks sitting fermenting in your PayPal account, kind words, networking connections—please take a moment and give her that tiny bit of help. She appreciates it, and I know I do.

Becky’s Alternative MBA application lens is here, and her fundraising page is here. Read her stories. Support her if you can. (Regardless of whether you have a single dime to your name, if you’re reading this, you CAN send her a note and tell her what she’s doing is amazing—BECAUSE IT IS.)

I don’t have a lot of readers, but the ones I do have are spectacular people. So I know you’re up for this. And thank you so much for caring. I love you guys.

For whatever it’s worth, Becky—my vote of confidence is all yours, many times over. You can do this thing. I have no doubt whatsoever that you WILL.

Wouldn’t you know it—they ask me to talk about myself, and I talk about work.

I know. You’re not surprised. ;}

I’m writing like a fiend. This all happened because I made a random “tribe-building for artists” post to the Triiibes forum (members only link), and got such a positive response that (at Becky’s behest) I’m going to actually write the freaking ebook. And I thought, hell, why not make that my ice breaker? What better way to talk about me than to talk about the crazy kind of business I do?

They definitely liked it and it wasn’t bad for my first Toastmasters speech ever. Pace, Kyeli, Cricket and Marty were all in attendance—and Marty joined us in zombie makeup, as my (mildly) human prop. All he had to do was sit there and eat pancakes, but I think he was successfully unsettling (in an utterly well-behaved fashion!). And he enjoyed himself!

I’ll be writing more about zombie marketing soon. Hold onto your decomposing flesh. (You dropped a piece.)