I usually roll my eyes whenever I see a title containing the word “rich.” That goes double for the word “happy.” So why on earth would I use both the words “rich” and “happy” in a post title? Because this is about the new book How To Be Rich And Happy by Tim Brownson and John Strelecky.

I know, a title like that makes you want to ask “What the hell were you thinking?” (It’s actually my first question to Tim below.) But this is actually a book of substance and not hype. Instead of writing a normal review, I thought it would be better to interview Tim about what being “rich and happy” means.

But very quickly, here’s what you get. This is an electronic book delivered to you by instant download, but its 218 pages have the look and feel of a “real book.” It contains a tremendous amount of information, a great variety of material, and it keeps things fun. You can download the first three sections for free, and it’s backed by an amazing 12 month money-back guarantee.

It also includes:

- #1 Best Selling author John P. Strelecky’s inspirational book “Life Safari.” John’s works have been translated into nineteen languages and been best-sellers around the world.

- Tim Brownson’s critically acclaimed book – “Don’t Ask Stupid Questions, There are no Stupid Questions.”

- Access to an ongoing library of video tutorials in which John and Tim explain the exercises and findings in How to be Rich and Happy.

Update 10/9/2009: Due to numerous complaints, the price has been dropped from $97 to $47. However, it no longer comes with the two additional ebooks.

Go check it out now. Well, if you can wait a bit, read my interview with author Tim Brownson first.

Hunter: First things first, Tim – there’s no way we can avoid talking about the title. You know you were setting yourself up for ridicule by calling it “How To Be Rich And Happy.” If your book were a kid on the first day of school, it would be the one with a bowl haircut, the latest pocket protector with the memory expansion pack, and a t-shirt with a bullseye labeled “aim fist here.”

I’ve noticed that a lot of the fluffy self-help books use certain trigger words in the title to magnetically pull people in. The problem is that often there’s not enough substance inside to make it worthwhile. And readers find that an irresistible title has made them buy a book containing nothing but recycled platitudes and sales pitches for overpriced workshops.

So, when I heard that your upcoming book is titled “How To Be Rich And Happy,” well, let’s say it’s a great credit to your reputation that I didn’t immediately vomit in terror! But while I was mocking the title for the first few pages, I have to say that by the end of the book I was actually a fan of the phrase “rich and happy.”

Tell us about rich and happy. What does that mean to you?

Tim: Relieved to hear you didn’t vomit in terror, that wouldn’t be a good thing. Interestingly enough my reaction to the title was very similar to yours. When John told me he was planning a book called “How To Be Rich and Happy” I barely managed to control my mirth, as I was about to drive off the first tee.

If I hadn’t known John I would have dismissed it out of hand. Even when he sent me the draft I didn’t even read if for over a month, but when I did, I thought, wow!

The title will definitely raise a few eyebrows and some people will think it’s a scam to help me and John get Rich and Happy, but we’re prepared for that.

The point is we couldn’t think of a better way to describe what we were doing and to go all coy and bashful because we were worried about what others would think wouldn’t have served anybody. And at the end of the day who doesn’t want to be rich and happy?

Hunter: I’ve known you through your blog for a long time, but I hadn’t heard of your co-author John Strelecky. How did you decide to write it with him? What do you each bring to the table?

Tim: How I met John is really weird. I had a copy of his book “The Why Café” and wanted to ask a question. I shot him an e-mail and he responded with a reply almost immediately saying “let’s meet for breakfast.” I thought, “What the hell is this nut job talking about?” I had no idea he lived only a mile down the road, he could have been anywhere in the U.S. for all I knew!

That was over 3 years ago and we became good friends sharing a very similar outlook on life. His book “The Big 5 For Life” is one of my favorite business books of all time and one I’d encourage anybody to read.

So as I was reading the draft of the book I kept thinking “I want in on this project!” So I asked him if he’d consider letting me co-author and he said yes. Easy when you ask!

In terms of what John brings to the table. He was a very successful consultant and independently wealthy by the time he hit his early 30′s. He’s also had a lot of experience living the Rich and Happy life and spends upwards of 6 months per year traveling because that’s what he loves to do.

I’ll let you judge what I bring! A funny accent maybe?

[Hunter's comment: Tim is being a bit modest here. You can read more about him on the About page of How To Be Rich And Happy.]

Hunter: Your book’s introduction is bound to remind people of Napoleon Hill’s classic Think And Grow Rich. That’s a book I enjoyed very much, though like most classics, it’s sorely dated. In what ways would you say your book is similar to TAGR, and how is it different?

Tim: John loves TAGR and I am more ambivalent toward it probably because it is so dated now and I can’t remember it that clearly.

There has been a conscious effort by us both to make this a process that people can follow easily. We did 6 or 7 rewrites in the last 3 or 4 months to make sure the book “flowed” for people. In that way I guess it is a bit like TAGR. I actually received a DM on Twitter from one of my own favorite authors in the UK, a guy called Michael Heppell saying he thought it was like TAGR for the 21st Century.

[Hunter's comment: Darn, he stole what I was going to say in my testimonial! ]

The differences are tricky because it’s about 4 years since I read TAGR, but I have no recollection of the importance we place on values and understanding what your own core values are. I could be wrong on that though because I have read one or two books in the meantime.

Hunter: Who is your book meant for? If you come across a burned out lawyer who just can’t take another day of work, a single mother who dreams of the day she can spend more quality time with her kids, and an aging idealist who never figured out what he wants to do with his life, who are you going to recommend your book to?

Tim: Are you ready for a huge cop out? All of them! Because what we do starts at the level of identity and ascertains what drives somebody at an unconscious level it can work for literally anybody that applies the formula to their life. Obviously the path will be different for different people, but I would be lying if I said it would benefit one type of person more than another and that is quite deliberate.

Actually scratch that, it will benefit anybody that is actually prepared to do what is necessary. Anybody thinking of buying it and hoping they will get Rich and Happy purely by reading it, is in for a huge let down and I’d advise them to save their money. One of the positive side effects of the price is we know we’ll get a higher than average percentage of people doing the work.

Hunter: I know you’re an NLP Master Practitioner, but my knowledge of NLP is pretty much limited to what the acronym stands for – neuro-linguistic programming. Does your book teach any NLP techniques, or is that something you need to hire a high-priced shrink for?

Tim: LOL, not many high priced shrinks use NLP although some of the processes are starting to be picked up and move into the main stream.

There is plenty of NLP in there although it may not always be visible as NLP to the casual observer. There are some obvious techniques like anchoring, reframing and using submodalities to help the reader change their subjective experience about an event and there is also some subtle use of language patterns designed to get people to do the work!

Hunter: Many parents tell their kids they can grow up to be president if they put their mind to it. Is that true?

Tim: On a local level I think it’s perfectly true. However, on a global level it obviously cannot be true, there is only one President. I think it’s important to encourage kids to believe anything is possible within physical reason.

I much prefer clients that come to me have outrageous goals than puny simple goals that will probably happen by default. The latter have usually had their dreams knocked out of them as kids by constantly being told to, “be more realistic” As one of the chapters says, “realism is for accountants,” and in my opinion it stifles creativity and kills hope.

Hunter: How do you know your formula can work for someone who is sincere in their desire to apply it? Don’t we all vary dramatically in our strengths, interests, assets, connections, opportunities, etc? So how can there be one formula that works for everybody?

Tim: Because the formula is dynamic and will vary from person to person. Our starting point is to say “Look, we don’t know what Rich and Happy means to you. We don’t know what your core values are and we don’t what your belief system is like. However, we can show YOU how to find that stuff out and start to lay the foundation for moving forward.” What we do that in my experience a lot of self development books don’t do, is explain how this stuff works and we back up a great deal with a lot of cutting edge medical and scientific research.

Not only that, but it’s the blueprint I use with clients so I have first hand experience of knowing it can work across all types of people.

Tim Brownson is a Life Coach out of the UK but now living in Florida and with clients all over the globe. He runs the blog The Discomfort Zone where he takes a light-hearted, left field approach to self-development and refuses to take himself too seriously.

His latest book How To Be Rich And Happy is now available for the bold and daring.

“There is no such thing as a stupid question. However, if there were such a thing, that would most certainly have been it.”

- Unknown

Is there such a thing as a stupid question? Tim Brownson doesn’t think so, and I’m leaning towards that myself. There might be annoying questions, like if you happen to be blessed with a 5-year-old who constantly asks things like “If oranges were blue, would we still call it orange juice?” But then you stop and think about it, and you realize that it’s a darn good question, probably better than any you’ve asked in a while.

The closest thing to a stupid question I can think of is when someone in my high school Spanish class asked “What does spoon mean?” But that wasn’t a stupid question, just a stupid way of phrasing the question that was supposed to be “How do you say spoon in Spanish?”

In Tim’s book Don’t Ask Stupid Questions – There Are No Stupid Questions, he says that our life is heavily influenced by the questions we ask, especially those we ask of ourselves. So what questions are you asking?

You have an inner voice, right? Does it ask questions? It probably screams at you and maybe tells you that you can’t do anything right, or nothing’s ever going to work out. But when it’s in a calmer mood, it’s asks questions, doesn’t it? If not, it really should, unless you already know everything. Sometimes the question is a lot more important than the answer.

In this book, Tim tones down his hilarious humor a bit and reveals more of the life coach side of him. OK, he also talks about ducks, whether curiosity did indeed kill the cat, and Mexican guys who can run 100 miles without stopping, but I mean the book has a lot more than just entertainment value. It’s very insightful, and each chapter ends with a great question to ask yourself. Don’t just read it–think about the questions!

It’s available as a $14.99 hardcover or a $9.99 ebook. I read the hardcover, and I was impressed that he managed to put out something that looks that nice. I just may have to kidnap his publisher to use for myself.

However, I’m still not 100% convinced that there are no stupid questions, so I’d like to ask everyone to leave the stupidest question you can think of in the comments. Then go check out Don’t Ask Stupid Questions – There Are No Stupid Questions.

Life coach Tim Brownson has a new ebook out called Stress Is For Suckers, and it’s currently available for free. His ebook Don’t Laugh At The Life Coach is also currently free, and I previously described it as “the stream of consciousness ramblings of a possibly insane life coach…witty and entertaining, and chock-full of examples of things not to do.”

While I enjoyed Don’t Laugh At The Life Coach, Tim has taken a giant leap forward with Stress Is For Suckers, adding graphics and getting people to edit the darn thing.

Because of that, he no longer has to say on the cover that while it looks like something put together in 5 minutes by a 7 year-old, it’s still copyrighted. (Yes, he did actually say that on the cover of Don’t Laugh At The Life Coach.) With his new ebook, he just says it’s copyrighted, and everyone believes him.

Stress Is For Suckers challenges the notion that stress is inevitable, and offers ways to fight it both by changing your lifestyle and by intervening with the internal processes that cause it. Tim says that some of his tips are blindingly obvious, while others will be ones you haven’t thought of.

I think that’s right. For me, the biggest new thing was his way of breathing (I’m not kidding, air smells different when I do it his way). But even the obvious ones are entertaining because of Tim’s signature style, though I could have done without the plunger incident on page 3 (reminiscent of Daryl Hannah’s fate in Kill Bill).

If you’re feeling hesitant, Tim has made the curious decision to offer both Stress Is For Suckers and Don’t Laugh At The Life Coach with a money-back guarantee: if you don’t enjoy one or the other, simply send it back for a full refund. I’m not sure which is stranger: that a free ebook comes with a money-back guarantee, or that you have to send back a digital product to get a refund.

At any rate, both are very nice ebooks from the man who taught the world how to be miserable.

Well gang, we’ve just seen 1,000 Ways To Be Happy. But in the interest of living a balanced life, we should now explore the art of being miserable.

I’m running a contest sponsored by professional life coach Tim Brownson. Tim is offering these terrific prizes:

• A full life coaching session of one hour. (Tim suggests that helping the person understand their values would be most beneficial, but he’s happy to let them decide what they want the session to cover.)
• A signed copy of his book “Don’t Ask Stupid Questions – There Are No Stupid Questions” (mailed anywhere in the world).
• A copy of his ebook “Know Yourself – Change Yourself.”

The 1st place finisher will choose the prize they want, the 2nd place finisher will choose from the remaining two prizes, and the 3rd place finisher will get the remaining prize.

To enter the contest, you’ll write a post about how to be miserable. To see some sample ways to be miserable, and to get an idea about the spirit of the contest, watch Tim’s video Ways To Be Miserable.

There are three steps to entering:

1. Write a post about how to be miserable. The style and format is up to you. You might pick your favorite method of misery and describe it in detail, or you might write a list post, or you might record a video post…whatever works for you. Entries will be judged by Tim and me on the basis of originality, humor, and insight.

2. Link to both Tim and me in your post. Exactly how you do that is up to you, just use decent keywords in the link text.

3. Leave a comment below to tell us you’ve entered the contest. We want to be able to see all the entries in one place, so just leave a comment below saying “Hi, my post about how to be miserable is here: http://…” Of course, you’re welcome to leave a comment without having entered the contest. And don’t worry about someone else reading your post and stealing your ideas, because we’ll know who wrote what first.

I’ll write a misery post just for fun and to demonstrate a sample entry, not to actually enter the contest. On the other hand, if we don’t have at least three people enter, then heck yeah I’ll claim a prize–I want that coaching!

(BTW, in my last contest, I said that if you entered but didn’t win, your entry would roll forward to the next contest. Obviously that won’t work here since this isn’t a random drawing, so your entry from last time will roll forward to the next contest after this one.)

All entries must be received by 11:59 PM EST Monday, September 1, 2008. Good luck, and may the most miserable person win!

I know someone who’s been having fairly serious problems with his back. After he went to see the doctor, he was very happy to tell everyone the good news:

“The doctor said that if I eat right, which I won’t, and exercise, which I won’t, everything will be fine!”

He seemed perfectly content knowing that he had the power to change, if not the desire. Sometimes there’s a psychological difference between having a choice and not having a choice, even if you allow the outcome to be the same.

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Want to hear the stream of consciousness ramblings of a possibly insane life coach? Then read Tim Brownson’s free ebook Don’t Laugh At The Life Coach. It’s a collection of posts he’s written on his blog, The Discomfort Zone. It’s witty and entertaining, and chock-full of examples of things not to do.