I read a lot of books in preparation for my DishyMix show each week. I’ve amassed a whopper stack and I would like to send DishyMix listeners a copy of any book you want.

Just post your desire on the DishyMix Fan Page and make sure to email me your physical address.

I’ll mail it out to you.

The Age of Engage    Denise Shiffman
Boom    Mary Brown & Carol Osborn, Ph.D.
Click    Bill Tancer
Connection Generation    Iggy Pintado
Digital Outlook Report    Razorfish
The Dip    Seth Godin
The Element    Ken Robinson, Ph.D.
The Frugal Millionaires    Jeff Lehman
The Gort Cloud    Richard Seireeni
Groundswell    Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff
Here Comes Everybody    Clay Shirky
Honest Seduction    Scott Brinker, Anna Talerico & Justin Talerico
Ignited    Vince Thompson
The Leap    Bob Schmetterer
Open Brand    Kelly Mooney and Nita Rollins, Ph.D.
Peak    Chip Conley
The Perfection of Marketing    James Connor
Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends    Pete Blackshaw
Search Engine Optimization    Rebecca Lieb
Stopping Identity Theft    Scott Mitic
Trust Agents    Chris Brogan
Who’s Got Your Back    Keith Ferrazzi
Word of Mouth Marketing    Andy Sernovitz

Thanks for listening to the show!

Simon Van Wyk: Host of Hothouse Interactive Podcasts carried these books back to Sydney during his recent trip to SF.

Simon Van Wyk

Brand Digital Allen P. Adamson
Branding Only Works on Cattle Jonathan Salem Baskin
Click Bill Tancer
Revolutionary Wealth Alvin & Heidi Toffler
Rubies in the Orchard Lynda Resnick
Saddle Up Your Own White Horse Saundra Pelletier

DishyMix episode 72: Simon Van Wyk, Australian Media Expert on “Lessons Learned” from DishyMix Guests: Blogs, Search, Social Media, ROI and Marketing as Conversation

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I just had the most amazing photos taken by Lesley Bohm, LA celebrity photographer. I’m working on some new information products to follow Talk Show Tips and wanted to update my “look” to my current styles.

I met Lesley at a Mastermind event and we hit it off. Once I saw her work, I realized I couldn’t live with anything less. Lesley is a celebrity portrait photographer. She LOVES to connect with people and make them look beautiful.

Lesley and Susan

Since so much of our contact is made online now, it’s more important than ever to have images that reflect who you are and bring out the best in you.

Here are some images from my shoot and photos of Lesley’s studio and of her working with another client.

We started off the day today with a fun event created by Reshma Sohoni and Alasdair Ball of SeedCamp.  SeedCamp is an early stage fund that also provides exacting business support and grooming for UK and European start ups who are socially-oriented. Typical investments are up to 50 thousand Euros for about 10% of the business.

By the caliber of the entrepreneurs and the quality of the business ideas I witnessed today, Reshma and her team are making smart investments and providing wise and plished council for the entrepreneurs they back.

Every single one of the thirteen companies was, in my estimation, a great idea combined with a terrific leader or team. The most successful to date include Spotify, the European version of Rhapsody’s “all-you-can-eat for one monthly fee” celestial jukebox; Huddle, which bills itself as the collaboration tool for the MySpace generation (I will do a separate post on Huddle for you as I know you will want to try it) and Moo.com, the on-demand printing company with a smart solution for mass-customized printed products like business cards, stickers and “moo cards” which are their own smaller, clever creation that’s become a standard with the social set.

Other companies that stood out for me were SkimLinks not only because Alicia Navarro was the only female CEO, but also because she’s in a very hot category – website monetization infrastructure. More on SkimLinks arresting start up story and how it works in a very smart way in another post.

The one person with whom I didn’t get to meet but still was very impressed with their initial presentation was Stupeflix. Perhaps the name doesn’t translate well in the US – why would someone want to start the beginning of their company name with a word that sounds like stupid? Nonetheless, this is beyond a cute video creation tool like Animoto, Stupeflix allows you to use XML to slightly change the assets within any video to create multiple unique versions of a video. Best explained by example, they showed a weather video where the location and temperature were automatically changed for various locations on the fly. You could master one video and then have unlimited versions automatically customized by city.

Andraz Tori of Zemanta gave me a quick and helpful demo of his blog writing suggestion tool. This authoring suggestion tool provides related links, images, related stories and more which make every blog post have more robust content and links. I’ve been using it so far this week and can tell you I would not give this tool up now that I’ve used it.

Another tool I have not yet tried but know will be addictive is UberVu. This is one of a new breed of social meta tools, like MobyPicture (recent post about MobyPicture) that aggregates comments from across one’s social sites into a single interface where you can see comments from your followers to your posts, all threaded together in a single application. You can reply to those threads within UberVu and it will place your replies back out in context without requiring you to do so much webpage traveling.  UberVu’s idea of providing reporting for rollup data will significantly help the social media managers and social listening companies keep track of all their conversations in a single UI. There’s a business model in this one, though it may take a few attempts to right-size the offering and prices.

I have to run off to The Guardian – we’re doing a podcast round table there. It’s pouring rain like hell and I wish I could just keep telling you about the companies we met today. I promise to write more to you about some of the individual companies, many of whom are in early or private beta.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

My experience driving the Lincoln MKS.

Ford offered to let me demo one of their new Lincoln MKS sedans this week. Though I Twittered the opportunity for any local (to Los Altos, CA) blogger buddies to go for a joy ride with me, I got no takers. Sigh. I did a few drops and picks of my kid at school and that was about the extent of my fleeting loaner driving. Nonetheless I made the most of it and really enjoyed the ride and the gadgetry.

The Lincoln MKS is a beautifully apportioned car and very easy to drive – effortless really.

Roomy, pretty, well-appointed as a Lincoln should be, my favorite attribute was the Ford SYNC voice recognition system. I liked the ability to very, very easily sync my iPhone with the voice management system and to toggle back and forth from my music library to NPR on the radio. Bluetooth pairing was effortless and I could easily become addicted to the handsfree voice-activated controls.

I have one of those Griffin iTrip devices through which I listen to my iPod via my car stereo. It’s ok, but now I really wish I had the audio jack like the Lincoln MKS.

The Navigation system was big, bright and the maps were well designed. The climate control was a mixed bag for me. I could quite get the directional airflow the way I liked it from the vents but it was more than compensated for by the heated/air conditioned white leather seats. My butt was delightfully cooled on hot afternoons picking Tay up from school.

Ford is loaning me their new Lincoln MKS for the week, starting May 18th. This is your open invitation to meet me in Los Altos one day next week and go on a little joy ride with me to check it out and blog about the experience.

If you are a blogger and want to come see this beautiful new car and shoot some video for your blog, let me know.

I’d love to catch up with a few Twitter friends who blog and take a little drive around town.

DM me on Twitter http://twitter.com/susanbratton

I Twittered a week or so ago that my friend, Chris D’Eon is a founder of Pathway Genomics and I was going to get my DNA tested. I got a lot of response to that one little Tweet, so I thought I’d share more with you about it.

The test arrived today. They did very professional job with the packaging. So far, first class. The site looks great too.

I can’t wait for the results of both the Ancestry and Health tests.

There are two tests. Health and Ancestry. I bought the set.

The Pathway Genomics Personal DNA Test scans your DNA for known genetic risk markers associated with adverse health conditions:

From the site – Risk markers for 90+ diseases:

• • • Breast Cancer
    • Cardiovascular diseases
    • Prostate Cancer
    • Rheumatoid Arthritis
    • Type 1 & 2 Diabetes

The tests can trace your ancestral path too. My Mom and Dad are excited to see the results of our ancestral roots. Since I’m female, I can only get the mtDNA testing. Males can test their Y chromosome to determine the origin of their paternal line. Everyone can test their mtDNA to follow their mother’s lineage because we all get that from our Moms. (Happy Mother’s Day!)

Pathway also gives you a “migratory path” map so you can see from where your ancestors came and how they migrated from place to place over 10,000 years.  You also get your ethnic profile and find out if you are related to famous historic figures.

I’m going to go spit and mail right now.

I’m headed out for a hike with a new playlist of podcasts from our network, Personal Life Media. I like sampling our various shows. I think this will last for a few hikes, a couple loads of laundry and a trip to SF and back! Such great content. Can’t wait to sink my teeth in.

Did you know there was stuff this good on our network?

 Click on the image above to go to Personal Life Media. Use the Search box to find any show.

BN 054: Lasik, Latisse and Lashes:  May Eye Care Shares the Facts    27:52    Teri Hausman    Beauty Now: The Intersection of Cosmetic Surgery, Longevity & Bio-Medical Innovation

BG 119: The Dharma Overground    18:47    Vince Horn and Ryan Oelke    Buddhist Geeks: Seriously Buddhist, Seriously Geeky

LD 091: Michael Beckwith  – The Evolutionary Impulse, Spiritual Liberation, and Our Changing World    1:05:06    Duncan Campbell    Living Dialogues: Thought-Leaders in Transforming Ourselves and Our Global Community with Duncan Campbell, Visionary Conversationalist, Living Dialogues.com

CLC 037: Practical NLP For Everyday Life with John Santangelo & Robert Harrison    42:33    Robert Harrison    Coaching the Life Coach: Business Coaching for Entrepreneurs & Executives by Famous Coaches

EL 087: Secrets of a Temple Priestess for Women (Part One) with Triambika    37:11    Dr. Patti Taylor    Expanded Lovemaking: Sex, Love, and Consciousness

JFW 077: Reid Mihalko: Hot Fun with Your Clothes ON!    1:01:01    Alissa Kriteman    Just For Women: Dating, Relationships and Sex with Alissa Kriteman

EL 084: Infuse Your Life with Enlightened Love  (Part Two) with Satyen Raja, Tantric Master and Founder of WarriorSage, Inc.    35:41    Dr. Patti Taylor    Expanded Lovemaking: Sex, Love, and Consciousness

IOWL 045: Making Food Your Former Best Friend    30:15    Renee Stephens    Inside Out Weight Loss: Aligning Mind Body and Spirit for Lasting Change

LD 073: Deborah Tannen – Shifting to Deeper Dialogue and Understanding Between the Sexes    38:41    Duncan Campbell    Living Dialogues: Thought-Leaders in Transforming Ourselves and Our Global Community with Duncan Campbell, Visionary Conversationalist, Living Dialogues.com

JFW 075: Satyen Raja – What is True Feminine Power?    48:58    Alissa Kriteman    Just For Women: Dating, Relationships and Sex with Alissa Kriteman

TNM 061: Sandor Gardos – Get Your Sex Life Off of Life Support    21:18    Tripp Lanier    The New Man: Beyond the Macho Jerk and the New Age Wimp

SLI 081: David Shade:  Becoming a Masterful Lover    41:08    Chip August    Sex, Love and Intimacy: Sex | Relationships | Sexy Monogamy

TSRA 035: Character Play; Being What You Are Not    38:12    Judy Silber    Taste of Sex – Reality Audio: A Reality Audio Show on Life in an Orgasm-Based Community

EL 092: Mastering Male Expanded Orgasm (Part Two) with Ian Ellington    30:05    Dr. Patti Taylor    Expanded Lovemaking: Sex, Love, and Consciousness

TNM 060: Decker Cunov & Bryan Bayer — AMP 2.0 Is Your Life on Autopilot?    18:27    Tripp Lanier    The New Man: Beyond the Macho Jerk and the New Age Wimp

LD 092: Robert Sitler guest – 1 of  7 On the Road of  “2012 NOW – Empowering the Transformation”    54:25    Duncan Campbell    Living Dialogues: Thought-Leaders in Transforming Ourselves and Our Global Community with Duncan Campbell, Visionary Conversationalist, Living Dialogues.com

IOWL 032: Enlightened Selfishness    32:55    Renee Stephens    Inside Out Weight Loss: Aligning Mind Body and Spirit for Lasting Change

BN 051: Love the Body You Have to Have the Body You Love with Weight Loss Success Coach Bronwyn Marmo    33:58    Teri Hausman    Beauty Now: The Intersection of Cosmetic Surgery, Longevity & Bio-Medical Innovation

EL 082: White-Hot Awakening to Trust (Part Two) with Saniel Bonder and Linda Groves-Bonder, Spiritual Awakeners, Teachers, and Creators of the Tantra of Trust    42:17    Dr. Patti Taylor    Expanded Lovemaking: Sex, Love, and Consciousness

FL 015: Learning Practical Steps to Decouple Fear From Our Moment-by-Moment Choice-Driven Evolution with Guy Finley    42:00    Adam Gilad    Fearless Lover: The Spiritual Foundations of Present, Boundless and Enduring Love

BN 052: The Food IS A Lie: The Truth Is Within with Weight Loss Success Coach Bronwyn Marmo    35:52    Teri Hausman    Beauty Now: The Intersection of Cosmetic Surgery, Longevity & Bio-Medical Innovation