The first coaching option, the one-on-one coaching with Cory Miller in a public format, will occur on 3 Wednesdays, April 11, 18 and 25, 6-7:30PM Central Time. There is no cost to participate in this beta program.

If you would like to be selected to be one of the three people to receive the one-on-one coaching, make sure you have completed the Going Pro Survey. Participants will be selected from those who have completed the survey.

The sessions will be open to members of WebDesign.com to listen in, and recordings will be made available in the WebDesign.com library.

The second coaching option announced was the one-on-one coaching with Benjamin Bradley. This is private, one-on-one coaching – no one else will be listening in. If you are interested in this, please contact us and let us know coaching topics or areas of support will be most helpful for you.

We’re excited about rolling out these new ways of providing support to our members. Watch the video and slideshow to learn more about the specifics and why we are doing this.

This week’s cancelled webinars include:

• PluginFocus: SimplePress – Jan. 17
• BluePrint Basics – Building a Podcasting Site – Jan. 19

The iThemesTV webinar on Getting Started with BackupBuddy will be broadcasted as scheduled and presented by Bes Zain from the PluginBuddy team.

We will be notifying all community members sometime next week of rescheduled training.

In the meantime, if you would like to send condolences to Benjamin directly, you may mail them to the iThemes office and we will get them to him: iThemes Media LLC, 1720 S. Kelly Ave., Edmond, OK 73013.

You can find full memorial details including a memorial fund here for Benjamin’s father.

For those of you not on the webinar today, Benjamin’s father is in grave condition and he had to fly back to D.C. to be with his family. Please keep Benjamin and his family in your thoughts and prayers.

Since the WP Dev Course has been cancelled and will be rescheduled, Lisa has graciously offered to pinch hit and offer training for Friday, Jan. 13.

Here’s what we’re going to be doing tomorrow:

• We will use the same registration link as the previously setup webinar for the Dev Course …
• Starting at 9 a.m. Central Standard Time (as scheduled) Lisa will be talking about BuddyPress most of the morning.
• Break for lunch (probably around noon)
• After lunch, starting around 1 p.m. (and know that times may change so be flexible) we will be doing Q&A with Lisa and our theme and plugin dev teams.
• Post your Q&As here on this post please!!!!
• We will end likely around 4 p.m.

Key questions you might have:

• Yes, we will be live streaming via webinar
• Yes, we will be recording and posting the workshop today and tomorrow’s to the membership area along with slides early next week.
• Saturday and Sunday sessions are cancelled and will be rescheduled.
• Customers will be sent emails when the WP Dev Course dates have been set (likely in a month from now)

Thank you for being the kind and patient community you constantly prove to be. And in the meantime, again, please remember Benjamin and his family in your thoughts and prayers.

I read mostly business, marketing and leadership type books … but I’ve also included some books off our iThemes Dev account that we use internally.

• Here is my Amazon WishList where I put books I want to read, or have read
• My Books on Kindle Social Platform
• iThemes Dev Team on Kindle

So here’s what I’d suggest you put on it … (or at least start building your library). These are books I highly recommend for budding web design entrepreneurs and although not all of them have Kindle versions (Boo, publishers!) they are worthy of your holiday reading list:

BUSINESS AND MARKETING BOOKS I RECOMMEND:

• Get Clients Now by C.J. Hayden — just like the title says, great strategies for getting clients
• Book Yourself Solid by Michael Port — a followup on the Get Clients Now book and solid strategies
• On Writing Well by William Zissner — foundational book on writing, if not THE best desk reference, and yes, even web designers need to write well
• Guerrilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson — full of marketing strategies you can implement cheaply yet effectively
• Rework by Jason Fried — the new way and philosophies of work on the web
• Anything You Want by Derek Sivers — what business is all about
• Content Rules by Ann Handley — foundational desk reference on content that sells — order a print copy to put on your shelf and give to clients
• Do the Work by Steven Pressfield — just do it, a true motivational book we circulated throughout our entire team
• Referral Engine by John Jantsch — turn your business into a referral machine of word-of-mouth and client recommendations
• Duct Tape Marketing by John Jantsch — marketing advice for small business – you could use this in your work and share with clients
• EntreLeadership by Dave Ramsey — just great business advice from a true leader
• Financial Peace University by Dave Ramsey — get your finances straight before you even get close to launching your full-time business
• Launch by Michael Stelzner — more online marketing strategies
• The Leadership Challenge – James Kouzes — if you’re going to have employees, start reading this now
• Little Bets by Peter Sims — learn how to take calculated risks that get big results
• Never Get a ‘Real’ Job by Scott Gerber — motivation on launching your business for a younger generation
• The E-Myth by Michael Gerber — streamline your business with systems and processes
• Standout by Marcus Buckingham — learn more about yourself
• StrengthsFinder by Tom Rath — learn more about your strengths and how to use them (also great for teams)
• Switch by Chip Heath
• The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes — sales focused advice, and one I go back to often
• Success for Dummies by Zig Ziglar — just good, down home advice
• Why Johnny Can’t Brand by Bill Schley — great advice on branding
• The Power of Cult Branding by Matthew W. Ragas — more good advice on branding

BOOKS THAT THE ITHEMES DEV TEAM USES INTERNALLY

• WordPress All-in-One for Dummies by Lisa Sabin-Wilson (and me) — a desk reference for WordPress
• Professional WordPress Plugin Development by Brad Williams
• PHP and MySQL Web Development by Luke Welling
• jQuery Cookbook by Cody Lindley
• Expert PHP and MySQL by Andrew Curioso
• CSS Mastery by Andy Budd

That should get you started!

What other books do you suggest or do you have comments about the books above? Put in the comments below.