Thread by @jamesrsowers

In 2019, I'm going to run an experiment related to how I consume content and who I allow to influence my perspectives on life and business.

The following thread includes lots of shoutouts to awesome people. I hope it's as helpful to you as it is for me.

Let's get into it...

First, I'm choosing just 12 people to be my "Brain Trust." I look at these people as informal mentors.

I've been following them for a while, but I want to start over as a new member of their audience and dissect how they position themselves, sell their products/services, etc.

Here they are, in no particular order...

1.) @mijustin – Justin is the brain behind megamaker.co and the MegaMaker community, which has been a HUGE value add for me. He is also a co-founder of @TransistorFM and an influential voice in the bootstrapped founder space.

2.) @adamwathan – Adam does a lot of things that are outside of my area of expertise, namely tailwindcss.com and refactoringui.com. In my opinion, he is an expert at building momentum behind his product launches, which I could learn a lot about.

3.) @Harris_Bryan – Bryan Harris runs @Videofruit and growthtools.com and has some of the highest output I've seen from solo CEOs. I'll be paying attention to his email marketing efforts, product launches, and live event (Ex: webinars and workshops).

4.) @amyhoy and @alexhillman – I put these two together because although they are both prolific makers in their own right, I'm especially interested in their collaborative work on growing and supporting the communities at stackingthebricks.com and 30x500.com.

5.) @kaisdavis – Kai's balanced outlook on life and business has always impressed me, and our skillsets overlap more than I originally anticipated. He is someone who is several steps ahead of me in the journey, so I can learn a lot from him. He lives at kaidavis.com.

6.) @bastianearth – Bastian runs @wildaudience, which I've watched grow from a solo shop to a small, thriving team. I love his focus on relationships, not just conversions and confirmed checkouts. I'll be keeping a close eye on his email marketing and agency management.

7.) @brennandunn – Brennan works on doubleyourfreelancing.com and @rightmessageapp, so I'll be keeping tabs on both efforts. He is one of the most trusted voices in the freelancer space and his work on personalization as it relates to CRO is fascinating. I'll take lots of notes.

8.) @Backlinko – Brian's site backlinko.com is THE #1 resource I know of when it comes to SEO. I'll be internalizing everything he publishes to help me level up in one of my "areas of opportunity." I'm especially excited to learn about YouTube SEO and email list growth.

9.) @ViperChill – Glen's work on detailed.com and gaps.com has been a big inspiration to me. I love his transparency and the level of detail he uses when sharing lessons learned. I can't wait to see what he puts out in 2019.

10.) @benjihyam – Benji and his team at @growandconvert are masters of content marketing. This is something I feel confident about, but I'm always looking for ways to double down on my strengths. I'm looking forward to learning how they maximize the ROI of every article.

11.) @BPN_Supplements – This spot is for BPN's CEO Nick Bare, but I don't think he's active on Twitter. I love the transparency of his YouTube channel (linked below) and how he balances multiple businesses – supplements, apparel, training programs, etc.

youtube.com/channel/UCbVEx…

12.) @MattGiovanisci – Matt is a prolific creator. He has courses, authority sites, SaaS products...all kinds of stuff. He also documents his experiments publicly at moneylab.co, which I love. I'll be looking to him for honest, no B.S. business advice all year long.

So that rounds out my brain trust for 2019...

What do you think? Am I missing someone? Who is on your list?

I gotta hit pause for a few, but when I come back I'll publish two, much larger lists: "Refreshing Voices" and "Makers to Watch"