Hey folks it Challenge time again and for me that mean two things;

1: Create a music video for The Challenge

2: Go through the Challenge to keep up-to-date with all the cool marketing tactics.

For those of you who don't know, The Challenge is a module based training program, designed for busy people to work through at their own pace, which will show you step-by-step how you can make your first $1 online. All the training is 100% free and absolutely nothing is held back, plus there are no hidden catches whatsoever.

I've personally learned truck-loads from The Challenge over the years and if you're serious about starting a business online, I whole-heartedly recommend you check out The Challenge, as you will benefit greatly from the free training provided by the excellent Challenge team. I'm proud to be associated with the Challenge and hope that my small contribution helps to put a smile on your face, as that's exactly what this music video is intended for. A special thank you goes out to my supportive, talented family for all their help throughout, thank you Eva, Oscar and Katrina, love you all to bits.

Ed Dale's cool persuasion tactics forced me into making this years Challenge song, somewhat a little different, fun and enjoyable all the same.

All ego-supporting comments are most welcome.

Wow, can you believe that The Challenge (formerly The thirty Day Challenge) has come round again? Another year has flown by and the super-challenge-team have come up with an amazing new approach this year. You can check it out here – http://www.challenge.co/

If you've have ever wondered how to make money online and would like to set up a business working from home, then you'll need some guidance, top mentors and a plan. The challenge is now by far the best free training available anywhere on the planet and its run by some of the most wonderful people you could ever wish to meet. Do yourself a favour and check it out.

Of course a new challenge for me was to come up with a brand new theme song for this years challenge. With the help of family and few friends the music video to "Take My Hand" was born and the challenge had a new theme song. You can see what the song is all about in the synopsis below.

Song Synopsis:
As ever, the lyrics and sentiment are based around the whole ethos of what a challenge means to different people and how we all face different challenges of varying levels.

The video has a very show/theatre/Glee-style feel to it, starting off very sombre with a black and white visual. The opening shot is of the girl (Annie Larkin) see's her sharing her problems and how she's confused and unsure where to go and what to do from here. The manly hero (Josh Fish) comes to her rescue with "the challenge" being the solution to her problems – only to then reveal that he has similar problems too! They both unite and take the challenge together and the whole track ends with an upbeat crescendo which I hope will give people a positive attitude to get on with the challenge.

The whole "Take My Hand" theme runs throughout the song to let people know that they can achieve anything with the right guidance (the challenge course) and with other people behind them with the same goals and dreams as them.
End Of Synopsis

N.B: You might want to pause the video and let it stream down for a while if playback is a little choppy.

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Let me know if you're facing any challenges getting started online and I'll do my best to help. I'd also love to hear what you think about the music video and please click the "Like" box if you dig the tune. Please leave your comments below and I'll chat with you soon.
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Credit to the stars of the show.

A huge thank you to everyone who featured in the video from the College of West Anglia- Isle Campus. Your dedication and ability to learn a routine so fast was very impressive – Cheers. Those wonderful people are;

In Alphabetical Order
Jenna Allen, Lisa Arbon, Justyna Bartosevic, Becky Best, Hannah Boast, Katie Brown, Luke Burridge, Josh Fish, Lucy Groves, Allison Harley, Bryony Hewitt, Annie Larkin, Poppie Mason, Kayleigh Moss, Alistair Penman, Ellie Pettet, Victoria Rixon, Vicky Taylor, Richard Thompson and Toni Townsend.

The choreography was quickly put together by Michele Larkin and it was amazing to watch how quickly Michele whipped the students into shape, pulling off dance sequences in time with the track they'd just heard, for the first time only minutes before. Top-shelf Michele, your professionalism is always admired, thanks.

Thank you to my super lead stars – Annie Larkin & Josh Fish for your extra dedication during filming in the studio. You're both stars in the making.

Thank you to my super hand-holders – Delia Basuc, Eva Mason, Oscar Mason and Tony Twitchett.

A big thanks to Jack & Jo Griggs for letting me borrow Ross Griggs and stuffing him in a silver wig and blue dress. He has the best figure out of the 3 of us.

A Massive Super-Spangley (with glitter on top) thank you from the bottom of my heart to my beautiful wife and kids for putting up with me over the last few weeks. This definitely would not happen without your continued support. I Love You All – Thanks.

Music by Phill Mason
Lyrics by Katrina Mason
All Instruments by Phill Mason
All Vocals by Katrina Mason, Ross Griggs and Phill Mason

The final thanks goes to the lovely Silver – Blue beauties. Not sure who they are or where they came from, but they did sing the most wonderful backing vocals and they definitely have absolutely nothing to do with me what-so-ever, honestly, eerrrmm yup for sure, to be sure.

Can you believe another year has breezed past and here we are again at the beginning of August 2009 and that means only one thing, it's Thirty Day Challenge time!

UPDATE! The Thirty Day Challenge is now know as "The Challenge".

This years Theme Song Music Video sees a collaboration of people from all over the globe and we are honoured to be graced with a brief appearance of the talents of Karen Kramer and her wacky creation of the Chip-Ed-Dale dancers, check out the video. So, to celebrate this, I have made a High definition version available for download. Now as many of you may know, the 30DC and all it stands for is Free and the training is absolutely amazing this year – best ever.

So why the paid download? Well, to keep in keeping with the 30DC's preferred charity, we want to give a little back and help those less fortunate than us, so all proceeds from the Video and Audio downloads will be donated to the Kiva charity and this is how you can help.

We're keeping it really simple – $2 for the HD Video and $1 for the MP3 Audio.

Simple click the "Buy Now" button and you can securely pay with your credit card via Paypal. It's been suggested that I include a "Donate" button for those who can afford it and would like do donate additional contributions to the Kiva charity. There's no download attached to the "Donate" button, it's simply that a donation. If you want the Video or Audio, please click the relevant "Buy Now" button for each, thanks.

Donations Only	30DC HD MP4 Video	30 DC MP3 Audio

As soon as you've paid for your item, click on "Return To Merchant" on the successful payment page and your download window will automatically popup and begin. I hope you enjoy watching the video as much as I did making it and if we can make a small difference in someone's life, then it's been well worth while, thank you.

We now basically have an entire band on board a few times over – guitarists, drummers, bassists, piano and keyboard players, a few classical players and a handful of singers. As well as some great vocal talent on board, we also have a couple of groups of singers, some dancers and people who will hold up placards with messages and lyrics on throughout the video – great! The creative ideas floating around have been amazing and I can’t wait to try and fit it all in the video, (cue 10 min album track).
 
The 30DC Theme Song is in the early writing stages, I have a couple of notepad ideas roughly recorded but I need your help before I go too much further. The song needs to be uplifting, inspirational, melodic, memorable and toe-tappingly groovy.
 
The lyrics – the vocal hook. I would like you to get your thinking caps on and ask anyone and everyone you know who’s been involved with the 30DC to come up with a lyric or a line that sums up the 30DC. What is it all about? What does it mean? How does it make you feel? Can you sum up the Thirty Day Challenge in one line that will work well in a song?
 
You see singing the lyric "Thirty Day Challenge" is not exactly the most satisfying lyric to sing and I reckon we can come up with something more catchy that could be influential in more ways then one.
 
If like me, you’re sick of hearing Tina Turners – "Simply The Best" at every conference you attend as the "Go Get Em" theme, then lets try and replace it with with the 30DC 2009 song. How many times have you heard James Brown’s "I Feel Good" play in a film or TV advert? About a Gazillion (big number) I imagine, because it has a great vocal hook and a brilliant lyrical message.
 
Can it be done? Is the "30DC 2009 Theme Song Collaboration team" up to the challenge? Please comment below.
 
Below are a couple of common questions I’ve been asked:
 
So what happens next?
Once we’ve got the magical lyric, I will form the song around it – and at that point I will be able to start to give parts of the song out for players/singers/dancers to learn, rehearse, practice or mime to.More detailed info about how we will record this to follow soon.
 
Which Video Format?
Just as a side not, don’t panic about this too much, but just have in the back of your head that I would prefer the video to be shot in 16:9 HD (High Definition) 720p to be exact – that is 1280 x 720. Now before you panic, I will also be taking standard def DV video which is either 720 x 480 or 720 x 576 pixels depending on where in the world you live. If you can shoot in Full HD 1080p that’s fine also, but I would like to avoid low res, grainy webcam video if possible. Perhaps you have a friend who has a camera you could borrow?
 
I’ll also post this up on my blog, so please visit my blog http://www.phillmason.com/ and leave your comments with your answers/ideas for the lyric of the century.
 
Thanks guys and I look forward to your ideas.
 
All the Best
Phill Mason
E:  30dc2009@phillmason.com

P.S If you have any additional questions I haven’t covered here, please leave them in the comments below and I will make a video that covers the most popular ones.
 
P.P.S You can also stay up to date by following me around here: http://twitter.com/PhillMason or http://www.facebook.com/PhillMason
 
P.P.P.S Nope, I got nothing!!

If you can play an instrument like drums, guitar, keyboards sax etc, etc, then we will likely have musical parts for you to play and would love you to be one of the players on the video. If on the other hand you are more comfortable in the singing department, then its your vocals we want. Even if you can’t do either of those but would still love to be in this years 30DC video, then we will be offering parts of the video where people can mime to the vocal and submit their video clip for use in the master theme song.

When the song has been written, you will be notified about every part that is available to either play along with, sing along with or mime to. The more people involved with this years song, the more successful the track will become and as we are giving all proceeds from the downloaded track to Kiva, we want all the help we can get, so don’t be shy, get involved.

You have until the end of June 2009 to let me know if you’re in the mix or not. Get on the list and I’ll keep you updated. Thanks guys, this is going to be loads of fun – more soon.

This years Thirty Day Challenge is already set to be the biggest, most powerful, most intuitive and most fun, free internet training program on the planet. For those of you who don’t know what the Thirty Day Challenge is all about, I recommend you nip on over to the 30DC site and take a look at what it can do for you. Click here to go to the Thirty Day Challenge website.

It’s for anyone who wants to know how to setup an online business, let me rephrase that, it’s for anyone looking to setup a business period, whether its on or offline I personally don’t think it makes any difference. This is business training at its best and it covers everything from "basic business 101" right through to all the latest marketing techniques you’ll need in order to take your business to new heights. If you’ve never had a business before or simply want to improve your existing business, then the 30 Day Challenge would be a great place for you to begin sharpening your business skills. Taking full advantage of the best web 2.0 and social media tools available, Ed Dale and Dan Raine will guide you through each step of setting up and scaling a business exactly how they would do it for themselves. This is priceless folks! Following in the footsteps of those who have already been there and are already wearing the t-shirt, is the fastest way for you to learn the ropes and avoid the pitfalls. No one else on the planet is showing you these tactics.

How much I hear you ask for such a detailed and extremely well-planned video training course? Well….. Eerrr! Nothing, Zip, Nada, Diddley, Yup you read that right, nothing at all, not a penny. What’s the catch? There isn’t one, but don’t take my word for it, head over to the 30DC website, join and ask anyone who taken the challenge before, they’ll tell you exactly the same as me, Listen, Learn and Take Action. That is the key to your success, study hard but don’t forget to apply what you’ve learnt otherwise nothing happens at all. If you don’t like what the challenge has to offer – simply quit, that’s it, what has is cost you? Nothing.

I have personally made some great friends in the 30DC community and aside from the opportunity to network with like-minded and often brilliant people, this is you chance to become the expert, Guru, market leader in your niche. You owe it to your community and yourself to share your expertise, when you give you will receive. When you become an authority in your field, a plethora of opportunities begin to present themselves.

I look forward to seeing you in the forums and if I can help in anyway, just ask. In the video below, you can see Ed Dale on last nights broadcast talking about some new goodies for 2009, along with my plans for this years Thirty Day Challenge Theme Song – it could involve you! As you’ll see in the video intro (Thanks Karen Kramer) we are complete Man Candy – and game for a laugh!

Below is an image taken from my phone (quality not too super duper) of Ed receiving two of my CD’s – the original cast recording of ‘Mmm Mmm The Musical’ and a copy of ‘Up At The Albert’ by rock band ‘Boned’ which is an EP of the short set we played at the Royal Albert Hall in London for the Teenage Cancer Trust. Ed being a fellow musician and an ex-thesp himself, could really appreciate what effort is involved in writing, producing and performing a show like this and that gave us a real bond of interests outside of the internet marketing niche. We also had a chance to visit a few guitar shops down the famous Denmark Street and had lunch together just prior to the final Thirty Day Challenge meet up later that day.

It’s always really strange when you meet someone for the first time as you never really know what they’re like in "Real Life", but due to Ed’s huge visual internet presence from many of his training programs, you’re given the sense of a friendship before you even meet him and I’m happy to say Ed was exactly as I’d hoped and imagined he would be. He’s just like he is in his videos, calm, real, collective, funny and passionate about what he does. I’ve met TV celebrities, comedians and a handful of rock stars before and have been left with a hint of disappointment with some of them after they were not what I’d hoped they’d be like when we met and sadly this is quite often the case. Celeb’s are simply regular people like you and me and only thrust into celebrity status due to their job’s commitment and the press.

Now I’m sure Ed like many other Guru’s would not class themselves as celebrities, but in many people’s eye’s they are and their regular appearance in our email in-box and on our computer screen’s makes them so. I know this must sound like an "I love Ed Dale Fest", and perhaps it is, but I really just wanted the opportunity to record in writing how grateful I am to have had the chance to learn from someone like Ed, as he has helped me in my online business ventures in more ways than he could ever imagine. So, thank you Ed, your contribution to my Internet Marketing knowledge has been enormous and I hope to continue to learn from you for many years and even though we are half a world apart, aside from being a great mentor and a fantastic fashion advisor, I truly feel that I have found a great friend and hope that we get many more opportunities to share some quality time. And for those readers who are thinking it, no I don’t want to marry Ed – we haven’t even kissed yet!

Here is a handful of mug shots I managed to grab from my phone whilst at the meet up in London. A truly great bunch of people all sharing a similar passion for online success and I wish each and everyone of them – plenty of it.

I’m looking forward to meeting more people from the Thirty Day Challenge and hope that they’re all taking something away from their 30DC experience as I have. From the early days of Dale & Kern as an ‘Underachiever’ to the present day Dale & Raine offering that is the amazing ‘Immediate Edge’ I’m more than happy to stay in the loop and continue to widen my IM repertoire from those who seem to really care about what you get from it. Thanks Ed, keep doing what you do best.

It sure was fun – Meeting Ed Dale.

Cheers Mate
All the Best

Phill Mason

Ringtones Are Ready For Download – Click Here To Visit The Product Page.

Instruction Below:

Ok guys, they’re finally here, the worlds first, Thirty Day Challenge ringtones. After being asked by several challengers if I was going to make the 30DC Theme Song available for download and could people have it on their phones, I have created – through popular demand, a handful of Thirty Day Challenge ringtone snippets. They are the most popular parts of this years theme song like the intro, chorus and Mid8 etc, along with a couple of unplugged style ringtones featuring just the piano and vocals for an added bonus.

I’m going to charge a small fee to download these MP3′s in order to amortize some of the costs incurred making this year’s 30DC theme song. I don’t get paid to do it and it took me well over 100 hours to put together with all the video edits and so on, so if I could get a little back – that would be great.

These MP3′s have been optimised for Mobile/Cellphones and are mono files with a sample rate of 22.050 kHz @ 96kbps, this sounds great in most phones. The main 30DC Theme Song’s are regular high quality MP3 – 44.1kHz – 192kpbs – stereo.

I’ll keep it really simple and make each ringtone only $1 to download with no fancy memberships or sign-ups to worry about.

Ringtones Are Ready For Download – Click Here To Visit The Product Page.

Please check your email “Spam” folder after you’ve made your purchase. The email address admin at phillmason.com will be sending you your new 30 Day Challenge ring tones – Enjoy!

**PLEASE NOTE – INSTRUCTION FOR PREVIEW & DOWNLOAD**

Click on the link or small triangle next to each link to preview the demo audio. On the demo ringtones you will also hear “phill mason dot com” spoken during these demo’s and this will not be present on your downloaded version.

There are 7 Thirty Day Challenge Theme Song 2008 ringtones: Only $1 per ringtone

30dc-brass-intro

30dc-repeating-rock-guitar-riff

join-us-for-thirty-days

middle8-youre-the-only-one

thats-the-thirty-day-challenge-chorus

there-is-no-charge-for-awesomeness

theres-no-charge-for-awesomeness

There are 3 Original Phone Ringtones: Only $1 per ringtone

somebodys-calling-your-telephone

text-message-on-your-phone

youve-got-a-message

Thirty Day Challenge Theme Songs: Only $1 per ringtone
These two demo’s are snippets, but you get the whole track

30dc-theme-song-2008-master

30dc-theme-tune-2007-master

Full Package includes: Only $10

7 x 30DC Ringtones

3 x Original Ringtones

1 x MP3 Full Length 30DC Theme Song 2008 + Lyrics PDF

1 x MP3 Full Length 30DC Theme Song 2007 + Lyrics PDF

Ringtones Are Ready For Download – Click Here To Visit The Product Page.

I just wanted to take this opportunity to say many thanks for your continued support and kind comments regarding my music on both this website and youtube, it really does mean a hell of a lot to me and your feedback is vital to my continued learning curve of this song writing malarkey and I hope that you’ll continue to enjoy my music for a long time – thanks.

All the Best
Phill

Please check your email “Spam” folder after you’ve made your purchase. The email address admin@phillmason.com will be sending you your new 30 Day Challenge ring tones – Enjoy!

This years 30 day challenge came swiftly upon us, but what was different this year was that I’d been asked to do another song for this years challenge – Scooters Man, now the pressure was on, the difficult second album syndrome. During the 30DC Pre-season, I even heard Ed say “can Phill do it” , can he write another catchy theme tune like last years? Oh cheers mate – thanks for doubling the pressure.

Anyway, I was actually really pleased to have been asked to do it again, I took it as a compliment and to the studio I ran to get cracking on the new Thirty Day Challenge Theme.

I realised that after waffling on about writing the 30 DC Theme Song above, I’d already chirped on about it on the 1st of August in a previous post – What a Gooner! End of Post

Wow, well here we are once again, at the beginning of August and its the grand opening of another Thirty Day Challenge. The 30 Day Challenge is the mastermind of two of the internets most highly-respected marketers – Ed Dale and Dan Raine and its designed to show you step-by-step, how to setup a rock-solid foundation for your new or existing online business. All the tools and all the techniques you could ever wish for are presented to you in crystal-clear video format – the best coaching program you're likely to see! Best of all, its all for free and anyone can join in at any time – Check it out here 30DC you'll be glad you did.

This means only one thing for me – time to write a new theme song and make a video to boot. Of course I've been working on this one for the last few months, a verse riff here and a middle 8 melody there, piece by piece the song has nicely come together, but not after several rewrites though. Some of the best songs have come from writing a phrase or melody only to realise that the piece you've just written is exactly what you don't want. I personally have no formula for writing songs and I don't really care which comes first – melody, riff or lyrics, it matters not to me, only that inspiration comes from one of them to inspire me for the rest – that'll do me nicely! I've written both songs to lyrics and put lyrics to tunes and neither seems any easier than the other. I think as a composer, you know when its right and if you're honest, you know when its not. Sometimes you really want a tune to work as you know it has a certain something to it and it may not be a bad tune, but perhaps it just doesn't work in that particular configuration and thats what needs to change. Talk about "pressure on" scooters man, it's like the infamous "second album" – can Phill do it again and write another catchy tune for this years 30 Day Challenge!! Thanks guys no pressure – phew! If you missed last years song – check it out here – Last years 30 Day Challenge Music Video.

I really like this song if I do say so myself, its simple and melodic. If I'm not confident of a melody or tune, I either rework it or trash it and start again, but this years 30DC theme tune melody is memorable – and thats what people like in a song, it also has an uplifting happy feel to help get people motivated for the challenge each day. Sure the track is perhaps a little cliché with a few prog-rock references at the end of the song, but its original, memorable and most of all fun – and that is the foundation of a good song. I try not to attach myself to my music too much as you do put your head on the chopping-block ready for any type of criticism and abuse people wish to throw at you. I know Ed and Dan are in the same boat for what they put together for the challenge – you can never make everyone happy, you just have to put your stuff out there for folks to use and abuse, but you do have to be prepared to accept some non-friendly comments about your efforts, thats what creative people have to deal with, here's my efforts – say what you will, its what I'm offering. I wouldn't change it for the world, I love it.

The video also contains some humorous references to this years "Ed Dale Mankini" joke in the style of a couple of video I released earlier last month. If you didn't catch them, you can see them here on Youtube; Thirty Day Challenge is Misunderstood – Mankini Style! Beechworth Daily News For The Thirty Day Challenge Finally, a huge thanks to my gorgeous little kids – Oscar and Eva who sang their hearts out and giggled a lot – bless em! A special thanks to the missus – Katrina Mason and best friend Emma Fisher who helped me Rock-Out at the end of this video – you're both absolute stars – thank you. Here is this years official Theme Song for the awesome Thirty Day Challenge – let me know what you think, your feedback is very much appreciated – thanks. Please allow the video some time to load. 

You can join in all the fun & awesomeness and find out more about the Thirty Day Challenge by visiting; http://www.thirtydaychallenge.com Post any questions you have here in the comments.

UPDATE! The Thirty Day Challenge is now know as "The Challenge".