My Word with Douglas E. Welch » Books

What I’m Reading…Accidental Creative

dewelch — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:33:01 +0000

I have listened to Todd Henry’s podcast, The Accidental Creative, for years, so it only made sense to pick up his book from the library.

From Amazon.com…

Have better ideas, faster, without the stress and burnout.

It isn’t enough to just do your job anymore. In order to thrive in today’s marketplace, all of us, regardless of our role, have to be ready to generate brilliant ideas on demand.

Business creativity expert Todd Henry explains how to establish effective practices that unleash your creative potential. Born out of his consultancy and his popular podcast, Henry has created a practical method for discovering your personal creative rhythm. He focuses on five key elements:

* Focus: Begin with your end goal in mind. * Relationships: Build stimulating relationships and ideas will follow. * Energy: Manage it as your most valuable resource. * Stimuli: Structure the right “inputs” to maximize creative output. * Hours: Focus on effectiveness, not efficiency. This is a guide for staying inspired and experiencing greater creative productivity than you ever imagined possible.

Link: The Accidental Creative: How to be brilliant at a moment’s notice by Todd Henry

What I’m Reading…Accidental Creative is a post from My Word with Douglas E. Welch

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New Booklet: Career Compass: Finding Your Career North

dewelch — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:23:00 +0000

I have just released a new booklet in Amazon Kindle format and I wanted you to be one of the first to know.

This ebook can be read on almost any device including Mac, Windows, iPhone/iPod/iPad and Android device — and, of course, the Kindle Readers.

NOW AVAILABLE AT:

Career Compass: Finding Your Career North

by Douglas E. Welch

	This career booklet (5100 words) can help you to find the true direction of your career and guide you on that journey. Topics: How do you discover which job and career is right for you? How do your desires point you in the right direction? How to discover and stop your from moving “Due South” — exactly the wrong direction in your career? How can you use the Career Compass to evaluate new opportunities? From the introduction… “Imagine if when you were born you were given a magical compass to lead you through your life. It would always show you the way. It would show you the right answers on tests, lead you to the right college and to the right course of study at that college. It would lead to your first job, your first (and maybe last) love and always show the path ahead. This isn’t some idle fantasy. We each have a compass to show us the way, if only we would take it out of our pocket and use it. This compass, of course, is our desire. Instead of a needle, it is a feeling, a pull, a tension — in some cases, an overwhelming flood of feeling that says “Yes, this is the way — this is the one — this is where you need to go!”
	Douglas E. Welch

New Booklet: Career Compass: Finding Your Career North is a post from My Word with Douglas E. Welch

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Product: Lego-themed Moleskine Journals

dewelch — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:08:58 +0000

Lego-themed Moleskine Journals at Amazon.com.

I came across these new journals from Moleskine via Boing Boing the other day and quickly added them to my Birthday Wish List (Feb 14).

I love Moleskine journals themselves and adding a neat crossover by theming them in Lego makes them a fun addition to the journals I already carry everywhere. they come with a lego on the front cover you can build on as well as stickers to customize it as you wish.

My son is a Lego fanatic and I am sure he would go crazy over these, too.

Product: Lego-themed Moleskine Journals is a post from My Word with Douglas E. Welch

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What I’m Reading…Fermentation is your friend

dewelch — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 01:00:50 +0000

Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods by Sandor Ellix Katz

Description from Amazon.com…

“Bread. Cheese. Wine. Beer. Coffee. Chocolate. Most people consume fermented foods and drinks every day. For thousands of years, humans have enjoyed the distinctive flavors and nutrition resulting from the transformative power of microscopic bacteria and fungi. Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods is the first cookbook to widely explore the culinary magic of fermentation.”Fermentation has been an important journey of discovery for me,” writes author Sandor Ellix Katz. “I invite you to join me along this effervescent path, well trodden for thousands of years yet largely forgotten in our time and place, bypassed by the superhighway of industrial food production.” The flavours of fermentation are compelling and complex, quite literally alive. This book takes readers on a whirlwind trip through the wide world of fermentation, providing readers with basic and delicious recipes-some familiar, others exotic-that are easy to make at home.”

What I’m Reading…Fermentation is your friend is a post from My Word with Douglas E. Welch

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What I’m Reading…Presentation Zen

dewelch — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 19:09:32 +0000

Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds

Description from Amazon.com…

Best-selling author and popular speaker Garr Reynolds is back in this newly revised edition of his classic, best-selling book, Presentation Zen, in which he showed readers there is a better way to reach the audience through simplicity and storytelling, and gave them the tools to confidently design and deliver successful presentations.

In this new edition, Garr gives his readers new, fresh examples to draw inspiration from, with a whole new chapter for those who present on more technical and educational topics based on techniques used by many presenters who give high-level talks at TED and other powerhouse events. Whether the reader is in research, technology, business, or education–this book will show them how to take what could look like a really dry presenation and reinvigorate the material in totally fresh (and sometimes interactive!) ways that will make it memorable and resonate with the audience.

Staying true to the mission of the first), Garr combines solid principles of design with the tenets of Zen simplicity to help readers along the path to simpler, more effective presentations that will be appreciated, remembered, and best of all, acted upon.

More information from Amazon.com

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What I’m Reading…Percy Jackson: The Son of Neptune

dewelch — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 02:03:27 +0000

The Son of Neptune (Percy Jackson series)

My son got me into these books, as well as theThe Kane Chronicles series by the same author, and they are a great alternative read to my usual fare of non-fiction business and history book. Riordan has a lot of fun mixing up the old and new in these books and the characters are quite likable. Not quite Harry Potter quality of story, but excellent tales about loyalty, friendship and sacrifice.

More books by Rick Riordan

What I’m Reading…Percy Jackson: The Son of Neptune is a post from My Word with Douglas E. Welch

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Did you get a Kindle today? Check out my 3 books and their free samples!

dewelch — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 03:24:37 +0000

If you got a Kindle today and are looking for something to put on it, please consider taking a look at my 3 books. You can download a free sample of each on the Amazon web site.

Social Media Self Preservation

7100 Words
Take advantage of social media without losing your mind…
Using social media as part or business or personal life can seem overwhelming and fraught with pitfalls. There is a way, though, to make the best use of social media without falling into the traps of lost privacy and social media burnout.
This guide explains what you need to know as you start your journey into social media and how to make social media productive for you.

Cultivating Your Career Reputations

11,000 Words

While we often talk about one, monolithic, Reputation – with a capital R — I believe that there are a series of reputations that make up the whole. This book will focus on the combination of reputations that make up your one, overarching, Reputation. By examining each of these reputations in detail, I hope you will find specific areas where you can improve your work, your actions and your thoughts so that your overall professional reputation grows.

Why break your Reputation down into its constituent parts? It is often said that you can’t “do” projects, you can only do the individual tasks that make up the project and achieve the desired result. The same can be said for reputation. You don’t build your reputation as a whole, you cultivate the smaller reputations that create it. Each individual action builds your reputation in unique ways and each requires some thought as to how they relate to the whole.

The High-Tech Career Handbook

30,000 Words

Navigating the special difficulties of a high-tech career can be troublesome for workers, young and old. Career Opportunities, a weekly column for ComputorEdge Magazine in San Diego, California and Colorado Springs, Colorado, has addressed these issues for almost 13 years.

While simultaneously developing his own high-tech career, author Douglas E. Welch has shared his insights, trials, setbacks and successes with his readers. The High-Tech Career Handbook collects the best columns from 1997-2003 into a book for all high-tech careerists, whether they are just starting out, building their career or looking for a new career in the high-tech world.

Topics covered in the columns include getting your career started, ethics, fairness and the benefits of doing honest business, personal development, professional development, and the tips and tricks for transitioning into a mature career.

Did you get a Kindle today? Check out my 3 books and their free samples! is a post from My Word with Douglas E. Welch

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What I’m Reading…The Night Circus and Touchpoints

dewelch — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 17:00:00 +0000

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

From Amazon.com…

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus performers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart.

TouchPoints: Creating Powerful Leadership Connections in the Smallest of Moments

From Amazon.com…

A fresh, effective, and enduring way to lead—starting with your next interaction.

Most leaders feel the inevitable interruptions in their jam-packed days are troublesome. But in TouchPoints, Conant and Norgaard argue that these—and every point of contact with other people—are overlooked opportunities for leaders to increase their impact and promote their organization’s strategy and values. Through previously untold stories from Conant’s tenure as CEO of Campbell Soup Company and Norgaard’s vast consulting experience, the authors show that a leader’s impact and legacy are built through hundreds, even thousands, of interactive moments in time. The good news is that anyone can develop “TouchPoint” mastery by focusing on three essential components: head, heart, and hands.

TouchPoints speaks to the theory and craft of leadership, promoting a balanced presence of rational, authentic, active, and wise leadership practices. Leadership mastery in the smallest and otherwise ordinary moments can transform aimless activity in individuals and entropy in organizations into focused energy—one magical moment at a time.

What I’m Reading…The Night Circus and Touchpoints is a post from My Word with Douglas E. Welch

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What I’m Reading…Spiders and Starfish, Ignore Everybody, As We Speak

dewelch — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 05:38:55 +0000

What I’m Reading…Spiders and Starfish, Ignore Everybody, As We Speak is a post from My Word with Douglas E. Welch

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My Word with Douglas E. Welch » Books

What I’m Reading…Accidental Creative

New Booklet: Career Compass: Finding Your Career North

Product: Lego-themed Moleskine Journals

What I’m Reading…Fermentation is your friend

What I’m Reading…Presentation Zen

What I’m Reading…Percy Jackson: The Son of Neptune

Top My Word posts for 2011

Did you get a Kindle today? Check out my 3 books and their free samples!

What I’m Reading…The Night Circus and Touchpoints

What I’m Reading…Spiders and Starfish, Ignore Everybody, As We Speak