Career Opportunities

Book description from Amazon.com…

“The world is full of brilliant people whose ideas are never heard. This book is designed to make sure that you’re not one of them.

Even for the most self-confident among us, public speaking can be a nerve-racking ordeal. Whether we are speaking to a large audience, within a group, or in a one-on-one conversation, the way in which we communicate ideas, as much as the ideas themselves, can determine success or failure. In this invaluable guide by two of today’s most sought-after communication experts, Peter Meyers and Shann Nix offer a comprehensive approach for tackling the underlying obstacles that almost all of us experience when faced with speaking in public. In As We Speak, you’ll learn to master the three building blocks at the core of their approach:

Content: Organize the information you want to convey and construct a clear and lucid architecture of ideas that will lead your listener through a memorable emotional experience.

Delivery: Use your body, voice, eyes, and hands in ways that engage your audience and naturally support your message.

State: Bring yourself into peak performance condition. Your state is the way you feel when you perform, and it is both the most powerful and most frequently overlooked component of communication.

Meyers and Nix show how to apply these principles in a wide variety of situations. You’ll learn how to handle difficult face-to-face conversations with colleagues, friends, and family; how to make the best use of e-mail, phone, video conference, and other technology; and how to communicate in a crisis, when all eyes are on you and emotions are running high. Meyers and Nix also emphasize that effective communication is impossible without first becoming aware of your own true goals and personal beliefs, and they offer helpful tools and exercises that will lead you to greater clarity and self-knowledge.

Accessible, inspiring, and laden with useful tips, As We Speak will help you discover your authentic voice and learn to convey your ideas in the most powerful and memorable way possible.

Book description from Amazon.com…

If you cut off a spider’s head, it dies; if you cut off a starfish’s leg it grows a new one, and that leg can grow into an entirely new starfish. Traditional top-down organizations are like spiders, but now starfish organizations are changing the face of business and the world. 

What’s the hidden power behind the success of Wikipedia, craigslist, and Skype? What do eBay and General Electric have in common with the abolitionist and women’s rights movements? What fundamental choice put General Motors and Toyota on vastly different paths? 

Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom have discovered some unexpected answers, gripping stories, and a tapestry of unlikely connections. The Starfish and the Spider explores what happens when starfish take on spiders and reveals how established companies and institutions, from IBM to Intuit to the U.S. government, are also learning how to incorporate starfish principles to achieve success.

I have 1 copy of The Adversity Paradox to give away to a lucky Career-Op reader/listener. All you need to do is take one of the actions listed in the widget below. Additional actions will gain you additional entries into the contest. The winner will be randomly selected on December 1, 2011.

You can find out more about The Adversity Paradox on Amazon.com

Evil Plans: Having Fun on the Road to World Domination by Hugh MacLeod

Book Description from Amazon.com…

The acclaimed author of Ignore Everybody is back with more irreverent wisdom, wit, and original cartoons.

“It has never been easier to make a great living doing what you love. But to make it happen, first you need an EVIL PLAN. Everybody needs to get away from lousy bosses, from boring, dead-end jobs that they hate, and ACTUALLY start doing something they love, something that matters. Life is short.” -Hugh MacLeod

Freud once said that in order to be truly happy people need two things: the capacity to work and the capacity to love. Evil Plans is about being able to do both at the same time. The sometimes unfortunate side effect is that others will hate you for it. MacLeod’s insights are brash, wise, and often funny.

Book Review: Anything You Want by Derek Sivers

The Domino Project

Anything You Want is the type of writing I have come to describe as a “Real World Example.” It is like sitting across the table of someone as they tell their story…a story that will hopefully change your life.

Over the years I am sure we have all had moments like this. The friend who educated us about the stock market, the soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend who taught us what a relationship should be, and in Sivers’ case, the story of one business — his business — that also encompasses the nature of business as a whole.

Anything You Want is a short book – only 77 pages in printed form – and yet it illustrates a complete journey. It also details Sivers’ attitudes towards business – slow to no growth, doing it all for the customer, and knowing when to get out. In these few short pages he gives us it all, alpha to omega, and we are better for it.

I unabashedly like this book. It matches with my own beliefs about career, business and life at many points. I too believe that money should never be the sole reason for doing anything and that bigger is not always better. Sivers also touches on another important topic, success. While he doesn’t come out and say it directly, I get the sense that he understands that there are levels to success. Too often today, we believe there are only 2 levels of success – Nobody and Rich and Famous. Hopefully people will use Sivers’ example to remind themselves that supporting yourself, providing for your family and being comfortable provides unlimited gradations of success.

Settle in with Anything You Want and your favorite beverage and an hour later you will come back with ideas, plans, hope and a deeper understanding of what it is to run your own business and perhaps, your own life.

Highly recommended

Two books picked up from the library today. Not necessarily and endorsement, but books that caught my eye recently. — Douglas

The Whuffie Factor by Tara Hunt

Comments about The Whuffie Factor

“Embrace the chaos! The Whuffie Factor weaves stories from Moleskine, 37Signals, Threadless, Willitblend, and Gary Vaynerchuk into a compelling story of the way business is now done. Tara doesn’t just talk about it, of course, she does it herself.”

—Seth Godin, author of Meatball Sundae

“Marketing–or doing business at all–in the age of whuffie and the world of social media means authenticity, listening, engaging, and trusting. That’s what Tara Hunt says, and it’s also exactly what she does. If you are in marketing now or starting a company that has customers, you need to read this book to understand exactly, and I mean precisely and with detailed examples, how the conversation between vendor and client, business and customer, has changed radically. Tara Hunt knows her stuff, and she knows how to put a great deal of knowledge into compelling ­stories that are a pleasure to read because her voice is not just the voice of extensive experience: Tara Hunt’s voice works well in this book because it’s who she is.”
—Howard Rheingold, author of The Virtual Community and Smart Mobs

The Millionaire Messenger: Make a Difference and a Fortune Sharing Your Advice by Brendon Burchard

Comments about The Millionaire Messenger

“This is a must-read for any author, speaker, coach, seminar leader, consultant, or online information marketer. Brendon Burchard shows you how to get your message to the public in a bigger way (and get paid for it too).” –John Gray, New York Times Bestselling Author of “Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus”

“We all have a life story and a message that can inspire others to live a better life or run a better business. Brendon Burchard’s book proves it and shows how you can share your message to make a difference and also make an income. This book will help you change a lot of lives.” –Marci Shimoff, New York Times best-selling author of Happy for No Reason and Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul

“The expert industry has been shrouded in myth and mystery for far too long. Now Brendon Burchard, one of our most innovative and powerful leaders, reveals exactly how we—authors, speakers, coaches, consultants, seminar leaders and online information marketers–make a difference and earn an income with our advice and expertise. This is an industry defined by how much value we add to others’ lives, and this book delivers and shows exactly why Brendon is one of the best.” –Jack Canfield, New York Times best-selling author of The Success Principles and originator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul(R) series
“I love making a difference in the lives of millions of people worldwide. It gives my life a deep sense of meaning and purpose. I wish I had read Brendon Burchard’s new book, The Millionaire Messenger, twenty years ago, because it has many of the lessons that would have dramatically boosted my career, both in terms of impact and finances. Lessons I had to learn the hard way. No matter what your age, now is the time to make the biggest difference in the world. Brendon will show you how.” –Daniel G. Amen, MD, New York Times best-selling author of Change Your Brain, Change Your Life and Magnificent Mind at Any Age

Here is what I am reading at the moment.

The Referral Engine

All links go to the WelchWrite Bookstore in association with Amazon.com for reviews and more info.

We are all weird by Seth Godin

Whenever I read one of Seth Godin’s books I feel he is preaching to the choir because his thoughts are so much in tune with my own when it comes to New Media, marketing and business. I often that he is describing things in much the same way I do when talking to those people who don’t understand the new world we live in, but want to know more. We are all weird is another of these cases. I found myself nodding in agreement and even saying “yes, yes, yes!” out loud as I read.

The basic, overriding message to this book is, “Mass is dead. Here comes weird.” Godin should have just as easily said “Here comes niche. Here comes small or a variety of other words, but I am sure using weird makes readers stop and take notice.” I agree with him, too. The mass market is shrinking (he provides some charts showing how and why) and smart businesspeople will focus on tribes, niches, small groups to find those people with an affinity for their product.

“The opportunity of our time is to support the weird, to sell to the weird and, if you wish, to become weird.”

Like most “normal” processes of the world, the Internet and the hyper-connectivness it allows, is making weird the new normal. I know, that seems an oxymoronic phrase, but I get where Godin is coming from. As the “mass” decreases the old normal gives way to the new, weird, normal.

As with most of Godin’s books, this one gets me thinking, and making notes and instituting changes in my own marketing policies even as I am reading. You may have to think deeply about how to implement some of the ideas here, but I think there is something for nearly anyone who wants to reach a particular audience with a particular message. This can be anyone from a non-profit out to change the world to a corporate hive worker trying to keep their company relevant in the new weird, normal world.

We are all weird is available from Amazon.com as both a paperback and Kindle book. Use the links above to find out more information, read reviews and buy the book.

Disclaimer: I received an early, e-gallery version of We are all weird directly from the Domino Project. The opinions here are my own and no payment was made for this review.

Find more great career-related books in the Career Opportunities section of the WelchWrite Bookstore in association with Amazon.com

My first Kindle-format eBook is now available on Amazon.

The great thing is that is doesn’t require a Kindle to read. You can get free Kindle software for nearly any device (Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPod Touch, Android, Blackberry) and read the book there.

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Description:

Social Media Self Preservation: Taking advantage of social media without losing your mind

7100 Words

Price: $4.99

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.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: Why Social Media?
• Chapter 1: Which social networks should you join?
  • Be Found!
  • Reserving your name
  • A few social networks to get you started
• Chapter 2: How to decide who to include in your online community
  • It is all about value
  • Where to begin building your online community?
• Chapter 3: Maintaining your online community
  • Re-evaluation
  • No longer needed
  • People Change
  • Too much information
  • Information you can find elsewhere
• Chapter 4: What to share online
  • Share your knowledge and expertise
  • Share your work
  • …but my work is secret!
  • Share your life
  • Balance in your social media sharing

I am reading this book, for free, courtesy of Seth Godin’s Domino Project and their sponsors. It looks as if that deal has expired, but the book is worth checking out. — Douglas

Read This Before Our Next Meeting

by Al Pittampalli

One mediocre meeting after another quietly corrodes our organization, and every day we allow it to happen. Culture change occurs when a transformational idea spreads to enough people. Like a virus that makes its way from person to person, spreading exponentially faster, so can the Modern Meeting. The status quo must go. Now. Before it’s too late. 1. Meet only to support a decision that has already been made. 2. Move fast. End on schedule. 3. Limit the number of attendees. 4. Reject the unprepared. 5. Produce committed action plans. 6. Refuse to be informational. Read the memo, it’s mandatory. 7. Work with brainstorms, not against them. CUT THIS OUT AND BRING IT TO OUR NEXT MEETING.

Read more about this book on GoodReads.com

Another book in my “To Read” stack. A review will be coming soon if I deem it worthy of one. — Douglas

Instant Influence: How to Get Anyone to Do Anything–Fast

by Michael Pantalon

If you want to motivate your employees to be more productive, convince your customers to use more of your products and services, encourage a loved one to engage in healthier habits, or inspire any change in yourself, renowned psychologist Dr. Michael Pantalon can show you how to achieve Instant Influence in six simple steps. Drawing on three decades of research, Dr. Pantalon’s easy-to-learn method can create changes both great and small in 7 minutes or less. This scientifically tested method succeeds in every area of work and life by helping people tap into their deeply personal reasons for wanting to change and finding a spark of “yes” within an answer that sounds like “no.”

Read more on GoodReads.com