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Confessions of a Public Speaker

June 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Scott Berkun tells an interesting, well-paced and honest (sometimes raw) account of what it’s like to be a public speaker. He covers a variety of issues from a variety of perspectives to give a complete sense of how and why certain things work – and what to do when they don’t.

Though the focus is on large public speaking engagements, many of the lessons are applicable to any sort of speaking. The world would be a better place if more adhered to his advice: Be interesting. Be clear. Practice (for confidence, not memorization). Be in control (be the leader). Be prepared (for when things go wrong). And more.

The book is filled with many practical lessons – Everybody’s nervous before/when speaking: just accept that and move your attention to something else. Set the pace: the easiest way to manage expectations of the audience. Be interesting: take a strong position in the title; think carefully about your audience; make your specific points as concise as possible; know the likely counter-arguments. And many more.

Berkun also runs through several interesting first-person stories, shares behind the scenes information that is interesting and useful, and provides compelling insight into the field of professional speaking. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is a speaker of any sort – particularly if I might be in the audience some day.

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Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose

June 6, 2011 By Leave a Comment

This book gives you fascinating details of Zappos.com, from its inception to its growth into one of the strongest customer service brands on the planet. The story of how this e-tailer emerged to such large-scale success from a sea of such companies, surviving (among other challenges) the dot-com bubble burst, is amazing.

The book starts with Tony’s upbringing and education and follows the story of the founding, growth and sale of his first successful company. These experiences shaped his thinking and helped to form the strategy for success at Zappos.com. Interestingly, it’s really old school ideas like great customer experience and leveraging tools like the telephone to build the brand that make this e-tailer successful.

There are big lessons in strategy – ideas like investing in customer service rather than advertising to build the brand, establishing core values that one is willing to “hire and fire by” in order to drive company culture, and sacrificing short-term gains in favor of long-term goals. There are also big lessons in the human element of business – ideas like empowering employees and vendor/partners in innovative ways, the power of “wowing” people, and yes, the value of helping people find (and finding your own) happiness.

If you’re interested in strategy or customer service, this book is a great read. Enjoy.

Also: see related post What Did Tony Hsieh Have to Say?, notes from the time I saw Tony Hsieh speak live.

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Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

May 30, 2011 By 3 Comments

Dan Pink presents great insight into the gap between what science knows and what business does about motivation. Using a variety of metaphors to clearly state his arguments, Pink makes a compelling case for recognizing that management approaches based on compliance are not going to serve organizations well in the new world of work that is evolving with our changing business and economic environment.

The central thesis is laid out neatly – humans need three things to motivate themselves: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. These are the drivers of intrinsic motivation, which Pink argues is critical for any non-algorithmic work (not just creative work, but anything that is non-repetitive or that involves problem solving).

After the preliminary groundwork is presented, a chapter is dedicated to each element (autonomy, mastery, purpose). Scientific studies – often with counter-intuitive results – are peppered throughout the book and support Pink’s arguments quite nicely. Of course, this works well because there are no counter-arguments presented to this case. Instead, there are a series of recaps and exercises designed to help reinforce Pink’s thesis.

The book is very well-written, compelling, and thought-provoking. I consider it a must-read for those who wish to contemplate the way the business world is evolving.

If you enjoy the book (or if you need more to explore before purchasing), be sure to watch his TED Talk on this topic, and the RSA animation video as well.

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Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard

May 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Successful transformative changes follow a pattern, one that Chip and Dan Heath highlight through interesting stories and a clever metaphor in their book Switch. Through the lessons in the book, you learn how to help the Rider (our rational minds) and Elephant (our emotional minds) down the desired Path of change.

Meeting this challenge requires a thoughtful and informed approach. After all, as the authors reveal, what looks like resistance to change is often a lack of clarity. What looks like laziness is often exhaustion. And what looks like a people problem is often a situation problem.

The book helps you learn how to identify and work through these and the many other challenges of making real change – individually or in an organization. The authors also demonstrate that commonly perceived obstacles to change, such as lack of authority or resources, aren’t really always what’s in the way. Several stories reveal huge changes perpetrated by individuals or small groups with no authority and little resources.

The book is well-written, easy and fun to read. The examples are compelling and memorable stories. The framework presented is clear and simple, making the lessons of the book easy to recall and apply. Highly recommended for anyone in a leadership position, or for anyone looking to drive change.

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Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

May 18, 2011 By 1 Comment

Why isn’t your idea easily grasped and spreading like wild fire? Why isn’t everyone “on board” and working vigorously to implement it? You’ve written the proposal, sent the emails, and even given the PowerPoint presentation – so what’s wrong? Why haven’t minds or behavior changed?

In Made to Stick, Chip and Dan Heath explore and analyze dozens of great campaigns where ideas did spread rapidly and were effective in driving change. From military strategies to the work of Mother Theresa, from the presidential campaign of Bill Clinton to the “Jared” marketing campaign of Subway sandwiches, the Heath brothers deduce six principles for shaping and communicating ideas so that they are “sticky” – so that they spread easily and change minds and behavior.

The six principles are conveyed using clear and interesting examples, such as those listed above. To bring home the major points, the book also contains several “clinics” – review exercises of scenarios that require improvement, complete with their suggested answers.

Everyone should read this book. Not only will it likely improve your writing and communication style, it’s helpful in thinking strategically about that next marketing campaign, proposal, or organizational change. No matter what your idea is, the lessons from this book will greatly help to shape and package it for maximum impact.

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Why the photo of “Don’t Mess with Texas?” .. because the now widely famous slogan that has expanded in meaning and interpretation started as an anti-littering campaign in the 1980s. Just one of the neat little stories in the book.

Photo credit: brionv

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Improv Wisdom: Don’t Prepare, Just Show Up

February 13, 2011 By 3 Comments

What can improv comedy teach us about work and life? A lot, it turns out. Behind the seemingly freeform, loose, and out of control performances is a very robust framework of structure. Counter-intuitive as it may seem, creativity is often based on rules, structure and discipline. And in her book, Improv Wisdom, Patricia Madson gives us unique insight into what’s behind the curtain.

In an engaging narrative that begins with revelations from her own professional life story, Madson, who has been on the Stanford University drama facutly for over 30 years, walks the reader through 13 “maxims” that make Improv work. And that apply to your life too – in interesting and useful ways.

Say yes

Take for instance the premise of agreement. “Say yes” is the first maxim. It leads you down a road of agreement and building in discussions. No “yes, but” is allowed. And plain old “no” is off limits. This rule forces a continuous flow of ideas that build on each other. It forces you to find something positive to build on and ignore negatives altogether.

Don’t prepare

Other maxims like “don’t prepare” and “pay attention” lead can lead you to be more present and to trust in yourself more. Take for instance the simple ritual of introductions in a group. Better to pay attention when others are making introductions than to preoccupy yourself with what you’re going to say. You don’t really need to prepare; when your turn comes, the words will too. But, you do need to pay attention to others carefully so that you can remember their names and other attributes.

Start anywhere

My other favorite is the “start anywhere” maxim that makes you realize for most projects, simply starting is critically important. The problem or project looks different once you’re inside it rather than studying and analyzing it from the outside. And, starting builds momentum. A sense of relief and accomplishment that can be leveraged into real results, often faster than you think.

Good ideas, well-presented

It’s a short book and a good read. Each maxim is supported not only by improvisation experience, but also by interesting and memorable anecdotes from real life. There are also simple exercises presented with each for you to try in order to test out the ideas for yourself. All in all it’s a very fun, interesting and practical book.

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Blink, by Malcom Gladwell

January 11, 2011 By 5 Comments

Decisions, decisions. We make them every day, all day long. Big ones and little ones, applying (intentionally and thoughtfully, or instinctively and subconsciously) all sorts of ideas for how good decisions are made. Well, Malcom Gladwell, as usual, throws a pretty big monkey wrench into the works and makes a persuasive argument that will get you to rethink some tried and true principles of decision making in his book Blink.

In Blink, Gladwell explores the amazing world of snap judgements. He looks closely at instantaneously drawn conclusions from different angles, revealing some startling truths. Often, we are much better served by making judgements based on gut instinct with seemingly little information and almost no contemplation. But not always. The book explores both cases.

Through compelling stories and a plethora of scientific research on “thin slicing” – making well-informed, thoughtful and proper judgements based on extremely limited data, Gladwell brings this black box of the human decision making engine under the spotlight. And though we can never see inside this black box, he provides some useful tools for understanding when to trust the answers it provides and when to be wary of them. Careful understanding of the inputs and outputs, of context and circumstance, reveal some useful answers. Gladwell demonstrates this through examining applications as varied as validating museum artifacts, US government war games, presidential elections, and police gun battles.

If you’re at all interested in the human decision making process and exploring ways to improve it, you will be well served by giving this book a read. I think that would be a good decision.

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A Million Miles In A Thousand Years (Editing your own life story)

October 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment

What if you were to set about editing your life story? What if you examined the events that shaped your path and your response to them, and then considered changing things in order to make your story more interesting? What would you do differently?

Well, that’s just what Don Miller did – and fortunately, he’s shared the experience in his wildly popular new book A Million Miles In A Thousand Years. Don takes the reader on his journey of self-exploration and change guided by the simple but profound concept of applying the principles of a good story in editing his own life, deliberately changing the narrative of his life as it is unfolding.

A good story, we learn, is about a character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it. Change does not come easy for the protagonist of a good story. He must be forced to change, motivated by something other than self-interest (sort of like the timeless hero’s journey). And, the point of the story is not to arrive at a happy ending, but rather to experience a transformation as part of the journey. Applying these principles to his own life, Don pushes himself through enough fear and emotions, takes enough risks, and tackles the tedium of sometimes painstakingly slow progress so as to make his life a more interesting story. (There are not easy answers or quick fixes, naturally.)

Sprinkled in the narrative are all sorts of adventures (he seems to be quite an outdoorsman, for someone who claims such a huge need to get off the couch and stop watching television early in the book). Interestingly, these adventures aren’t the meat and potatoes of the book – not the cross-country bike ride that seems to have inspired this particular work (a bicycle wheel is on the cover of the book), nor the rather epic sounding excursions he’s taken all over this country and beyond. Instead, the narrative is driven by Don’s relentless exploration of applying the principles of a good story to his life. And he does this in a remarkably entertaining way. The writing is funny, clever and insightful, as well as honest and revealing. All in all it’s an interesting topic, covered in a very interesting way. I think Don has succeeded in making his story and this book interesting indeed. I recommend it highly.

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10 Leadership lessons from Jerry Weintraub (Jerry Weintraub autobiography)

September 5, 2010 By 2 Comments

Jerry Weintraub is 72, and he’s done a lot. He’s learned a lot. And, in his new book, he shares a lot. The stories are interesting because many are ground-breaking business moves, and all of them involve the most famous stars – from Elvis Presly to Frank Sinatra to Brad Pitt and Geogre Clooney. Many also provide solid lessons in leadership and business.

I had not heard of Jerry Weintraub until recently, but I’m glad I did. The book is great – particularly the audiobook. Hearing Jerry himself tell his tales personally made them all the more enjoyable.

Here are 10 lessons from Jerry Weintraub’s new book When I Stop Talking You’ll Know I’m Dead, Useful Stories from a Persuasive Man:

  1. People don’t buy things, they buy the stories behind the things
  2. People will pay you to make their lives easier
  3. Always take the time to make the pitch
  4. Personal service is the name of the game
  5. Never get paid once for doing something twice
  6. As soon as you feel comfortable; that’s when it’s time to start over
  7. Sometimes, when you’re up against it… you just have to open your mouth and start talking
  8. Do not get attached to the world as it is, because the world is changing
  9. Be willing to be lucky
  10. Interesting is valuable

All of these, by the way, are in the first 45 pages of the book. By this time he’s 24 years old.

Each of these lessons is far more meaningful when presented in the context of Jerry’s stories and not isolated as I have them here. My task here isn’t to replicate what’s in the book, but rather to encourage you to check it out for yourself as another unlikely yet good place for lessons in leadership (remember the Dancing Guy?).

The book goes on to weave through a bunch of great stories that show how Jerry leveraged these early lessons in many successes, along with more lessons from some of his failures.

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Inbound Marketing (Internet Marketing Basics)

August 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

When people ask me about how to approach website design and social media strategies, I often find myself pointing them to this book: Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs (New Rules Social Media Series) by Brian Halligan, Dharmesh Shah, David Meerman Scott.

It’s such a great primer on how the online world has changed for businesses in recent years. Technology has evolved and the web works in a very different way, particularly for businesses connecting with their customers. A website is simply not enough anymore, and the design challenges are far different than what they used to be. For many businesses, a complete and actively managed and coordinated web presence that spans multiple platforms is necessary in order to be found and to service customers effectively.

The buzz and hoopla continue to mount about new technologies and social media. The never-ending appearance of new platforms and buzzwords can be overwhelming and intimidating those rethinking their strategy in this new environment. Sorting through it all can be a challenge, but a good place to start is with an exploration of the fundamental concepts, and I can think of no better book to help you to get a grasp of the new online world of marketing than this book. It’s a great primer on the concepts, and includes enough details on the tactics to be useful without being overwhelming. Following is a copy of my review from Amazon.com, I hope you find it useful.

Book Review

Inbound Marketing is for newbies, but there are some gems in there for everyone.

If you haven’t started out or haven’t gotten very far with social media or search engine optimization, this primer is a great place to start. It covers all the basics very well, though doesn’t get terribly deep on any one of them (which is entirely appropriate – the authors provide a good starting point without overwhelming the novice).

The authors have done an excellent job in describing the changing landscape of marketing (from outbound to inbound), describing the basic web tools that must be mastered for this new game, and providing some good, specific tactical advice and detailed instructions.

The early chapter on getting found on Google is a great summary of how Google works. It provides a nice, succinct way to convey the challenges in how to influence your search results to those outside of IT and Marketing – You’ve got to create “remarkable” content and avoid shortcuts that don’t work (and can backfire).

The later chapters provide good advice on how to develop and measure your overall inbound marketing strategy, as well as how to establish useful metrics to measure and track your efforts.

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