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ISBN 9780061714702 Published Feb. 2010
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Posted July 15, 2011 5:47 a.m. by jon
In - 800 CEO Read Blog
Lately, I've been thinking a lot about the case studies used in business thought. There are some massively powerful examples to learn from. For instance, we all recognize the genius of Apple. We know that Toyota came up with a superb efficiency. And we might not even know what the details of those examples are, but even on the surface, you can look at a big corporation like those and understand, "yes, they're doing something right," right?
So I've been thinking about some examples that have struck me and continue to come to mind. Examples that aren't so obvious, yet have their own undeniable awesomeness. The first that comes to mind is Sally Hogshead's analysis of Jaegermeister, the "delicious" liqueur who's brand continues to grow in spite of the fact that no one claims to enjoy it's taste. Sally's reference to this enigma appears in her book Fascinate: Your 7 Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation and it's a compelling study. On the surface, it seems illogical, yet the business truth exists. But how? You'll have to read Sally's book to understand that (and how to create that scenario for your business), but the point is that this is an obscure example, and almost because of its obscurity, it stands out more.
When we look at obvious examples, we make assumptions. That's not to say that obvious examples aren't relevant in terms of what they address, but it is interesting how we perceive them and how we absorb them.
On an even more obscure scale, author Hugh MacLeod uses a tiny meat market in Texas to exemplify how companies (and individuals) can "keep it simple," meaning, do as much of your business as you can yourself, and serve your customers in the most helpful way possible. As Hugh realizes at the end of his story, there's a good amount of money to be made in that philosophy. Check out this story and more in his book Evil Plans: Having Fun on the Road to World Domination.
Certainly, there are many other examples, but you get the idea. Sometimes it's good to not take the obvious route. Look around, observe things, take note. There's a lot to learn out there, but sometimes the lessons come from examples that are far easier to find, understand, and analyze, than the big, obvious choices.
The 2010 Author Pow Wow
Posted Dec. 9, 2010 8:03 a.m. by jon
In - 800 CEO Read Blog
It's been a whirlwind couple of days so far this week, but the 2010 Author Pow Wow wrapped up yesterday. My one sentence review? It's amazing how much people can help each other when they come together.
Filled with authors, speakers, publishers, publicists, editors, media, consultants, social media experts, and more, the Pow Wow is a focused concentration on all the issues one faces when they consider connecting their idea with the world. As you can imagine, it's a lot to take in.
The first day started off with Steve Shapiro's Personality Poker, which was a perfect way to get everyone to understand their best skills, other people's skills, and how to work with people you like the least. It was also the closest a business conference can get to a back alley poker game...
Panels on social media, publishing, sales, and speaking turned into lively full-room discussions, questions, experience-sharing, and group insight that equated simply to pure magic.
Each day was capped with talks by individuals who have some incredible ideas about business, people, and how we can and do work together. Knowledge was shared. Lives were changed.
Here's me introducing the first one, Chris Guillebeau. Chris talked about how he never took a traditional career path, worked in Africa, started a blog, developed digital products, wrote a book, and went on a 63 city book tour. And he described it all in the most straightforward, simple, yet smart way you could imagine. As one attendee mentioned out loud at the end of his talk, "he's the real deal."
And then there was Sally Hogshead, who helped everyone identify their fascination triggers. If that sounds light, imagine how I felt when I discovered my boss' triggers were "Power / Lust." Similar to Steve's opening session, Sally helped the group recognize their personality qualities in order to help them create stronger personal brands. By the end of the day, groups of people began discussing new strategies for their social media presence based on this newly acquired knowledge. She also got Jack Covert to drink a shot of Jaegermeister...
Thanks again to everyone involved. It was a truly exciting and educational week. For those of you that missed out, we'll be doing it again soon. Stay tuned!
8cr Pow Wow Adds Chris Guillebeau and Sally Hogshead
Posted Sept. 29, 2010 6:11 a.m. by jon
In - 800 CEO Read Blog
The 800-CEO-READ Pow Wow is really incredible. I continue to hear stories about people who met at the first one in 2005, and are still working on projects together. Also, their work is better based on the things they learned by coming to the Pow Wow over the years.
It's about authors on one hand, but on a deeper level, it's about people with ideas who want to help other people with their work and lives. Publishing plays a role in that, and so does branding, speaking, credibility, time management, media, networking, and many other things. It's great to have a big idea, but in order to have it do its good work, there's a lot to know (and people to know), and the Pow Wow has continuously provided that.
This year, we're adding a bit more to the mix. The insightful panels featuring experts in publishing, marketing, publicity, and speaking will be rounded out with individual presentations by two people who we think have captured the essence of idea spreading:
We're excited to have them involved. It's hard to imagine the Pow Wow becoming even better, but I think this will do the trick. Check out the full details here, and hopefully you can attend. Our special hotel discount ends in a matter of weeks, so take advantage of that by registering soon.
See you December!
unGeeked Elite: A Social Media Event
Posted April 15, 2010 7:01 a.m. by dylan
In - 800 CEO Read Blog
Milwaukee will soon be hosting the first nationwide unGeeked Elite event. The conference is being organized by Cd Vann, owner of SohoBiztube.com, who defines unGeeking as "the widespread adoption of trends, strategies, and tools that allow us to enhance and embrace internal and external marketing campaigns, enhance customer service, strategize effective sales efforts, and develop better PR campaigns.” The focus of the event will be "to form a community of social media, marketing and branding professionals and pundits."
And they couldn't have found better folks to bring in for it. Chris Brogan, author of Trust Agents and Social Media 101, and Sally Hogshead, author of Fascinate, will both be delivering keynotes—as will Scott Stratten, author of the soon-to-be-released Unmarketing.
We can recommend both Chris and Sally personally, as they are both old friends of the company. We first met Chris when he and Julien Smith wrote Trust Economics, the ChangeThis manifesto that begat their book. And we met Sally when she attended our first Author Pow-Wow around the time she released her fantastic debut effort, Radical Careering. (She later sent us a box of brass knuckles, which I would explain further, but it's a better story without the explanation). And speaking just before Ms. Hogshead is another friend and Pow-Wow attendee, Phil Gerbashak, a man as consistently bright as Florida and the author of 10 Ways To Make It Great.
Other speakers include:
- Olivier Blanchard: The Brand Builder and Red Chair Group
- Jason Falls: Social Media Explorer - Marketing and PR
- Dan Schawbel: Personal Branding Guru, Best Selling Author, Columnist for Business Week
- Visible Technologies : Social Media Monitoring and Customer Relationship Management
- Hubspot: Inbound and Outbound Marketing Strategist and Experts
You can find more information and RSVP at sohobiztube.com.
Friday Links
Posted March 12, 2010 11:35 a.m. by dylan
In - 800 CEO Read Blog
➻ Portfolio, publisher of The 100 Best Business Books of All Time, announced the formation of a new imprint this week. It will be called Current, and will focus on popular science titles. And, if it does half as good as Portfolio does with business titles,* we all have a lot to look forward to. (*Here is a list of Portfolio's current and upcoming titles.) Portfolio also put out a new issue of the Business Beat recently, featuring (as always) Jack Covert in the Just Jack corner.
➻ Fresh from victory over Amazon in the famous price wars, Macmillan CEO John Sargent has entered the arena of the Internets with a new blog. His post on the agency model, availability and price has generated quite a debate so far, with over 100 comments.
➻ As Claire Kirch reported in Publisher's Weekly, A Colorado Group is calling for a boycott of Amazon. Kirch writes "ProgressNow Colorado is urging its members to make online purchases at Colorado-based retailers, such as the Tattered Cover Bookstore and Ultimate Electronics, explaining that these businesses employ 'thousands of' Colorado residents and pay Colorado sales taxes."
➻ In announcing the Vook release of Unleashing the Idea Virus, Seth Godin smartly discussed what he calls The Wordperfect Axiom, or how "When the platform changes, the deck gets shuffled." You should also check out Seth's recommended reading for March, including Tom Peters' The Little Big Things, released this week.
➻ "Fascination has little to do with what you say, and everything to do with what you inspire others to say and do (and buy)." So says Sally Hogshead, author of Fascinate: Your 7 Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation, in her guest post over on the Bullish on Books blog. After working with her on her ChangeThis manifesto, I was hoping for more Jägermeister mentions in the article.
➻ The New Yorker's book club is reading Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us by Dan Pink this month. If you decide to join them, they'll have a live chat with Dan on the 25th. (Drive was a Jack Covert Selects in December.)
➻ Economist Robert Schiller is a fan of Anna Bernasek's The Economics of Integrity, writing "This book is a reminder that our economy functions as it does not just because of a profit motive, or because of regulations, but also because, fundamentally, people believe in what they are doing and have a personal sense of integrity." He wrote that for a recent series of guest posts for Paul Solman's Business Desk blog, in which various economists reviewed some of their favorite recent books. Schiller also chose Identity Economics: How Our Identities Shape Our Work, Wages, and Well-Being by George A Akerlof and Rachel E Kranton.
➻ New Zealander Ralph Brown has self-published a new fable, The Village That Could, and posted it as a free podcast on his website. Author Scott Sigler of Dark Øverlord Media believes in both self-publishing and podcasts. He built his very substantial audience that way, and recently asked Who Needs You, Big Publishing? in a presentation at this year's TOC Conference. (Head over to the conference site to view a video of the presentation.)
➻ I wanted to embed this video, because it was created by two of the people I love most in the world, but I couldn't, so you get Megafaun, The Tallest Man in the World and Jaw Lesson doing Bon Iver's "Creature Fear."
