Posts Tagged self help books
Book outline: Crush It! part 1
Posted by eviator in For Job Seekers on December 2, 2009
As a professional I always strive to be the best at what I do, which is why I am a big fan of sharpening my marketing tools. A big part of this is reading the latest business books and trying to learn as much as I can; only a fool thinks he/she knows everything. I recently read Crush It! Cash In On Your Passion by Gary Vaynerchuk, and have learned some very useful techniques for marketing / branding yourself online, as well as effective ways to use social networking websites to accomplish marketing goals; both of which are essential skills in today’s business world. I’m going to go through this book, chapter by chapter, describing the salient points as well as offering my own commentary. The chapter 1 discussion starts now.
In his first chapter, Passion is everything, Vaynerchuk offers his secret to success.
- Love your family
- Work superhard
- Live your passion
This formula may seem overly basic to some, but if you think about it, you know it’s true. At one of my previous jobs, I found myself dissatisfied even though the pay was good, and the job was challenging. At the time, I had no idea why, but after reading this book, I’ve realized what I was missing. I wasn’t living my passion. I’m betting that this is the point where most people have problems. With food to put on the table and bills to pay, it’s easy to think of success as something to be measured by money. We seldom realize that success should be measured by how happy we are. If you’re not living your passion, you are missing out on one of the most important elements of success.
Living your passion sounds great, but in the meantime you have bills to pay and so you won’t (and shouldn’t) quit your day job just yet. The good news is that with all of the opportunities available using free social networking websites (such as blogs like the one you are reading now), you can still live your passion, and may even be able to make some money off of it in the future. Vaynerchuk discusses these social networking websites as well as money making opportunities later in the book, which we will get to in a future post.
Notable quotes from this chapter:
- Money goes where people go.
- It’s never a bad time to start a business unless you’re starting a mediocre business.
- The person who can dominate in rough times is the person who can dominate, period.
- Social media = business, period.
Have you noticed something missing in your life? Are you living your passion? Email me EdwardViator [at] evil-marketer [dot] com
Convey that you have Experience
Posted by Steve in Experience, Leadership on August 13, 2009
This is one of the hardest things to do: how do you convey experience if you do not have the ability to convey that experience?
If you feel you already have this, then you can stop reading right now.
There are people that seem to naturally fill the role of leader, whether its in politics or businesses. They display the aura of direction, knowledge, and authority.
I do not believe they were born with it; rather, they learned it over time. If you do not have this yet, then you can get it.
There are two ways to do this. First, pick one or two mentors that you feel display their experience. Determine the attributes they have and emulate them.
Second, learn about those attributes and how you can get them. Read self-help books, take classes, discuss with associates…continuously strive to learn to be an effective experienced person (not necessarily a leader).
When you get these attributes, one thing you will learn is that leaders continue to learn. They have to continue to hone their skills—consciously think about them and work on them.
When DIY may be detrimental
Yesterday, I wrote about how sometimes do-it-yourself is detrimental. I referred to Seth Godin’s blog post that you should go out there and be your own graphic designer. He wrote about four common areas. I argued against it, and today, I am going to add three more areas that people often DIY and why it can be a problem. All three areas are related to the development of the brand:Branding: What is your brand and how do you present it? There are many self-help books out there that can make you very educated on brand; however, this is often painful trial and error. However, the essense of most businesses is their marketing, and the essence of marketing is developing a brand and selling that brand. If you are going to spend time learning something, then this would be it.
Hiring an expert for a couple of hours to give you a brand checkup would be ideal. Unfortunately, it is hard to get them to just stick to a couple of hours. Maybe I should address that in another post?
Look and feel: This is an element of the brand, but is specifically the physical aspects of the brand. What is the color scheme and layout that would best represent you? How can you have a consistent scheme between all your collateral that says you know what you are doing? What does the packaging look like? Good graphic designers and artists understand color theory: what colors work together and what emotions the colors represent. Every heard the saying, “I don’t know why I don’t like it, I just don’t?” That is what happens when someone looks at a bad color scheme.
Logo: Every business needs a decent logo design. Many people try these themselves and just miss the boat. If you can afford it, get a professional to help you. This can be really expensive, but worth it. Why is it hard? The best logos are often the simplest, and many times, someone from outside the business, thinking outside of the box can identify the simplest and coolest logo.
I do agree with him that some research is necessary to develop skills. For example, if presenting material on a website is going to be integral then you should learn a little bit about web design and typography.
Branding, Color scheme and logo are more advanced than presentations, web sites, business cards, and bio photos. However, if developed together, a designer could come up with a common theme that can be used on all collateral. This usually saves money and time; and often lends more credibility when getting customers. However, even the designer needs guidance. This is where research into branding comes in handy and where hiring an expert to guide you (tutor you) would be money well spent.
What about those that are very cash poor and are trying to attract investors? How do you avoid spending too much? That is for tomorrow…