Sefossifoco

Brand Against the Machine

I had the pleasure of interviewing first time author John Morgan about his new book, Brand Against the Machine: How to Build Your Brand, Cut Through the Marketing Noise, and Stand Out from the Competition (amazon affiliate link), a book that tackles personal branding and the need to stand out. What I like about John’s book is that it’s told from a somewhat different perspective than other books about what’s come to be known as personal branding. John points out that there are lots of people out there vying for attention. His plan is to help you rise above the clutter.

I like that the book is broken down into smaller bites, and that you can find one or two tidbits to consider and bounce against the way you do things on every other page. Because John comes from some very competitive roots, the book has some interesting points to consider. Check out my video with John for a bit more.

Can’t see the video? Click Here

If you’re wondering what to do to get seen and heard in the louder world around us, John Morgan’s book is a worthwhile add to your collection.

The Barefoot Executive – Interview with Carrie Wilkerson

I had the pleasure of interviewing Carrie Wilkerson about her new book, The Barefoot Executive: The Ultimate Guide for Being Your Own Boss and Achieving Financial Freedom (amazon affiliate link). It’s a book dedicated to showing you how to build your own success and follow your own business path. I shot a fun video interview with Carrie here:

Can’t see the video? Click Here.

Check out the interview and be sure to check out the book:

The End of Business As Usual

I’m a bit late in reviewing Brian Solis’s great book, The End of Business As Usual: Rewire the Way You Work to Succeed in the Consumer Revolution (amazon affiliate link). He’s done a good job in this book of being pretty thorough, of having some deep thoughts, and illustrating them both with words plus, well, good illustrations. I find the book useful, engaging, and definitely worth checking out. Here’s a video review:

Can’t see the video? Click Here.

Check out the book here:

Harvey Mackay on the Mackay MBA

I had the supreme pleasure of sitting down with one of the world’s foremost experts on sales and leadership, Harvey Mackay. We talked about his new book, The Mackay MBA of Selling in the Real World (amazon affiliate link), which took us all over the place. This interview, which I’d intended to last about six minutes, was just too fun to keep short. Harvey Mackay is a master at making you feel important and an expert in all the things he talks about. I was very fortunate to get the chance to be his first ever Skype video interview, and because of that, we both just cut loose a bit. Please enjoy this interview, as it speaks to a lot of interesting points about sales, about women’s shifting dominance in the business world, and much much more:

Can’t see the video? Click here.

And please consider picking up Harvey’s new book. It’s a winner:

Listen First Sell Later

I really like Bob Poole. He has a great perspective, writes interesting posts, and does things along a similar vein as I would want to do things. I was happy to get his book, Listen First – Sell Later (amazon affiliate link), and also the nifty zombie monkey shirt he included in the box. I didn’t read this book for the shirt. I read it because I like Bob. So, I shot a quick video book review:

Can’t see the video? Click here.

If you want to learn more, go to Bob’s site. He’s a regular read of mine. Maybe you’ll do the same.

Two Books to Check Out

I’ve been behind in doing video book reviews lately. Here are two great books worth checking out. The first is No Bullshit Social Media: The All-Business, No-Hype Guide to Social Media Marketing (amazon affiliate link) by Jason Falls and Erik Deckers, which reads about exactly as the title would have you believe. It’s a great book for both convincing the boss and then digging in to do the work. The second book is Smart Business, Social Business: A Playbook for Social Media in Your Organization (amazon aff link) by Michael Brito, which is much more a book for someone pushing social media into an organization (medium to larger sized business). Both books are very useful to determining some next steps and taking action. Both do a good job of painting a landscape and then giving you a sense of what to do next. Here’s a video review:

Can’t see the video? Click here.

Check the books out now:

Location Based Marketing for Dummies – Video Interview with Aaron Strout

I had the pleasure of interviewing Aaron Strout, half of the writing team (with Mike Schneider – you must call him Schneider Mike – no one calls him Mike Schneider), about their new book, Location Based Marketing For Dummies (amazon affiliate link). This is the hot and scary edge of what’s next in marketing. To me, this is where it all gets exciting. I shot a video interview with Aaron that covers some of what’s handled in this book. If you’re in marketing, and you’re trying to help companies find the new edge for 2012, I think this book is a big need.

Pick up the book now:

My Kids Like Katie Davis Books

I met Katie Davis at Blog World Expo a month or so back, and after talking a bit, she wanted to send me a couple of her books that she thought would be appropriate for my kids. I shot a quick little video of each of them just showing off that they have the books. Since that video, we haven’t finished Violette’s book, and Harold liked his book well enough, so I thought I’d give you affiliate links to them, if you want to check them out further for yourself. : )

Here’s Violette talking about The Curse of Addy McMahon:

Here’s Harold talking about Kindergarten Rocks:

If you can’t see the videos, Click Here.

Here are the books:

Game On by Jon Radoff – Video Book Review

I really admire Jon Radoff, author of Game On: Energize Your Business with Social Media Games (amazon affiliate link) and serial entrepreneur. He is bold. He says exactly who he is: Swashbuckler, adventurer, slayer of dragons, commando, storyteller, Internet entrepreneur; explorer of rabbit holes. When I met him, I thought, “what a nerd.” And when I met him, I thought that because Jon quite successfully is everything I might have been, had I not been afraid to be a nerd outwardly myself. I’m every bit the D&D geek. I share a lot of similar backstory to Jon. Only, he turned his into a huge passion and built many successful companies based on those passions, including GamerDNA, and others.

His book, Game On: Energize Your Business with Social Media Games, is an awesome read. It’s very well written. It gives you business advice, even if you don’t plan to launch a business based around World of Warcraft. It’s just really great solid business advice and it inspires you to look creatively at what you’re doing.

Here’s the video review:

Can’t see it? click here.

This one was a real pleasure to read!

Today We Are Rich

No, this isn’t because I started taking ads on [chrisbrogan.com]. It’s because Tim Sanders just released his great new book, Today We Are Rich: Harnessing the Power of Total Confidence (amazon affiliate link). It’s a book about confidence, and how to stay true to yourself, and how to grow your way through to the kind of world you want to live. These lessons come from Tim’s grandmother, Billye, and are what Tim has applied in his own world. This is, according to Tim, a kind of PREQUEL to his smash book, Love is the Killer App.

Here’s what I have to say about it (and there’s a note in here to Bob Burg, too!):

If you want to work on your own self-improvement, jump in and grab this book.