You’ve heard you are what you eat, well we believe that you are what you read. Teach a CEO presents lessons from our bookshelf on how you can improve and grow your venture. We have taken nuggets from our library and provide them for entrepreneurs and business owners.
- The dramatic circumstances of our times, an emerging new reality, and increasing new demands providing profound opportunities for business. And while business as an institution is often criticized and even demonized, business is a powerful force for positive change. It's process and product captive our attention and energy, influence our consciousness, and affect our material, psychological, and spiritual well-being. (via Working for Good?)
- It's very difficult to focus on smoke, or anything else that is dense but that dissipates. It's much easier to focus on concrete objectives and those ideas that are anchored to a belief system. I always tell companies that their employees should be focused on something that is not easily attained, but is clearly attainable. You have to set your sights on climbing the mountain, not climbing to the clouds. (via Taking Your Team to the Top: How to Build and Manage Great Teams Like The Pros)
- …one of the biggest secrets (actually three of them) that seperates those that want to be successful from those who actually do something about it. It's all about knowing when to change and how to evaluate personal change. It looks like this (1) Change Who You Sell to (2) Change how You Market and Sell (3) Change What You Sell. (via Cracking the Icon Code)
- …randomly pinning pictures without thinking through a strategy for how you want to use the site won't net you the best branding or marketing results–or even the greatest degree of personal satisfaction. Before you launch into heavy pin-and-promote mode, think it through and even consider writing up a one- or two-page Pinterest Business Plan that answers the following three critical questions. (1) Is your Pinterest for personal or business branding? (2) Who is your target market? (3) What are your marketing goals? (via Ultimate Guide to Pinterest for Business)
- To be effective as entrepreneurs and change agents we must engage others to join us in our adventure. And bringing out the best in people and inspiring them to passionately commit themselves requires deep awareness of how we are in relationship to others. (via Working for Good?)
- The people who visualize data best got to that level because they examined and visualized a lot of data. They gained experience with each graph made. Reading books will inform better decisions, but it's not until you put what you learn into practice when you really improve. (via Data Points: Visualization That Means Something)
- Belief is what humans do. Our personal beliefs define our choices, shape our lives and, collectively determine our futures. Nothing is more important than belief. (via The Business of Belief)
- Leaders should understand the skills necessary for the individual in the position to execute the requirements for that position in a timely, productive, and efficient manner, usually at a high degree of standard. It also becomes incumbent upon the team leaders or those who are making the selection and placement of team members to recognize whether or not a person has the ability to learn, develop, and grow into the position through developmental training programs devised to teach those skills needed to execute the responsibilities of the position. (via Taking Your Team to the Top: How to Build and Manage Great Teams Like The Pros)
- If you really want your efforts on Pinterest to have an impact on the overall marketing of your business and building of your brand, I have two words for you: cross promotion. Pinterest works best when it shares the social media stage with Facebook, Twitter, and your blog. (via Ultimate Guide to Pinterest for Business)
- The key to more doing is really reverse engineer your final destination. Discover where you want to be and then work backwards. Once you know the path, you can break things down into baby steps. (via Cracking the Icon Code)
- Choice is liberating, and belief flourishes with the freedom to choose. But every choice also chains us, because it rejects a world brimming with competing opinions and possibilities. Our believing minds simply can not function while brooding over all of those chains. The psychic strain would paralyze us. And so we ignore them. (via The Business of Belief)
- Guerilla Rainmakers not only help their own business, but everyone in their association will reap a downpour of profits. Instead of bringing in 100 leads and making 20 sales per month, the Guerilla Rainmaker helps 20 people bring in 20 sales and a couple hundred more leads each. (via Cracking the Icon Code)
- Purposeful people build purposeful companies. And purposeful people make an impact through whatever their work or role may be. Purpose at work, in business or otherwise, has two dimensions: the purpose of the individuals making up the organization, and the purpose of the organization itself. (via Working for Good?)
- While the vast majority of Pinterest users post mostly photos, you can make your Pinterest boards more of a multimedia experience by sharing videos from YouTube and Vimeo screencasts form your desktop, presentations from SlideShare, and podcasts. (via Ultimate Guide to Pinterest for Business)
- The same is true of entrepreneurs and other risk takers. Desire fuels belief, especially in their ability to control their destiny, and through thoughtful and determined action (and luck) many achieve what they put their minds to. Belief, then is a somewhat naive, self-fulfilling prophecy. Desire drives belief, which motivates people to seek out information and act in certain ways that help them attain those desires. (via The Business of Belief)
The Bookshelf
Book descriptions via Amazon.com
- In this thought-provoking and entertaining book, Tom Asacker, author of Sandbox Wisdom and A Clear Eye for Branding, pulls back the curtain on the workings of the mind and reveals the hidden logic to motivating behavior, both in ourselves and in others. Whether you are launching a new brand or marketing campaign, selling products and services, coaching individuals or leading a team, this book will shatter your assumptions about leadership and the art of influence, and give you the invaluable insights required to understand and move others. The Business of Belief is Tom Asacker’s most compelling—and important—book yet. It will fundamentally change the way you think about your work and your life. Use it as your companion and as a guide in this fast-paced world overwhelmed by complexity and choice.
- You must first ask yourself these three questions: 1. Would I make more money if I had more influence? 2. Would I make more money if I had more credibiliy? 3. Would I make more money if I had more exposure? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you need to read every word in this book. This is my I.C.E. acronym. It's changing lives and making people a lot of money. There is nothing like having even a little ice in your veins. It's at the core of any Icon and it's paramount for people in the “advice business.” If you make money off the advice you give then you are, in fact, in the advice business. And if you are in the advice business, then you are selling yourself as much as anything else. That's right. People are buying you more than any product or service. Cracking the Icon Code by David T. Fagan. This book is not only going to show just how to unlock the secret combination to being an Icon, but it will also show you step-by-step how to monetize your knowledge and experiences that make you an Icon.
- Ultimate Guide to Pinterest for Business by Karen Leland – With 4,000 percent growth in just six months, 17 million + users, and a record for more referral traffic than YouTube, Google+, and LinkedIn combined, Pinterest delivers an unbelievable opportunity for business owners and marketers like you . . . if you know how to effectively use it. Karen Leland acquaints you with the newest social media kid on the block, covering: (1) the ins and outs of signing up and getting started (2) building boards that get noticed, drive traffic, and convert fans into customers (3) creating a Pinterest community through power connections, contests, social media outreach, and smart pinning strategies (4) strategies for becoming a power Pinterest user and creating an enthusiastic following (5) best practices for pins that promote, including image optimization, consistent branding, social media integration, and high-value content (6) Pinterest etiquette. Learn to expand your business and brand’s success — one pin at a time.
- Whether it's statistical charts, geographic maps, or the snappy graphical statistics you see on your favorite news sites, the art of data graphics or visualization is fast becoming a movement of its own. In Data Points: Visualization That Means Something, author Nathan Yau presents an intriguing complement to his bestseller Visualize This, this time focusing on the graphics side of data analysis. Using examples from art, design, business, statistics, cartography, and online media, he explores both standard-and not so standard-concepts and ideas about illustrating data.
- The words “business” and “social change” may seem contradictory, but the fact is a successful business may be the most powerful force for positive change in the world today. In Working for Good, Jeff Klein, one of the visionaries and driving forces behind Spinning, Seeds of Change, ChiRunning, and other forward-thinking brands presents a how-to guidebook for becoming a “conscious entrepreneur”–one who addresses social issues while running a profitable business based on integrity and self-actualization. Putting the tools of conscious business development firmly in our hands, Jeff Klein takes readers step by step through the five keys to Working for Good, showing how to: –Express your humanity through full awareness and embodiment while engaging others with your work. –Establish purpose grounded in principles that sustain both your business and your virtues. –Generate rich experiences in and outside of work through a network of spirited connection and collaboration. For anyone who has yearned to make a comfortable living in service of real social change, Jeff Klein offers an essential read that is at once deeply inspirational and wholly practical: Working for Good.
- In Taking Your Team to the Top, Sundquist gives you the knowledge, skills, and motivation to replicate his remarkable success. Whether you run a global corporation or small business, you'll learn how to accurately evaluate new hires from enormous talent pools, quickly implement them into your organization's existing team culture, and create a dedicated mission statement to maximize team success. In this groundbreaking guide, Sundquist combines the sum total of his vast and diverse leadership experience with lessons and insights from some of today's top leadership experts. Taking Your Team to the Top offers the fundamentals you need to unlock individuals' abilities and talents while adding to team synergy to accomplish any business objective, in any business–large or small.
