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Entries Tagged as 'Books'

Promote your community via crowdsourcing

by Drew McLellan

July 3rd, 2011 · Books, Social Media

As many of you know, Gavin Heaton and I co-edited the Age of Conversation series of books — each one crowdsourced with help from marketing and social media practitioners from all over the globe.  Each book is as unique as the contributors but they all three had some things in common:

  • The authors formed a community among themselves and I know for a fact that new business and personal relationships formed as a result.
  • The book benefits from the many authors all promoting it to their own networks and spheres of influence.
  • There is a healthy sense of competition among the authors — everyone wants their contribution to be deemed worthy when compared to the others.

We did it mostly as an experiment and a vehicle to raise money for some charities.  But I think we were all astonished at the lasting value the books created far beyond the monies raised.

My agency, McLellan Marketing Group, took the same model and brought it to our community of Central Iowa (through our client BIZ-CI).  Our goal in this case was to:

  • Crowdsource a book that would spotlight all of the professional expertise that existed in our area
  • Help fledgling businesses/entrepreneurs who couldn’t afford to buy the expertise have access to it
  • Promote some of our community’s business leaders by name/firm
  • Introduce our business community to companies that were considering a move to Central Iowa
  • Create connections among the business leader/authors
biz

So we invited local business leaders to each write a chapter related to their area of expertise for the book How Business Gets Done: Words of Wisdom by Central Iowa Experts.

38 experts in some aspect of starting/running a small business all offering best practice counsel as well as pointing to some of their favorite resources.

You can get a Kindle copy by clicking here*.

Peter Korchnak, out in Portland, Oregon put together a very similar book called Portland’s Bottom Line.  But they added a very interesting twist.

portland

Korchnak and his co-editor  Megan Strand organized the book into 12 sections along the triple bottom line of People, Planet, and Prosperity.  The book explores how small businesses can effectively and efficiently shift toward sustainability and thrive. 51 small-business people from the City of Roses shared their experiences with sustainability in their companies. “The Portland Bottom Line” demonstrates how small businesses can innovate to put people before profit, help restore the ecosystem, and prosper.

The book is also a community benefit project. Contributors collectively chose, by vote, the local community organization Mercy Corps Northwest, which supports the launch and growth of sustainable ventures, to receive 100% of profit from the book’s sales.

To check it out, click here*.

In all three examples, the authors are held up as professionals who have something relevant to share.  It adds to their credibility and who doesn’t like to say they’re an author of a published book?

What I’d love for you to do is take a look at these examples and then apply the thinking you the communities you serve/participate in.  It wouldn’t have to be a city type of community.  It could be a community that shares a passion/vocation like the Age of Conversation books did.  The book could center around a common theme, skill, cause, interest or even something  aspirational.

How could you use this crowdsourcing model in your business?

*Yup, an affiliate link.  Peter sent me an advanced copy of their book to review.  So did a bunch of other authors.  But this book is worth sharing with you.

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Are you in the emotional transportation biz?

by Drew McLellan

June 25th, 2011 · Books, Storytelling

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…We’ve always found a way to tell our stories

It’s no secret that I am an unabashed fan of storytelling.  It is how we learn when we’re school kids, it’s how we get our friends to do crazy things (“think of what a great story this will be to tell your kids, Steve!) and it’s how we persuade each other — be it to vote for a candidate, buy a particular brand of cologne or share our religious beliefs.

Look at how reality TV has captured that truth.  We come to cheer for perfect strangers who become important to us — because we know their story.

We are, by our very nature, storytellers AND story absorbers.

And yet…in our business communications, all too often, we blather on about facts, figures and bullet points rather than letting the stories connect us to people who are drawn to them.  Which is why I really want you to read Peter Guber‘s Tell to Win. (click here to buy*)

Peter Guber is the founder and CEO of Mandalay Entertainment and owns NBA’s Golden State Warriors. Before creating Mandalay, he was Chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment, Co-Owner of the Guber-Peters Entertainment Company, Chairman and CEO of Polygram, Co-Founder of Casablanca Record & Filmworks and President of Columbia Pictures.

So the man knows the power of stories in both business and entertainment.

“Emotional transportation” is what Guber calls the power of story telling and he says “more and more, success is won by creating compelling stories that have the power to move partners, shareholders, customers, and employees to action. Simply put, if you can’t tell it, you can’t sell it.”

I can’t argue with that.

As you might imagine, considering his career, Guber tells stories via the voices of  Magic Johnson, Michael Jackson, Wolfgang Puck, the founder of YouTube Chad Hurley, Bill Clinton, Michael Milken, director Tim Burton, Nelson Mandela, Mark Burnett, author Nora Roberts, Tina Sinatra, Anderson Cooper, Larry King, Steven Spielberg, Arianna Huffington, and many more.  So the read is entertaining while it educates.

The book outlines techniques you can use to create purposeful stories like changing passive listeners into active participants and using “state of the heart” technology on and offline to keep your audience connected to your story.

At the end of each chapter, Guber calls out the aHHa! elements of that section.  Like many business books, he gives you a formula for creating better, more compelling stories and then gives you plenty of examples to draw from.

Even if you’re already telling stories left and right — there are some nuances to be learned from this book.  be sure you come back and tell us a story of how you used what you learned!

 

*Yup, an affiliate link.  The author sent me an advanced copy of this book to review.  So did a bunch of other authors.  But this book is worth sharing with you.
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Are you willing to double your profits?

June 16th, 2011 · Books, Business owner/leader stuff, Growing & Learning · 18 Comments

…do you want to double your profits? Seems like a silly question, doesn’t it?  Who wouldn’t want to double profits? Wanting to and being willing to do what it takes are two very different things.  But I’ve found a playbook that might give you an edge. Double your revenue and profit in 3 years or [Read more...]

Viva the underdog!

May 24th, 2011 · Books, Branding, Strategy · 3 Comments

  …a blast from our past…it’s Underdog Most of our clients at McLellan Marketing Group could be classified as underdogs.  Call them challenger brands, the little guy or the rising star — but odds are, they have a Goliath or two in their path. We love helping them topple the big guys and steal their [Read more...]

Why would you want to enchant someone?

March 11th, 2011 · Books · 10 Comments

Guy Kawasaki’s enchanting new book As you know, I talk about creating love affairs with your customers a lot here on the blog.  Why do I think it’s so critical?  Let’s look at how people behave when they’re in the bloom of a new love. They find the other person intoxicating — they crave more. [Read more...]

Congrats to my book winners!

February 27th, 2011 · Books · 1 Comment

I won?  I really won? Over the past couple weeks, I had 2 copies of Harry Beckwith’s Unthinking* and 3 copies of The Now Revolution* by Amber Naslund and Jay Baer to give away, based on participating in the comments section of the blog. I’m happy to announce our winners: Harry Beckwith’s Unthinking: Steve S. [Read more...]

The NOW Revolution is here

February 21st, 2011 · Books, Social Media · 36 Comments

Here’s the mistake I made. I picked up The Now Revolution by Amber Naslund and Jay Baer around midnight, thinking I would just flip through it to get a feel for the book and then read it this weekend. So much for a good night’s sleep. The book is built on the premise that the [Read more...]

Learn why we unthink

February 9th, 2011 · Books, Customers/Clients · 11 Comments

When I finished reading the galley for Harry Beckwith’s latest book, Unthinking, I shot him an e-mail that said: “Unthinking is a fantastic read.  Your other books gave readers the what and sometimes the how — this book provides the why.  It’s a perfect companion to your earlier works.  What I love most about it [Read more...]

Content Rules (and boy does it!)

December 7th, 2010 · Books · 12 Comments

  You will need to be a content creator and curator…or else you won't survive some of the new shifts in how people gather information, make buy decisions and build brand loyalty.  We can't rely on others (mass media, press releases, other "official" sources) or hype to tell our story anymore.  It's our responsibility to [Read more...]

2 good reads from The Conference Board event

November 17th, 2010 · Books, Trends · 7 Comments

Two of the speakers at the recent Conference Board's marketing event also happened to be best selling authors.  As a perk of attending, everyone was given a copy of both of their books.  They were both inspirational speakers — drawing from their own experiences, research data and some good old people watching. I'd already read [Read more...]