Book review of “5 Levels of Leadership” for Entrepreneurs' Connection



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There are many leadership books out there. But none of them can compare to this book. As a matter of fact, John Maxwell’s The 5 Levels of Leadership made it onto the Wall Street Journal hardcover business bestseller list. John Maxwell is an international recognized leadership expert, speaker, and author. He has written more than sixty books. Collectively, they have sold more than 20 million copies and been translated into more than fifty languages. In addition, John routinely speaks to Fortune 500 companies, government leaders, and churches.

This book embodies the core of teaching that Maxwell has been speaking about since I found out about him. It lays out his entire leadership model. If you are new to his work, I would start with this book. In many ways, it is a roadmap to the others.

John starts with the idea that many people confuse having a leadership position with actually being a leader. He makes it clear that this only the entry point to leadership. It is level 1.

The five levels of leadership are:

 1. Position—People follow because they have to.

 2. Permission—People follow because they want to.

 3. Production—People follow because of what you have done for the organization.

 4. People Development—People follow because of what you have done for them personally.

 5. Pinnacle—People follow because of who you are and what you represent.

John describes each of the five levels in detail and has an abundance of real-world examples. He articulates the behaviors that best characterize them. What I thought was great was the fact that he also goes over the downsides that can sometimes keep leaders from going to the next level. For you at the Entrepreneurs Connections group, you might like the part where he explains how to get from whatever level you are now to the next one.

The book is an extremely fast read. You will want to go over it many times because it’s particularly content-rich, the chapters are short and it makes ample use of subheads, bullets, and lists. This book would make a great study for any group wanting to take their leadership to the next level. I heartily recommend it.

Don’t miss out Go buy this book and use it to become the leader you are meant to be. Click here and pick up a copy.
Robert Biro

513-238-0744
rbiro@wbhomebuyers.com
www.WBHomeBuyers.com

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Book review of “All Marketers Are Lairs” for Entrepreneurs' Connection

All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of TellingAuthentic Stories in a Low Trust World . With that provocative title and opening salvo, well known author, marketing expert, and business blogger Seth Godin takes the reader on another landmark journey into the marketing field.

After reading All Marketers Are Liars, your approach to marketing, advertising,

In this book, Seth Godin discusses the practice of telling compelling, attention grabbing stories about a product and gives examples of products that use this approach and shows that this practice is a compelling ways to market a product. The story that is told is the "lie" that he references in his title most.

The author points out that great marketing stories succeed because of the following attributes:

1.    A great story is true. A great story is not based on facts. Its truth lies in a consistent and authentic message.

2.    Great stories make a promise. Great stories promise something to the consumer that is bold and worth listening to. BMW calls their offering "The Ultimate Driving Machine." As someone who loves to drive, when I hear this promise, it makes me feel like going out and driving a BMW.

3.    Great stories are trusted. In the Amazon Kindle story, the story teller is Jeff Bezos, who founded Amazon.com in the 1990's with the story of a better way to purchase books.

4.    Great stories are subtle. People like to draw their own conclusions. Consumers will come up with the story themselves. When we see a television ad for the Apple Ipad, does Apple come out and tell us what the story is? No. Instead they show people using the Ipad in cool and different ways, with various applications, and let us draw our own conclusion.

5.    Great stories happen fast. A good story engages people quickly. It gets to the point. One of Kawasaki's commercials for quads and off-road motorcycles immediately shows users ripping through the woods on a Kawasaki Quad, and then switches to a rider tearing through the desert terrain on a Kawasaki dirt bike.

6.    Great stories don't appeal to logic, but they often appeal to our senses. Does Axe body spray really attract hundreds of woman to you all at once, as the commercial portrays? Of course not! But does the prospect of attracting a lot of women by using Axe body spray appeal to eligible men? Of course it does.

7.    Great stories are rarely aimed at everyone. Watering down a story to appeal to everyone, will appeal to no one. The Axe body spray story isn't intended to appeal to a fifty-five year old woman with four children. Rather, the story is intended for a younger, specific male demographic.

8.    Great stories agree with our worldview. The best stories are aimed at listeners with a specific worldview, who will feel better and more secure after hearing the story because it already agrees with what they believed in the first place.

Telling stories about a product is a fairly common and accepted practice in most marketing department nowadays. If the idea that telling stories is new to you, than you might find this book an interesting read because throughout the book Godin gives examples of well-known brands and their stories.

Don’t miss out Go buy this book and use it to create your great story!

Robert Biro
513-238-0744
rbiro@wbhomebuyers.com

Book review of “Thinkertoys” for Entrepreneurs' Connection

If you’re looking for a way to increase your creativity or If a significant part of your life requires creativity, particularly creativity that is attached to solving real-world problems, , the second edition of Thinkertoys may just be what you’ve been searching for. this book is tremendous. Thinkertoys is filled with exercises designed to make you think outside the box and help stretch your creative abilities. It offers tons of creative exercises along with a lot of detail on how to really squeeze the juice out of each one. It’s basically a book where you can sit there and try several specific techniques on each page as you read it.

The author, Michael Michalko, prefaces the book by stating that Thinktoys is for “monkeys,” not “kittens.” He defines “kittens” as people who ask for help, but are not willing to make the effort necessary to make changes. “Monkeys,” on the other hand, take the initiative and face challenges head-on. Michalko states that the activities contained within the book must be used, not merely read, for them to make a difference in the reader’s way of looking at problems.

I found this book enlightening. I was surprised over and over by the simple exercises that I couldn’t figure out until reading the explanation. I didn’t even make it into the first chapter before realizing my shortcomings. For example, in the introduction, there is a picture of the word “FLOP.” However, if you look closely, the center of the “O” contains an “I,” so the complete message is “FLIP FLOP.” I’m embarrassed to say that I would never have picked up on that on my own. It gave me an immediate desire to read more and work on my creative skills.

Thinkertoys is the best single collection of quick creative thinking exercises that I’ve found in a single book, ever. It’s not a be-all end-all compendium of these exercises, but many very good ones are in the book, including a few great ones that I knew before reading it and several more that I added to my repertoire after reading it.

Don’t miss out Go buy this book and use it to gain the creative edge. Click here and pick up a copy.

Robert Biro
513-238-0744
rbiro@wbhomebuyers.com

Book review of “The E-Myth Revisited” for Entrepreneurs' Connection

Book review of “The E-Myth Revisited” for Entrepreneurs' Connection

Do you find yourself overworked, understaffed, or worse have a feeling you’re going broke at your company? Have you felt that if things don’t change you may come to hate the work you do. “The E Myth Revisited” book is a guide to success for small business owners. Author Michael Gerber observed that most small businesses are started by what he calls "technicians", that is people who are skilled at something and who enjoy doing that thing. (For example that can be anything from a computer programmer to plumber to a dog groomer to a musician or lawyer.) When these technicians strike out on their own, they tend to continue doing the work they are skilled at, and ignore the overarching aspects of business. Rather than owning a business, they own a job, and they find themselves working for managers who are completely clueless about how to run a business- -themselves.

The solution, Gerber suggests looking at franchises as a model. In comparison to the dismal rate of ordinary small-business start-ups, 75% of franchises succeed at 5 years. The reason they succeed is that they are set up so that any unskilled person off the street could walk in, buy a franchise, run all operations in the franchise, and have a fairly good chance of success. The product of franchise companies is a business model, not food, hotel rooms, etc. In order to meet this level of success, franchise companies have clear operations manuals, procedures, consistent sales approaches- -every detail of running the business is specified down to dress codes and wall paper.

By asking us to consider the franchise approach, Gerber is not saying to go out and buy a franchise license. Instead, he says to imagine that you want to sell your business as a successful franchise within a finite period of time. If so, what will you need to do regarding your business plan and management in order to meet this goal? That is, if you were going to make your business fool-proof so that any unskilled person could take over as owner after a few years and succeed with it, what will you need to do?

Overall, I found the ideas in this book extremely insightful and incredibly useful. He can be a bit wordy and choppy at times. If you're a small business owner whose business is out of control, stagnant, or worse, this book can be a light in the dark.

Don’t miss out Go buy this book and use it to build your business. Click here and pick up a copy.

Robert Biro

513-238-0744

rbiro@wbhomebuyers.com

Book review of “Dot Boom” for Entrepreneurs' Connection

Another title Dot Boom could be called is “Marketing to Baby Boomers Through Meaningful Online Engagement”  Written by David Weigelt and Jonathan Boehman this book goes with that amazing thought process if we understood the customer more we could sell more to them.  Our job as communication professionals is not to simply market to people. Our job is to move people, to inspire them, and to help them process their lives. We should understand what truly motivates consumers and the need to develop marketing campaigns that proactively engage them in authentic and meaningful relationships.”

They went on to do just that. They formed a company called Immersion Active. Specifically this business was geared to marketing to the “baby boomers.” This 50-plus market is a consumer group that is the web’s largest and fastest growing constituency, yet remains the most underserved by online marketing.

Dot Boom provides insight into the baby boomer markets, their online motivations, online behavior and online preferences,. As you read Dot Boom, you’ll gain a deeper understanding of what baby boomers want and need from an internet marketing campaign. You’ll also explore a framework you can use to create these campaigns in a replicable effective manner.

So does it work? Absolutely it works. Best part you don’t need to understand why it does as long as you just follow the framework they outline.  Who wouldn’t want to tap into the 138million people in America who are over 40 and by 2025 another 30 million with cross that threshold?

Not sure if you are savvy enough to design a campaign for the internet crowd.  You happen to be in luck this time.  Several people in our group can help.  Myself, a retired IT professional turned entrepreneur has recently formed a business to address this specific need. I can provide a complete marketing campaign customized for your business from Start to finish, leaving you with the ability to take over future campaigns from there.  Don’t need your hand held through the process?  Chuck Holder and Alice Buchman have a great way to help you.

This book is definitely worth the read. If I had to pick something bad about this book it would have to be it can get a bit technical in some marketing techniques.  But you have to ask yourself, “Do I have the over 50 market buying consistently from my business?” If not go and get this book. Find out if you could be missing out on the largest segment of consumers currently purchasing today.  If you are selling consistently to the over 50 crowds, ask yourself,” are you marketing to them online?”  As you see there are very few reasons to not get this book.

Don’t miss out Go buy this book and use it to build your business. click here and pick up a copy.

Robert Biro

513-238-0744

rbiro@wbhomebuyers.com

Book review of “The Like Economy” for Entrepreneurs' Connection

It’s finally happened. Marketing on Facebook is no longer optional - Facebook users now number over 500 million users. 147million are users here in the United States. Facebook isn’t just a place for kids anymore. Did you know that 5% of Facebook users are over 65, 8% are 55-65, 13% are 45-54.  This book written by Brian Carter will help you understand how to tap into this huge market as he has for companies of all sizes, including well-known entities such as Universal Studios, the U.S. Army, Hardee’s, and Carl’s Jr.

The Like Economy: how to make money on Facebook written by Brian Carter is your complete, start-to-finish plan for making money on Facebook! Brian Carter offers step-by-step techniques and practical lessons drawn from his 11 years of experience helping companies double and triple their revenue online. This revenue-focused book is packed with up-to-date ideas and proven solutions with all the details you need to execute crisply, avoid costly mistakes, and reap big profits. You’ll learn how to identify your best Facebook profit opportunities…craft Facebook programs that reflect your unique offerings, brands, and customers…use Facebook to supercharge your existing marketing programs…attract super-affordable targeted clicks and fans with Facebook ads…repel negative "brand-bashers."…increase visibility…deepen your customer interactions…translate "community" into cash!

This book includes

·         How to leverage the five most direct routes to Facebook profits.

·         Construct your most powerful Facebook marketing mix

·         Transform FaceLookers into FaceBuyers

·         Master the 13 best Facebook sales and influence techniques

·         Avoid six missteps that destroy Facebook marketing programs

·         Learn from the pioneers’ costly mistakes

·         Achieve non-revenue goals while you’re earning bigger profits

·         Gain branding and positioning benefits at the same time as you’re building sales

I can't tell you how excited I am about this book. Almost every book I've read about social media has been either just concepts or too general. Not only is this book focused on goals and profits, but it tells you how to do it step-by-step.  With the Timeline Changeover going into permanent effect in 8 days, this March 30^th. I’m glad that I came across this book this last week, because I’m able to get prepared. But the skills that this book has unlocked will allow me to ride the huge wave that is Facebook.

Don’t miss out Go buy this book and use it to build your business. click here and pick up a copy.

Robert Biro

513-238-0744

rbiro@wbhomebuyers.com

Book review of “The Referral of a Lifetime by Tim Templeton” for Entrepreneurs' Connection



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Like Who Moved My Cheese?, this book is a management tome in the form of a simple, readable narrative. In The Referral of a Lifetime, Tim Templeton shares a system for building a business on continuing relationships with customers and "center of influence" referral sources, and referred customers.

This extremely quick read has a handful of business principles woven into the story of a disheartened businesswoman, Susie McCumber, and her desperation to boost her career. Along the way she meets a spiritual and corporate mentor, David Highground, who spews various prescriptions that aren't all that shocking: business is about relationships; create a massive network; "Keep in touch, consistently, personally and systematically"; and so on. Templeton shows how understanding one's type allows one to showcase strengths while improving weak areas in this simple, easy-to-use guide to success in business and in life.

The story follows a simple path. Mr. Highground, introduces Susie to four successful people. They show her how they transformed their businesses and their lives by determining how others view them and how they view themselves as both human beings and businesspeople. Each of the four represents a "type" in this schema - from the "relational/business" type who puts the relationship first but thinks strategically when the talk turns to business, to the "business/business" type, who avoids relationships unless they work to a business advantage.

This is a great book that you can pick up and read in one night. I highly recommend this book  for anyone who has a team they work with and want to relate better or for anyone who wants to improve themselves.

If you would like to read this book then click here and pick up a copy.

Robert Biro

513-238-0744

rbiro@wbhomebuyers.com