Author John Warrilow, Built to Sell

Q: When did you start writing, and what inspired you to write?

A: Studying small business for 15 years allowed me to see the statistics: 97% of all businesses are small businesses; 50% of all small businesses want to sell their business in the next 10 years yet 1% of all small businesses successfully change hands each year. I personally tried and failed to sell my business in 2004 before ultimately selling it in 2008.

Q: How long did the book take you from start to finish?

A: 6 weeks to write. 6 months to edit

Q: Where do you write?

A: I have a loft in a funky warehouse in the west end of Toronto. I have a huge boardroom table I spread all my notes out onto like some sort of mad scientist.

Q: What’s the best thing about being a published author?

A: Your mother in law knows what you do.

Q: Who are some of your favorite authors?

A: John Grisham.  Jim Collins, Seth Godin, Malcolm Gladwell

Q: Do you hear from your readers much? What kinds of things do they say?

A: I hear from my readers through my blog BuiltToSell.com/blog They tell me I’m providing equal helpings of reality and advice.

Q: What are your current projects?

A: Promoting the book. Moving my family to France.

Q: What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

A: Teaching my kids new sports (hockey, baseball, skiing, soccer) Adventure endurance races Ironman triathalon, Marathon. 24 hour spa escapes with my wife.

Q: How did you come up with your title?

A: Brainstorming with my friend and mentor Ted Matthews.  There was an old fast Company article called Built To Flip and it always sat with me as a good title. I guess I was inspired by that.

Q: Is there a message in your book that you want readers to grasp?

A: Most businesses (99%) are no sellable. Follow the 8 steps in the book and you’ll turn your business into something sellable which puts you in the top 1% of all business owners. Once you sell your business, you’ll how freedom over your time, and money. It’s worth the sacrifices and effort needed to follow the 8 steps.

Q: What’s the hardest part of writing a book?

A: The 6 months between submitting the manuscript and seeing it in print. Once you write “The End” you want the book immediately, but it takes months of editing and layout and printing. The waiting is brutal!

Q: If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your latest book?

A: I’d find a way to shorten the cycles of editing per above.

“If you tell me, it’s an essay. If you show me, it’s a story.”

—Barbara Greene, children’s author

Whether we’re aware of it or not, as humans, we tend to follow certain patterns of trust and decision-making. Success-Story Marketing—using customer, beneficiary, or member stories to advance an idea, product, service, or cause—caters to some of the fundamentals of human behavior:

• We trust what others say much more than what a business itself says
• We look to others to determine how we should act
• We love to hear about other people

In Friends and Strangers We Trust

Think back to the last time you tried a new restaurant or watched a movie. How did you choose where to eat or what to watch? You probably saw newspaper advertisements, and maybe even interviews with stars of the show. But chances are, you really picked the place or the movie on the recommendation of a friend, family member, or coworker. If not one of those, then it was likely due to a good review in the newspaper or online from people you trust as authorities on cuisine or cinema.

And what about your latest electronics or vehicle purchase? Maybe you talked with others who have brands and models you’re considering, consulted Consumer Reports for ratings or checked online sites with customer reviews. Likewise, you probably wouldn’t select a realtor, babysitter, financial advisor or any other important service provider without some sort of positive third-party endorsement.

When it comes down to it, information put out by the actual companies, providers, establishments or vendors matters the least when it comes to decisions about where to spend your time or money. The business itself is good for details like specifications, how something works, or pricing. But most of us don’t truly believe the benefits espoused by companies–unless they are verified by other trusted sources. Just about everyone else is more credible than the business itself.

The following survey (graph contained in the published book) by Bridge Ratings and University of Massachusetts, published on eMarketer.com, breaks down trusted sources of information.

As expected, someone you know personally tops the list, with “strangers with experience” a close second, and the media falling in behind. Comparatively, advertising (vendor-produced promotional materials) scored a 2.2 on a scale of 1-10. Advertising has its place in creating awareness, but clearly it must be backed up by other sources to get buyers to make a purchase. Customer stories perfectly fill the “strangers with experience” category, providing the third-party validation that buyers, donors or others need to make a decision about products, services or an organization.

The ‘Like Me’ Factor

As teenagers, we begin rebelling and expressing our individuality–by looking and dressing just like all our friends or the celebrities we admire. According to Robert B. Cialdini, author of Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, that’s because the actions of others help us decide how we ourselves should act. He calls it “social proof,” or the “like me” factor. “The principle of social proof operates most powerfully when we are observing the behavior of people just like us. That is why I believe we are seeing an increasing number of average-person-on-the-street testimonials on TV these days…As a rule, we make fewer mistakes by acting in accordance with social evidence than contrary to it.” People perceive less risk when others have successfully gone before them.

James March and Johan Olsen named a similar concept the “logic of appropriateness.” They  say decision-making results from following a set of rules consistent with an identity.[1] In other words, people ask themselves, “What would someone like me or an organization like this do in this situation?” If it’s our nature to emulate others, especially people or organizations we admire, then customer stories provide a model of behavior for audiences–even more so if the featured customer has faced similar challenges or is in the same industry as the reader. In fact, the more the story sounds like the prospective customer’s situation, the more relevant and valuable it is in the decision-making process.

We Love to Hear about Other People

People are also people oriented. On a personal level, we want to know what our neighbors are up to, or our favorite celebrities. Human interest stories in the media are always the most captivating. The same goes in business. Even when you’re talking about products and services, readers are more engaged when there’s a human element. Products and services don’t function on their own; rather, people interact with them. People encounter challenges to overcome, become heroes, find solutions, and ultimately triumph. Following the basic journalism rule, “people love to read about people,” customer stories provide the perfect framework to capture the human elements of just about any situation.

Stories Make it Stick

Stories play a starring role as one of the “six principles of sticky ideas” in Chip Heath and Dan Heath’s popular book, Made to Stick. Sticky ideas or concepts leave an impression on audiences, helping them remember and understand. The Heaths assert that stories provide both simulation, the opportunity to imagine scenarios, and inspiration, which comes from seeing others’ successes and being moved to act as a result. At the same time, stories provide the opportunity to integrate three other Made to Stick principles of sticky messaging:

• Concreteness – A way of making abstract concepts more concrete and understandable, such as how technology works.
• Credibility – The opportunity to provide a level of detail, which is more convincing than a lack of specifics.
• Emotion – Again, providing specifics gets people emotionally engaged in a way that generalizations do not.

The 3 Roles of Storytelling

With the science of stories behind us, let’s talk about the practical aspects of using customer stories to help persuade audiences to buy a product, try a service or support a nonprofit:

• Credibility
• Education
• Validation

Credibility: A Real Company with Real Customers

As the graph on trusted information sources indicates, it’s hard to establish credibility in buyers’ minds without third-party evidence. Otherwise, it’s too much of a leap of faith for them. And the need for evidence seems directly proportional to the price tag, perceived level of risk involved and importance of the decision to the buyer or company. We don’t need nearly as much information or validation to make a decision about which ice cream to buy as we do about which car to buy.

In recent years, the need for credibility has only accelerated. In the ‘90s and 2000s, the business world saw a number of shake-ups that have left buyers understandably leery about the companies they choose to do business with. In the early part of the new millennium, quite a few major companies were discovered to have unethical or illegal business practices. Enron was the most high profile of the bunch, with irregular accounting procedures bringing the company to bankruptcy in 2001. Its accounting firm, the once prestigious Arthur Andersen, fell soon after. And then there was Tyco and WorldCom.

About the same time, the high-tech bubble burst after many heady years, resulting in countless corporate casualties. Companies were open one day and closed the next. They would spend years developing a product, with no income, until finally they had to close their doors. Venture capital firms and banks couldn’t keep throwing money at businesses taking too long to reach a profit.

After all that, buyers are still hesitant about the products and services they choose. Will the company be around next month to create new product releases and provide adequate product support? “The need for documented customer successes has been largely driven by the technology sector,” says Steven Nicks, Partner and Co-founder of Phelon Group (www.phelongroup.com), a firm that focuses on customer retention, referability, and repurchase. “In the late ‘90s, we saw people making major technology purchases that didn’t pan out, so in subsequent years people demanded to hear from those individuals who had already successfully deployed the solution. And for the savvy tech company, it was a way of gaining credibility and a competitive edge.”

While having real customer stories doesn’t ensure a business won’t go under, it does demonstrate that an organization has actual customers using products and services–and seeing results. That goes a long way toward establishing peace of mind for audiences, whether they are potential partners, customers, funding organizations, employees or donors.

Education: Show, Don’t Tell

Marketers and business owners put a lot of thought into how they communicate about their offerings. But as much as they detail how their products and services work for users, there’s often a gap between those descriptions and readers’ understanding of how they will actually work in their environments–all the more so when the products or services are complex. Remember the lesson from high school English class, “Show, don’t tell?” You have to show readers what you’re talking about, descriptively and in context, rather than just telling them that your product or service accomplishes this or that. Mark Twain put it another way, “Don’t say the old lady screamed—bring her on and let her scream.”
Buyers have a lot of questions. How will services be delivered in our environment? How is this vendor different from others? How long does an implementation take and who’s involved? How will a product generate time-savings in our workflow? What can we expect in terms of ongoing support? What does the vendor do that gets the results we want?

Customer stories answer many of their questions. They are especially effective when they mirror the reader’s situation. A growing manufacturing company wants to hear how another manufacturing company like it reduced production time. A small business needs to understand how a search engine optimization firm increased Web site traffic for a similar business. Customer stories offer the perfect opportunity to show a product or service in action for a customer, making them very valuable marketing and sales tools. It’s just the type of information buyers are looking for as they learn about a solution or organization.

A survey by KnowledgeStorm (www.knowledgestorm.com) and MarketingSherpa (www.marketingsherpa.com) shed light on the role of case studies, particularly in IT purchase decisions. The survey, with results published in How Technology Marketers Meet Buyers’ Appetite for Content, asked nearly 4,000 B2B marketers, and technology and business professionals, what buyers want and what marketers deliver. The survey revealed that buyers expect you to educate them. In fact, 84 percent said they want content that educates them and expect vendors to provide it.  Customer stories provide critical education about how solutions actually work in real environments.

Guerrilla Marketing for Consultants, by Jay Conrad Levinson and Michael W. McLaughlin, stresses the importance of customer stories in helping prospects understand exactly what it would be like to work with a consultant. “These documents can answer the number one question clients ask consultants: ‘How will your team work with our team to achieve the results we need?’ Case studies also clarify approaches, strategies, and resources that you have successfully employed on other projects.”

Validation: Demonstrating Results

Everyone has competition, whether it’s another organization like yours or the current arrangement in prospective customers’ environments. In Selling to Big Companies, author Jill Konrath points out, the status quo is often your biggest competition. Even if companies have problems to resolve and opportunities for improvement, they “just have so much on their plate that they can’t add one more thing–no matter how worthwhile it seems.” Therefore, you have to demonstrate that the short-term pain of making a change is worthwhile in the long run.

Likewise, with so many options out there, buyers are cynical and believe another solution just like yours is around the corner, maybe even at a lower price. “The only thing that seems to counteract it is real customer stories with actual, tangible, and measurable results,” Konrath says. Customer stories provide that critical validation that gets prospects’ attention at multiple points in the sales cycle. Seeing clear results at other organizations like theirs helps buyers more easily make the decision to purchase and eliminates risk in their minds. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t create detailed brochures and Web sites. They certainly provide important information for decision-makers. But for ultimate impact, you have to back them with real customer stories, results and quotes.

Findings on Customer Story Effectiveness

Customer stories and anecdotes are powerful for just about any type of organization. But because they have typically been more a marketing staple of high-tech companies, the small amount of research available tends to be related to technology purchases. The survey, How Technology Marketers Meet Buyers’ Appetite for Content, revealed intriguing findings on the role of customer stories:

• 67 percent of those surveyed often read case studies (customer stories) in the buying decision–putting case studies as the #2 choice just behind white papers in terms of desired content.
• Buyers like objectivity–Customer stories, articles from industry journalists, and analyst reports are all frequently forwarded by buyers. The study indicates the perception of objectivity makes them of interest to the broadest number of individuals in the IT decision process.
• Buyers need to solve a problem–When they start the search for a new technology, nearly 72% of respondents want to find “solutions to solve a current problem.” Customer examples show very clearly how a solution solves a specific problem.
• They want it targeted for them!–Nearly 82% of technology buyers prefer information targeted to their industry. Customer stories are a key way to demonstrate real-world successes with specific industries and types of problems.

Similarly, when TechTarget (www.techtarget.com) and CMO Council (www.cmocouncil.org) took a closer look at the inner workings of how information technology (IT) buyers make purchasing decisions in its 2007 Technology Buying and Media Consumption Benchmarking Survey, they found an interesting gap between case study use and effectiveness. Twenty-eight percent of IT buyers surveyed use customer case studies in technology purchases. But when used, they had a 75 percent rate of effectiveness. The survey pointed out that customer stories showed the greatest gap between effectiveness and actual use of all the marketing communications it asked about. That led the survey writers to predict that they are poised for increased use in the future.

Minimize Live Reference Calls

It’s clear that third-party validation is critical. Many businesses turn to their best customers to serve as live references on calls with prospects. Yet, there’s only so much you can call on busy current customers to participate in these activities, and they may not be available right when you need them. When you create a written customer story, you document the details of that customer’s experience once, and then that story often replaces a live reference call. In fact, by reducing reference calls, you can look at customer stories as effective relationship management with your most valued customers.

KnowTia, maker of OasisCRM software (www.oasiscrm.com), saw a significant drop in the need for live reference calls when it began documenting its customer stories. Before, the company regularly arranged calls between prospects and current customers. “In the first year of using success stories, we only had one live reference call,” said Jeffrey White, Vice President of Sales. “Those stories give prospects the detail they need to understand other customers’ experiences without having to talk to an actual current customer.”

By capturing stories on customers that are just like your prospects, those “strangers with experience” serve as compelling examples to your audience, giving them the confidence to buy or support your products or services.

An Interview with author, Rick Posner Ph.D.

Q: When did you start writing, and what inspired you to write?

A: I started writing nine years ago after I retired from teaching. I was inspired to tell the story of a school that saved my life as a teacher and as a person. I wanted to tell the stories of the alumni of a K-12 public school that had no grades or credits, to see if they felt like I did about their experiences.

Q: How long did the book take you from start to finish?

A: …about 8 years including the research, ground work and the actual writing.

Q: Where do you write?

A:  …in my little office.

Q: What’s the best thing about being a published author?

A: …all the money of course! No really, I just like putting the word out there about a school that transforms lives.

Q: Who are some of your favorite authors?

A: …Joseph Conrad, James Joyce, Paulo Friere, J.D. Salinger, John Fowles, Debbie Meier, Herb Kohl…too many others to note here.

Q: Do you hear from your readers much? What kinds of things do they say?

A: Most of my readers are interested in something more from their schools so I get a lot of: “Thanks for getting the word out that there really are options in the public sector”. Of course, alumni of the school tell me that they are grateful that someone has finally told their story.

Q: What are your current projects?

A: I’m currently engaged in promoting the book, but I have another totally different kind of project in mind for another book and/or video. It’s about an obscure folk singer that just happens to be a genius.

Q: What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

A: I’m a runner and a bit of a fitness freak. I also have avid interests in film, music and baseball.

Q: How did you come up with your title?

A: The school is all about following one’s passions and feeling empowered to change the world. Thus, Lives of Passion, School of Hope, seemed quite natural. On a side note, I came up with the “hope” part long before I, or anyone else for that matter, knew about a guy named Barak Obama.

Q: Is there a message in your book that you want readers to grasp?

A: The message is that there is a public school out there that has been offering something radically different from the mainstream for almost 40 years now, and it works! Read the book to find out what is possible for our public schools.

Q: What’s the hardest part of writing a book?

A: It takes a great deal of patience and endurance. It’s hard not to get lost in the details and lose track of the big picture.

Q: If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your latest book?

A: This is a good question. I suppose I might taper it down a bit. There were so many great stories; I didn’t want leave any of them out.

By Stuart Nachbar

{mosimage}Before becoming a writer, I spent ten years marketing Web-based job posting and resume tools to college and university career centers. This put me in contact with career counselors at all types of schools each day ranging from community colleges and trade schools to national research universities. For the most part, career counselors are very thoughtful and resourceful people, but they are too often underappreciated and underutilized.

Based on past experience, I venture to guess that only one-third of most graduating college seniors venture inside their career center before they have received their diplomas. That creates a strong market for career books at the bookstores; approximately 1.5 million people received bachelor’s degrees last year and probably 1 million of them did not know what they wanted to do.

Lindsey Pollak’s Getting from College to Career, 90 Things to Do Before You Join The Real World is one book targeted at this market, though the author’s intentions appear to be broader, to get the undecided student to act faster.

Pollak, who took a round-about approach to becoming a writer, starts by using herself as an example. She originally decided to apply to law school because that was what she was told that graduates “do” with a liberal arts degree then, she backed out and networked, first into a Rotary-sponsored scholarship to a graduate woman’s studies program, then later into a writing position on a woman’s business Web site.

If this book sells well among recent graduates, it will be because the reader will consider Pollak more of a peer counselor than a career counselor; she hasn’t done what any other bright college student couldn’t do. Although Pollak is a Yale graduate, I’m sure all of us know non-Ivy Leaguers who got a similar start in their working lives.

Pollak provides numerous tips that are easy to follow; some are obvious such as visit the career center or err on the side of cautious conservatism in dressing for an interview, but some are more interesting because they address the Millennial job seeker. For instance, Pollak does a good job explaining how to use social networking tools such as MySpace and Facebook to advantage, as well as how they can become a job seeker’s downfall. She also does a good job explaining practices of e-mail etiquette. She has also touched on the increased importance of community service to students, colleges and universities as well as employer attitudes towards Millennials in the work place. I wished she had spent more time on these subjects; that would set the book apart from the other titles that share the same shelf space at the bookstore.

The major weaknesses of Getting from College to Career are structural: tips are not organized chronologically, and I found myself reading tips meant for students after I read tips meant for recent graduates. I don’t know if the Millennial reader will have the patience to thumb through the book like that. Pollak’s Web site:www.GettingfromCollegetoCareer.com is similarly unstructured.

I also found too much discussion of career coaching, which is a service better utilized by more experienced workers and not students or recent grads; they would be better off working with a college career counselor. I also wished there were more anecdotal stories like Pollak’s personal tale; the targeted reader would relate better to them while they can see how the tips are best put in practice.

But College to Career is not Pollak’s first book; this is her third and she writes numerous pieces on Millennials in the job market. I believe this book is more of a springboard into more detailed works and online services to aid current students who are undecided about a major and career, graduating students who have made their choices and entry level/under-employed workers who want to reconsider them.

Stuart Nachbar operates http://www.EducatedQuest.com , a blog on education politics, policy and technology. He was involved with education politics and economic development for two decades as an urban planner, government affairs manager and a software executive. His first novel, The Sex Ed Chronicles, about sex education and school politics in 1980 New Jersey, was published this past fall.

{mosimage}Gene McVay: Top Gun Management is a concise book that presents some tools and principles to help leaders achieve excellence at all levels from new managers to heads of state.

Lauren Smith: Gene, why did you write this book?

Gene McVay: The time comes when consummate leaders who take companies or institutions to great heights of achievement are replaced. The new leaders with polished educations tend to be more talented in bean counting and squeezing extra nickels out of consumers. I wanted to expose managers to the wide spectrum of management responsibilities using my own personal experiences and quotes from great people who have been tested in the past.

Lauren Smith: Tell us a little about your background.

Gene McVay: I literally grew up barefoot in the hills of Arkansas. From a poor but very happy boy with few prospects, I eventually ran for governor against current presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee. Along the way I worked in factories at Western Electric and General Motors. I became an Intelligence Analyst at The National Security Agency before being commissioned in the Air Force and attending pilot training.  I soon became a global qualified aircraft commander on the 325,000 pound C-141 Starlifter after which I flew fighters for 25 years and won many top gun competitions. I was the first Air National Guard Colonel selected to command a three billion dollar multinational provisional wing.  I retired from both the federal government and the Air Force at age 54 completely debt free. I now give back to my state and nation by serving in several nonprofit organizations including national boards of veterans’ organizations.

Lauren Smith: There are a lot of books on business and leadership out there, what makes your different?

Gene McVay: Top Gun Management takes the reader into the poignant human world of an old veteran as he relates principles that propelled him upward through the ranks to power and respect. Within the pages dwell not perfection but persistence and compassion. Many will never soar to the very top, but they can enjoy the journey and unashamedly be able to look themselves in the mirror with contentment when the battle is over. There is no world leader who would not garner something from this book that would help him or her achieve greater success.

Lauren Smith: What are some key lessons you hope the reader will learn from your book?

Gene McVay: I think readers will learn about real communication. They will learn how to mentor and relate to their employees and colleagues. The will learn how to improve the effectiveness of every single employee. They will learn about motivation. They will learn not to accept mediocrity. They will never conduct a meeting the same way again. They will learn the concept of Noblesse Oblige. Perhaps most of all, they will learn compassion.

Lauren Smith: What is the biggest mistake leaders make?

Gene McVay: Leaders make “Custer” decisions that are recognized by their subordinates, yet the subordinates do not feel they have the freedom to communicate with the leader.

]]> http://redhotbookreview.com/2010/01/05/top-gun-management/feed/ 0 http://redhotbookreview.com/2009/04/03/infinite-exposure-by-roland-hughes/ http://redhotbookreview.com/2009/04/03/infinite-exposure-by-roland-hughes/#comments Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 admin

Roland Hughes is the president of Logikal Solutions, a business applications consulting firm specializing in VMS platforms. Hughes serves as a lead consultant with over two decades of experience using computers and operating systems originally created by Digital Equipment Corporation (now owned by Hewlett-Packard).

With a degree in Computer Information Systems, the author's experience is focused on OpenVMS systems across a variety of diverse industries including heavy equipment manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, stock exchanges, tax accounting, and hardware value-added resellers, to name a few. Working throughout these industries has strengthened the author's unique skill set and given him a broad perspective on the role and value of OpenVMS in industry.

Read more about the author and book at:  http://www.infiniteexposure.net

The Big Gamble: A Friendly Financial Guide

The Big Gamble by Jose Roncal and Jose Abbo was endorsed by Donald Trump, a man who needs no introduction. Trump was an appropriate choice for an endorser because he inspires inexperienced investors to think big, but also think smart. That’s been a constant theme throughout all of the seasons of The Apprentice and his numerous business advice books.

This book reads very much like the Donald’s books too, minus the Donald’s anecdotes. It is an excellent tutorial in personal financial management and wealth-building for a non-financial person. It does not overwhelm you with economic theories or statistical tables. It is an excellent guide to help you ask the right questions when you speak with a broker or certified financial planner, and you want that person to do the quant work for you so that you can build the right portfolio.

The Big Gamble is not a guide to picking stocks or bonds. It is more elementary, it explains the differences between a speculator and an investor. A speculator, in a basic sense, takes larger risks and looks for short-term gains, and bites harder in bad times than an investor, whose financial strategy is more long term. The authors also point out that some investments once thought to be long term holds are now considered to be speculative, because fund managers turn over their portfolios more frequently, and their desire for a quicker exit drives the market.

The authors also take a unique position: that some investments that were once thought to be safe, such as blue-chip stocks or U.S. Treasury bonds, are not. Blue chip companies—and they cite General Motors as one example—and often in cyclical industries, and they can always decide not to pay dividends in hard times. Government bonds are secure, but they do not provide adequate cash flow to be more than a buffer in bad times. They do not offer enough of a return to ensure a financially secure retirement.

Roncal and Abbo also drop a hint: that all investors must become more speculative, as long as they are prepared to take calculated risks. They start by using the analogy of the professional gambler who knows the math of his games, versus the high-stakes fool who believes he is a high roller, but has no clue about what he is doing. Then they talk about entrepreneurs such as The Donald and Richard Branson who have taken very daring, but calculated risks that have paid big. But they also add that these entrepreneurs have put themselves on the hook for major debts. Not every investor or speculator is equally confident.

They also talk about the economic signals that show “the next big thing” and when potential bubbles are about to begin. I have read several stories about the collapse of Bear Stearns and other financial institutions in recent months, and I have to say that Roncal and Abbo make the clearest and simplest explanation as to why the collapse happened. I wish that I had read this book before these stories appeared in the business press. For more visit their Squidoo lens at http://www.squidoo.com/thebiggamble.
Contact Stuart Nachbar at http://www.EducatedQuest.com , a blog on education politics, policy and technology or read about his first book, The Sex Ed Chronicle, a novel on education and politics in 1980 New Jersey, at http://www.SexEdChronicles.com .

Reviewed by Stuart Nachbar

I did not grow up exceedingly rich or exceptionally poor, but my parents wanted to make sure that I knew the value of a dollar. While they never told us about their personal financial downturns until I reached high school, they made it quite clear that if I wanted anything they considered beyond their means—a car, for instance—then I would have to save up for it.

{mosimage}The Love and Logic Institute’s family money guide, Millionaire Babies or Bankrupt Brats, is a book that my parents would have appreciated. This is a very detailed book that helps parents and their children together in lessons about managing and spending money. It is well balanced on concepts of values and basic personal finance for children, and it emphasizes the need to help children make their own choices, since they will eventually be on their own. There are also games, as well as lessons, but I wondered if the games might be better taught in the classroom where children could see not only the consequences of their own actions, but the consequences of their classmates’ poor decisions.

There has not been a better time for Millionaire Babies or Bankrupt Brats to become available to parents. We are living in an economy where parents will be increasingly forced to tell their children why they cannot afford to buy the current fashion statement or the coolest and latest in electronics. Parents might allow their son to have the latest version of the John Madden football game, but tell him to live with the two year old edition of Guitar Hero. Millionaire Babies or Bankrupt Brats helps parents provide a better answer than simply “no.”

Curious to learn more about the publishers, I checked out their Web site at www.loveandlogic.com. Millionaire Babies or Bankrupt Brats is one of a comprehensive series of parental help guides, some books and some in audio, that have been produced by this Golden, Colorado-based company over the past 31 years. The publishers also support their products with considerable online content. However, Millionaire Babies or Bankrupt Brats is quite unlike their rest of their offerings.

First, Millionaire Babies or Bankrupt Brats is meant to be a lifetime lifeline; other products are more age-specific. The authors, Jim Fay and Kristan Leatherman, apparently intended for parents to refer to the book from time to time during the entire time their son or daughter lives under their roof. There are two problems: books age and become dog-eared and weather-beaten and, financial times and concepts—especially access to credit— frequently change, so parents have new options that would be uncovered. I hope the authors develop online materials to support this book or develop a market program to attract parents to later versions in print.  Millionaire Babies or Bankrupt Brats appears to be like the career classic: What Color is My Parachute? It can be a title that sells for decades, but is constantly revised to draw repeat buyers.    

Millionaire Babies or Bankrupt Brats is 450 pages long, more pages than any other title by this publisher. Because of the page size and page volume, the book resembles a thick computer manual. People judge books by their cover, and Millionaire Babies or Bankrupt Brats does not have good visual appeal. However, a smaller book would have been a thicker one. Age-segmented personal finance books and tools would look less intimidating; however, their markets would be smaller.

Millionaire Babies or Bankrupt Brats is well written and has many good insights and ideas. However, it looks like a daunting book for parents who do not like to read.

 
Contact Stuart Nachbar at http://www.EducatedQuest.com , a blog on education politics, policy and technology or read about his first book, The Sex Ed Chronicle, a novel on education and politics in 1980 New Jersey, at http://www.SexEdChronicles.com .

Reviewed by Stuart Nachbar

Two decades ago, I worked as an urban economic development professional in a good-sized city, interacting between a business community and city government. It was not the easiest job I ever had, but in some ways, it was the best.  I developed many communications, organization and political skills that I regularly use, as well as resources for the stories I write today.

{mosimage}I didn’t have a primer, a written guide for my work, to help me along, but sometimes I wish I did. There were many types of public-private partnerships back then, including school-business partnerships, but the work was trial and error; you have to have the right mix of volunteers and career professionals to made things go smoothly—and that was my hardest challenge.

Today, there are more anecdotes about successful public-private partnerships and more information to help business people and educators along, but I’ve just read one of the few “how to” books that is reader friendly. Most anecdotes are major media stories or academic studies, but give you little direction as to how you—as a new person charged manage a partnership—can succeed.

This “how to” book: Facing the Future Together: Forming Successful School-Business Partnerships is written by Jim Leatherwood, a former teacher, school counselor and administrator who has formed 50 school-business partnerships throughout his career, most notably in California. Leatherwood organizes Facing the Future along 12 commandments for a successful partnership, eleven “do’s,” with one “don’t”: don’t ask for money right away.

Leatherwood has done an excellent job in helping each actor, businessperson and educator, in the difficult job of relating to each other and understanding each other’s needs and as well as their levels of patience. That is important: businesspeople cannot be expected to understand educators and their jargon in little time, nor can educators expect businesspeople to treat a partnership as a “good cause.” Both have vested interests and need incentives to succeed, such as quality workers, more modern technology, or job relevant academic coursework. Both also need accountability measures to take to their superiors to justify and sustain their relationship. And both don’t have the patience to read a lengthier book than Facing the Future.

Leatherwood has included “nitty-gritty” suggestions for details, such as chamber of commerce endorsements and partnership certificates. These details might seem trivial at first, but they are quite important, because they make both sides feel committed and confident their participation will bear fruit.  These details symbolize the importance of success, even to the most altruistic of parties.

Facing the Future is reader-friendly, but is missing a couple of important sections that would make it stronger, albeit longer, book. The first is research; both educators and businesspersons need to know the organizations that might have similar programs, and whether these programs are working or failing, and why. Research also helps both sides understand past failures and pessimism; that was one critical issue I had to address in my job. The second is succession planning; the persons who coordinate these partnerships don’t stay on the job forever. They move on, and a new executive must be hired. Advice on writing an effective recruitment ad for the internet or professional association media would also be consistent with the intentions of this book.

With the passage and continued support for No Child Left Behind and the rising concerns over the competitive standing of our students versus students in other nations, school-business partnerships are not going away. They will become more important as our economy gets better.

Facing the Future should give the newest entrants to the field a head start.

 
Contact Stuart Nachbar at http://www.EducatedQuest.com , a blog on education politics, policy and technology or read about his first book, The Sex Ed Chronicle, a novel on education and politics in 1980 New Jersey, at http://www.SexEdChronicles.com .

Reviewed By Stuart Nachbar

There are many approaches to “how-to” business books: academic, financial, technical and inspirational. Jack’s Notebook by Gregg Fraley is the latter. It is a work about creative problem solving that provides an effectively structured approach that will serve the non-business person who has considered starting a business from a long-lingering hobby or passion.

{mosimage}I’ve noticed at least two ways to write such books. The first is to provide anecdotes from entrepreneurs who have achieved success after following the author’s advice. The second is to explain their creative process through a fictional story that uses all of the principles involved. Fraley took the second approach, and for most of the story it works very well.

Fraley’s approach to Creative Problem Solving—he abbreviates this as CPS, and thankfully the rest of the book is not weighed down in abbreviations—has six steps. These steps might sound obvious, but they work well in personal one-on-one coaching and group exercises, which are Fraley’s professional expertise. The steps are to: Identify the Challenge, Explore Facts and Feelings, Problem Solving and Reframing, Idea Generation, Solution Development and Action Planning. I actually found this to be a useful framework in working on a new novel.

Fraley puts the six steps to work through the story of Jack Huber, a man down on his luck holding two customer service jobs. He’s single and very much alone. By happenstance he meets Manny Gibran, a professional problem solver. We do not know if Gibran is a business consultant or engineer, though we learn that he’s called upon to solve technical problems. Manny serves as Jack’s friend and guide through Jack’s personal problem-solving adventure, helping him think through his dream to become a professional photographer and to be with Molly, who becomes the first true love in his life.  

The best parts of this book come when Manny helps Jack work in a notebook to think through the type of photographer he wants to become and how he can get there; this gets Jack down from very broad ideas to realistic ones. It’s also useful that Fraley uses writing in a notebook to show how broad ideas become whittled down. That process also helped me outline characters and plots for my own work, so this was much appreciated.

There is one weakness in the story worth mention: towards the end he strays too far from his principles for the sake of fiction. He shows Molly as prisoner of a wealthy, but overly paranoid father and puts Jack into a hero role to rescue her, her sister and mother, who has lived under a new identity. While I know there’s a lot of Action Planning to a rescue, the storytelling seriously detracted from the rest of the book. It also took the focus away from Manny, who’s really the “teaching” character in this book.

Overall, I would recommend Jack’s Notebook as a first guide to someone interested in starting a business, but has little business experience. It is an easy read that is not weighed down with technical jargon and financial terms that might scare such a reader away. It is a friendly voice, but a voice that forces readers to think before they jump into expensive mis-directions and mistakes. I know I’ll write a better novel because of this book.

Contact Stuart Nachbar at http://www.EducatedQuest.com, a blog on education politics, policy and technology or read about his first book, The Sex Ed Chronicle, a novel on education and politics in 1980 New Jersey, at http://www.SexEdChronicles.com.