Resources Books

Christine Durst and Michael Haaren did an excellent job of presenting the major points of what it takes to become a Virtual Assistant. Their approach was very practical and hands on; and yet, potential pitfalls were also listed and discussed. Overall, their advice was sound and realistic regarding what it takes to be successful in this field.

If anyone is seriously thinking about becoming a VA, then this book is a "must read"!

This is a wonderful book for the aspiring Virtual Assistant. The authors go into great detail on all aspects of running your own VA business, and their insight is timely and comprehensive. In particular, you'll enjoy the extensive chapter on marketing, which details various ways that a VA can capture the greatest share of the marketplace. I highly recommend this book as a must-read and a resource to reference throughout the start-up phase of your business.

90% of what this book covers appears in countless other books for small and home based businesses. And, I'm not so sure that the other 10% is really so revolutionary because the concept of working remotely has been around for several decades now. The authors outstanding accomplishment seems to be giving what they believe to be a revolutionary new job category a catchy name. Still, if you've been living on a distant planet, you may find their mention of the basic components, requirements and legalese of starting a business helpful.

I've found a lot of information over the last several months while browsing VA sites, even shelling out a few dollars for information I thought would be helpful. While some of it was ok, I still didn't feel ready to start a VA business based on what I had learned. Nor have I ever felt that paying $$$$ for certification and training was necessary for me.

I decided to buy "The 2-Second Commute" from Amazon. This book fills in ALL of the missing pieces and then some.

Don't spend a penny on anything else related to preparing to become a virtual assistant until after you buy and read this book. After you're done with it, you'll know exactly what you will need to do and/or learn to set up and launch a profitable VA practice that you'll enjoy. This book might just be the only training you need to get started.

Thanks to "The 2-Second Commute", I'll be launching my business before the end of this year. If I had read it earlier this year, I'd be in a profitable practice by now.

Highly recommended - worth much more than the $10.00 Amazon cost.

If you could only buy one book about owning your own VA business, I would highly recommend this one! As there are multiple books on the subject in the marketplace right now, I would still highly recommend this one. This is the ONLY book you will ever need - well, maybe one on accounting principles if you don't know any & have no money to hire an accountant! But this book tells you EVERYTHING you need to know, & the questions it asks (or asks you to ask yourself) & the skills assessment it has gets you THINKING about the actual undertaking of starting your own business. Even if you just read it cover to cover (which I also highly recommend) and never do anything else, you will forever think more concretely about owning a business. It's a true eye-opener.

I read this book mostly because I work in the field of Adoption and wanted to see the account of the long term effects of FAS. My heart aches for the family. I feel the book itself was poorly edited but I still couldn't put it down.

The patience and compassion of the writer, Katherine Norgard, for her son and for others makes this a book that can teach us all about the value of forgiveness.

Hard to Place: A Crime of Alcohol is the true story of Kathy Norgard's effort to save her adopted son, John, from the death penalty. This powerful, painful, and beautiful book is a must-read for all direct practice and administrative social workers. Kathy's carefully crafted narrative provides powerful insights into the foster care system, the adoption process, fetal alcohol syndrome, the criminal justice system, and love. Kathy writes from her heart--and her story will touch your heart.
Cathy Busha, MSW

Dr. Katherine Norgard's book, HARD TO PLACE: A CRIME OF ALCOHOL, is both hard to read and hard to put down. It is a page-turning mystery story, and a heart-rending saga of a family torn apart by one of the most insidious of diseases: Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS). Hardly a sentient being exists who does not know someone addicted to or suffering the effects of, alcohol abuse. Nearly every family in America is affected in one degree or another by the problem, as Alcoholics Anonymous and Al-Anon will attest, but it is FAS that leaves irreparable and permanent devastation in its wake.
Dr. Norgard chronicles with a depth of honesty, pain and compassion one professional woman's struggle with the results of FAS and the crimes it engendered. How this plays out in the life of her family and community keeps the reader up until all hours of the night.
While she is a personal friend, Kathy Norgard's struggle as a clinical psychologist and a parent to deal with the horror of FAS in her adopted son that I came to have the highest regard for her. Her skill as a writer draws the reader into the tragedy on page one and does not let go until the final sentence.
The sheer humanity of the author's response to her son's murder of two innocent people that lands him on Death Row awakens in the reader the utmost compassion for this mother's harrowing experience and its effects upon her family and friends. As she puts it, it became an endless battle to "make sense of the senseless" that engages the reader so profoundly.
HARD TO PLACE should not be missed by anyone interested in the health and well-being of children born to a mother who is tempted to drink alcohol while pregnant, and to anyone interested in the effects upon society of the death penalty. Other issues surface as one reads this moving account that any nation and society should deal with in compassion if it is to be known as "a nation under God".

The Rev. Christine Geer, Episcopal Priest
Crested Butte, Colorado

Dr. Norgard's moving personal story of her struggles to help her adopted son, both before and after he ends on death row, is strongly recommended for a variety of readers. It is important for professionals working with those diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and their families and is even more important as a message to women who may become pregnant about the dangers of drinking alcohol. The book also provides insight for those concerned with the issue of capital punishment. On a broader level, Hard to Place is a powerful and inspiring account of how an individual can respond to a tragedy by taking effective action that will help her own family while also potentially helping many others.

This book is an awesome gift! It is a wonderful story that teaches children of all ages many important virtues and lessons!

Remember the fairy godmothers in Sleeping Beauty presented her with 'gifts' when she was born.....

A great baby present with lots of hopes and dreams for the child.

This was given to me as a baby shower gift for my daughter. It is one of our favorite books and I now give it out as a newborn gift to friends and family. The messages are powerful and simple. It is not a long book so it's perfect for bedtime.

This is a beautiful book about the wonderful gifts of birth! I have given this as a "new baby" gift to several of my friends, and they absolutely love the book. The illustrations and the words are done in a beautiful way. I highly recommend this as a great baby gift!

Every parent/grandparent needs this book and then every child needs to have it read to him/her over and over again so that he can know how very special the day is that he was born. This book celebrates the child's arrival to the family and helps to foster characteristics that should be a birthright to all children.

As a Marine veteran, this book gave alot of good ideas. The authors tell you different aspect of how the Marine Corps is ran and they explain why the Marines do this and how to implement it into the business world.

It's a good book. There are a lot of leadership techniques in here that can be applied. There is also a lot of information about the Marines, which is interesting. For a leadership book, I could have used less information about the Marines and more about leadership in business, but it's good for what it is.
One thing, the chapter on women dealt with sexual harrassment, mostly. I think that with everything women deal with (lower pay, glass ceiling, family life, etc) there could have been more info on women and less on sexual harrassment. That could have been a seperate chapter.

Semper Fi does a good job of relating the organizational and cultural strengths of the Marine Corps to successful essentials for corporate America. The beginning of the book emphasizes the importance of recruiting and maintaining the enthusiasm and energy or new hires. The book keeps it focus on sharing the attributes of the Marine Corps' organizational attributes contributing to its success rather than organizing around what corporate America needs and how the Marine Corps has solved those problems. Strongly recommended for HR professionals and managers leading large organizations. Always a good book for former Marines although some may remember a few details of Marine life differently.

Want to develop sound leadership and solid loyalty? This book clears up many of the misconceptions of USMC training and brings the same form of positive supportive leadership into the civilian and business world. Leadership is more than just telling people what to do. Leadership is established by being in the front lines with all your "troops". It's you're willingness to get your shoes just as dirty as anyone else's while providing an example of being out in front and at the same time making sure that everyone is up there with you. You, the leader, are the example! It is extremely well-written and should be in any top sensei's [martial arts instructor's] book collection. Dan Carrison is one of my Black Belts. I recommend this book to all my black belts!

In case you want to know how this 175,000 strong force is led/managed to live up to the "Send the Marines" legend, you will be largely satisfied. Many unique features, including the Buddy System (two friends get recruited, trained, and deployed together), Tour of Duty (a Marine can opt to remain or transfer several times during the enlistment period of four years), the strong emphasis on quality HR and recruiters, the "Crucible" (the 54 sleepless hours of hellish training with only one meal), the need for an officer/NCO to be better in all aspects (esp physically) than his fellow men till his retirement and so on are vividly discussed. However, I am obliged to comment that the successful principles of USMC are not readily applicable to the commercial world, primarily because, as per pg 123, "Unlike the Marine Corps, the workplace environment is not one of self sacrifice. Employees are motivated much more by self interest than by the collective good and are not shy about asking, "Why did he or she get this assignment and not me?" Anyway, this is definitely a good read. Highly recommended!

Below please find my most favorite passages for your reference:-

One of the legends every NCO has heard tells of a young officer who did not return an enlisted man's salute - and was subsequently ordered by the renowned Marine general Chesty Puller to stand there and salute the nervous private one hundred times. pg 66

The "monkey experiment" is a classic laboratory experiment that illustrates exactly what the Marines try to avoid - the thoughtless passing from one group to another of a learned tradition. Six monkeys were put into a cage in which bananas were suspended by chains...when a monkey pulled on the bananas, the entire group received a shower of cold water. It didnt take long for the six monkeys to learn that the bananas were to be left alone. A new monkey was then introduced into the group, while one of the original monkeys were removed. Of course, the newcomer saw the bananas and thought it was in monkey paradise. But, as it climbed upward, the five remaining original monkeys would actually prevent it from reaching the bananas.....Other newcomers were introduced, for each one, a monkey from the original group was removed.....Soon, none of the original group was left in the cage, yet the bananas were undisturbed - by monkeys who had never felt the cold shower themselves and who did not know why the bananas were to be left alone. pg 115

Today, teams of recruits clash in the pugil stick circle so that one learns not to just fight for himself but for his buddy as well. If his buddies are "killed", the remaining recruit must defend himself against multiple attackers, who close in intelligently, as a team. Thus teamwork is taught while defending and attacking. pg 130

If a manager has not called his own customer service desk in a week, then he has no idea how many times the phone will ring before it is answered, how politely the customer will be greeted, how willingly that customer will be helped and then thanked. pg 171

p.s. Semper Fidelis (Always Faihtful), the motto of USMC, is an indication of how much value is placed upon the virtue of loyalty.

I was a huge fan of the old "Foxfire" series of books as a child, and the romantic notion of living WITH the land while living OFF the land has never ceased to appeal to me. This invaluable volume has been around for some time, and essentially improves on the Foxfire concept by incorporating pictures, diagrams and removing quite a bit of the "folksiness".

Probably of most immediate use and value to readers would be the section on land acquisition and value. If you're planning to build or buy a home, the sage advice in this section is of immense value. Using natural features to cool in the summer and maintain heat in the winter - for example planting windscreens of conifers and deciduous, the latter of which direct air during their leafing season and allow it to pass when bare of leaves - was novel, and pulled me even further into the other nuggets of wisdom in the later parts of the book.

There's a ton of stuff in here - and, while the book is by no means small, it still amazes me how much is crammed in its 450 pages. Everything from building a log cabin, setting up a root cellar, beekeeping, kitchen gardening vs. full gardening, drying and smoking fish and meats, basket-weaving, stocking a lake with fish to how to ski and use snowshoes is covered. While the passages for each are brief and not comprehensive, the gist of the book is to get you to START - and there's more than enough data here to ensure you do that successfully. As you add these habits and pastimes to your lifestyle, there's further reading you can do.

One of my favorite reference texts and one I refer to often even living in a flat.

this is a great book for homesteders and those wishing to live more self reliant.

Overall a very good book with enough information to let you find out if you're interested in learning more about various aspects of traditional living.

Lots of illustrations and photos and a logical flow of information from the large to the smaller aspects.

If you're dipping your toe into the idea of a more traditional lifestyle this is the place I would recommend starting.

Not only does this book have a LOT of information about so many things, but it is presented clearly in an organized manner. Many colorful illustrations and pictures add to the pleasure of browsing this book.

Old skills brought to life and shared - provident living - do it yourself - from raising poultry, to making cheese- gardening and storage tips - make ice cream, build a house, all between the covers of one book.

More than a book, this "How-To Guide" will help you hire GREAT people - every time. Hire With Your Head teaches you how to define, locate, attract, interview, assess, negotiate, and close A-players. The concepts contained in Hire With Your Head give our organization a strategic advantage over our competition. Understanding Adler's concepts are mandatory for our entire recruiting team. You can't go wrong with this book... order it today!

Ryan Cook, SPHR
VP Recruitment Operations
Sparqpoint Solutions

Hiring with your Head is an excellent resource for new recruiters and veteran recruiters as well. For me this book gives me the big picture of the recruiting process. We may be doing some of the steps correctly but if wee can not see the big picture of how it all works together you are very likely wasting time. The performance base hiring process has helped me adjust my own interviewing and I am already seeing results. It has been fascinating to see how it really works.
Mandy Calvert
Executive Recruiter
Premier Executive Solutions

Yes, I have been a big fan of Lou Adler, I have registered to his website and they always have interesting articles and web casts.

The book was detailed, well written and very informative. I have many years recruiting experience and his book was very welcoming. A good to have book.


Thanks for the continuous support Mr. Adler!

If you have the opportunity to attend his webcasts, please do so.. He is a definite leader in his profession.

Thank you Lou Adler. Hire with your Head is a great resource for recruiting. This book not only explains why you need to use performance-based hiring but it tells you HOW to follow through with implementing the process. This book is going to be an excellent tool for me to utilize in coaching my hiring managers to help me create accurate job requirements based on Performance Profiles. Hire with your Head is a great resource for any person involved in the hiring and screening of potential employees. I just wish someone gave me the book earlier in my career!

Hire With Your Head: Using Performance-Based Hiring to Build Great Teams
Fairly new to recruiting, this book is a must have for all hiring managers. It is an invaluable tool for any individual given the great responsibility of hiring for any organization.

This is the book I've been looking for- tons of information and beautiful pictures. I highly recommend.

This book is filled with incredible pictures. It also contains topical infromation on different animals. The book is broken into sections that allows the reader to look up information easily. DK gives us another high quality informative book. A must have for lovers of animals!

Overall a great valve for the money. Pictures are clear and all in color. Explaines well the breakdown of species. For a book at this price it cannot be beat, but there are some items that I think should have been included. The first is the average life span of the species. It's mentioned for very few animals but it always facinates me to realize how long or short some of these animals live for. Another puzzling exclusion from the book is that humans are not included ... unless humans are not considered part of the Animal Kingdom. Puzzling choice not to include humans.

This is an excellent book! I could not be more satisfied. (However, it is a LARGE book. I expect to be spending several more weeks reading it in detail.)

My kids adore this book, as do many of their friends whom we've given it to. The pictures are excellent, and the level of factual detail is high without being numbing. I don't think we've ever tried to look up an animal what wasn't in here. I recommend it highly.

We're in the middle of an acquisition and many of our employees are less engaged and some good ones have taken other jobs due to uncertainty. This book works because it has a clear structure that makes it easy to find pertinent advice, well researched data with sources clearly noted and most of all action plans, (e.g. To Dos, Quick Start) that help implement ideas immediately. I've also found it helpful in general skill building because the authors offer techniques and tips for things like improving listening, (listen for the "blinking" word) and starting conversations, (examples of good open ended questions). When I'm not looking up something specific, I keep it on my desk and open it randomly just to find ways to think about my own skills and my own job satisfaction and what I can do to improve them both.

The format of this book is excellent. It is driven by the alphabet and not only has the basic idea for each area but also details real life stories that relate to each topic. None of the stories were unfamiliar and was a good/bad thing because I found we were horribly ordinary in our experience and at the same time that was comforting to know. Great tools, easy to employ, presented in an easy to read and "get" format. A must for managers, business leaders, et al.

Love 'em provides easy to follow guidelines for building loyal, committed, and productive teams. The strategies are easy-to-implement, inexpensive, and best of all - they work! I keep Love'Em as a quick reference for any employee retention or satisfaction issues that arise, and the updated version provides several new tips and techniques. I highly recommend this book for managers of teams large and small.

Love 'em or Lose 'em: Getting Good People to Stay (4th edition)

this book is a must read for management-----keeping your best people in a challenging
economy is a must in this" Flat World "Global Economy. If you haven't the "insights" to Keep 'Em, '
then you will "Lose 'Em". Best get on with the 'stay interview" and the other key ideas in this must have edition.

Whether you are concerned about the cost of "A" level talent leaving, or the even greater cost of disengaged talent staying, this workbook is your rescue tool. Hitting all of the keys from The Gallup Organization's research based findings on how great managers get the best out of people, (as published in "First Break all the Rules" and "12: The Elements of Great Managing"), consultants and trainers Kaye and Jordan-Evans provide 25 (the 26th is really a check list, not a separate idea) ways to keep good employees - these action oriented ideas are also the route to engaging every employee.

Starting with `A' (Ask) and running thru `Y' (Yield), before leaving the alphabet with the `Zenith' test of your RPI (Retention Probability Index), this workbook provides both the ideas and motivational logic for engaging employees thru great managing. Although the workbook has been in publication for several years, it is as timely today as when it was first distributed. Read it for ideas, keep in on the shelf as a reference; but do get a copy of this most useful book on how to engage people.

Dennis DeWilde, author of
"The Performance Connection"

I picked this book up at a Scholastic book fair ten years ago, when I was in the third grade, and I absolutely loved it. This series and the Animorph series were my group of friends far-and-away favorites. I recommend this book to any young readers - it is enthralling. If you want to get your kids into fantasy, get them this book!

I don't really like realistic fiction, as many mysteries are. My reading teacher is making us read mysteries now, and I only really like sci fi and fantasy. Now, I can read a fantasy and fit in the requirements for the book.
I haven't read these books yet, but i am sure I will love them based on the reviews. I loved books apparently like them such as Pendragon (by DJ MacHale) and Eragon (by Christopher Paolini).

I read the first book...forever ago...in my small local public library. I fell in love with it. Then, on a whim, I searched for it to see if any of the new books had come out. Strangely over the years, they had! I think I'm going to go order some of the used books since they are all long out of print.

I totally suggest the book to any young reader. ...

I have read the first four books recently, and I am in love with them! My favorite characters are Pixle and the Unicorns- they are wonderful! Dondar is my favorite world because of the Unicorns and Dragons, and I love all of the magical trials they go through. These books are sooo incredible, and everyone should read them!

When I first looked at this book I thought it would be strange but when I started to read it I was transported to another dimenion. I was amazed by the story and how it was described. The way he wrote it made it seem as if you were traveling along with them and fighting by their side. I highly recommend this book!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have used this book to implement many new processes into my business. This sits in my bag or on my desk all the time. It's a great resource.

This book is worth its weight in gold. Well written, great ideas, very helpful for anyone involved in or starting a consulting firm.

We build websites and I wanted to learn more about how professional service firms operate since its basically the same thing (lawyers, accountants, engineers, website programmers, etc). The book helped me realize an important maxim to a service firm:

Success = Perception - Expectation.

If the client perceives they received something better than they expected, they will be happy. This is the key to client service; managing their expectations. While obviously quality, timeline, cost, etc. are all important, in the end they only matter if the client is happy.

The book covers many different usable ideas to manage clients better.

I expected that this book would be interesting to read, but the reality was even better than my expectations. The book provides very specific "how-to" recommendations for managing PSF. Thank you!

Excellent, easy-to-read and highly practical guide to successfully managing professional service firms...