Businesses Books

What a Godsend this book has been for me! I always had the desire and "stats" but never the information and/or direction I've needed to break into the modeling business. Thanks to Judy Goss and her book, I have finally been able to achieve my dream. I now have an agent and have begun working thanks to carefully following the advice in this book, (which is comprehensive and easy for the layperson to understand!) It's a MUST READ If you want to be a model in any capacity! A bestseller, to be sure!
Laura S, -Model

I am a father with two beautiful Daughters, Wanting the best for them is a fathers dream. One of my daughters wants to be a model and dreams for becoming one for which I encourage. The cost of modeling I heard and been told is very to expensive to just give it a shot. When I heard about Ms. Goss's book, I read it cover to cover and love what I read. Her words were of Truth and passion, no lies no promises no fantasies. I hope I can take her knowledge and turn it into a career fro my Daughter. Anyone who wants to help the child find the dream should read the book they will be glad they did.

finally, someone who understands the ins & outs of modelling & is willing to share the inside scoop without charging a small fortune! as a parent of a teen, i recommend this book to anyone trying to help their child break into this challenging industry!!

This book was so helpful and covers every aspect of breaking into the modeling business one could imagine. It is also very encouraging and positive. Especially good for guidance in what kind of photos to submit to agencies and how the whole system works. After reading this book, I feel I am on my way to fulfilling a dream I have had for a long time. Thank you, Judy Goss!!

Excellent book! Judy Goss tells it like it really is. She is straightforward, honest and gives accurate, step-by-step instructions on breaking into (and staying in) the world of modeling.

Drawing from 20 years experience, she reveals industry secrets that help the reader learn how to avoid costly scams, what the top agencies look for, how to assess the type of model you are, best ways to find local and foreign representation and much, much more.

I highly recommend this book for aspiring and working models of any age and for parents of kids interested in modeling. There is so much to learn and this book teaches it all!

Karen Murphy, Model, CESD Talent Agency, NYC

Are you looking for creative and easy-to-implement ways to develop a more positive and productive work environment? Author Kurt Wright in his book Break the Rules offers a compelling vision for what workplace interaction, engagement, and relationship-building can look and sound like. His central framework revolves around asking "RIGHT questions."

"RIGHT questions" are those kinds of questions that generate deep thinking and reflection about value and opportunities in situations, people, and relationships. They focus people on strengths as opposed to "what is wrong." When leaders ask RIGHT questions they help their people look inside themselves for the answers.

There are three "domains" for asking RIGHT questions:
1. Habit-starters - questions that focus on finding value in the past and the present:
* What was the best part of your day? Why?
* What is working well with our team process? What can we do to ensure we keep doing this [what is working well]?
* What goals do you look forward to working on this week?
2. Vision-building - questions that ask us to describe specific aspects of our evolving vision of an ideal future state:
* What creative ideas for new services or products keep you up at night?
* What do you see happening for us once we achieve our goal?
* What are some important next steps to help us reach out goal?
3. Issue resolution - questions that help us identify the point at which we are stuck, and reveal what is needed for us to get "unstuck" so we can move forward with our goals:
* What would we need to do to ensure we stay stuck in this problem? (This one is tricky!)
* What is getting in the way of us moving forward?
* Which one barrier could we work on that would have the most effect on helping us move forward with our goals?

Why is it important for leaders to ask RIGHT questions to create an empowered workplace? Asking the RIGHT questions is a simple yet powerful technique that develops trust and high-energy relationships. Asking our team members these kinds of questions assumes that they have the knowledge and wisdom inside to come up with answers that make sense for themselves. It is incumbent upon the leader to find the RIGHT questions to help their employees reveal these answers for themselves. RIGHT questions have the power to help team members reflect on the value of previous experiences and apply their learning to approach new opportunities and resolve challenges.

Because of the focus on values, strengths, and opportunities, RIGHT questions have the potential to help workplace teams generate energy and momentum to move them forward instead of staying stuck in the past. When applied authentically and frequently, leaders can use RIGHT questions to empower their teams to build leadership capacity for moving forward in achieving their goals.

There are some really great concepts in this book. It is written by what I'm guessing is a left-brain author who promotes tapping into your intuition and creativity from all parts of the brain. If there were more cartoons and graphics to break up all the text, it would have appealed to my right brain more and I would have given it a five-star rating.

An important presentation of basic coaching principles ( with a unique slant ) that will be of great value to anyone seeking self improvement. It's not just about coaching, but is more about life defining ways of viewing yourself and the world.
This is an important compliment to Seligman's Positive Psychology; the plus is that it makes looking at 'what's right' more fun (in other words, it's not a dry, academic presentation). Read this book and you will begin to find yourself resisting the inclination for looking at life as a sequence of problems.
I'd say that this should be a must-read for all life and career coaches -as well as individuals seriously seeking to shift their view of themselves and others.

Kurt Wright presented a seminar to our management team ten years ago and it changed my life. I was fortunate to participate in a tele-seminar with him that was even more valuable. His approach to asking "right" questions that allows the other person to arrive at their own conclusions has deepened my relationship with colleagues, friends and family. It has totally changed me from a micro-manager to someone who trusts others to achieve objectives. I have rarely been let down when I showed confidence in other's competence to get things done.

(1/5)
When I was 20, I copied by hand Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People. By doing this I experienced a simple side effect, I made 7 million Deutschmarks. A lot of money in those days.
When I heard of Kurt and Patricia Wright's book, I copied/extracted the essence and sent my questions to the White House. You'll see, what's going to happen.
My only question to Kurt and Patricia is, why don't you change the title to the most effective How to Ask the (W)right Question and Succeed in Life. http://EnergyChallenge.de/091105.htm

This is an outstanding book that I plan to re-read every couple years - I am graduating from the Kellogg School of Management in a couple weeks, and this book will provide a great way to keep everything I've learned top of mind. It provides a comprehensive summary of key marketing strategy concepts, and gives straightforward and very smart advice for creating marketing plans. Tim Calkins is an outstanding professor and marketing strategist.

This book is the quintessential marketing plan book. It is straight-forward and grounded in reality. You get added value as Calkins demonstrates his marketing prowess without getting off track. This simplistic guide is a must for new and veteran marketers - it will help you remember what the purpose of a marketing plan is and how to effectively build and deliver one.

Breakthrough Marketing Plans provides an exceptionally clear framework for creating focused strategies and high impact plans. I find myself consistently referring back to the book as I set business plans and evaluate in-market performance. Whether you're an experienced marketer or just getting started, work on an established business or a start-up, Breakthrough Marketing Plans is a must have to guide your thinking and actions.

Chuck Raup, Senior Category Business Director, Kraft Foods

Tim does us a favor by reminding us why we write these plans in the first place - to get support from senior management. It has nothing to do with the length of the plan or our command of the minutia. It's about our ability to understand our audience, inspire confidence, communicate effectively, prioritize, and build consensus.

Starting a business is a daunting proposition. Writing a marketing plan can be even more daunting.

Mr. Caulkins' book is a delight. It is not an overly long, complex and dense book. In fact, it is appropropriate for experienced marketing people who would like a fresh take on writing plans as well as for new business owners who are looking for an experienced guide to help them start thinking about and writing their plans.

I particularly like Mr. Caulkins' use of his phrase called GOST (goals and objectives, strategic initiatives, and tactics). It gives the book the anchor that leads the reader through the process of writing the plan. It helped me think about some seemingly unimportant topics that really are very important. I think GOST is an especially unique insight in how to put together the plan.

I highly recommend the book.

I think this book is a great tool for any business leader wanting to be successful in their field. I completely agree with the author in how she stresses that you can try to be too much to too many people. It really inspired me to get focused.

Celia Rocks offers great advice in this book when she tells you to pick your brilliance. These days, too many people are trying to specialize in too many different things. I agree that you should focus on only the things that you can do brilliantly.

This is truly a must-read for anyone wanting to maximize their marketing potential.

This book was really interesting and helpful to me. I couldn't put it down!

This book is a clear, insightful and, yes. brilliant marketing guide. It is suitable for the most experienced and sophisticated business leaders, as well as a primer for business beginners. The author, Celia Rocks, knows her subject and communicates her ideas with detailed examples. Brilliance Marketing Management is innovative and inspiring. I recommend it highly.

Great book, I just wished I would have read it when I was 18 yrs old. Still it has some great career tips.

An incredibly insightful book that details how to achieve long term career success through an actionable, commonsense plan that will pay dividends immediately. Mr. McGovern is very adept at presenting both the big picture of what it means to have "a career" and then outlining a process for getting there. And doing so in an engaging writing style that makes this great book an easy read.

Highly recommended!

This is a great "manual" for the young professional who is looking to advance in their career. The author mixes practical advice with real life anecdotes that keeps you turning the page. Highly recommended!

I found this a very interesting and actionable read. I really liked the concept of a "Career Pyramid" as opposed to the traditional depiction of the "corporate ladder." I thought this was an innovative way to plan your career with the end in mind.

My only complaint is that after reading the book I logged on to Mr. McGovern's new website looking for the Pyramid Builder Tool mentioned in the Author's Note and couldn't find it. I sent an email to the author saying as much and received a reply that the book was orginally not supposed to be printed until January '06 and that the web team hadn't gotten the Tool up yet. Hopefully it will be functioning in the new year as I am anxious to see what it can do.

Very sound advice and a must read for new college grads entering the work force. Follow these 'secrets' and you will outshine your co-workers who don't pay attention to their careers.

Wow! This book by Sara Holtz is wonderful. It is full of practical tips and provides great guidance on rainmaking. I definitely recommend this book to other female (and male) attorneys.

Bringing' in the rain helped me to understand what people have been saying to me about marketing. It put it nicely into perspective. It's well written and builds on our individual strength.

The book could have included more "internet" strategies.

Bringin In the Rain is a short book jam-packed with information. It is clearly written, practical, and even, at times, humorous. Finding time to market is often what a lawyer doesn't "get around to." Sara Holtz knows how to maximize limited marketing time. Her examples are well targeted to her audience; she gives the reader manageable action steps; she focuses on results. But, most importantly, Sara understand the psychology of motivating lawyers to do what is critical for future success in these tough financial times, i.e. bring in the business.

Most lawyers know business development is critical to your practice's long-term viability, and, if you're an associate, to your success within a firm, but we learn nothing about how to do it in law school. This book will teach you how - and you'll like it! Holtz teaches how to expand your business in ways that work well and feel natural, rather than in ways that feel like we are selling used cars. The book isn't so long that it feels daunting, but contains a lot of practical advice that make it enormously worth the cost (although law firms should really provide this book free to every associate). The author's in-house experience and years of coaching women lawyers really pays off for the reader. It's a must-read for anyone in private practice.

First, let me say that Sara Holtz is a friend and law school classmate of mine. But that is absolutely NOT why I'm writing this review. I am not one to give false praise - EVEN for a friend. (Just ask anyone who knows me.)

That disclosure made - this book is just fabulous. ANY lawyer in private practice - young or old, female or male - would benefit from following Sara's marketing strategies.

The book is a distillation of the stuff Sara gets paid beaucoup bucks to share with women lawyers around the country. Yes, it is a slim volume - but its conciseness is a major PLUS for "too busy to market" lawyers. The book is an absolute STEAL at $30.

"Bringin' in the Rain" is clear, concise and presents a WIDE VARIETY of ways to market. It is well-organized, practical and realistic.

One of the book's best features is that it provides the reader with many helpful "scripts" to follow in various marketing situations. Sara puts words in your mouth - words that are true, sincere and easy to say. But words that will advance your marketing so much more than the unhelpful scripts most lawyers follow.

I'm something of a devote of self-help books, and this one is first-rate. It never requires the lawyer to do anything that he or she doesn't enjoy doing. Don't like golf? Not required. Would prefer not to do public speaking as a marketing device? No problem.

Sara also assures women that it's fine for them to have PERSONAL relationships - and personal CONVERSATIONS - with clients and other people to whom they wish to market. She even has a fascinating discussion (complete with script) about how to market your services to people (especially other women) with whom you are already personal friends.

If lawyers will just TAKE the steps Sara sets out, their "book of business" will grow.

I have managed teams for the past 15 years, and I recently read several books about the enneagram. This one is definitely a must read for all managers but also for anyone working! It gives great pointers on communicating effectively, tips on how to give feedback, how to resolve conflicts, how to create high-performing teams... Beyond the real-life examples, there is also a summary of what you can do that will work well with all types, since we don't always know what type our team members or coworkers are. I also liked the recommended daily activities.

Very easy to read, and yet exhaustive on the subject, it has become one of my favorite management books.

This book has helped me in ways that I never imagined. The information in this book has been extremely useful in my quest to better understand myself and others. "Bringing Out the Best in Yourself at Work" is very much a must read for anyone interested in improving their relationships at work and in life in general.

I love this book. I am an executive coach and I find this very useful for helping my Enneagram-aware clients apply the model directly and quickly to work situations -- to help debug relationships, communications, conflilct, etc.

I especially like Lapid-Bogda's distinctions and examples around "Pinch" and "Crunch" for each of the types.

I don't know of any other books except Michael Goldberg's "The Nine Ways of Working" that fill this business-application niche quite so well.

Highly recommended for those who need a practical, hands-on way of using the Ennegram in day to day work interactions.

The genuine nugget in this book is its use of the Enneagram to move forward the original Center for Creative Leaderhip research about what derails successful professionals. Lapid-Bogna's gift is to communicate the most profound and deeply thoughtful insights with deceptively casual language. I agree it needs to be read twice: Once to understand the techniques it describes, and a second time to appreciate how she builds on her hard-earned understanding of what works and doesn't work in OD and career development. Then, consider reading it a third time to appreciate the Enneagram for the doors it opens to truly deep personal growth. Not just another book written as a practice-building marketing piece for the author. It contains enough material for at least two books.

Finally a groundbreaking book on the 9 ways of working that can be handed to your HR director! Enneagram Personality System books started being published in the 1980's; not until now has there been one that systematically applies this system to organizations. As an organization development consultant, I have always found the enneagram to be essential to my executive coaching and development. Now, in a practical and most excellent way, Lapid-Bogda applies the system to all key areas of organization life-- including employee feedback, conflict in teams, leadership and team development, etc. You can take the applications and use them immediately on the change initiatives you already have underway in your orgaization-- such as your 360 degree feedback sessions.

Not only does Lapid-Bogda make it easy for you to apply this system, but once familiar with her book and work, the reader can order tailor made tools that go with each organization topic that will further assist your ease of application.

If you are "stuck" in your own personal career development or trying to lead others in theirs-- and looking for a breakthrough-- then buy this book!

Written from a "How to" standpoint. Very easy to read. A good book to leverage the strengths of your small business. I found great insight into customer service, customer retention, "building buzz in the market place", and branding. Very good from a retail sales standpoint. I recommend for small business owners.

A must-have guidebook for retail-based businesses! O'Leary and Sheehan will teach you how to find out who your customers are, then teach you how to not only keep them as satisfied customers, but turn them into "evangelists" for your brand/business -- and they do it in an easy-to-understand, entertaining manner. A great read!

This is 21st Century marketing; a must read for all small business owners who are battling the Big Boys - that's all of us. Steve O'Leary and Kim Sheehan walk you through the process of identifying your customers, and establishing, growing and supporting your virtual customer community.

For store owners who are tired of paying for coupons that just discount your price to your regular customers, who are sick of the high cost and low results of radio, television and newspapers, and who want to understand and implement a marketing concept that will yield tangible results, this is where you start.

This book takes you step by step through the stages of building, implementing and measuring the results of a marketing plan that leverages the strengths that a small business has. It is full of real world advice to overcome the resources that large companies have and get the customers in YOUR door. This book does an excellent job of describing where the future of marketing for a small business is going. Read it and get ahead of everyone else!

There are tons of great ideas for any sized business in this book. If you use just one idea, it will be well worth the price. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to grow their business.

Primarily an ego-trip on how to sell multi-million dollar real estate.
A few good ideas, but the average seller probably couldn't utilize the suggestions.

Never before have I gotten so much useful information out of a single book. "Burst This!" just keeps giving. Every time I read a passage, it is directly applicable to the stage of real estate I am experiencing. What I haven't experienced is being formed into a plan, far more detailed than ever before. Thank you Frank, for finally cracking the code. The study of your book is leading me to success. If you buy any real estate books this year, you need "Burst This!"

Classic Frank McKinney. Frank tells it like it is. Real estate runs in cycles, booms and busts. Relevant information for the real estate investor or anybody interested in becoming a real estate investor or just thinking about purchasing a property. Frank uses real-life experiences in real estate strategies not Ivory Tower or Television B.S. Frank is definitely a Maverick but a Contrarian? How about a Realist with an ability to see the future by studying the past. Great Book!

What a great book. Frank has taken a worthy approach in writing this book. Why should you buy this book over other RE Investing books? The answer is simple...Burst This puts substance, strategy and real scenarios into play and makes it easy to read and understand. Frank goes a step beyond authors like Kiyosaki who get you hyped up about something without giving you an actual education. If you have never done a RE deal or have done many you will get your monies worth from reading this. This book is a good one to have on the shelf and should be re-visited occasionally. Thanks for investing your time, knowledge and wisdom into this book Frank. Blessings.

Joshua Rowland

Frank McKinney is an excellent speaker and author. I met him in person at a presentation in Rocky Hill CT. His expertise and "life balance" make his book very informative. Thumbs up for what Frank does for charity as well!

I love this book! I read over half way through it the first day it came. If you are thinking about starting your own decorative paint business or know someone who is, you should get this book. It is true to life experiances, had me laughing in places. I will keep this book to use as a referance in the future. By reading this book I've learned so key elements to help me in my business.

This is a good and informative book to read whether you are considering getting into the fields of the decorative painting, plastering and faux business or are already a pro. Pat brings up everything from idea to execution and has chapters on marketing, contracts and web design. A fine addition to your reference library.

Both the written and audio version of this book rocks. Not only is it full of information it is entertaining and the author wastes no time in getting down to the meat and bones of strategies and skills needed to make a decorative business succeed. The principles can be used in ANY business. TWO THUMBS UP!!!!

This book is amazing. im new in faux biz and it has helped me more then ANY book, more then words on this review could describe. The way pat ties real life experience and actual situations that occur, make it all the better. Im on my 3 rd time reading it. no lie. pats amazing.

You've got your skills as a decorative artist down pat...now it's time to get your business skills up to par. THIS is the book to help you succeed! It's a fast read, information is concise and easy to understand. There are tons of great marketing ideas and if you implement the lessons offered and the advice given, you'll have a successful business in no time. Buy this book and treat it as your own personal business manager!