Savvy founders hoping to avoid the pitfalls on the road to success may benefit from this book’s engaging tips.
A book for entrepreneurs and marketing specialists that encourages company founders to maximize their brand by telling their own stories.
Gerhardt wants readers to understand the power of their brand when marketing their company, arguing that “people buy from people.” When consumers feel a connection to a person, he asserts, rather than a company, they’re more likely to become customers. The author’s first step in building a founder’s brand is to help make them into a storyteller, and to that end, he provides a series of questions to lead founders through the process of identifying and articulating the narrative of their lives and businesses. He encourages them to be personal and vulnerable, sharing details of their lives that will help others connect with their struggles and triumphs. He continues by asking founders to identify exactly who their customers are and to show what problem the company is fixing for them. These steps culminate in an “explainer,” which briefly and succinctly tells prospective customers the who, what, and why of one’s company. Gerhardt also wants founders to figure out who their role models, mentors, and “anti-role models” are so they can follow the successes and avoid the challenges of those who’ve come before. The second part of the book effectively focuses on how to get a founder’s brand and story out to potential customers, using detailed examples of how to use social media podcasts and speaking opportunities to stand out from the crowd. Overall, this is a well-structured and encouraging book made specifically for those who are just starting down the path of building a business. Gerhardt generously shares what he’s learned from years of experience and expresses hope for others’ success in a genuine manner. He does tend to lean heavily on instances from his own career, but he also incorporates examples from the experiences of well-known figures such as Spanx founder Sara Blakely and Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.
Savvy founders hoping to avoid the pitfalls on the road to success may benefit from this book’s engaging tips.Pub Date: Feb. 15, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5445-2341-5
Page Count: 250
Publisher: Lioncrest Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A well-organized and helpful primer.
A concise but thorough introduction to working in civic technology in the United States.
Civic design consultant Harrell observes that the civic tech movement—a “loosely integrated” shift of private-technology-industry skills into the public sector—commenced in 2008, with the “the aim of making government more responsive, more efficient, more modern, or more just.” The author understands the movement on a 50-year arc, asserting that it’s still young and maturing into its “adolescence”; confusingly, however, this timeline seems to indicate that perfect efficiency and justice will be achieved at its end. Nonetheless, Harrell furnishes a brief but impressively comprehensive overview that lucidly describes its challenges and its promise, including helpful advice for those looking to enter the public sector for the first time. She also discusses the stark cultural differences between the public and private sectors, especially regarding the swiftness of project completion, bureaucratic entanglements, and approaches to budgeting. At the heart of the book is counsel on the most effective ways to improve public services without trying to simply impose private models upon them; for example, the author cautions against a reflexive idolatry of innovation, arguing that it can be inconsistent with public goals of continuity and long-term stewardship. Harrell’s astute and accessible work will be especially valuable to newcomers, as it draws deeply on her own considerable experience as a product director, user-experience researcher, and chief of staff. However, the author’s treatment of privilege in the technology sphere feels like bland cant, and sweeping declarations such as “the motives behind the regulations are almost always good and important” display excessive idealism. Still, Harrell’s effort will be useful to many, including experienced workers who are simply looking for a synoptic distillation of civic technology’s objectives.
A well-organized and helpful primer.Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-73528-650-1
Page Count: 168
Publisher: Five Seven Five Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 10, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An insistently hopeful, fact-based booster shot for a doomsaying, world-weary population.
An influential thought leader puts a positive spin on global awareness.
In his posthumous collaborative book poised to “fight devastating ignorance with a fact-based worldview,” Swedish physician, global health lecturer, and academic statistician Rosling (1948-2017) parts the dingy curtains of global pessimism to reveal an alternate and uplifting perspective on the state of world issues today. Co-written with Rosling’s son and daughter-in-law, the book effectively educates, uplifts, and reassures readers through chapters reinforced by focused, statistically sound research studies. Rosling presents 10 theoretical concepts, or “instincts,” which are basic human impulses that often cause the general public to misinterpret and hyperbolize critical information about the contemporary world. Among the behaviors he cites that drive people to manifest an “overdramatic worldview” are the tendency to divide everything into two aspects (“us vs. them,” the “developing” vs. the “developed” world), blaming one indicator for a myriad of troubles, and cultivating a negative mindset. Adding to the dynamically designed presentations of charts, images, data analysis, and personal anecdotes, the author also breaks up his succinct chapters with humor and common-sense reasoning bolstered by statistical data. Multiple choice questions on world knowledge are sure to surprise and enlighten readers curious about their own awareness levels and susceptibility to rush judgments, misconceptions, and defeatist mindsets. With unfailing optimism, Rosling administers a fact-based antidote to apocalyptic statistics like world population overgrowth, rampant infant deaths, and soaring crime rates, none of which are ballooning out of control but are fearfully perceived as such. He also examines five pressing real-world “risks” that demand attention: poverty, global warming, financial collapse, global pandemic, and a catastrophic third world war. In compelling readers to comprehend the positive aspects of world changes using practical thinking tools, Rosling delivers a sunny global prognosis with a sigh of relief.
An insistently hopeful, fact-based booster shot for a doomsaying, world-weary population.Pub Date: April 3, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-250-10781-7
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: April 23, 2018
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