By Ann Marie van den Hurk
Lexington Herald-Leader
WWR Article Summary (tl;dr) PR pro Ann Marie van den Hurk shares her best picks for summer reading.
Lexington Herald-Leader
It is finally summer and time for some vacation away from the office. It feels good, doesn’t it?
For many of us, this time includes a goal to disconnect from our digital devices. It’s a big goal in our highly digitalized lives where we have all forms of entertainment at our fingertips.
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And it’s not easy. In fact, Pew Research Center observed that 84 percent of mobile phone users believe they cannot go a day without their phone.
There are lots of good titles out there, and since there are varying degrees of an entrepreneur in everyone, here are a few of my suggestions of good reads that might actually teach you a thing or two.
1. “Faster Than Normal” by Peter Shankman. (TarcherPerigee October 2017)
Learning how to harness the ADHD brain for better focus and productivity is the center of the book. About eight percent of adults in the United States have some form of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and is common among entrepreneurs.
2. “Nail It then Scale It: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Creating and Managing Breakthrough Innovation” by Nathan Furr and Paul Ahlstrom. (NISI Institute; First Edition, June 2011 edition)
In every business, we are looking for the next breakthrough or innovation. The book provides a step-by-step process that focuses on selecting the product, saving time and conserving money.
3. “The Startup Checklist: 25 Steps to a Scalable, High-Growth Business” by David S. Rose. (Wiley, April 25, 2016)
This book assumes you have no prior experience in building a business. Rose breaks it down to the fundamentals and goes from there allowing the reader to learn the basics and beyond.
4. “Retellable” by Jay Golden. (Wakingstar Studios, January 2017)
Do you remember the last marketing email you read? How about that ad? Most likely not. This book helps you be a storyteller in your business by sharing practical insights, actionable steps, anecdotes and an easy-to-remember framework that will help you transform your audiences, your organization and your career, one story at a time.
5. “Unfu(ASTERISK)k Yourself: Get Out of Your Head and into Your Life” by Gary John Bishop. HarperOne (August 1, 2017)
Excuse the colorfulness of the title, but sometimes we all need a little help moving forward and often the most significant barrier to success is our minds. The author shares tools and advice you need to demolish the baggage weighing you down.
6. “To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others” by Daniel H. Pink. (Riverhead Books; Reprint edition (December 3, 2013)
Everyone is in sales today whether it is pitching colleagues on a new idea, entrepreneurs enticing funders to invest, or parents and teachers cajoling children to study, we spend our days trying to move others. This book suggests a fresh look at the art and science of selling.
7. “Blue Ocean Strategy, Expanded Edition: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant” by W. Chan Kim and Renee A. Mauborgne. (Harvard Business Review Press; Expanded edition, January 20, 2015)
This book’s goal is to upend traditional thinking about strategy and assists you in charting a bold new path to winning the future by creating uncontested market space and making the competition irrelevant.
Throw one of these books in your bag for some good summer reading. And if you can, shop locally by visiting your neighborhood bookstore or community library to find them.
