Blog Archives
George’s Pursuit Across the Perilous Ocean
Follow George after he makes the decision to become his own boss running a small boat. Follow him through the tumultuous journey that leads him to eventually hand over reigns of a successful fleet of liners. We get to see the change in his mindset from worker to supervisor and finally, owner. It took strength, wisdom, knowledge and lots of other things. This is the story of a small business growing into a conglomerate, from a toddler to a fully legal human being.
According to research, only about half of the business started will still stand strong in five years time. This is quite sad for a world where entrepreneurship is highly encouraged. This book is meant to decrease this percentage. One will learn to grow their business from a period of feast and famine to a period where the business comfortably stands on its own, where the welfare and life of the business are not threatened by regular/normal business occurrences. Like a windfall of clients for example.
According to Ray Moore, one should not wait until the growth occurs. They should anticipate it. To successfully go through these growth moments, one requires a vision. They must also keep the business in balance. That is time, team, delivery and money. They must all be applied in appropriate proportions. One must set out the stall for growth. Managing the mindset is the final condition.
This is a short book, that means that the information is presented in a compact package. The whole book is presented as a metaphor. This makes the book highly appealing. It is useful even for those who do not like or have the time to read. It is sober advice from an experienced person. It is advice that actually makes a lot of sense. The steps and tips are easy to follow and understand. One thing that readers will definitely appreciate is that the author does not use complicated business words. He shows the reader how to manage a business without confusing them with difficult economic jargon.
The author outlines the common mistakes entrepreneurs make. He shows what happens to the business after the mistakes are made. He then turns around and outlines the proper way to handle such turning points so that fatal mistakes are not made.
This is a fantastic business guide that provides an easy to understand road-map for getting from a small flailing venture to a successful business. Regardless of the goal, it can be achieved by following these simple directions. Five stars out of five for this crash course in entrepreneurship.
Pages: 52 | ISBN: 1721213287
The Agile Brand: Creating Authentic Relationships Between Companies and Consumers
![The Agile Brand: Creating Authentic Relationships Between Companies and Consumers by [Kihlström, Greg]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51NOBHl33zL._SY346_.jpg)
This book is for anyone who aspires to establish a distinct presence with long-term product consumers. The Agile Brand: Brand Creating Authentic Relationships Between Companies and Consumers gives you a deeper understanding of the consumer, sales, and marketing sector. Divided into three parts, the author starts the book by highlighting the basics of brands. Simple questions like what branding is, why we do branding and what makes a brand successful are lucidly answered to the satisfaction of any new comer to the field.
One of the many things I learned from this book includes the need to have your audience understand how your brand is pronounced. People tend to obliviously mispronounce some names. The author made a table with some brands like IKEA, Adidas Hermes, and Porsche. He noted how a majority mispronounce the names and listed the correct pronunciation. He emphasized that having consumers mispronounce your brand may have them misunderstand the attributes of your company.
Your brand is more than your logo, Greg Kihlstrom says. He goes on to advise those who are new to branding. The author mentions the use of social media and digital advertisement tools and how important it is for the brand to build a solid bond with the target audience. On making a brand successful, the writer lists three easy methods to determine the success of a brand. Substance, focus, and relevance are the basic methods of evaluating how good or bad a brand is.
The book is filled with nuggets of wisdom. If you want to build a brand that will leave an impact and paint a permanent picture in the consumer’s mind, then you need this book. The Agile Brand provides great learning material for marketing students, with notes written by the author coming in handy at some point in their career.
While reading through this book I felt as if I was in a classroom with a competent teacher you are begging to glean wisdom from. The book is truly educational. Brand-pushers will definitely find the text in this publication useful and will apply the lessons learned in their daily businesses. What I really enjoyed about this book was that it was concise. Many books of in this field will happily fill you with fluff details, but Greg Kihlstrom keeps his focus and gets to the point.
One thing that stood out from this book is the author’s need to mention real companies when expounding. Companies like Dominos, Starbucks, and Lowes Foods are given as examples when talking about changing the messaging while still maintaining success rates. Greg Kihlstrom clearly explains why the said brands changed their slogans at some point, and how it worked for them. Here the author enables the reader to understand that there is no loss in changing slogans, as long as your packaging as a brand is up to standard.
Be sure to grab a copy of this book, as there is so much you will learn. The book is especially recommended to newbies in the branding and marketing industry, as it will help you grasp the basic concepts of advertisement in the modern world.
Pages: 186 | ASIN: B07CV4M8WH
Follow Me Down
Losing a parent is painful. It is earth shattering and completely disabling. Lucas Tremaine’s loss was due to negligence at Drax Enterprises. Even more than that, his mother was left dependent on valium to look remotely sane. He wished he could bring them to book but Drax is a big corrupt entity, what can one little guy do? He wished more than anything to exact revenge on the people who did harm to his family. Lucas wished all kinds of discomfort and unhappiness for the people who caused his father’s death. So blinded by the quest for revenge, it sometimes impairs his ability to properly collect and analyze the evidence.
Drax Enterprises will not pay for their sins in the conventional way, so Lucas needs to do some unconventional and dangerous things to get justice served. With the help of Reuben Klein, his best friend, they search the old underground subway system of the city of Cincinnati. The further they explore, the more sinister and complicated the corruption and fascism of Drax Enterprises gets. Lucas, Reuben and everyone who is near and dear to Lucas is in danger. Will Lucas find what he so desperately seeks? Will Drax Enterprises eventually pay for their sins? After facing three generations of Drax Enterprises leadership, will Lucas escape unscathed?
Follow Me Down by Gordon MacKinney is an intelligent thriller with a lot of ironic situations and lively conversations. The characters are complex but still relatable. Lucas’ need for vengeance is understandable to anyone and the reader will find himself rooting for him. This book is an interesting look into the lives of urban explorers. The reader gets to explore an underground rail systems not yet explored. The authors research and attention to detail is evident with the historical accuracy of the story. Gordon MacKinney’s description of the scenes is vivid and instantly transports the reader. One can almost smell the heavy air inside the tunnels. The love stories therein are especially heartwarming. The love between father and son is a beautiful narrative that is developed throughout the book. His admiration and love for his former boss and photojournalist, Alfred Blumenfeld, feels organic and true. I truly appreciated the authenticity of the character relationships in this novel.
Action, suspense and treasure hunts are among the simple pleasures. The adventures of Lucas’ endeavor are captivating and make for a great read. The end reveals a side of Tony Drax that you least expect, but makes for a good ending to the story.
Pages: 260 | ASIN: B0779GCH3V
Executive Hoodlum
Executive Hoodlum: Negotiating on the Corner of Main and Mean by John Costello is a story about the Vice President of Business Development and Government Relations for Microsemi Corporation. He has a number of titles that he has earned throughout his life, from being friends with movie stars and other high profile individuals to being a Golden Glove boxer. You would think with his long list of accomplishments that he came from a fancy upbringing with rich parents and unlimited resources. Actually, the opposite is true. He was raised in a blue collar neighborhood in Chicago. His father was a somewhat violent man with mob connections and his mother struggled with addiction. John overcame quite a bit of turmoil in order to become the man he is today.
This was a very interesting story from the very first page. Knowing that this was a true story made it even more of a page turner for me. I am often intrigued by true stories of people overcoming their personal struggles and hardships to become the people they are. While we all have our own issues we deal with, I find it great to be able to step into another’s shoes and try their life on for a while.
So many people that have a tough childhood and upbringing use it as an excuse to not reach their real potential. Not John Costello. He adapted to the hand he was dealt and overcame it all. It would be tough to find someone that has had it worse in this country. His story is inspiring and makes you put your own issues into perspective and makes you look at how you can overcome them as well! He used the lessons he learned in a very negative world and has twisted them in a way that is useful in the corporate industry he has climbed into.
I found myself chuckling in some places and holding back tears in others. The storytelling was on point and very relatable. In some ways I could see this being an inspiring box office movie. The situations where was struggling to get out of, yet finding himself falling back into those situations. You find yourself pulling for him to break away from those situations, and the delivery of those small moments are so incredible. I started this book a little while before bed and ended up staying up later than I had intended. The story was just that good. I literally struggled to find a point in which I could put the book down. The next morning I was up and trying to squeeze in the time to finish the book between my other priorities.
Executive Hoodlum by John Costello is a great story for anyone that loves to read about people that overcome adversity in order to become a bigger and better person. I think anyone that has a tendency to think they can’t do something because of where they are from should pick up this book and realize that nothing can hold them back if they put their mind to it.
Pages: 261 | ASIN: B075H1HXK3
We Have Known Some Wild People
Roxanne Burkey & Charles Breakfield Author Interview
In The Enigma Rising R Group is hired to find a missing heiress. They must learn to work together to uncover intelligence in the underworld of cyber crime as they confront drug traffickers turned money launderers. This is a thrilling setup to a suspenseful novel. What was your inspiration for the setup to this book?
It’s not hard to be inspired when you have lived and loved throughout your life. We are fortunate to have a venue to crystallize those moments, with those people who have rotated through our lives, and make it a compelling story. We have known some wild people.
I found the novel to be a clever thriller story. How did you balance quick action with intelligent story telling to give the book a quick tempo?
Practice! We want to be known as great story tellers and so you must be able to “wordsmith” not only the dialog and the characters but the story line itself. We spent a lot of time polishing the dialog, the story, and the characters to get the proper flavor for our goal of a good techno-thriller. Our beta readers and editor helped challenge us to make a better product at every opportunity.
Again, there is a host of intriguing characters in this novel. What was your favorite character to write for this time around?
We really got into our “bad boy” characters Juan and Carlos. These are the Bad Boys, mom’s warn their daughters about. And as the phrase goes “their characters grew legs and took off”.
How do you see the Enigma series evolving in the future?
Actually we have built a character universe of over 150 characters for use throughout the series. By the time the reader hits the 9th book (just getting ready to release) you will be able to answer that question for yourself. But as a comment to be a teaser, readers can expect the series to have different theme’s per book that include, identity theft and dark net (#1), high tech battlefield communications using nano-technology & Drones (#3), a virulent Ghost Code launched by two nefarious types code named Mephisto and Callisto (#4), predicting the future using supercomputers linked together (#5), genetic engineering of humans to live 1,000 years (#6), gamification and smart cities being held hostage (first CATS book) (#7), world commodity manipulations to crush corporations and countries (#8), and a team of analog information mules that drive shady corporate profits across the Dark Net (2nd CATS books (#9). We don’t think you’ll be disappointed in these grown up stories.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website
The R-Group is the single most advanced information-gathering organization on the planet, providing services to the intelligence community on a contract basis. Their cutting-edge application of technology keeps their ability to gather, analyze, and use information well ahead of most major governments.
Carlos and Juan are entrepreneurs, although even the most generous observer would question the legality of their business model. The two brothers have discovered a way to covertly access satellite communications. Mostly, they’re putting their skills to work relocating drug lords targeted by the authorities, along with their cash, gold, artwork, and other assets—for a modest fee, of course.
When a valued private client hires the R-Group to track down a missing heiress, chance circumstance brings the technology leaders into contact with Carlos and Juan’s fly-by-night operation. The two brothers have skills the R-Group can use, so they offer them a chance to go legit. Presuming, of course, the brothers can rein in their contempt for societal rules.
A sequel to Breakfield and Burkey’s The Enigma Factor, The Enigma Rising continues their exploration of the high-stakes and high-tech world of information brokering as an engaging thriller of lost and found, loving and growing, and despicable greed.
A Dangerous Discovery
Can Ace and Zeke survive the discovery of a lifetime: a secret the Vatican will stop at nothing to protect?
Marion (Ace) Acevedo grew up on the streets as a Latin American. The things he had to do to survive as a child, no one should have to do, but a chance encounter changed his life.
Now he is the face of an international corporation. Wealth, social standing and travel is what his life is all about. He loves what he does, and with the guiding hand of Ezekiel (Zeke) Smith, his mentor and friend, his life cannot get much better.
Unbeknownst to Ace and Zeke, the acquisition of a new company in Peru holds a secret the Vatican does not want discovered. Special agents from the Holy See will do anything to stop this secret from being released.
As Ace gets closer to uncovering this dangerous secret, he must use every skill he was taught from the streets and from his mentor. But, even with an unknown stranger looking out for him, Ace may lose it all, including his life.
LITERARY TITAN 