Something a bit different this week: I buttonholed some of the top voices in the book industry at last week’s IPG Spring Conference and asked them: What is it that authors need to know but publishers are too polite to tell them? Their answers might surprise you – and they…
A few of the stand-out moments from the last few Extraordinary Business Book Club episodes – there’s a celebratory feel as it marks the fifth birthday of Practical Inspiration, and this week we’re focused on finding inspiration in the uncomfortable and owning your ideas. Niki Schafer on submerging yourself in things…
As a journalist, Mike Sergeant’s job was to communicate complex issues clearly and quickly. He had to find within huge geopolitical issues the human stories that listeners could connect with. Today he uses that experience to help business leaders communicate more powerfully. Mike believes that PR is simply storytelling –…
‘Wouldn’t it be helpful if somehow you could anticipate the key skills that would be needed in the future to support people’s professional growth?’ And that was the question that eventually led Chris Watson to write his first book: Upskill: 21 Keys to Professional Growth. In this conversation we explore the steps…
‘We have trailers and teasers about a movie. So why shouldn’t there be a teaser or trailer for a book?’ When Niklas Jansen graduated he knew he wanted to start a business, but he didn’t know much about running a business. And he also realised that suddenly he didn’t have…
There aren’t many opportunities to slip the word ‘sesquicentennial’ into conversation, so make the most of this one by recommending it, casual-like, to all your friends. A few of my favourite moments from the last few Extraordinary Business Book Club episodes, with the focus today on serendipity. (There’s another great word…
‘We are learning machines. It’s the biology of who we are.’ We’re used to thinking about disruption as a force that shapes industries, products and services. But have you ever thought about disrupting yourself? Whitney Johnson recommends that you jump to a new learning curve every five years or so,…
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Karen Morley knew there’d be no problem writing about the principles of leading like a coach, and she found it relatively easy to structure her ideas and practice into a methodology. But how to bring that alive for a reader? The answer of course was to use stories, and Karen…
A few of my favourite moments from the last few Extraordinary Business Book Club episodes, and this time it’s all about grit – which seems to be an inevitable ingredient in the writing of a business book. Ayse Birsel on optimism and finding the best answers in the worst places Elaine Halligan,…
