While recently back at my aunt’s apartment complex, the same one where I got the copy of Steve Jobs I wrote about previously, another book caught my eye – Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow’s Big Changes by Mark Penn. What got me was the term, which reminded me about the days when I had my Web consulting business and people repeated tried to pound into my head about how I needed to find the niches to serve with my firm. Without even cracking open the book, I took it off the bookshelf and tucked it into my backpack just prior to my flight home, as this would be the book for me to read.

As I settled into my seat in my shiny metal tube taking me home, I quickly realized what this book was. First off, by skimming through the table of contents it was a book of many short paragraphs, each one on a microtrend, which was intriguing to me. What I also noticed at the beginning of the book was that it came out in 2007 – over 10 years ago! I was almost ready to just stuff it in my seatback pocket and leave it for someone else, but I decided to forge ahead and read it. This ended up being a very wise decision.

With 75 areas identified for potential, Microtrends gave me a lot to think about over that flight and a period of time afterwards, and as a result I had several takeaways from book.

There’s big opportunity in small places – The idea around microtrends are small, emerging and powerful groups who have a specialized need that can be satisfied by an enterprising businessperson who, if they do it right, can profit well from it. That is, if they realize this. See my comment above about what people were trying to pound into my head.

A 10-year old book on trends is still relevant – As Microtrends came out in 2007, it’s needless to say a lot has happened over the last decade plus. Despite this, there were many groups and demographics that are still active and relevant today as they were then.

More books need to be structured like this – What made Microtrends interesting to read was each chapter was no more than a dozen pages, which allowed me to read a complete topic on a trend within a few minutes… which sometimes was all of the time I had to read.

Don’t underline every other line in a book – I knew my copy of Microtrends was used, but abused too? Whomever had this book before over-underlined through the entire book, as shown in the picture of a random page of the book I selected. Interestingly, it is probably the first – and last – time Elizabeth Warren and Donald Trump were on the same page.

Where Microtrends was an interesting read, as I went through it, I wondered what the author would say about all of these trends today. Interestingly, earlier this year he released Microtrends Squared, with the next set of trends Penn has identified. I’m compelled to read it, to see if any of the original microtrends carried over from the first book to the second, as well as what he has identified as new microtrends.

So do I recommend a 10-year old book over a new one? Why not? The format of Microtrends – minus the underlying – contributed to the enjoyment of the book. As I pass along all books I read, this one I decided to leave in the lounge area of a hotel I stayed at recently. I don’t know if the book was picked up by a fellow guest or not, but I hope so.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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Though personal branding has always been around, its focus has been amplified thanks to the Internet. Previously someone was only concerned with how they were perceived locally within their community where today this community has a much larger reach. Just as it is something you would always be aware of and modify as necessary, the attention to it, just like the reach, is now much greater.

With this in mind I picked up the copy of The 10Ks of Personal Branding by Kaplan Mobray I already owned, but never read. When I did I didn’t feel I had a need to make major changes to my personal brand, however I hadn’t done any significant review of it for a while, plus I was curious of what the “10Ks” were and what I would take away from this book. I share my takeaways here.

Simplify Your Message – The idea of an “elevator pitch” is to describe yourself in the few seconds of an elevator ride. I’ve had various pitches over the years, changing the approach I used based on various factors. In The 10Ks it talked about taking a more simpler approach in talking about yourself instead of using buzzwords, industry jargon or other lofty terms. The book also breaks this down and has workbook-like tools to take you through the process, which was helpful in coming up with what I have used and has been well received.

Practice Makes Perfect – Many times we put something out there, but do we really get the feedback we need on it? The time before when I created an “elevator pitch” it worked well in writing, but when I actually spoke it for the first time, not only did it get an odd reaction from the people I said it to but it was awkward even for me to say it. When I created the new one after reading The 10Ks I practiced it aloud many times and on friendly audiences before I tried it on strangers. This helped ensuring what I said was natural and effective.

The Big Picture of Personal Branding – When I first became aware of personal branding, it was not from taking a class but from observing others and learning by example and application. The 10Ks of Personal Branding lays it all out well, from understanding it to developing it to living it. Having this kind of end-to-end resource is helpful in evaluating and changing your own brand over time.

Don’t Judge a Book by Who Gives it to You – As I mentioned I had this book before I actually cracked it open. It was given to me by a former manager that I previously talked about as one of my worst managers and for that reason it simply sat on my shelf for years. Where I can’t say I my opinion of this manager changed because I enjoyed the book, it’s a reminder to judge something based on its own merits.

The 10Ks of Personal Branding is a good, energetic read that gives you a little kick as you are reading Mobray’s personal life stories and working through the exercises in the book to create and refine your own personal brand. For these reasons I recommend it to anyone, whether in business or not, who wants to pursue a new or refine their current personal branding. As I give away all the books I read, I will send this book to the first person who contacts me through comments to this post and asks for it.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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When the authorized biography of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs came out shortly after he died in 2011, it was a book I was interested in reading. As someone who remembers the ascent of Apple as a kid and used both an Apple //e and early Macintosh in college, not to mention a recent convert to the iPhone, I was curious of what else I would have learned from this tech and marketing pioneer. That being said, with all else going on in my life and an existing unread tower of book at home, I didn’t buy it. However I always said, if the opportunity presented itself, I would read it.

That opportunity came a little over a year ago when I was visiting my aunt and needed to make a call for work, so I ducked into a room off the commons of her apartment complex to make the call. This room, which I never knew existed, was a literal library – books of all genres, movies on DVD and VHS (yes, VHS) as well as CDs. As I made my call I perused the shelves and low and behold, I saw the biography by Walter Isaacson, and started reading it on my trip home.

Though I finished reading the book Steve Jobs last year, I made notes of my takeaways from the over 600 pages of first-hand recollections from Jobs himself as well as from many people in his life. Where it’s been a while, these takeaways still ring true in my mind as well.

Do you need to have a personality like Jobs to be successful? This was my greatest takeaway from the book. My original notes said, do you need to be this “ruthless” and thinking about it more, I’m not sure if that is even the right word. Many influences in his life led to his personality of being highly focused, brutally honest, harsh… I could go on. In reading stories of successful people over the years, these types of traits tend to be a common theme. So I wonder, do you need to be wired a certain way to achieve a certain way, at least in business?

Marketing’s role in the rise of Apple – I had always heard that Steve Wozniak, Apple’s co-founder, was the technical brains behind the operation, with Jobs being the marketing and front-end pitchman for the firm. However I didn’t realize the extent of all he did, from early days of positioning empty boxes to the design of the cases, to create the aura of what Apple was and is. This level of detail and decision-making made Apple unique, as well as its products.

How much different would the story be if it was written now? As the book was released mere days following Jobs’ death, the interviews and stories of others in the book were given while he was still alive. As I read this, tucked in the back of my mind was how different – if any – would those stories have been if they were told to Isaacson after he died. Where we may not know completely, over time more may come from those interviewed.

Whether you’re an Apple fan or not, I recommend reading Steve Jobs, especially for people who are interested in the personal (and personalities) that are behind businesses. As I give away all of the books I read, this one went to a person who was more interested in the personalities and their interactions within the empires Jobs created.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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You don't need me to tell you that today the news media is as much about the story as what they are covering. If you're like me you'd rather not hear about reporters and networks being the top story, rather what's actually going on in the world. Where we may hear a digested, front-end view of their involvement in the story, rarely do we get an insider's view of what's really going on behind the sense in newsrooms or how someone is being impacted, especially when they're being impacted negatively.

As someone who doesn't have cable TV or an antenna and haven't for a very long time I almost never watch the network news or major cable news networks. Instead my news comes from online, reading news Web sites, subscribe to their RSS feeds and following their Twitter accounts. In addition to this, I follow many individual reporters, reading not only what they are posting as new stories but their own Twitter timelines. Where this aggregation of information of information is probably more comprehensive and time consuming than simply “watching the news,”, but it allows me to come to my own informed consensus of what’s going on.

Among the reporters I follow is Sharyl Attkisson, a national investigative reporter who is the host of Full Measure and author of the book The Smear which I recently read and shared my takeaways from. As I have been following her and her reporting for several years, I was drawn to read her most recent book, as well as her first book, Stonewalled: My Fight for Truth Against the Forces of Obstruction, Intimidation, and Harassment in Obama's Washington, where she chronicles covering news events in Washington, and believed political forces worked against her, even hacking into her computers.

Though I read Stonewalled before I read The Smear, I still recall well the takeaways and questions I had from this book.

The “making of the sausage” that is network news – If you think about it, there is very little network news available to be watched. A 30-minute newscast is really only 23 minutes of programming and 7 minutes of commercials. In this time only so many stories can be covered and only to a certain depth. This is also costly in reporter-power plus research. Even the 27/7 news channels don’t cover all that much news as compared to opinion programming.

In Stonewalled, Attkisson states that this plays into whether stories are aired or not. As well, it can be up to the news anchor themselves what gets aired. If that person has a bias, stories may never get seen by the viewing public. She details many cases of this during her years at CBS News.

Overflow news stories on the Web – When some of Attkisson’s news reports were not aired on the evening news program, they were often posted to CBS News’ Web site. I personally had no idea this happened; my assumption was that stories on the Web site were simply what aired. As a result, I have added news Web sites to the mix of news sources I mentioned above to gather all points of view, think for myself and form my own opinion on events around the corner and around the world.

Did the government really hack into her computers? As of this writing and for over 10 years, Attkisson has been trying to get information from the government on what she suspects and was confirmed by her informants, that employees of an unknown part of the US government hacked into her personal and work computers. Why? She suspects her persistent coverage of the Fast and Furious scandal and other government investigative reporting may have led to this. And to date, she has yet to get any official answers.

Stonewalled is a well-written journey through the life in the US capital area, complete with shadowy figures as well as those operating in broad daylight. I highly recommend it as a compliment to what was observed in the news over the last decade. As I finished reading this a while ago, I also promised it to someone a long time ago, and finally the book is in the mail.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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There are no shortage of books, blogs and articles out there offering career advice. In fact, you are reading something from one of them right now! If anything, they all have something in common – long narratives, loaded with stories and real-life examples, explaining in great detail the author’s point-of-view.

The new book, Things Are What You Make of Them – Life Advice for Creatives by Adam J. Kurtz, is a book that, as you can guess by the title, is in the above-mentioned genre, but its format and structures breaks the above-mentioned mold. Where it offers career advice, its format is unique – there are just over a dozen “chapters” – each beginning with a description, then a hand-written list of 8 points, followed by 8 pages, also hand-written, corresponding to each point on pages no more than 4 inches by 6 inches.

As I said, this book is unique, and refreshing. The advice is written with a mix of Kurtz’s sense of humor and his brutal honesty. It’s a short read, which you can finish in less than an hour, but gives you a lot to think about for a long time and easy to remember – each page has a colored border by chapter, and all pages are perforated for easy removal and hanging up in a prominent place.

As you can guess, this book gave many things to takeaway from it.

Define creative – As the book’s subtitle is “Life Advice for Creatives,” some of you reading this may think, this book is not for me as I am not “creative” in the sense of a designer or artist, as the author is. To borrow a phrase, bollocks! Many of us, where we may be in a corporate job that is not defined with words such as “artistic” are actually creative in nature – we are using our brains and imagination to find creative solutions for our employers or clients. To borrow another phrase, this one by from Kurtz’s own definition of “creative” in the book, it is “… a person who defines themselves, in some way, by their creative passion or profession.” I love this description and feel it suits myself, and it may suit you as well – think about it.

Take away what works for you, literally – In any book, you can find yourself liking and disliking various parts of it. This is in fact why I write takeaways from books rather than reviews of them. With this book if something resonates with you, you can then literally and easily remove it as all pages of the book are perforated, then post it someplace as a reminder or inspiration.

More books are needed in this format – From its small size to its vibrant colors to perforated pages to its concise advice, more books should be crafted this way. It reminds me of the book 52 Motivational Quotations for Salespeople by my good friend Tom Cruz, which has each quote on a separate page so they can be removed and displayed prominently. Especially in our fast-paced digital world, it allows us to take a brief time out, read and reflect.

When I heard about Things Are What You Make of Them, I preordered it right away. I learn about Kurtz and his creative work from his book 1 Page at a Time, which I bought and am still using as an (almost) daily creative outlet. His light-hearted approach has drawn me to his work, and it makes me smile and think at the same time.

After finishing this book, I decided to give it to someone who is a very creative person, and am eager to hear their thoughts on it as they read through it.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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