Recommended Viewing/Listening

️The Introvert’s Guide to Commanding Attention in Business

On his Timeless Marketing Podcast, Brian Kurtz Interviews Kim Walsh Phillips, the Co-Founder of the Elite Speakers Network and the Founder and CEO of Powerful Professionals, a business coaching and education company.

This is a must-watch/listen for anyone who wants to elevate their personal brand, position themselves as an expert, and stand out as the ONE to hire in their niche.

Recommended Post (Reading Time <30 sections)

 Take Good Notes (by Seth Godin)

This tiny post packs a punch starts like this: “Facts are important, but facts don’t create learning. Stories do.” After that, the post has just 40 powerful words. Click here to read them. Come on… just 40 more words.

Recommended Museum

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

I spent the weekend in Bentonville, Arkansas with 30+ family members celebrating my mom’s 85th birthday. She chose Bentonville, in part, because it’s home to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

This was my third visit to Crystal Bridges since it opened in 2011. It’s the greatest museum I’ve ever visited. I’ve been to the Louvre, the Met, and many of the other contenders. And yes, they’re great. Magnificent collections. Regal buildings.

But Crystal Bridges is different. The building (and surrounding grounds), are works of art, and the collection is incredible. Worth a trip to northwest Arkansas (more than one). Below is a video that shows the place’s architectural splendor.

Alice Walton, daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton, built Crystal Bridges to house her collection of American art. Here’s a great (long) article about how she did it.

Recommended Reading

 Bastard Out of Carolina

I learned this morning that Dorothy Allison has died. She wrote a book I love called “Bastard Out of Carolina.”

Here’s the publisher’s description of the novel (that also inspired a critically acclaimed film):

“Greenville County, South Carolina, is a wild, lush place that is home to the Boatwright family—a tight-knit clan of rough-hewn, hard-drinking men who shoot up each other’s trucks, and indomitable women who get married young and age too quickly.

“At the heart of this story is Ruth Anne Boatwright, known simply as Bone, a bastard child who observes the world around her with a mercilessly keen perspective. When her stepfather Daddy Glen, “cold as death, mean as a snake,” becomes increasingly more vicious toward her, Bone finds herself caught in a family triangle that tests the loyalty of her mother, Anney—and leads to a final, harrowing encounter from which there can be no turning back.”

More Recommended Reading

 Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins

The great David Ogilvy once said, “Nobody should be allowed to have anything to do with advertising until he has read this book seven times. It changed the course of my life.”

Written more than 100 years ago, this book remains relevant today — for anyone who wants to understand the core principles of marketing and advertising.

You can find this book in a variety of formats and prices. Here’s a free .pdf version. Here’s a free Kindle version. And here’s a paperback edition for $4.99.

You can read this tiny book in one sitting. And then you can discuss with other business people how its principles apply today.

“Scientific Advertising” is this month’s selection for the Mastermind Book Club. Each month, Ted Prodromou and I choose a great business book to read and discuss.

Club members meet monthly (this month on November 21) to discuss the book and how to apply its lessons to their businesses.

You don’t have to read the book to join the discussion. But you have to join the club (it’s free) to get the meeting invitation.

Words to Ponder

“I believe that storytelling can be a strategy to help you make sense out of your life.”

― Dorothy Allison