I’ve been playing with Nicholas Lovell’s ‘Curve’ model since interviewing him for the Extraordinary Business Book Club next week (you can hear him in episode 39 on 12 December). Here’s a draft of mine, and I’ve worked with a couple of clients to help them think through theirs, too. Each author will have a slightly […]
Continue readingI remember as an Eng Lit undergrad hearing a lecturer dismiss Wordsworth airily as a poet who ‘lived too long and wrote too much.’ Bit harsh, I thought. Just because he didn’t die tragically like the James Deans of the day, Byron and Shelley. And yes, OK, some of Wordsworth’s stuff is pretty mediocre, but […]
Continue readingAlthough The Extraordinary Business Book Club is mostly about the business of business books – writing them, publishing them, putting them to work in the business – one of the most enjoyable side benefits is that with such a wide range of authors, we get to cover an incredibly wide range of topics along the […]
Continue readingWhat do people mean when they say, ‘I love books’? Do they mean they love improving their mind or inspiring their soul by reading? Or the giddy sensation of leaving your own world and plunging headfirst into an entirely new one? Or is it the sheer sensual pleasure of a book, the feel of paper […]
Continue reading‘Can I talk to you about podcasting?’ I’ve spoken to at least 6 people over the last month or so who are interested in setting up their own podcast and wondering what’s involved and, crucially, whether it’s worth it for them. I can’t tell them that, of course, but here’s what I say: First of […]
Continue readingI heard today about a company doing some really typical 21st-century business stuff. The founder noticed a gap in the market for a healthier version of a popular processed food, tapping into the current interest in clean living, exercise and healthy eating. He collaborated with an established partner to get his new product off the […]
Continue readingToday’s blog is over at BookMachine, and explores what the real value of business books is – for the publisher, and for the author. (And for the reader? That’s a whole different blog…) https://bookmachine.org/2016/11/02/truth-business-books/
Continue readingA hard night’s trick-or-treating with some very overexcited children – I mean, witches and zombies – last night, and then straight back home, throw them into bed, and sit down to interview the wonderful Robbie Kellman Baxter, author of The Membership Economy. The podcast episode will be broadcast on 21 November, but one thing that […]
Continue readingDr. Hoenikker used to say that any scientist who couldn’t explain to an eight-year-old what he was doing was a charlatan. – Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle One of the things that Andy Cope said in today’s podcast (it’s live now – http://extraordinarybusinessbooks.com/episode-33-the-footbath-of-academia-with-andy-cope/) was about writing for children. As well as his books on happiness theory and […]
Continue readingToday’s blog was a guest post over at Birds on the Blog, in which I explore how Amy Wilkinson interviewed 200 top entrepreneurs and through sophisticated analysis reduced their collective wisdom to six astonishingly simple principles. She sets out those key skills for business success in The Creator’s Code – a book so incredibly readable […]
Continue reading