“Virtual Society” by Herman Narula is a great, non-technical, introduction to the Metaverse and the impact it will make on society.  Herman is a gamer, and I am not, so he approaches this from a gaming point of view.  The fact I’m not a gamer is great because he gives a different perspective and a different lens on the world of virtual words.  One of the arguments that Herman puts forward is the fact that, as humans, we have always had or craved virtual words.  He also shines a light into the future and how virtual words will impact us.

Paul Thornton’s book boils leadership down to three fundamental leadership styles, directing, discussions and delegating. The book explains what leadership style should you use and when.  Approaches to communicating when using those styles. How to establish goals and plans, how to coach using these styles and problem solving and decision making. And then we resolving conflict, how to hold people to account, using those styles.  

At the end of each chapter are interviews with CEOs, athletic coaches, college professors, presidents, managers, parents etc, which gives a practical angle to how other people use those different styles, this helps to bring the book alive. 

There are many books out there about marketing who make out they bring something new, they are not, it’s the same old, same old, parcelled up with a big red bow on them.  With “Groundswell”, Scott writes about marketing but in the age of digital, internet and social media. This is now just what the modern buyer expects of a business today, but he explains how to build a business to market to that buyer from the ground up.

“The Jolt Effect”, is a must-read sales book by the co-author of “the challenger sale”, Matt Dixon and Ted McKenna.  The book is based on research and digs into our biggest competitor in sales, which is where the prospect; after we have invested a lot of time and resource, decides to do nothing.

Matt and Ted were doing research and also found that the common playbook that we use in these situations is the wrong play book in 56% of situations.  The book is therefore a playbook on how you can spot deals that will not happen and how you can deploy a new playbook, which is the “jolt effect”, enabling you to win more deals, make more sales and gain more revenue. 

I was recommended “the business of belonging” by David Spinks, in the book “Belonging to the Brand: Why Community is the Last Great Marketing Strategy” by Mark W. Schaefer. The “business of belonging” is a great book on how to create a community. David has extensive experience in creating communities and shares this in the book. From, why you need a community, to finding and connecting to community members, mapping the participation in the community, designing community spaces and engaging in the community. If you want to setup and run a community, you need to read this.

How on earth do you set up LinkedIn company page?

Today a modern digital business will have a webpage and it will also have a LinkedIn page, while many people think these are supposed to be static, you set them up and leave them.  If you think this, then they are not working hard for you.  Webpages and LinkedIn pages are there to create conversations, why? Because what you and I sell, requires us to have a conversation to make a sales.  Therefore, a webpage and a LinkedIn profile, that create conversations, will create you sales.

After all, research shows that your prospects, customers, employees, future employees, investors and future investors have all migrated to digital and are actively looking for your products and services.  They are looking for a company to buy from or a company to work at, they are not looking for some boring company, that want to work at a company with values, that has impact, that is fun.  And your LinkedIn company profile, (as well as the profiles of your employees) is a place where you can influence, grow relationships and trust, which leads to conversations and commercial interaction.

But how do you set up a LinkedIn page, it’s not written down anywhere?  In the book “business gold, Michelle J. Raymond and Lynnaire Johnston walk you through how to set-up a LinkedIn page.  They also offer advice on why it shouldn’t be static, but a living, breathing thing that reflects your business, it’s culture.

Great book, it covers pretty much everything you need to know about retirement and subjects that you probably hadn't thought about.  From budgeting, pensions, tax, investments, decisions about your home, retiring abroad, leisure activities, starting your own business, looking into paid work, volunteering, health, holidays, caring for elderly parents, tax and wills when you pass away. Clearly that is a lot to get through, so the book is a great place to start your research. The other thing I should mention is that, this book is for the United Kingdom market. Thanks to the author, Jonquil Lowe for coming on my podcast to talk about it. 

Chris Duffey’s book is a foundation course on the modern world; the metaverse, NFTs, Crypto, AR, VR, etc, etc. He also details, how these technologies can be and will be used in the future and in which verticals. My point being this isn’t an “ivory tower” book, but a book that covers fundamentals and their applications. If you are looking for a beginner’s book or even an intermediates book on the Metaverse this is a great place to start.

Charles Duhigg has written an excellent book about Habits and I highly recommend it.

Worth explaining, Charles’ book is written in the style of a Malcolm Gladwell, Brene Brown or a Matthew Syed. The book is highly researched and uses data to back up suggestions along with the; “routine, reward, cue diagrams”.

Whereas, if you wanted a book that was structured more towards how do I actually stop certain habits or even start habits then you might prefer the book “Atomic Habits” by James Clear.

Both are excellent book, depends what your requirements are, when it comes to habits.

In Tim’s latest book, “Moodset – how to create a performance climate that inspire excellence”, Tim has hit upon this notion that “moodset” impacts high performance teams. 

During Tim’s time in the forces as well as his time being a leadership coach, he has followed traditional thoughts along leadership, culture and behaviour.  But has hit upon the notion that “moodset” often impacts a team.  Think about putting on music in a car on a long journey, or the collective mood of a team.  Using moodset means that individual flare impacts positively, collective flow. 

It wouldn't be an article about books without me mentioning my own books.

The first edition of "social selling - techniques to influence buyers and changemakers" was written in 2015 and published in 2016.  We have just launched the second edition.

I spent two weeks totally updating the book to modern current thinking, I also wrote an additional 30% too update the book. 

I also reached out to 15 practitioners.  That is people that are using social strategically in their business.  Chief executives (CEOs), Sales leaders, Chief marketing leaders (CMOs), people running digital transformation projects, clients of ours, a head hunter (executive search), etc, etc.  This provides content from different voices, but people that live by social in their business.  The forward is by Mark Schaefer.

The book is now over 300 pages where as the first edition was 187 pages.

The book sticks to the vision I had when I pitched it to Kogan page.  It is a workbook, a book you will want to continually refer to.  A book that will help you get a real return from social media.  As a CEO told me on the first edition 

"it's the first book that read on social media where I got to realise there is a connection between social media and revenue."

My second book, if I had written it today, we would have called it RevOps (RevenueOperations). The book is about how to merge sales and marketing under one single strategy, measurement and governance structure. It's based on an actual case study, but we cannot mention who that is. What I mean is the book, (like my first book) is practical and takes you through the steps you need to under take to implement a RevOps strategy. Right down to reporting and things you need to look out for so the project is a success.