Book Review – The Startup of You by Reid Hoffman

With credentials such as the building up of the LinkedIn professional networking site, Reid Hoffman needs little introduction, and it is with that sense of expectation that I picked this book up.

Book Review – 365 Social Media Tips by Karen James

How well do you understand new media, and the tools for getting your message out to the masses? Of course there’s Facebook, Twitter and maybe even LinkedIn if you’re being a little professional about it. But are you managing to harness these websites properly, and is there anything that you can do to make the situation better?

Book Review – Use Your Head, by Tony Buzan

How much of your brain do you use? And, do you use it creatively and effectively? And, what about being able to boost your brain to take advantage of the greatest computer we will all ever own? It is a fact of life that we all under-use our brains, and as a result of ‘life’ have the creativity that it can offer stamped out over a lifetime. This is not a good thing as we are all being told that in order to survive economically we need to be thinking smarter, not just harder. Use Your Head, by Tony Buzan has now been published for over 40 years now, and is the result of a lifetime of experience on the part of the author. Tony’s interest in the brain was started after a visit to a library and being told that there wasn’t a user manual for the brain. Fast forward to 1974 and a version of this book was used as a BBC TV Tie-In for a 10-part series of the same title.

I would describe this book as part text-book, part brain exercise and part story of the brains’ evolution. This is not a book that should gather dust on a shelf, as this can become a starting point to getting the most out of your mind to everyone’s benefit.

With sections on understanding concepts such as IQ, natural acumen and memory, the book then goes on to discuss mind mapping, recall techniques as well as  whole selection of exercises to work through that should stretch the most important muscle you have. The book is structured in such a way that engages the reader so that if you have an enquiring mind (and you will if you’ve bought this book), then there is plenty of information and problem solving to chew on.

With more neural connections in the brain than there are atoms in the known universe, can you afford not to boost your brain power.

This book review was originally published on Family Friendly Working, a site packed with advice on flexible work for mums and dads.

Have you enjoyed this review? If you have, click through and buy the book HERE!

Book Review – Executive Presence, by Harrison Monarth

Is there anyone out there who wouldn’t like to be a Richard Branson, a Mark Zuckerberg or a Lord Sugar? I’m guessing that there are quite a few that would love to be in the position of these business titans. But the proper question to ask is what does it take to be a Branson, Zuckerberg or Sugar?

In his book, Executive Presence, Harrison Monarth looks at the factors that make us mere working mortals different from our CEO masters. And the answer is quite simple. Presence. This is the art of influencing people, understanding how they are going to react in any situation, and being able to change behaviours in a way that gets results. The other side of the coin is the effect that you can have by changing yourself – modifying how you are perceived by others, and how that affects how they interact with you. The final aspect is what you do when things go wrong. Master these three things, and you are well on the way to that six-figure salary and the chauffeur-driven car.

This book is full of key information, which will serve you well in your attempt to guide and build up your reputation as someone who can lead, can be trusted and can deliver results. One of the major points of discussion is the effect of personal branding on your rise through the ranks and how it can give you an air of reliable certainty that all large companies are looking for to keep stability and surety.

Whilst Harrison has built this book on his own personal experience in business management, ‘Executive Presence‘ has solid grounding in the latest thoughts and techniques. For that alone, the book is worth its cover price. This is a worthy and required addition to anyone’s business bookshelf, and I for one enjoyed reading it.

This book review was originally published on in the Sue Blake Media Online Book Clubon LinkedIn, a site for professionals to meet and network.

Have you enjoyed this review? If you have, click through and buy the book HERE!

Book Review – The Confident Creative, by Cat Bennett

Are you creative? Do you harbour a private wish to be creative. It’s not just about whether you are a secret Damien Hirst, or a Salvador Dali in Disguise. Creativity can also be seen as a mindset where you are more at one with yourself. This is also not restricted to the ‘artistic’ world. The knowledge-based economy is built upon the vision and mind-freedom that creativity begins. As an engineer by training, I can name Concorde, the Space Shuttle and the Channel Tunnel as great feats that were started by someone with a creative epiphany.

Cat Bennett has written a book, called ‘The Confident Creative‘, in which she uses the medium of art to draw out that centre inside you that you wish other people saw, but you were either unafraid or unaware of how to tap it.

I have always wanted to draw, and some of the techniques that Cat uses, such as drawing the object upside down I had heard of before. (The idea is that by drawing it upside down, you break the psychological link between what the object is, and what you actually see so your judgement is not prejudiced). Others, such as contour drawing, were new to me, but there are a whole block of techniques that you can use to draw creatively.

This is not to say that if you are not an artist, this book is not for you. Far from it. The ideas that Cat has written about are readily translatable across into writing, video filmmaking, teaching, science…. any place where exploration is fundamental to the process. The Confident Creative is a gem of a book, that is more subtle than the traditional ‘How to draw’ book, and this is to its credit. It is a book that is thoroughly deserving of being in the possession of anyone who wants to free their mind and be more than a ‘follow-by-numbers’ person.

This book review was originally published on in the Sue Blake Media Online Book Clubon LinkedIn, a site for professionals to meet and network.

Have you enjoyed this review? If you have, click through and buy the book HERE!