At first glance you may think that Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead: What Every Business Can Learn From the Most Iconic Band in History by David Meerman Scott and Brian Halligan, is a joke.  However, this book is no joke!  After reading it, you realize the members of the Grateful Dead were marketing geniuses.

I always liked the Grateful Dead but I wasn’t a “dead head.” Many of my friends were.  They traveled around the country to see their shows, night after night.  And to tell you the truth, I really didn’t understand why.  Once you see a band, you see a band.

But that isn’t the case with the Grateful Dead.  Every night they played on the road, they played a different set.  They constantly changed their set list, which enticed their audience to keep coming back.

What David Meerman Scott and Brian Halligan are saying is that everything they did, they did with reason and purpose to build a strong brand.

For starters, the Grateful Dead didn’t do what other bands did.  They didn’t put out albums and then tour like most other bands.  They toured and then put out albums. They also chose a unique name that stuck.  Think about it, when you are starting a business, you need to come up with something that will stick, like Coke, Xerox, and Pink Floyd.

In the book, they talk about how the band was diverse and that when building a staff you should think about diversity in terms of experience. They say to hire people from different fields of expertise to shape your team.

The Grateful Dead were ahead of their time in terms of embracing technology. Social networking and the Grateful Dead should be synonymous. They let their audience tape concerts and share with their friends, just like audiences do today on Youtube and other social networking sites. The Grateful Dead teaches us that by embracing technology, it enhances creativity and success.

A couple of other great takeaways from the book include:

• Put Your Fans in the Front – it’s important to take care of your existing clients and make sure that they are happy and satisfied.  They will sell your business.  The Grateful Dead controlled their tickets and put their loyal fans up front at every show.
• Cut Out the Middleman –  cut out the brokers and go direct to your customers. The Grateful Dead did this by sending out mailings and other information including tickets themselves.  Although you could still get a ticket from ticket master, they weren’t the best tickets you could get.
• Free Your Content – by giving information away for free, you will build your base and increase your audience. The Grateful Dead did this by giving away their music.
• Loosen Your Brand – don’t be so stuffy, loosen up. The Grateful Dead did this by allowing their audience input into album covers and artwork.  The authors are saying that all too often people get stuck on one person policing corporate colors and logo.  By doing this, companies stifle creativity.
• Do What You Love – do something that you are passionate about. The Grateful Dead loved their music and their audience, which helped them prosper.

What I loved about the book is that each chapter was set up to describe something that the Grateful Dead did right, followed by an example that can be used in business, which was followed by a real life case study.  I thought the book was a real eye-opener and gave me many “a-ha” moments.

David Meerman Scott wrote the New Rules of Marketing & PR, which was one of the first social media books on the market.  He clearly defined the role of the marketing/pr practitioner and his writing style was easy to read and interesting. Brian Halligan, the CEO of HubSpot, is the leading provider of inbound marketing software to “grow traffic, leads and sales.” His company has been highly publicized and one of the first of its kind on the market.  Both Scott and Halligan are huge Grateful Dead fans and they studied the band for more than 20 years.

So now looking back on my friends who traveled around the world with the Grateful Dead, I understand why. I’m intrigued by the band’s intelligence and their marketing genius.

This post was originally posted on Blogcritics.org.

Why is it that every job you have there is always office politics?

No matter if you have three people or 500 people in your office, office politics always ends up turning into office conflict. That is why I found Diane L. Katz’ new book, Win at Work, so helpful. It brings conflicts to light and helped me understand how to alleviate situations that are uncomfortable in the workplace.

Specifically, where do conflicts come from?

Ms. Katz suggests the following:

•Jobs aren’t identified and overlap other jobs in responsibility
•Job orientations don’t discuss culture and what is acceptable and what isn’t
•Managers who can’t manage
•No reinforcement to Training programs
•Managers who don’t know how to control their behavior
•Cultures that support lying
•Blaming others for something that you should take responsibility for
•People who like to stir the pot and cause trouble

She talks about how she knows how to handle conflicts because she uses  the “Winning Circle” technique.

Ms. Katz explains that if you break down each situation by using the Winning Circle, these situations can be easily fixed.

The Winning Circle consists of a series of questions to ask yourself when you have a conflict:
1. What is the situation?
2. What can be negotiated?
3. What can’t be changed?
4. What does your previous experience tell you about the situation?
5. How does the situation make you feel?
6. What is your strategy?
7. What will the strategy bring to the game plan?
8. Will these changes be for the better?

The book goes on to talk about each of these topics in great detail. What I found interesting is after she explains each of the eight concepts in depth; she throws in a series of case studies on various situations that anyone who works in an office could relate to.

Some notable case studies include: how to manage a micromanager, how to deal with someone who likes to cause trouble and how to deal with a client’s anger. The case studies reinforce what you learn from Ms. Katz’s book. The sharing of these case studies helps if you are going through a similar experience. Ms. Katz is an expert in conflict resolution and the reader can learn a lot from her.

What I didn’t like was that she mentioned her own business several times throughout the book and I felt it was more like a sales pitch at times. (I get enough sales pitches throughout the day.)

Generally, Win at Work was an easy to read, quick read. To me, that is important in a business book because as a business owner,  I have limited time. The book was relatable and if you have a conflict, it’s probably worth reading this book to help solve it.Win at Work was an easy to read, quick book, which to me is important because I have limited time. Ms. Katz is an expert in conflict resolution. What I didn’t like was that she mentioned her own business several times throughout the book and I felt it was more like a sales pitch at times. (I get enough sales pitches throughout the day.)  Otherwise, the book was relatable and if you have a conflict, it’s probably worth reading this book to help solve it.

This post also appeared on Blogcritics.org.

Is anyone indispensable?  Most people think they are but in reality they are not. Larry Myler’s new book, Indispensable by Monday, teaches readers how to make sure they are indispensable and their employer knows it.

In the beginning of the book, Mr. Myler talks about profit loss statements, balance sheets and other financial statements.  He feels that if you don’t understand these basic forms, you can’t be indispensable. He takes a look at the positive characteristics to a great employee. Readers will also learn how he/she can help his/her company through money saving techniques and strategies.

He believes that employees should want to and attempt to increase the company’s bottom line. He goes on to talk about how employees should look at the way the company spends money and how to cut some of those costs by either striking up a deal with a vendor or making sure that receivables are net 10 days instead of net 30 days.

Mr. Myler educates the reader so that he/she can recommend to his/her boss money saving ideas like opening a sweep account which enables you to put more cash in your higher paid bank account then the one with no interest.

For the employer, Mr. Myler suggests giving incentives to employees who don’t use all their sick time or refrain from accidents.  He also suggests reserving pay raises to top performers only.

Dwelling over mistakes costs the company money, he says in the book.  Make a sincere apology and move on.  For employees, he says that you should spend more time on what needs to be done and less on nonessential things.

One of the things I found particularly interesting is when Mr. Myler quotes a study done in 2005 that says that 2.9 hours out of a typical 8-hour day is unproductive.

As for being unproductive, Mr. Myler also thinks that email is a distraction and should only be checked in the morning and in the afternoon.

In addition to the ones above, these are just a few of the many tips offered by Mr. Myler throughout the book:

•    Take pride in producing high quality work.
•    Don’t go on auto pilot because you won’t help your company.
•    Read the Wall Street Journal to increase your financial vocabulary.
•    Make sure you know what’s happening locally.
•    Be as creative as possible.
•    Get discounts from suppliers and vendors.
•    When you go on vacation, make sure to bring business cards because you never know who you will meet.
•    Enforce penalties for late payments and increase time on collections.
•    Make sure to have longer payment terms with suppliers and vendors.

What many employees forget, Mr. Myler reminds them in Indispensible by Monday, including:

•    Leave personal stuff at home don’t bring to the job.
•    Make sure you look good every day.
•    Be as visible as possible.
•    Leave your ego behind.
•    Finally, remain loyal and let your loyalty be known.

Indispensable by Monday offers practical tips for employees and it is a worthwhile read.  As an employer of a boutique public relations firm, I found it intriguing. I know that if an employee did all the things that Mr. Myler noted in the book, I would certainly take care of him/her and make sure he/she is happy to stick around as long as possible.  Thankfully, I have several staff members who use many of these tactics.  I really appreciate that in them and try to do everything I can to make their journey a pleasant one.

Article first published as  on Blogcritics.org.

Everyone keeps asking me, “How’s your book doing?” And every day, I keep checking the Amazon ratings to find out. At first the book, “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Social Media, but were afraid to ask…,” was in the top 10 books under social media. Then it was ranked #20. Today it’s ranked 32, so I’m still happy about that.

The other day, I got a message from the HJMT web site. It said:

“I purchased a dozen plus copies of your book “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Social Media, but were afraid to ask…” for our Marketing Department to read for our book club. I have to lead a group discussion on the book at our next meeting and want it to go really, really well…. Maybe then be able to expand the book to other parts of our organization. I was wondering if you or your team had recommendations on thought provoking questions that I could have the group discuss at our meeting. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.”

A book club? How cool is that? It’s so good to see that social media has become mainstream. And who knows, if there are more book clubs interested in the book, then maybe my rankings will go back to the top 10. Who knows???

As a small business owner, curve balls are thrown my way on a regular basis.  I have had my own business now for 18 years and to me, my biggest hit was in 2008/09, when I nearly had to downsize half of my staff.  I was so depressed and couldn’t understand why this was happening, even though I knew everyone else was going through the same thing.

“How to Hit a Curveball,” by Scott R. Singer with Mark Levine, is a well-written book about how to confront and overcome the unexpected in business.

I love the metaphor that Scott Singer uses to compare business to baseball. Since curve balls don’t follow previous patterns, he talks about how Derek Jeter anticipates and acknowledges every curve ball thrown his way during a game and adjusts his swing accordingly.

Using each inning as a chapter is very creative.  He starts off the book with spring training: The Secret to Making the Majors.  He then follows suit by The First Inning: Step up to the Plate, and more.

Each inning, I mean chapter, has valuable information to offer the readers.  In the first inning, I could totally relate by reading the subchapters on who’s to blame and feeling the same anger and fear.  When things go wrong, you just want to hide and not deal with it.  But in 2008/09, we all had to deal with it.  Our country was going through one of the worst economies in more than 70 years!

As a result, I walked away with the knowledge to reinvent myself, my business, and take every day as it came.  And that’s exactly what Scott Singer reiterates.

Each chapter has something worthwhile to add.  He provides concrete examples and tips and strategies on self-motivation and awareness of the obstacles that can take place around us.

As entrepreneurs, we don’t want people telling us what to do. But, Scott Singer suggests having a coach because he/she will see things from a different perspective and help guide us in the right direction.

The other important takeaway I got from the “How to Hit a Curveball,” was that you should wait before you react.  Think about your options and then proceed with them.

For example, I know too many people who are upset about something and instead of talking about it, they write a nasty email or leave a nasty voice mail message.  Then when you call them, they are as sweet as pie.  So what’s that about?  It seems to me that if they took the time out to evaluate the situation, they would not have written the email or sent the voice mail message.

Curve balls don’t only happen in business.  They also happen in life as well and Scott Singer talks about it in the 9th inning.

Interestingly, I was reading this book while in Florida on a vacation visiting my parents.  As we were about to go to a family dinner, my mother, who is already disabled, fell and broke her leg.  This curve ball upset the entire family and the rest of the vacation was spent in the emergency room and hospital in Florida.  But, by taking Scott Singer’s advice to “roll with the punches,” I was able to get myself focused and then tried to get my parents focused on what needed to be done to get my mother better.

All in all, I liked the flow of the book. It kept my interest and was a fast read, which is important to me when reading business books.