Book Review - Who's Got Your Back by Keith Ferrazzi

I just finished reading who's got your back by Keith Ferrazzi.

I had also read Keith's book, Never Eat Alone, a few years back and was drawn to this book on the bookstore shelf with it's bright blue jacket, but even more when I saw the sub-title "The Secret to Finding the 3 People Who Will Change Your Life."

As I jumped in, I was not disappointed.  Ultimately, the book revolves around the four core mind-sets that form the behavioral foundation for creating lifeline relationships (p. 41):
1) Generosity
2) Vulnerability
3) Candor
4) Accountability

I found many different points within the book to be effective.  At the start, he mentions that the people you are relating with now are likely not the ones who you will be relating with as you grow and mature.   Amusingly, his therapist referred to getting into the habit of "plucking the weeds and tending the flowers."  Weeds are individuals who bring you down and flowers are the relationships you have that bring brightness, ideas, support and meaning to your life.  It is hard to weed out at times in my personal life.  Comes with my personality profile in that I want to believe and trust everyone and don't want to tell anyone 'No'.

I probably could have stopped reading this book about 60 pages before the end.  I thought that it got a little long and went from individual relationship building throughout the first 200+ pages to the team relationship building tips.  My personal opinion is that a non-fiction book that goes much past 220 pages or so gets too long.  Oddly enough, on the same day I finished this book, I read a post from Michael Hyatt about "How to Read a Non-Fiction Book". His first tip was "Don't feel that you need to finish." I thought this was a few days late for me!

In any event, there were MANY good points/takeaways as I mentioned above.  I had 7 'dogears'  and many highlights throughout the book that I reviewed.  Thus, I would suggest this book for your reading pleasure.  Because I lost interest in  the last 60 pages or so, I would give this book a 6 out of 10 on the dogear scale.

So, how are you cultivating those life-long relationships in your life.  In those relationships, are you being generour, vulnerable, candid in providing feedback and holding yourself and those relationships accountable for their actions?

Book Review - Tribes

I just finished reading Tribes by Seth Godin.  To say that this was a difficult book for me to read would be an understatement.  As I got to the final pages, I found myself thinking about how I would review the book and the author knew exactly what he was doing(as I had presumed).  In the final 2 pages, there was a section titled "What, Exactly, Should You Do Now?" It followed with: "You made it to the end.  And it's possible you missed the checklists, the detailed how-to lists, and the For Dummies style instruction manual that shows you exactly what to do to find a tribe and lead it.  I think that was the point."

Well, I kept saying to myself the last several pages that this book was not organized into logical chapters AND, I think that is exactly what the author intended.  He confirmed if for me.  At least it was confirmed that I was NOT losing my mind!!!

The Tribe in the title is that group needing to be led.  It may be a Tribe that is already created, but they need a leader. 

There were takeaways for me that I highlighted and/or dogeared:

• He talked about heretics as those wanting to make a difference and challenging the status quo.  I might refer to them as 'pot-stirrers', but stirring the pot with the intent to improve and solve a problem, not just stir the pot.  The example he used was "If faith is the foundation of a belief system, then religion is the facade and the landscaping."  Just because you challenge 'religions', doesn't mean you lose 'faith'
• He talked about technologies like Twitter, Facebook, and blogging as ENABLERS, and not as a cure.
• He did throw in one "How to" about 2/3 of the way through the book by identifying the key elements in starting your movement:
• Publish a 'manifesto' (motto, mantra, story)
• Make it easy for your followers (Tribe) to connect with you
• Make it easy for the Tribe to connect with one another
• Realize that money is not the point of a movement
• Track your progress

My favorite quote of the book was early on how he differentiates between managers and leaders

Managers have employees...Leaders have followers

Managers make widgets...Leaders make change

Final analysis: In reviewing back through, I had 5 dogears in the book, thus a 5 out of 10 rating.  I think this is a good book to help challenge conventional thinking and has some examples of how some have chosen to make a difference.

Anyone else read this book?  Do you have a different viewpoint?

Book Review - Love & Respect

I just finished reading Love & Respect, by Dr. Emerson Eggerichs.

I picked this book up while walking around Family Christian Bookstore one day and I have to admit that at first, I bought it more for my wife than me! Then, as I started it, I was reminded of a verse from Matthew 7:3 - "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's(wife's!) eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?"(NIV) - OUCH! I also had seen a review done by Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishing, on his blog about the book.

The theme of the book revolves around the often mis-interpreted book in the Bible - Ephesians, and specifically verse 5:33 "However, each one of you must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband." (NIV). Ultimately, the author describes the problem as the Crazy Cycle:

So, after I got the big "plank" out of my own eye, I was ready to learn in the book.

It comes down to our basic needs:

1) The Love She Most Desires

2) The Respect He Desperately Needs

The author shares great stories from his seminars of husbands and wives looking for the answers. I found myself laughing out loud and reading parts to Chris, saying "Here we are...wait til you hear this." The most humbling ones were "Here I am. I know I do THIS one."

The author used acronyms as ways for husbands and wives to come off the crazy cycle. Men, here is yours: C-O-U-P-L-E = How to Spell Love to Your Wife.

C=Closeness O=Openness U=Understanding P= Peacemaking L=Loyalty E=Esteem

In each chapter, the author gave me all kinds of nuggets. And, ladies, he tried to help you as well with the acronym C-H-A-I-R-S

C=Conquest H=Hierarchy A=Authority I=Insight R=Relationship S=Sexuality

Now, this section was suggested just for the women, but I had to read it anyway. And, I nearly fell off the bed while reading one like when the author quips to the women, "Think about when you get out of the shower versus when he gets out of the shower. When you step out of the shower, he is all eyes, oblivious to everything else. But what happens when he steps out of the shower? You probably say something like, "Please stand on the bath mat." or "Be careful! I just waxed the floor."

I believe this is a great book for couples to read together to improve their marriage and really should be required reading BEFORE marriage. My takeaways included:

1) I need to be sure that I am showing unconditional love she desires all the time to my wife and not hold that love back if I don't feel like I am getting the respect I need

2) My kids are watching and when they are dis-respectful to their mother, it is likely because I am not showing her the love she deserves in front of them

3) The Bible is so clear on this topic of marriage. I sometimes have too big of a plank in my own eye to see it.

There are so many nuggets in this book, it easily gets my highest rating: a "10 out of 10" dogear rating. Now, I know I could give MANY of these books out, but I don't want anyone to feel I am telling them/hi,/her what they need to do. If you want to work to get off of the Crazy Cycle (by the way, it is always there. Nobody is perfect) and on to the Rewarded Cycle, then you should make the choice to buy this book and read it. If you make the choice, I know you will enjoy it! If you allow it, it could change your marriage and, thus, your life!

Are you ready to get off of the Crazy Cycle and on to the Rewarded Cycle?

Book review - Duct Tape Marketing

Recently, I completed the book Duct Tape Marketing by John Jantsch. It was a gift from a friend that I received about 4 years ago and really have just gotten around to reading it. I wish I would have read it three years ago when I made the choice to enter in to the real estate business.


This book is chalked full of pragmatic tips for putting together a marketing 'system' for your small business. I filled the front and back inside bindings with notes and ideas as they popped into my head while reading the pages.

I appreciated the author's definition of Marketing:

Getting people who have a specific need or problem to know, like, and trust you

I believe that definition is spot on for small business marketing. The book is broken out into 3 parts:

1) The Duct Tape Foundation

2) The Duct Tape Lead Generation Machine

3) Getting on a Roll - Finding out what 'sticks' and do more of it.

I implemented ideas he suggested and saw immediate results:

1)Webinars - We did a Webinar and generated three new leads and closed one in less than a week! Our average sales cycle is 4 months. Needless to say, we have another Webinar scheduled!!

2) Wake up the senses with an Image to Match Your Message - I updated the look of the header on our website and added this 'image' to our advertising, and marketing materials, and have already had comments about the improvements from potential clients. See some of the changes at http://www.whitegallagher.com/

And, I used the book to help set new measurements for Sales & Marketing including: Lead generation numbers and Lead conversion rations.

I have shared this book with team members and look forward to using it as a guide to put together our marketing plan for the future. I highly suggest this book to small business owners looking to leverage their marketing. The book was published in 2006, so it just started to delver into how to use social media as well, but as you read it, you can visualize how to make improvements via blogging, Facebook, Twitter, and other creative ways to get your message out to as many prospects as possible.

This book gets a '10' on my dogear rating system. My highest ranking. If you can't find the ideas to help you improve your marketing system in this book, I don't know where you will find it!!

Book Review - The First 90 Days

I recently completed the book The First 90 Days by Michael Watkins. It was a gift from my wife, Chris, for Valentine's Day. I don't know if it was a message or not - "New Leaders at All Levels" was who the book was designed to target. I had been in real estate for three years now!!!

In any event, I dove in head first and found this to be an insightful book for new leaders. The book starts out by defining the "Breakeven Point" for new leaders, which is defined as the 'Point' at which new leaders have contributed as much value to their new organizations as they have consumed from it. The average time that CEOs said was the time at which a new manager hit this point was 6.2 months (pg. 2&3).



The book attempts to outline a process whereas that time (6.2 months)can be accelerated and the success of new leades in their positions increased. When I heard there was a process, it made it an easy read for me as I tend to enjoy books that define processes to achieve a goal. This book was no different.

This book was not a one-size-fits-all either. The author identifies 4 different scenarios defined as STaRS (the a is actually supposed to be superscript!). S-Start-up, T-Turn around, R-Realignment, and S-Success and different challenges and opportunities with each scenario.

I found the book to be a little short on real life examples and the visuals to be a little complex; however, I feel this will be a good reference book for me in the future. During previous book reviews, I used my rating system based upon 'dogears'. How many pages did I 'dogear' for future reference? There were more than 10, so I would give this book a Top '10 dog-ear' rating. I recommend it to new leaders at managerial levels, AND I think this would be a good book for those who 'aspire' to move up in their organization or careers as well. During an interview, I believe MANY times you will be asked "What will you do in the first 30,60, or 90 days in your new role?" How great would it be if you could use the tips in this book as a way to answer that question?! It would impress me.

I would like to share this book with you. Be the first to a) comment on this post, b) subscribe to this blog via Reader or email, and c) commit to reviewing the book as a guest blogger when you complete it! I will mail you a copy of the book.