“60 is the new 40.*”

You might start hearing the above expression more frequently, and there is truth behind it. Advances in modern medicine have allowed those reaching 65 to live an additional 17.9 years compared to those reaching similar ages in the mid 1960’s. Those born in the “boomer” period (from the years 1946 to 1964) total to a population of 77 million. That is the roughly the equivalent of 25% of the total US population.

The Baby Boomer market is abundant with opportunities. Boomers have disposable cash and are ready to spend it. When reading through the market data you’ll come across some formidable numbers:

• Boomers spend $157 billion on leisure travel - making up 80% of all US expenditures on leisure travel
• Boomers also spend close to $42 billion dollars on apparel

And these are just some of the figures provided. With 45% of US population being 40 or older the goal is to focus on what the author calls “Life stage marketing”. Boomers will go through more transitions in their 50’s and 60’s than any other phase of life.

Some of the phases:

• Family - empty nest, loss of parents, grandchildren
• Health - menopause, vision / hearing loss, arthritis
• Housing - downsizing, rightsizing, remodeling, second home
• Leisure - retirement, finances, travel, perspective/search for meaning

Each stage or phase provides ample opportunities.

Summary: Turning Silver Into Gold presents an comprehensive overview of the global baby boomer marketplace - including population statistics, financial data, trends, ect.

Dr. Furlong breaks down the various market segments and focuses on areas important to baby boomers. These include areas such as family, health, travel, housing, friendships, entrepreneurship, and fashion.

These market segment overviews also include the analysis of current leading and competing companies in the specific markets.

Focus Audience: This book perfect for those interested in focusing on the baby boomer market (investors, entrepreneurs, corporate strategists). Overall this book is an excellent resource for an overview of baby boomer market.

*Purely coincidental - this was the headline article for CNN the night this was posted.

Jeffrey Gitomer is a familiar name in the business book world. He is the author of the top selling book on sales “The Little Red Book of Selling” and the follow up, “The Little Red Book of Sales Answers”. He is back with a new addition to his “Little Book” series with his new book, “Little Green Book of Getting Your Way: How to Speak, Write, Present, Persuade, Influence, and Sell Your Point of View to Others”. Recently, Bizbooktalk.com had the opportunity to attend Jeffrey’s “Little Black Book of Connections” seminar in Renton, Washington.

The seminar drew quite a large audience and the venue was packed with a diverse crowd, ranging from marketing and sales reps to local political candidates. Jeffrey’s presentation was full of advice and tips from his Little Black Book series as well as his Little Red Book series. His seminar included advice for:

• Networking for success - network more effectively by finding ways to add value first. Find out what is important to the person you are meeting/looking to meet and how you can help them.
• Using creative marketing methods so that you never miss an opportunity to engage with a customer - your business card, out of office email message and voicemail message are all channels for engaging with current and prospective customers. Make the most of these channels by exercising your creativity. For example, Jeffrey uses a customized coin as his business card.

Jeffrey’s presentation included a fantastic combination of useful information and humor, combined with a very engaging presentation style. If you have an opportunity to attend one of Jeffrey’s seminars in your area, you won’t want to miss the opportunity. His current seminar schedule can be found here.

Things have been slow here at BizBookTalk. We’ll be back next week with a new giveaway!

In the meantime I’m going to point you to two sites that have some great content:

• Head over to BNET’s website for some great material. They are a fairly new site, but offer some useful content. Right now they are featuring pieces on how to handle competitors, taming your boss, and offers ‘crash courses’ in areas such as selling and managing.
• Trizle - This blog/biz journal is written in a fashionable (read: younger generation slang) way while at the same time offering insights from the latest from business research findings. It is definitely worth visiting directly instead of reading through RSS feed.

Also, if there are any specific books that you would like featured shoot me an email!

There is a growing trend for individuals to expand beyond one career. The old model of “one job, one company” for life is out the door. Today we are giving away 5 copies of Marci Alboher’s new book “One Person/Multiple Careers: A New Model for Work/Life Success“. She introduces us to the individuals who define themselves as ’slashes’. What are ’slashes’? It is a person who expands beyond one career, one job.

Whether they are a policeman/landscape designer, lawyer/chef, actor/web-designer these individuals do not limit themselves to one career. This allows them to live a more fulfilling life by pursing their passions, and not allowing one career/job wear them out. It’s not surprising that this population of the workforce is growing because in reality is anyone truly one dimensional? I find it hard to believe so.

Marci has adopted the “slash” as well - a former lawyer and now a author/speaker/coach. This book is a must read for those who aren’t happy with their current situation in life and want to pursue multiple careers.

From Publishers Weekly

For those already slashing through multifaceted professional lives, Alboher’s collection of profiles of people juggling multiple roles may offer the comfort of knowing others are doing the same. For those recently separated from a job or seeking greater fulfillment from life, Alboher’s fascination with people working through dual existences may reveal an alternate path to success. Like the psychotherapist/violin maker she interviews, Alboher has abandoned an easily described career as an attorney to become a journalist, author, speaker and writing coach. Her book is less about making career changes than changing how one defines a career and making adjustments for a more satisfying life. After focusing a bit too intently on how multilayered careers get their start, she segues into more action-oriented advice, including experimenting with different identities before making career-altering changes; how to keep income flowing; and how to market oneself once one adds a slash or two to one’s job description. When the disparate threads of one’s life are woven together in this way, she argues in this creative and satisfying guide, “the whole of you comes out.”

To be entered into today’s book giveaway, “One Person/Multiple Careers: A New Model for Work/Life Success” (5 copies available) answer this:

What “slashes” would you ideally like to be known for? In a perfect world what would you pursue in multiple fields? Or if you already are leading a multiple career life, what is it?

Comment by 9pm CST on Friday March 30th and be entered to win! 5 winners will be randomly selected.

Unfortunately we aren’t running a giveaway this week. We’ll return next week with our typical Friday giveaways!

No one likes working with or for an asshole.

Does your work have a No Asshole Rule? If not they should consider it says Bob Sutton, a professor at Stanford and author of “The No Asshole Rule”. Why you ask? Here are some of the facts:

• Negative interactions have 5 times stronger impact on individuals than positive interactions. An asshole around the office can be detrimental to employee’s productivity.
• Assholes drive people out of organizations and suck the life and effectiveness out of those who stay.
• Can cost your company in the regions of hundreds of thousands of dollars (from time spent by HR professionals, outside employment counsel, recruiting and training new employees, ect).

Inspired by his popular article from the January 2004 issue of Harvard Business Review (Harvard subsequently snubbed a request from Bob from publishing this book due to its title), “The No Asshole Rule” drops the facts and relentless truths about assholes. It comes down to this: they need to be shown the door. It doesn’t matter if the individual is your ‘best’ worker – if they are an asshole they have to go. As you read in the bullet points above there are no benefits from keeping an asshole around.

One section that is extra helpful is the advice on how to cope and survive nasty people and workplaces. The truth is at times you can’t escape assholes. Circumstances may force to stay at a job or be placed on a temporary project which involves working with assholes. Therefore, you have to arm yourself with the knowledge of how to deal with them. One of Bob’s tips: develop indifference and emotional detachment. Yes, that’s right. It’s totally against what most business books promote (i.e. passion and vivacity towards work) but it’s the truth. Sometimes that is the only way to self-preserve in a crappy situation.

“We are all given only so many hours here on earth. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could travel through our lives without encountering people who bring us down with their demeaning remarks and actions?” - Robert Sutton

Are you living by the No Asshole Rule?

To be entered into today’s book giveaway, “The No Asshole Rule” (5 copies available) answer this:

Provide an example where you have had to deal with an asshole. What was the experience like? How did you deal with them?

Comment by 9pm CST on Sunday March 18th and be entered to win! 5 winners will be randomly selected.

Update: Winners have been selected! Thanks for all the great comments and a special thanks to Renee from Hachette Book Group USA for participating in this weeks giveaway.

Alpha Dogs is an easy read on various small companies and the lessons their owners have learned over the years as entrepreneurs. Written by a former contributing writer for Inc. magazine, Donna Fenn, the stories and lessons are diverse and eclectic. Ranging from an ice cream shop chain in Austin, Texas to Harley dealership in New England, each owner unabashedly reveals the mistakes and successful thinking that has elevated them to their current position.

These are not cutting edge industries but rather cutting edge companies in un-sexy niche areas like grocery stores in Ohio. The book does a good job demonstrating how creativity and passion can empower small businesses to carve out a niche and stand-up to Big Box competitors like Wal-Mart.

A key criterion for each company inclusion was the author’s insistence that each owner have a few skinned knees throughout their history. This was a smart move on Fenn’s part, as the text can be a bit monotonous at times. If it was all a Cinderella theme it could be tough to stomach. Reading these stories after digesting Good to Great, you start to see a company hitting its hedge-hog concept (Zane’s Cycle) or a leader realizing he is not Level 5 after a near-fatal stroke (THOR-LO socks).

Fenn summarizes the “key points” at the conclusion of each chapter and pulls in small anecdotes of other companies that attacked the same problem and their solution. Consistent themes emerge that exist at many larger successful enterprises, namely openness to innovation, early adoption of technology, and providing superior customer service.

There is nothing revolutionary in this text and that’s okay. It’s a good dispatch from the front lines of successful small businesses around the country. The biggest takeaway being that the fundamentals do still apply at any size and when executed properly can have impressive results.

Stay tuned for an upcoming review of Small Giants by Inc.’s Bo Burlingham, which covers similar ideas in a nice mashed up story line.

Jeffrey Gitomer is a familiar name in the business book world. He is the author of the top selling book on sales “The Little Red Book of Selling” and the follow up, “The Little Red Book of Sales Answers”. He is back with a new addition to his “Little Book” series with a guide for attitude. In his new book, “Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude: How to Find, Build and Keep a YES! Attitude for a Lifetime of SUCCESS”, Jeffrey hits us with a step-by-step guide for building and mastering an positive attitude. Today we are giving away 10 copies!

Everyone will benefit from a positive attitude in their life. For one, life is too short to keep a negative attitude about things. Thinking positively will help you enjoy life to its fullest. Second, having a positive attitude is contagious to those around you. You’ll find that people will want to spend more time with you if you keep a positive demeanor. There are no downfalls of maintaining a positive attitude.

To be entered into today’s book giveaway, “Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude: How to Find, Build and Keep a YES! Attitude for a Lifetime of SUCCESS” (10 copies available) answer this two questions:

Comment by 9pm CST on Friday March 9th and be entered to win! 10 winners will be randomly selected.

Update: Winners have been selected! Thanks for all the great comments and a special thanks to Rebecca from BuyGitomer, Inc. for participating in this weeks giveaway.

Check in for tomorrow’s giveaway of “Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude: How to Find, Build and Keep a YES! Attitude for a Lifetime of SUCCESS” by Jeffrey Gitomer.

Summary:
Jeffrey Gitomer’s latest book, Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, provides readers with the basic building blocks for developing a lifelong positive attitude. Although one cannot always control the events that happen, one can still control one’s outlook and attitude. This book deals with learning how to deal with people and external events in a consistently positive manner. Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude covers:

• attitude awareness
• actions that result in positive attitude changes
• attitude achievement
• how to continuously maintain a positive attitude

Pros: Effective, easy-to-use tips for readers to begin developing a lifelong positive attitude. Good examples for turning negative events into positive outcomes.

Cons: The book uses a creative variety of font styles and font sizes, including page inserts, which made it difficult for me to discern where one section ends and the next section begins.

Recommendation: Overall, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude is a good motivational work for putting readers on the path to achieving a positive attitude.

Since reading a non-fiction book is quite different than reading a fiction book I thought I’d round up some resources that will help you. For a more detailed write-up check out this post on The Practice of Leadership which provides a systematic way to read non-fiction.

(One quick note, this is aimed at those who read non-fiction on the side for enjoyment - it doesn’t apply to reading and studying text books )

If you are a frequent reader of business books you quickly realize that many books released are rehashed material just packaged differently. That’s the reality. Publishers need to make money like all businesses. Due to this you may have to start multiple books before you’ll find something worthy of reading. If you don’t find a connection with the book within the first 20-30 pages, don’t read it. There are far too many books out there to force your way through a book that you don’t enjoy.

Once you have your selection follow the three steps below:

1. Skim through Table of Contents, Index and opening chapter as it will explain what the book will talk about.
2. First time reading through, anytime you come across something worth highlighting or noting, I’ll put parenthesis around the section and then mark in the margin with a Q (for quote). Now if you have a library book this won’t fly so grab an index card and mark the page number down and a few words from the sentence. Keep the index card as your bookmark.
3. Once you’ve finished the book completely – go back to the highlighted sections and review the material. Since most people won’t absorb the information the first time through this will help you grow more familiar with the concepts the book is putting forth.

While the above steps are nothing groundbreaking when implemented I’ve found they help a lot more than just straight reading through. When it comes to reading non-fiction, I’m happy to takeaway 2-3 new ideas or facts.

If you find that this is too little to help you, below are some links that provide more detailed examples of reading non-fiction:

• How to read and digest a book
• How to Read a Book: Strategies for Getting the Most out of Non-Fiction Reading (PDF)
• How to Read Jim Collins, Michael Hammer, Tom Peters, Peter Drucker and the others…

Harry Beckworth, one of the worlds most respected brand strategists has been helping companies in such areas as positioning, branding and other various client relations. He wrote the top selling “Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing” back in 1997 which was one of the first books focused on selling services. He is back again with “You Inc.: The Art of Selling Yourself” which is based on his 30 years of business experience.

As Harry says, “Living is Selling” so it is vital that you master the skill of selling yourself. He provides an endless amount of anecdotes and priceless tips on areas such as: speaking and listening, attitude and beliefs, and tactics and habits (for instance: how to remember names!).

To be entered into today’s book giveaway, “You, Inc.: The Art of Selling Yourself” (5 copies available) answer this two questions:

Since we were late getting this post up, comment by 9pm CST on Sunday February 25th and be entered to win! 5 winners will be randomly selected.

Update: Winners have been selected!

When the design of the Ipod Nano was first announced in September of 2005, fans of Apple’s products were rejoicing. Enthusiasts could now enjoy all the same features of its larger brother, the Ipod, but now in a compact form. At the debut media showing, Steve Jobs pulled the Nano from his pocket to demonstrate how small it is. If you could imagine 5 credit cards stacked upon each other, then you could imagine the size and depth of the Nano. The buzz was there. Fans were frothing at the mouth. Apple was at the top of their game.

There was a problem though.

The front screens were breaking – and they broke easily. Nano owners attempted to imitate Steve and carry their Nano in the front pocket of their jeans. Once they pulled the Nano from their pockets they were shocked to see the screen cracked and scratched as if their pockets were lined with sandpaper. Fans were upset. Apple was mum on answering complaints. Those with broken screens wanted an answer. What would they do? Boycott the Nano? Take it up with large media outlets? Neither.

They utilized the power of the Web and got Apple to respond.

The Internet has allowed the mass collaboration of similar individuals. There are no borders on the Internet (that is if you don’t live in China). Geography, what used to be a barrier to collaboration, has become marginalized. As best selling author Tom Friedman says: the Internet has ‘flattened’ the world. If you have access to a computer and a high speed connection, you can participate on the Internet.

This low barrier to entry has spawned what is known as ‘social media’. You’ve experienced social media if you have ever visited a blog, or websites such as Flickr, MySpace, or YouTube.

Social media can be thought as the online tools (blogs, wiki’s, message boards) which allow people to create and share content which expresses their opinions and perspectives with others. Those who create this content are called ‘Citize