Episode #166: How Companies Like Facebook, VMware and 5-hour Energy Dominate Markets

With Play Bigger co-author Christopher Lochhead

When multiple people in my life, otherwise unrelated to one another, are recommending I read a particular book, I pay attention. I’m pretty smart that way.

So, when I was unable to get away from one recent recommendation, I finally decided to give it a go. And I’m glad I did.  

christopher lochhead

The book I’m talking about is called Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers, and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets by my guest Christopher Lochhead, along with Al Ramadan, Dave Peterson and Kevin Maney.

They ask what do Facebook, Google, Salesforce.com, Uber, VMware, Netflix and a few others, have in common? Why do some start-ups last and build value while others flame out?

They key, Christopher and his co-authors argue, has to do with creating, developing, and dominating new categories of products and services.

In today’s episode, Christopher and I talk about how it’s done. Click “play” below for more.

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Read to Lead University Registration is Open!

Only 50 spots available!

I’ve got some great news. My exclusive book club, created especially for listeners of Read to Lead, has officially re-opened for only the second time.

I call it Read to Lead University.

There are only 50 spots available, and several of those spots have already been snagged by those who were on the standby list after our last open registration.

You’ll need to act fast, or risk missing out all together.

You may be thinking, “Why only 50 spots, Jeff?”

You see, limiting the number of people coming in at any one time, especially for a relatively new project like this one, allows me to truly super serve each member.

Being on the ground floor of something like this is a big deal, so I want to do all I can to make it special. Capping registrations gives me the ability to do that.

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Here’s what you’ve missed – but have a chance to check out once a member…

Since launching the book club in late January to 50 charter members, we’ve read both Reach and Deep Work as a group.

In this short time, members were able to submit questions about Deep Work to the author himself, Cal Newport (and he graciously answered every last one)! The questions and his responses are posted in our members area.

Not only that, but Reach author Andy Molinsky joined us for our very first LIVE monthly book chat about his book! Yes, we recorded it. It’s in the members area AND, it’s AWESOME!

So, what all does your membership get you? Great question. Membership includes:

  • A personal invitation to our LIVE monthly, members-only book chats
  • The chance to build relationships with other members via our live, virtual breakout sessions
  • Access to all book chat recordings (even the ones held before you joined)
  • Access to on-going book- and reading-related resources
  • Entry into our private Facebook group for on-going discussions
  • A subscription to Read to Lead University magazine (our printable and downloadable monthly book summaries)
  • Accountability and encouragement toward your reading goals
  • Helpful strategies each month to ensure you take action on what you’re learning
  • A chance to ask questions of, and forward comments to, some of the authors whose books we’re reading.
  • And, yes, the chance to meet some of our authors through occasional visits to our LIVE book chats!

Sounds awesome, right? But don’t take my word for it. Here’s what current members are saying:

“If you want more meaning, more brain power and more fun in your professional development, you’ve just found it.” – Sherri G.

Right out of the gate we had an opportunity to hear directly from our first book’s author. It’s been very cool and I look forward to the other books this year. – Sovann P.

The group calls are fantastic! Read to Lead University has been a great investment in ME! – Sara H.

The member rate is just $25 per month. AND you should know that once these 50 slots are filled, membership will never be offered at this rate again.

I don’t expect these slots to last long so, if you’re in, make sure you join now by clicking this link:

===>> Read to Lead University Enrollment

You may be wondering, “Jeff, what books are you reading together next?” Great question.

Our April book is called The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks Than Others Do in 12 Months by Brian Moran and Michael Lennington. Then, in May, we’ll be diving into Pivot: The Only Move That Matters is Your Next One by Jenny Blake.

Put simply, I want to help you actually execute on what you’re learning through the reading you’re doing. That’s what Read to Lead University is all about.

Like my wife Annie wrote yesterday morning during her daily devotional time:

Knowledge is good, but there is a vast difference between knowledge (having the facts) and wisdom (applying those fact to life).

Let this community help you with “applying those facts to life.” I hope you’ll join us.

Episode #163: How to Fuel a Lifelong Love Affair With Your Customers

With Tara-Nicholle Nelson, author of The Transformational Consumer

According to today’s guest, as brands “we must dedicate ourselves to becoming a facilitator of the transformations people want to make in their lives.”

The reason, according to Tara-Nicholle Nelson, is because of the number-one factor limiting your company’s success. Disengagement. 

tara-nicholle nelson

She dives into this and more in her new book, The Transformational Consumer: Fuel a Lifelong Love Affair With Your Customers By Helping Them Get Healthier, Wealthier, and Wiser.

In it, she reveals a Transformational Consumer Framework to help you elevate how you think about everything: your customer, what you sell, your marketing, the competition, and your team.

For more on this topic, just click the play button below. You’ll be glad you did. And, to enter to win a copy of Tara’s book, just click here.

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Episode #160: How to Outsmart Your Instincts and Drive Your Company Forward

With Innovation Devotee, Adam Hansen

We are all descendants of risk-averse ancestors. That, according to my guest this week, Adam Hansen, and his co-authors Edward Harrington and Beth Storz.

What does this nugget mean for you, you ask? Well, these same self-preservation instincts that helped your great, great, great, great, great, great (and so on) grandparents avoid threats and evade danger, no longer serve you in a modern world of innovation.

adam hansen

In the new book Outsmart Your Instincts: How the Behavioral Innovation Approach Drives Your Company Forward, Adam and his colleagues describe our inherent cognitive biases that get in the way of innovation and how to overcome them.

I found the book to be full of compelling case studies and exercises that opened my eyes to new ways of problem solving.

This book will increase your odds of finding new territory to explore. Speaking of which, click the “play” button below to explore some more. 

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Episode #148: Master Content Marketing with Copyblogger’s Pamela Wilson

The career trajectory of today’s guest has been nothing short of amazing. 

I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Pamela Wilson for about two years now, right about the time she began working for Copyblogger, serving as executive vice president of educational content.

pamela wilson

Funny thing is, just six short years ago, she didn’t consider herself a writer. What she set out to do back in 2010 was to be intentional about becoming one. I think you’ll agree, she’s certainly accomplished that and more.

Her new book is called Master Content Marketing: A Simple Strategy to Cure the Blank Page Blues and Attract a Profitable Audience.

Content marketing, Pamela argues, is the single, most effective method for attracting a profitable audience. And in this new book, she lays out a 7-step process for doing just that.

This book will become a resource you refer back to again and again.

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