A solid how-to book offering an alternative method for building a client list.
Real estate business owners Lascsak and Plumb make YouTube their primary marketing tool in this nonfiction business guide.
This business book tells the story of how two Dallas-based real estate agents achieved millions in sales in their first years on the job without pursuing traditional lead-generating strategies, instead building a clientele from the global audience for their YouTube videos. In the book’s first section, the authors lay out the case for YouTube’s value as a prospecting tool, backing up anecdotes from their business history with statistics and theory to explain how a video that takes an hour to produce can generate results months or years later. The second section outlines, in meticulous detail, the mechanics of establishing a YouTube channel, populating it with content, and optimizing the channel for both subscribers and search engines. In an acknowledgement of the constantly changing nature of online platforms, the book’s final chapter addresses how the pair changed their process in response to YouTube’s evolution. Lascsak, the primary author, is a strong storyteller who understands how to build an argument without overselling it—despite a few mentions of the pair’s consulting services, the book feels more like a user manual than a sales pitch. The story of the authors’ evolution into vloggers is well told, with an appropriate level of persuasive detail—they were convinced video was worth a try after discovering that a nearby suburb was searched for almost 10 times more often on YouTube than on Google. The book does a particularly good job of illustrating how providing the content that users are searching for is more effective, both financially and in terms of customer satisfaction, than traditional advertising that imposes itself without the user’s consent (“We didn’t have to chase clients, because our videos brought clients to us”) as well as being more satisfying for the creators than cold-calling or mailing postcards. The book is equally effective at demonstrating how the same principles can be applied to any industry that requires client prospecting.
A solid how-to book offering an alternative method for building a client list.Pub Date: March 1, 2023
ISBN: 9781544538105
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Lioncrest Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Perhaps not magic but appealing nonetheless.
Want to get ahead in business? Consult a dictionary.
By Wharton School professor Berger’s account, much of the art of persuasion lies in the art of choosing the right word. Want to jump ahead of others waiting in line to use a photocopy machine, even if they’re grizzled New Yorkers? Throw a because into the equation (“Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine, because I’m in a rush?”), and you’re likely to get your way. Want someone to do your copying for you? Then change your verbs to nouns: not “Can you help me?” but “Can you be a helper?” As Berger notes, there’s a subtle psychological shift at play when a person becomes not a mere instrument in helping but instead acquires an identity as a helper. It’s the little things, one supposes, and the author offers some interesting strategies that eager readers will want to try out. Instead of alienating a listener with the omniscient should, as in “You should do this,” try could instead: “Well, you could…” induces all concerned “to recognize that there might be other possibilities.” Berger’s counsel that one should use abstractions contradicts his admonition to use concrete language, and it doesn’t help matters to say that each is appropriate to a particular situation, while grammarians will wince at his suggestion that a nerve-calming exercise to “try talking to yourself in the third person (‘You can do it!’)” in fact invokes the second person. Still, there are plenty of useful insights, particularly for students of advertising and public speaking. It’s intriguing to note that appeals to God are less effective in securing a loan than a simple affirmative such as “I pay all bills…on time”), and it’s helpful to keep in mind that “the right words used at the right time can have immense power.”
Perhaps not magic but appealing nonetheless.Pub Date: March 7, 2023
ISBN: 9780063204935
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Harper Business
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2023
Career and business advice for the hashtag generation. For all its self-absorption, this book doesn’t offer much reflection...
A Dumpster diver–turned-CEO details her rise to success and her business philosophy.
In this memoir/business book, Amoruso, CEO of the Internet clothing store Nasty Gal, offers advice to young women entrepreneurs who seek an alternative path to fame and fortune. Beginning with a lengthy discussion of her suburban childhood and rebellious teen years, the author describes her experiences living hand to mouth, hitchhiking, shoplifting and dropping out of school. Her life turned around when, bored at work one night, she decided to sell a few pieces of vintage clothing on eBay. Fast-forward seven years, and Amoruso was running a $100 million company with 350 employees. While her success is admirable, most of her advice is based on her own limited experiences and includes such hackneyed lines as, “When you accept yourself, it’s surprising how much other people will accept you, too.” At more than 200 pages, the book is overlong, and much of what the author discusses could be summarized in a few tweets. In fact, much of it probably has been: One of the most interesting sections in the book is her description of how she uses social media. Amoruso has a spiritual side, as well, and she describes her belief in “chaos magic” and “sigils,” a kind of wishful-thinking exercise involving abstract words. The book also includes sidebars featuring guest “girlbosses” (bloggers, Internet entrepreneurs) who share equally clichéd suggestions for business success. Some of the guidance Amoruso offers for interviews (don’t dress like you’re going to a nightclub), getting fired (don’t call anyone names) and finding your fashion style (be careful which trends you follow) will be helpful to her readers, including the sage advice, “You’re not special.”
Career and business advice for the hashtag generation. For all its self-absorption, this book doesn’t offer much reflection or insight.Pub Date: May 6, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-399-16927-4
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Portfolio
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2014
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