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Gerardo

GD

Austin, TX, United States | Member Since 2011

22
HELPFUL VOTES
  • 8 reviews
  • 12 ratings
  • 64 titles in library
  • 11 purchased in 2013
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FOLLOWERS
4

  • To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth about Moving Others

    • UNABRIDGED (6 hrs and 6 mins)
    • By Daniel H. Pink
    • Narrated By Daniel H. Pink
    • Whispersync for Voice-ready
    Overall
    (130)
    Performance
    (117)
    Story
    (119)

    According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, one in nine Americans works in sales. Every day more than 15 million people earn their keep by persuading someone else to make a purchase. But dig deeper and a startling truth emerges: Yes, one in nine Americans works in sales. But so do the other eight. Whether we’re employees pitching colleagues on a new idea, entrepreneurs enticing funders to invest, or parents and teachers cajoling children to study, we spend our days trying to move others.

    Howard Gutowitz says: "90% inert filler. Author can do better"
    "Lenghty book with a few solid tips on persuation"
    Overall
    Performance
    Story

    I had very high expectations for Daniel Pink, maybe that's the problem.

    The first section of the book is all bout why we are all in sales. It could have been done in 2 minutes. Big waste of time. People who don't value sales and the need for persuation would not buy this book in the first place. You can skip those chapters.

    The second part is more interesting. The whole premise is centered in ABC selling: atunement, buoyancy and connection. Good concepts. Daniel could have said: listening, optiimsm/passion and connection. Much simpler.

    Some discussions are lenghty: you could listen to a whole chapter to get one nugget of knowledge of varying levels of usefulness. Still, it's a good book, but not at the top of my list.

    The narration is clear, although after a while it feels a bit too stron (like the author is yelling at you), but it's not a major concern. If you can find a 5 page summary of this book, you would probably get 90% of its value.

    12 of 18 people found this review helpful
  • Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy

    • UNABRIDGED (7 hrs and 22 mins)
    • By Martin Lindstrom
    • Narrated By Don Leslie
    Overall
    (276)
    Performance
    (53)
    Story
    (53)

    Based on the single largest neuromarketing study ever conducted, Buyology reveals surprising truths about what attracts our attention and captures our dollars.

    Erik says: "What we think we know versus how we act in buying."
    "Interesting but somewhat misleading"
    Overall
    Performance
    Story

    I started listening to this audiobook with much interest as I had high expectations.

    First, I don't like ate attitude of the author. He made it absolutely clear he travels all over the world giving presentatioons to thousands and thousands of people. In multiple parts he lists many of the cities he travels to. I found this to be useless self-promotion.

    The book is about studying the human brain under MRI bran scans to determine the effect of advertising on humans.

    There are a number of problems with this approach. First, the author confuses correlation with causation. He even confuses the impact in brain electrical activity when exposed to a logo with the power of brand in influencing purchase decisions.

    The second problem is that the human brain is not understood enough to make all these correlations. Even in this book, he talks about areas of the brain "associated" with certain feelings - clearly acknowledging there is an association, to a scientific exclusive relationship. The brain does not work like a control panel, sorry.

    The third problem is that the electrical neurocortex reactions someone has when exposed to an ad and when looking at a logomay have very limited to do with all the complex decision making processes that go in our brains when deciding what products to buy.

    Fourth, the experiments assume there is no impact on our brain by being observed inside an MRI equipment with cables attached to our head. There could very well be a bias (or it could not) but the author makes no mention of this.

    A much better book is Predictably Irrational, by Da Arielly, who makes conclusions based on sound real-world, unbiased observation rather than laboratory pseudo scientific experiments.

    0 of 0 people found this review helpful
  • Comebacks: Powerful Lessons from Leaders Who Endured Setbacks and Recaptured Success on Their Terms

    • UNABRIDGED (7 hrs and 58 mins)
    • By Andrea Redmond, Patricia Crisafulli
    • Narrated By Jane Jacobs
    • Whispersync for Voice-ready
    Overall
    (3)
    Performance
    (3)
    Story
    (3)

    Insight from leaders who experienced major setbacks and redefined success. In tough economic times, when careers are derailed and leaders are forced to rewrite their professional plans, this book enlightens and uplifts. Comebacks features an all-star cast of 10 leaders who endured setbacks, then reassessed and moved ahead with new purpose. Based on revealing interviews, the book presents a behind-the headlines glimpse into the lives of leaders and how they drew upon resources, both internal and external.

    Gerardo says: "What a joke"
    "What a joke"
    Overall
    Performance
    Story

    Nothing to see here, move on, find another book. bye bye.

    Still here? so you wonder why I wrote that. OK, here is hw it goes:
    The authors found a handful of CEOs of really large companies who were fired by their board of directors or had otherwise horrible setback that left these poor people with multi-million-dollar golden parachutes.

    The book is about how they went deep inside their souls, reached deep into their super powerful leadership skills and came back from the brink of disaster (imagine not being able to affort the Gulfstream 6 jet! the horror!) to come back to success.

    Like one of the guys from Enron, who of course, knew nothing about the wrongdoing despite ivy league college education and many years of experience in F1000 companies. The two possible conlcusions are: either he was in, or he is an incompetent idiot. Either way, not a 'powerful leader' I am interested in following.

    The worst part is that you only get one side of the story, the story from the CEO telling all the good things he did and how wonderful his leadership was at the company when all tof a sudden the evil board of directors decided to fire them because of their incompetence. At no point I heard the point of view of the board or an interview with people that were involved.

    Look, I am an executive at a public company. I have nothing against smart people, leaders, and men and women that run companies, work hard, and make a lot of money.

    But I was at Motorola when Galvin was running the show. The book is 100% misleading. The success Galvin claims was really his president's. Zafirovsky was a very smart guy. Not Galvin. Galvin was born rich and turned one of the world's leading companies into nothing. The book does talk about how the poor guy was left with well over a billion dollars and his powerful comeback is a few investment companies - what did you expect him to do with a billion dollars? where is the comeback? what about the about 100,000 people that lost their jobs?

    Hey this is all my opinion,you may disagree. Maybe I am wrong. All I am telling you is I skipped the last four chapters and tuned my FM radio to comedy radio for the rest of my commute. It was a better use of my time.





    0 of 0 people found this review helpful
  • Marketing 3.0: From Products to Customers to the Human Spirit

    • UNABRIDGED (4 hrs and 41 mins)
    • By Philip Kotler, Hermawan Kartajaya, Iwan Setiawan
    • Narrated By Kent Cassella
    Overall
    (9)
    Performance
    (6)
    Story
    (6)

    The new model for marketing - Marketing 3.0 - treats customers not as mere consumers but as the complex, multi-dimensional human beings that they are. Customers, in turn, are choosing companies and products that satisfy deeper needs for participation, creativity, community, and idealism. In Marketing 3.0, world-leading marketing guru Philip Kotler explains why the future of marketing lies in creating products, services, and company cultures that inspire, include, and reflect the values of target customers.

    Thomas says: "The Future of Marketing"
    "What a disappointment"
    Overall
    Performance
    Story

    I am (was?) a big fan of Philip Kotler. His book on marketing is like the textbook of what marketing is all about.

    With this book, it really feels like the authors were looking too hard at coming up with the next big idea. They wanted to be visionaries and wrote a book about an upcoming trend.

    It looks like they were wrong. No only are they far off, but the audiobook is terribly executed. The buzzword 'Marketing 3.0' is repeated so many times it becomes annoying after the first 5 minutes.

    Well, I guess there was a chance their prediction could have been accurate and this book would have been a home run. Unfortunately it did not work out for the authors.

    There are plenty other good marketing books. Don't get distracted, or worse, misguided, by this audiobooks definition of what is next in marketing

    0 of 0 people found this review helpful
  • Accidental Genius: Using Writing to Generate Your Best Ideas, Insight and Content

    • UNABRIDGED (4 hrs and 28 mins)
    • By Mark Levy
    • Narrated By Bronson Pinchot
    • Whispersync for Voice-ready
    Overall
    (278)
    Performance
    (194)
    Story
    (191)

    When it comes to creating ideas, we hold ourselves back. Thats because inside each of us is an internal editor whose job is to forever polish our thoughts, so we sound smart and in control, and so that we fit into society. But what happens when we encounter problems for which such conventional thinking fails us? How do we get unstuck? For Mark Levy, the answer is freewriting....

    55t13 says: "Writing to right your way"
    "A simple idea that can help you write more"
    Overall
    Performance
    Story

    This is one of those books that would work better as a two-page magazine article. The entire book is about a single idea: if you need to write something and don't know where to start, just start writing whatever comes to mind, there will be time for filtering, editing and fine tuning later.

    The rest o f the book is an elaboration on this idea. I am not a professional, full-time writer so take my comment with that in mind.

    There are other books about writing that I found to be much, much richer

    9 of 10 people found this review helpful
  • Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World

    • UNABRIDGED (5 hrs and 13 mins)
    • By Michael Hyatt
    • Narrated By Michael Hyatt
    Overall
    (88)
    Performance
    (77)
    Story
    (77)

    To be successful in the market today, you must possess two strategic assets: a compelling product and a meaningful platform. In this step-by-step guide, Michael Hyatt, former CEO and current Chairman of Thomas Nelson Publishers, takes readers behind the scenes, into the new world of social media success. He shows you what best-selling authors, public speakers, entrepreneurs, musicians, and other creative minds are doing differently to win customers in today’s crowded marketplace.

    Abraham says: "Lots of Quality Info, Not-So-Great Voice Over"
    "A guide to set up your thought leadership blog"
    Overall
    Performance
    Story

    This is a good book, don't get me wrong, but it did not deliver what i was expecting. Maybe I read the description wrong, I was hoping for Michael Hyatt to provide a guide on how to become a thought leader and how to get noticed. The book focuses on the tactics of setting up a blog, how to promote your books, how to do guest posts. All of this is useful information, delivered in an effective way with lots of examples and I did get an idea or two from the book. But it left me wanting to know about how to build the knowledge, the ideas, the though leadership that is the foundation. You can set up the best blog and have the best promotional program, but if your content sucks, you will suck too. There is no magic bullet, of course, but at least he could have offered ideas or, what I was expecting, a framework about how to organize your ideas and thoughts into ways that make them easier to consume by your audience - how to transform a lot of little good ideas and good thoughts into a thought leadership PLATFORM.

    Conclusion, could be a good book depending on what you need.

    0 of 0 people found this review helpful
  • Small Is the New Big: And 193 Other Riffs, Rants, and Remarkable Business Ideas

    • ABRIDGED (7 hrs and 27 mins)
    • By Seth Godin
    • Narrated By Seth Godin
    Overall
    (285)
    Performance
    (27)
    Story
    (26)

    Seth Godin, one of today's most influential business thinkers, writes best-selling books like Purple Cow and All Marketers Are Liars. And in between those annual books, he delivers a daily stream of ideas on one of the world's most popular blogs.

    Jakob says: "some god some bad"
    "Required for Seth Godin's fans"
    Overall
    Performance
    Story

    If you like Seth Godin's book, this is an audiobook you will enjoy. Mind you: there is no theme or central idea. This seems like simply a compillation of popular blog post read by Seth. Good content, just not extraordinary

    1 of 1 people found this review helpful
  • Total Leadership: Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life

    • UNABRIDGED (7 hrs and 5 mins)
    • By Stewart D Friedman
    • Narrated By Stewart D Friedman
    Overall
    (15)
    Performance
    (5)
    Story
    (4)

    Leadership can - and indeed must - be learned. But first you've got to choose to lead. If you're going to make a difference, thinking of yourself as a leader will make it more likely that your legacy - not your fantasy, but the real impact of your life, today and in the long run - is the one you really want.

    G says: "A methodical plan for making your life better"
    "Very disappointed"
    Overall
    Performance
    Story

    I had high hopes for this book based on recommendations from friends. The basic idea of integral leadership that combines work, personal and family life is sound. however, I felt the author fails to deliver value on top of the idea.

    First, his tone of voice is very annoying: unnaturally low, condescending, uninteresting. At times it sounded like he wanted to get over with reading or was falling asleep.

    One hour into the book the author was still evangelising the fantastic benefits from his method. Insted of tellin me how great you method is, just prove it.

    Last, I did not find any insights or value in the book. The methods are very basic. Probably useful for someone very early in his or her career trying to decide what to do with their life. The book assumes that leadership comes from writing you plan down, balancing priorities and executing. It's not so simple. You need to start with a good plan.

    This is one of the very few books I did not finish. After two hours I realized I was wasting my time. I fast forwarded to see if the book improved but it did not. Very dissappinted.

    0 of 0 people found this review helpful

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