Cool Book Of The Day

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Question: Who is the intended audience?
Answer:
•People on a spiritual journey, both beginners and experienced travelers.
•People struggling with work/life balance.
•Those seeking their authentic purpose in life and work.
•Leaders who want to get ego out of the way and lead with humility.
•Teachers and school administrators.
•Those who want to communicate more truthfully.

Q: What is the book about?
A: This book is about what I learned from a 10-year spiritual journal that began with intense pain and culminated in peace and joy. It contains stories of transformation from my own life, as well as the lives of my clients. Also, it contains tools and processes, drawn from neuroscience, systems thinking, recovery, and spirituality, that assisted these transformations.

Q: Why are you the best person to write this book?
A: Basically I’m a skeptic. I’m well trained in using mental processes, and it is challenging—extremely challenging—for me to let go of my well developed problem-solving capabilities and take the path of faith, honoring my feelings and intuitive sense as a guide. In other words, if I can do it, anyone can.

Q: How is this book different from other books on this topic?
A: It isn’t limited to my own story, and it’s more than a self-help book. It’s a toolkit, a map for those who want to make the journey from head to heart, and a reference book for living meaningfully.

Q: Is there anything else we should know about this book?
A: It’s the culmination of 10 years of work on my part. My heart’s desire is that what I’ve learned might make this journey shorter and less painful for others.

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Question: Who is the intended audience?
Answer: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “34% of businesses were no longer in existence two years after their birth and more than half were gone within four years.” To what do most business owners attribute their “failure” to? Lack of capital. Solving the Capital Equation: Financing Solutions for Small Businesses provides the small business owner and those working with them with financing knowledge.

This book is targets small business owners whose companies generate revenues of $300,000 to $20 million. It discusses how to access capital for growth – hiring management, paying for marketing and advertising, purchasing equipment, etc. If you are considering starting a business or buying into a franchise, you too can benefit from understanding what options exist to grow a business. In addition, some of the sources referenced in the book can work well as sources of start-up capital. Finally, the book presents a number of financing options for those who are considering acquiring an existing business.

Q: What is the book about?
A: Solving the Capital Equation is unique. Lots of small business financing books write about bank financings and how to pursue it, and other fairly apparent finance sources. Solving the Capital Equation describes options in details. For example, in the book’s discussion of banks, it covers them all – from large central banks to regional to local to minority-owned – and when it makes more sense to choose one over the other. The book covers everything from factoring and equipment loans to going public via hedge funds.

Solving the Capital Equation’s real-life examples and easy-to-follow case studies take you through the process and provide step-by-step alternatives for financing your business. It provides actionable and practical advice for solving your financing issues and a roadmap through the potentially confusing process for securing capital for any company.

Q: Why are you the best person to write this book?
A: I have served as a business advisor to small to medium businesses with revenues of $500,000 to $80 Million and now provide interim management services to this same group. I have acquisition experience – I purchased one company, am pursuing other acquisitions, and advise on acquisitions. Over the last four years I have helped companies obtain over $20 Million in financing and over $31 Million in contracts and purchase orders. I also have an MBA in Finance and Entrepreneurial Management from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. In prior positions I evaluated and valued small companies and led investments in or purchases of small companies.

But the main reason I believe I am the best person to write this book is because I kept getting the same questions as well as seeing companies make the same mistakes over and over again, simply because they were not aware of all their alternatives. So I wrote the book.

The idea to write the book took seed when I created a Financial Roundtable Forum hosting expert speakers on a monthly basis to discuss the ins-and-outs of financing options. Once a year we produced multi-person debt panels and equity panels where experts fielded questions from the audience. I also spoke at a number of small business-related association meetings and conferences. Once again, I kept answering the same questions providing illustrations and examples to help elucidate the issues and alternatives to clients and audience members. I started writing down these answers, which evolved into writing Solving the Capital Equation: Financing Solutions for Small Businesses.

Q: How is this book different from other books on this topic?
A: Solving the Capital Equation: Financing Solutions for Small Businesses sets itself apart by presenting case studies to illustrate common problems and solutions to those problems. There are over 25 case studies of different types of companies – service, manufacturing, distribution – in various stages of maturity and growth. Another way the book distinguishes itself is by presenting various scenarios of when to use each financing option. In addition, a portion of the book is devoted to listing a variety of options to consider as the business matures and grows, given the type of business.

There are many books on the market that talk about approaching banks, pursuing grants, or using private placements to raise money. These all walk through the how-to but none address the when or why nor do they provide examples. Most business owners have not been in school for some time yet the finance books use a more academic approach. Those who are out there living what’s in books do best when presented with knowledge formatted in the way they live and learn. That’s what this book provides.

Q: Is there anything else we should know about this book?
A: Solving the Capital Equation assists company leaders in finding answers to whom, what, when and how to finance their small- to medium-sized businesses. Straightforward and simple to understand, the book guides readers through complex issues in an intelligent and useful manner.

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Question: Who is the intended audience?
Answer: A Perfectly Funny Marriage appeals to both singles who are interested in relationships and marriage and also to married couples.

Q: What is the book about?
A: A Perfectly Funny Marriage helps readers to explore the pre-marital stages of self-discovery, friendship, and relationship building, as well as many aspects of marriage. Each page includes a single step for success illustrated by an insightful and funny cartoon. The steps include such important topics as being honest, building unity in spite of differences, and practicing partnership with home and parenting responsibilities. The cartoons guarantee you will laugh at the humorous aspects of every serious step. For example, a cartoon showing a husband discouraging his wife kissing him while reading a book about how to be more romantic demonstrates how to “be romantic with one another and increase intimacy between you…”.

Q: Why are you the best person to write this book?
A: I’m (Susanne M. Alexander) a relationship and marriage coach with a passion for educating people in unique ways about how to be successful. Humor is a great way to facilitate learning. Besides which, research shows that couples who have fun together are more likely to stay together!

Q: How is this book different from other books on this topic?
A: This is the first relationship and marriage education cartoon book on the market.

Q: Is there anything else we should know about this book?
A: Through this book, I want people who are not yet married to learn the steps for how to be successfully married. I also want married couples to enjoy the journey back through the marriage preparation stages as well as see what will enrich their marriages now. Humor helps people to lighten up and be open to seeing what there is to learn from the characters pictured. The cartoonists help people to see what is nuts about their lives and the lives of others and cues them to look at what to do differently. I hope that the humor in A Perfectly Funny Marriage opens the door to a willingness to learn more deeply what makes a relationship and marriage work well. A good cartoon is one that still makes you smile, laugh, and think, even when you have seen it before.

I used well-known and insightful cartoonists such as Randy Glasbergen and Dave “Speed Bump” Coverly, as well as new cartoonists. Scott Haltzman, MD, author of The Secrets of Happily Married Men and The Secrets of Happily Married Women, says, “This delightful book shows how the path to a splendid marriage can be both meaningful and fun! Every couple, from their first date to their 50th wedding anniversary, should have it close at hand.”

A Perfectly Funny Marriage is available through various bookstores. For more information, including sample pages, see our website: http://www.marriagetransformation.com/store_FunnyMarriage.htm
800-501-6682; 216-383-9943

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Question: Who is the intended audience?
Answer: People who are interested in learning more about Indian boarding schools, Native American art, Angel DeCora, football in its early days, the legendary Carlisle Indian School football teams, the advent of the Rose Bowl, the Redskins naming controversy and, of course, the fascinating man that was William Henry Lone Star Dietz. Alumni of the colleges at which he coached: Washington State, Purdue, Louisiana Tech, Wyoming, Haskell Indian Nations University and Albright College and Redskins fans are also interested in the book.

Q: What is the book about?
A: The book is about the life and times of Lone Star Dietz, the most colorful coach ever to grace the sidelines of a football field. Dietz was a Renaissance man. In addition to being an athlete, he was an artist (the book is heavily illustrated by works done by him, his first wife, Angel DeCora, and their students), an educator, a movie actor, a championship dog breeder (their dog won best of breed at Westminster in 1915), a writer, a singer and is still controversial today. Even his detractors consider him to be a fascinating person.

Q: Why are you the best person to write this book?
A: Some would say because I’m too naive to know better. Others would say because I persevered and followed the story through to the end. I think it’s because I found his life was more interesting than the legends that grew around him that I let his story unfold as it was rather than imposing my own preconceptions on him. I completed the book where others didn’t because I stuck with it. Because I had the time and resources to travel to the numerous places Dietz lived and worked and was willing to spend hour after hour hunched over microfilm readers, I was able to write his story. Others who started books on him either didn’t have the time or were smart enough not to spend significant parts of their lives on such a project.

Q: How is this book different from other books on this topic?
A: Although this is the only book-length biography of Lone Star Dietz, magazine articles outlining his life have been written. Unfortunately about half of what one reads about Lone Star Dietz is not true or is badly distorted. Keep A-goin’ also places Dietz in the times and places in which he lived, something that is necessary for the reader to understand fully what was transpiring. Lone Star was a Forrest Gump sort of person in that he was involved with historical events and rubbed shoulders with numerous famous people. He was a household name during the first half of the 20th century so his antics were covered nationally. Dietz was a larger-than-life person; this book tells his story warts and all.

Q: Is there anything else to know about this book?
A: Writing the book has been a rewarding experience as several people have thanked me for writing it. Large publishing houses did not take on the project because they did not perceive that there would be a large enough audience for the book. The book attempts to be complete, fair and accurate. A critic of my conclusions pointed out that I provide the information necessary to allow the reader to come to his or her conclusions about the book.

Finalist for ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Award
www.LoneStarDietz.com