Cool Book Of The Day

Pitch reporters with our up-to-date media databases:

Question: Who is the intended audience?
Answer: The intended audience is coaches, persons being coached, executives, managers – really anyone who likes to laugh, and anyone who wants some fast coaching tips. The humor is appreciated by all audiences because the published cartoons were selected the best by people from all walks of life from hundreds of cartoons.

Q: What is the book about?
A: This first series of its kind, this bestselling series contains riotous, original cartoons “goosing” the world’s fastest growing new industry: Coaching. Each 40-page book displays numerous coaching principles with corresponding entertaining cartoons. These hilarious books are written and illustrated by Germaine Porché & Jed Niederer, co-authors of Coach Anyone About Anything: How to Help People Succeed in Business & Life, listed among Amazon’s Best 100 Business Books of 2003. This valuable new book series is funny, wise, tough and loving — all at the same time.

Q: Why are you the best person to write this book?
A: Germaine Porché and Jed Niederer, management consultants for 19 and 25 years, share a long history of coaching executives, managers, entrepreneurs and teams to accelerate business performance. Despite their serious work, they can’t help but see the lighter side of the coaching industry. The cartoons were all inspired by actual events. “I sketched many of them as they happened”, explains Niederer, the “wrist” or artist of the cartooning duo. Germaine recalls, “One project team actually voted 5 to 4 on whether to send an injured team member a ‘get well’ card! Occurrences like that are just too funny not to capture and share.”

Q: How is this book different from other books on this topic?
A: Coaching Soup for the Cartoon Soul is the only book of its kind, combining valuable information with the humorous side of coaching, to help readers grasp important principles faster and retain them longer. There are no other cartoon humor books available today about business and life coaching other than Coaching Soup for the Cartoon Soul.

Q: Is there anything else we should know about this book?
A: If you desire to create or promote a culture of coaching inside your firm, you will want to take advantage of this unique book to spread the word in a delightful and non-threatening way. Coaching Soup for the Cartoon Soul is an information rich and intentionally quirky ‘inside look’ at the coaching profession. The coaching profession is one of the “hottest” new professions in the world today. Coaching is facilitating a person in their own commitment and enthusiasm to accomplish their objectives. The kinds of people interested in being coached are people committed to accelerating their performance in everything imaginable from business results to personal goals and achievements. Clients of coaches will love seeing a lighter side of their coach’s world. And certainly everyone can benefit from learning the principles of effective coaching. Opportunities for coaching others lay all around you – friends, colleagues, family members, and business associates – just to name a few.

Pitch reporters with our up-to-date media databases:

Question: Who is the intended audience?
Answer: Anyone who wants to save money on items they purchase. The average person can save thousands a year by negotiating ordinary things like dinners at restaurants, clothing at stores and gas for your car.

Q: What is the book about?
A: How would you like an extra $5,000 or more a year? This money can be earned simply by becoming a better negotiator, yet most people in the United States rarely take advantage of the power of bargaining except on rare occasions when making large purchases like cars and houses. In other countries, like Asia, people there negotiate everything everyday and save thousands.

Negotiating is like a martial arts contest where power, leverage and timing can mean the difference between winning and losing. For instance, a martial artist would never go into a contest without first spying on his opponent to find weaknesses. In the same way, you can gain bargaining power by doing your homework. If you’re buying a diamond ring, for example, find out how long the ring has been on display, the standard profit margin on jewelry and how badly the owner wants to sell it. Finding answers to questions like these could save a lot of money.

Before engaging in contest a martial artist warms up by stretching. Likewise, a savvy negotiator warms up by building rapport and finding common ground with the other party, because people like to do business with people they like.

Next, fighters will cautiously probe each other looking for weaknesses. In bargaining this is done by throwing offers onto the table to see how the other party reacts. Experienced fighters often use guile to lure their opponents into range by pretending a blow has hurt them more than it really did. Similarly, a negotiator could pretend to be shocked by an opponent’s offer to get her to come up or go down in price. Visibly showing surprise or hurt is called flinching and it used by master bargainers to gain concessions without giving up anything.

Martial artists are taught to read the body language of their opponents so they can see a blow before it is unleashed. Experienced negotiators can literally read the other party’s mind by watching body language and listening carefully. If a seller says, “My price is $500 but make me an offer” you know their price is flexible before you even start. Without saying a word their body language can also tell you if they like or dislike any offer you make.

Martial artists do not believe in win-win and neither should you. Even when sparring their best friends they want to give their best effort. When bargaining, fight for the best deal possible assuming that the other party will take care of themselves because they will.

Fighters are supremely aware of time and try to use it to their advantage by saving as much energy as possible for the last few seconds of a round when they can score points against a tired opponent. Black belt negotiators put their opponents under time pressure by setting deadlines. A car buyer might visit the dealership only an hour before a doctor’s appointment so the dealer must give his best offer before the customer leaves, likely never to return.

In martial arts, as in life, there are unfair fighters who will do anything to win, so you must protect yourself at all times. Negotiators must be aware of unfair tactics such as nibbling, which is asking for concessions after an agreement has been reached. If this happens to you just remember this blocking technique, “Before you give a concession – get a concession.” For example, if a seller says, “Couldn’t you give me just twenty five dollars more because I’m not making any money on this deal?” you can respond with, “If I did, would you throw in the extended warranty?”

Finally, when a contest ends, fighters will bow to each other as a sign of respect as if to say, “You were a worthy opponent” which makes both contestants feel good whether they won or lost. Negotiators should also congratulate the other party for having gotten a good deal. Otherwise he might change his mind and go back on the agreement.

Just like becoming an accomplished martial artist, achieving black belt status in negotiating takes practice. Every time you pull out your wallet ask yourself if this is an opportunity to hone your bargaining skills. If it is – get out there and earn a black belt!

Q: Why are you the best person to write this book?
A: Michael Soon Lee, MBA, is a black belt who has bargained around the world on everything from multi-million dollar real estate transactions to health care discounts and even reducing tax bills with the Internal Revenue Service.

Q: How is this book different from other books on this topic?
A: No other book shows readers how to apply martial arts secrets to every day bargaining situations using a logical, step-by-step system going from white belt to black belt. Just some of the secrets you will learn include: “Spying On Your Opponent”, “Reading Your Opponent’s Mind” and “Win-Win Is For Losers.”

Q: Is there anything else we should know about this book?
A: If you follow the techniques in this book you will be able to improve your negotiating skills, substantially upgrade your lifestyle, as well by saving thousands of dollars a year on regular purchases and tens of thousands on major ones.

Pitch reporters with our up-to-date media databases:

Question: Who is the intended audience?
Answer: Marketing Your Career is a handbook targeted to professionals and business people who’d like to understand how to better promote themselves and manage their own career development. Seasoned managers, experienced professionals or those new to the business world can all benefit from the techniques discussed in this book.

Q: What is the book about?
A: The book assembles a collection of simple, succinct marketing methods and techniques to help business professionals more effectively promote themselves and manage their own career development. It helps professionals start to think of themselves in terms of their own product features and benefits, and teaches them how to properly package and promote those features so that they can help their target markets solve problems. Topics covered include how to understand the market and your position, developing a personal brand, strategies to upgrade your offering, and how to build and execute a good career marketing campaign. The book also discusses ways to market your career inside your existing organization and to external audiences, and how to use, and not use the web to promote yourself.

Q: Why are you the best person to write this book?
A: Linda Popky is a veteran marketer, as well as a successful consultant, speaker, author and educator. Her company, L2M Associates, helps organizations dramatically improve their bottom line by more effectively leveraging their investment in marketing programs, processes, and people. She is the president of Women in Consulting (WIC), a collaborative organization of seasoned business professionals in more than 30 consulting specialties, a member of the Society for the Advancement of Consulting (SAC), and on the faculty of the Integrated Marketing Program at San Francisco State University’s College of Extended Learning.

Linda believes that businesses today do not place enough focus on proper development of people as a key factor for successful creation and execution of key programs and initiatives. This book combines her extensive knowledge of applied marketing concepts with her long experience developing professionals as both a manager and a mentor, and draws on her consulting experience in organizations from startups to Fortune 100 companies as well.

Q: How is this book different from other books on this topic?
A: Many career-oriented books focus on how to make the job seeker look good. This book, based on Linda’s popular workshop entitled “Marketing Product YOU,” asks the reader to consider instead how their unique set of features and benefits can help a potential employer succeed. Linda takes a novel approach to professional development: getting people to apply the same basic marketing principles that make products and services successful to their own work situations and careers. Whether you are selling toothpaste, coffee or yourself, what’s important are the benefits that meet the buyer’s wants and needs—-not the features the seller thinks are cool or exciting.

Q: Is there anything else we should know about this book?
A: You don’t need to be a marketing professional to benefit from this book. The marketing concepts are straightforward and easy to grasp, and the book is concise and succinct. Readers will learn why being good at what you do isn’t enough to get you noticed and promoted, and why it’s so important to develop a unique value proposition to differentiate yourself from others in the job market.

“This is a splendid example of just how these practices can work to promote careers across functions and industries. It’s an easy read, high energy, and full of tools that, used properly, can truly set you apart from your competition,” said Carol Emerson, Vice President Career Management at Right Management.

According to Karolo Aparicio, Development Director of International Rivers in Berkeley, California, “I’d recommend this book to anyone looking for a job or looking to move up in their current job.”

This is the first in a series of handbooks entitled the Leverage2Market Mastery Series. The Leverage2Market Model focuses on five key elements: Products: the goods or services being marketed; Programs: the marketing initiatives being created and delivered; Processes: the way initiatives are delivered; People: those who deliver the initiatives; and Positioning, the key messages to be delivered in a campaign.

Marketing Your Career: Positioning, Packaging, and Promoting Yourself for Success is available immediately from Amazon.com and from the publisher, Woodside Business Press, at www.woodsidebusinesspress.com, as specialty business press dedicated to publishing books on stimulating and thought-provoking business and marketing-related topics.