A first-hand look at the world of a celebrity assistant, and its application to the larger realm of all professional assistants. Enlightening and entertaining, this book is filled with true stories and lessons from author Bonnie Low-Kramen's 25+ years working with Academy Award-winning actress Olympia Dukakis. Low-Kramen is also a co-founder of New York Celebrity Assistants (NYCA). THE AUTHOR COMMENTS... I love being an assistant. In fact, I strive to be an ultimate assistant, someone who seeks excellence and improvement - not just on some days, but every day. I don't always succeed, but this is what I try to do. Are you so inclined? Ultimate assistants are like that, and I am privileged to know quite a few, including some whose experiences are in the book. I wrote the book for three reasons. The first is that this work is frequently misunderstood and has been subject to warped misconceptions by the media. The second is that there are too few resources for assistants, and certainly not only those who work for celebrities. Third, there is a tremendous curiosity about the work. I decided that I was in a unique position to set the record straight and tell it the way it really is to those who actually want to know the truth of it! 18 chapters include: How do you find a job? Glamour, Glitz and other perks. Salary & Benefits. Stories & quotes from assts. Skills & Qualities Needed. Public Speaking. Event Planning. Resources-To-Go.

    Full of nitty gritty how-to's for getting nearly free publicity, Carolyn Howard-Johnson shares her professional experience as well as practical tips gleaned from the successes of her own book campaigns. Carolyn Howard-Johnson is award-winning author of both fiction and nonfiction and former publicist for a New York PR firm and a marketing instructor for UCLA's Writers' Program. THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER tells authors how to do what their publishers can't or won't and why authors can do their own promotion better than a PR professional.

    Each topic stands on its own so dip in and out. Reawaken a thought or an idea you've already had. Spark new ones. Discover different ways of thinking about your business, what you do and how you tell your story. Then go make your idea matter.

    The more you sell, the less inclined the client is to listen. The more you sell, the more you tend to look (and act) like a hammer looking for a nail – where any nail will do. In reality, the more you sell, the less you win.This is entirely counter-intuitive to the average sales person, mostly because we are taught from the first day of sales training that the key to success is great sales techniques. You can find thousands of books on the art and science of selling – techniques, tricks, even scripts to “sell” the prospect. Our corporate sales training classes always insisted that sales is about understanding the prospect’s needs and then articulating your solution so that the prospect was compelled to choose your obviously-superior solution – right? Not so fast! The problem: most prospects don’t want to be sold. This book on UnSelling is designed to shift the buyer-seller relationship from subservient (they say, “Jump,” we say, “How high?”) to collaborative and does so by having the seller resist the temptation to “sell” (or tell). UnSelling is focused on the more consultative approach of understanding the problem the client is intent on solving. The better we understand the client’s problem, the less we have to sell (if at all). This eBook will outline an approach to control and win the most complex deals that includes:• Qualifying new clients that requires no “selling” – period!• Understanding how to create a collaborative relationship with the prospect so that your sales teams can understand the truth from the client – not what they want you to believe• Contrasting the difference between traditional selling and this unique approach to UnSelling• And understanding what to say and how to say itYour sales people and leaders will never “sell” the same way again – and will win more as a result.

    

    In Launch Your Dream, Partridge distills the essence of that course into a hyper-practical, 30-day journey for readers looking to follow their passions and realize their dreams. In clear, easily grasped steps, he teaches readers how to hone their ideas, build an audience, construct an online presence, launch a business, master social media, craft a beautiful brand, and create experiences that keep customers from ever considering competitors. Sharing time-saving "smartcuts" to make readers more efficient, Partridge also helps them identify and resolve business-killing blind spots.For anyone looking simply to make money on the side or seeking to become a millionaire, for the CEO or the stay-at-home mom, for the would-be entrepreneur or the freelancer, Launch Your Dream provides the steps necessary to begin living your dream in just 30 days.

    Traditional retirement advice usually boils down to saving more, sacrificing more, and settling for less. This approach makes people dependent on systems outside their control, such as the market, economy, and investment returns. The result: people lose power over determining their life. What sets Rock Retirement apart is its holistic approach to helping people take back control and act intentionally towards the life they want. It addresses the fears, hopes, and dreams that people have about retirement, goes way beyond the numbers, and shows them how to balance living well today and tomorrow.

    And it’s still short, profusely illustrated…and best of all–fun to read.If you’ve read it before, you’ll rediscover what made Don’t Make Me Think so essential to Web designers and developers around the world. If you’ve never read it, you’ll see why so many people have said it should be required reading for anyone working on Web sites.

    In this ground-breaking book, Sir Ronald Cohen uses his expertise to rethink attitudes to risk in business, encouraging and advising the potential entrepreneur on Cohen's own experiences and approaches to business.

    How well do you know your customers What Customers Crave examines how the hyper-connected economy is radically changing consumer expectations, and reveals what companies need to do to stay on top. The solution rests on two simple questions: What do your customers love? What do they hate? Find the answers, and you’re well on your way to success.Jam-packed with tools and examples, What Customers Crave helps you reinvent how you engage with customers (both digitally and non-digitally) and:● Gain invaluable insights into who they are and what they care about● Use listening posts and Contact Point Innovation to refine customer types● Engineer experiences for each micromarket that are not only exceptional, but insanely relevant● Connect across the five most important touchpoints● Co-create with your customers● And much moreWhen you learn to provide your customers with exactly what they want, they not only buy—they come back again and again…and bring their friends.

    Pricing Strategies is about making the most from your work by understanding what your genre will support. It’s not hard, but you have to have a plan. Over the course of a year, you might change your book’s price five or ten times. That’s perfectly fine, when done for the right reasons as part of an overall marketing strategy. What is one reader worth to you as an entry point into your author world? What is that reader worth if they stay on board?Pricing Strategies explains why and how you would vary price points, whether you are exclusive to Amazon or distribute on multiple platforms. Book pricing is about getting the most money from your book or box set, not just one time but for the long term. It is how you can be a successful indie author. Without buyers for your books, self-publishing is just a hobby. Look at your words as your profession and earn your just desserts by pricing your books appropriately and intentionally to improve your bottom line.That’s what Pricing Strategies is all about. Understand the why and let the money flow. Pricing Strategies. The book you need.

    

    Redesigning your home page won't help. Investing in a new content management system won't fix it, either. So, where do you start? Without meaningful content, your website isn't worth much to your key audiences. But creating (and caring for) "meaningful" content is far more complicated than we're often willing to acknowledge. Content Strategy for the Web explains how to create and deliver useful, usable content for your online audiences, when and where they need it most. It also shares content best practices so you can get your next website redesign right, on time and on budget. For the first time, you'll: See content strategy (and its business value) explained in plain languageFind out why so many web projects implode in the content development phase ... and how to avoid the associated, unnecessary costs and delaysLearn how to audit and analyze your contentMake smarter, achievable decisions about which content to create and howFind out how to maintain consistent, accurate, compelling content over timeGet solid, practical advice on staffing for content-related roles and responsibilities "

    If you are an experienced seller or are looking to do arbitrage this book will have less value as I don’t discuss sourcing by arbitrage. I don’t do arbitrage, so I don’t teach it. This book is written for the new or struggling seller wanting to source wholesale or private label products. What you will learn: Basic steps for finding top selling products How to generate product ideas and look for trends How to validate demand Tips for finding suppliers Analyzing data to help you pick a product It took me 5 months of research before I pulled the trigger on my first products to sell on Amazon. Five months and countless hours. I have pages of notes with product ideas in many different categories. Some were wholesale products, others were ideas for my own products. I had some money set aside to buy inventory. But I couldn’t commit. I was looking for...not necessarily thee perfect product, but, well yeah, the perfect product. Fear of choosing “wrong” was holding me back. I knew that product selection was key to success so I needed to choose right. Another part of the problem was I had bigger ideas—I wanted to create a brand and I had some ideas as to what sorts of products I would carry. But those ideas required more capital than I was willing to invest for my first product. As a result, I put so much pressure on myself to dream big and think towards the future that I did…nothing! Another hold up was I was a little skittish to follow the advice to source from Chinese suppliers. It seemed so complicated for a beginner. Could I not take a little less profit and source domestically? Were there not manufacturers that could produce my ideas in North America? Yes, and yes. Ultimately the delays helped me because I learned a lot by joining Facebook groups and listening to and learning from the experiences of others. I devoured the advice in forums as well as blogs, books, webinars, and courses. I learned of the pitfalls of private label that the gurus selling you the dream never talk about. And finally, I did pull the trigger. I put together this guide to help any of you who are feeling a little gun-shy too. I put this book together for all of you who have the brains to say “Hey, if everyone buys top 100 selling products wont that saturate the market?” I put this book together to help you find great products from many different approaches. After reading this, you should feel confident enough to find a product and get started with your e-commerce business.

    Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne. Drawing on more than a decade of new work, Kim and Mauborgne show you how to move beyond competing, inspire your people's confidence, and seize new growth, guiding you step-by-step through how to take your organization from a red ocean crowded with competition to a blue ocean of uncontested market space. By combining the insights of human psychology with practical market-creating tools and real-world guidance, Kim and Mauborgne deliver the definitive guide to shift yourself, your team, or your organization to new heights of confidence, market creation, and growth. They show why nondisruptive creation is as important as disruption in seizing new growth. Blue Ocean Shift is packed with all-new research and examples of how leaders in diverse industries and organizations made the shift and created new markets by applying the process and tools outlined in the book. Whether you are a cash-strapped startup or a large, established company, nonprofit or national government, you will learn how to move from red to blue oceans in a way that builds your people's confidence so that they own and drive the process. With battle-tested lessons learned from successes and failures in the field, Blue Ocean Shift is critical reading for leaders, managers, and entrepreneurs alike. You'll learn what works, what doesn't, and how to avoid the pitfalls along the way. This book will empower you to succeed as you embark on your own blue ocean journey. Blue Ocean Shift is indispensable for anyone committed to building a compelling future.