I Like Big Books and I Cannot Lie
In celebration of National Read a Book Day, we asked our team to share their top recommendations for business, marketing and PR books that changed the way they work. There’s nothing quite like the look and feel (and smell?) of written word on paper. So today, we celebrate.
Title: 5 Dysfunctions of a Team
Author: Patrick Lencioni
Recommended by Jenny Herzberger, Executive Vice President
“I love this book because it shows how easy it is for things to go wayward on a team and the chaos that digression creates. Alternatively, it shows how healthy a culture can be when each person is invested and the team works together toward a common goal. We’re lucky that we haven’t seen dysfunction like this book shows, but it definitely helped me to understand how important it is for a leadership team to be a part of the big picture vision and to be aware of any red flags that might lead to dysfunction.”
Title: Youtility
Author: Jay Baer
Recommended by Jared Miller, Interactive Media Director
“Youtility is how I discovered my passion for digital marketing. I was working in a traditional marketing role with a touch of digital. I heard Jay speak and it immediately made me recognize the importance of a strong content marketing strategy. The ideas introduced weren’t being talked about in the meetings and strategies I was involved in. So, it gave me a chance to be a young employee with the edge of bringing something new and successful to the table. It set me down the path of where I am today.”
Title: The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding
Author: Al Ries & Jack Trout
Recommended by Doug Doe, Account Director
“I read this book while I was a public servant with the State of Oklahoma. It helped me to better communicate branding concepts to an agency that oversaw 40 plus programs so that the employees could identify why the public struggled with understanding what they did and what services they offered. We were able to have more productive conversations regarding marketing those services offline and in a digital environment.”
Author: Jon Kabat-Zinn
Recommended by Kym Koch, Principal
“This is the best book for teaching mindfulness and meditation practices in a way that feels more like a “workout for your consciousness” (his words) than a spiritual guidebook. It has helped me in my business by helping me in my life–be more in the moment rather than worrying about what happened in the past, what to say next or what will happen tomorrow. ‘Intelligence is the door to freedom and alert attention is the mother of intelligence.’”
Title: Predictably Irrational
Author: Dan Ariely
Recommended by Marek Cornett, Social Media Strategist and Account Executive, Digital
“This book is timeless for marketing because it’s all about how people make decisions. By understanding why someone chooses X instead of Y, we can better determine the strategies to make that decision happen. When I read it, the book cracked open an entirely new way of thinking for me.”
Title: Daring Greatly
Author: Brené Brown
Recommended by Amber Theinert, Account Director
“While this isn’t exactly a business book, it has changed my entire outlook on my career. It taught me to be more willing to make decisions, share crazy ideas when they come up, own my decisions and to take any criticism as an opportunity to be better. I would recommend this book to anyone who feels like they are ready to take the next step in their career but can’t get past the fear of leading.”
Title: Jab Jab Jab Right Hook
Author: Gary Vaynerchuk
Recommended by Ryan Tomlinson, Account Executive, Digital
“This book is a short read that takes a laser-like look at digital marketing. The book discusses the question–why, in a world of so much content, can’t brands continually, overtly try to sell to potential customers? The answer: We need to change the way we fight for customers’ attention by having meaningful, memorable content at the forefront of our messaging.”
Have a favorite of your own? Share it with us today on Instagram (@kochcomm). Happy reading!
