Brian Moran

Helping #entrepreneurs & marketers navigate the small-to-midsize business marketplace. Ex @WSJ, @Inc. & @Entrepreneur. #SMBExperts #NSBW #SmallBizEdge

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Book Recommendations:

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Recommended by Brian Moran

I did a @SmallBizEdge podcast with @johnsonwhitney on her book "Smart Growth: How to Grow Your People to Grow Your Company." It's FILLED with great tips and examples of finding and retaining the best employees for your biz. https://t.co/sgVMGDhO3n #SageInspire https://t.co/JL2xIz3Sxi (from X)

A Wall Street Journal bestseller Named one of 10 Best New Management Books for 2022 by Thinkers50 Creating a culture of learning and growth. Growth is the goal. Helping people develop their potential—enabling them to articulate and become the self they want to be, are capable of being, and that best serves them and others in the short and long term—is what we as individuals and leaders strive toward. But how do we grow? It turns out it happens in a predictable way, which means we can understand where we are in our growth and chart a way forward. In this compact, complete guide, Whitney Johnson dives more deeply than ever into the S Curve of Learning so that you can envision how growth happens and direct yourself and others in your organization to create a culture that fosters it. The growth and learning journey comes in three phases: the Launch Point, the Sweet Spot, and Mastery. Compelling examples of successful people will show you when and why growth is slow, how to keep going, what to do when growth and learning are almost too fast to keep up with, and how to leap from one growth journey to another. As individuals grow, so do organizations and societies. Growth is learning put into action—action that betters the world as we better ourselves and our small niches, both personal and professional, within it. Growth occurs when learning is internalized—when we try something new and invest the effort to move it from being something we do to something we are.

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Recommended by Brian Moran

"I’ve written because it fulfilled me. I did it for the buzz. I did it for the pure joy of the thing. And if you can do it for joy, you can do it forever." @StephenKing - whose book, "On Writing," is a MUST read for any and every aspiring writer. https://t.co/5Hi1df6x7d (from X)

Twentieth Anniversary Edition with Contributions from Joe Hill and Owen King ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE’S TOP 100 NONFICTION BOOKS OF ALL TIME Immensely helpful and illuminating to any aspiring writer, this special edition of Stephen King’s critically lauded, million-copy bestseller shares the experiences, habits, and convictions that have shaped him and his work. “Long live the King” hailed Entertainment Weekly upon publication of Stephen King’s On Writing. Part memoir, part master class by one of the bestselling authors of all time, this superb volume is a revealing and practical view of the writer’s craft, comprising the basic tools of the trade every writer must have. King’s advice is grounded in his vivid memories from childhood through his emergence as a writer, from his struggling early career to his widely reported, near-fatal accident in 1999—and how the inextricable link between writing and living spurred his recovery. Brilliantly structured, friendly and inspiring, On Writing will empower and entertain everyone who reads it—fans, writers, and anyone who loves a great story well told.

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Recommended by Brian Moran

Hey @DohertyMatt. I just finished your new book. It is AWESOME! I think any college hoops fan will appreciate your inside look at UNC (and ND) basketball. I think "Rebound" should be required reading for people in leadership positions. https://t.co/TEqZgx7GvF (from X)

"Matt is everything you could ask for in a friend and leader." ––Jay Bilas, ESPN Matt Doherty played and coached basketball at the University of North Carolina. He started on the 1982 National Championship team coached by Dean Smith while playing alongside NBA stars Michael Jordan and James Worthy. He is the former head coach at the University of Notre Dame and UNC. He was named 2001 National Coach of the Year. In 2003….he was forced to resign! Have you ever fallen off the top of the mountain? Have you ever doubted yourself? How do you prepare for your next opportunity? You Rebound! Rebound will help you become a better leader. Leadership is a learned behavior. It can be studied and developed. Not everyone is a born leader, but EVERYONE can become a better leader! Coach Doherty provides a game plan to help you navigate the rough terrain of leadership. He shares his journey in an authentic manner that will engage you with riveting stories of tremendous successes and……failures! Coach Doherty chose to turn his “Pain into Passion”. He went on a leadership journey studying at The Wharton School and The Darden School. Along with the help of top leadership executives, Matt learned many valuable lessons that he will share with you in Rebound.

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Recommended by Brian Moran

@tsludwig Here is one more "When Pride Still Mattered." It's a great book on Vince Lombardi (from X)

When Pride Still Mattered is the quintessential story of the American family: how Vince Lombardi, the son of an immigrant Italian butcher, rose to the top, and how his character and will to prevail transformed him, his wife, his children, his players, his sport, and ultimately the entire country. It is also a vibrant football story, abundant with accounts of Lombardi's thrilling life in that world, from his playing days with the Seven Blocks of Granite at Fordham in the 1930s to the glory of coaching the Green Bay Packers of Starr, Hornung, Taylor, McGee, Davis, and Wood in the 1960s. It is also a study of national myths, tracing what Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer David Maraniss calls the fallacy of the innocent past, and an absorbing account of the mythmakers from Grantland Rice to Howard Cosell who shaped Lombardi's image. Vincent Thomas Lombardi was born in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, on June 11, 1913. His early life was shaped by the trinity of family, religion, and sports; they seemed intertwined, as inseparable to him as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. He was deeply influenced by the Jesuits, who taught him the philosophy he later used with his players, subordinating individual desires to a larger cause. The geography of his rise was the opposite of the small-town boy who makes it in the big city. This son of New York did not achieve fame until he took a job in remote Green Bay, Wisconsin. Before that, he had toiled anonymously for twenty years, first as a high school coach in New Jersey, then as an assistant at Fordham, at West Point (under the influential Colonel "Red" Blaik), and finally with the New York Giants. He was already forty-six when he was finally hired to coach the hapless Packers in 1959, leading them in the most storied period in NFL history, winning five world championships in nine seasons. By the time he died of cancer in 1970, after one season in Washington during which he transformed the Redskins into winners, Lombardi had become a mythic character who transcended sport, and his legend has only grown in the decades since. Many now turn to Lombardi in search of characteristics that they fear have been irretrievably lost, the old-fashioned virtues of discipline, obedience, loyalty, character, and teamwork. To others he symbolizes something less romantic: modern society's obsession with winning and superficial success. In When Pride Still Mattered, Maraniss renders Lombardi as flawed and driven yet ultimately misunderstood, a heroic figure who was more complex and authentic than the stereotypical images of him propounded by admirers and critics. Using the same meticulous reporting and sweeping narrative style that he employed in First in His Class, his classic biography of Bill Clinton, Maraniss separates myth from reality and wondrously recaptures Vince Lombardi's life and times.

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Recommended by Brian Moran

@DaveKerpen @johnsonwhitney Dave - You must read Whitney's book "Disrupt Yourself." Very powerful. (from X)

High-growth organizations need high-growth individuals Startups, growth-stage companies, and private equity–backed companies all have one thing in common: They need high-growth individuals to execute high-growth plans. As a leader trying to achieve ambitious organizational goals, you need people who can do more than just keep up; you need people who can set the pace. You need high-growth individuals. Disrupt Yourself helps high-growth individuals--and those trying to attain this status--learn the tools and frameworks necessary to make changes that matter. This book helps you understand how these frameworks of disruptive innovation can apply to your particular path, whether you are:A self-starter ready to make a disruptive pivot in your businessA high-potential individual charting your career trajectoryA manager looking to instill innovative thinking within your teamA leader facing industry changes that make for an uncertain futureWhitney Johnson used the theory of disruptive innovation to invest in publicly traded stocks and early-stage private companies, and now she applies the framework to the personal and professional growth of individuals. We are living in an era of accelerating disruption, and no one is immune. Johnson makes the compelling case that managing the S-curve waves of learning and mastery is a requisite skill for the future. If you want to be successful in unexpected ways and achieve your wildest goals, follow your own disruptive path. Dare to innovate. Do something astonishing. Disrupt yourself.

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Recommended by Brian Moran

@gerridetweiler @ramonray @smarthustlemag Love his new book. Great read for business owners. (from X)

The Celebrity CEO is the complete guide to creating a strong personal brand. By developing your personal brand, you will set your business apart from your competitors and become known as the expert in your industry. Written for entrepreneurs and small business owners who want to make a massive impact and build a loyal fan base, The Celebrity CEO is the source for celebrity status in business. Learn from the founder of Smart Hustle Media, Ramon Ray, the mind-set of a celebrity CEO and the tools to cultivate your tribe.

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Recommended by Brian Moran

@nmonroe And knowing your love of running, check out Geoff Williams book "CC Pyle's Amazing Foot Race: The True Story of the 1928 Coast-to-Coast Run Across America." I loved that book! (from X)

A riveting account of an incredible 3,423-mile foot race across America, the Great Foot Race of 1928, and C.C. Pyle, the legendary sports promoter who masterminded the event. A year before the Great Depression, endurance fads were all the rage. From dance marathons to flagpole sitting, everyone was looking for a chance to change their luck, and spectators would shell out hard-earned cash to watch. When notorious sports agent and promoter C.C. Pyle offered a $25,000 prize for a foot race from Los Angeles to New York, 199 runners from all over the world took their marks and half a million spectators flocked to the starting line. The race was grueling, but an astonishing 55 participants made it to the Madison Square Garden finish line 84 days later. C.C. Pyle's Amazing Foot Race details this historic event and the colorful cast of characters involved. At the crux of the story are two very different men: the fast-talking, shady, yet forward-thinking promoter C.C. Pyle, always scheming to make a quick buck; and Andy Payne, a 20-year-old part-Cherokee Oklahoman, who entered the competition as a longshot, against many world-class athletes, hoping to save his family's farm and win the heart of the girl of his dreams. In re-creating this classic American drama, the author accessed exclusive, never-before-published material and the support of several descendants of the characters, including Andy Payne's daughter and C.C. Pyle's great-granddaughter.

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Recommended by Brian Moran

@ToryBurchFdn @JuliaMcNamara1 @CoFounderWorx Julia's book is a MUST read for anyone either in a co-founder's position or thinking about starting a business with a partner. I highly recommend picking up a copy TODAY. (from X)

In our work with CoFounders, we found a 67% failure rate over 3 years due to "CoFounder tension". This translates into 1 millions business failures per year. Our three years of research with a prestigious executive panel identified the traits most desirable for successful Cofounder relationships. This Guide will help you navigate the often-unclear terrain of choosing the best CoFounder for you. This guide will empower you by showing you what qualities to look for in a potential or existing CoFounder, plus the actual language to uncover your CoFounder's attitudes, characteristics and alignment with yourself. This is a must-read for anyone hiring their Founding team.

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Recommended by Brian Moran

@BrittMichaelian One of my favorite authors! Have you read the Illustrated Man recently? The first story in the book is titled "The Veldt." It was written in 1950 but is ALL ABOUT technology we are talking about today (#AI, #VR). Every story in the book is great. (from X)

The Illustrated Man book cover

by Ray Bradbury·You?

“Sometimes at night I can feel them, the pictures, like ants, crawling on my skin. Then I know they’re doing what they have to do . . . ” Fantasy master Ray Bradbury weaves a narrative spanning fromthe depths of humankind’s fears to the summit of their achievements in eighteeninterconnected stories—visions of the future tattooed onto the body of anenigmatic traveler—in The Illustrated Man, one of the essential classicsof speculative fiction from the author of The Martian Chronicles, DandelionWine, and The October Country.

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Recommended by Brian Moran

In his new book, Finance Secrets of Billion-Dollar Entrepreneurs, Dileep Rao breaks an age-old myth that, “in order to be really successful, entrepreneurs need venture capital.” He not only dispels the myth, but demonstrates how entrepreneurs can be even more successful by not going down the VC path. Dileep’s book is must-read material for every business owner looking to build their empire. (from Amazon)

Take Control of Your Startup―and Watch it Grow “This book delivers clear thinking for entrepreneurs who want to control their own destiny and grow their business without the need for venture capital.” −Joel Cannon, co-founder and president of Cannon Technologies An analysis of success.  Award-winning professor of entrepreneurship Dileep Rao presents readers with a detailed guide to success through his interviews and analysis of billion-dollar entrepreneurs (those who built a venture from startup to more than $1 billion in sales and valuation) and 100 million-dollar entrepreneurs (startup to $100 million). Build your business without venture capital (VC) funding.  Rao is here to show entrepreneurs that it is possible to start a business without outside help. He shares how more than 90 percent of America’s billion-dollar entrepreneurs in the VC era (since 1946) avoided or delayed VC, and instead used finance-smart expertise―skills that combine business-smart, capital-smart, and leadership-smart strategies. The right mix of internal and external financing. It takes more than one person to grow a business from the bottom up. But that doesn’t mean we have to sacrifice control of the venture in the process. Armed with 23 years of experience as a financer, Rao shows readers how to optimize internal financing so as to attract external financing. By keeping control of the venture, entrepreneurs keep more of the wealth, as well. In Finance Secrets of Billion-Dollar Entrepreneurs learn about: Pre-financing, financing and post-financing skills and strategies of finance-smart entrepreneursThe ins and outs of venture finance, applicable to anyone looking to start a businessTips on increasing capital productivity and attaining financially sustainable entrepreneurship If you’ve enjoyed entrepreneurship-focused titles like The Lean Startup, The $100 Startup, or Venture Deals, then Rao’s Finance Secrets of Billion-Dollar Entrepreneurs is the next book for you.

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Recommended by Brian Moran

Unlike most "marketers" . . . Nic is in the trenches, day in and day out. He walks the walk. If you're looking for the biggest lever to pull in your business, this guy is it. (from Amazon)

Most marketers concentrate on what they’re trying to get. The best marketers concentrate on what they have to give. The way people consume media is changing, fast. Laptops, tablets, and smartphones keep us constantly connected to the web. This represents a huge opportunity for savvy marketers. The only problem: the old methods are no longer working. New media demands new advertising. Facebook is the single most effective platform for marketing in the Internet era, and Nicholas Kusmich is the best Facebook marketer in the world. In GIVE, he will show you what differentiates Facebook from traditional advertising and explain why it’s so important to promote your business in a way that’s congruent with the norms of social media. He’ll take you through a four-step process to pinpoint your market, master your message, create a magnet, and build a mechanism that both collects and helps you retain and develop those relationships. When used well, Nic’s Facebook advertising strategies can send your return on investment through the roof. In GIVE, you’ll find the tools you need to share your authentic voice with the people who want to hear it and turn their attention into satisfying, meaningful sales.