Douglas Burdett

Host of The Marketing Book Podcast

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Book Recommendations:

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Recommended by Douglas Burdett

Influence, the classic book on persuasion, explains the psychology of why people say "yes"—and how to apply these understandings. Dr. Robert Cialdini is the seminal expert in the rapidly expanding field of influence and persuasion. His thirty-five years of rigorous, evidence-based research along with a three-year program of study on what moves people to change behavior has resulted in this highly acclaimed book. You'll learn the six universal principles, how to use them to become a skilled persuader—and how to defend yourself against them. Perfect for people in all walks of life, the principles of Influence will move you toward profound personal change and act as a driving force for your success.

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Recommended by Douglas Burdett

Winfluence by award-winning digital strategist Jason Falls, is THE authoritative book about influencer marketing from the perspective of businesses and brands. An invaluable guidebook for marketing managers, small business owners, marketing consultants and agencies alike, the book explains how influencers came to be, how they came to be so powerful, why so many brands are counting on influencer marketing for business success and how anyone who is not, now can. This book not only explains the who, what, when, where, and why of influencer marketing but then adds the how―more specifically and predictably than other books can hope for. It offers detailed guidelines, case studies, cutting-edge ideas, how-tos for measuring success, and more to help any business owner, marketer, agency account person, or digital strategist see and seize the opportunity to drive business results. Through a series of narrative stories, interviews, and case studies, the book illustrates how to take what many people consider good influencer marketing to a new level of success from a long-tail perspective―not short-term, one-off executions.

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Recommended by Douglas Burdett

There's a reason they call it a convenience store- because it's convenient! When you have to pick up a gallon of milk, would you rather stop by a large supermarket or a 7-Eleven? Customers who shop at convenience stores know the selection is smaller and the prices are often higher . . . yet they still come in droves because of the ease of purchase. What about the minibar in your hotel room? That's convenient too . . . but the convenience comes at a cost. Did you ever stop to think that the same $5.00 can of Coca-Cola in the hotel's mini-fridge can be bought down the hall from the vending machine for just $1.25? Yet even with that can of Coke being four times more expensive, hotels are restocking minibars every day. Customers will pay for convenience. And they'll choose to do more business over time with the people and companies that make their lives more convenient. This book shows you how to leverage convenience as a powerful way to differentiate yourself from your competition. You'll learn six compelling strategies, supported by numerous examples and case studies that will fuel your plan to create a focus on convenience for your customers.

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Recommended by Douglas Burdett

From Mike Michalowicz, bestselling author of Profit First, Clockwork, and Fix This Next, a practical and proven guide to standing out in a crowded market. Many business owners are frustrated because they feel invisible in a crowded marketplace. They know they are better than their competitors, but when they focus on that fact, they get little in return. That's because, to customers, better is not actually better. Different is better. And those who market differently, win. In his new marketing book, Mike Michalowicz offers a proven, no-bullsh*t method to position your business, service, or brand to get noticed, attract the best prospects, and convert those opportunities into sales. Told with the same humor and straight-talk that's gained Michalowicz an army of ardent followers, with actionable insights drawn from stories of real life entrepreneurs, this book lays out a simple, doable system based on three critical questions every entrepreneur and business owner must ask about their marketing: 1. Does it differentiate? 2. Does it attract? 3. Does it direct? Get Different is a game-changer for everyone who struggles to grow because their brand, message, product or service doesn't stand out and connect with customers--the long-anticipated answer to the defining business challenge of our time.

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Recommended by Douglas Burdett

A Wall Street Journal Bestseller Your personal goals need a long-term strategy. It's no secret that we're pushed to the limit. Today's professionals feel rushed, overwhelmed, and perennially behind. So we keep our heads down, focused on the next thing, and the next, without a moment to breathe. How can we break out of this endless cycle and create the kind of interesting, meaningful lives we all seek? Just as CEOs who optimize for quarterly profits often fail to make the strategic investments necessary for long-term growth, the same is true in our own personal and professional lives. We need to reorient ourselves to see the big picture so we can tap into the power of small changes that, made today, will have an enormous and disproportionate impact on our future success. We need to start playing The Long Game. As top business thinker and Duke University professor Dorie Clark explains, we all know intellectually that lasting success takes persistence and effort. And yet so much of the relentless pressure in our culture pushes us toward doing what's easy, what's guaranteed, or what looks glamorous in the moment. In The Long Game, she argues for a different path. It's about doing small things over time to achieve our goals—and being willing to keep at them, even when they seem pointless, boring, or hard. In The Long Game, Clark shares unique principles and frameworks you can apply to your specific situation, as well as vivid stories from her own career and other professionals' experiences. Everyone is allotted the same twenty-four hours—but with the right strategies, you can leverage those hours in more efficient and powerful ways than you ever imagined. It's never an overnight process, but the long-term payoff is immense: to finally break out of the frenetic day-to-day routine and transform your life and your career.

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Recommended by Douglas Burdett

The small business guru behind Duct Tape Marketing shares his most valuable lesson: how to get your customers to do your best marketing for you. The power of glitzy advertising and elaborate marketing campaigns is on the wane; word- of-mouth referrals are what drive business today. People trust the recommendation of a friend, family member, colleague, or even stranger with similar tastes over anything thrust at them by a faceless company. Most business owners believe that whether customers refer them is entirely out of their hands. But science shows that people can't help recommending products and services to their friends-it's an instinct wired deep in the brain. And smart businesses can tap into that hardwired desire. Marketing expert John Jantsch offers practical techniques for harnessing the power of referrals to ensure a steady flow of new customers. Keep those customers happy, and they will refer your business to even more customers. Some of Jantsch's strategies include: -Talk with your customers, not at them. Thanks to social networking sites, companies of any size have the opportunity to engage with their customers on their home turf as never before-but the key is listening. -The sales team is the most important part of your marketing team. Salespeople are the company's main link to customers, who are the main source of referrals. Getting them on board with your referral strategy is critical. -Educate your customers. Referrals are only helpful if they're given to the right people. Educate your customers about whom they should be talking to. The secret to generating referrals lies in understanding the "Customer Referral Cycle"-the way customers refer others to your company who, in turn, generate even more referrals. Businesses can ensure a healthy referral cycle by moving customers and prospects along the path of Know, Like, Trust, Try, Buy, Repeat, and Refer. If everyone in an organization keeps this sequence in mind, Jantsch argues, your business will generate referrals like a well-oiled machine. This practical, smart, and original guide is essential reading for any company looking to grow without a fat marketing budget.

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Recommended by Douglas Burdett

A guide for creating a deeper relationship with the entrepreneurial journey The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur offers overworked and harried entrepreneurs, and anyone who thinks like one, a much-needed guide for tapping into the wisdom that is most relevant to the entrepreneurial life. The book is filled with inspirational meditations that contain the thoughts and writings of notable American authors. Designed as a daily devotional, it is arranged in a calendar format, and features readings of transcendentalist literature and others. Each of The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur meditations is followed by a reflection and a challenging question from John Jantsch. He draws on his lifetime of experience as a successful coach for small business and startup leaders to offer an entrepreneurial context. Jantsch shows how entrepreneurs can learn to trust their ideas and overcome the doubt and fear of everyday challenges. The book contains: A unique guide to meditations, especially designed for entrepreneursA range of topics such as self-awareness, trust, creativity, resilience, failure, growth, freedom, love, integrity, and passionAn inspirational meditation for each day of the year. . . including leap yearReflections from John Jantsch, small business marketing expert and the author of the popular book Duct Tape MarketingWritten for entrepreneurs, as well anyone seeking to find a deeper meaning in their work and life, The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur is a practical handbook for anyone seeking to embrace the practice of self-trust.

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Recommended by Douglas Burdett

A step-by-step system for creating customers and clients for life. In a world that’s difficult for business professionals to cut through noise to create relationships with their customers, organizations that focus on converting their customers to members and helping them achieve lasting transformation rather than simply offering the transaction of the moment are winning. The Ultimate Marketing Engine teaches you how to develop a system to take every customer from where they are to where they want to be by building on the innovative principles first brought to the marketing world in Duct Tape Marketing and honed over three decades of working with thousands of businesses. In this book, you will learn: Why strategy must come before tactics.How to narrow your focus and choose only ideal customers.Why no one wants what you sell – and what they actually want.How to use story and narrative as the voice of strategy.How to construct the perfect customer journey.How to grow your business with your customers. This bookintroduces the Customer Success Track, an innovative new approach to marketing strategy that will transform how you view your business, your marketing and how you view every customer. The Ultimate Marketing Engine will help you take control of your marketing while creating ridiculously consistent business growth.

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Recommended by Douglas Burdett

Game-changing new strategies to outsmart, outmaneuver, and outsell your competition! Salespeople face fierce competition in their pursuit of winning deals. Differences in product features and functions get smaller by the minute and are not always meaningful to buyers. How do you stand out from the pack and not just land the account, but win deals at the prices you want? Lee B. Salz’s previous ground-breaking, bestselling book, Sales Differentiation, armed salespeople with strategies to differentiate both what they sell and how they sell it. Sell Different! provides a new component of Sales Differentiation strategy to help you outsmart, outmaneuver, and outsell the competition to win more deals at the prices you want. This book provides you with the tools you need to land new accounts and grow existing ones. The practical, proven strategies presented in Sell Different! include: How to defeat your toughest competitor (hint: it’s not who you think it is)An actionable 16-phase plan to reach and engage elusive prospectsFinding more of your best clients (it’s easier than you think)Acquiring more referrals than you ever dreamed possibleVirtual selling and how to harness its potentialNeutralizing the fear of change that paralyzes buyers and kills dealsStructuring pilot programs that advance your dealsIdentifying the critical person needed to win more deals at the prices you wantSolving closing problems and fixing the real issue limiting your successDissecting and resolving the most challenging sales objection — price!What 99.999% of salespeople don’t do, but shouldExpanding account relationships to explode revenue and lock out the competitionHow to address a major flaw when comparing salespeople with professional athletesAnd much, much more!If you are a salesperson, executive, or business owner who desires to win more deals at the prices you want, then this book is for you.

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Recommended by Douglas Burdett

Accelerate sales and improve customer experience Every day, most working professionals entrust their most important messages to a form of communication that doesn't build trust, provide differentiation, or communicate clearly enough. It's easy to point to the sheer volume of emails, text messages, voicemails, and even social messaging as the problem that reduces our reply rates and diminishes our effectiveness. But the faceless nature of that communication is also to blame. Rehumanize Your Business explains how to dramatically improve relationships and results with your customers, prospects, employees, and recruits by adding personal videos to emails, text messages, and social messages. It explains the what, why, and how behind this new movement toward simple, authentic videos―and when to replace some of your plain, typed-out communication with webcam and smartphone recordings. •   Restore face-to-face communication for clarity and connection •    Add a personal, human touch to your emails and other messages •    Meet people who’ve sent thousands of videos •    Learn to implement your own video habit in an easy, time-saving way •    Boost your replies, appointments, conversion, referrals, and results dramatically If you’re ready to influence, teach, sell, or serve in a more personal way, Rehumanize Your Business is your guide.

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Recommended by Douglas Burdett

WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER 2022 AXIOM Business Award: Silver Medalist in Networking (social media, communication skills, etc.) DIGITAL POLLUTION IS THE PROBLEM. HUMAN-CENTERED COMMUNICATION IS THE SOLUTION. We’re spending more time than ever in virtual environments. That will only increase, as will the amount of noise we encounter there. The seemingly endless series of unwelcome digital distractions range from frustrating to dangerous. As individuals and businesses, we not only spend time and energy managing this digital pollution, we often create it. At risk are relationships and revenue. The only viable way forward is to be more thoughtful, intentional, and personal. Human-Centered Communication provides a philosophy and practice to help you connect in more meaningful and effective ways with prospects, customers, team members, and every stakeholder in your success. Learn to: • Break through the noise and earn attention • Build trust and create engagement • Enhance your reputation with both people and algorithms The concepts and models in this book apply to any form or channel of communication, but human centricity favors video. More visual and emotional than faceless digital communication, video enhances tone, intent, subtlety, nuance, and meaning. Learn to be clearer and more confident on camera in live video calls, meetings, and presentations, as well as in recorded video emails, social messages, and text messages. The authors of the bestselling Rehumanize Your Business join with eleven industry-leading experts from companies like Salesforce, HubSpot, and RE/MAX to lead the growing conversation on leveraging human strengths in an increasingly digital world. The brightest future is tech-enabled, but authors Ethan Beute and Stephen Pacinelli show that it’s also human-centered. The experts studied, interviewed, and featured: • Jacco van der Kooij, Founder of Winning by Design • Dan Hill, PhD, President of Sensory Logic • Mathew Sweezey, Director of Market Strategy at Salesforce • Julie Hansen, Creator of the Selling on Video Master Class • Adam Contos, CEO of RE/MAX • Lauren Bailey, Founder and President of Factor 8 and #GirlsClub • Mario Martinez Jr, Founder and CEO of Vengreso • Viveka von Rosen, Cofounder and Chief Visibility Officer at Vengreso • Shep Hyken, Customer Service and Customer Experience Expert • Morgan J Ingram, Director of Sales Execution at JB Sales Training • Dan Tyre, sales executive and founding team member at HubSpot Among the themes addressed: • Trust and relationships • Communication and connection • Service and value • Text and video • Noise and pollution Among the types of videos in which you’ll become more confident and effective: • Live, synchronous video meetings • Recorded, asynchronous video messages • Video calls and video presentations • Video in emails and text messages • Video in social feeds and social messages • Video for specific individuals and large groups • Video for known audiences and anonymous masses • Video for prospects, customers, employees, and other stakeholders For immediate benefits and for long-term reputation, now is the time to get ahead of and stay ahead of ever-increasing digital noise and pollution - with Human-Centered Communication.

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Recommended by Douglas Burdett

Most of us have an intuitive sense of superior branding. We prefer to purchase brands we find distinctive―that deliver on some important, relevant dimension better than other brands. These brands have typically achieved positional advantage. Yet few professionals have had the formal training that goes beyond marketing theory to bridge the “theory-doing gap”―understanding the specific techniques and strategies that can be used to create brands that attain positional advantage in the marketplace. Positioning for Advantage is a comprehensive how-to guide for creating, building, and executing effective brand strategies. Kimberly A. Whitler identifies essential marketing strategy techniques and moves through the major stages of positioning a brand to achieve in-market advantage. Introducing seven tools―from strategic positioning concepts to strategy mapping to influencer maps―Whitler provides templates, frameworks, and step-by-step processes to build and manage growth brands that achieve positional advantage. This book presents real-world scenarios, helping readers activate tools to increase skill in creating brands that achieve positional advantage. Brimming with insights for students and professionals alike, Positioning for Advantage helps aspiring C-level leaders understand not only what superior branding looks like but also how to make it come to life.

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Recommended by Douglas Burdett

When it comes to your relationship with marketing, it's time to wipe the slate clean. You've been promised big results with a quick turnaround. You've been told that social media is a silver bullet for increased sales (so far, you haven't seen an impact). Your marketing team and vendors have overpromised and underdelivered, and you're disappointed. You're frustrated. Perhaps you're close to giving up on marketing entirely, but something tells you that you shouldn't—you just need to know how to use it wisely. In Lies, Damned Lies, and Marketing, Atul Minocha reveals the root causes of your frustration and provides you with the insight you need to utilize your marketing dollars for real results. He helps you understand why you need marketing, the important distinctions between marketing and sales, and how to attain the right blend of hard data and softer creativity to persuade your audience. Bringing with him more than thirty-five years of experience, Atul shows you how to make marketing work for you and finally achieve the results you've been waiting for.

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Recommended by Douglas Burdett

Marketing has become ridiculously complicated, but yours doesn’t have to be. With decades of hands-on experience, expert strategist and writer Drew Neisser has witnessed the dramatic evolution of business-to-business marketing. Working alongside giant brands like IBM, as well as startups and mid-size companies, and interviewing over four hundred top practitioners, Neisser uncovered the top four characteristics that all successful marketers have in common: they are Courageous, Artful, Thoughtful, and Scientific (CATS). These four characteristics form the basis for the framework in Renegade Marketing. Over the years, Neisser created a twelve-step formula to radically simplify B2B marketing and build an unbeatable brand. In his book, he shares the stories of marketing CATS as he gives you the tools to:Walk through a highly refined discovery process that culminates in finding your brand’s purposeDefine your company’s purpose in eight words or fewerBuild team support for new marketing initiatives while establishing your unique brand story, voice, and designAssemble effective marketing plans that engage employees, inspire customers, and attract new businessDrive perpetual growth by creating a culture with metrics, marketing technology, and experimentation

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Recommended by Douglas Burdett

Let's face it: Competition is tougher than ever these days. Competing on price is a loser's game -- just ask the two gas stations across the street from each other. And competing on product is getting harder and harder as almost everything can be copied -- just ask your favorite ride-share company. So what's left? How can companies stand out in a crowded marketplace that is constantly evolving? The answer is customer experience. And the best part about customer experience is that it's delivered by human beings which are unique to your company. No one else has your human beings, which means that you can provide a customer experience that no one else can. It's time to make your customer experience a competitive advantage. Almost every business has a "leaky bucket." Most companies are so focused on sales growth and bringing in new customers at the expense of the existing customers who are funding the business. Without our existing customers, we're out of business. So why do companies spend so much money and time on higher and higher sales and new customer goals and yet not nearly as much time with the people they already have? Instead of spending more money on marketing and trying to acquire new customers, what if you focused on providing your existing customers a remarkable experience? Listen to your customers, engage with your customers, and they will become your best marketers. That's right, your existing customers will actually help you acquire new customers, and plug your "leaky bucket." And this book will show you how. By learning from the successes of other companies and applying the proprietary WISER method (Witty, Immersive, Shareable, Extraordinary, Responsive) to your business, you will create an array of remarkable experiences that your customers will want to talk about with friends, family, and social media followers. In turn, you'll benefit from marketing that is far more credible, engaging, and authentic than yet another email or social media campaign. Your business CAN compete on customer experience. When you create a remarkable experience for your customers, they become your best marketers and salespeople. The result is more customers, who stay longer, spend more, and recommend your company to others. Wouldn't you like to become WISER than your competition?

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Recommended by Douglas Burdett

Nothing can take your business to the next level like great search engine optimization (SEO). Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to know what will successfully drive traffic, leads, and sales. If you want to stand out from your competition, your SEO needs a distinctive blend of creativity and logic. Maybe you’re a marketing manager or executive who is responsible for SEO growth but do not fully understand how it works. Or maybe you are a seasoned SEO pro looking to optimize further. Either way, this book is your behind-the-scenes guide to online visibility. When it comes to SEO, success often depends not on what you do but on how you do it. That is why Product-Led SEO digs deep into the logic and theory of SEO instead of offering step-by-step guidelines and techniques. You will learn to develop your own best practices and see where most SEO strategies go astray. If your main goal is driving traffic, you are leaving sales on the table.

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Recommended by Douglas Burdett

"One of the best Business Writing books of all time" - BookAuthority Writing is a valuable career skill. But here's the secret: it’s not enough to be good with words. You have to set yourself up for success with structure and process as well. This book will show you how to get your writing projects done consistently and efficiently. The secrets of successful business writers The book teaches you skills you won’t learn in a writing class, including: How to streamline collaboration with stakeholders or subject matter expertsWhy the style guide is your friend, and how to create oneHow to set up your projects to sail through reviews and approvalsYou will find actionable advice and checklists that you can apply to any of your business writing projects, including blog posts, content marketing assets, team reports, or freelance writing projects for corporate clients. Whether you're an experienced writer or just starting out, if writing is any part of your job, buy this book today to invest in your success. The Workplace Writer's Process won a 2018 IndieReader Discovery Award (2nd place overall in nonfiction). It is part of The Writer's Process series.

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Recommended by Douglas Burdett

As your company's chief marketing officer, you're responsible for your organization's growth and reputation--but you don't have enough control. Your organization works in departmental silos, functional leaders pushing their own solutions and feeling satisfied with functional KPIs. But the kind of exponential growth that creates unstoppable momentum requires your customer-facing departments to fight for the customer instead of their own departmental wins. You're not the only one who notices--but you are the only one in the perfect position to do something about it. Discover how to reach your potential and stand out as more than a marketing professional. In CMO to CRO, industry experts Brandi Starr, Mike Geller, and Rolly Keenan show you how to bring revenue to the forefront and make every team's number one objective a seamless customer experience. You'll learn how to create consistency by reorganizing your business, following the customer, prioritizing revenue, and using CX technology to succeed where your competition fails.This book presents a revolutionary approach to not only unite the silos but position you as an innovative leader and finally uncover what CX is really about: revenue growth.

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Recommended by Douglas Burdett

Are you overwhelmed by the breathtaking rate of change in the world? Are confusing consumer trends, the unrelenting pace of technology, and the breakneck speed of business making you feel irrelevant and lost? Pathfinding author Mark Schaefer provides an achievable and realistic framework to help you stay ahead of the curve by reimagining marketing in a world where hyper-empowered consumers drive business results. Marketing Rebellion will teach you: How cataclysmic consumer trends are a predictable result of a revolution that started 100 years ago. Why businesses must be built on human impressions instead of advertising impressions. The five constant human truths at the heart of a successful marketing strategy. Why customer loyalty is dying and what you need to do about it right now. How to help your best customers do the marketing for you. Actionable steps to execute an immediate course-correction for businesses of any size. Through new research, singular insights, and inspiring case studies, this entertaining book challenges your view of what it means to be a marketer today and provides an innovative blueprint for business growth. The Marketing Rebellion is knocking at your door. Are you ready?

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Recommended by Douglas Burdett

Silicon Valley icon and bestselling author Guy Kawasaki shares the unlikely stories of his life and the lessons we can draw from them. Guy Kawasaki has been a fixture in the tech world since he was part of Apple's original Macintosh team in the 1980s. He's widely respected as a source of wisdom about entrepreneurship, venture capital, marketing, and business evangelism, which he's shared in bestselling books such as The Art of the Start and Enchantment. But before all that, he was just a middle-class kid in Hawaii, a grandson of Japanese immigrants, who loved football and got a C+ in 9th grade English. Wise Guy, his most personal book, is about his surprising journey. It's not a traditional memoir but a series of vignettes. He toyed with calling it Miso Soup for the Soul, because these stories (like those in the Chicken Soup series) reflect a wide range of experiences that have enlightened and inspired him. For instance, you'll follow Guy as he . . . Gets his first real job in the jewelry business--which turned out to be surprisingly useful training for the tech world. Disparages one of Apple's potential partners in front of that company's CEO, at the sneaky instigation of Steve Jobs. Blows up his Apple career with a single sentence, after Jobs withholds a pre-release copy of the Think Different ad campaign: "That's okay, Steve, I don't trust you either." Reevaluates his self-importance after being mistaken for Jackie Chan by four young women. Takes up surfing at age 62--which teaches him that you can discover a new passion at any age, but younger is easier! Guy covers everything from moral values to business skills to parenting. As he writes, "I hope my stories help you live a more joyous, productive, and meaningful life. If Wise Guy succeeds at this, then that's the best story of all."