Reviews | Justin Levy

The Promise: President Obama Year One [Book Review]

June 23, 2010 By Justin Levy 5 Comments

Over the past year or so there have been several books written about President Obama, his historic presidential race and exploring how his presidency. As someone who is extremely interested in government and politics, I have read several of them. None of them have gotten as close as Jonathan Alter has with his book The Promise: President Obama, Year One (affiliate link).

Jonathan Alter received access to senior level officials within the Administration. That access helps this book to give you the feeling that you were sitting in the Oval Office while major discussions and decisions were being made from the once Obama won the election and was the President-Elect through his first days in office and onto everything from health care legislation, the auto industry bailout, the recession, the two wars and everything else that President Obama has juggled over the past year.

I really enjoyed the book especially because I had previously read David Plouffe’s book about the campaign so it was nice to tie both together. Here are some more thoughts that I had on the book.

If you can’t view this video, head over to my YouTube channel to grab it.

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Reviews, Videos Tagged With: Book Reviews, presidentobama, Reviews, Videos, whitehouse

Derailed [Book Review]

January 23, 2010 By Justin Levy 14 Comments

Most of the business books that are published focus on teaching you what you can do to improve your sales, marketing, customer retention, productivity or a number of other business-related goals. The case studies in these books typically highlight role models of the concepts being described and then have actionable tips that you can follow to achieve similar results.

Well, Derailed (affiliate link) by Tim Irwin takes the exact opposite perspective but that’s what makes the book so great. Derailed reviews the decisions, personalities and eventual derailments of six high-profile leaders. Irwin finds that:

deficits in authenticity, humility, self-management, and courage become more dangerous as we take on more leadership, and can cause us to ignore glaring signals that might otherwise save us from catastrophic demise

It is from these derailments that Irwin puts together a list of five lessons can we can all implement into our lives to avoid current or future failures in leadership if we’re currently in an executive position or seek to obtain a position in the future.

Catch more of my review in this quick video review. If you can’t see the video, you can grab it over on YouTube.

Note: Apparently there was some background noise from my washing machine, or who knows what. Sorry for the little annoying hum.

Have you read the book? What were your thoughts on it?

Disclosure: This book was provided as a review copy.

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The Audacity to Win Video Review

November 12, 2009 By Justin Levy 9 Comments

Were you as amazed as most of the rest of the country when Barack Obama seemingly came out nowhere to take the 2008 Presidential election by storm? Have you sat back and scratched your head wondering how the Obama campaign did it? Are you amongst the group that wants to understand how they built such a strong community, both online and offline? Need a break from the regular onslaught of business, marketing, and self-help books? If you’re whipping your head up and down, first, stop. We wouldn’t want you to get whip-lash. Now, don’t even bother watching the video below and go buy 5 copies of The Audacity to Win: The Inside Story and Lessons of Barack Obama’s Historic Victory (Amazon affiliate link) by David Plouffe. Enough said.

Want some more explanation? David Plouffe was the campaign manager and chief architect of the Obama presidential campaign. Over the course of 2 years the campaign raised more than $750 million, had a staff of almost 6,000 people and an army of volunteers that totaled into the millions. The Audacity to Win (Amazon affiliate link) takes you closer than any other account of the Obama campaign has. There are many business, marketing, community development and time management takeaways in addition to the granular level detail of what it takes to run a presidential campaign.

As usual, I shot a quick video with my thoughts on the book. If you can’t view the video, check it out over on my YouTube channel.

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Business, Business strategy, Community, Reviews, Social Media Strategy, Videos Tagged With: Book Reviews, Business strategy, Marketing, politics, presidentobama, Reviews, Social Media Strategy, Videos

Inbound Marketing – Video Book Review

November 3, 2009 By Justin Levy 15 Comments

Are you trying to figure out how to develop an online presence and just how Google, social media and blogs will help with that? Wouldn’t it be awesome if someone gave you a task list that that would help you “get found” online? What if there was a book out there that helped to make to explain how all of these online tools work together to help YOU? Lucky for you, Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah, the co-founders of HubSpot, have published exactly that book. Their new book Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs
(affiliate link), is an excellent, tactical read that I think many of you would benefit from. Not only are Brian and Dharmesh friends but this book helped push me to go do a few more things that I hadn’t been doing.

Check out my video review of Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs
(affiliate link). If you can’t view the video, check it out over on YouTube.

If you’ve already picked up a copy of the book, what did you think of it? Did it give you a list of things to go do?

Disclosure: HubSpot provided me with a review copy of this book. HubSpot is a sponsor of many events run by New Marketing Labs and Chris Brogan, President of New Marketing Labs, is a member of the HubSpot B oard of Advisors.

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Ignore Everybody Video Book Review

October 25, 2009 By Justin Levy 9 Comments

Are you looking for a book that, according to Guy Kawasaki, will “kick your ass and push you out of your zone of mediocrity and stagnation”? What about a book that is described by Pamela Slim as bringing “the topic of creativity out of the lofty halls of academia…into a place where the average person can apply it: to improve work and create a life that really matters”? Well, if you’re shaking your head up and down and feel as if you’ve been searching for just that book, I have a little news for you: stop reading this blog post and overnight 5 copies (1 for you and 4 for holiday gifts) of Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity (Amazon link) by Hugh MacLeod (otherwise known as @gapingvoid).

As you’ll be able to tell from my video book review, I really enjoyed this book. It’s easy to consume, fun to read and you can extract all sorts of tidbits of information as well as a ton of great quotes to help keep those creative juices flowing. This will definitely be a book that I re-read on a regular schedule. Oh, and if the text of the book wasn’t enough, Hugh fills the book with tons of business card-sized drawings to help illustrate his points.

I really hope that you enjoy this book as much as I did. I’m already planning on sending a few copies around to some people I know in my life that could use this boost.

If you can’t view the video below, you can also find it over on my YouTube channel.

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