Dan Heath
Co-author of Switch and Made to Stick
Book Recommendations:
Recommended by Dan Heath
“If you want to improve your public speaking, spend a few hours with Allison's book. It's loaded with good advice and tricks of the trade that will help you up your game.” (from Amazon)
When you know what to say and how to say it, people listen. Find your powerful voice, and step into leadership. Speak with impact. Every day, you have an opportunity to use your voice to have a positive impact -- at work or in your community. You can inspire and persuade your audience -- or you can distract and put them to sleep. Presentation styles where leaders are nervous, ramble, and robotic can ruin a talk on even the most critical topics. As your performances become weak, your career prosects start to dim. To get ahead and make an impact, you need to deliver well-crafted messages with confidence and authenticity. You must?sound?as capable as you are. Public speaking is a skill, not a talent. With the right guidance, anyone can be a powerful speaker. Written by former opera singer turned CEO and TEDx speaker Allison Shapira, Speak with Impact unravels the mysteries of commanding attention in any setting, professional or personal. Whether it’s speaking up at a meeting, presenting to clients, or talking to large groups, this book’s easy-to-use frameworks, examples and exercises will help you: Engage your audience through storytelling and humor Use breathing techniques to overcome stage fright Strengthen and project your voice by banishing filler words/uptalk Use effective body language and build your executive presence Compose a clear message and deliver confident, authentic presentations Learn to conquer fear, capture attention, motivate action, and take charge of your career with?Speak with Impact.
Recommended by Dan Heath
“In Makers, Chris Anderson gives us a fascinating glimpse of a hands-on future, a future where 'if you can imagine it, you can build it.'” (from Amazon)
3D Robotics co-founder and bestselling author Chris Anderson takes you to the front lines of a new industrial revolution as today’s entrepreneurs, using open source design and 3-D printing, bring manufacturing to the desktop. In an age of custom-fabricated, do-it-yourself product design and creation, the collective potential of a million garage tinkerers and enthusiasts is about to be unleashed, driving a resurgence of American manufacturing. A generation of “Makers” using the Web’s innovation model will help drive the next big wave in the global economy, as the new technologies of digital design and rapid prototyping gives everyone the power to invent--creating “the long tail of things”.
Recommended by Dan Heath
“Sprint teaches you a novel process for solving really thorny problems in just 5 days. It's full of helpful, entertaining stories that will make it easier for you to succeed. What more, exactly, would you demand from a book? I wish all business books were this useful.” (from Amazon)
From inside Google Ventures, a unique five-day process for solving tough problems, proven at thousands of companies in mobile, e-commerce, healthcare, finance, and more. Entrepreneurs and leaders face big questions every day: What’s the most important place to focus your effort, and how do you start? What will your idea look like in real life? How many meetings and discussions does it take before you can be sure you have the right solution? Now there’s a surefire way to answer these important questions: the Design Sprint, created at Google by Jake Knapp. This method is like fast-forwarding into the future, so you can see how customers react before you invest all the time and expense of creating your new product, service, or campaign. In a Design Sprint, you take a small team, clear your schedules for a week, and rapidly progress from problem, to prototype, to tested solution using the step-by-step five-day process in this book. A practical guide to answering critical business questions, Sprint is a book for teams of any size, from small startups to Fortune 100s, from teachers to nonprofits. It can replace the old office defaults with a smarter, more respectful, and more effective way of solving problems that brings out the best contributions of everyone on the team—and helps you spend your time on work that really matters.


