Thoughts

Eight Lunches Endorsements/Thoughts Here are some thoughts and endorsements I received for Eight Lunches. I find this part of the process so interesting crowdsourcing feedback from smart people is kind of hard.  There are a lot of great ideas to pursue.  First, a testimonial: A great concept back by great content! Small business owners will relate to the conversations in this book. As entrepreneurs, its hard sometimes to carve out the time to work with a mentor live, but each of us can find the time to pick up this book and take its content and Jasons advice to heart. Laurie Berenson, CPRW Sterling Career Concepts From Kim Bilawchuk, a professional career coach. This is a great, fair assessment, and mostly what I get from this is that I need to better define my target audience, which wouldnt necessarily include her (as an experienced entrepreneur).  I would love to sit down with her for eight Friday lunches and have deeper conversations.  From Kim: Here are my thoughts on 8 Lunches: Very quick/easy read (about an hour). Seemed very similar to the format of The Go-Giver (Bob Burg) series of meetings re: sales. Pauls business seems vague (intentional, Im guessing), but some details might make a more interesting story (I understand that more details may disconnect some readers). Not sure I learned a lot that I didnt already know, but some good refresher points (most profitable source of income, post vision statement in easy-to-see locations, etc.) Relatively generic sales, marketing, networking info. Not sure theres anything that makes this stand above the rest. No a-ha moment for me. Not sure who your target audience really is new business owners? experienced ones? Seemed like there was a fair bit of Jason Alba self-promotion (all your links at the end of each of the emails, vision statement). Should you be you or just an experienced business owner? At the end, found myself wanting a series of worksheets to work through some of the suggestions presented during the lunches. Whats next? Do you want people to contact you as their business coach (which youve said isnt your forte)? You asked for criticism! Overall, it could be a good resource for many. Marc Wolfsfeld is The Technology Pro, and professional speaker, who said: I read most of the book and I like it. I might suggest that you find an alternative to the word stuff. Since we are selling our stuff at a premium, we should show it a bit more respect. Isnt it interesting how ONE WORD can change the meaning? I agree with Marc. My casual style slipped over which is okay, but I do need to be more careful on stuff like stuff Its fun to get past the first draft. Rosemary Mark, a professional recipe creator (!!), had some great comments that are not overwhelming me: I really like your book for its clear step by step format. These are the areas I liked best: The numbered sequence, or lunch dates is convenient and logical organization. Blogs and SEO section is really helpful. (for me personally I learned about putting the post title in the permalink â€"  Thank you!) SMART vision statement Emails after each lunch are  great review and practical application Liked least: Too much narration. Ie: “Paul said with gratitude” ‘Jason happily replied’   I know it creates the conversation but it is wordy and makes the document long Though I liked the blogging section, it is long and overwhelming.   Blogging could be it’s own book!   Maybe just tighten up the points. From Chris Dennison (The Job Search Coach), of Dennison Career Services (a JibberJobber Partner), some great encouragement: Just finished reading the draft â€" great concept! The book is long enough to be useful, short enough to read quickly. You or one of your other commenters suggested inserting workbook pages between each chapter â€" I agree. It would bridge the gap that tends to exist between the training session and the change of behavior the normal tendency for people to leave a motivational session fired up with good intentions…that get lost back in the daily grind. I thought for sure Id have suggestions to make it more concise, but I think youve managed to keep it beautifully simple. The conversational structure makes it so much more compelling and interesting than a straightforward how-to. Every time I read yet another mainstream article about the job search process, I think, well thats lovely, but the job seeker still isnt going to know HOW to solve that problem specifically. Of course, that keeps us in business Cant wait to see the finished product…and evangelize it. Theres more Im sifting through, but I thought Id share this with you. Enjoy your weekend! I have some rewriting to do! Eight Lunches Endorsements/Thoughts Here are some thoughts and endorsements I received for Eight Lunches. I find this part of the process so interesting crowdsourcing feedback from smart people is kind of hard.  There are a lot of great ideas to pursue.  First, a testimonial: A great concept back by great content! Small business owners will relate to the conversations in this book. As entrepreneurs, its hard sometimes to carve out the time to work with a mentor live, but each of us can find the time to pick up this book and take its content and Jasons advice to heart. Laurie Berenson, CPRW Sterling Career Concepts From Kim Bilawchuk, a professional career coach. This is a great, fair assessment, and mostly what I get from this is that I need to better define my target audience, which wouldnt necessarily include her (as an experienced entrepreneur).  I would love to sit down with her for eight Friday lunches and have deeper conversations.  From Kim: Here are my thoughts on 8 Lunches: Very quick/easy read (about an hour). Seemed very similar to the format of The Go-Giver (Bob Burg) series of meetings re: sales. Pauls business seems vague (intentional, Im guessing), but some details might make a more interesting story (I understand that more details may disconnect some readers). Not sure I learned a lot that I didnt already know, but some good refresher points (most profitable source of income, post vision statement in easy-to-see locations, etc.) Relatively generic sales, marketing, networking info. Not sure theres anything that makes this stand above the rest. No a-ha moment for me. Not sure who your target audience really is new business owners? experienced ones? Seemed like there was a fair bit of Jason Alba self-promotion (all your links at the end of each of the emails, vision statement). Should you be you or just an experienced business owner? At the end, found myself wanting a series of worksheets to work through some of the suggestions presented during the lunches. Whats next? Do you want people to contact you as their business coach (which youve said isnt your forte)? You asked for criticism! Overall, it could be a good resource for many. Marc Wolfsfeld is The Technology Pro, and professional speaker, who said: I read most of the book and I like it. I might suggest that you find an alternative to the word stuff. Since we are selling our stuff at a premium, we should show it a bit more respect. Isnt it interesting how ONE WORD can change the meaning? I agree with Marc. My casual style slipped over which is okay, but I do need to be more careful on stuff like stuff Its fun to get past the first draft. Rosemary Mark, a professional recipe creator (!!), had some great comments that are not overwhelming me: I really like your book for its clear step by step format. These are the areas I liked best: The numbered sequence, or lunch dates is convenient and logical organization. Blogs and SEO section is really helpful. (for me personally I learned about putting the post title in the permalink â€"  Thank you!) SMART vision statement Emails after each lunch are  great review and practical application Liked least: Too much narration. Ie: “Paul said with gratitude” ‘Jason happily replied’   I know it creates the conversation but it is wordy and makes the document long Though I liked the blogging section, it is long and overwhelming.   Blogging could be it’s own book!   Maybe just tighten up the points. From Chris Dennison (The Job Search Coach), of Dennison Career Services (a JibberJobber Partner), some great encouragement: Just finished reading the draft â€" great concept! The book is long enough to be useful, short enough to read quickly. You or one of your other commenters suggested inserting workbook pages between each chapter â€" I agree. It would bridge the gap that tends to exist between the training session and the change of behavior the normal tendency for people to leave a motivational session fired up with good intentions…that get lost back in the daily grind. I thought for sure Id have suggestions to make it more concise, but I think youve managed to keep it beautifully simple. The conversational structure makes it so much more compelling and interesting than a straightforward how-to. Every time I read yet another mainstream article about the job search process, I think, well thats lovely, but the job seeker still isnt going to know HOW to solve that problem specifically. Of course, that keeps us in business Cant wait to see the finished product…and evangelize it. Theres more Im sifting through, but I thought Id share this with you. Enjoy your weekend! I have some rewriting to do!