Big Time Off: The Transformative Power of Sabbaticals and How to Take One by DJ DiDonna

Simon Acumen, July 2026

A transformative, research-backed guide to elevating both your personal well-being and your career through purposeful time off, from Harvard Business School Senior Lecturer and the Sabbatical Project founder DJ DiDonna.

We’ve built a world of work optimized for output—yet the most meaningful breakthroughs, decisions, and reinventions rarely happen at a desk. In Big Time Off, leading sabbatical researcher and founder of the Sabbatical Project DJ DiDonna explores a simple, radical idea: stepping away from your job may be the most important work of your life.

Packed with original research and compelling stories of sabbatical-takers from all walks of life—from teachers and nonprofit leaders to startup founders and Fortune 500 employees—Big Time Off gives you the inspiration, permission, and practical guidance to craft your own sabbatical. You’ll learn:

– When to take a sabbatical—and what negative, positive, and neutral catalysts to look out for.

– How sabbaticals can help you navigate identity shifts, forge a new career path, feel human again, and live a more authentic life.

– What the three sabbatical archetypes are—the explorer, the seeker, and the achiever—and best sabbatical practices for each type.

– How anyone—no matter their circumstances—can experience a sabbatical through strategic planning.

Sabbaticals help us avoid sleepwalking through the biggest events of our lives by giving us time to be present in moments of difficulty, celebration, and transition. For anyone stuck, searching, or simply curious about another way to live and work, Big Time Off is your must-have guide to creating a richer, more intentional life.

DJ DiDonna is a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School, where he teaches entrepreneurship. In 2019, he founded The Sabbatical Project to define, explore, and research sabbaticals. DiDonna has advised over a dozen organizations on the creation of sabbatical policies, including Zappos, Google, and DaVita, and from nonprofits to Fortune 500 companies, both in the United States and around the world. He attended Harvard Business School and cofounded an international credit-scoring company, EFL Global (the Entrepreneurial Finance Lab), based in Lima, Peru. For more on The Sabbatical Project please visit thesabbaticalproject.org.

Filed Under: Narrative Non-Fiction & Memoir, Personal Finance & Business, Self-Help & Health Tagged With: ,

FARTHER, FASTER, AND FAR LESS DRAMA: How to Reduce Stress and Make Extraordinary Progress Wherever You Lead by Janice Fraser and Jason Fraser

(Matt Holt, April 2023)

FARTHER, FASTER, AND FAR LESS DRAMA outlines a deceptively simple set of behaviors that everyday leaders can follow to align teams and make meaningful progress quickly.

Everyone—from team leaders, to consultants, to stay-at-home parents—wishes life could be simpler in this fast-paced world, but that often feels impossible.

It doesn’t have to.

Janice and Jason Fraser have been using their method for decades to help all kinds of people—including Navy SEALs, startup CEOs, and Fortune 100 executives—make progress in both their professional and personal lives by solving hard problems with grace.

The approach is simple but powerful, calling on readers to:

orient honestly
value outcomes
leverage brains
make durable decisions

You will set and achieve goals faster, make complex problems more manageable, and conduct yourself with integrity, even during overwhelming circumstances. It’s a practical, ambitious, and humane guide for everyday leaders striving to persist and thrive in today’s enormously stressful landscape.

FARTHER, FASTER, AND FAR LESS DRAMA offers theory alongside hands-on exercises, formulas, and frameworks that can all be adapted to real-life situations.

Janice Fraser is an investor, speaker, and expert in the management practices to support disruptive innovation at scale. A Silicon Valley veteran, she’s built a storied career as a product manager, founder, facilitator, and confidant for entrepreneurs and enterprise executives alike. But her impact extends beyond the Valley with innovation and transformation projects at NASA, the Obama White House, Procter and Gamble, and many other companies in the Fortune 500. As an investor, she is particularly committed to championing and extending access to the brilliant entrepreneurs who are typically underrepresented in the world of venture-backed startups. For more on Janice please visit janicefraser.com.

Jason Fraser co-founded the Innovation and Transformation Practice at Pivotal Software, establishing the values, practices, and strategic vision that would modernize software development within the Fortune 100 and the U.S. Military. He’s currently a director on the Federal team at VMWare, working with some of the largest organizations in the world to create high-functioning, rapid product development capabilities, and to break through the human barriers that block innovation.

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THE PORTFOLIO LIFE: How to Future-Proof Your Career, Avoid Burnout, and Build a Life Bigger than Your Business Card by Christina Wallace

(Balance, April 2023)

“In a turbulent world, this is a guide to leading a balanced life. Drawing on her background as a serial entrepreneur, Christina offers actionable advice to help you anticipate—and navigate—disruption.”
―Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again and host of the TED podcast Re:Thinking

What Color Is Your Parachute? meets Out of Office in this inspiring, practical playbook to achieve sustainable work-life balance while optimizing your happiness, personal growth, and bank accounts.

Pouring yourself into a single full-time job is the riskiest move you can make. Your parents’ advice to focus on one career path? It doesn’t work anymore, for reasons ranging from recessions to student loan debt, the gig economy, climate disasters, and a global pandemic (to name a few). We need a dramatically different relationship with work, one that allows us to define ourselves beyond our paid labor.

The answer? A Portfolio Life. An anti-hustle, pro-rest approach to work-life balance, a Portfolio Life is built on three tenets:

You are more than any one role or opportunity.
Diversification will help you navigate change and mitigate uncertainty.
When (not if) your needs change, you can and should rebalance.

In The Portfolio Life, Harvard professor, serial entrepreneur, and self-described “human Venn diagram” Christina Wallace adapts tried-and-true practices from the business sector to help you eschew the cult of ambition and experience the freedom of building the flexible, fulfilling, and sustainable life you want. Drawing on research, case studies, and her own experience, she walks you step-by-step through the process of designing a strategy for the long haul. Because you deserve rest, relationships, and a rewarding career—not someday, but today. After all, you only live once.

Christina Wallace is a self-described “human Venn diagram” who has crafted a career at the intersection of business, the arts, and technology. She is currently a Senior Lecturer of Entrepreneurial Management at Harvard Business School and an active startup mentor and angel investor. She was previously cohost of The Limit Does Not Exist and co-authored New To Big (April 2019, Currency). A serial entrepreneur, Christina spent a decade building businesses in fashion, media, and edtech, including a venture inside the American Museum of Natural History focused on getting girls into STEM. She was a management consultant with the Boston Consulting Group and began her career at the Metropolitan Opera. Christina holds undergraduate degrees in mathematics and theater studies from Emory University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She lives in Cambridge with her husband, Chas Carey, and their two children, Arden and Sebastian. For more on Christina visit christinawallace.com and portfoliolife.com.

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The Financial Mindset Fix by Joyce Marter

(Sounds True, 2021)

A step-by-step guide to cultivate mental and spiritual discipline for taking charge of your financial well-being

Does prosperity lead to happiness . . . or is it the other way around? As a therapist, Joyce Marter noticed an extraordinary trend: as her clients improved their mental health, they were suddenly receiving raises, getting promotions, finding better jobs, or starting their successful businesses. Since then, Marter has become a go-to expert on the “Psychology of Success”―pioneering ways to help us improve our financial well-being by focusing on our psychological and spiritual issues around money.

With The Financial Mindset Fix, Marter crystallizes her most powerful and effective practices for success. Here, she guides you through 12 mindsets to transform your relationship with wealth―along with innovative exercises, self-assessment tools, and insights for shifting into a mindset of abundance; changing unconscious habits and beliefs that keep you trapped; using mindfulness to make good financial choices; sharing your good fortune with others through generosity and service; and realizing an expansive vision of your healthiest, wealthiest life.

Money brings up deep issues for all of us―around self-worth, self-image, justice, and survival-level fear. “We are all works in progress,” says Marter. “No matter where you are on your journey, these tools are meant to be lifelong companions to a life of greater prosperity and joy.”

Joyce Marter, LCPC, is a therapist, entrepreneur, adjunct professor at Northwestern University, and national speaker. She is the founder and CEO of Urban Balance, a nationwide counseling practice, and provides trainings on mental health and success for Fortune 500 companies. She has written for HuffPost, Spirituality & Health, and The Good Men Project, among others. She has been featured in various media outlets, including CNN, MTV, and the Wall Street Journal. For more, see joyce-marter.com.

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Rare Breed by Sunny Bonnell and Ashleigh Hansberger

A Guide to Success for the Defiant, Dangerous, and Different
(HarperOne, September 2019)

An unconventional business book for the rebels and misfits–the Rare Breeds–who don’t fit the traditional mold, offering an approach that’s anything but business as usual. What if your biggest weaknesses are actually your greatest strengths?

Sunny Bonnell and Ashleigh Hansberger, award-winning brand consultants and founders of Motto, bring their wisdom and insights to this radical “outside the box” business guide written specifically for the mavericks, oddballs, and visionaries they call Rare Breeds. While most advice guides encourage you to change your inherent characteristics to get the job, get the promotion, get the client, Bonnell and Hansberger identify a different approach: instead of trying to conform, march to the beat of your own drum. By following your own path, you’ll find your success.

They know this approach works based on their own experience. When these iconoclastic thinkers behind the company acclaimed by the Chicago Tribune and Forbes started their company, they didn’t follow the rules of most leadership books and business school courses.
“Instead of doing everything people told us we should be doing–be transactional, be conservative, be nice–we did the opposite. Instead of burying our innate vices–obsessive perfectionism, rebelliousness, weirdness–we made them our selling points.” The result: a flourishing company that is the model for an entirely new approach to success.

Rare Breeds don’t get what they want by adapting to the conventional rules: instead, they use the traits often considered shortcomings as tools for creation and growth. Combining examples and practical tools, Bonnell and Hansberger identify seven vices-turned-virtues–Rebellious, Audacious, Obsessed, Hot-Blooded, Weird, Hypnotic, Emotional–to help disruptors and trailblazers discover their inner Rare Breed and tap into them to realize their full potential in work and life.

For more on Bonnell and Hansberger, please visit thisisrarebreed.com.

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Creative Trespassing: How to Put the Spark and Joy Back into Your Work and Life by Tania Katan

(Currency, February 2019)

“At once playful, smart, easy to implement and, dare I say, punk rock, the pages of this book will wake you up to your personal power and remind you just how enjoyable your life, and work, can be. I highly recommend you let Katan trespass all over your sitch and get yourself this fabulous book.” – Jen Sincero, #1 New York Times bestselling author of You are a Badass and You are a Badass at Making Money

Creative disruptor, inspirational speaker, and co-creator of the internationally viral campaign #ItWasNeverADress shows you how to put the spark back into your work and life.

“You don’t have to turn into a corporate drone to kick ass in the working world,” says Tania Katan. After more than ten years of smuggling creativity into the business sector without getting busted, Katan is here to tell you that any task or pursuit can be a creative one. You just need to be willing to defy conformity and be ready to conjure imagination anywhere, at any time.

If you’re feeling stuck in a dullsville job, a windowless cubicle, or an ill-fitting polyester work shirt, chin up! Katan has been there, too, and she’s lived to tell the story. How? By choosing to stand out rather than fit in, to find her light, and to bask in it with all of her quirks and flaws. “The moment you choose to let the world see the real you–messy, imperfect, warts and all,” she says, “is the moment you choose to shine too.”

Whether you’re an entrepreneur seeking new ways to innovate, a newbie trying to spice up routine entry-level work, a free spirit with a rich creative life outside the office looking to bring more of that magic into your job, or just someone who occasionally feels the urge to scream “Why does it say paper jam when there is no paper jam?!!,” Katan will show you how to transform monotony into novelty and become more energized in your work and in the world.

Peppered with stories of her own shenanigans–from organizing a wrestling match in the middle of an art museum to staging a corporate culture intervention via post-its–and lessons from the rule-breaking exploits of artists, change-makers, and totally legit business leaders alike, this book is a rollicking, uninhibited guide to using creativity as fuel for a freer and more joyful life.

TANIA KATAN is an inspirational speaker, speaking coach, and creative consultant who believes in storytelling at all costs! She has been a featured speaker at CiscoLive!, S.H.E. Summit, Landmark Ventures Social Innovation Summit, CreativeMornings, Comedy Central Stage, TEDx, and more. And her productive disruptions have been covered by the New York Times, USA Today, HuffPost, Glamour, Time, ReadWrite, Adweek, BuzzFeed, Mashable, USA Today, CNN, and more. Katan’s B.A. in theater has turned out to be more lucrative than any disparaging academic adviser could have imagined! For more on Tania please visit taniakatan.com.

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NEW TO BIG: How Companies Can Create Like Entrepreneurs, Invest Like VCs, and Install a Permanent Operating System for Growth by David Kidder and Christina Wallace

(Crown Currency, 2019)

In NEW TO BIG, serial entrepreneurs David Kidder and Christina Wallace reveal the Bionic blueprint for igniting growth revolutions inside established companies—funding portfolios of startups and monitoring their progress as they grow from new ideas into big businesses.

When David Kidder was invited to speak at GE’s annual leadership conference in 2012, he posed a rather unexpected question from the stage down to then-chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt, “How many $50 million companies did you launch last year?” The answer was zero. But Immelt, rather than being angry or offended by the radical candor, admitted to the 700 leaders in attendance, “That was the most important question in the thirty-seven years of this conference.”

The fact is, as Kidder shows in NEW TO BIG entrenched thinking and outdated bureaucracy is at war with new ideas. Established companies are skilled at growing big businesses into even bigger ones. Entrepreneurs and early-stage investors, on the other hand, are skilled at discovering new opportunities and turning them into big businesses. New to Big combines the best of both worlds, introducing established companies to the methodology, tools, and systems of entrepreneurship and venture capital. It’s creates a way of working that they call the Growth Operating System.

NEW TO BIG is designed to unpack the Growth Operating System that veteran venture capitalists and successful entrepreneurs use to discover the future in the face of the unknowable. Because even most bets placed by VC’s fail, more than 80 percent of the time. That is why you need a portfolio of investments and a growth board to measure the progress of each business, ensuring bad ideas die and good ideas grow.

For more about Bionic please visit bionicsolution.com.

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FULLY HUMAN: A Three-Step Path to Productivity, Happiness, and Success by Susan Packard

(Tarcher Perigee, 2018)

HGTV cofounder Susan Packard launches the next chapter in emotional intelligence (EQ), and shows how employees and business leaders alike can increase their satisfaction and productivity–in work and life–via her three-step path toward EQ Fitness.

Success is an inside job. EQ Fit leaders know that the emotional health of their organizations is key to their economic health, and it all begins with tending to one’s own emotional fitness. Packard’s accessible guidebook has arrived just in time, since the landscape of business and leadership is changing at a blinding clip. As technological advances increase efficiency, old-school hierarchies are fading fast, and instead of top-down bravado, there’s a new path forward. She teaches an “inside out” practice of self-discovery, which helps readers uncover unproductive emotions and dispel them.

Packard shows how the most successful companies are rich with “connector” emotions like hope, empathy, and trust building. She tackles unconventional topics, like how workaholism keeps us emotionally adolescent and how forgiveness belongs in the workplace, too. No one knows these truths better. Packard shares her EQ Fit-catalyzed success at HGTV and the stories of the executives she coaches in mindfulness and other out-of-the-box techniques.

The best leaders balance power with grace, and everyone can effectively use both resilience–an ability to endure tough situations and make tough decisions–and vulnerability–a willingness to open up, change, and admit when we need help–to be more effective. Packard offers us exciting new tools so we can bring our best selves to all we do.

For more on Susan Packard please visit susanpackard.com.

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Leapfrog: The New Revolution for Woman Entrepreneurs by Nathalie Molina Nino with Sara Grace

(TarcherPerigee, 2018)

For women entrepreneurs (and anyone launching a startup from scratch), this smart, snappy guide presents 50 proven ways to leapfrog over road blocks to growth and success

Through her extensive experience in the startup world, Nathalie Molina Nino, a serial entrepreneur and CEO of BRAVA Investments, discovered that women entrepreneurs face unique hurdles in launching and scaling their businesses. Often deprived of the access to support, resources, and capital their male counterparts enjoy, they need simple, effective ways to “leapfrog” over these barriers to the success they deserve.

Leapfrog offers 50 proven hacks to help women entrepreneurs (and anyone launching a startup from scratch) take their businesses to the next level. Based on the Athena Core 10, a unique set of leadership values Nathalie helped develop at Barnard, as well as anecdotes and advice from well-known trailblazers, this inspiring book lays out powerful strategies and shortcuts for business growth, such as:

* Sell it, then build it
* Document your non-negotiables and take care of those first
* Bypass VC bias (and BS) with crowdfunding
* Put friends, family, and community to work

For women entrepreneurs and anyone aspiring to launch a business, Leapfrog is the essential guide to getting past the major obstacles to growth and achieve the success they desire.

Nathalie Molina Niño is the CEO and founder of BRAVA Investments, investing in high-growth, innovative businesses that deliver a measurable economic benefit to women. A technologist and coder by training, Molina Niño launched her first tech startup at the age of 20. Molina Niño is also the co-founder Entrepreneurs@Athena at the Athena Center for Leadership Studies of Barnard College at Columbia University. She has served as a business and global growth advisor to industry leaders in the for- and non-profit sectors, including Disney, Microsoft, MTV, Mattel, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Most recently, she stepped in as CRO of PowerToFly and led the launch campaign for Nely Galan’s New York Times bestseller and company, Self-Made.

For more on Nathalie, please visit: bravainvestments.com

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Unsafe Thinking by Jonah Sachs

(Da Capo Lifelong Books, April 2018)

How to take bold yet intelligent risks in a volatile world where everyone instinctively craves safety and stability

“Safe thinking” is everywhere, and there are concrete reasons why. The reliance on well-known patterns, carefully constructed plans, and the expertise we’ve developed in facing prior challenges has a magnetic pull on our psyches. Overcoming this bias is an urgent problem that nearly everyone in business must now confront. In Unsafe Thinking, Jonah Sachs probes deeply into the pitfalls of safe thinking through the experiences of successful trailblazers in a wide range of fields from business, health, education, and more. For example, take the story of Helena Foulkes, a vice-president at CVS who asked: Why would a company committed to health and wellness sell cigarettes? “Because it’s a $2 billion part of our business and removing cigarettes won’t make a dent in reducing smoking,” shareholders replied. Yet Foulkes convinced her colleague; cutting cigarettes has opened many other profitable avenues, and smoking has actually decreased in communities where many people used to buy their cigarettes at CVS.

Sachs also delves into the scientific literature of many leading researchers in the areas of cognition and creativity. What emerges is a fascinating set of stories of individuals who, despite the fears and resistance we all face, have deeply changed themselves, their companies, and the fields in which they work. Sachs calls these people “unsafe thinkers.” But they are not simply mavericks and radicals who break all the rules. It turns out that there are clear principles and habits of mind these people exhibit that account for their success. Sachs lays out ample evidence that anyone, armed with the will and basic understanding of how to do it, can become an unsafe thinker.

Jonah Sachs is the founder and a partner of Free Range Studios, a brand and innovation company that transforms companies through unsafe thinking. For his work he has been awarded “best of” honors three times at the South by Southwest interactive festival, earned a Webby award, and been featured at the Sundance Film Festival.

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The Career Manifesto by Mike Steib

(TarcherPerigee, January 2018)

An action-oriented guide to help anyone find their calling and achieve their goals, inspired by the author’s popular blog post with the same title

The Career Manifesto presents an inspiring and refreshingly simple approach to finding your passion and purpose and then jumpstarting a dream career to achieve those, by asking three essential questions:

– What do you want your impact to be?
– What are the potential pathways that move you towards your purpose?
– How can you hold yourself accountable for your goals?

Award-winning CEO of XO Group and sought-after speaker, Michael Steib, draws on his own diverse work experience and career highlights as well as powerful anecdotes from other successful business leaders to offer expert guidance, field-tested advice, and interactive exercises that will help you answer these three key questions, envision a goal and then craft and execute a plan to achieve it. For young professionals, entrepreneurs, and creatives seeking more purpose and meaning in their work and lives, The Career Manifesto is the essential way to build–and follow through on–an effective plan to excel at whatever job, project or career goal you put your mind to.

Mike Steib is the President and CEO of XO Group, a family of brands that includes the popular sites The Knot, The Nest and The Bump. Prior to joining XO Group, Steib served as CEO at Vente-Privee USA, Director of Google TV Ads, and Managing Director of Emerging Platforms at Google, Inc. Steib also held positions at NBC Universal/General Electric, including General Manager, Strategic Ventures, and before that, VP, Business Development. He also worked on the development of new media businesses for Walker Digital, LLC, and as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company. Steib is Co-Chairman of the board for Literacy Partners, a nonprofit providing adult literacy programs to thousands of New Yorkers each year as well as a board director for Ally Financial, a Fortune 500 financial services company committed to digital innovation. He lives in New York.

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Good Stocks Cheap by Kenneth Jeffrey Marshall

goodstockscheapfinalGOOD STOCKS CHEAP: Value Investing with Confidence for a Lifetime of Stock Market Outperformance
By Kenneth Jeffrey Marshall
(McGraw Hill, June 2017)

Bull market? Bear market? Power through both with the three-part value investing model proven to pinpoint stocks that supercharge any portfolio.

Good Stocks Cheap provides a low-risk, easy-to-understand approach to the money management style that has made value investors like Warren Buffet and Seth Klarman so rich.

Marshall’s proven framework integrates the three disciplines that successful value investors rely upon―finance, strategy, and psychology―to help you crush standard returns over the long run. This model works in overheated markets by showing which companies are likely to excel operationally over time; and in downturns, by revealing which of these outperformers are most underpriced and best to buy.

Kenneth Jeffrey Marshall teaches value investing in the masters in finance program at the Stockholm School of Economics in Sweden, and to professionals at Stanford University. He also teaches finance and strategy in the masters in engineering program at the Coleman Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a past member of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, and taught Stanford’s first-ever online value investing course in 2015.

Mr. Marshall is chairman of Judicial Capital, a private investment firm; and Judicial Corporation, which he founded in 1995. His portfolio has beaten the S&P 500 total return since the beginning of the century without leverage, shorting, or derivatives. .

An industry speaker who has been blogged about and quoted in such outlets as Dow Jones MarketWatch, Mr. Marshall divides his time between California and Sweden. He holds a B.A. in Economics, International Area Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles. He holds an M.B.A. from Harvard University.

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New Rules of the Game by Susan Packard

susanpackardThe co-founder of HGTV shows how women can achieve their career goals using techniques of gamesmanship.

New Rules of the Game provides insights, tips and direction to women in business, based on experiences from author and HGTV co-founder Susan Packard’s own 30 year career, along with a dozen other prominent executives. Packard advocates for a revolutionary new perspective for businesswomen, which she calls “gamesmanship” — a strategic way of thinking that cultivates creativity, focus, optimism, teamwork, and competitiveness. These strategies are seen in the gaming and sports worlds and often among men, but women can utilize these skills as well to learn to:

– compete outwardly instead of inwardly take loss in stride
– provide the emotional distance necessary to succeed at work
– think tactically
– step up with more grit to get the next win
– level the playing field by understanding how male colleagues think and win at work, and
– add excitement to their careers.

Susan Packard is the co-founder of Scripps Networks Interactive and former chief operating officer of HGTV. Under Packard’s helm, HGTV became one of the fastest growing cable networks in television history. Today HGTV is available in more than 99 million U.S. homes and distributed in 175 countries and territories. Packard helped to build Scripps Networks Interactive to a market value of over $10 billion. She can be found online at SusanPackard.com, @PackardSusan and at facebook.com/PackardSusan.

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Talk Is (Not!) Cheap by Jim McCann

TALKISNOTCHEAPJim McCann has spent his career talking. For the founder and CEO of the world’s largest florist, everybody is a customer or a potential customer, and being open and ready to speak to a variety of audiences has made all the difference.

In Talk Is (Not!) Cheap, McCann illustrates how the art of what he calls “conversation leadership” can be used to inspire, innovate, and win in business. Using a blend of how-to and insightful personal stories, he argues that the gift of gab may just be the most critical (and undervalued) skill set in today’s workplace.

Whether the goal is to improve interactions with customers, win clients for new business, or amplify one’s voice at work, readers will find practical advice on how to strategically transform the way they communicate and listen.

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The Startup Playbook by David Kidder

Most startups do not succeed. The difference between winning and losing is the magic of the entrepreneur’s focus and actions. And those who found successful startups all have one thing in common: a collection of philosophies and strategies for winning in a complex and unforgiving marketplaces. Whether it’s implicit or explicit, every founder has their own “startup playbook.” They just haven’t revealed it—until now.

In THE STARTUP PLAYBOOK: The Secrets of the Fastest-Growing Startups From Their Founding Entrepreneurs by David Kidder has assembled multi-dimensional tool providing an instructional tour of the proprietary ideas and actions of some of the most extraordinary and successful entrepreneurs of our times, via interviews with innovators such as Caterina Fake (Flickr), Tony Hsieh (Zappos), Elon Musk (PayPal) and more than 35 others, offering their stories, advice, aha moments, and management techniques.

David Kidder is the co-founder of Clickable and GoodAdds, and co-author of the two time New York Times best-selling Intellectual Devotional series of books.

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Winning the Story Wars by Jonah Sachs

Does your brand tell a story?

In Winning the Story Wars, globally recognized storyteller, designer and entrepreneur Jonah Sachs argues that only those brands that tell values-driven stories through the right channels will revolutionize marketing. Above that, they may become humanity’s greatest hope for the future.

It’s no surprise that most of today’s marketing messages are swallowed up in a flood of noise the minute they hit the market, with thousands of ads and emails hitting each recipient on a weekly basis. And those recipients, empowered by social media tools and on-demand viewing, will ignore you in favor of something they’d prefer to seek out themselves. Sachs cites a quote from the former advertising chief at Macy’s and Citigroup to emphasize this point: “The irony is that while there have never been more ways to reach consumers, it’s never been harder to connect with consumers.”

For those of us who not only want to be heard, but need to be heard to create a better future—the time has come to cross the chasm with the only strategic approach that has ever really worked: telling great stories.

In Winning the Story Wars, Sachs systematically breaks down how communicators can go beyond the sell by creating stories that inspire people not just to listen, but to proselytize. The President and co-founder of Free Range Studios, Sachs has been a David among Goliaths helping hundreds of for-profit and non-profit organizations rise above the din with campaigns built around the internal structures of ancient myth. Even with a modest budget, his first two viral media efforts—The Meatrix and Store Wars—alone yielded forty million viewers. Drawing on the wisdom of Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell, Sachs will guide readers to harness myth-making powers of their very own. Weaving prescriptive tools throughout the book, Sachs will help communicators:

  • Identify and learn the best myth structures at work today
  • Find a tight-knit audience of evangelists to spread the word
  • Foster the image of their audience as potential heroes
  • Watch the message take on a life of its own

This book will speak to the message-makers in any type of company or organization. The Story Wars have long been underway, now it’s time for heroic communicators to turn the tides away from simple selling, and towards real inspiration.

Jonah Sachs is an internationally recognized storyteller, author, designer and entrepreneur. As the co-founder and creative director of Free Range Studios, Jonah has helped hundreds of social brands and causes rise above the media din with breakthrough campaigns. Jonah’s work and opinions have been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, FOX News, Sundance Film Festival, NPR and in Fast Company magazine, which named him one of the 50 most influential social innovators.

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Reversing the Slide by James Shein

A just-in-time guide for revamping distressed companies
Drawn from the author’s decades of experience advising, purchasing, and reviving distressed companies across industries, geographies, and sizes, Reversing the Slide is designed to help executives, managers, and employees revitalize downtrodden companies. It shows how to: select the tactics appropriate for each stage of distress; understand the use of entrepreneurial concepts; avoid pitfalls common to turnarounds; determine the legal, financial, strategic, and operational steps in the process; discover why the principal of “ready, fire, aim” should guide the decision-making process in situations with time pressure and significant uncertainty; and uncover the secrets of effective leadership and governance.

James Shein’s Reversing the Slide is full of insightful advice on what works, what does not, and why it will prove invaluable to executives, managers, and employees in helping troubled companies before it’s too late.

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Strategies for the Green Economy by Joel Makower

Businesses are entering the green marketplace at breakneck speed to keep pace with customer and societal demands to reduce their environmental impacts. But greening one’s business is no small feat. While clear opportunities abound in this new economy, business leaders pursuing a green strategy are finding few roadmaps and established rules and plenty of hidden twists and turns.

So, how does a company succeed in a world gone green?

In Strategies for the New Green Economy, Joel Makower, one of the world’s foremost green business experts, provides a clear roadmap for this challenging terrain. Makower offers insights and inspiration gleaned from his 20 years’ experience helping Fortune 500 companies and start-ups alike formulate strategies that align environmental and business goals. Providing a comprehensive and realistic look at both the opportunities and challenges, Strategies for the New Green Economy shows how leadership companies are finding their way in the green economy, while their competitors struggle.

Joel Makower is Executive Editor of GreenBiz.com® and other websites, research, and events produced by Greener World Media, Inc., of which he is cofounder and chairman. He has 20 years’ experience advising companies on green strategy and marketing and is author of more than a dozen books, including The Green Consumer and The E-Factor: The Bottom-Line Approach to Environmentally Responsible Business.

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Roar! Get Heard in the Sales and Marketing Jungle by Kevin Daum

In this captivating parable, you’ll follow Ryan Miller, an executive struggling with reduced sales in a challenging economy. Ryan is mentored by his old Livingston, New Jersey high school friend, Lenny Bernstein, now a Hasidic Jew in Brooklyn having great success in his packaging business. Over a series of lunches around New York City, Lenny shares the key insights that have driven his sales through the roof, while allowing him to run his business efficiently-and still have plenty of time for family.

Lenny explains the simple mnemonic R-O-A-R

– Recognize the four types of buyers
– Observe from the buyer’s perspective, and adapt your message
– Acknowledge the buyer’s special wants and needs
– Resolve the buyer’s issues

Praised by renowned money manager Ken Fisher, Roar! gives you a 3,500-year-old sales secret that has never before been articulated in a business context, one you can use to recharge your sales operation and revitalize both your business and your life. It may be a jungle out there, but it’s a little less scary once you know how to ROAR!

Kevin Daum is an award-winning and bestselling author and marketer. He is the national columnist for Smart Business Magazine, and an Inc. 500 entrepreneur whose sales and marketing techniques resulted in more than $1 billion in sales and two Amazon #1 best sellers. Drawing on his background in theatre and business, Kevin is a compelling speaker who has engaged and inspired audiences around the globe.

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GreenSense for the Home by Eric Corey Freed and Kevin Daum

When does a green home project make financial sense? The authors of this book provide the answer to this and other questions relating to the cost (and relative value) of environmentally friendly home improvements. Eric Corey Freed and Kevin Daum are experts, respectively, in green building and in financing custom homes. In this information-packed book, they walk readers through 50 green home projects and break them down according to the positive impact they have on the environment, as well as the impact they may have (both positive and negative) on the reader’s wallet. They evaluate a wide array of projects, including insulating pipes, weatherizing doors and windows, composting and recycling trash, installing a solar hot water heater, installing green countertops, upgrading appliances, building with reclaimed materials, and installing radiant heat. This unique perspective on going green is a reference that green-leaning homeowners simply cannot do without.

Eric Corey Freed, LEED AP, Hon. FIGP, is Principal of organicARCHITECT, an architecture and consulting firm in California, with nearly 20 years of experience in green building. Eric lectures around the country at 40+ conferences a year, and his work has been featured in Dwell, Metropolis, Town & Country, Natural Home and Newsweek. He has been seen on television on Fox News, HGTV, The Sundance Channel and PBS. He is the author of Green Building & Remodeling for Dummies.

An expert on financing custom homes, Kevin Daum is the author of Building Your Own Home for Dummies, named the #1 custom home resource guide by the Wall Street Journal.

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The Big Tech Score by Mike Kwatinetz and Danielle Kwatinetz Wood

Insights for today’s hot stocks, and winning strategies for tomorrow’s, from Wall Street’s #1 Tech Analyst
This is not your grandpa’s Wall Street. Stocks are more volatile now than ever. Even with all their potential for meteoric success, high tech investments are synonymous with high risk. This entertaining primer, by one of the leading tech analysts on Wall Street, offers a practical step-by-step guide for identifying tomorrow’s hot stocks today.

Why do certain technology companies succeed while others falter and disappear? Which businesses will rule the post-PC era? Kwatinetz discusses what’s coming down the pike in the next few years and who the key players will be.

He shows how to filter out the noise, and come up with an independent assessment of how much a stock is worth, and reveals ten rules of thumb that will help investors build a powerful portfolio.

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The Executive’s Almanac by Milton Moskowitz

The Executive’s Almanac is an entertaining collection of facts and figures covering all aspects of business—from the assembly line to the bottom line; from the stock market to the supermarket.

A sample of what’s in store:

• The ratio of the salaries of the average worker to the average CEO is 301 to 1.
• As of 2004, 8.3 million people in the world have $1 million to invest, spend, or save.
• Blue Chip stocks got their name from poker, where blue chips are more valuable than white or red.
• Starbucks was named for the first mate in Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick.
• The New York Stock Exchange ticker symbol for Mauna Loa is NUT; Men’s Wearhouse is SUIT;
• Sotheby’s is BID; and Genentech is DNA.

Milton Moskowitz has been a business journalist for 50 years. He is the bestselling coauthor with Robert Levering of 1984’s The 100 Best Companies to Work for in America, and he annually updates Fortune magazine’s list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For.

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A Weekend with Warren Buffett by Randy Cepuch

Once a year, the managers of public companies have to fling open the doors and let the owners in — whether they want to or not. A Weekend with Warren Buffett and Other Shareholder Meeting Adventures is a humorous, informative business-related travelogue that looks at how companies in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia treat their investors during the brief period when the welcome mat is out. It’s an Average Joe Investor’s search for shareholder democracy and an occasional free lunch. Companies featured include Berkshire Hathaway, Citigroup, Dow Jones, Dupont, eBay, Gannett, Google, Hawaiian Electric, Hershey, MGM Grand, Microsoft, Otter Tail, Playboy, Starbucks, Tootsie Roll, Wal-Mart and Walt Disney, among others.

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Your Complete Retirement Planning Road Map by Ed Slott

Corporate pensions are disappearing. Social Security is in trouble. And the sizable postwar generation is reaching retirement age. With the futures of millions of Americans at stake, Ed Slott, the country’s foremost retirement planning adviser, now offers expert advice on weathering the perfect storm of financial instability that looms on the horizon. Your Complete Retirement Planning Road Map provides clear step-by-step directions through the highways and byways of IRAs, 401(k)s, 403(b)s, and other major accounts.

In five focused sections, Slott combines crucial facts with checklists and questionnaires to teach investors and beneficiaries alike the best way to save and to maximize an inheritance. Inside you’ll discover

• an overview of every retirement savings account you own–from what it is and where it is to who gets it and how, plus where to put important data
• how to properly fill out retirement account beneficiary forms so that money goes to whomever you choose and not to relatives who pop up out of nowhere
• what to do when you inherit so that you won’t lose any tax benefits or make a mistake that could wipe out an inherited fortune that took years to build up
• how to handle out-of-the-box issues such as divorce or incapacity; tax issues for unmarried partners; decisions about trusts
• how to determine whether your professional retirement adviser is really up to the task of preserving and protecting your money
• the most up-to-date information on tax laws, including the Pension Protection Act, which provides major new retirement incentives that you can take advantage of

Your Complete Retirement Planning Road Map is an indispensable planning solution that is sure to become the standard how-to on a complex subject that is becoming relevant to more people every day.

Ed Slott is a nationally recognized retirement account expert and a professional speaker at conferences nationwide. He hosts www.irahelp.com, which provides retirement resources for both consumers and professional advisors. He created Ed Slott’s Elite IRA Advisor Group, an exclusive registry of financial advisors. Slott is the author of Parlay Your IRA into a Family Fortune and The Retirement Savings Time Bomb and How to Defuse It. He publishes “Ed Slott’s IRA Advisor,” a monthly newsletter for financial professionals. He is a frequent contributor to The New York Times, The Washington Post, Newsday, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Time, Newsweek, Fortune, Forbes, Money, and USA Today, and has appeared on all major networks. He lives on Long Island.

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The Retirement Savings Time Bomb by Ed Slott

“The best source of IRA advice” (The Wall Street Journal)- extensively revised and updated for the new tax rules.
With the possible exception of home property, the most valuable asset for most Americans is their retirement fund. Yet most people don’t know how to avoid the costly mistakes that cause a good chunk of those savings to be lost to needless and excessive taxation. Now, in this fully updated edition of The Retirement Savings Time Bomb, renowned tax advisor Ed Slott explains in clear-cut layman’s terms what people need to know to keep their money and pass it on to their families. This book is for every American with savings who is planning to retire.

Ed Slott was named “The Best” source for IRA advice by The Wall Street Journal and called “America’s IRA Expert” by Mutual Funds Magazine. Ed is a widely recognized professional speaker and educator specializing in retirement distribution planning, teaching both financial advisors and consumers how to best take advantage of our complicated tax code.

Ed has created the nationally aired Public Television specials, including the all-new “Ed Slott’s Retirement Rescue!”, “Lower Your Taxes! Now and Forever”, “Stay Rich for Life!” and “Stay Rich Forever & Ever with Ed Slott”, which have been viewed by millions across America.

He also established the IRA Leadership Program and Ed Slott’s Elite IRA Advisor Group, which were developed specifically to help financial institutions and advisors, financial advisor firms and insurance companies become recognized leaders in the IRA marketplace.

Ed is the author of The Retirement Savings Time Bomb and How to Defuse it (Penguin, 2012), Ed Slott’s Retirement Decisions Guide: 2011 Edition (Ed Slott, 2010), Stay Rich for Life! (Ballantine Books, 2009), Parlay Your IRA Into a Family Fortune (Penguin, 2008), Your Complete Retirement Planning Road Map (Ballantine Books, 2007), and Ed Slott’s IRA Advisor, a monthly IRA newsletter. He also writes personal finance columns for numerous financial publications and co-authored an extensive special report with Harry Dent titled, Taxing Away Your Wealth.

Ed has been quoted in The New York Times, Newsday, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, Time, Newsweek, Fortune Magazine, Forbes Magazine, Money Magazine, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine, USA Today, Bloomberg Personal, Investor’s Business Daily, Smart Money and a host of additional national magazines and financial publications. He has appeared on NBC, ABC, CBS, CNBC, CNN, FOX, PBS, National Public Radio, and Bloomberg TV and radio.

You can learn more at: www.IRAhelp.com
Read informative articles at: www.theslottreport.com

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Parlay Your IRA into a Family Fortune by Ed Slott

“America ‘s IRA expert”(Mutual Funds magazine) Ed Slott shows readers how to make the most out of their retirement plans.

– Achieve unlimited tax-free income after retirement and keep assets in the family
– Protect retirement funds from creditors, divorce, bankruptcy, lawsuits, or other problems that could expose it to loss
– Use a Roth IRA to build a tax-free fortune Slott’s three-step strategy cuts through the tax laws and provides simple, easy-to-follow instructions for managing IRAs and other retirement income.

Ed Slott is a highly sought-after professional speaker, CPA, and tax adviser. His diverse client list includes major corporations such as Fidelity Investments, American Express, Merrill Lynch, Nationwide Insurance, and Oppenheimer Funds. Ed Slott frequently appears in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, and on broadcast television and radio programs nationwide. He is publisher of the popular monthly newsletter “Ed Slott’s IRA Advisor.”

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The Parent Care Conversation by Dan Taylor

A comprehensive and empathetic program for addressing, planning, and putting into effect long-term elder care

Long -term care for aging parents is a sensitive, often difficult, but ultimately inevitable issue with which all of us will have to cope sooner or later. The Parent Care Conversation offers a step-by-step approach for families to follow that will enable them to develop workable plans of action. By first addressing the emotional aspects of long-term care that take into account the parents’ feelings and wishes, then integrating the practical and financial components, this book will open the door for a critical exchange of information and honest discussion among adult children and their aging parents that has long been the major roadblock to successful elder care. Filled with factual information, useful tips, real-life stories, and practical exercises, The Parent Care Conversation provides a proactive and collaborative solution to the long-term care issues that eventually everyone must face.

Dan Taylor is the creator of the Parent Care Solution, a unique process for planning for the long-term care of aging parents without financially or emotionally destroying the family. He is also the founder of the Parent Care Institute, an advocacy group active on both state and federal levels to bring awareness and changes to the topic of elder care.

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