Book Report - Reality Check by Guy Kawasaki

Reality Check.

An Irreverent Guide To Outsmarting, Out managing and Out marketing Your Competition.

~Guy Kawasaki

No B.S.
Guy and I have a few things in common, not the least of which is irreverence. I like how Guy says what's on his mind and isn't afraid to call "Bull Shiitake*" on anything or anyone if they have it coming to em. With that said, you should know I wrote this Book report fully prepared to call it "Bull Shiitake" if that's what I deemed it to be. It's anything but BS. I called my twin brother immediately after finishing it. I interrupted his round of golf to tell him to buy a copy on the way home along with two highlighters of different color. I told him to read it once and highlight it as he goes. Then to let it sink in for a month or so and read it again with another highlighter. The next step is to pass the book on to someone in his sphere of influence in the hopes they will be able to take actions that strengthen his relationships and solidify his support base. Twins rock because they love each other more than the other kids love their brothers. Just ask us.

*This is a Guyism and he says in the acknowledgements that his editor busted his chops for using it too many times. I think it's funny how the "itake" part isn't used when he does some keynotes and podcasts. :)

A Great Reason To Kill Trees
Reality Check is arguably one of the best collection of dead tree pages ever printed on the subject of entrepreneurship and contemporary business. My brother is a VP and national sales manager for a Canadian furniture importer and manufacturer. His job is to get their product represented by and sold to furniture stores across the U.S. Can you think of tougher business to be in right now? There aren't many. I devoured Reality Check from as many perspectives as I could. Primarily as it applies to real estate, as it applies to my start up efforts and as it applies to my family and friends in businesses of all stripes. There is something in each chapter that has meaningful, actionable and entertaining content. For my brother, it represents a way for him to divert his attention from all the uncontrollable elements his business is faced with and approach strategies and tactics from an entirely new, passion powered perspective. I honestly believe if he applies what he learns from the lessons in Reality Check, he's going to change the dynamic of his industry and be one of the first to emerge from the flames of circumstance.

I think you'd be hard pressed to find a vertical that couldn't do the same.

Weapons of Mass Construction
I love how Guy uses the metaphor of weapons applied to the tools and methods he uses with great success. Weapons have power. Weapons gain respect and get results and sometimes in away they weren't originally intended for. Reality Check is a weapon of mass construction for me. I've gained valuable new perspectives on the way I am approaching solutions, innovating and understanding the dynamics of my prospects and the market I serve. It's also been a deciding factor in picking up the pen and finishing the book I started a while back. The working title is the new tag line I just applied to this blog. (It's at the top of this blog and I came up with long before GK announced Reality Check :)

Foreword Thinking
You really need to read Foreword 2.0 in Reality Check to see why Guy calls it the best foreword written in the history of business books. It was the last thing written by Fake Steve Jobs before retiring the persona he represented in the Secret Diary of Steve Jobs. I laughed my ass off. If you've ever followed either of the Jobs', real or fake, you will too. If Guy declines to write the foreword for my book, that means it sucks. I will have two choices. A rewrite, or I can pray that a generous "fake" Guy Kawasaki emerges before it's published. One way or the other, I'm getting him in there somehow.

If Blogging is an Art, Guy is a Picasso of Explaining It
In almost 3 years I have seen or presented dozens of different explanations on what blogging is and why someone should undertake the effort. I've lamented over my presentations on the issue, shook my head at the explanations that others have given and more. Just when I thought I had it down, Guy writes the equivalent of two pages that sum it up pretty well. Here are a few thoughts from Guy on blogging.

~ "On a business level, blogs are a marketing and communications weapon."
~ "Truly, if no one but your dog reads your blog, it's still worth doing"
~ "Think Book. Not Diary"

If you need a quick way to present blogging to a group of real estate professionals, this chapter makes a great guide post.


The Zen Art of Exposing Lies and How To See Reality
Guy's writing style is so fluid and easy to digest, it's no wonder all of his books are such big hits. Chapter titles grab your attention and the paragraph headings allow you to easily consume the content. It's the answer to a bad attention span. The book includes a great deal of the best content from his previous tomes and his blog, but it is in no way just a "best of" book. He actually has taken a great deal of blog and book content and connected it to new content, interviews and more. The Chapters start with the following and more:

• The Art Of...
• The Zen Of....
• How To......
• How Not To....
• The Reality Of...
• The 11 Lies Of...
  and so on and so forth.
  

Seriously, how could you not find interest in Chapters entitled How To Suck Up? Or its counterpart Chapter entitled How To Suck Down? He certainly has the market cornered on the Art of Making Mike Laugh His Fat Ass Off while reading a business book.

I'm a Realtor®, Why Should I Bother Reading This Book?
If you really did ask yourself that question you need Reality Check more than the next guy or gal. Luckily there is some really good content specific to how some are building new real estate business concepts by the CEO of the company that owns the registered trademark, Real Estate 2.0® , Glen Kelman of Redfin. (guess I better ask if I can keep using it in my writings :)

If you didn't see the original blog post back in 2007 that Guy published with the help of Glen it's in the book. There is also a guest chapter written by Glen that is tremendous reading. The title of the original blog post is "Financial Models for Underachievers: Two Years of the Real Numbers of a Startup" It chronicles the breakdown of the Redfin financial projection models as compared to their actual results. I remember thinking how outside of the box Glen was in exposing his company's numbers and analyzing the thinking behind the whole process with the whole world watching. It's eye opening stuff for any entrepreneur, especially one who is considering a kick ass new real estate business model.

The short chapter Glen provides is entitled "The Inside Story to Entrepreneurship". It's not so much about the real estate business, but more of a guidepost on the trials, tests and successes of a team deep into the process of passionately building a model for a new way of doing business. With paragraph headings such as "Startups are freak-catchers" and "Fearless leaders are often terrified", you can see how Glen has taken his transparent efforts of the 2007 blog post to a new level. I've always admired Glen and followed his efforts on and off with great interest. The inclusion of his writings in Reality Check will have me following more on than off.

I could use this book almost exclusively to work with someone in the real estate industry to help increase their productivity and profit. From creating effective presentations using the 10/20/30 rule to improving the way the presentations are delivered to applying a new understanding of innovation, to understanding the art of branding and so much more. So. If you're a Realtor® that asked that question. Get the book.

The Most Quotable Book In The History of Business Books
Here are just a few of the quotes I found noteworthy.

• "...innovation is not an event. It's a process"
• "...successful innovators may think they are right. They're not right; they're just successful on the previous curve"
• "Cash is not only King. It's Queen and Prince"
• "Don't let the bozos grind you down"
• "Think digital, act analog"

I hope you've enjoyed the best review in the history of business books. If you decide to buy a copy or two, use the link below and a commission for each sale will come to me. I will donate the money to a needy family for the Holidays. Namely mine. I plan to do all of my shopping at the .99 cent store and think It will allow me to buy that coffee mug and ramen noodle soup my wife's had her eye on.



Previous Book Reports From Mike's Corner:
Truth - New Rules for Marketing in a Skeptical World
Movies in The Mind

Be Unreasonable
Citizen Marketers
The Power of Place
The Long Tail
An Army of Davids
Mavericks At Work
Waiting For Your Cat to Bark?
Real You Incorporated

Book Report - Truth - New Rules for Marketing in a Skeptical World

Lynn Upshaw brings us yet another tome on the new rules of marketing and advertising. Using contemporary examples, she examines the DNA of marketing in less than traditional methods. Methods designed to reach consumers that overwhelmed by advertising messages.

Much has been written over the last few years regarding word-of-mouth and transparency. The author refers to this as "practical integrity". Are you thinking the same thing I thought when I read that? When is it not practical to have integrity?

Upshaw uses examples from 5 companies, most of which I am pretty tired of hearing about in business books; Herman Miller, Patagonia, Infosys, Trader Joes and Kiehl's. There is no doubt that each of these companies have done a great job of marketing creatively. I just find the basis to much of what the author writes to seem somewhat disingenuous. Companies are created first for the purpose of making a profit. The feel good community stuff is a worthwhile endeavor and I believe in it, but those that communicate a purpose for business existence that has less to do with profit than anything else are just full of it.

I like the idea of "Integrity as part of DNA". Shouldn't it be there without the need to write in every other business book about it? To append it with word practical just cracks me up. Just look at some of the chapter titles for a better idea, "My Product My Self", "Win the Credibility Race", (yes its a race to some), "Promote Honestly, Not Just Legally".

The author starts one part of the book with "Values over Profits". How about "profit doesn't endure without values"?. The "Infosys ethos" of "when in doubt, disclose" just adds more to the creepy feeling I get when I read books that espouse truth and transparency as something to employed as a strategy. It's a part of the human code, it runs through every reasoning human as a means of interaction with another. Sure, we need reminders from time to time that profit at the expense of others and the environment is wrong, but do we need another book that examines it as a marketing tool? I think not. Honest companies do win. Honest companies also realize truth, transparency and honesty are not something that can be defined as merely "practical", as if at some point in the future it may become "impractical".

The consuming populace may be distracted and overwhelmed by marketing messages, however, they need not be reminded how important the truth is. "Linking it (the truth) right to the bottom line" as one glowing reviewer of the book did, should have been a warning sign of things to come in the book. An interesting twitter message just came up as I was wrapping up this post. LindaDavis asked:"hmmm Can charisma really be faked?" I guess if you're going to make it part of a marketing strategy, maybe it can :) I'll have to go back and see what prompted that most interesting "tweet".

Previous Book Reports:

Movies in The Mind
Be Unreasonable
Citizen Marketers
The Power of Place
The Long Tail
An Army of Davids
Mavericks At Work
Waiting For Your Cat to Bark?

Book Report: Citizen Marketers

Citizen Marketers, When People Are the Message
Ben McConnel & Jackie Huba

The authors of this book have pinpointed an exact date of when they think Web 2.0 actually started. November 2004. That's the month a couple of things happened that turned seemingly ordinary folk into marketing powerhouses with the same reach and effectiveness of a Fortune 500 company.

"November 2004, that the very idea of media itself was evolving into a two-way, three-way and multiple-way ecosystem of gossip, ideas, news and collaboration. Everyday people could be publishers and broadcasters and audience members."

Citizen Marketers was written to explain the phenomena of how the availability of web 2.0 tools is motivating people to become evangelists, sales people, customer service reps, public relations advisers and more to companies that don't even have them on the payroll and in some cases, don't even know they exist. Just reading the introduction is a fascinating portrayal of examples in social media. If you don't do anything else, pick up a copy of the book and read page 10 of the introduction. It gives a very succinct definition of how blogs, podasts, photo/video sharing sites and other social media tools are being used as the "new, new media".

This book is good primer for any agent or broker that wants to have a better understanding of the power of social media and new media marketing tools. I highly recommend it. Click here to visit the Citizen Marketer blog. Next book report, Search, by John Battelle, How Google and its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture.


Previous Book Reports:
The Power of Place
The Long Tail
An Army of Davids
Mavericks At Work
Waiting For Your Cat to Bark?

Book Report: The Power of Place

Years ago I had a sales and marketing career in the relocation industry. I was always very intrigued with the emotional aspect of the process. It wasn't lost on me that that moving was on a short of list of things under death and divorce as the most stressful experiences a person will endure in life. I witnessed plenty of tumultuous situations but for the most part, the people I dealt with were happy with their decisions and excited about the change they were undertaking. In fact, the majority of the people I dealt with had moved many times, many internationally. They rarely saw it as their lives being upset, or being displaced from things they loved. In most cases they packed up more than boxes, they saw it as an extension of one long adventure that happened in 5 to 7 year chunks. The stories I heard had a common thread. The descriptions of their adventures of different cultures were always interwoven with references to the homes and immediate environments in which they lived, worked and played.

Winifred Gallagher examines our relationship to places in her book entitled, The Power of Place, "How our surroundings shape our thoughts, emotions and actions".

An interviewer asks Gallagher; "What's the single most important thing to know about our relationship to places?"That our environments are not just backdrops to our lives--they affect how we think, feel and act! Even in the womb, external stimuli such as light and sound help organize our developing sensory systems. That's why babies recognize their mother's voices...

Gallagher consults the scientific community to a great extent in the book and it references a lot of research, however, it's a relatively easy read. Gallagher's previous book, House Thinking, is also a very revealing look, room by room at the evolution of the American home. It's a psychoanalytic view of how homes affect our thoughts and actions. If you've read this book and find yourself having a hard time describing a room or need to liven up a showing that's not going so well, you can always fill the void by talking about the dynamics surrounding bedrooms and intimacy or the psychology of why traditional dining and living rooms have given way to great rooms.

Previous Book Reports:

The Long Tail
An Army of Davids
Mavericks At Work
Waiting For Your Cat to Bark?