Rothacker Reviews

Print Magazines & the Article End Sign

Do you read real live print magazines? I do. Do you enjoy the tactility of the paper? Me too. Do you like the magazine's smell? Yep. Do you find delight in a well designed magazine? For sure. Do you find it slightly annoying that the editor makes you trudge to the back of the magazine to finish an article? Duh. 

My number one pet peeve of all time when it comes to reading print magazines is the lack of an article end sign. The End Sign is a small graphic that's placed at the end of an article. The magazine Fast Company places the white letters FC inside a black circle to signify the end of an article.

What about you? Do you have any print magazine pet peeves?

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Helping Authors I Dig

Do you like to learn? Do you like to write? Do you like to help authors? Want to know a few secrets that will make learning, writing and helping fun?

Why Write About You?

The first time that I did this I walked up to an author in her booth at a tradeshow. I asked, "Why should I write about you over your competitor?"

In order to learn topics written in books or at Websites, I'd approach authors in my former industry in that manner or online. Sometimes, once you wrote positive things about them, they'd give you more access to their material. While they wouldn't flat out teach you for free, some would offer teaching guidance at little or no cost. This works really well within individual industries!

Now unless you're a cat who has a million or so followers, this approach will not work for authors like Dan Pink and Seth Godin. They are popular and crazy busy. When it comes to authors of high notoriety, I suggest joining their communities, learning from their books and or online material and supporting them when they ask. I enjoyed a really cool learning opportunity when I joined an exclusive online community to help promote Dan's book To Sell is Human. And the value that I received by participating in a Seth Godin Kickstarter campaign for The Icarus Deception far exceeded my cost. 

Do you think Dan and Seth said, "I'm going to be an author," and instantly gained fame? No. So get to know the next batch of Dan's and Seth's before they become Dan and Seth. I began supporting Penelope Trunk and Pam Slim a little over seven years ago and Rosa Say nearly nine years ago. While they might not be as popular as Dan and Seth, they have achieved that crazy busy status.

How do You Support Authors? 

Here are a couple of ideas:

• One way is to review their books at your Website
• Write an Amazon review
• Write a Goodreads review
• Create a Pinterest board
• Tweet about their book
• Post a note at Facebook
• Refer their book in the comment section of blogs (when appropriate)
• Talk about their books in your favorite Linked In group
• Join their community & get their newsletter
• Gift their books to coworkers, friends & relatives
• Gift their books to deserving young adults

I recently began experimenting with a new way to help authors I dig. Here I review Kathy Hansen's A Foot in the Door: Networking Your Way Into The Hidden Job Market. Because I want to one, promote Kathy's book and two, provide more value for my readers, I created a mind map that lists resources relative to this book in particular. The mind map link is located towards the end of that review.

The second thing that I'm doing in that review is to NOT provide a comment section on my blog. Instead I refer the readers to a Facebook Page. That way it's easier for readers to talk to their friends about the book. 

A combination of an insatiable curosity, being a book junkie and having tremendous respect for those who write books has led me to a very fulfilling endeavor in helping authors I dig.

Graphic via The Graphics Fairy

Create Your Future the Peter Drucker Way

Create Your Future the Peter Drucker Way: Developing and Applying a Future-Focused Mindset by Bruce Rosenstein.

Bruce Rosenstein researched and studied Peter F. Drucker for twenty-seven years. He has written about him in the media and published one book, Living in More Than One World: How Peter Drucker's Wisdom Can Inspire and Transform Your Life. Bruce gives speeches and workshops based on Mr. Drucker's philosophy. 

Even the mildest of imaginations can conjure the amount of material Bruce accumulated and has within reach for researching and writing Create Your Future the Peter Drucker Way. Drucker, the most important management figure in the 20th century, was productive from a public standpoint, for nearly seventy years. By the way, when you were conjuring, did you know that Bruce had and has access to The Drucker Institute and The Drucker School at Claremont Graduate University?

Bruce prepares a thorough, meticulous and careful treatment here. How? How within two-hundred and two pages, forty-one of which are devoted to reference, can he possibly cover what needs to be covered from a Library of Congress sized collection of Drucker material? 

The student becomes the teacher. Bruce Rosenstein writes Create Your Future the Peter Drucker Way, the Peter Drucker way. He economizes his words on his march to the Sea of Clarity. Peter would be proud.

In his quest to teach a future-oriented mindset, Bruce calls upon Mr. Drucker's approach to life, business and school. Drucker lived the future-oriented mindset. He also calls upon the wisdom of modern day thought leaders whose outlook on the future parallels his own and Mr. Drucker's. This neon-signs relevancy.

One of my most favorite passages in the book is when Bruce describes what Mr. Drucker spoke about in a commencement speech:

He spoke that day of how people must transform their lives on an ongoing basis, as the world is continually changing, requiring different  work and different knowledge as people further their lives and careers. He told the graduates that they had a responsibility to put their knowledge to work for the benefit of others, not just for themselves. 

Do you have any doubts that Peter F. Drucker is a rich source from which to cultivate wisdom, knowledge and advice for creating our future? Well think about this: Mr. Drucker gave that speech May 31, 1964. 

Bruce organizes Create Your Future the Peter Drucker Way around five chapters, a conclusion and a hearty reference section. The chapters are titled: 

1. Create a Future-Focused Mindset
2. Determine the Future That Has Already Happened
3. Become Your Own Successor
4. Shape the Future of Your Organization
5. Build Your Future beyond Your Current Workplace
6. Conclusion: Your Future Begins Today