Tag Archives: book review

The Big Enough Company

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Interview and Photography by Pamela Sutton

The Big Enough Company: How Women Can Build Great Businesses
and Happier Lives, by Adelaide Lancaster and Amy Abrams

Thought-provoking interview with Adelaide Lancaster, inspiring women entrepreneurs toward purposeful businesses – and happier lives!

Women choose to strike out on their own for a variety of reasons…

… creative freedom.
… a new challenge.
… escape from corporate.

… a sense of personal accomplishment.
… a childhood dream.

Why then do so many women find themselves feeling lost halfway down the path of entrepreneurship and disillusioned by a business and life they no longer love. What happened to that promise of freedom? Happiness?

Much like a flourishing bonsai tree, carefully pruned and shaped, the ultimate goal of an entrepreneur is to grow a business and life we love. Adelaide Lancaster and Amy Abrams, co-authors of The Big Enough Company: How Women Can Build Great Businesses and Happier Lives, are whole-hearted advocates for women entrepreneurs. After interviewing over 100 women, Adelaide and Amy learned that disenchanted entrepreneurs may need to snip away old, conventional business ideas. By shaping our own ideas of success, women can find real purpose and happiness in their business and everyday lives.

Conventional wisdom aside, Adelaide and Amy dared women to define their own ideas of success, and find out why bigger isn’t always better.

To read more about The Big Enough Company, subscribe to CAKE&WHISKEY magazine or purchase the single issue here.

Difference

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Words and Photography by Pamela Sutton

Difference: The One-Page Method for Reimagining Your Business and Reinventing Your Marketing
by Bernatte Jiwa

What if your business turned into wild success overnight all because of a story—your story?

Bernadette Jiwa is a freelance brand story strategist and author of best-selling marketing book Difference: The One-Page Method for Reimagining Your Business and Reinventing Your Marketing. The Difference Model is a new way of marketing: brand storytelling. No longer is marketing about tactics or labels; it’s about creating meaning in the lives of our customers through the art of storytelling. An engaging, true story that moves people to act, and fall in love with your idea. Jiwa sums up her short, but powerful book as one that “turns the old Marketing Mix model on its head. The businesses that have wildly succeeded in the past decade have done it by understanding their customers first, which enables them to create products and services for their customers.” By learning to see through the eyes of our another, Difference shows us how to transform our company from something that works from a distance to becoming a part of our customer’s own narrative.

Subscribe to CAKE&WHISKEY magazine or purchase the single issue here to read more from Bernatte.

The Athena Doctrine

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Words by Pamela Sutton

A healer, protector of justice, wise peacemaker, reliable and selfless warrior; what attributes will define business in the 21st century world? Could “feminine” values really transform our careers? The Athena Doctrine: How Women (and the Men Who Think Like Them) Will Rule the Future, co-written by John Gerzema and Michael D’Antonio, keeps one eye on the present and focuses readers forward into the business paradigm of tomorrow.

Extensive research reveals a worldwide culture shift in values: both men and women are identifying and esteeming “feminine traits” over the traditional “masculine traits.” Research shows, when it comes to leadership, policy, and innovation, those who adopt feminine attributes are more successful and the people who apply them are overall happier.

What social theorist and marketing sage John Gerzema writes in The Athena Doctrine is more than just a research report. Filled with inspiring stories of innovation and optimism about the future of business, Gerzema believes the juxtaposition of Athena traits and the modern businesswoman can improve our career paths, society as a whole, and our daily lives.

Recently I had chance to talk with John, who shared with me more about The Athena Doctrine and why it matters to you.

To read The Athena Doctrine review, purchase the Issue 3 single issue here.