Kare’s Favorite Books on Quotability
The Language of Trust: Selling ideas in a World of Skeptics
by Michael Maslansky, Gary DeMoss, Scott West and David Saylor
People don’t know who to trust or what to believe. Which means you need a new way to communicate your message.The book is filled with tactical steps and real-world examples that will help communicators get beyond the skepticism with messages that truly resonate. Based on the pioneering polling and messaging work of maslansky luntz + partners, The Language of Trust provides a guidebook for a new approach to communicating. Whether you’re trying to shift your reputation, launch a new product, or reframe the debate – this book shows how the right words and supporting language strategy can change everything.
The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling: Mastering the Art and Discipline of Business Narrative
by Steve Denning
How leaders can use the right story at the right time to inspire change and action. This revised and updated edition of the best-selling book A Leader’s Guide to Storytelling shows how storytelling is one of the few ways to handle the most important and difficult challenges of leadership: sparking action, getting people to work together, and leading people into the future. Using myriad illustrative examples and filled with how-to techniques, this book clearly explains how you can learn to tell the right story at the right time.
Made to Stick
by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
Why do some ideas thrive while others die? And how do we improve the chances of worthy ideas? In Made to Stick, accomplished educators and idea collectors Chip and Dan Heath tackle head-on these vexing questions. Inside, the brothers Heath reveal the anatomy of ideas that stick and explain ways to make ideas stickier, such as applying the “human scale principle,” using the “Velcro Theory of Memory,” and creating “curiosity gaps.”
Metaphors We Live By
By Geoge Lakeoff and Mark Johnson
The now-classic Metaphors We Live By changed our understanding of metaphor and its role in language and the mind. Metaphor, the authors explain, is a fundamental mechanism of mind, one that allows us to use what we know about our physical and social experience to provide understanding of countless other subjects. Because such metaphors structure our most basic understandings of our experience, they are “metaphors we live by”—metaphors that can shape our perceptions and actions without our ever noticing them.
Presentations in Action: 80 Memorable Presentation Lessons from the Masters
by Jerry Weissman
Legendary presentation coach Jerry Weissman has spent decades showing top executives how to make winning, mission-critical presentations. He’s discovered that the best way to teach effective presentation techniques is to show them in action. That’s what he does in this remarkable book. Presentations in Action serves up 80 outstanding examples from current events, politics, science, art, music, literature, cinema, media, sports, the military–even ancient history–that offer valuable lessons for today’s presenters. From Aristotle to Oprah, Reagan to Obama, Mark Twain to Jerry Rice, Weissman reveals the universal techniques of human communications…and demonstrates how to turn them into powerful solutions for your most important presentation challenges.
Presenting to Win: The Art of Telling Your Story
by Jerry Weissman
Thirty million presentations will be given today. Millions will fail. Millions more will be received with yawns. A rare few will establish the most profound connection, in which presenter and audience understand each other perfectly…discover common ground… and, together, decide to act. In this fully updated edition, Jerry Weissman, the world’s #1 presentation consultant, shows how to connect with even the toughest, most high-level audiences…and move them to action! He teaches presenters of all kinds how to dump those PowerPoint templates once and for all and tell compelling stories that focus on what’s in it for the audience.
Don’t Think of an Elephant!
Know Your Values and Frame the Debate
by Geoge Lakeoff, Howard Dean and Don Hazen
The Essential Guide for Progressives
Don’t Think of an Elephant! is the definitive handbook for understanding what happened in the 2004 election and communicating effectively about key issues facing America today.
Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences
by Nancy Duarte
Presentations are meant to inform, inspire, and persuade audiences. So why then do so many audiences leave feeling like they’ve wasted their time? All too often, presentations don’t resonate with the audience and move them to transformative action. Resonate helps you make a strong connection with your audience and lead them to purposeful action. The author’s approach is simple: building a presentation today is a bit like writing a documentary. Using this approach, you’ll convey your content with passion, persuasion, and impact.
Sin and Syntax How to Craft Wickedly Effective Prose
by Constance Hale
Today’s writers need more spunk than Strunk. Whether it’s the Great American E-mail, Madison Avenue advertising, or Grammy Award-winning rap lyrics, memorable writing must jump off the page. With Sin and Syntax, copy veteran Constance Hale makes creative communication, both the lyrical and the unlawful, an option for everyone. In a crisp, witty tone, this guide covers grammar’s ground rules while revealing countless unconventional syntax secrets that make for sinfully good writing, such as how to use-Gasp!-interjections or when to pepper your prose with slang.
Tell to Win
by Peter Guber
Today everyone – whether they know it or not – is in the emotional transportation business. More and more, success is won by creating compelling stories that have the power to move partners, shareholders, customers, and employees to action. Simply put, if you can’t tell it, you can’t sell it. And this book tells you how to do both. Peter Guber, whose executive and entrepreneurial accomplishments have made him a success in multiple industries, has long relied on purposeful story telling to motivate, win over, shape, engage and sell. Indeed, what began as knack for telling stories as an entertainment industry executive has, through years of perspiration and inspiration, evolved into a set of principles that anyone can use to achieve their goals.
Tongue Fu!
by Sam Horn
If you’ve ever been tongue-tied – or if you’ve ever given a tongue-lashing (and regretted it), Tongue Fu! offers constructive alternatives that will turn hostility into harmony and help you avoid a mental breakdown in the face of aggression. With straightforward strategies and proven techniques, Tongue Fu! examines almost every kind of verbal conflict – from fights with your spouse or a stalemate with the kids – and shows how to use martial arts for the mind and mouth to deflect attacks, disarm disputes, and defuse any explosive situation. With Tongue Fu! you will learn words to use (and words to lose) in tense situations, the power of the phrase “You’re right,” the tools to use when people push your “hot buttons,” how to handle a verbal bully who enjoys attacking and tormenting, how to gracefully exit an argument, what to say when you don’t know what to say, how to use silence to your advantage, how to be pleasantly unpleasant, and how to take charge of your emotions. Tongue Fu! is a handbook for verbal self-defense that provides dozens of real-life, constructive alternatives to giving a tongue lashing or to being tongue-tied.
What Every BODY is Saying
by Joe Navarro
He says that’s his best offer. Is it?
She says she agrees. Does she?
The interview went great—or did it?
He said he’d never do it again. But he did.
Read this book and send your nonverbal intelligence soaring. Joe Navarro, a former FBI counterintelligence officer and a recognized expert on nonverbal behavior, explains how to “speed-read” people: decode sentiments and behaviors, avoid hidden pitfalls, and look for deceptive behaviors. You’ll also learn how your body language can influence what your boss, family, friends, and strangers think of you.
Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins
by Annette Simmons
Most people have been conditioned to believe that business communication must be clear, rational, and objective, with no place for emotion or subjective thinking. Yet the most powerful, persuasive communication has a human element…often delivered simply and personally through the telling of stories. This book shows readers how to use personal stories to get their ideas across and create meaningful connections between themselves and their audience. Moving beyond the usual speech-openers or ice-breakers, the book gives readers a process for finding, developing, and using their own stories
Words That Work: It’s Not What You Say, It’s What People Hear
by Frank I. Lunt
In Words That Work, Luntz offers a behind-the-scenes look at how the tactical use of words and phrases affects what we buy, who we vote for, and even what we believe in. Frank Luntz has used his knowledge of words to help more than two dozen Fortune 500 companies grow. He’ll tell us why Rupert Murdoch’s six-billion-dollar decision to buy DirectTV was smart because satellite was more cutting edge than “digital cable,” and why pharmaceutical companies transitioned their message from “treatment” to “prevention” and “wellness.” If you ever wanted to learn how to talk your way out of a traffic ticket or talk your way into a raise, this book’s for you.
You Are the Message
by Roger Ailes and Jon Kraushar
You are the message. What does that mean, exactly? It means that when you communicate with someone, it’s not just the words you choose to send to the other person that make up the message. You’re also sending signals about what kind of person you are—by your eyes, your facial expression, your body movement, your vocal pitch, tone, volume, and intensity, your commitment to your message, your sense of humor, and many other factors. You are the message comes down to the fact that unless you identify yourself as a walking, talking message, you miss that critical point. Roger Ailes, the media advisor to U.S. presidents, America’s top executives, and celebrities, tells readers how to: hold an audience in the palm of their hands; break through fear and other performance blocks; and get what they want by being who they are.
You’ve Got to Be Believed to Be Heard
by Bert Decker
Are you uncomfortable—even afraid—about the prospect of speaking before a group of people? Do you have trouble getting your message across? When you speak, do others listen, or can you feel their attention wandering? Effective communication is essential in business and in everyday life. The most powerful communicators reach not just our minds but our hearts: They win our trust. You can learn to impress and persuade other people by following Bert Decker’s program in You’ve Got to Be Believed to Be Heard.
