Business Performance

Paul Newman, the Oscar-winning actor with the legendary blue eyes, achieved superstar status by playing charismatic renegades, broken heroes, and winsome antiheroes in such revered films as The Hustler, Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Verdict, The Color of Money, and Nobody’s Fool. But Newman was also an oddity in Hollywood: the rare box-office titan who cared about the craft of acting, the sexy leading man known for the staying power of his marriage, and the humble celebrity who made philanthropy his calling card long before it was cool.

Want to learn how to make people laugh out loud? How to Make People Laugh is a book that targets regular comedians, such as you and me. It does not try to transform you into a professional comedian. Instead, it puts comedy in the spotlight of everyday life. With this book, you will learn techniques that you can easily incorporate at parties or even in regular banter with friends and colleagues.

The Disneyland Story: The Unofficial Guide to the Evolution of Walt Disney's Dream is the story of how Walt Disney's greatest creation was conceived, nurtured, and how it grew into a source of joy and inspiration for generations of visitors. Despite his successors' battles with the whims of history and their own doubts and egos, Walt's vision maintained momentum, thrived, and taught future generations how to do it Walt Disney's way.

Culture is the foundation for success in any organization. It's no coincidence that the companies with the strongest cultures not only consistently top the leader boards of best places to work but also have the most engaged workforce, are the most in-demand employers, and have the strongest financial performance. The Power of Company Culture debunks the myth that a remarkable company culture is something that a business either has or hasn't and shows how any company of any size can implement and maintain a world-class culture for business success.

Peter Shapiro is perhaps the most notable independent concert promoter since Bill Graham. He owned the legendary Wetlands in Tribeca and has gone onto much bigger things, including Brooklyn Bowl (NYC, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, and Nashville), the Capitol Theatre in Portchester, producing U2 3D, and promoting the Grateful Dead's 50th anniversary tour ("Fare Thee Well") featuring the Core Four and Trey Anastasio... and so much more. In The Music Never Stops, Shapiro shares the inside story of how he became a tremendous powerhouse in the music industry

In this timely and powerful book, Jerry Muller uncovers the damage our obsession with metrics is causing and shows how we can begin to fix the problem. Filled with examples from education, medicine, business and finance, government, the police and military, and philanthropy and foreign aid, this brief and accessible book explains why the seemingly irresistible pressure to quantify performance distorts and distracts, whether by encouraging "gaming the stats" or "teaching to the test"....

Whether he was introducing the latest iPad or delivering a keynote presentation, Steve Jobs electrified audiences with his incomparable style and showmanship. He didn’t just convey information in his presentations; he told a story, painted a picture, and shared a vision. He gave his audience a transformative experience that was unique, inspiring, and unforgettable. Now you can do it too, by learning the specific techniques that made Jobs the most captivating communicator on the world stage.

Every day there are moments when you must persuade, inform, and motivate others effectively. Each of those moments requires you, in some way, to play a role, to heighten the impact of your words, and to manage your emotions and nerves. Every interaction is a performance, whether you're speaking up in a meeting, pitching a client, or walking into a job interview.

Director of mental training for the St. Louis Cardinals and a top-tier executive coach, Dr. Jason Selk knows everything there is to know about developing the mental toughness required for achieving any goal you set for yourself. In fact, the techniques he outlines in this book are the same ones he used to help the Cardinals defeat the heavily favored Detroit Tigers in the 2006 World Series. A complete regimen from a leading expert on developing the mindset for attaining goals, Executive Toughness is your workout for ultimate success in your career and in your life.

The Mindset of a Sales Warrior is your ticket to silence your inner critic and unleash the power within you now. Dive into 42 simple, easy-to-apply strategies, with FPG CEO Jason Forrest, and FPG President, Mary Marshall Forrest. You’ll join with some of the top entrepreneurs in the world to free your mind, so you can earn what you re truly worth. Each strategy comes with a powerful real-world application to bring each one to life with your real-life prospects in your industry today. It’s time to unleash the most authentic version of yourself.

How many audiobooks have you listened to on project management? On leadership? Too many, right? But no other book combines the practice of project management and leadership into one balanced approach with practical examples—except this book. You don’t even need Project Manager in your title to employ these lessons. You can be any person on any team who has stepped up to take a leadership role on a critical initiative. You’ll learn what it takes to become the binding agent—the glue—that creates cohesive, engaged, high-performing project teams.

In the past decade, Hollywood has endured a cataclysm on a par with the end of silent film and the demise of the studio system. Stars and directors have seen their power dwindle, while writers and producers lift their best techniques from TV, comic books, and the toy biz. The future of Hollywood is being written by powerful corporate brands like Marvel, Amazon, Netflix, and Lego, as well as censors in China. Ben Fritz chronicles this dramatic shakeup with unmatched skill, bringing equal fluency to both the financial and entertainment aspects of Hollywood.

For decades, alarms have sounded about declining engagement. Yet companies continue to struggle with toxic cultures, and the low productivity and unhappiness that go with them. Why is "culture" so difficult to improve? What makes so many good employees check out? Neuroscientist Paul Zak shows that innate brain functions hold the answers. It all boils down to trust. When someone shows you trust, a feel-good jolt of oxytocin surges through your brain and triggers you to reciprocate.

Think your “great voice” is enough to make it in VO? Spoiler alert: It’s not. In today’s competitive voice-over industry, it takes grit, gear, and relentless grind. This book delivers the real deal from someone who's lived it for over 30 years—radio veteran and full-time VO pro Keith Kramer. This is not your average fluffy “follow your dreams” pep talk. This is a tactical, no-B.S. roadmap to help beginners, part-timers, and even radio folks transition into a profitable, sustainable VO career.

In Diversity and Inclusion Matters: Tactics and Tools to Inspire Equity and Game-Changing Performance, award-winning diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) expert Jason R. Thompson delivers a practical and engaging handbook for implementing a DE&I program in your organization. The CAPE technique, developed by the author, gives you a clear blueprint and the tools you'll need to make your diversity program a success. In this book, you'll learn how to achieve early and significant wins to create the necessary long-term organizational change needed for successful DE&I programs.

Explore the intersection of SQL, NoSQL, and AI to create intelligent business applications that drive innovation and success. This book takes you on a journey through advanced database concepts, AI integration, and practical use cases, empowering you to design and implement high-performing and intelligent data solutions. Curated Content from Artificial Intelligence.

While other books give you tips on how to “write funny,” this book offers a paradigm shift in understanding the mechanics and art of comedy and the proven, practical tools that help writers translate that understanding into successful commercial scripts. The Hidden Tools of Comedy unlocks the unique secrets and techniques of writing comedy. Kaplan deconstructs sequences in popular films and TV that work and don’t work and explains what tools were used (or should have been used).

The Simple Side of Human Resource Management Managing People Should Not Be Difficult, Boring or Scary Learn how to understand some of the more complex aspects of human resource management in a simpler context. If you are interested in understanding human resource management in greater detail, but you are just not in the mood for those stale academic written, hard to understand, boring textbooks, then this book is just for you. If you are simply looking for additional information and wish to supplement your existing knowledge on human resource management, well then this book is for you. For ...

Achieve the champion mindset for peak performance. Reach new levels of success and mental toughness with this ultimate guide. Learn the "Science of Success" and prepare to excel. In this concise and highly acclaimed training guide, Peak Performance Coach DC Gonzalez teaches a blend of unique mental training technologies, sports psychology essentials, and peak performance methods that are effective and motivational. Get ready to increase your self-belief, self-confidence, and mental toughness using this powerful guide designed to help you reach new levels of success, sports performance and personal development.

Through her global consulting projects, keynote speeches, and work with thousands of leaders, Karen has seen first-hand how a pervasive lack of clarity strangles business performance and erodes employee engagement. Ambiguity is the corporate default state, a condition so prevalent that “tolerance for ambiguity” has become a clichéd job requirement. It doesn’t have to be this way.