Here are 100 books that Creating Signature Stories fans have personally recommended if you like
Creating Signature Stories.
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Throughout my career, I’ve come across so many everyday people with awesome ideas of life-changing potential for a select group of people. And most of them struggle to reach the people they can most help. This is such an incredible shame! I’m passionate about connecting those entrepreneurs and business owners who have great ideas with the people who will most benefit from their solutions, so both parties win. A big part of that is ensuring their marketing engages their target audience, hence this book list.
No one can truly predict what will go viral, and honestly, I don’t aim for virality—my focus is on reaching a specific audience, not the masses. That said, I did want to understand the factors that make content more shareable. I wanted to craft content that resonates deeply while encouraging organic sharing, and Contagious provided a wealth of insights to achieve exactly that.
Jonah provides many examples and explains the science of why people share things in a way that I found fascinating and practical. I walked away with clear strategies for adding more share-worthy elements to my content without sacrificing authenticity or integrity.
Why are some products and ideas talked about more than others? Why do some articles make the most emailed list? Why do some YouTube videos go viral? Word-of-mouth. Whether through face-to-face conversations, emails from friends, or online product reviews, the information and opinions we get from others have a strong impact on our own behaviour. Indeed, word-of-mouth generates more than two times the sales of paid advertising and is the primary factor behind 20-50% of all purchasing decisions.It is between 8.5 and 30 times more effective than traditional media.But want to know the best thing about word-of-mouth? It's available to…
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…
After 17 years in the advertising industry, I became a professor to teach what I learned in practice. Only then did I start reflecting, researching, and discovering why we were successful in some efforts and not in others. From that perspective, I’ve been crafting new ways to approach marketing that are not based on what worked in the past but on what works now in light of the dramatic changes in the field. Within marketing, I focus on social media strategy, digital marketing, and storytelling.
This book is all about brand building and it was integral to my advertising copywriting days.
Mark and Pearson use Jung’s 12 archetypes to classify brands, consumer markets, and consumers. We used their system to help our clients identify brand meaning and archetype and then used that as the basis for establishing relationships with customers.
Knowing the brand archetype helped me know what type of character’s story to tell. Brand and story archetypes become a shortcut to letting an audience and prospective customer know your brand story is about their story.
This book describes a system of meaning management, the first-ever systematic approach to successful brand meaning. 'This book illuminates the most ancient grooves in our mental architecture, which Carol Jung described as "archetypes", and shows how they can be employed to bring meaning and profit to a brand. There is a nascent power here, which, if understood correctly, can bring a rare vitality to a brand or a corporation' - From the Foreward by Alex Kroll former Creative Director, CEO and Chairman of Young & Rubicam. Some brands are so extraordinary that they become larger-than-life, symbolic of entire cultures, and…
After 17 years in the advertising industry, I became a professor to teach what I learned in practice. Only then did I start reflecting, researching, and discovering why we were successful in some efforts and not in others. From that perspective, I’ve been crafting new ways to approach marketing that are not based on what worked in the past but on what works now in light of the dramatic changes in the field. Within marketing, I focus on social media strategy, digital marketing, and storytelling.
To tell a brand story, you need ideas. Where do ideas come from? No one really knew, including me, until James Young Webb wrote this book, and I discovered it years into my career.
Before reading Young's book, my ideas for marketing clients were often hit or miss. Sometimes, they were brilliant, and sometimes, just okay. What was the difference? I didn’t know until I read this five-step process. When I followed this process my ideas were better. Knowing and following the process will make your ideas and brand stories better.
This concise and powerful book lifts the lid on the creative process and eloquently details the steps needed to create exciting new ideas.
Advertising copywriters, engineers, poets, painters and scientists have all benefited from its text to make creative breakthroughs.
Advertising trailblazer William Bernbach wrote, "James Webb Young conveys in his little book something more valuable than the most learned and detailed texts on the subject of advertising. Mr. Young is in the tradition of some of our greatest thinkers when he describes the workings of the creative process".
The Year Mrs. Cooper Got Out More
by
Meredith Marple,
The coastal tourist town of Great Wharf, Maine, boasts a crime rate so low you might suspect someone’s lying.
Nevertheless, jobless empty nester Mallory Cooper has become increasingly reclusive and fearful. Careful to keep the red wine handy and loath to leave the house, Mallory misses her happier self—and so…
After 17 years in the advertising industry, I became a professor to teach what I learned in practice. Only then did I start reflecting, researching, and discovering why we were successful in some efforts and not in others. From that perspective, I’ve been crafting new ways to approach marketing that are not based on what worked in the past but on what works now in light of the dramatic changes in the field. Within marketing, I focus on social media strategy, digital marketing, and storytelling.
Like discovering the hidden process for generating ideas, discovering the hidden power of curiosity unleashed my capabilities and improved my efforts.
Leslie explains that curiosity declines as we grow older and as technology increases. Both work against a sustained quest for understanding that leads to insight, innovations, and ideas. If you know this, you can nurture your desire to know and stay curious in a modern world where we can seemingly answer any question almost instantly.
This book opened my eyes to new possibilities illuminating new ways to become a more engaging brand storyteller.
"I have no special talents," said Albert Einstein. "I am only passionately curious." Everyone is born curious. But only some retain the habits of exploring, learning, and discovering as they grow older. Those who do so tend to be smarter, more creative, and more successful. So why are many of us allowing our curiosity to wane? In Curious, Ian Leslie makes a passionate case for the cultivation of our "desire to know." Just when the rewards of curiosity have never been higher, it is misunderstood, undervalued, and increasingly monopolized by a cognitive elite. A "curiosity divide" is opening up. This…
Vanitha Swaminathan is the Thomas Marshall Professor of Marketing at the University of Pittsburgh and the Director of the Katz Center for Branding. Her research focuses on branding strategy with a particular emphasis on digital branding. She has published in various leading marketing and management journals including Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Research, Marketing Science, and Strategic Management Journal. She is currently serving on a three-year term on the American Marketing Association Board of Directors and previously served in AMA’s Academic Council as President. She has co-authored the Fifth Edition of the world-renowned textbook Strategic Brand Management: Building, Measuring, and Managing Brand Equity, along with Professor Kevin Lane Keller.
David Aaker’s Aaker on Branding is a must-read for those interested in the principles of branding. The book’s author David Aaker is known as the Father of Branding and is a prolific author, and branding expert. This book combines principles of branding from across his various books and is thematically organized into various topics including creating a brand vision, and creating and managing brands, among others. Readers of this book will also learn about maintaining the brand’s relevance over time. An excellent compilation of the principles that drive branding success.
"Aaker on Branding" presents in a compact form the twenty essential principles of branding that will lead to the creation of strong brands. Culled from the
six David Aaker brand books and related publications, these principles provide the broad understanding of brands, brand strategy, brand portfolios, and
brand building that all business, marketing, and brand strategists should know.
"Aaker on Branding" is a source for how you create and maintain strong brands and synergetic brand portfolios. It provides a checklist of strategies,
perspectives, tools, and concepts that represents not only what you should know but also what action options should…
The more I learn about the brain, the more I want to dig in and discover more. Why do we procrastinate? Why do people buy things? Why do some people love unlocking these topics weekly on The Brainy Business podcast (where each person on this list has been a guest) and sharing those insights with the world? When it comes to selling and buying in a brainy way, behavioral economics is the best way to get there, and these books are all a great first step into learning what behavioral science is, how the brain really works, and up-leveling your brand.
When it comes to applying behavioral economics concepts to your branding, practical examples are a must. Nancy’s book is full of them, and while it shares about the science, it doesn’t lead with that, making it very approachable for everyone in business to be able to apply to their marketing.
A great book by a wonderful person who has really been there.
WINNER: 2023 American Marketing Association Foundation Leonard L. Berry Marketing Book Award
WINNER: 2024 Axiom Business Book Awards - Silver Medal in Advertising / Marketing / PR
WINNER: National Indie Excellence Awards 2023 - Marketing & Public Relations
WINNER: Readers' Favorite Book Awards 2023 - Gold Medal in Non-Fiction - Marketing
WINNER: NYC Big Book Award 2023 - Marketing & Public Relations
WINNER: 2023 Chanticleer International Book Awards, Harvey Chute Grand Prize Winner - Non-Fiction Business & Enterprise
FINALIST: Next Generation Indie Book Awards 2023 - Business
FINALIST: American Book Fest Best Book Award 2023 - Marketing & Advertising
SHORTLISTED:…
Don’t mess with the hothead—or he might just mess with you. Slater Ibáñez is only interested in two kinds of guys: the ones he wants to punch, and the ones he sleeps with. Things get interesting when they start to overlap. A freelance investigator, Slater trolls the dark side of…
As a kid I used to sit around the table, hearing my French grandparents share stories about life during the Second World War and helping the French Resistance movement. I remember seeing my mum sitting down to interview my French grandad about his life and getting captured near Dunkirk as a young French soldier. That’s where my love for storytelling was born. By the age of 26 I had interviewed over 100+ government officials and business leaders across 7 countries. By 2021 my podcast The Unconventionalists won “best-interview podcast” at the podcasting for business awards. I wrote Glow in the Dark, to help entrepreneurs and business leaders impact the world with their story.
Matthew is a serial public speaking champion who basically should be entered in The Moth Hall of Fame asap. If you've never heard Matthew Dicks talk, pause this and go watch his videos online. He's that good. What I love about his book is that he shares how he crafts his own stories and shares some amazing tips on how to capture everyday events that can later on be turned into powerful stories. Although this book isn't so much geared towards business or work, I think everyone can learn a great deal from Matthew's impressive experience of making people pay attention and connect to what you say (both as a best-selling novelist, school teacher, and public speaking champion).
A five-time Moth GrandSLAM winner and bestselling novelist shows how to tell a great story — and why doing so matters.
Whether we realize it or not, we are always telling stories. On a first date or job interview, at a sales presentation or therapy appointment, with family or friends, we are constantly narrating events and interpreting emotions and actions. In this compelling book, storyteller extraordinaire Matthew Dicks presents wonderfully straightforward and engaging tips and techniques for constructing, telling, and polishing stories that will hold the attention of your audience (no matter how big or small). He shows that anyone…
I am the bestselling author of more than 46 romance novels. I love history, enjoy research, and am always looking for little-known facts to make my stories more authentic. Some of those facts have revealed that women in the 19th century often took on occupations, hobbies, or causes that challenged them and sometimes placed them in danger. Although seldom acknowledged as such, women in the 19th century were a force to be reckoned with, although their contributions were often overlooked. But through reading personal accounts, letters of the time, biographies, and nonfiction accounts about various women’s roles, I have gained a greater appreciation for how daring women have been throughout history.
Wild at Heartis my #1 favorite historical romance. Unfortunately, it is out of print. The writing is beautiful, the story heart-wrenching, and the heroine adventurous in a subtle way as she challenges those who are studying a man raised by wolves to view him not as an object but as a person. I found this story to be perfection. If you can find a copy, you won’t be disappointed.
I am passionate about the importance of telling stories in the classroom. My career has been as a children’s librarian in public libraries, but with much time spent telling stories in schools. My daughter and her husband followed in my footsteps as storytellers and found that using storytelling in the classroom has so many benefits. We all offer workshops for teachers, write articles encouraging storytelling, and try in any way possible to grow the corps of teachers who discover this joyful addition to the classroom.
I found that owning a collection of tales organized by these themes was very useful. Over 100 short folktales on themes of cooperation, courage, diversity, empathy, friendship, generosity, honesty and fairness, perseverance, respect, responsibility, self-control, and bullying prevention. Pearmain also gives suggestions for telling these and for extending them in the classroom. Wrapping an idea in a story really helps the concept sink in for the listener. Having a collection like this helped me build programs for use in the library.
This book features 99 multi-national and multi-cultural folk tales with familiar character and bullying prevention themes but encapsuled in wonderfully diverse stories. The author, a professional storyteller, provides actual stories plus chapters on how to tell a story, not just read it; activities for students; and bulliten board ideas. She also provides hints and tips for teaching kids the art of storytelling which encourages communication skills and classroom unity.
I wear many hats in my life, but none matter as much as the hat: mama. As a clairaudient medium who works first-hand with mothers on their spiritual journeys, I feel as though I know what spiritually conscious parents hope to find and be moved by in the books they read because I know what my spirit needs during this wild and overwhelming adventure called motherhood. It can be an isolating path to walk, and these books not only felt like a helping hand during the rockiest moments but also like a warm hug when I needed it most.
This is not even a motherhood-focused book, but it absolutely had to make this list. It completely transformed my motherhood journey. It helped me find my new identity in motherhood. It allowed me to recognize that I have stories to tell - about my experience as a mother and also about myself separate from motherhood.
It allowed me to take life a little slower and be more intentional and mindful in my living and parenting. It’s essentially what moved me to start writing my poetry book in the first place. It helped illuminate my life in a way I never noticed before. I am a better mother because of this book.
Embrace the power of storytelling with Little Stories of Your Life. Start telling your own story, find your creative self and be more mindful.
Combining the wellbeing benefits of mindfulness, creativity and daily photography, this book shows you how to use words and photographs to capture precious little moments and how to share these in order to connect with others.
Each chapter explores the different ways you can tell your own stories, considers why you might choose to tell them and helps you to create a patchwork of tiny tales about your life, however small they might be. Throughout the…
