About Tod Maffin

About the author: Tod Maffin is a senior social media strategist and thought-leader in the areas of social media ROI and recruiting, leading, and teaching, Generation Y/Millennials. His information-rich, funny, and fast-paced keynote presentations keep him in high demand at more than 40 major conferences around the world each year. More at http://todmaffin.com (Twitter: @todmaffin)

Dragons’ Den Books


Click each book cover for more info and to buy.

Kevin O’Leary

Kevin O’Leary shares invaluable secrets on entrepreneurship, business, money and life. Can you make millions just by “visualizing yourself rich” as some business prophets suggest? Don’t buy it, says Kevin O’Leary. If you want to be a successful entrepreneur and amass wealth, you’re going to have to work for it. But the good news is: with the right guidance, focus and perseverance, you can turn entrepreneurial vision into lucrative reality and have the personal freedom that only wealth can buy.

Kevin O’Leary would know. The much-feared and revered Dragon on the immensely popular show Dragons’ Den (and Shark Tank in the U.S.) started his company in his basement with a $10,000 loan from his financially savvy mother. A few years later, Kevin sold that company for more than four billion dollars. In this compelling, candid and, above all else, brutally honest business memoir, Kevin provides engaging, practical advice and lessons that will give anyone a distinct competitive edge.

Arlene Dickenson

At thirty, Arlene Dickinson found herself stranded. Recently divorced, she had a high school diploma, no savings and no clue how she was going to feed four young children. But just one year later, she was a partner in Venture Communications. Ten years on, she was CEO, poised to grow the business into one of Canada’s largest independently owned marketing firms. Today, as a co-star of the CBC TV hit Dragons’ Den, she is one of the country’s most sought-after female entrepreneurs. The secret of her journey from poverty to the corner office? The art of persuasion, as she explains with wit and unusual candour in this, her first book.

Blending her own frank and highly entertaining stories with compelling social science, she explains how to persuade both in the boardroom and in everyday life: the crucial importance of a particular kind of listening; how to get people to buy into your ideas; how to attract followers and deal with naysayers; the art of storytelling; how to turn mistakes to your advantage; and how to seize opportunities where others see only roadblocks. Anyone, she believes, can be persuasive—just look how good we are at persuading ourselves we can’t do things. Using the tricks of her trade and insights from her own fascinating experiences with some of Canada’s leading companies, Dickinson explains how to master the art of persuasion, without an M.B.A., to achieve maximum success in business—and in life.

Robert Herjavec

Robert Herjavec has lived the classic “rags to riches” story, from having only $20 in his pocket to starting up technology companies worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The son of Croatian immigrants, Herjavec overcame the odds and amassed incredible wealth, doing it through pure hard work and determination. Today a star on television’s Dragon’s Den and The Shark Tank, he bankrolls the best inventions and shoots down the best intentions. And now, for the first time, he shares his hard-won wisdom in one of the most inspirational business books of the season.

Driven is organized by the work and life principles that made Robert Herjavec both wealthy and successful (indeed, these terms are not synonymous). Herjavec reveals the secrets that took him from waiting tables to growing his nascent technology company, The Herjavec Group, into a world-class conglomerate. His principles are as valuable in the living room as they are in the boardroom. Anyone can succeed, on their own terms, by following his sage but simple advice — as long as they’re willing to take chances, take control of their future and stay true to their vision.

Dragons Den: The U.K. Edition

Learn how to be a success from the business lessons of the Dragons and the financial advice of Evan Davis. Britain’s best loved business brains —Duncan Bannatyne, Deborah Meaden, Peter Jones, Theo Paphitis, and Richard Farleigh along with economics expert Evan Davis—divulge the secrets of their success in this essential read. Joining them is James Caan, the new Dragon who will be part of the team in the new season of the television show. James is a multi-millionaire businessman and entrepreneur. Dragons’ Den is packed with advice, whether you want to perfect your pitching skills, develop an idea or make more money. The Dragons will look at what’s become of the entrepreneurs who entered the Dragons’ Den. Some went away emptyhanded but have since become successful. Others won the backing of the Dragons but failed to make their dream come true. The Dragons will show you what should have been done, what should have happened next, and how you too could win their backing and become a business success. This is much more than a TV series companion. It is a solid business read with never-before-heard advice and experiences from the Dragons own business ventures. At last, we’ll find out how they became millionaires and their rules for success. This is a unique, accessible ,and useful business read straight from the Dragons’ Den.

Things to Boycott (by Michael Enright)

by Michael Enright

I’ve always liked the story of Captain Charles C. Boycott of County Mayo, Ireland. Not the man himself, of course, for he was a thug and a poltroon.

Ever willing to suck up to the Oppressor, Captain Boycott went around the county in 1880 evicting poor tenants from the dirt hovels the English let them call homes.

Charles Parnell, the great fighter for Irish Independence, took up the cause of the tenants, telling them that instead of violence against Boycott , they should ostracize him.

It worked. Local businessmen stopped trading with him, the Post Office refused to deliver his mail, tenants wouldn’t work his fields. Boycott went into the language as one of the most effective weapons in the arsenal of consumerism.

It’s quite simple. If you don’t like something, or you feel ill-treated, you and your friends simply boycott the person, service or product. You may not win, but you will feel a helluva lot better than if you had done nothing.

So on this second day of a brand new year, a handful of, not resolutions exactly, but things and people I hope to shun in the coming twelve months. I’m sure you have your own list.

1)People at dinner parties who insist on talking about their newest titanium appendage. Having to listen to someone talk about their bionic rebirth with new hips and or knees is the equivalent of scratching fingernails on a black board – titanium fingernails or not.

2)Things in packages that can only be opened with heavy machinery. Every now and then, I have to buy a new pocket knife, to replace the one seized by the Mrs. Grundys at the airport. The last time I bought a small knife, the only way I could remove it from the packager was by cutting it with, yes, another knife. Everything now from batteries to baby toys is so packaged in hard plastic as to defy easy access.

The full essay at http://www.cbc.ca/thesundayedition/2011/01/things-to-be-boycotted-in-the-new-year-1.html

CBC Radio to pick up This American Life

This American Life
Image by keamysparadise via Flickr

This American Life, the U.S. public radio show hosted by Ira Glass, is coming to CBC Radio One this season.

The unique show tells the personal stories of a broad range of individuals — from everyday folks to unusual characters — using creative narrative techniques and journalism.

Every week, it focuses on one theme and uses the real-life experiences of various people to illustrate that theme. Past themes have included the turncoat, the cruelty of children, obsession and summer camp.

Ira_Glass_005
Ira Glass by kuer90.1 via Flickr

Produced by Chicago Public Radio and distributed by Public Radio InternationalThis American Life is one of the most heavily downloaded podcasts on American radio. Time has declared Glass the best radio host in America.

“It’s one of the most acclaimed and innovative radio shows in America. At its core, what the show does is take personal stories and make them universal,” said Chris Boyce, programming director for English radio at CBC.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/arts/media/story/2011/01/04/american-life-cbc.html#ixzz1ADBe7J4y

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