19:37 in Glasgow Airport
I’m in Glasgow airport after another good day with Partners and Microsoft and I’ve just popped into the book shop to browse the shelves. I have a bad habit of buying books and not reading them until some months later. Reminds me of those delegates who go home from events with their heads full of ideas and not enough time to apply them! 
Anyway, it’s partly Robbie’s fault because we keep recommending books to one another. I got him hooked on Seth’s blog and he’s been reading his books and pushing me to catch up on my reading just so we can bounce some ideas off one another. I’ve got ‘The Dip’ in my bag but I couldn’t resist a quick mooch around the store to see what else was there.
After ‘umming’ and ‘aahing’ over a few possibilities I finally settled with one. Partly based on the reviews it got, partly because I liked reading the first page (always a good test), but mostly because the book opened on this when I put it in my hand:
“No attention = no communication = no result”
Love it!
The book in question is ‘Persuasion - the art of influencing people’ by James Borg. I would love to hear what others who have read this thought about it. That goes for ‘The Dip’ as well.
Warning to Microsoft Ireland and the local Partner Community: If I read enough of this tonight I will be babbling on about it in my presentation tomorrow.
My biggest challenge now is to stop putting the books I buy down after the first few chapters and forgetting to pick them back up. I get so excited when I find the points authors make motivating that I have to go and do them there and then!
On another note, it was great to have Emma Cockburn on board at the Glasgow Roadshow, she stood there and asked for feedback on topics that I know, had we not have been asked, would have been issued in a way that would have made it difficult for us to help execute. Emma is the SMB Marketing Manager for Microsoft. Equally, it was good to see that the presenters are adapting their slides to the feedback the audiences are giving - I try to do this with my latest presentation - helps keep a fresh approach to something I talk about all the time.
Good to see Archie, Dave, Mike, and Paul again and to meet a few new faces too! I got enough feedback to keep me busy when I’m back in the office so thank you to those who chatted with me.
Oooh, just found another snippet for you in this book:
“Empathy + Sincerity -> Persuasion (ESP)” - smells like a successful Small Business Specialist…
We’re going to have to keep you two apart!
Have fun in Ireland
In Dublin at the moment. Keeping us apart would be awful!