Travis Lubinsky & James Malinchak on Building Brands and Business Strategies 📈 E57

As social media becomes increasingly central to how we share information, socialize, and do business, a personal brand—your digital presence and reputation—is now an essential career tool. In Crush It!, Gary Vaynerchuk explains how to develop and leverage your personal brand to get a better job or—better yet— to quit your job altogether and earn a living monetizing that brand.

Vaynerchuk became one of the earliest social media influencers during the late 2000s with a daily video series in which he tasted and talked about wine in a casual, accessible way. Fifteen years after launching his vlog, he remains a top influencer in business.

In this guide, we’ll discuss Vaynerchuk’s step-by-step instructions for building and monetizing a personal brand. We’ll also amend his advice with updated information and practical tips.

If you’re looking to break away from your current work arrangement and start doing something that you’re passionate about, consider starting your own microbusiness, a business run by one person. Where you once needed to have a fair amount of funding to get started, Chris Guillebeau suggests you can now do so for as little as $100.

In The $100 Startup, Guillebeau breaks down the process of starting your own business. He covers everything from finding your target audience to creating a development plan, explaining how you can find success without loaning a cent from the bank.

If building a million-dollar business in a single year sounds impossible, then entrepreneur Ryan Daniel Moran has news for you. In 12 Months to $1 Million, Moran writes that it’s not only possible, but also simple: All you need to do to reach that seven-figure mark is to sell three to five products tailored to a specific audience. To help you achieve this goal, Moran shares proven techniques for creating breakthrough products, marketing your business, and developing a brand with loyal customers. By following his approach, you can turn your ideas into reality, achieve your financial goals, and run a million-dollar business within a year.

In this guide, we’ll discuss the tools and techniques for creating and launching your product line. We’ll also explore Moran’s advice for growing your sales by engaging with your audience, as well as deciding whether to scale or sell your business. Throughout, we’ll compare Moran’s strategy with that of other entrepreneurs and provide actionable tips for applying his strategy to your own business.

Does the thought of speaking in front of an audience make you anxious? You’re not alone: Many people say they fear public speaking even more than death. But public speaking is also one of the most important and widely applicable skills in life, and the good news is, anyone can master it. By learning proven skills and techniques, you can become an effective communicator and confidently deliver your message to an audience.

In Shortform’s Master Guide to public speaking, we’ve compiled leading experts’ insights on how to prepare and deliver your speech. Whether you want to persuade, inform, entertain, or motivate your audience, this guide will walk you through the process of crafting and delivering a powerful speech that captures your audience’s interest.

If you often find yourself overwhelmed by your task list and obligations, Organize Tomorrow Today can help. With sports and travel writer Matthew Rudy, authors Jason Selk and Tom Bartow teach you how to increase your productivity, maximize your time, and set yourself on the path to success. Combining backgrounds in athletics, psychology, and finance, Selk and Bartow have worked for decades as advisors and coaches in both the sports and business worlds. Their programs have helped countless athletes and business professionals improve their job performance and become some of the most successful members of their fields.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to prioritize and prepare for your tasks every day. We’ll also discuss how you can improve your life through positive habits, evaluate your daily progress, and communicate effectively with yourself and others. In our commentary, we’ll touch on other authors’ advice for improving your productivity and examine some of the science behind Selk, Bartow, and Rudy’s strategies.

A great speech has the power to inspire and change the world, but most people believe that public speaking is an innate talent. As curator for TED since 2002, Chris Anderson knows better—he has seen hundreds of speeches succeed and fail, and he has figured out the secret formula. Published in 2016, TED Talks is a nuts-and-bolts guide to public speaking that takes you from the initial idea to your final bow.

In this guide, we go through Anderson’s advice piece by piece and explain what works in public speaking and what doesn’t. From scripting to wardrobe, and everything in between, we compare his advice to that of other public speaking experts and supplement his ideas with actionable methods.

In Money: Master the Game, motivational speaker and life coach Tony Robbins argues that anyone can master money, achieve financial well-being, and create their dream lifestyle. In Robbins’ view, to master money means building an investing strategy that yields passive income for life and gives you the choice of when, where, and whether to continue working. Conversely, neglecting to master money means that you’ll always need to trade your time for money.

Our guide unpacks Robbins’s approach to changing your money mindset and financial strategy, and we contrast it with popular approaches to financial independence such as Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE) and Early Retirement Extreme (ERE).

A massive bestseller now in its 12th edition, Burton Malkiel’s A Random Walk Down Wall Street provides a comprehensive and entertaining introduction to the world of finance. Malkiel leverages his experience as an academic economist and former Wall Street portfolio manager to explain for the lay reader the intricacies of security analysis, asset valuation, and investment theory. He also offers a wealth of practical investment principles that will be useful for novice and seasoned investors alike.