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Todd Sattersten
Milwaukee, WI
Co-author of The 100 Best Business Books of All Time
Recent Activity
Games Make Us Better
One of the not-to-miss books for for the first half of 2011 is Jane McGonigal's Reality Is Broken. McGonigal is making a persuasive argument that games bring out the best in us and we should find more ways to incorporate the qualities of games into real life. McGonigal was in Portland last night at the OMSI Science Pub. Here is a short clip from her talk where she talks about the four superpowers we acquire as we play more games. Continue reading
Posted Feb 8, 2011 at Todd Sattersten | Business. Books.
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Time Stamp Replaces Page Number
I had been wondering lately if we needed a different way to quantify the length of a book given the variability of the digital experience. There is no way really to tell how long a book is going to be when you download it electronically. Weight and thickness have disappeared. The screens you read on are smartphone small to desktop big. And it struck me: time is the standard for digital products. I wrote a whole essay on the subject for Publishing Perspectives, which they posted today. I hope you'll check it out. Continue reading
Posted Feb 3, 2011 at Todd Sattersten | Business. Books.
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Pricing Pictures
Today is the one year anniversary of Fixed to Flexible. There have been almost 17,000 reads of the ebook and I have been contacted by people all over the world who were helped. I launch a new project today called Pricing Pictures. What I wanted to do was show in a very simple way that pricing has a multitude of dimensions and those dimensions create opportunities for new business models, continuing the message I started in Fixed to Flexible. And I do it all in ten pages. Pricing Pictures View more presentations from Todd Sattersten. Hope you enjoy Pricing Pictures... Continue reading
Posted Feb 2, 2011 at Todd Sattersten | Business. Books.
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What I Read - January 2011
I spend an enormous amount of time reading. This is something that I already knew, but I decided to track my reading more closely as a sort of New Year's resolution. First, I want to better see the number and types of books that passed through my hands and secondly, I wanted to better assess the amount of time I was spending on this particular task. I started using Daytum, the tool created by designer Nicholas Felton, well known for his elaborate yearly reports of his personal activities, and interactive designer Ryan Case. The service has a simple system of... Continue reading
Posted Feb 1, 2011 at Todd Sattersten | Business. Books.
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It's All In The Frame
Both of these books appeared in my mailbox this week. Both of these books are about solving similar problems--about completion and what keeps us from getting there. The promised solutions though are very different. Piers Steel wants to recognize all of the things that have been stopping you from doing and deal with your delaying. Russell Bishop wants you to find a new way through your cluttered and complicated life. Now let me ask two questions: which one would you pick up based on the cover? And, which one do you think will sell better in the long term? The... Continue reading
Posted Jan 25, 2011 at Todd Sattersten | Business. Books.
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The Very Best Business Books in 2010: A Compiled List
With 800-CEO-READ's announcement of Rework as their Business Book of The Year, we can officially close out the year that was 2010. To try and make sense of all the year-end selections various sources made over the course of the last 60 days, I decided to put together a spreadsheet to see if there was any agreement about what shined brighter than the rest. The methodology was simple: each selection at each source got one vote. Nineteen sources were used in the compilation (see sources below). The top business book was The Big Short by Michael Lewis, garnering 12 votes... Continue reading
Posted Jan 20, 2011 at Todd Sattersten | Business. Books.
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Idea Arena Podcast - Practically Radical by William Taylor
In this interview, I talk with Bill Taylor, author of Practically Radical: Not So-Crazy Ways to Transform Your Company, Shake Up Your Industry, And Challenge Yourself. Taylor is always on the lookout for individuals and organizations who are practicing a better form of business. He is searching for leaders who are taking a different path and finding success.Taylor did the same thing when he was at Harvard Business Review and when he founded Fast Company Magazine with Alan Webber. Practically Radical is full of stories about large organization who are finding ways to reinvent themselves, a kind of journalism that... Continue reading
Posted Jan 18, 2011 at Todd Sattersten | Business. Books.
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How Authors Can Use Twitter To Help Others
Posted Jan 13, 2011 at Todd Sattersten | Business. Books.
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Here is the corollary:
"I think one of the jobs of a businessperson is to get away from the slugfests and into niches where you can prevail."
(from Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will by Noel Tichy and Strat Sherman)
Jack Welch on Competitive Advantage
"If you don't have a competitive advantage, don't compete." -- Jack Welch
Idea Arena Podcast - The Great Workplace Interview with Michael Burchell
Posted Jan 6, 2011 at Todd Sattersten | Business. Books.
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Trends in Publishing for 2011
Posted Jan 5, 2011 at Todd Sattersten | Business. Books.
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Bastyr vs NCNM and other Naturopathic Medical Schools
May 2010 my husband, Todd Sattersten, and I visited Bastyr and NCNM to see which (if either) school and city we would like to move to. We had narrowed it down to these two schools primairily based on geographic location. Although, I had already talked to at least one admission counselor and 3 students from each of these two schools and from SCNM in Arizona. I also talked to a student at CCNM in Toronto, Canada and a person who had visited Univ. of Bridgeport in Connecticut. One of the students I talked to had been told an interesting analogy... Continue reading
Posted Jan 1, 2011 at AmyBuckley.com
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#YearInReview
My year started with some big questions about what was next and in May, a trip to Oregon answered many of those questions. Seth started a shipping meme yesterday. Here is a list of what I shipped, a list I am very proud of. Launch Fixed to Flexible ebook Wrote a book proposal that made sense to no one but me :) Started literary scouting service focused on business books and now have clients in Spain, Brazil, and Russia Moved family from Milwaukee, WI to Portland, OR in ten weeks I spoke to three classes at the University of Chicago-Illinois... Continue reading
Posted Dec 31, 2010 at Todd Sattersten | Business. Books.
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The Top 10 Business Books of 2010
Posted Dec 27, 2010 at Todd Sattersten | Business. Books.
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Which Ones Have You Read?
My wife found a copy of The 100 Best Business Books of All Time on eBay for $5.00, so we decided to buy it. We knew it was used but it really has been used! The previous owner had read 10 selections, was in the process of reading two books and had three more on deck. While most purchasers would have been disappointed, I rejoiced at seeing someone's interactions with The 100 Best. The blue ink shows Jack and I were successful in engaging the reader to examine what they knew and what they wanted to know. What more could... Continue reading
Posted Dec 10, 2010 at Todd Sattersten | Business. Books.
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Seth's New Company Continues Big Week in Publishing
Yesterday, Seth Godin announced his new venture The Domino Project powered by Amazon. There is a blog post that philosophically describes his move into publishing (or actually back into publishing; he was a book packager in a past life) and a FAQ page to cover some of the details. Seth is making some distinctive bets: Amazon is a large enough platform to support a publishing company. Speed matters. The distance between creator and receiver needs to shrink. Distribution should be global from Day One. Digital matters just as much as print (maybe more). Books still matter. Most publishing professionals would... Continue reading
Posted Dec 9, 2010 at Todd Sattersten | Business. Books.
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Free is Natural and Good
I wanted to quote this blog post by Nelson Minmar titled "Information wants to be free," but it is short and plithy, making the choice of excerpt difficult. Just go read the whole thing. Continue reading
Posted Dec 8, 2010 at Todd Sattersten | Business. Books.
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Two Big Publishing Launches Today
Very busy prepping for BizBookLab, but there are two things you should definitely be checking out today. Google launched Google eBooks. This is huge. It put another huge player in the middle of this emerging market. Check out the launch of Figment, site for kids to both read and write. Continue reading
Posted Dec 6, 2010 at Todd Sattersten | Business. Books.
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Using A Different P-word for Platform
If you want to write a business book and have it published, you won't get very far into a conversation with an agent or editor without the word 'platform' coming up. Right after you explain your idea, they'll start to ask you to describe to the consulting business you have built, the clients you have worked with, the speaking you are doing, the size of your email list, and the number of Twitter followers you have. As you do that, those folks are constructing the size and reach of your platform in their head. And it may sound strange but... Continue reading
Posted Dec 3, 2010 at Todd Sattersten | Business. Books.
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What Business Book Hasn't Been Written?
I was reading a short piece written by Neil Robertson, the CEO of Trada, for the book Do More Faster this morning. Here are the first few paragraphs: I first gave a talk about product management at TechStars during the summer of 2008. One of the things that I said that night caught the attention of all the founders, and we ended up talking about it for hours: "As long as I listen to my customers, I never need to have another original idea." It's a simple concept. Go get customers, then listen. It really can be that simple. The... Continue reading
Posted Dec 1, 2010 at Todd Sattersten | Business. Books.
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Business Books In The News - Nov. 29th 2010
In an article about how Brazil's economy is evolving, the Economist's Schumpeter column visits Heliopolis, one of Sao Paulo's largest shanytowns and finds"[a]mong the books in the favela's surprisingly well-stocked library is Tom Peters's The Circle of Innovation." BusinessWeek profiled the fast-food chain Panda Express and its founders Andrew and Peggy Cherng in their November 22, 2010 issue. "[Andrew] Cherng is an avid consumer of self-improvement programs. He urges his Pandas to maintain health lifestyles and eat a well-rounded diet; he recently challenged the Pandas to run three miles in under 36 minutes. He has since 2003 been a participant... Continue reading
Posted Nov 29, 2010 at Todd Sattersten | Business. Books.
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Giving Thanks
All of you who are reading played some part in the amazing year that has passed. Some of you helped us make a 2000 mile move to the West Coast. Some of you shared your knowledge and your connections to help me grow my business as scout and coach. Some of you read what I wrote and wrote me to say thanks. I just wanted to say thanks to all of you. Continue reading
Posted Nov 25, 2010 at Todd Sattersten | Business. Books.
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Three Strange Perspectives on Publishing
From the Atlantic's feature 14 3/4 Biggest Ideas of The Year, Information Wants to Be Paid For is a strangely dull piece from Walter Isaacson, where he tries to make the case for how magazine and newspapers for going to be able to charge for digital subscriptions and that this will "usher in a new golden age for them." His piece doesn't convince me of that or what made it a Big Idea. Forrester just released a new report on ebooks, so you are seeing glimpse into some of that research appearing on their blogs. James McQuivey's wrote a post... Continue reading
Posted Nov 22, 2010 at Todd Sattersten | Business. Books.
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Sticks and Stones
delusion |diˈloō zh ən| nounan idiosyncratic belief or impression that is firmly maintained despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality or rational argument, typically a symptom of mental disorder I am delusional at times. More Space was a delusional attempt to change a mistaken viewpoint about how bloggers were not really writers. Delusion is an important quality. You can be taken advantage of in that state, but delusion also gives you room to create wonderful things that most thought impossible. I wonder if, at some point, we'll accept delusion as necessary rather than mistaken. Probably not. Look... Continue reading
Posted Nov 19, 2010 at Todd Sattersten | Business. Books.
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Thinking They Will Like It
Lynda Obst has a piece in The Atlantic about how summer blockbusters get marketed. The article is great because she conveys with wonder how people like Warner Brothers' Sue Kroll and Sony's Jeff Blake manage to get people interested in movies. "If they like it, they will keep coming. But thinking they will like it is the job of the marketing department, and if a movie does not have a "unaided awareness"—i.e., it is an original idea, or not a sequel or based on a big or well known comic—it is increasingly dependent on the genius or lack thereof at... Continue reading
Posted Nov 17, 2010 at Todd Sattersten | Business. Books.
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