Social Business

Do you HATE public speaking? Are you TERRIFIED to stand in front of people? When you think of speaking, do you get nervous, anxious, even sweaty? You don’t have to be afraid any longer. It can seem like everyone is a gifted speak when you watch TED talks or compare yourself to skilled co-workers giving presentations. Don't get caught up in comparison. Instead, take action to improve YOUR ability and to overcome your fear. If you struggle when you speak, then you are not alone. Public speaking is the number one fear in America.

Have you ever been called upon to speak at an event and the mere thought of doing it is giving you sleepless nights? Do you want to learn how to captivate a crowd with ease just like the pros? Are you looking to make your mark in the world of public speaking but have no clue where to begin? Whether you are speaking as the best man at your friend’s wedding, leading a presentation by your team at the next board meeting, or speaking to an audience of eager people, this book is just what you need.

Renowned media scholar Sherry Turkle investigates how a flight from conversation undermines our relationships, creativity, and productivity - and why reclaiming face-to-face conversation can help us regain lost ground. We live in a technological universe in which we are always communicating. And yet we have sacrificed conversation for mere connection. Preeminent author and researcher Sherry Turkle has been studying digital culture for over 30 years. Long an enthusiast for its possibilities, here she investigates a troubling consequence.

Based on a far-reaching study of thousands of individuals, Finding Flow contends that we often walk through our days unaware of and out of touch with our emotional lives. Our inattention makes us constantly bounce between two extremes: During much of the day, we live filled with the anxiety and pressures of our work and obligations, and during our leisure moments, we tend to live in passive boredom.

From government to business, banks to media, trust in institutions is at an all-time low. But this isn't the age of distrust - far from it. Rachel Botsman reveals that we are at the tipping point of one of the biggest social transformations in human history. A new world order is emerging: We might have lost faith in institutions and leaders, but millions of people rent their homes to total strangers, exchange digital currencies, or find themselves trusting a bot. This is the age of "distributed trust", a paradigm shift driven by innovative technologies that are rewriting the rules....

Carol Fleming wants to show you that small talk is not as “small” as you might think. It’s the foundation of every relationship, professional and personal. It is the sound of people reaching out to each other, searching for similarities, shared interests, goodwill, connections, and friendship. And it’s something we all do every day with people we know. It’s just the one little bit about strangers that throws some people off. Graceful social conversation can be learned, even by those requiring the smallest of baby steps.

Teaching you how to make people like you, how to win people to your way of thinking, and how to change people without arousing resentment, Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People is one of the most groundbreaking and best-selling self-help tomes of all time. The time-tested advice that has carried millions of people up the ladder of success in their business and personal lives is a must-listen for the 21st century.

We pile on “to-dos” but don’t consider “stop-doings”. We create incentives for good behavior, but don’t get rid of obstacles to it. We collect new-and-improved ideas, but don’t prune the outdated ones. Every day, across challenges big and small, we neglect a basic way to make things better: We don’t subtract. Leidy Klotz’s pioneering research shows why.

Etiquette, Sara Jane says, is the glue that holds society together. Humans are social creatures, after all—we need connection to survive. But with global cultures in flux and the post-pandemic digital age, shadow epidemics of anxiety and loneliness are on the rise. Plus, the old rules of “decorum” don’t match the times. Amidst all this withdrawal and change, social growth can feel out of reach. How do we leave the comfort of our homes, step away from our screens, and interact face to face?

Average schools don't inspire greatness - and greatness is what our world needs if we are going to produce world-changing learners. In Culturize, author and education leader Jimmy Casas shares insights into what it takes to cultivate a community of learners who embody the innately human traits our world desperately needs, such as kindness, honesty, and compassion. His stories reveal how these "soft skills" can be honed while meeting and exceeding academic standards of 21st-century learning.

As a response to the increasing violence in our culture, the widening ideological divides, and the growing gap in economic well-being, there is greater awareness that a deeper sense of community is desperately needed. But even as we acknowledge the need to build community, the dominant on-the-ground practices about how to engage people, civically and organizationally, remain essentially unchanged. We still believe community is built with better messaging, more persuasion, and social events for people to get to know each other better. All of which is naïve.

An ancient belief system made new, Stoicism teaches us how to accept the things we cannot change and how to live a good life. It helps us improve our outlook, increase our well-being, and thrive in the face of adversity. But how does one live like a Stoic? In A Handbook for New Stoics, renowned philosopher Massimo Pigliucci and practitioner Gregory Lopez guide listeners through 52 weekly lessons, each based on a common obstacle. Stressing out about a meeting at work? Try listing the things you can control and those you can’t. Plus much more!

The man who created Bluefish, the internationally famous company that makes once-in-a-lifetime events happen for the rich and famous, reveals to the rest of us his trade secrets for making things happen. Steve Sims' day job is to make the impossible possible. With his help and expertise, his clients' fantasies and wildest dreams come true. Getting married by the Pope in the Vatican, being serenaded by Elton John, and connecting with powerful business moguls like Elon Musk are just a few of the many projects he has worked on.

After two decades as a behavior analyst in the FBI, Robin Dreeke knows a thing or two about sizing people up. He's navigated complex situations that range from handling Russian spies to navigating the internal politics at the Bureau. Through that experience, he was forced to develop a knack for reading people - their intentions, their capabilities, their desires and their fears. In Sizing People Up, Dreeke shares his simple, six-step system that helps you predict anyone's future behavior based on their words, goals, patterns of action, and the situation at hand.

Among the many pieces of expert advice in The Essentials of Persuasive Public Speaking is this nugget: "To capture attention, define a problem that keeps listeners up at night." Wyeth may as well be talking about the audiobook itself - for nothing keeps us up at night like the prospect of giving a speech in the morning. In this brief and lucid guide to presenting, Wyeth counsels how to calm a thumping heart and reveals techniques on preparation, delivery, and visual aids as he gives you vivid stories and rubber-meets-the-road advice.

Companies market to a younger audience because they believe that’s where the money and the excitement are. But are they wrong? Perhaps very wrong? This is only one of the counterintuitive arguments that Darrell Bricker, CEO of Ipsos Public Affairs, a world leader in opinion polling, tackles in his groundbreaking new book, Next. Not since Boom, Bust & Echo has a Canadian expert in what Canadians will want and need distilled the growing trends based on real and extensive demographic data and dared to forecast what will come next.

Some find talking to others uncomfortable, difficult, or intimidating. Here is a way to overcome these communication challenges. How to Talk to Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere is the key to building confidence and improving communication skills. Written by Larry King, this guide provides simple and practical advice to help make communication easier, more successful, and even more enjoyable. Anecdotes from a life spent talking - on television, radio, and in person - add to the fun and value of the audiobook.

In Ask Powerful Questions, Will Wise explains how the questions we traditionally ask are virtually meaningless when it comes to establishing connection. Introducing a set of practical tools for accessing and understanding others by changing the way we ask questions, Will shows how to transform "How are you? I'm fine, thanks" into a conversation that changes not only how you lead, but who you are as a person.

Take Command offers powerful tools and time-tested methods to help you live an intentional life by transforming how you approach your thoughts, emotions, relationships, and future. Filled with stories of everyday people and based on expert research and interviews with more than a hundred high-performing leaders, Take Command is a “must-read” (Alan Mulally, former CEO of Ford and Boeing) that gives you the strategies you need to unlock your full potential and create the life you want.

Based on thirty years of research among forty thousand people in sixty countries, Wharton Business School Professor and Pulitzer Prize winner Stuart Diamond shows in this unique and revolutionary book how emotional intelligence, perceptions, cultural diversity and collaboration produce four times as much value as old-school, conflictive, power, leverage and logic.