This is part of the PNI Q&A series where I share responses to common questions about the book. Got a question? Share it in a comment and I might answer it in an upcoming post!

The one that stands out for me simply because I travel a lot and live in a major hub is United Airlines. The amount of money they waste on “brand campaigns” is just staggering. Who in America hasn’t heard of United Airlines? No one. So why spend all this money to tell them who you are? They have so much potential to reinvent the way that they train their employees and that they use social media to allow people to have a more direct relationship with them. Sometimes I dream about getting them as a client because there are so many solutions that could make such a big impact on their brand. It’s uncommon to have a brand with that much untapped potential.

Several months ago, I had the chance to go into the studios at the CNet offices in San Francisco to record a session for something called a “Business Book Brief” that runs on cNet’s companion site for business called BNet. The video has been produced, professionally edited and is now online on the BNet site. Check out the video below for a brief introduction to Personality Not Included and let me know what you think.

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This is part of the PNI Q&A series where I share responses to common questions about the book. Got a question? Share it in a comment and I might answer it in an upcoming post!

The whole process of writing to publication for me was just under a year. I got my book deal in June of 2007 and published in May of 2008. It’s a pretty fast turnaround for a full length business book, but both myself and the publisher were keen to get the book out sooner rather than later so we worked hard to finish it and still have something we’d be proud of. One thing I was surprised at was that I thought I would be able to reuse more of my blog content for the book, and I really didn’t use much. Luckily the blogging kept my writing skills current and probably helped me to write much faster than I could otherwise have.

I recently launched a photo collection of all the places that I have managed to find Personality Not Included or promoted it. It’s a fun gallery of the book in lots of bookstores, at parties and a few other locations. Check it out and if you have any photos of the book in your local bookstore, please do share them with me so I can add them to the gallery! You can send them to me at pnibook@gmail.com or tag them on Flickr with “pnisighting.”

I love books. Not just for the power of conveying an idea through a printed form, but also for the emotional significance of actually holding a book in your hands. More and more recently I have been books become a brilliant marketing tool for everyone, from political candidates to technology companies. Along the way, there are several ideas that I have collected for how using a book could be an effective part of a marketing strategy. Here are a few:

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It’s shaping up to be a busy Tuesday, so today’s post is a guest contribution of sorts from an interview I recently gave to my friend and fellow marketing blogger Mack Collier in advance of the highly anticipated MarketingProfs Digital Mixer that I’ll be speaking at in October. Enjoy!

Q: You’re a very popular speaker and have a constant list of conferences to which you’ve been invited to speak. But it seems there’s a new marketing/social media conference popping up every day,
and for potential attendees it can seem a bit overwhelming. What are a few things that attendees should look for from an event to ensure that they will get their money’s worth.

A: You’re right, there are a ton of events coming up, and it’s tough to choose which ones to spend time at. The most obvious way most people probably evaluate events is by the quality of the speakers who will be there. That’s a measure I use to decide where to speak as well. The quality of the programming is also important in terms of what the session topics are and how the event is organized in relation to what you are most interested in learning about.

The other thing I would pay attention to is the companies who will be exhibiting or sponsoring the event. They have had to do the work to determine if the conference is worth spending money to sponsor, so any
event that can bring in a good assortment of sponsors is obviously doing something right.

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In this month’s Fast Company, there is an interesting profile of a law firm from LA called Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges which is making waves in the legal industry for being less formal and actually having a personality. Unlike other firms, they focus only on business litigation, take some cases on contingency, and have an on-staff barista. The photos in the article show a business that looks a lot like a Silicon Valley startup environment where all the lawyers are wearing (gasp!) jeans. A part of their story is a decentralized structure and far fewer management layers … but I suspect an even greater element is the fact that they have a powerful recruiting story to tell.

What lawyer stuck in a stiff and formal environment wouldn’t dream of working at a firm like Quinn Emanuel? When you are the envy of your industry, recruiting the best people is far easier. If you can get the best people and let them do what they do best, you can have the best company. It’s not a difficult formula, and it all starts with personality for this law firm shaking up their industry and making millions along the way. And it just might inspire you to think differently about what you do everyday as well. After all, if a law firm can understand and use the power of personality, what’s holding you back?

* The photo above is used without permission from the Fast Company article online. If they sue me, maybe I’ll try to hire Quinn Emanuel to represent me …

This is part of the PNI Q&A series where I share responses to common questions about the book.

I would sum up the difference between my book and others in two words: entertaining and useful. As I wrote the book, I focused on living up to these two themes. I wanted to write a book that was actually fun to read (I know, it’s an odd way to describe a marketing book, but stay with me). To do that, I have more than a hundred stories in the book, from how a small restaurant in DC with just 8 seats creates one of the most unique dining experiences in the world to the story of LiveVault made the intensely technical subject of data storage approachable, fun and viral. The useful part comes from the structure of the book which has two main parts. The first part is the theory of personality in business and has six chapters with lots of stories that you could probably finish in a few hours on a quick plane flight. Along with all the stories are links to guides, tools, checklists and other resources in the second part of the book. That part is all about action and helping you to put the theory of the book to work for your business. This isn’t meant to be just a big “theory” book, it’s all about applying the lessons to your business.

I’m happy to announce that Personality Not Included was chosen as a book of the month by Soundview Executive Book Summaries. In case you aren’t familiar with them, they are a group that review thousands of business books a year and select two each month to summarize in both audio and downloadable PDF format for subscribers. It is a huge honor to be chosen and I’m thrilled to be among titles like Influencer, Meatball Sundae, and The New Age of Innovation. Check out their site to see how you can get a download and summary of the book - or if you already have a copy, be sure to read page 185 where I take my own shot at summarizing the whole first section of the book in just 60 words. The most profound ideas shouldn’t take long to explain. Hopefully I manage to live up to that truth.

When I was traveling in Beijing I had the thrill of finding the book in one of two big English language bookstores in the city. The Wangfujing Bookstore had three copies of PNI (pictured in the photos below). The other bookstore didn’t have it, because they were sold out! Also in the gallery below are some shots from a few media interviews I did with press in the Ogilvy Beijing office:

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Today at 3pm I am taking part in a very interesting experiment of a live Q&A session as part of a new site that was recently launched as a partnership between Slate.com, McGraw-Hill and American Express. The feature, called "BizBox" is a one hour hosted online discussion about a book where anyone can log in from Slate and ask a question to the author. This is meant to be a real time stream of questions and discussion (I’ll be online live answering questions), moderated by the editorial team at Slate and funded by Amex Open and McGraw-Hill. The commitment to an author is minimal … just be online for an hour to answer questions directly (basically a late lunch hour if you’re on the east coast).  As a secondary experiment, I’ll also be live twittering during the event to get even more discussion going (my ID is @rohitbhargava).

Here’s the link: http://discuss.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/zforum/05/bizbooks_5.htm

I am excited about the upcoming discussion, but even more so in how this partnership is arranged and the marketing lesson it offers. McGraw-Hill (my publisher) has authors and content. Slate.com has the audience of small business owners, and Amex Open wants to reach this audience. Together they have put together this BizBox series to offer a way for Slate to a richer content experience beyond their own editorial, and made it worth the time investment from an author because they are doing heavy promotion, and also because the time requirement is minimal (ie - no travel). As a result, today’s hosted discussion will likely be a four-way win … for me, McGraw-Hill, Amex and Slate.com. Anytime you can put together a marketing campaign like that, it’s worth paying attention to.*

* And yes, I’d say so even if I wasn’t today’s guest!

One of the most surprising things about Personality Not Included for me has been just how popular the book has been when I introduce it or talk about it with small businesses. There are a few easy reasons I think why this probably is:

1. PNI is very case study heavy, so small businesses will likely find at least one example that relates to their business.
2. PNI is easy to read, particularly for people who may not consider themselves marketers, but need to promote their businesses nonetheless.
3. Small business owners connect with the idea of personality because often the vision, emotion or growth behind their companies has been the result of personal vision and personality on their parts.

As a result, I love doing events, seminars and podcasts devoted to small businesses. I have another one coming up tomorrow evening hosted by my good friend Shashi Bellamkonda and his company, Network Solutions. Frank Gruber from Somewhat Frank (and a super engaging guy) will be interviewing me and we’ll be leading a discussion with more than 100 small business owners about the importance of personality. Like our previous event we did at Busboys & Poets downtown, this event was sold out within a matter of days of it opening up and should be a great event. For those who can’t make it or missed signing up before it was sold out, check out Frank’s site for some audio and video from the event.

I’ve received lots of reviews of Personality Not Included from bloggers, marketers, businesspeople and journalists. There is one, however, that I think offers a great complete picture of the book for those who haven’t read it and says just about everything in one review. Thanks to Julie from PeopleMaps for the great review!

An innovative book in so many ways - the structure; the layout; the design; the marketing — all uber innovative. But what really counts is the content - and Rohit just nails it.

Rohit Bhargava is right up there with the likes of Seth Godin and Guy Kawasaki. Why? Because he tells it like it is. There’s no jargonistic BS in this book. Just plenty of (super cool) examples and global ones at that - Rohit shows a refreshing awareness that we don’t all live in the USA!

The whole of Part Two is devoted to what to do with the revelations laid out in Part One. Yes - read this book and Rohit will tell you what to do for your business (though, to be honest I already had a page full of notes about things to do/improvements to make/nuggets to share from each of the chapters in part one as they unfolded - that’s how enlightening it is).

This book isn’t just for marketers. It isn’t just for trendy start-ups. It is for any business - from solopreneurs through to blue chip. It is also relevant to anyone in any position in the work place - anyone who wants to make a difference that is.

If you love Seth Godin, or Guy Kawasaki then you’ll love Rohit Bhargava. If you’ve no idea who any of these people are, but are looking for a refreshing and up-to-the-minute business read, then you could do no better. You won’t be able to resist taking action during and after this one.

Welcome to all of you BzzAgents who are making it to this site as a result of Frogpond campaign that I recently launched this week. I’ve been reading furiously trying to keep up with the nearly 2500 reviews and comments that you have left about this site and the book and contrary to what you might think, I don’t have a team of people to help read all of them so I’ve been going through all of them myself! From what I have learned so far, there are basically three categories of comments:

1. Not interesting - for BzzAgents who are just not into business and don’t know anyone who runs a business or works in business … the book didn’t have much to offer.
2. Like the book, but the website was confusing - many people read and enjoyed the excerpt (though many people wished for more content from the book to consume). Others thought it could be interesting, but were confused or turned off by the website.
3. Loved it and bought it - this was my favourite category (obviously!) of people who loved what they read on this site or through the excerpts and said they would go ahead and buy the book.

I haven’t done a full analysis, but these categories seemed about equal in their spread (33% each). As I spent some time this weekend thinking about what to do to incorporate this feedback, I decided to focus on two things. The first was to correct some BzzAgents who thought the campaign was run by a big organization (it wasn’t … it’s just me). The second was to offer the second group from the list above more information to hopefully address their concerns and help them figure out if the book may actually be useful for them or someone else they know.

To that end, I redesigned the main section of the homepage to use a better description of what the book is all about. In addition, I’m releasing another book excerpt of material, available at www.personalitynotincluded.com/pnibonusexcerpt.pdf. This excerpt is the first several pages of Chapter 6 and should give even more of an idea of what the book is about. Happy reading and if you’re a BzzAgent and made it here, let me know if any of this helps!