Monthly Reading List - July 2023

Author

Jamil Vanheyningen
August 02, 2023

In July, I got into marketing. Over half of the books I read were marketing-focused, since I wanted to capitalize on the enthusiasm.

Overall, I learned about the mindset behind companies and people with devout followings. They seem to prioritize each follower/customer and narrow their focus from the building of the product to the marketing and refinement of the product.

Here’s a look at all the books, and we’ll get into each below

I tore through this book in a day. It outlines a 4 stage marketing process that has helped me immediately with specific advice for building and marketing this very newsletter. It breaks new-age marketing into the following cycle:

  1. Product-Market Fit

  2. Identify your “Growth Hack”/ Meet your customers where they are

  3. Going Viral- How to build products that encourage virality

  4. Focus on retention and constantly adjust according to the data

If you are looking for a “Marketing 101” book, check this out.

No fluff, grabs attention, and very conversational language. The title pretty much sums up the thesis of the book: no one wants to read your writing, buy your product, or stop even to acknowledge you. You must respect people’s time and make your products as compelling as possible.

This means grabbing people’s attention with a hook, refining your message to it is clear and to the point, and wrapping it up in a way that fulfills the promises you made throughout.

One idea that stuck with me was that readers want “gold, not ore”. You must refine your raw, confusing message in a way that is enjoyable and clear to the audience. Respect the fact that people are busy and deliver something worth consuming. Only then will people repay you with their attention.

This book drove home Growth Hacker Marketing’s lessons and emphasized the fact that marketing is more of a mindset than a tool. Different customers require different marketing methods. Godin is an experienced marketer, and it showed in his personal case studies. case studies and real-life examples are huge for me, and there were over 50 in the book that contextualized the lessons.

The only fiction book I read all month and it was a WILD one. It’s banned in many places, and I can see why. The narrator and protagonist Alex is an unhinged Joker-like character who loves chaos. Without ruining too much, Alex is a schoolboy by day, but by night he wreaks havoc with his friends by jumping people, breaking into their homes, and so much worse. It is a very dark book that definitely sucked me in, but it is not for everyone.

One question from the book worth pondering: If someone does not have the freedom to choose to do good/bad, are they even human?

(P.S. There’s a Stanley Kubrick film about the book from 1971 that I’m looking forward to watching.)

Not exactly a marketing book, but in the same realm. This book is about how ideas “stick”; in other words, how ideas are spread and remembered for a long time. According to entrepreneurs and professors Chip and Dan, for ideas to stick you need to make the audience:

  1. Pay Attention

  2. Understand and remember

  3. Agree or Believe

  4. Care

  5. Be able to act on it

One idea I learned about in this book is that most people suffer from “The Curse of Knowledge”. When you know something and are trying to collaborate with others, you are often guilty of assuming that they know what you know. It’s important to realize that you have to be as simple and illustrative as possible.

For example, “Be a good neighbor” is NOT a good way to teach your kids to be good neighbors. Tell them what good neighbors do.

“Good neighbors watch your dog and hold your mail while you're on vacation.” That is a much more useful statement if you are trying to teach your kid to be a good neighbor. Give people clear examples and stories that they can say “Ok, these are the kind of things a good neighbor does. That fits the definition of being a good neighbor.”

I posted a thread on Twitter a few weeks ago after being captivated by a Steve Irwin video on youtube. I literally replayed it like 30 times and decided to order the book that same night.

It is written by Steve’s wife Terri years after his untimely death. While there are many lessons about Steve as both a wildlife spokesman, father, and famous personality, the lesson I found in the book was more general.

This book taught me that your best life probably isn’t living the way “you’re supposed to”. The Irwins skipped their honeymoon to go catch crocodiles and then took their 6-day-old child on a documentary shoot in another country. Figure out what YOUR ideal life looks like by looking inside, not out.

If you end up checking out any of these books, let me know, and let’s talk about them! If not, hopefully, the bit of info about each helped entertain or inform you in some way. Anyways, have a great week, and thanks again for subscribing!

P.S. - A Special thanks to Jason Levin who is crushing it on Twitter and with his newsletter. His writing got me interested in getting more into marketing, and he recommended 2 books to me (one of them being “Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t) when I reached out. Also, his banned book club is the reason I read “A Clockwork Orange.

Go sign up for his newsletter and give him a follow on Twitter, really smart and cool guy. https://www.cyberpatterns.xyz/subscribe?ref=qYd1tVw7PR