Magical Worlds of the Wizard of Ads: Tools and Techniques for Profitable Persuasion by Roy Williams

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
I LOVED THIS BOOK! It starts off with a lot of advertising psychology, which I enjoyed moderately, but then it took off in a much bigger life/dream direction. Williams used so many brilliant examples that were such a pleasure to listen to. He’s a brilliant story-teller and therein lies the magic of the book. I plan to read it again!


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Today, in Peoria for the Illinois Arts Council, I led a core values workshop for 73 adults who work in the arts, primarily with children (I made some great Barrio contacts that I’ll be following up with). As a group we discovered something. The core values work I did with them would be great to do with students, especially at-risk kids. I’m going to be discussing that further with some of these people. One asked me specifically Read the rest of this entry »

Congrats to our client Bea Fields, co author of Millennial Leaders and EDGE! A Leadership Story for her mention in Women Entrepreneurs:  The Next Wave of Leaders.  Bea is ferociously attacking the worlds of social networking and Gen Y and her dynamism is infectious.  She leads an online class called Become a Blogging Maniac if you’re interested in furthering your online skills. http://blog.becomeabloggingmaniac.com/about

I am so blessed to say that I just got off a conference call convened by Ada Doris Gonzalez, RN Community Relations, Swedish Covenant Hospital.  She organized a call with the principal of Roosevelt High School, Dr. Alejandro Alvarez; the Community Relations Director for the Chicago Public Schools, Carl Hurdik; and our amazing supporter Leticia Chavez (also with Chicago Public Schools) who is working on getting us into Wells High School. We’ll be working together to bring copies of Robert Renteria’s “From the Barrio to the Board Room” into Roosevelt High School, and also in setting up a curriculum around the book, and bringing Robert out to engage the kids one on one and in group discussions. We are honored to have such high level support and are humbled by the opportunity to inspire their students to stay in school, off drugs and out of gangs while chasing the American Dream that is their birthright. We look forward to progressing with this new relationship and making a difference in the city of Chicago.

“It scares you because you know damn well you can’t write it with your brain.  You have to write it with your heart.  It’s like falling in love; you don’t fall in love using just your brain.  It takes heart and instinct.  And it takes heart and instinct to create a life that you fall in love with, too, and that life includes your work.  And when you do that, it shows.  People respond to you before you even say a word.”

—From EDGE! A Leadership Story by Bea Fields and Corey Blake with Eva Silva Travers

Last night, at the invitation of the Depaul University Alumni Association, Robert and I journeyed to the Depaul campus and the Barnes and Noble that is designated as the University bookstore.

Our thanks to Michael Kamon with the City of Aurora, and Meena D. Beyers with the Village of Brookfield, the co-chairs with the Alumni Association, for their hospitality and kindness.  We’d also like to thank Dr. J. Patrick Murphy Director and Associate Professor with the School of Public Service, and John Park with Barnes and Noble Bookstore who took great care of us while we were there!

If you’re near DePaul, stop by and pick up a book. Robert signed nearly 50 copies left with the bookstore!

A Letter we just received from Clayton Muhammad, spokesperson for District 131:

On Friday, February 13, we hosted our session of B2M Juniors at Cowherd Middle School. B2M Juniors is the service component to Boys II Men where we work with groups of elementary and middle school gentlemen throughout the area. We host sessions that are similar to our regular chapter meetings and are led by leaders of B2M.

This past Friday, B2M Co-President, Gilberto Chaidez, and I hosted a session entitled, “CSI: Choices, Sacrifices, and Inspiration” where we used such examples as Michael Phelps, Alex Rodriguez, and Chris Brown to underscore our message. Gilberto delivered a powerful message by telling his own personal story and how he plans to continue to inspire the world in the future.

As a gift, the 30 young men (6th-8th grade) received what I have come to call a ‘key to open all doors of opportunity to those who believe’ and that is a copy of ‘From the Barrio to the Boardroom‘. The young men were excited to have such a powerful session and even more excited to receive such a priceless gift.

It was nothing less than miraculous to watch these 30 young men (who were handpicked by the principal and assistant principal because they need some ‘extra attention’) sit with wide eyes and focused minds as they listened to Gilberto speak. When we took pictures at the end, they clamored to get next to him in the photo! In fact, one of the young brothers said, “I am a proud to be Mexican, so I want to stand by you!” lol. Gilberto never had to speak those words in order for these young men to ‘get it’…that you have to be proud of who you are and where you come from in order to be who you want to be and get to where you are going.

As I sat in the back of the room and watched this session unfold with little help from me and no prior planning on Gilberto’s part (I sort of sprung it on him when he came in the room and he knocked it out the ballpark), I couldn’t help but to hold back the tears. Remember, these were the ‘knuckleheads of the school’ who were shining like brilliant stars once they were in an environment where being smart, articulate, and aware was actually cool.

Then to take that message into real life form by having Gilberto present and allowing them to take a piece of ‘this miracle’ with them in the form of From the Barrio allows us to extend the purpose of what we do.

I can’t thank you enough, Roberto and Corey and Kim, for inspiring all of us. I am honored and humbled to have been Blessed by meeting you. We are on a path towards excellence and we are going to make it.

How Blessed are we?