Joseph Jaffe (of JaffeJuice.com) explains how through things like customer service, customer experience, dialogue, a proper listening/response strategy, brands can show that they care about their customers. Furthermore, Mr. Jaffe goes on to tell us that customer retention is the new customer acquisition… the process he describes will create a loyal, credible, authentic customer base who will advocate for your brand.

Purchase Mr. Jaffe’s book “Flip the Funnel” here. Video via HubSpot.

Flickr user spacesick designed several 60’s-era covers of “novelizations of the major motion pictures” of several popular movies. Via “I Can Read Movies” on flickr. For more design-goodness, check out spacesick’s photo stream!

I picked this one up at this year’s HOW Design Conference. I’m just a few pages into it so far, and it looks useful!

Here’s where to get a copy.

It’s taken a while (and I managed to finish four other books during the time I should have just sat down and read this one), but I’ve finally finished reading Conquering Your Quarterlife Crisis.

Here are my takeaways from the book:

The test I use to determine how much something affects me is to see whether I become oblivious to the world when I’m immersed in that activity. (p.17)

You can still fit your dream, even if it’s in diminished capacity. (p.30)

We pay for everything we want- in one way or another. (p.32)

The price of thinking only about the future is that is costs you the present. (p. 32)
Everyone lives at their own pace. (p. 39)

The most important thing to do is to not settle on anything or anyone just because you’re trying to meet a deadline. (p. 41)

Life just happens. (p. 41)

It’s not what you acquire by a certain age; it’s how you acquire it and if it makes you feel satisfied. (p. 42)

Who are you racing, and what are you trying to prove? (p. 42)

Take pride in your progress… Learning to like yourself is just as important as career achievement, but no one thinks to write that up in a plan. (p. 43)

There is no rush to decipher your identity in your 20’s- you have the rest of your life for that. (p. 44)

You have time- you don’t have to get everything right now. (p. 45)

Nothing is a waste if you learned something from it. (p. 52)

Whatever you did in you past led you to where you are and who you are today. (p. 52)

If starting over is something you’re hesitating about, although you know you need to do it, ask yourself, “What am I afraid of? Is that realistic? Is it likely? Is that situation worse than the situation now?” (p. 53)

It’s better to make a change now than to keep living your mistakes simply because you worked hard to get there. (p. 53)

Life isn’t a race; it’s a journey, a process. (p. 90)

You can’t make a positive impact if you’re not working on something you love. (p. 91)

…you will always look at someone else and think that they have everything going for them, but when you talk to them one on one, you might learn that they have every single insecurity and confusion and lack of direction you think you have. Nobody has it as together as they seem to. (p. 99)

If you hate going to work, you’ll need to isolate which factor or factors are at the root of the cause rather than let one negative aspect of your job taint the entire field for you. (p. 100)

No opportunity is a good opportunity if you’re treated poorly. (p. 104)

Changing your mind is a sign of growth. It’s a sign that you are learning about yourself and getting closer to discovering who you are. Allowing yourself to backtrack opens up more avenues than forcing yourself to stick with decisions you made in the past. (p. 117)

…if you remain in your current state, refusing to change, things aren’t going to get any better. (p. 118)

Overall, I would recommend this book if you’re in your early twenties- just out of school. Use it as a reference as you live your life toward your mid-twenties. Being 27, I did find some of the points in the book useful (as outlined above), but for the most part, this was people in their mid to late-twenties doling out advice. As I read some of the situations written about in the book, I found myself wondering, “What the hell does a 23 year old have to give me advice about?”

On a scale of 1-10, I give Conquering Your Quarterlife Crisis a 6.5. As I mentioned in my previous post about this book, I still believe the quarterlife crisis is real, even if the book didn’t pan out to my high expectations of it.

Again, if you’re interested, pick one up on Amazon- a used copy will set you back about three bucks.

Begin SHAMELESS PLUG:

Are you an aimless twentysomething? Are you feeling misdirected, unappreciated, uninformed, or shiftless? Are you unsure what to do with your life, or in your job/career? Then this book might be for you.

Don’t laugh, baby-boomers. I’m a firm believer that the quarterlife crisis is indeed real… and I say this because it’s the most valid explanation for what I’m feeling at this very moment.

So how does a quarterlife crisis differ from a mid-life crisis? Age, for one. The mid-life crisis affects folks in their 40’s and 50’s, and it happens when these individuals get to the point in their life where everything has settled down and becomes, well… boring. The mid-life crisis happens, and suddenly, there’s a guy in his 50’s tooling around in a Porche.

The quarterlife crisis affects those generation X-and-Y folks who are just starting out their lives after college, or are having trouble trying to find their aim or passion in their lives. The result? Job-hopping, career changes, deciding to go back to school, and wishing that someone would help out and offer some career/life guidance.

With that said, I’m only three chapters into the book, and I’m already finding it quite useful. Pick one up on Amazon- a used copy will set you back about three bucks.