The MacKellar Memo | December
The holidays are the time of the year when we hunker down with a hot drink, a warm blanket and a good book. Because I’m well known as an influencer, I thought I could kill two birds with one stone for our December memo by 1) recommending some interesting books I’ve read throughout the course of the year, and 2) earn some extra cash through my affiliate link. If you think the content below is valuable, don’t forget to smash the like and subscribe button and don’t forget to CTA.
But in all seriousness, there’s a billion books out there (not scientific, didn’t check the actual number) and as much as we all want to be constantly reading, we actually have other things to do, like work, spend time with our families, watch the World Cup, etc. This isn’t to say that you have to read these, or that these are the best books to help us with our jobs. Instead, they’re just some books that I’ve read over the past year that I really enjoyed and found helpful in my day-to-day work.
If you have any additions, by all means share them! The more we can learn, the more we can collaborate, the more we can explore, the better we’ll all be.
Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything Paperback – January 19, 2021 (B.J. Fogg)
Ahh, Dr. Fogg. Of course he would make an appearance on this list. But rather than being about understanding the concepts presented in the book, I found it to be a great example of how we can explain Behavior Design to others and also a reminder that not everyone is as in-the-weeds as we are on a daily basis. I loved how B.J. explained complex topics to the average American in a way that is easily understood. We can all do well to take a lesson from Dr. Fogg in this case.
Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making (Tony Fadell)
If you haven’t heard of Tony Fadell, I guarantee you’ve used the products he’s built — the iPhone, iPod and Nest. So, yeah, he knows what he’s talking about when he shares lessons about how to build products and companies. “But I’m not building a product or a company” you say? You might not be, but our clients are, so it’s a great way to put yourself in their shoes and understand how the folks behind the companies might be approaching things in a different way than we usually might interact with clients.
Learning Web Design: A Beginner's Guide to HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Web Graphics (Jennifer Robbins)
Similar to Build, we all aren’t web developers. Far from it, actually. But what we all do is use the internet daily to execute for our clients so gaining a better understanding for how the web works can make all of us better at our jobs. And I’m not talking about everyone immediately shifting to be a developer. No, I’m talking about all of us account folks better understanding the differences between HTML and CSS, or HTML and Java, so we can have more educated conversations with our clients, provide more in-depth and thoughtful feedback to our development teams and better leverage things JavaScript to achieve our end-goals.
Simply put, this is an incredible book that clearly and concisely explains why we do what we do in life. Chapters on things like social proof, confirmation bias or price relativity give dig into the things our brains are hard-wired to do whether or not we realized it. You’ll find yourself saying “Oh, I didn’t know that had a formal name!” at least once per chapter, and you’ll end up being a better marketer once you’re done.
Like I said earlier — there’s a billion books out there so this is just the tip of the iceberg. Let us know if you’ve found any other books that we should be digging into or gifting to the marketing-obsessed nerds in our lives.