Told through the stories of twelve entrepreneurs, The Authentic Entrepreneur weaves together the threads of wisdom that will help you to not only build your own business, but a business that is right for you, for the world and for the future.

Real You Incorporated empowers women entrepreneurs. The book provides insights for women on how to discover and love their personal brand, and how to bring it into the market as a real business—unique and different. In the first section of the book, Find It Within You, readers will learn how to express internal personality, passions and essence to define the internal brand. In the second section, The Competitive Advantage, readers learn how to extend the internal message into the world—to their partners, employees and ultimately their customers. Part branding—the author is a nationally known marketing expert—and part business inspiration, Real You Incorporated includes case studies of real women entrepreneurs from a variety of industries: manufacturing, retail, restaurants, real estate, publishing and many more. Their stories bring the book to life, adding inspiration and role models. The book also includes a visualization tool in the form of a chart that women entrepreneurs can complete and keep with them, to remind them of their Real You, no matter what phase their business is in.

Storytelling can be a lifelong and life sustaining habit of mind, a personal inheritance that connects us to our communities. It can also serve as an organizational inheritance—a management tool that helps businesses to develop and thrive. For more than a decade, award-winning author Janis Forman has been helping executives to tell stories in service of their organizational objectives. In Storytelling in Business: The Authentic and Fluent Organization, she teaches readers everywhere how the craft of storytelling can help them to achieve their professional goals. Focusing on the role of storytelling at the enterprise level, this book provides a research-driven framework for engaging in organizational storytelling. Forman presents original cases from Chevron, FedEx, Phillips, and Schering-Plough. Organizations like those featured in the book can make use of storytelling for good purposes, such as making sense of their strategy, communicating it, and developing or strengthening culture and brand. These uses of storytelling generate positive consequences that can have a sustained and significant impact on an organization. While large firms employ teams of digital and communication professionals, there's much that any of us can extrapolate from their experience to create stories to further our own objectives. To show the reach of storytelling, Forman conducted 140 interviews with professionals ranging from CEOs in small and thriving firms, to corporate communication and digital media experts, to filmmakers—arguably the world experts in visual storytelling. She draws out specific lessons learned, and shows how to employ the road-tested strategies demonstrated by these leaders. Although this book focuses on storytelling in the context of business, Forman takes inspiration from narratives in literature and film, philosophical and social thought, and relevant concepts from a variety of other disciplines to instruct the reader on how to develop truly authentic and meaningful tales to drive success. A final chapter brings readers back to square one: the development of their own "signature story." This book is a pioneering work that guides us beyond the pressure and noise of daily organizational life to influence people in a sustained, powerful way. It teaches us to be fluent storytellers who succeed by mastering this vital skill.

In the tradition of bestsellers such as Shoe Dog, Authentic is a surprisingly candid, compelling memoir by a high school dropout who went on to establish one of the world's most iconic brands. You may not have known their creator, but you certainly know the shoes: for more than four generations, Vans shoes have been synonymous with cool. Now in Authentic, a memoir written by Paul Van Doren and published just before his May 2021 death, the charismatic founder of Vans shares his story of heading West and capturing the American dream. Authentic is a celebration of Van Doren's remarkable life and the iconic brand he built, beloved by skateboarders, creatives, and fans everywhere for its laid-back, colorful SoCal vibe, and famous for its people-oriented company culture. In Authentic, he shares his unlikely journey from high-school dropout to sneaker-industry legend. A blue-collar kid with no higher education and zero retail experience, Van Doren started out as a 16-year-old "service boy" at a local rubber factory. Over the next few decades, he leveraged a knack for numbers, a genius for efficiency, and the know-how to make a great canvas tennis shoe into an all-American success story. What began as a family shoe business has today evolved into a globally recognized brand with billions of dollars of annual revenue. Van Doren is not just an entrepreneur, he's an innovator. In 1966, when the first House of Vans store opened, there were no stand-alone retail stores just for sneakers. Paul's bold experiments in product design, distribution, and marketing (Why not sell custom shoes? Single shoes?), aided by legions of fans — skateboarders, surfers, even Sean Penn wearing Vans' famous checkerboard slip-on shoe in the film Fast Times at Ridgemont High — made Vans a household name. But there was also back-breaking work, a shocking bankruptcy, family turmoil, and a profound shift in how customers think about athletic shoes. The book details Van Doren's personal life, but also hard-won business lessons learned over six turbulent decades in the shoe trade: the importance of deep-rooted values, of improvisation, of vision (and revision), and above all, of valuing people over profits. Authentic is Paul Van Doren's written legacy and his lessons for the innovators of tomorrow. Bracingly forthright and totally entertaining, Authentic is a business memoir by an American original.

Trying to start a business in this economy? Struggling with little or no cash? Have no experience, no baseline to judge your progress against? Whether you’re just starting out or have been at it for years, the Toilet Paper Entrepreneur's "get real", actionable approach to business is a much-needed swift kick in the pants.

Leaders Lead. Followers Follow. You Can't Do Both. Acknowledging the great irony that most of today's inspiring entrepreneurs are following the crowd instead of doing what innovative leaders like Richard Branson, Mark Zuckerberg, and Elon Musk did to become successful, Silicon Valley management consultant Steve Tobak delivers some truth: Nobody ever made it big by doing what everyone else is doing. Drawing upon decades of personal experience with hundreds of accomplished entrepreneurs, CEOs, and venture capitalists, Tobak provides a unique perspective on today's technology revolution, exposes popular myths that masquerade as common wisdom and shows you what it takes to become a successful entrepreneur and an exceptional business leaders in today's highly competitive world.

24 Steps to Success! Disciplined Entrepreneurship will change the way you think about starting a company. Many believe that entrepreneurship cannot be taught, but great entrepreneurs aren’t born with something special – they simply make great products. This book will show you how to create a successful startup through developing an innovative product. It breaks down the necessary processes into an integrated, comprehensive, and proven 24-step framework that any industrious person can learn and apply. You will learn: Why the “F” word – focus – is crucial to a startup’s success Common obstacles that entrepreneurs face – and how to overcome them How to use innovation to stand out in the crowd – it’s not just about technology Whether you’re a first-time or repeat entrepreneur, Disciplined Entrepreneurship gives you the tools you need to improve your odds of making a product people want. Author Bill Aulet is the managing director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship as well as a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management. For more please visit http://disciplinedentrepreneurship.com/

With women leading only twenty-four Fortune 500 companies, female founders receiving only 2.2 percent of US venture capital, and the continued presence of sexual harassment and double standards, the gender gap continues to hinder the advancement of women in the professional world. In Digital Goddess, Montgomery-Brown—founder of Big Think, a collection of experts across all fields and disciplines that are either at the top of their field or disrupting it, shares her story in an entertaining and educational light. Told from the unique, female entrepreneurial perspective that unpacks all the hurdles other female founders may face in their own journey to the top, Montgomery-Brown shares the real-world lessons she’s learned along the way, such as: Never lie to your investors, even when you just got arrested. Raising money is a poker game—learn how to play. The power and money still lie with men. Pretending it’s not that way, or being angry about it, won’t lead to success. Your relationship with your co-founder is like a second marriage, so forget about keeping the personal out of the workplace. The more authentic you are, and the more fun you have, the better your experience will be. This book is about dealing with the way things are, even when you don’t like it, and being yourself, even when it seems like a drawback. It’s about sucking it up, making the hard choices, and dealing with the consequences. It’s about being honest no matter what is going down. Victoria’s been called “the anti-Elizabeth Holmes,” for a good reason—unlike the ill-fated Theranos CEO, she’s transparent with her investors even when she fears they will walk away. Digital Goddess is a story for entrepreneurial women at any stage of life who want to know what it actually takes to build a business in a world that’s not always fair, predictable, or politically correct

In Hashtag Authentic, social media guru Sara Tasker provides tips, advice, and guidance on how to turn your personal Instagram account into a profitable creative outlet. Since setting up her Instagram account (@me_and_orla) while on maternity leave in 2013, Sara has become a celebrated influencer and iPhoneographer, and through her calm, atmospheric, and authentic style has garnered legions of followers. Here, Sara presents the lessons she has learned along the way. Sara's nurturing voice and enchanting photography provide guidance on: storytelling, with tips on finding your own visual style and personal niche; making pictures, including composing for Instagram, finding the best light, and getting the most out of your camera phone; archiving your life, with tips organized by themes like Craft & Making, Family & Pets, and Food & Ingredients; and sharing your world, detailing the keys to Instagram success and beyond. Hashtag Authentic is both an inspiring manual and an interactive tool for finding an online voice, growing a tribe, and becoming an influencer.

Create Your Own Women Owned Business Startup “...a guide for smart, ambitious women who want to make their mark on the world...a practical step-by-step journey to shifting your mindset and calling on your own resilience and resourcefulness.”?Rachel Beider, bestselling author of Massage MBA: Run Your Practice, Love Your Life and globally recognized small business expert The Fearless Woman’s Guide to Starting a Business is a book for freedom-seeking female entrepreneurs and solopreneurs who want to know how to connect with their true passions, skills, and desires. It’s a book for startup business women who get honest with themselves about their reasons for wanting to start a business. Learn what type of new business you want to lead. Through a combination of data, neuroscience, true stories, humor, and the type of frankness that you would expect from your best girlfriend, this book helps you determine the real reasons and motivations behind starting a business —and then dares you to dream big about what being the head of a woman-owned business can do for you. Find real tools for real women in business. When creating a start-up, it can be difficult to stay the course —to choose yourself and stay motivated on the hardest days. Ameé Quiriconi, author and entrepreneur behind the One Broken Mom podcast, has your back. In The Fearless Woman’s Guide to Starting a Business, learn about: The main reasons business owners report why they closed their businesses —and how you can avoid failure Specific techniques and insights needed for building a startup and brand that is authentic to who you are How to turn your side hustle or hobby into a money-making endeavor Strategies for navigating the sometimes-hostile world business women live and work in every day Readers of business books and entrepreneurship books for women like Girl on Fire by Cara Alwill Leyba, Fear is my Homeboy, Believe It, or Boss Up! will love The Fearless Woman’s Guide to Starting a Business.