Become a Key Person of Influence (Book Review)

Alright guys, it's book review day, and today we are taking a look at Become a Key Person of Influence. Let's see how it does. Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. Easter weekend is done. I am Dan from millennialmotivator.ca, helping you learn how to create, engage, and inspire. If you're new to the channel, go ahead and click that subscribe button. I guess it's over here. Click that subscribe button, hit the like button, tell your friends this is the place to be. We're putting out videos here Monday through Saturday, all about how to grow your business online and be more effective. Now, today is something that we haven't done in a week or two, and I wanted to get back at this. I know for me in business, I am regularly reading. I have to be, I have to be consuming content, whether that's blogs, podcasts, books, but I'm a huge fan of books, guys. I think it's a medium that is just one of those timeless things, right? And I just, I love that in every book it has that tactile, you're reading it, you're feeling it. So nothing against digital, nothing against audiobooks. They have their time, they have their purpose. But I am a fan of hands-on books. Now, that being said, guys, here's the current reading pile in no specific order. But what I wanted to get down to today was a review that has long been waiting. Become a Key Person of Influence. Stick around, I'm gonna give you a breakdown of my thoughts on this book, what the author has to say, and whether or not I think it's actually worth your time to read. So let's go. Alright guys, first up, the book is written by Daniel Priestley, okay? And this guy is an entrepreneur, I'll give him that. He's an entrepreneur out of Australia, started up a successful business, sold it, went into influential speaking, keynote speaking. Great guy, seems to have achieved quite a bit. Now what I get the feeling is he's not necessarily an author, and while he's got author in his title, I am almost 100% certain that this was a ghostwritten book. Now I've got nothing against ghostwritten books. I know of plenty— shout out to Gary Vee— I know of plenty of ghostwritten books out there that are phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal, but this one here It just doesn't seem to me to have the amount of content that you would expect out of a guy that was able to start with a suitcase and a credit card, build his own business, find wealth, build success. This did not feel anywhere along the way like a book that does justice to that walk, to that knowledge. And why am I saying that? Okay, as you go through the book, it's a simple premise, okay? It's a 3-point breakdown of this is why I think you need to be a key person of influence. Here's what you need to do in order to become a key person of influence. Now go and do it, and here's why I think you should do it, and I did it, and this yada yada yada. You guys have heard these in a lot of entrepreneurial books. Now, what sets entrepreneurial books apart for me is this: one, is your personal story captivating? Is captivating? Yes, I'll give points to Daniel Priestley for that. I love his personal story. I love that he started from scratch, built himself up, moved on to greater things. I think that's a fantastic story. So if it was just his personal biography, I might suggest it for a read. Okay, that's in there. However, for most of these entrepreneurial books, I want the next part, not just the success story, but the, the, the meat. The here's the thing that I've discovered, here's what's amazing. I want that to have great premise and purpose, and I also want it to be a timeless style of knowledge. Okay. Now, this book was written in 2010, I believe, okay? And the reality is, the book feels like it's using a lot of buzzwords from the time. It doesn't feel like it's timeless. I mean, there are books that were written— we've got Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich here, right? This was written way back, way, way, way back. Like, we're talking the advice hearkens back to, I think it's the '30s? '30s or '40s? Like, just crazy book that lasts and lasts and lasts because the knowledge in it is so solid. Become a Key Person of Influence lacks that knowledge in a serious way. What you get are generic 2010 soundbites of wisdom from the book. And what do I mean by that? So I'm gonna give you the CliffsNotes, but really guys, you're gonna get this out of a single chapter in the book and realize it is or isn't for you, okay? So what this is recommending is Find a niche, be specific, speak to the niche, continue doing so, grow a community. That's it. Okay, now each of those things in and of themselves is not a bad thing. I don't have a problem with that, with the exception of possibly niche, because it's just saying target a niche. It's not necessarily saying, you know, pursue a passion, pursue a love. It's saying find a niche where you see opportunity and go after it. But that, that's neither here or there. People, people do that all the time, or they just go after something that they see money in and they're not genuinely passionate about it. So if that's for you, fine. If not, so be it. But with this book, guys, I find that the, the core of it, that concept of find something, go after it, work hard, find other people that like what you're doing, keep going and repeat— I don't find that very actionable, and I don't find it very realistic. Okay, there's lots of people out there that try just that. It's that story of the American dream essentially retold, right? Find something that seems profitable, go after it, work hard, you'll get it. And that sounds very similar. And the reason why I had GaryVee so close is it sounds similar. The 2 things sound very, very similar. The only difference between the 2 is this one advocates for do what you're passionate about and screw if anybody says it's not profitable. Keep going for it, drive for it, be passionate, love what you do, and crush it. Okay, this one here says seek out something that's profitable because you think it'll be profitable, and eventually if you just keep at it, it'll get there. Now the big difference between the 2 of those, of course, is is passion. Me as an entrepreneur, if you're not passionate about what you're doing, stop doing it. Just stop. As an entrepreneur especially, okay? 9 to 5, you don't get a choice. Being an entrepreneur, that's up to you. It's a decision you make. And inasmuch as being an entrepreneur is a decision for you to make, it also is a decision of how you go about doing that. So, become a key person of influence says find something that is a niche. Okay. Find something that you can speak to in a niche. I can tell you, if you've been working a 9 to 5 job for 40 years and you know systems management really, really well, but you hate every moment that you spend at that desk doing systems management, this book recommends that you go and speak on systems management because it's what you know. This book says screw that noise, head out, find something you love, and then speak on that. Pretty key difference there, right? So afterwards, the application— now go do it. That's just general motivational stuff in the book. So how do I feel overall about the read? Well, I feel like it's not bad advice, but it's not great advice. Okay? So if I'm looking for something of this nature, the reality is this book here is what you go grab. Okay? So down below, you're going to find the links. You're going to find Become a Key Person of Influence. That'll be down below if you want to read it. So again, Daniel Priestley's story is amazing. I love his story. If he had done more fleshing out his story, I know a little while back, we did a review on Anthony Lawley's book, and it was an amazing story. Because all throughout he taught his lesson through his life story. It was a beautifully written book. This bad boy here is lacking in that of like, here's my life, here's what I think you should do, go do it, motivational rah-rah, right? This guy here though, this has, this has stuff that is a lot more applicable. It's timeless, it lasts, and it resonates. So if you guys haven't read this one yet, I assume most of you have, but Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. I highly recommend this one. It's of a similar vein. The two of them are start from nothing, get a vision, pursue it, and here's how. But this one here is going to last you a lot longer and serve you a lot stronger than this bad boy here. Ultimately, I leave it up to you guys. Now, this is going to be a weekly thing. I've settled on this. If I'm reading a book a week, why not review a book a week? Okay? So what I want to do is I've got some books on the go. This one I'm actually reading with my wife, Sleep Smarter. So look forward to a review on that. Of course, you guys saw the Crushing It by Gary Vee, that's upcoming. I'm gonna include those in the links down below as well if you guys want to read along. That way you can get an opinion on the books as I'm coming up to review them. The other one that I am reading currently is The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle. Now guys, these are all books that I've got on the go. Some of them I'm reading just personally, some of them I'm reading whenever I'm at work, some of them I'm reading obviously with my wife. But each of them has applications both in personal and professional life. And I, I just love consuming the content that's in these. Even a bad read, guys. I'm a bit of a sucker that way. With a bad movie, like a bad B-movie, I like to watch it all the way through and try to drag something out of it. At the very least, if I'm going to take the time, I want to drag something from it. So that's what this one was for me. It wasn't a super great read. I don't highly recommend it. In its place, I recommend Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. And up and coming, we've got all those other great books. If you guys have an opinion or an opinion on Become a Key Person of Influence, let me know down in the comments below. If you guys have a must-read book, like, Dan, you have to read this one, and I mean, obviously there's a bunch back there already, there's a bunch in the other room, so if I've already read it, I'll let you know, but I'd love to have your book recommendations. Always feel free to leave me down below a comment saying, this is what I think you should read, I just finished reading this. Heck, if you're an author, if you're an entrepreneur and author, definitely leave me the name of your book. I'd love to read it. I'd love to see what it's about, and I'd love to review it on the channel. That's it though for today, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you so much for watching. Go ahead and click that subscribe button if you haven't already, and I will catch you tomorrow with another great video. See you then.