POP!: Stand Out in Any Crowd [Hardcover]

Sam Horn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 5, 2006

From the author of Tongue Fu! comes a unique and inspiring guide to jumpstart creativity and make ideas POP!

A powerful tool for entrepreneurs, businesspeople, authors, and anyone who wants to break out big, the POP! process is a fun, fascinating, strategic approach for making messages Purposeful, Original, and Pithy-to generate instant intrigue and word-of-mouth buzz.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“A lively, fun, and inspiring guide to getting heard, getting remembered, and getting results.”
—Ken Blanchard, co-author of The Secret and The One Minute Manager

“If you’re looking for success that will take you to the moon, POP! is the rocket ship that will get you there.”
—Jeffrey Gitomer, author of The Little Red Book of Selling

“Filled with practical methods for making your message outstanding and unforgettable. Please don’t read it unless you are prepared to cope with success, now!”
—Michael J. Gelb, author of How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

About the Author

Sam Horn is a popular business consultant, keynote speaker, training workshop leader, and author. Over the past twenty years, she has spoken to more than a half million people in thirty-five states. She won the 2003-4 Outstanding Capital Speaker Award, among other distinctions.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Perigee Trade (September 5, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399532765
• ISBN-13: 978-0399532764
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (56 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #723,538 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Sam Horn, president of Action Seminars, has presented her real-life workshops to more than 400,000 people since 1981. Her impressive client list includes Young Presidents Organization, National Governors Association, Hewlett-Packard, Four Seasons Resort, the Fortune 500 Forum, the US Navy, and the IRS. She was the top rated speaker at both the 1996 and 1998 International Platform Association conventions in Washington DC, and is the emcee of the world-renowned Maui Writers Conference. She is also the author of Tongue Fu!, What's Holding You Back?, and ConZentrate, which have been featured in Readers Digest, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Cosmopolitan, Entertainment Weekly, Family Circle, Bottom Line Personal, and Executive Female, to name a few. She is a frequent media guest who has appeared on numerous TV and radio shows, including "To Tell the Truth" and NPR's popular "Diane Rehm Show." She lives with her sons Tom and Andrew in Virginia.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Book to Use, March 22, 2007

By 

Walter H. Bock "Wally Bock - Author, Blogger,... (Charlotte NC) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: POP!: Stand Out in Any Crowd (Hardcover)

This is a book to use, not a book to read.

Sam Horn tells you early on that the book has two purposes. It will help you quickly capture interest and it will help you "break out, not blend in." But that will happen only if you pick a project or idea and then apply the suggestions in the book to improving it and creating a message with POP.

POP stands for Purposeful, Original and Pithy. The book is organized around those three standards.

First comes Purposeful. To help you boil your idea down to its essence the author asks you to answer the 9W questions about it. Answering those questions give you a foundation to build on.

In fact, you'll find yourself going back to those nine questions and your answers time and again. You'll probably change some of your answers. That's a very good thing.

The second, and largest main section helps you make your communication Original. The ideas here will help you turn your idea around so you can see it from the others side and massage it into different forms. You'll learn about the power of alliteration, doing your own take on common sayings, advertising slogans and pop culture phrases.

The third section has ideas for helping you be Pithy. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines "pithy" as: "having substance and point - tersely cogent." If it's short and carries a big message, it's pithy.

This was the most helpful section for me. You'll learn how to use alliteration, rhythm and rhyme to make your statement more powerful and more memorable. I've seen all this before, but never in a single place.

The book closes with "Seven Secrets to Keep Their Interest Once You've Got It." This seems to me like a bunch of good ideas that were too good to leave out, but didn't fit anywhere else.

I got incredible value by working through the exercises as I went. As advertised, they helped me craft a POP statement. More importantly, for me, this was a powerful exercise in understanding my business offering and what is unique about it.

I recommend this book to you if you want to craft POP statements that present you or your business or idea to others. I also recommend it if you want exercises that will help you think creatively about what you do.

I've been a professional speaker and writer now for over a quarter century. I found help and ideas here that will help me tell my story and the story of my business more effectively. So will you.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delightfully delicious, September 29, 2006

By 

Erik Eisel (Huntington Beach, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: POP!: Stand Out in Any Crowd (Hardcover)

Getting ready for a trip and looking for a light, fun read, I picked up Sam's book off of the B&N table. What a delightful book this is! Sam has much to say about branding, marketing and selling "You." Whether she believes that the people we're selling to don't have much time, or they don't have a long attention span, I don't know. But, she emphasizes the first impression, the first 30 seconds of a conversation, the first "hook." So, her book is a cornucupia of tips and tricks to "hook" them before you say "hello." I will recommend this book to my "Toastmasters" group, where a lot of great speeches are given, but not much thought is given to creative titles or creative intros. If you give speeches, write short articles or write a blog, get this book immediately.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THIS IS AN ABSOLUTE MUST BUY BOOK!, September 9, 2006

By 

Ev Nucci - See all my reviews

This review is from: POP!: Stand Out in Any Crowd (Hardcover)

Most business books promise the reader millions in new found wealth and fail to deliver even a crusty cold pizza.

Horn, on the other hand, has given the world a refreshingly brilliant book in POP without one platitude.

Horn teaches you how to BRAND. How to stand out from the crowd in every way....how to be unique in your industry, your profession and your message.

She educates you. Talent is not enough in today's competitive environment. And she is right. How many talented people do you know?

As Horn says in her book, "We are one of many." So she edifies ways to stand out from the crowd...concepts you would never think of that are BRILLIANT. At least I never thought of them before.

She spends time on how to craft unique slogans, capture conversational catch phrases, how to be relevant. Think about all the information available to us today. With our busy lives what information do we actually remember? What was it about Freakanomics or Jerry Maquire that kept people talking? Horn teaches you to employ the techniques from both---and in the process how you can go from ordinary to EXTRAORDINARY.

If this book was $250.00 it would be a steal. Horn is a brilliant sage. A master at knowing what it takes to succeed in today's global competitive marketplace!