Book Review – People Buy You by Jeb Blount
“At the core, business is just one person helping solve another person’s problem.” As soon as I read this quote, I knew this book would resonate with me. Blount does a solid job of continuing this core theme throughout the book, always bringing it back to this basic statement. As humans, we tend to overcomplicate and overthink things, so this book was the perfect reminder to keep it simple – in business and in life!
One of my favorite sections of this book is the “Friends Buy From Friends and Other Urban Myths” chapter. All three myths he outlines resonated with me – from having to “sell yourself” to people buying from people they like. At the core, we all want to connect with others who help us find what we seek, guide us to solutions for our problems and create a positive experience while doing it. “People love to buy but hate to be sold.” Amen!
A significant portion of the book is dedicated to likability, and as someone who facilitates confidence workshops, learning even more about the topic opened my eyes even more to how critical confidence is to success. While improving your confidence is as simple as improving your choices, the biggest impact on confidence is your own self-talk. Great insights!
Then Blount turns to the topic of listening – but listening in a way that is truly about connecting. “Truly listening to another person requires self-discipline, selflessness, practice, and patience.” How many times have you claimed you were listening but you were distracted or not really hearing what the other person was saying? Guilty as charged!!! Another timely reminder that to really connect with someone else, we have to disconnect from other distractions.
And because I started a Question of the Week practice this year, I really appreciated Blount’s reference to a quote from Thomas Freese: “a question you ask in more important than anything you will say.” As the saying goes, the quieter you are the more you will hear! Plus, as Blount points out, when you ask questions you find problems, and when you solve problems you build business. His Five Rules of Questioning create a user-friendly guide to connecting through questioning.
Blount ends the book with practical advice for building your basic brand. Keeping with the theme of keeping it simple, using his guide as a checklist adds value to this book and creates an action plan to work from to continue to build Brand You!
If you want to read People Buy You: The Real Secret to What Matters Most in Business, you can order a copy here.
