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I was just turned onto Ben Casnocha’s blog a couple weeks ago through another blogger, Colin Post. Ben recently mentioned a post by writer Justine Musk titled “To Develop Your Writer’s Intuition, You Must First Read Like A Maniac.”

The first thing that caught my eye was this quote: “Reading is the inhale, writing is the exhale.”

You should really read the entire post. It’s full of great, passionate writing like this:

“Reading is the ‘learning’. You can never learn enough. The more I read, the more experienced I become in just what other writers do to achieve a powerful level of storytelling. As a reader, I enjoy myself, and as a writer, I file those examples away deep in my undermind where they join up with other examples and play around and cross-fertilize and wait for the moment when they’re needed. They become the river of knowledge, influence and inspiration that I can draw from and the more I read, the deeper and wider that river gets.”

I think Musk’s observations encapsulate a lot of the reasons why Planners should read (and write) a obsessively.

Read to learn more about the world.

Write to get a better understanding of what you just learned.

via stephmcg

I read constantly. If I was to sum up why in three words, I’d say:

1. Information
2. Inspiration
3. Ideas

I’ve gotten a lot more studious about my reading over the last couple years. I make diligent use of my highlighter and write notes in the margins, and flag useful pages so I can reference them quickly. I’ve also been writing summaries for each book to make sure I have a thorough understanding of the subject – this is a great tool to find certain concepts and quotes that I may want to locate later on.  Plus everything is saved online so I always have access to my notes.

As structured as I am with my reading, I still tend to get backed up here and there. As of today, I’ve got about 356 articles bookmarked on Delicious that I haven’t been able to get to yet. I also read about 50 different blogs.

In the meantime I’ve been accumulating a number of unread books on my nightstand. Here’s what next in my literary queue:

The ones I’ve got next to my bed are basically a mix of evolutionary biology/psychology, sports and marketing.

You can’t see the name on the really skinny one on top – it’s called “Zig Ziglar’s Little Book of Big Quotes.” I usually carry it in my book bag. It has lots of inspirational, pithy quotes like,

“Positive thinking won’t let you do anything but it will you do everything better than negative thinking will”

and

“The chief cause of failure and unhappiness is trading what you want most for what you want now.”

Right now I’m finishing up “Bringing Down The House” (which is what the movie “21″ was based on) and getting started on “Perfect Pitch: The Art of Selling Ideas and Winning New Business” by Jon Steel. I try to alternate what I read since I believe there’s a lot we can learn from other industries, subjects and even fiction.

Thanks Libby Ander ( @libbyander ) for the original idea for this post.

What’s on your nightstand? Share some pics!

Further reading:

Ryan Holiday – Read to Lead: How to Digest Books Above Your “Level”

I’m currently reading a great book on Branding called, “The Culting of Brands: When Customers Become True Believers” by Douglas Atkin.

Atkin provides evidence and case studies that illustrate how religious cults and brands are very similar, and outlines the strategies marketers can use to build cult-like followings for their brands.

Most of us, when we think of the word “cult,” envision obsessive, socially inept and desperate people with serious psychological problems.

Atkin argues that the reality of cult members is actually quite the opposite: they are intelligent and educated social-connectors. He also says that, “..people become addicted to ‘cult brands’ like jetBlue, Apple, eBay or Mary Kay for more or less the same reasons that people become committed to cults like the Hare Krishna.”

According to Atkin, “A cult is normally a group that embraces new or fundamentally different ideas. Its ideology departs significantly from the prevailing beliefs of the surrounding culture. It is therefore progressive.”

A few key points:

• “People in significant numbers are not going to join an organization populated by social failures. They will be drawn to a religion such as the Mormon church, and a brand such as Saturn, through word of mouth. That mouth has to belong to someone whom potential recruiters will trust and respect.”
• Most of the public think people join cults to conform. They actually join to become more individual. Atkin interviewed a writer and Mac user who said, ” ‘..a Mac made me creative. No, actually, I was creative to begin with, and in some ways, they made me more creative.’ It had taken that part of his identity that he considers his most defining characteristic, his creativity, and accelerated it. That’s a pretty important role he has ascribed to a mere brand.”
• Cults/brands must exist outside of social norms in order to be embraced by their target audience. In other words, you can’t be all things to all people. For marketers, this is a perfect example of the importance of niche marketing. By separating yourself from the mainstream, you appeal to the alienated group who will become loyal advocates of your brand. Harley-Davidson is a great case study: they have a repeat purchase rate of 95%!

Overall, this book provides an interesting viewpoint on how brands are built. I felt it was a little repetitive and could have been about 50 pages shorter, but I found the sections on jetBlue and Saturn especially interesting.

There are so many products and services out there with little to differentiate them in the eyes of the consumer. The most important concept a marketer needs to understand is that consumers are looking for an emotional connection in “cult” or “brand” communities, and the individual’s need to become a part of these puzzles gives marketers an excellent hot-button to push.