Here at BookTrib, I’m asked to review a lot of books. You can find me most evenings, weekends and train commutes deep inside a book bristling with Post-It notes. So it was a refreshing change when I was asked to review the audiobook of The Barefoot Spirit (Footnotes Press) by Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey, founders of Barefoot Wine. Not just an audiobook, mind you, but a “business audio theatre” book. A what, now?

As soon as I started listening, I understood. This wasn’t just a voiceover artist reading a book out loud for me. Rather, it was an immersive listening experience, including actors playing the parts of various characters, punctuated by sound effects and enhanced with music. In a nonfiction audiobook, no less. I was embarking on a journey of the mind’s eye into an engaging, often funny, informative look into the struggles, ingenuity and humanity behind the founding of America’s top wine brand.

To read the full professional audiobook review, please visit BookTrib

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

The post BookTrib – The Barefoot Spirit Audiobook Review appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

STORY AS COMMUNICATION, FROM CAVEMAN TO WALKMAN

When humans listen to a story something amazing happens. each individual in a crowd reaches into their own personal memories to create and complete the scenes in which the action takes place. In other words, they source the props from their own mental inventory. When this happens, they tag the story to be more easily recalled. why? Because they had something to do with its telling. They were interacting by embellishing the scenes with their imagination, they were involved in a process of co-creation.

Pre-literate indigenous people would hand down their history and the principles they had learned  about survival, the environment, medicine, and even virtues through story. Fast forward 8,000 years, we are rediscovering the power of story to convey principles. We, the audience, hear the story and draw out the take-aways, principles, and lessons. Through using our imagination to complete the scenes, and even identify with the characters, we can recall and use the lessons in our own businesses and life! This is a type of experiential learning.

PRESCRIPTIVE TEXT

Without story, business books, especially, can seem one dimensional, prescriptive, and even patronizing. The principles are all laid out for you in a logical construct-like outline. “Here are the 3 things to do, the 5 things never to do, and the 15 things your customer wants from you.” Even if the points are made using examples, the mind glazes over by the end of chapter two. And the retention and application of the principles being shared is questionable.

With the renaissance of story, we are reconnecting with what our ancient ancestors instinctively knew all along: if you want your listeners to remember and use the message, wrap a convincing story around it with compelling characters overcoming challenges using the principles you wish to convey.

To read the complete article, please visit Crowd Sourcing Week

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

The post THE NEXT STEP IN BUSINESS AUDIO? ASK THE CROWD! appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

Well, guess what? We have begun! It’s a pretty exciting project, we must say. We’ve partnered up with a small Southern California acting troop, The Sherwood Players, who have produced several live theater events in Santa Barbara and have recently produced an award-winning animated production called “Crash” to help keep young folks from texting while driving.

According to the latest report from the Audio Publishers Association, audiobooks are now the fastest growing segment of the digital publishing industry. 26% of the US population has listened to an audiobook in the last 12 months, according to Michelle Cobb of the APA. The report cites a near 40% increase in the number of audiobooks published compared to the year before. It turns out that 48% of all listeners are under age 35 who listened to an average of 15 books in the last year.

And why not? We used to think that video was taking over but you can’t watch a video safely in your car or when you’re jogging. So audio makes sense for a variety of reasons. Besides, folks want to give their eyes a rest from all that screen time. They want to focus on the road, the trail, or the park. Audio is portable and listening is often much more convenient than watching or reading.

The Barefoot Spirit Audiobook – Not Your Typical Audiobook

Most audiobooks, however, seem to be limited by the fact that the narrator is just reading the book to you. This is especially true in the business book market.

When it comes to fiction like adventure, drama, and biography, we see a new emerging type of audiobook production. Instead of just having a narrator drone along and read to you, there are actual actors portraying the different characters in skit-like scenes.

We like this! It’s just plain more entertaining. We believe it’s a practical way to record audio business books and other educational books. Because the listener can identify with the characters and experience the action through them, it makes learning fun! The takeaway may be an insight, a lesson learned, or a new, problem-solving concept. But to our knowledge, educational audiobooks haven’t yet used this method.

We thought, “Why couldn’t this old time radio theater format apply to business books?” So we set out to develop a team that would use our own book as a Guinea pig. After all, it was written to be a series of short skits anyway. It’s already a series of scenes with several characters interacting to convey the message.

Coming to Your Earbuds Soon, The Barefoot Spirit Radio Theater!

We’ve been working on it for months! And we are set to release it just before the Holidays! Yes, we are very excited!

It’s so much fun to act out a scene rather than just narrate it. We get to use intonation and emphasis. We even got the famous Ed Asner to voice Don Brown, the snarky wine buyer who rudely threw us out of his office but not without the keys to our ultimate success. And we get to add color with Japanese, English, New Jersey, and South Carolina accents. And of course, sound effects!

So, what can we say? “Coming to Your Earbuds Soon, The Barefoot Spirit Radio Theater!”

To find out more and track our progress, check out www.thebarefootspirit.com

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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