Book Review by Taylor Berrett
Unlock Your Inner Audacity
Erin King’s claim to fame is as global keynote speaker, entrepreneur, and founder & CEO of the Socialite Agency, a social media-centric firm that helps create live events, conferences, trade shows, and other undertakings for clients around the globe.
While King’s new book, You’re Kind of a Big Deal, is marketed largely towards women, the truth is that there’s value for everyone in embracing the message that Big Deal espouses— audacity in dreams, strategic thinking in personal and professional decision making, and executing responses to challenges that lead to positive change and growth. So, whether you’re a woman who’s already a fan of King’s message on other platforms or otherwise, don’t be dissuaded by the surface-level sheen of ‘girl power’ motivation the book’s design and marketing suggest. There’s real, research-driven value in these pages.
Not Your Average Business Book
But does King’s book have anything to teach those of us who are business-centered and looking to develop not only personally, but professionally as well? While You’re Kind of a Big Deal tends to focus most of its pages on personal transformation and general positivity, there are lessons to be learned here for the business world, too. King’s insights into how to take on tough challenges, develop greater clarity of purpose, handle social settings and make new social connections, and eliminate negativity from yourself and the people around you can all be directly applied to the workplace.
There’s also something to be said for listening to your intuition in the workplace, as well— an area that King spends a great deal of energy emphasizing. When it comes to making moves relating to big, courageous, and sometimes frightening business decisions, even those that may be unpopular in our social circles, King tells us all that we’re ready— and inspires us to make the move today.
The Bottom Line
Books like Big Deal tend to make some rather large and general pronouncements. They claim they’ll help you ‘finally’ get unstuck, ‘finally’ achieve that huge accomplishment you’ve always dreamed of obtaining, ‘finally’ start living up to your fullest potential. Unfortunately, claims like these can’t account for half of the equation— the reader. No single book, even one as engaging and inspiring as Big Deal— will lead to complete personal transformation. Take the claims on the book’s jacket and in its marketing with a grain of salt. However, King has crafted an excellent guide that may just be the small nudge that will set some of us on a better path, one that finds us ‘unlocking our audacity’ just like King promises.
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Taylor Berrett is a Contributing Writer at Soundview. He is also a freelance writer, editor, and host of the podcast Alone in a Room. His other book reviews can be found here.