Burgers, Bowls and Jars: Season by Season with Chef Eric LeVine

Champion of Food Network's Chopped, Eric LeVine, has chosen Jenkins Group to assist in publishing his new cookbook, Burgers, Bowls and Jars: Season by Season with Chef Eric LeVine. This unique cookbook pays tribute to fall, winter, spring, and summer seasonal palates, choosing the ingredients and flavors that fit each season. Chef Eric has been recognized by the James Beard Foundation for his creative take on American cuisine. 

The cookbook's foreword by Maneet Chauhan celebrates Chef Eric's unique approach to the "melting pot" of flavors that Americans embrace. "Eric demystifies cooking in this book, presenting recipes that seem complicated but then are explained in a simple approachable way. He pays respect to the seasonality of food and takes classic favorites to an elevated level," writes Chauhan. His cookbook is both brilliant and accessible, featuring personal stories relating to the foods of the seasons.

Jenkins Group Inc. is pleased to assist LeVine with book publishing services.

Warrior CEO: The Remarkable Journey of Milan Panic and ICN Pharmaceuticals

Mark Taylor, Pharmaceutical CEO, has chosen Jenkins Group to assist in publishing his new book, Warrior CEO: The Remarkable Journey of Milan Panic and ICN Pharmaceuticals.
Taylor relays the “fearless business exploits” of the drug industry’s iconic CEO, Milan Panic. Panic built one of the top 50 pharmaceutical companies in the world: ICN Pharmaceuticals. He is deemed one of the industry’s longest-reigning founders/CEOs, spending four decades leading ICN and acquiring more than 75 companies.

Warrior CEO recounts Panic’s extraordinary journey to his station as CEO. Panic came to America in 1956, escaping communist rule in Serbia. Panic later served as Prime Minister of Yugoslavia and sought to achieve peace in the Balkans. Still, Taylor argues that Panic’s most substantial feat involved building ICN and developing ribavirin, the gold-standard anti-viral for Hepatitis C.

Taylor's expertise is grounded in his long tenure at ICN in numerous executive positions, his seven years on Wall Street as a leading drug analyst, and three decades of experience in the industry. Today he leads a small team of drug developers at Hallux Inc. tackling hard-to-treat fungal disorders.

SYNC’d: A Behavioral Operating System, Meeting the New-Era Customer at the Warp Speed of Global Business

How should a savvy business leader approach the new year? She or he may strategically embrace organizational change amidst the evolving digital era by reading SYNC’d: A Behavioral Operating System, Meeting the New-Era Customer at the Warp Speed of Global Business.

Cathy Sunshine—business partner, coach, CEO—has chosen Jenkins Group to help publish this relevant 2019 book. Now, the book’s progressive insights are being highly acclaimed by renowned business leaders.

SYNC’d asserts that structural and behavioral change is necessary amidst what may be called the “Third Industrial Revolution.” Jan Heppe, Retired President of Burberry Americas says, “SYNC’D offers a roadmap for the why and how of execution in the new Digital Era.” Sunshine’s “roadmap” involves transforming behaviors that are embedded into the modern workplace.

This new book is ideal for business leaders seeking to meet modern customer demands in a market of rapid technological advancement. Another important business leader comments on how Sunshine addresses contemporary organizational culture. Kevin Knight, Former Head of Consumer Credit and Debit Products for VISA and Chairman, CEO of Nordstrom FSB, remarks, “In SYNC’d, Cathy shares a systematic approach to align modern organizational performance with the new pace of the market.” SYNC’d encourages a variety of leaders to structure their businesses in ways that help them stay competitive in an ever-changing technological climate.

Sunshine's book is now available for pre-order. She offers free shipping and a signed copy of the book to pre-ordering customers.

The 11th Habit: Design Your Company Culture to Foster the Habits of High Performance.

“Habits are not considered sexy,” write Andrew Sykes and Hanlie Van Wyk. “They’re not exciting when stacked against big corporate ideas […] But habits are the gene code of your company.”

Sykes and Van Wyk express the tremendous importance of habits in their new book, The 11^th Habit: Design Your Company Culture to Foster the Habits of High Performance. The authors have chosen Jenkins Group to help publish this book, which will take their message to the next level. The 11^th Habit will act as a marketing tool—further enhancing the authors’ credibility as leading business consultants.

With more than 25 years of background knowledge, Andrew Sykes is “adamant about helping companies to flourish through the success of their people, rather than at their expense.” He is a highly regarded speaker who has presented at thousands of events. Sykes has also consulted for major companies like Google and Microsoft.

Hanlie Van Wyk has more than 30 years of experience working across three continents; she connects the “brain, behavior and well being.” She is the Head of Research and Habit Change at the Behavioral Research and Applied Technology Laboratory (BRATLAB). 

In The 11^th Habit, Sykes and Van Wyk explore the transformative power of habits in the workplace. They look specifically at the ways in which habit building applies to a positive company culture—one in which employees are humanized and high-performing.

The book illuminates the habit of self care, a habit that our high-performing culture often does not value as highly as it should. The authors examine the ways in which to build a high-performance company through health, happiness, and security. They attest to the importance of positive habits in establishing a work/life balance.

Jenkins Group provides Sykes and Van Wyk with a full range of options for book production, distribution, and marketing. Jenkins Group works with independent and small press book publishers—uniquely tailoring services to serve each client’s needs.

A Better Financial Plan: Significantly Improve Your Finances Without the Help of Wall Street

Cash value life insurance is a lucrative investment for buyers and sellers, but naysayers and misinformation have created a difficult market for sellers—they must have the competitive edge. Dean Vangozzi was already a successful financial entrepreneur, but he found his edge when he published his book. Now, because of the credibility that’s come with the book, Vaganozzi says that he is selling more life insurance than he’s ever sold, and it’s easier than it’s ever been.

In his groundbreaking 2016 book, A Better Financial Plan: Significantly Improve Your Finances Without the Help of Wall Street, Vagnozzi makes no apologies as he sets about to “trash traditional planning.” Vagnozzi uses the book—now being published in its 2018 edition—to disrupt traditional financial planning wisdom, writing, “Nobody gets rich because of his or her 401K or IRA.”

Dean Vagnozzi is in what he calls the “alternative insurance business,” selling financial products that have no correlation to the stock market. One of the main products is cash value life insurance, and this is where the book places a lot of its focus. Although Vagnozzi has experienced exceptional success throughout this career in life insurance – since writing the book, he’s seen his success rate skyrocket as client interactions have become more effective and efficient.

Vagnozzi recalls that before he wrote the book he’d spend up to an hour and a half with new clients. After discussing cash value life insurance with them, they’d exclaim that it was a great approach and they’d never heard it explained in the way that he described it.

However, he remembers that at this point he’d set up a next appointment with clients to fill out paperwork, and the follow-up appointment attendance was disappointing. Between the initial appointment and follow up appointments, sixty to seventy percent of new clients would cancel due to negative feedback they’d heard from others about cash value life insurance. Even at this rate, Vagnozzi says that he was selling more of that product than ninety-five percent of the life insurance agents in the country.

“The sales process was long,” says Vagnozzi. “I felt like I went ten hours with Muhammad Ali. I’d get the sale, but I was beat up, bruised. I was good at it, but it was a lot of work.”

Vagnozzi chose to write the book for many reasons, including for credibility’s sake. He saw the book as the next logical step in his robust marketing campaign. Now, he says that if he’d known the success that the book was going to have, “I would have been typing with a smile on my face.”

As a result of this book, Vagnozzi’s initial client encounters are completely different. First, he introduces the purpose behind the book. “I have to tell them why it’s worth their time,” he says; so, he provides a five minute overview before giving the book to a prospective client. He finds that, as a result, clients come into his office saying, “‘Dean, the book is great. I can put ___ a month into my life insurance.” And his book of business continues to grow.

Jenkins Group assisted Vagnozzi in the publication of the book, and the experience, he says, was “fantastic.” People ask Vagnozzi how he found Jenkins Group, which is located in Traverse City, Michigan, while Vagnozzi is located in Philadelphia. Vagnozzi performed internet research on publishing companies before finding Jenkins Group; and although he stumbled on Jenkins somewhat by luck, he says, “I can’t give them any higher of a score.”

What advice does Vagnozzi have for other professionals interested in writing a book? “Don’t hesitate to move forward,” he says. “The expense of the book was made up for me thirty-fold in the clients I’ve gained.” He advises, “It’s not about selling the book, it’s about the products or services.”

How does he know that he has been ultimately successful? Vagnozzi says, “I have people call me after they read the book and ask, ‘Do you have someone who can help me implement this stuff?’” Upon hearing this, Vagnozzi knows that he’s done a good job because, evidently, the reader did not believe that the author wrote the book in order to promote his own services—rather, the reader saw the book as a helpful guide to a valuable product.

With the publication of his book, Vagnozzi has not only seen growth in his client base—he has also become a sought-after speaker. Insurance companies invite Vagnozzi to speak at conferences, and he uses these platforms to tell of how the publication of his book has helped grow and streamline his business.

 

 

 

How to Grow Your Business? Get Unstuck!

The dream of starting your own business dwells in the minds of many: being your own boss, working flexible hours, and feeling passionate about your enterprise are just a few of the appeals. Unfortunately, most are unaware of the steps necessary to achieve this goal, and aren’t prepared for the commitment and sacrifice required along the way. 

Jerry Jendusa founded EMTEQ in 1996, with the original workspace being his basement. Jerry and his partner, Jim Harasha, put in countless hours each week to get EMTEQ fully functioning and drive it to the success it has today. In Get Unstuck, Jerry details his pre-startup business plans, techniques, and experiences. He reminds others thinking of following the entrepreneurial path to take into consideration all the facets of starting a business, and offers advice on how to do so. This advice ranges from choosing the right partner, finding a demographic and marketable niche, to ensuring personal relationships remain intact during and after the process. The book serves to “get out the message to as many business owners as possible regarding starting, growing and exiting from a business.”

Jerry wrote this book intending to “provide a baseline of beliefs from which small-business owners can attain the success that other business owners enjoy.” Based on his story, Jerry wanted “to be able to help other small to mid size business owners think about their businesses perhaps in a different light as growth in business and in life requires a great amount of change and one cannot do it all alone.” His goal is altruistic; Get Unstuckis about helping other business owners on their path to prosperity. 

Since the success of his enterprise, Jerry has created a coaching and advisory business called STUCK, which provides the tools for making key changes to help a business grow and succeed. STUCK was created with the intent of providing tools, techniques, and tips to help business owners find solutions within their business. 

So far, Get Unstuck“has been a great marketing tool to spread our message.  It is a leave behind sample at speaking engagements or is dropped off for business owners that are stuck.” Get Unstuckhas given Jerry and his team at STUCK credibility and provides reference points for it. Jerry anticipates Get Unstuck to continue in popularity and growth, remaining a source of credibility and a resource of insightful business tips. 

Jerry wanted to give back and help other young entrepreneurs on their path to success. He finds it rewarding, the urge to give back was a major reason why Get Unstuckwas written. Jerry wanted to speak to his belief that “every owner at one point or another gets stuck.” 

Patient Centered Strategy: Using Lean to Overhaul the Healthcare Industry

In the world of healthcare, patients are a priority. However, many healthcare systems operate conversely: strategy and management are decided in a vacuum, usually based on the intuition of the CEOs. The lean approach is an entirely new method of strategy that involves rapid plan-do-study-act (PDSA) cycles, where the needs of patients are tested and immediately acted upon, creating a better patient experience. The lean approach was created with the patients in mind, aiming to enhance their healthcare. This differs from the previous approach on management strategy greatly, requiring immense amounts of effort to define and implement this new technique.

Jeff Hunter was a senior executive at ThedaCare when he first heard of an alternate train of thought regarding management strategy. This new approach to management was completely different to the practices being used at the time, and yet Jeff and his CEO, John Toussaint, pursued the knowledge and understanding of the lean approach. Jeff Hunter was hesitant about this initially, as the immense amount of inertia required to completely uproot and redo the current system was daunting. 

Through enormous effort and time, he mastered his understanding of this particular strategy and management practice and decided to write a book to help others on their journey to understanding and incorporating lean; explaining the many steps, successes, and pitfalls of his own journey. “I was writing this as I was further discovering and developing the system through experiential learning. The content emerged during the writing process,” Jeff muses.

Though ThedaCare already had great coverage in daily management, there was an existing gap in management strategy, and that was where Jeff’s content came into play.

 “The path is not linear, and I frequently had to backtrack. Lean takes time and energy, and there is enormous inertia to overcome. Healthcare systems are also very complex, and, currently, no one organization has completely centered its strategies on patients. But I have experienced enough success to believe it can be done.” Jeff attempts to describe this experience of rerouting the way he understood and thought about something as tacit as management strategy. 

Jeff wrote the book at the urging of the then CEO, John Toussaint, who wanted the book to complement other books on lean strategy. The primary purpose of the book is “to describe the strategic management subsystem that fits within the broader lean management system.” While writing it, Jeff says he often struggled with incorporating more of his story and often had to be pushed away from writing a strictly technical journal. This was useful for him, and he says the writing process made him better. “It made me question what I believe and why I believe it. It made me dig and substantiate. And it made me communicate it in a way that a reader would care.” 

The book has created a platform for both Jeff and ThedaCare from which they can continue to improve and grow. The book was only recently launched but the success of webinars done on the book’s content is an indication of the positive outcomes this book will have on their business.