About the Author:
Named a Top Influencer in Content and Digital Marketing, Holly Chessman fully understands the power of online engagement. As an active advocate of women in business, she is passionate about helping people develop online and offline skills to grow their careers. She has been a leader in B2B tech for close to 20 years, running her own business (Holly Chessman Marketing) as well as empowering businesses with the strategies they need to speed growth and build revenue. Holly is a keynote speaker and a writer, contributing to such publications as Forbes, Maximize Social Business, Social Media Examiner, and more. She is also not afraid to embrace her nerdy side (as evidenced by her love of Neil Gaiman and her “talking” TARDIS). Learn more at www.askholly.net.
About the Book:
It’s hard to fit in when you work in a mostly male world, let alone achieve your goals. Women in tech – as in many areas of business – are in the minority in every meeting. It’s difficult to find our voices in a room full of men. Even when we’re ready to share ideas, we often have to shout to be heard, trusted, and respected. It’s time for that to change.
Holly Chessman has used her marketing and business experience to navigate mostly male waters. She’s taught people how to build their reputations using online and offline tools – and now she wants you to gain that same success.
Today is the day you start making the small changes you need to grow your voice and, consequently, your career. Small steps with big impact – that’s what it’s all about. Between the tips in this book and the straightforward, step-by-step exercises in each chapter, you’ll see your life change for the better.
As you go through this book, you’ll learn about the Defining You methodology, the exclusive system for accelerating reputation and career growth. You’ll get the step-by-step guidance to reach your goals faster than ever. You’ll develop the means to realize the success you’ve always envisioned: Speak up in meetings. Get the raise you want. Find a job that satisfies you. Do what it takes to meet the goals that are right for YOU.
Take control of your career TODAY and define the “you” you want to be.
Review of ‘Amplify’, by Holly Chessman
As a woman trying to overcome the labels of “bossy” and “know-it-all” imposed on me since I was a little girl, Amplify felt, first and foremost, as an encouragement. Throughout the book, there is not just an acceptance that a woman’s voice deserves to be heard, but a certain urgency, as well. We need to be heard now, and not later.
At times, I felt like the book was acting as the mentor I wish I had had in my teen years, the person who would be helping me not just overcome these labels, but contribute to their elimination. Better late than never in my case, but I do hope that anyone who knows an ambitious young woman already battling similar labels will consider buying this book for them.
Just like a mentor, the advice and requests/exercises sometimes felt a little silly to me. But I do think that the book stands solidly enough on its own to warrant given even the silliest-seeming advice and request/exercise a fair try.
I am neither a psychologist nor have I a lot of experience in psychology, but a lot of the points that Holly Chessman made in her book made a lot of sense. Perhaps it is simply coincidence, that I found an author I agree so much with, or perhaps it is just that it all just makes sense.
Similarly, I haven’t had the time, since receiving a copy of this book free in exchange for a review, to implement all the steps described in this book. But I have started adjusting various things that I am doing—namely, the way that I make requests—in the last three weeks. I haven’t seen any results yet (it’s only been three weeks!) other than an important one: getting the practice to ask for what I want, unapologetically yet kindly, has made it easier to accept what I get without guilt, and accept what I don’t get without resentment. And that’s a big thing to learn in life.
Although it’s billed as a book for women in an all-male environment, I feel that all women will benefit from this book. Sometimes, an all-female environment can, encouraged by images in the media, be filled with cattiness and in-fighting. A woman stuck in such an environment who wishes to make a change needs to be heard; and so, applying the advice in this book would also help them.
Final Thoughts
Both younger women who haven’t started a career and older women who are at the tail-end of theirs would benefit from reading Holly Chessman’s book. Much like the cover clearly conveys, it’s about amplifying the voice of women who are already, in so many ways, superheroes for achieving everything they have achieved in a male dominated world.