Can You Read Your Way to Becoming Known?

Schaefer, M. W. (2017). Known: The handbook for building and unleashing your personal brand in the digital age. Louisville, TN: Schaefer Marketing Solutions.

In Mark Schaefer’s self-published book, Known: The handbook for building and unleashing your personal brand in the digital age, Schaefer tells successful testimonies of individuals who found their calling and became known, outlines steps for achieving this same success, and gives tools to spark critical analysis of self in finding one’s passion and place to be known. Just two years old, this how-to, motivational non-fiction book embraces the digital age and how this can be used to enhance brand and name. Offering ideas, Schaefer also uses this book to inspire the reader to realize their calling and then learn how to apply it using his four-step process: finding place, determining space, finding fuel, and creating an actionable audience. This book is for anyone searching for a career that they want to be permanent and sustainable, while developing their own brand and of course – becoming known.

It’s probable to assume Shaefer wrote this book because he found success, and he had the opportunity to share that with others. After 30 years of experience in global marketing, organizational development, and business consulting, he has the knowledge. The important thing though is that he practices this knowledge in his personal life, making himself known. Through the testimonies included in the book, one can also assume that Shaefer knows people who found their place, calling, and name. So, not only is Shaefer credible from his experience, but also trustworthy because he has used these ideas to create results. Shaefer, having written six books, knew the he could take his ideas, theories, and tools and put them together to help the “average” person find their career and the fuel to make them known in it. This book was written as a guide for others, but arguably was also written as another way for Shaefer to expand his own name and brand as he took on the title of best-selling author. By telling from Shaefer’s own point of view along with the point of view from individuals who used the content discussed in the book to become known, the book was intended to provide a somewhat personalized experience for the reader. Using these points of views and a storytelling technique enhanced credibility and interest, while encouraging the reader that success is possible, but realistically discussing the challenges and setbacks.

While the content provided is important, it’s also important that the book makes sense and is easy and enjoyable to read. Shaefer chose to use a casual writing style, one that was conversational and personal, in this book. One example of this is “I’ll go through each of these strategies in detail… We’ll meet some remarkable people along the way” (Shaefer, 2017, p. 76). This was a good choice because it set the book apart from other how-to formats and decreased the chances of the reader becoming bored. In a sense, this writing style was also important in building a relationship with the audience to make them care and to make them feel like they’re part of a team, not alone. The word type also matched the writing style, meaning that the words were not necessarily all professional, but instead how someone who speak to a friend. This technique was interesting because it put the author on the same level as the reader instead of putting the author on a pedestal of authority. This made it more relatable to the reader but may have sacrificed some credibility in the lack of professionalism and precision. At times, the words were too joking in that in made the book seem less serious or real. In one instance, the author referred to the reader as a “dude or dude-ette” (Shaefer, 2017, p. 101). This word choice is considerably immature, making the author sound like he’s trying too hard to be funny or relatable, when really, he’s making the gap wider. The writing style was a good choice, but sometimes it was taken too far.

Still considering writing style, each chapter flowed to the next easily. It wasn’t hard to know what the next chapter was about because transitions were clearly marked. This made the book easier to follow. Each chapter was similarly arranged, and bullet points, sections, and lists occurred throughout, ensuring consistency and simplicity. No section went too long without a break with a numbered list or bullet points, helping the audience quickly identify and review the main points. Again, this was a good choice because clarity and easiness are important in success when following a how-to. However, this often became overwhelming. Because each chapter had lists and bullet points, there was a lot to keep track of. This made it feel as if each chapter could be its own book because there was so much packed into such a little space. For instance, in just chapter 7, there are 6 sets of bullet points and 3 sets of numbered lists. This is a lot to take in per chapter, so the information became harder to process and easier to skip over.

Going back to content, this book lacked impact. While the book outlines specific steps and tools that are likely useful in becoming known, it didn’t follow through with any sense of urgency. It’s harder to put the steps and critical thinking procedures into play when the importance, the immediate need, of acting isn’t clear. The book includes plenty of motivation, but addresses more theory than the actual raw, hard work that is necessary. When considering this, the book comes off as a more as a motivational pick me up than a call to action. Sentences like “committing to this path might seem intimidating, but remember, greatness is doable… you must have the courage to begin and the consistency to endure” sounds nice, in theory, but it doesn’t really say a lot or contain any true motive (Shaefer, 2017, p. 114).The information is useful, but the encouragement overpowers this, making it seem to easy become known and to completely change careers, so it lacks a real push to get someone to take that plunge. If someone is already dedicated to becoming known, this book would be impactful. For those who are just considering it or beginning to brainstorm though, it doesn’t have any real impact because of this. Upon completion of the book, I didn’t feel any draw to become known, and none of my opinions or feelings about the idea had changed.

When considering how the author treated his main points and the overall main topic, it’s important to know that much of the content is general. With the exception of a few specific examples throughout the book, Schaefer constructs broad instructions and theories. Likely, this is to spark the reader to do the work. However, it comes across as vague, making the content lack an evident point or clear purpose. Similarly, the content makes a lot of generalizations and assumptions. It doesn’t consider outstanding circumstances or different personalities but assumes everyone is at the same place in life and should respond and act the same way to get results. One instance of this occurred when talking about making time. “Everyone has the same time to create content… the real issue isn’t having the time, it’s having the tenacity and drive to do it (Shaefer, 2017, p. 110). This is true to an extent, but not everyone does have the same time, and no matter how hard they work, time will always play a factor. Further, the thesis doesn’t develop much as the book progresses. Each chapter builds on the last, but they’re repetitive, and by the conclusion of the book, there’s no sense that the thesis grew or changed from the first chapter. That is, it seems as if the entire middle of the book could be summarized in just a few pages, and the idea would still be the same. The book was thorough, but almost too thorough, as not all the information had backing for relevance. For example, some of the stories and testimonies take away from content of the book because they’re not necessary for understanding and the vast amount of them is distracting from the rest of instruction.

Further, the descriptions and narrations are less factual and more persuasive, showing the audience the validity of the topic instead of providing them with the means to reach conclusions on their own. That is, the book wasn’t very objective. Shaefer and those who testified spoke mainly on the positives, or how they overcame the negatives, and hardly addressed the very real option of failure. Then again, the book didn’t necessarily need to object because it was written based on personal experiences and theories. Still, objective or not, it needed to be honest. The information provided, like the testimonies, are factual, but they’re also persuasive. In fact, most of the text takes on a persuasive tone as it focuses on the motivational aspect. Persuasion is a useful rhetoric tool but is not necessary in this context. Arguably, the book would’ve been more impactful if it had focused less on persuasion and more on strict information and guidance. After all, that – instruction – was the point, not persuading the reader to believe in the possibility and believe in the success stories.

Despite these critiques, the book does have some positive factors to consider. One is that Shaefer was proven thorough in his research. In the text, he stated that before writing the book, he interviewed nearly 100 people about what they thought it took to be known (Shaefer, 2017, p. 40). Additionally, along with the stories from those who made themselves known that were shared throughout the book, there are 6 other personal testimonies at the end of the book. These sources exhibit strong research as he had to search for, investigate, and speak to all these people to get their statements. Also, this book stands out against others in its genre, partly because of the writing style and language as previously mentioned, but also because the instruction provided is used by the author is his daily life, including in the publishing of Known. This exhibits an effectiveness that other how-to books may not be able to achieve. Lastly, I can’t deny that it’s an interesting read. I read the majority of it in one sitting because I wanted to know what would come next, an uncommon occurrence for me in non-fiction.

Although the book didn’t impact me beyond a general interest, that doesn’t mean it was a flop. It met its goal – providing step by step instructions on discovering outlet and content, focusing efforts, creating a plan, and activating a personal brand. From this, one can assume that the intended audience, those looking to build their brand and name, had their expectations met. The content addresses all that the author claimed it would and sufficiently provided both the steps and tools for beginning to reach the known status. For this reason, the book would be recommendable for someone looking for this information, especially if they’re looking for something different than other books that fall in the how-to genre. Even more, this book is an easy read, good for those who want a quick introduction and simple steps to begin their career and/or self-transforming process. However, I wouldn’t recommend this book to someone who lacks drives and needs it to be forced upon them, as I previously discussed this book’s lack of urgency to inspire action.

While Known by Mark Schaefer contained useful information, interesting stories, and tools to begin the process of becoming known and finding an outlet, it is hard to ignore the flaws. Some of these include lack of professionalism, overwhelming outlines, a weak drive to action, excess or unrealistic motivation, generalizations, and priority of persuasion. Still, the book fulfills its mission to provide general steps in becoming known that are backed with extensive research while still maintain reader interest. While I would still recommend this book, I’d need to read some more before I felt the urge and power to begin taking the steps to make myself known.