August & September 2023 Book: Hug Your Haters by Jay Baer

[Pesso]

Hey Square Readers,

You voted and chose Hug Your Haters by Jay Baer as our Square Readers Book Club book for August & September!

Here’s a quick summary:

“Haters are not your problem, ignoring them is. With the near-universal adoption of smartphones and social media, Critics (“haters”) can now express their displeasure faster and more pub­licly than ever, resulting in an overall increase in complaints. Hug Your Haters shows exactly how to deal with them. Whether you work for a mom-and-pop store or a global brand, you will have haters—and you can’t afford to ignore them. Baer’s insights and tactics will teach you how to embrace complaints, put haters to work for you, and turn bad news into good outcomes.”

We will start on Tuesday, August 1st, so get ready and pick up a copy at a local library, bookstore, Amazon, or anywhere else! 

We’ll have discussion threads being posted throughout the next two months, and a Live Video Chat Discussion on Tuesday September 26th. See the event page for the time and more information. 

Click here to View and Subscribe to all threads about this book. 

We can’t wait to read with you!

Pesso

[Doran]

YAY!!! This one looks great.  

[Pesso]

Yes! I'm 1 chapter in and it's pretty solid so far!

[Tamyra_Paunchy]

haha. Love the title. This should be good! 🙂

[Pesso]

Right? Super catchy, and so far it's great!

[AustinCarter]

About half way through and not nearly as enthralled with this one as I was the first two books we've read. 
Not complaining, learned a bit, will finish the book of course, but not nearly as intriguing or as valuable as Start With Why and 1 Page Marketing Plan were to me. 
Hope to get a bit more out of the second half of the book, and already excited to see the choices and what book earns the 4th draft pick of this club. 
Very happy to be a part of this and to have my reading hobbies encouraged. 

Now I'm off to find a Hater to respond to.  💪

[Pesso]

Thanks for sharing, @AustinCarter , and I'm sorry it's not landing as much for you.

What about it is not as valuable for you?

I'm definitely hoping the second half goes into more practical strategies for how to actually go about responding to folks.

[AustinCarter]

Not saying it holds no value, I do appreciate some of the examples of how to respond to different complaints on different channels. It just didn’t feel nearly as valuable or impactful to my business journey as the first two books. 
I was very impressed with and enjoyed the first two books so much, that this one just came in very underwhelming.

I probably wouldn’t have the same comment if it had been the first book we read in the group, but those two were tough to follow lol. 
I wouldn’t change anything. I love the pick 3 books format and the winner wins. 

I appreciate you, this group, and all of the book recommendations and I hope my comment didn’t sound overly negative. My feedback was more intended to be praise for the other two books rather than “Hate” towards this book lol.
Just wanted to provide honest feedback, and I hope some other members here will chime in on how much value or benefit they found in Hug Your Haters. 

[Pesso]

I totally get it, and absolutely appreciate the open and honest feedback, @AustinCarter !

I definitely didn't think you were hating on this book, and you did not come across as overly negative or anything.

That's completely fair, and I can see that too and agree in a lot of ways. The first book was about the core essence of a business, the second was chock full of an absolutely incredible amount of practical tips and strategies for almost every part of a business, and this one is much more self-contained. 

Again, thanks for the comment and feedback and looking forward to hearing what you think about the second half, and what others think too!