Barry Silverstein's Blog
January 15, 2019
"Boomer Brands" to be published Feb. 1, 2019
Saturday morning TV shows… cereals, soft drinks and snack foods…cool cars and rock ‘n’ roll… Boomers will savor the memories with my new book, Boomer Brands!Those Saturday morning TV shows entertained Boomer kids, but they were also vehicles for brand advertising. Chances are that’s how Boomers first got to know cereal, soft drink, and snack food brands. The “Boomer Brands” they knew and loved then, they remember to this day.
Boomer Brands: Iconic Brands that Shaped Our Childhood is a unique book that celebrates the brands of the 50s and 60s. The book covers cereal, soft drink, snack food, fast food, toy, car, beauty brands and more, as well as rock ‘n’ roll, protest and environmental brands. I share “Boomer Brand Cameos” of over fifty of the brands Boomers grew up with: Disney, Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes, Good Humor, Howard Johnson, Hush Puppies, MAD, Ovaltine, Twinkies, and WIFFLE Ball, to name a few. Most of these brands began during the Boomer era and are still around. Plus, Boomers will gain rare insight into how these iconic brands shaped their childhood and have a lasting impact on their life. Boomer Brands is meant to be read by Boomers, shared with Boomers, and savored for the memories!
Boomers are already buzzing about Boomer Brands:
When was the last time you had your memory tickled over a long-forgotten but prized product that shaped your childhood? You’ll find a lot of those “Oh, yeah, I remember” moments in Barry Silverstein’s wonderful wander down Memory Lane. “Try it, you’ll like it.”
- Ron Schon, Retired Advertising Agency Executive and OLLI Instructor,
“The History of Advertising”
Boomer Brands is a delightful book filled with fun facts about our favorite childhood brands and memories. If you're over 50, you're sure to enjoy this nostalgic, entertaining and informative stroll down Memory Lane.
- Nancy Collamer, Career/Retirement Coach and Author, Second-Act Careers
If you remember watching Saturday morning TV while slurping down a bowl of Frosted Flakes, or perhaps begged your parents to visit Disneyland after watching Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday night, you’ll want to read Boomer Brands. This enjoyable, easy read is chock full of fun facts about what made the brands we grew up with iconic.
- Anne Holmes, “Boomer in Chief,” National Association of Baby Boomer Women
Barry Silverstein offers a fun walk down Memory Lane for boomers, describing what made some of their favorite childhood brands so treasured then and now.
- Richard Eisenberg, Managing Editor, Nextavenue.org
Boomer Brands will be published on February 1, 2019 in trade paperback and eBook formats. For more information or to purchase, please visit my website: https://www.barrysilverstein.com.
October 7, 2015
5 Star Reviews for "Let's Make Money, Honey"
"Let's Make Money, Honey: The Couple's Guide to Starting a Service Business" was just published on October 1. It is already garnering 5-star reviews! Check them out at http://www.amazon.com/Lets-Make-Money...
August 31, 2015
"Let's Make Money, Honey" Featured on About.com
A story on About.com, one of the Internet's leading informational websites, features the new book, Let's Make Money, Honey: The Couple's Guide to Starting a Service Business. "Starting a Business as a Couple" discusses how the book's married boomer co-authors started a service business together.
In the story, Melissa Phipps, retirement planning expert, writes, “The authors…provide a detailed overview of what any couple should consider before and when starting a service business of their own. From writing a business plan, considering funding options or franchising, business structure and operations, to managing growth, narrowing your client base and creating an exit strategy. It's all told through their highly interesting story of exactly what it took to start-up and grow, then sell their own business.
“This mix of information and specific personal detail involved in getting a business off the ground as a couple makes Let's Make Money, Honey a compelling and useful read. And the authors are frank about the fact that not everyone will have it so easy, not all couples will be able to work together. At the end of the book, the authors provide a business compatibility test, skills inventory checklist and service business start-up checklist to help readers decide if they are as ready to follow a similar path.”
Let's Make Money, Honey: The Couple's Guide to Starting a Service Business
In the story, Melissa Phipps, retirement planning expert, writes, “The authors…provide a detailed overview of what any couple should consider before and when starting a service business of their own. From writing a business plan, considering funding options or franchising, business structure and operations, to managing growth, narrowing your client base and creating an exit strategy. It's all told through their highly interesting story of exactly what it took to start-up and grow, then sell their own business.
“This mix of information and specific personal detail involved in getting a business off the ground as a couple makes Let's Make Money, Honey a compelling and useful read. And the authors are frank about the fact that not everyone will have it so easy, not all couples will be able to work together. At the end of the book, the authors provide a business compatibility test, skills inventory checklist and service business start-up checklist to help readers decide if they are as ready to follow a similar path.”
Let's Make Money, Honey: The Couple's Guide to Starting a Service Business
August 18, 2015
New Book Available October 1!
I'm pleased to announce a new book which I co-authored: Let's Make Money, Honey: The Couple's Guide to Starting a Service Business.The book is for couples who want to start a business together. More couples, especially those in the boomer generation, are doing just that. Sometimes they do it because they’ve lost or left their jobs. Sometimes they want to pursue encore careers. But one thing is clear: For a couple, starting a business together presents the special challenge of combining their personal and business lives.
Let’s Make Money, Honey: The Couple’s Guide to Starting a Service Business is about a baby boomer couple who start a small service business as a second career. As much as it is a good story, Let’s Make Money, Honey is also a how-to guide that covers planning, financing, outfitting, and launching a service business, as well as operations, marketing, sales, customer service, and managing growth. Included are useful tools to help couples assess their business interests and compatibility.
Inspiring and instructional, Let’s Make Money, Honey will help couples consider whether to start a service business together – or provide those ready to move forward with a blueprint for success. Packed with detailed how-to advice based on real-world experience, Let’s Make Money, Honey is a must-read for self-starter couples of all ages and especially those exploring encore careers.
Let’s Make Money, Honey will be available October 1, 2015 in paperback and eBook formats.
Let's Make Money, Honey: The Couple's Guide to Starting a Service BusinessNovember 25, 2011
Review of Water's Edge by Barry Silverstein
(This review is for the book Water's Edge by Barry Silverstein. The review is by Ekta Garg and appeared on Bookpleasures.com, Nov. 15, 2011. Water's Edge is an eBook available at the Amazon Kindle store, for the iPad and nook, and on Smashwords.com for $2.99.)
In a post-Sept. 11 world, terrorism has become a high-profile subject. People almost expect to hear of terrorists emerging from the Middle East, but what happens when a terrorist comes from within our own borders? And what if the terrorist’s agenda is an idea as old as terrorism itself? Using the environment as a driving factor, author Barry Silverstein tackles the concept of domestic terrorism in his e-book Water’s Edge.
Following the untimely death of his wife, protagonist David Samuels retires from his position as an environmental consultant in Massachusetts and moves to the scenic town of Asheville, N.C. One day not long after moving, Samuels gets a phone call from his old boss. Someone, it seems, has dumped huge amounts of benzene, a known carcinogen, into several rivers including the French Broad River that flows close to Asheville. Samuels’ former boss urges Samuels to take on the case and try to figure out who did the dumping and why.
Reluctantly at first, Samuels, accompanied by his smart canine, Blackout, embarks on the investigation. Blackout has worked as a chemical-sniffing dog with Samuels in the past and helps her owner track down the exact location of the benzene dump. Following Blackout’s lead as well as his own investigative deductions, Samuels finds out what company allowed the transportation of the benzene. That discovery leads him to a tip that the dump may have been connected to a white supremacist group. One to care deeply about the environment and the necessity of its protection, Samuels tries to delve into the group’s possible motivations for engaging in such an activity—and bit by bit stumbles upon a nationwide scheme that uses environmental contamination for personal gain.
Author Silverstein establishes within the first few paragraphs his protagonist’s voice. He captures the essence of David Samuels’ story and as a result the reader’s imagination within the first five pages of the book. Although the ultimate plans of the antagonist may at some point begin to sound just a tad far-fetched, Silverstein offers his readers plausible explanations and enough background to keep them entertained.
At times the narrative and some of the characters’ dialogues inch more towards didacticism than fictional tale. But overall this immensely enjoyable novel will have readers staying awake at night to find out what happened next. This reviewer highly recommends it for anyone liking a story that contains good, old-fashioned suspense with a modern twist.
In a post-Sept. 11 world, terrorism has become a high-profile subject. People almost expect to hear of terrorists emerging from the Middle East, but what happens when a terrorist comes from within our own borders? And what if the terrorist’s agenda is an idea as old as terrorism itself? Using the environment as a driving factor, author Barry Silverstein tackles the concept of domestic terrorism in his e-book Water’s Edge.
Following the untimely death of his wife, protagonist David Samuels retires from his position as an environmental consultant in Massachusetts and moves to the scenic town of Asheville, N.C. One day not long after moving, Samuels gets a phone call from his old boss. Someone, it seems, has dumped huge amounts of benzene, a known carcinogen, into several rivers including the French Broad River that flows close to Asheville. Samuels’ former boss urges Samuels to take on the case and try to figure out who did the dumping and why.
Reluctantly at first, Samuels, accompanied by his smart canine, Blackout, embarks on the investigation. Blackout has worked as a chemical-sniffing dog with Samuels in the past and helps her owner track down the exact location of the benzene dump. Following Blackout’s lead as well as his own investigative deductions, Samuels finds out what company allowed the transportation of the benzene. That discovery leads him to a tip that the dump may have been connected to a white supremacist group. One to care deeply about the environment and the necessity of its protection, Samuels tries to delve into the group’s possible motivations for engaging in such an activity—and bit by bit stumbles upon a nationwide scheme that uses environmental contamination for personal gain.
Author Silverstein establishes within the first few paragraphs his protagonist’s voice. He captures the essence of David Samuels’ story and as a result the reader’s imagination within the first five pages of the book. Although the ultimate plans of the antagonist may at some point begin to sound just a tad far-fetched, Silverstein offers his readers plausible explanations and enough background to keep them entertained.
At times the narrative and some of the characters’ dialogues inch more towards didacticism than fictional tale. But overall this immensely enjoyable novel will have readers staying awake at night to find out what happened next. This reviewer highly recommends it for anyone liking a story that contains good, old-fashioned suspense with a modern twist.
