Resources - Learning

Podcasts led by host Mac Pritchard of Mac's List designed to help people with their job search and career development.

Marketing best practices are constantly evolving — like the growing demand for email personalization or the rise of video content. TikTok, especially, is changing the way we market products, becoming the top-visited domain in 2021. To stay on top of it all, you need the occasional skill boost.

Luckily, you don’t need to spend a fortune to get a world-class education in digital marketing best practices. We compiled a list of the best (free) marketing courses on email, social media, SEO, paid search, analytics, and graphic design. They’re even broken out by skill, so you can become a marketing wiz in no time.

GRIT is a classic resourse about why some people succeed and others fail. Angela Duckworth shares new insights from her landmark research about why talent or IQ are hardly guarantors of success. Angela has found that grit—a combination of passion and perseverance for a singularly important goal—is the hallmark of high achievers in every domain. She’s also found scientific evidence that grit can grow, and shares how you can expand your passion and perseverance to make your future a reality.

Atomic Habits, by James Clear

Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results

No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving - every day. James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results.

If you're having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn't you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don't want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. Here, you'll get a proven system that can take you to new heights.

Clear is known for his ability to distill complex topics into simple behaviors that can be easily applied to daily life and work. Here, he draws on the most proven ideas from biology, psychology, and neuroscience to create an easy-to-understand guide for making good habits inevitable and bad habits impossible. Along the way, listeners will be inspired and entertained with true stories from Olympic gold medalists, award-winning artists, business leaders, life-saving physicians, and star comedians who have used the science of small habits to master their craft and vault to the top of their field.

Learn how to:

• Make time for new habits (even when life gets crazy)
• Overcome a lack of motivation and willpower
• Design your environment to make success easier
• Get back on track when you fall off course
• And much more

The Portland Business Journal "Book of Lists" provides you with listings of hundreds of the hottest area companies in their fields, by ranking. In addition, it lists the names of key decision makers, along with their titles and complete contact information. 

The Book of Lists is available free in most libraries.

Brene Brown is the author of five #1 New York Times bestsellers: The Gifts of Imperfection, Daring Greatly, Rising Strong, Braving the Wilderness, and Dare to Lead, and featured in the Netflix show, Call to Courage. She's also has a number of well-received TEDTalks on vulnerability, shame, and trust. Her belief is that you have to walk through vulnerability to get to courage, therefore need to embrace it to get to the other side and conquer your goals.

Free blog portion from Career Horizons, a career coaching organization

Change Your Questions, Change Your Life, by Marilee Adams

The first edition of Marilee Adams's book introduced a surprising, life-altering truth: any of us can literally change our lives simply by changing the questions we ask, especially those we ask ourselves. We can ask questions that open us to learning, connection, satisfaction, and success. Or we can ask questions that impede progress and keep us from getting results we want. Asking "What great things could happen today?" creates very different expectations, moods, and energy than asking "What could go wrong today?" 

The new, expanded 4th edition contains a new chapter that delves into what neuroscience reveals about managing our stresses and fears more effectively. This strengthens our understanding of why Question Thinking™ works so well. The book provides powerful, practical Question Thinking™ tools for interacting with people and situations more successfully. It provides the missing “how-to” for personal change by showing readers how to switch from a constricting, disempowering “Judger” mindset to an expansive, empowering “Learner” mindset. This is what enables people to foster breakthroughs and achieve the results, experiences, and relationships they desire.

In the extensively revised edition, Adams has made the book even more illuminating and helpful, adding three new chapters as well as three powerful new tools. 

Universities around the world are offering their courses online for free (or at least partially free). These courses are collectively called MOOCs or Massive Open Online Courses. Website sponsored by Class Central -- a search engine and reviews site for free online courses.

Designing Your Life, a book by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans

Bill Burnett and Dave Evans from Stanford University show us how design thinking can help us create a life that is both meaningful and fulfilling, regardless of who or where we are, what we do or have done for a living, or how young or old we are. The same design thinking responsible for amazing technology, products, and spaces can be used to design and build your career and your life, a life of fulfillment and joy, constantly creative and productive, one that always holds the possibility of surprise. Use concepts like brainstorming and prototyping to actively design a fulfilling career and life. 

The authors also offer a free course called Designing Your Career

edX is an online learning destination and MOOC provider, offering high-quality courses from the world’s best universities and institutions to learners everywhere

Emotional Agility, by Susan David.

The path to personal and professional fulfillment is rarely straight. Ask anyone who has achieved his or her biggest goals or whose relationships thrive and you’ll hear stories of many unexpected detours along the way. What separates those who master these challenges and those who get derailed? The answer is agility—emotional agility.

Emotional Agility is a science-based approach that allows us to navigate life’s twists and turns with self-acceptance, clear-sightedness, and an open mind. Renowned psychologist Susan David developed this concept after studying emotions, happiness, and achievement for more than twenty years. She found that no matter how intelligent or creative people are, or what type of personality they have, it is how they navigate their inner world—their thoughts, feelings, and self-talk—that ultimately determines how successful they will become.

The way we respond to these internal experiences drives our actions, careers, relationships, happiness, health—everything that matters in our lives. As humans, we are all prone to common hooks—things like self-doubt, shame, sadness, fear, or anger—that can too easily steer us in the wrong direction. Emotionally agile people are not immune to stresses and setbacks. The key difference is that they know how to adapt, aligning their actions with their values and making small but powerful changes that lead to a lifetime of growth. Emotional agility is not about ignoring difficult emotions and thoughts; it’s about holding them loosely, facing them courageously and compassionately, and then moving past them to bring the best of yourself forward.