Willies Way

Praise for Willie's Way: "Willie's Way is a fascinating compilation of real-life customer service stories that actually make a difference. It's about building your brand one customer at a time. Read how enthusiasm, confidence, and sincerity can impact your customers, grow revenues, and impact your bottom line. This is the best book I've read on customer service in a long time." --Joe Scarlett Chairman of the Board Tractor Supply Company "Wow! Willie's Way is simply infectious. Every reader is sure to find the six secrets to be very practical. In fact, they leave us without excuse. Without a doubt, Willie's Way has the power to transform an organization from one delivering mediocre customer service to one performing at the top." --Chris Strippelhoff Vice President-Member Services Municipal Gas Authority of Georgia "Van Hooser absolutely hit the bull's-eye with an outstanding instruction manual about the keys to extraordinary customer service. I have no doubt that companies and customer service professionals across virtually every industry will find value and fresh new insights in the pages of this brilliantly written gem." --Richard G. Kelley Director of Sales Training, North America Axcan Pharma, Inc.

2021 Midwest Book Awards - Poetry Debut Gold Medal Winner 2020 Forewords Reviews INDIES Awards - Poetry Gold Medal Winner “Prophetic in bleak times” —DR. CORNEL WEST The Willies, Adam Falkner's first full-length poetry collection, offers a sharp and vulnerable portrait of the journey into queerhood in America. In a voice that Dr. Cornel West heralds as “prophetic in bleak times,” Falkner departs from a more familiar coming out narrative to center the stories of dueling selves. Masquerading white boy. Child of an addict. Closeted varsity athlete. Drifting seamlessly between the scholarly and conversational, Falkner's poems showcase a versatility of language and a courageous hunger, unafraid of depicting the costumes we use to hide legacies of toxic masculinity. Through snapshots both tragic and humorous, merciless and humane, Falkner offers powerful new ways of understanding the intersectional linkage that binds queer shame to cultural appropriation. At its core, The Willies asks us to consider who we will become if we do not grapple with what scares us most. Advance praise for The Willies Adam Falkner has heard what hums at the marrow of men who deceive themselves in order to survive America. — SAEED JONES This is truth that changes the air it reaches. This is poetry that, damn it, you can't shake. — PATRICIA SMITH In these urgent and sometimes mysterious poems, Falkner traces questions of identity, family, love and the self. His language is angular and surprising, his content intimate and profound. — ANDREW SOLOMON Adam Falkner is a poet with a heart of gold and a spine of steel. We need his prophetic voice in these bleak times. —DR. CORNEL WEST I am thankful for the incisive mind and eye of Adam Falkner. In the poems, the work of balancing several selves at once is done gently, deftly, and with the brilliance of someone curious about how limitless they can become. ― HANIF ABDURRAQIB

A powerful new novel about divided loyalties and the realities of war from “master storyteller” (Wall Street Journal) Sebastian Barry, author of Old God's Time In 1914, Willie Dunne, barely eighteen years old, leaves behind Dublin, his family, and the girl he plans to marry in order to enlist in the Allied forces and face the Germans on the Western Front. Once there, he encounters a horror of violence and gore he could not have imagined and sustains his spirit with only the words on the pages from home and the camaraderie of the mud-covered Irish boys who fight and die by his side. Dimly aware of the political tensions that have grown in Ireland in his absence, Willie returns on leave to find a world split and ravaged by forces closer to home. Despite the comfort he finds with his family, he knows he must rejoin his regiment and fight until the end. With grace and power, Sebastian Barry vividly renders Willie’s personal struggle as well as the overwhelming consequences of war.

The eagerly-awaited sequel to Carry The Wind, this is the second volume of Terry Johnston's award-winning saga of mountain men Josiah Paddock and Titus Bass, who here meet new challenges and new loves in the western wilderness of the 1830's.

From his first performance at age four, Willie Nelson was driven to make music and live life on his own terms. But though he is a songwriter of exceptional depth - "Crazy" was one of his early classics - Willie only found success after abandoning Nashville and moving to Austin, Texas. Red Headed Stranger made country cool to a new generation of fans. Wanted: The Outlaws became the first country album to sell a million copies. And "On the Road Again" became the anthem for Americans on the move. A craggy-faced, pot-smoking philosopher, Willie Nelson is one of America's great iconoclasts and idols. Now Joe Nick Patoski draws on over 100 interviews with Willie and his family, band, and friends to tell Nelson's story, from humble Depression-era roots, to his musical education in Texas honky-tonks and his flirtations with whiskey, women, and weed; from his triumph with #1 hit "Always On My Mind" to his nearly career-ending battles with debt and the IRS; and his ultimate redemption and ascension to American hero

A book unlike any other customer service guide, Willie’s Way translates Willie’s common-sense wisdom into simple, practical applications. Each chapter looks at one of the six service secrets and explains how and why it works. From listening to customers, to offering them special favors, to making every customer connection memorable, these proven strategies will impress, entice and win new customers with every interaction. As a successful speaker and author who travels constantly, Phillip Van Hooser has been in and out of his fair share of cabs. But only one cabbie ever taught him anything about customer service. That cabbie is Willie, and the common-sense wisdom he imparted has become known as Willie’s Way. In Willie’s Way, you too will learn Willie’s unique brand of personalized service: How to woo customers so they come back again and again How to wow customers so they tell their friends about you How to win customers’ long-term business by exceeding their expectations How to apply Willie’s techniques to your own enterprises to build long-term customer loyalty “Willie’s Way is a fascinating compilation of real-life customer service stories that actually make a difference. It’s about building your brand one customer at a time. Read how enthusiasm, confidence and sincerity can impact your customers, grow revenues and impact your bottom line. This is the best book I’ve read on customer service in a long time.” –Joe Scarlett, Chairman of the Board, Tractor Supply Company “Van Hooser absolutely hit the bulls-eye with an outstanding instruction manual about the keys to extraordinary customer service. I have no doubt that companies and customer service professionals across virtually every industry will find value and fresh insights in the pages of this brilliantly written gem.” –Richard G. Kelley, Director of Sales Training, North America Axcan Pharma, Inc.

Mobility and transportation mean different things to people, even to those who work in various aspects of the ecosystem - from the movement of people or goods to the development of the infrastructure that enables mobility. For decades these different parts of the ecosystem have been approached as entirely independent industries, but the quickened pace of technological change has driven the need to reconsider how these distinct groups create the vibrant tapestry that is our mobility ecosystem. This book seeks to capture the varied perspectives as a collection of diverse views on the future of mobility, to provide a clearer view on the broad base of possibility and opportunity across this interconnected system. Contributors: Jonathon Baugh, Geoffrey Boquot, Reilly Brennan, Tiffany Chu, Jordan Davis, Courtney Erlichman, Elaina Farnsworth, Valerie Lefler, Wolfgang Lehmacher & Mikail Lind, Shoshana Lew, Suzanne Murtha, Mary Nichols, Trevor Pawl, John Perrachio, Aishwarya Raman, Karina Ricks, Alex Roy, Avinash Ruguboor, Anthony Townsend, Marla Westervelt, and Candace Xie. "Amazing roster of thought leaders come together to paint a picture of a whole new mobility paradigm in the interest of safety, sustainability, and equity." -- Sven Beiker, PhD. Managing Director at Silicon Valley Mobility and Lecturer at Stanford University

Brad Jones is a young but talented sports journalist living in Dallas, Texas. He is given the byline of his young life by his editor. The series of articles are to chronicle the life and golf of young Lee Weaver to be featured in the Dallas Morning Sun newspaper in the weeks leading up to the US open tournament being held for the first time at Weeping Dunes Golf and Country Club, where young Lee learned his skills. Brad must travel to Saleena, Texas, to get the story that can only be told by the aging caddie master who befriended young Lee and became his confidential sounding board. Having an overbearing father and a loving, understanding mother, young Lee must try and navigate the balance between his two parents and hone his golf skill in the process. Brad finds himself as wrapped up in the story along with his readers as he himself learns what happened so many years ago for the first time from eighty-three-year-old caddie master Willie Lumas.