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The folks at Polar Unlimited, who run the Read it for Me series of business-book webinars, have created an 11-minute “video summary” of Practically Radical. It’s really fun, and does a nice job of highlighting many of the key ideas and case studies  in the book. You need to use the password practicallyrad to view it. You can see the video here.

Normally, I’m not super-eager to share videos of me doing talks—either the lighting is bad, or the sound quality is bad, or maybe I’m having a bad day. But last month, I did a “book breakfast” in Providence RI with friends at the Business Innovation Factory, and BIF shot a video of my remarks. It’s really a high-quality video in terms of production values, and I was feeling my oats that morning, despite the raging snowstorm outside.

One nice thing about a never-ending book tour is that you learn lots of new stuff along the way. A week or so ago, on a visit to the Chicago offices of DraftFCB, the great advertising agency, I picked up a book that three agency executives wrote called Calculate Boldness. It’s a terrific take on creativity and innovation, and I devoted my HBR blog to some of its key ideas.

You can find the post here. Thanks to my friends at DraftFCB for hosting the book session for Practically Radical, and for sharing their book with me.

One of the nice things about a new book is that it creates the opportunity to reconnect with old friends. Dave Balter, founder and CEO of BzzAgent, is one such old friend. He and his colleagues are pioneers in the world of word-of-mouth marketing, and after he read Practically Radical he was nice enough to invite me to the company’s super-cool office in Boston and record a video conversation about the book’s  lessons for leaders, marketers, and innovators of all sorts.  It’s a fun conversation, and you can watch it here. Be sure to spread the word!

On February 25, I’ll be doing a webinar about Practically Radical organized by Steve Cunningham of Polar Unlimited, a digital-marketing agency based in Canada. In advance of the webinar, Steve has put together an incredible summary of the main ideas and messages in the book, and has also posted a 25-minute interview with me that develops those ideas. It’s like a Cliff’s Notes version of Practically Radical–and it’s really good!

Here’s a link to a fun (and really in-depth) interview with KNPR, Nevada Public Radio, in advance of my appearance in Las Vegas on Friday. This is going to be quite an event–we are expecting 2,000 people at the Cox Pavilion on the UNLV campus. You can listen here.

My “Practically Radical” adventure has been full of first’s, but this one is a real surprise–a highway sign in Las Vegas with my mug on it advertising an upcoming talk.

Dare I say it is a true BILLboard????

I want to take a moment and say thanks to everyone who has helped Practically Radical get off to such a fast start. The book was released  two weeks ago today, and it’s been a blur of activity ever since. Here’s an update.

I am pleased to report that in its first week of eligibility, Practically Radical debuted at #6 on the Wall Street Journal Hardcover Business List. We’re an immediate bestseller! What a thrill.

Meanwhile, the folks at CNN got “practically radical” in the form of a wonderful segment on the “Parker Spitzer” program. It was a blast, both hosts really got into the book, and we had just a great conversation.

Much to my pleasure (and relief), the early reviews have been tremendously positive. One of my favorites was in the New York Journal of Books, which took the book very seriously and was just so nice about the “enthusiasm” in the pages. “It’s this enthusiasm that shines through and becomes infectious–the type of enthusiasm that makes a reader devour the book and then return for seconds.” Wow, thanks!

Meanwhile, my colleagues at Fast Company dedicated a whole week to excerpts from, interviews about, and resources drawn from the book, and then they were kind enough to round-up all the articles in one place. It’s a really nice collection of material, and I appreciate their dedication to the book.

Finally, the cherry on the week’s ice-cream sundae. What a hoot to discover that technology innovators Jim Lavoie and Joe Marino, two of the characters featured in the book, got so excited when they read Practically Radical that they wrote and recorded a song about it, set to Frank Sinatra’s “It Was a Very Good Year.” You can listen to the song here. It may not win a Grammy, but it’s got a special place on my iPod.

I can’t wait for Week Three!

Practically Radical officially launched on Tuesday, January 4–one week ago today. And what a week it’s been! A blur of interviews, blog posts, celebrations, and all the fun and exciting stuff that comes with the publication of a new book. I can’t list everything that happened last week, but allow me to point to just a few of the highlights. Then it’s time to roar into Week Two, and a whole new round of activities.

You can’t launch a book without throwing a party, and we had a great one in New York City complete with old friends and new members of the network, a soapbox on which attendees stood to offer “practically radical” resolutions for 2011, and a special cocktail, created by the folks at Absolut Vodka, to toast the book–a delicious concoction they called the “Absolut Radical.”

Every book author hopes to be on TV with his or her ideas, of course, and I had a ball with an appearance on CNN’s “Parker Spitzer.” It was a long, thoughtful, and fun segment, and Eliot and Kathleen really dug in to the core ideas and case studies in the book. You can watch the segment here. I’ll alert you to a few upcoming TV appearances.

Meanwhile, the gang at Fast Company went out of their way to showcase the book, offering excerpts, an interview with me, and all kinds of other great stuff. They have assembled all of their Practically Radical material in one place, and it really is a nice glimpse into many different elements of the book. Thanks, Fast Company.

Needless to say,  a big part of launching a book these days is spreading your ideas online. Some of the Web’s most prominent business bloggers went out of their way to share the Practically Radical message. The irrepressible Dan Pink invited me to share three resolutions for the New Year with members of his community. Evangelist extraordinaire Guy Kawasaki offered the Top Ten Ways to be Practically Radical. And Dan Schawbel, an influential guru of Personal Branding, did a fun interview with me about the book and its messages for individuals.

All in all, it was an exciting, exhilarating, and exhausting first week–the kind of week every author hopes for. Thanks to everyone for their support. Onward to Week Two!