The New IQ by David Gruder, Ph.D.

About the Author:

David Gruder, PhD, DCEP, is perhaps the world’s only clinical-organizational psychologist specializing in integrity development. Known as "The Integritizer," he is the leader in transpartisan nondenominational strategies for solving the massive integrity deficits that have caused today's vast social, economic, and political challenges. Dr. Gruder founded the "Integritize America Campaign," an integrity stimulus plan for renewing personal, relationship and societal integrity so we can finally co-create sustainable solutions to today's most challenging issues. His latest book, "THE NEW IQ: How Integrity Intelligence Serves You, Your Relationships and our World," is the world's first step-by-step guide to attaining personal, relationship, and career fulfillment during difficult times without sacrificing ethics and integrity. It has won five book awards in the areas of "social change," (book of the year), "current events in politics and society" (honorable mention), "health & wellness" (book of the year), "self-help" (bronze medal) and "metapsychology" (book of the year). A professional speaker and trainer for almost three decades, Dr. Gruder speaks, trains, consults worldwide on how to "Integritize" citizens, government, communities, businesses, health care, education, religion, journalism, advocacy groups, and leadership. His clients have ranged from family-owned businesses to American Express work teams, from the Sanoviv Medical Institute to the San Diego Office of Education Management Academy, and from local politicians and executives to World Trade Organization ambassadors. His main website is http://www.thenewiq.com/.

About the Book:

From the White House, to the board room, to the privacy of our own bedrooms, and virtually everywhere in between, integrity deficits are destroying our personal lives, our businesses, our economy, our healthcare, our society, and our planet.

Creating sustainable integrity-centered solutions to today's vast array of major challenges requires us, as individuals and as a society, to take a fresh look at what creates life fulfillment. It requires us as citizens to develop a new integrity-centered vision of what we need to require from our leaders in government, business, advocacy groups, community organizations and the media.

The New IQ is the world's first road-tested guide to integrity-centered living, working, loving, and serving. Hailed as a "once-in-a-generation book," it provides the first step-by-step road map for restoring the vanishing virtue of integrity... for the sake of our loved ones, our communities, our businesses, our society, and our own personal well being.

Going far beyond being a self-help book, this critically acclaimed five-award-winning action plan offers a socially responsible way to attain personal, relationship, and career fulfillment during difficult times, without sacrificing ethics and integrity. Here at last is your complete guide to "personal development that serves us all.

The author agreed to an interview. These are his answers:

Could you please tell us a little about your book?

I’d be glad to. The New IQ provides practical answers to the five biggest challenges of our time:

1) Why have we allowed severe integrity deficits to damage virtually all parts of our society?
2) How did so many of us adopt the insane belief that life fulfillment, wealth accumulation and a comfortable lifestyle require sacrificing integrity, people and social responsibility?
3) What do the few who succeed without making these sacrifices do to create happy fulfilling integrity-centered lives?
4) How can the rest of us easily learn to do on purpose what these rare folks do intuitively?
5) What profound improvements will we see in the world as more and more of us shift toward integrity-centered living, loving, working and serving?

The New IQ’s way of reconnecting the dots among integrity, life fulfillment, love, abundance, businesses, and social responsibility, has resulted in it being:

* Endorsed by over fifty leaders across a wide range of fields
* Embraced across the political and faith spectrums
* Honored with five book awards in the unusually diverse categories of:

* Social change

* Current events in politics & society

* Health & wellness

* Metapsychology

* Self-help

Did something specific happen to prompt you to write this book?

Oh, yes. Absolutely. As surprising as this might sound, my original inspiration for The New IQ was the infamous Woodstock music festival in 1969, which I attended as a fifteen-year-old. However, it took two profoundly traumatic experiences decades later to cause me to realize that I could no longer put off writing this book. The first was being in the New York City area when 9/11 occurred, and for the ten days after following that history-shifting event. The second was my own personal twin towers falling six months after 9/11 when my first wife ended our marriage in early 2002. The events surrounding 9/11 made it clear to me that I had to bring to the widest audience possible the things I know about how we lost our way with integrity. Recovering from a divorce I would never have predicted brought into focus some key pieces about integrity I hadn’t known were crucial to a complete understanding of integrity. The profound gifts I harvested from these two traumas gave me the final pieces I needed in order to finally write The New IQ.

Who is your biggest supporter?

My wife, Laurie, whom I married in 2006. I live in perpetual gratitude for her love, heartfelt support, and personal integrity. She stood by me not only while I was writing The New IQ, but through the countless late night and early morning media interviews since its release, and my regular travel in the U.S. and abroad to give my integrity education keynotes and workshops based on The New IQ.

Your biggest critic?

I would have to say marketing experts. Even though my material about reconnecting integrity with life fulfillment and abundance is universally embraced, marketing experts are constantly telling me what I need to be doing differently to get the word out in a bigger way. Believe me, I’m grateful for their advice even when I am not always able to implement all of it!

What cause are you most passionate about and why?

I recently launched a public service project called the Integrity Stimulus Plan: a five ingredient action plan anyone can use to help restore integrity anywhere you want to have impact. I can’t find words to express how excited I am that this plan is being embraced across the political and faith spectrums. Go to www.IntegrityStimulusPlan.org to read the Integrity Stimulus Plan and complete your Integrity Pledge. Then join Facebook’s Integrity Stimulus Plan Promoters Group.

In the last year have you learned or improved on any skills?

Absolutely. I feel like I have been in a relentless crash course on all aspects of marketing, from how to give a great interview, to upgrading my website, to strategies for expanding internet visibility, and much more.

What is the most important thing in your life right now?

Remaining dedicated to my self-care, wellbeing, and life balance. I write in The New IQ about the three most common integrity deficits people have: with ourselves (self-integrity), with those who depend on us (relationship integrity), and with the world in which we live (societal integrity). Most people tend to neglect one of these 3D Integrity dimensions more than the other two. My lifelong tendency has been to forget myself in favor of serving others. The more popular my messages have become the more crucial it has become for me to make sure I don’t fall into my old self-neglect habits. I’m mindful each and every day that unless I am role-modeling my messages about 3D Integrity, I have no business teaching others how to embody it. Yet, this isn’t merely an act of altruism on my part. Maintaining my 3D Integrity is good for me, is good for my personal and work relationships, and helps me have the best possible impact on the world, all at the same time. This is why the subtitle of The New IQ is "How Integrity Intelligence Serves You, Your Relationships and Our World!"

What are you currently working on?

I just agreed to co-host a live call-in radio show with a seasoned veteran in the radio business. Its focus, not surprisingly, is on integrity, and I will serve as the resident integrity expert. Recordings of this live show will be available via podcast. Because the fine details are still being finalized at the time of this interview, please visit www.TheNewIQ.com to discover the show title, description and broadcast information.

What are some of your long term goals?

I will continue to write books like The New IQ that integrate personal growth and societal repair. In fact, the byline for my material is "personal development that serves us all."

What do you feel has been your greatest achievement as an author?

My greatest achievement is seeing The New IQ’s blueprint for reconnecting the dots among integrity, life fulfillment, love, abundance, businesses, and social responsibility, result in it being:

* Endorsed by over fifty leaders across a wide range of fields
* Embraced across the political and faith spectrums
* Honored with five book awards in the unusually diverse categories of:

* Social change

* Current events in politics & society

* Health & wellness

* Metapsychology

* Self-help

What do you feel sets this book apart from others in the same genre?

There are three personal development genres: self-improvement, relationship improvement and leadership improvement. Two things set The New IQ apart:

1) It is part personal development road map, part health and wellness manual, part social change blueprint, and part staff development and leadership template; and

2) It shows everyday people to world leaders how to coordinate personal, relationship, career, and leadership development in an elegantly efficient and streamlined way.

If you know another book that does both of these things, please e-mail me about it through the contact page at http://www.thenewiq.com/

Are you a different person now than you were 5 years ago? In what way/s?

Oh yes. Dramatically. In 2002 my life as I had known it since 1985 came to an untimely end with the surprise demise of my supposedly divorce-proof marriage. My story is a Phoenix rising from the ashes story that transformed the most excruciating painful and disorienting experience of my life into the greatest gift of my life. This story is too long to recap in an interview like this beyond my answer to the next question. But, you can read it in The New IQ.

What is the most important lesson you have learned from life so far?

For decades I had lived and trained others in most aspects of relationship and societal integrity. But not until recovering from the untimely demise of my first marriage in 2002 did I finally discover the devastation that can occur as a consequence of self-integrity deficits. Only then did I come to grips with how huge a role my chronic self-neglect played in destroying the fabric of my life has I had known it. This was my "duh" moment with integrity: discovering that integrity is three-dimensional – one-third self-integrity, one-third relationship integrity and one-third societal integrity.

Is there anything else you would like to share with us?

We got into the mess we’re in as individuals, in our relationships, and as a society, because we have believed that attaining life fulfillment requires sacrificing integrity, people and/or social responsibility. Natural developers show the rest of us, from everyday people to world leaders, the secrets to reconnecting integrity, life fulfillment, love, abundance, business profitability, and social responsibility. Please join me in helping to create the integrity revolution we so deeply need today in order to build a sustainable next chapter in humanity. I look forward to hearing from you at www.TheNewIQ.com.

Eyone Williams Book Spotlight and Author Interview

Paperback: 216 pages
Publisher: The Cartel Publications (July 18, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 097949317X
ISBN-13: 978-0979493171

Book Synopsis:

What we bring together, let no man tear apart...is the motto of the Hell Razor Honeys.

Vida is young, sexy and naive. That is until she grows tired of Samara, the leader of The Come Back Honeys using her body to entertain local hustlers. When Vida refuses to play the whore, Samara reacts and kicks her out of the crew. Alone, Vida stands firm and decides she will not be pushed around even if it means taking a few beat downs.

On the sidelines, Tia, also a loaner decides she ll help Vida stand up against Samara even though it s not her battle. Their unity starts the beginning of a new gang they call, The Hell Razor Honeys.

Only two girls strong, eventually they meet up with Ice, nicknamed because of her white skin and innocent nature. Her innocence quickly disintegrates once she becomes a member of the infamous crew. Despite a few fights, the Hell Razor Honeys were only known for tucking razors in their mouths and slashing a few faces. That is until they meet Tec. Under his watch, he teaches the girls a new hustle which includes murder, mayhem and larceny. Even though they go harder than most men, one look under their skirts would prove they're all women. But when Vida s grandmother begs her to get out of the streets, she complies vowing to change her life. But how can she when the friends she calls family maintain their hold?

Take a journey with Vida, Tia and Ice as the rip through the streets of D.C., cruise through the city of New York and land on the L.A. Hollywood scene on a mission. Hell Razor Honeys reads like a fast paced car chase! This novel is one to die for, one bloody slice at a time!

I was fortunate enough to be able to ask the author a few questions:

Who has influenced you throughout your career as a writer?

The first writer to influence me would have to be Donald Goines. I read many of his books as a juvenile and they were the first books I saw that told stories about what I saw in the streets of DC. Some years later after reading Goines’ Daddy Cool, I decided to write a book. That book was my first book, Fast Lane. I wanted to capture my era in time as Goines did. Shannon Holmes also influenced me. He was the first author that I paid attention to that wrote a novel while in prison. At this point, Eric Jerome Dickey influences me more than any other author. He is smooth, sharp and keeps the story together from all angles. That’s how I strive to bring my street stories to life.

Do you write every day?

I try to, but my situation doesn’t allow me to. I’m in federal prison and there’s always drama of some kind going on. Nevertheless, I write almost every day. I have to write often to get my ideas on paper. Writing also helps me deal with life in prison.

What has been your greatest achievement as a writer?

At this point I would have to say my greatest achievement was making Don Diva magazine’s bestseller’s list. That showed me that the streets were feeling Fast Lane. However, I felt very proud when I learned that Fast Lane was selling out at Karibu Books; that meant a lot to me as well.

Have you always wanted to be a writer, or did you aspire to be something else growing up?

I never thought about being a writer when I was growing up. As far back as I can remember, I wanted to be a football player. Then around 13 I got it in my head that I wanted to be a gangsta. That was the worst idea I ever had. I ended up in prison at 16. I wanted to be a rapper at one point as well. In the end, I wrote a novel and fell in love with writing and I’ve been writing novels since. Now, I’m sure that being an author is something I will love about myself for the rest of my life.

How would you describe your writing?

Real! I try my best to tell it like it is in the real world. I get deep into the people I bring to life in my novels. I’m very vivid about the things I paint pictures of in my novels. It’s somewhat like music. You have music out now that’s real hip-hop, stuff that’s good for the radio and the clubs, but some of it ain’t for the streets. Gangsta rap is for the streets. My writing is the gangsta rap of urban fiction. I’m Scarface/NWA of the urban fiction game.

Are you currently working on anything?

I’m always working. I grind hard. My second book, Hell Razor Honeys, was recently released and it ends with a bang that leaves you wanting more. I’m now working on Hell Razor Honeys II: Til Death Do Us Part. I have other novels done – Lorton Legends, Never Lay Down and Money Ain’t Everything. I’m working on deals for them. I’m also working on a screenplay about DC street legend Wayne Perry. I’m a staff writer for Don Diva magazine and I’m working on street articles for upcoming issues.

What authors do you enjoy reading?

I have to say T. Styles, Jason Poole, Eric Jerome Dickey, C-Murder, Kwame Teague, Wahida Clark, K’wan, Seth Ferranti and a few others.

Is there a particular author/s (yourself excluded) who you feel don't get the recognition they deserve?

Anthony Fields, author of Angel presented by Teri Woods, Ghostface Killaz and Bossy, is slept on. He has dropped three books that people have supported by buying out the stores’ stock. Since he is in prison I think he is overlooked a lot. The same goes for Kwame Teague. This brother crushed the game with the Dutch story, but Teri Woods got all the shine. Kwame put his thing down real strong in The Adventures of Ghetto Sam/The Glory of My Demise, but fans missed it for whatever reason. Caleb Alexander is also underrated. He put Teri Woods on his back. Those brothers need to be given their props!

What is your favorite book?

Standing at the Scratch Line by Guy Johnson!!!

What is a book that has been highly acclaimed but you haven't liked?

I live by a serious code in life and if I have nothing good to say, I say nothing at all. What I don’t like is only important to me. I never want to add to all the hate in the world. Feel me?

Is there a word you feel is overused?

In street novels I believe that the word “millions” is overused. Everybody in the hood ain’t seeing no millions. Let’s not forget the grind. Let’s not forget the struggle of the stripper trying to make ends meet as she stacks Gs; the same for the dope boy that’s selling Gs with million dollar dreams – stuff like that. I write what I know and what I’ve seen. I know, personally, two dudes out of countless others that made millions in the streets. That’s not to say that there aren’t street millionaires, I’m only saying that they are rare.

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer these questions!