5 Books That Have Made a Business Difference (but maybe aren't also biz books)

I LOVE books and to read, and I often find myself sharing books and book recommendations with clients as they work through the ups and downs of growing a business. On this episode, I'm going to share 5 books that have made a difference in my business (and that also aren't always business books...) and tell you about what they've meant to me just in time for you to maybe add 1 or 2 to YOUR holiday wish list. Listen on for ALL the details!




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Transcript

Welcome, welcome to this episode of the podcast, I'm so happy to see you and be with you. I'm not actually seeing you, but you know what I mean. And this episode, we're gonna talk about books, because I love books, and I read a ton. And I constantly have people asking me questions about books that I love, and ones that have made a difference in my business. 

One of my clients actually asked me to share like a little book list with her recently. And it was funny because she was like, I want to read the books that made a difference in your business. And I was funny, as I made the list for her, it turns out that I would really only qualify two, or maybe three of them, maybe 2.5 of them as business books, per se. But what they are really generally are, you know, sort of a blend of things that really have made a difference for me in the way I think, and in the way I approach business and life and entrepreneurship. 

And so today, those are the books I want to share, this podcast is coming out right ahead of Thanksgiving ahead of Black Friday, ahead of shopping and putting things on our wish list. So maybe there's a book on this list that you haven't read, that you need on your wish list, or it's time to go back to you. I know, the one I'm going back to this year, and I'll tell you that in a minute. So let me tell you them in order. Actually, it's just not really even an order. But so as we're, as we're talking about books, the first one on my list that I talk to people about all the time is essentialism is a book by a guy named Greg Makino, Kate, Mckeown.

 And so he's actually written two books. The first one is essentialism, the second one is effortless. And these are both books about simplifying. This is, for me, a lot of how I think about sort of pulling back to one thing, breaking things into pieces. It's a lot of how I think about sort of visually, you know, just books, I go back to time and time again, that I think are really useful. It's about taking the hustle out, and about making things just a little more well paced, less full of complication.

 More, more common sense, right. And for me, these books were both of his books were things I knew already. Right, as you read them, they are all things that come up that you're like, oh, yeah, that makes sense. But, you know, it's really helpful to have the recommendations, that sort of things, you know, both put into stories into context. And, you know, repeated back to you in ways that maybe you hadn't thought of them about. 

It's like, one of the pieces of advice in there that's that I find really helpful. Is it effortless? It's about always define what done looks like, in one year there, you're done. So let's like not overdoing things. And I think about that one a lot, actually. Because, you know, for me, a lot of times done is, you know, 65 or 70% of the way there. And what I don't want to do is 110% When 65% was enough. And so for me, it's really like okay, what does it mean to be done with this thing for now for today for forever? And, and how can I continue forward, but I think the way he talks about the idea of done in this book is one I keep going back to time and time again. 

So if you're looking for sort of a simplifying something to really kind of think differently about business in the new year, this is this is what I send people to time and time again, I you don't have to read the first one essentialism to get a lot out of the second which is effortless. But I find both really useful. I actually have them both in my Kindle and I sort of peek back to them pretty regularly, which I find fascinating. And I'm not like a reader generally. And what's also interesting is I have a list of notes from both those books in my phone that I do go back to pretty regularly. 

So that's number one and it was cheating because it was two books. Number two is a book I'm a big Adam Grant fan. I don't know if you've read all the things by Adam Grant, but I've read a lot of them. And the book I have found most impactful for the work I do. And the way I think about it is a book called give and take, which is all about, you know, just what it sounds like, and sort of how people work in the world as givers or as takers, and sort of what it looks like to give and give freely. And well, how it gets you further, he is a research guy. So he's all about, you know, the science and the data behind all the things and again, you know, in a give and take, there was a lot of stuff that like, logically made sense to me, stuff that I was doing anyways, stuff that are or the way I was going about my business. 

You know, I think I read it. Effortless, I read when it came out, essentialism I read years ago, probably 2018, maybe ish. Give and Take was probably in the last couple of years, three, maybe, maybe early 22. But you know, it was really, for me helpful to have someone crystallize, you know, the benefits of giving, and that it gets you further to be willing to connect to be willing to do for others to be open and generous than it does to be sort of what's the word like trading, right to be counting and keeping score. And it really enabled me to let go of keeping score, which I think has been really important. So that's book number two, but honestly, any Adam Grant thing, a you can't go around, he's got a new one, the name of which is escaping me right now. But it's in my Kindle as we speak, and I'm bouncing around in it. So, you know, I love Adam Grant and his podcast. So those are both wants to try. 

The third one. And this is the beginning of the like, it's not a business book. But it is a book I talk to people about constantly. And it is a book called The Joy diet by Martha Beck. Here's the thing, it's some point, I decided the next thing I was going to work on in my business was joy. That was it, the start of 2023. It's my like word of the year. But I started really thinking about joy and its role in business much earlier than that, even a year or so before it. And so this book has been really instrumental for me. If only I've taken pieces, you know, the way it works is it's like these 10 habits that that bring more joy into your life and sort of things that foster joy. 

But what's really been interesting is sort of applying the habits of more joy to entrepreneurship. And having them having the habits she talks about in that book, which I don't literally do all of I don't follow directions, well, I just sort of have picked and choose what I wanted, which is totally fine. But it's been interesting to sort of use some of the habits she talks about in that book, particularly treats, which is something I talk to people about all the time, and you know, three, getting three treats a day, and having a list of what feels like a treat for you so that you can easily you know, give yourself a treat, because you deserve them all the time when you want one and that all treats or not snacks, and all sorts of good in there.

 What's been interesting is how I have been able to translate that into supporting myself as a business owner, enjoying the work I do more enjoying the life around the work I do more and how, you know, all of the things that she in this book lists out to support Joy have contributed both to joy in my day to day in my life as a parent in other ways. But as a business owner specifically, in sort of, it's really helped me to find a better blend of, you know, work and life and balance, which I hate that word but all the things and doing it in a way that feels like me, and sort of underpinning it with habits that help the glass be half full, which I think is magical, right? So, you know, that's one I go back to time and time again that I sort of look at the habit list in there and it's like, okay, you know, which of these things do I want to shore up? Where do I you know, not want to focus right now. Do I need more treats?

The answer to that is always yes. And you know, the books on this list could be a treat for you. So that's the third one. Number four is an old book It's been around for ages. It is Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. She is the one who wrote Eat, Pray Love, which, you know, was a thing for a while, right? Big Magic. For me, I read very early in entrepreneurship, even maybe before I started my coaching practice, I couldn't tell you when I'd have to look up when it was published.

 But it is, for me the way she talks about ideas in that book and about accepting ideas and sort of the way they follow us around and how when we acknowledge them, they come to life and sort of the visual way that she talks about the magic of ideas, and the things we create has been really, really, really influential on how I choose to create in my business, it has been a big part of the permission, I have to just take ideas that appear and go forth with them, or to sort of say, I'm not ready for this one back right now. And trust that it will come back when I do. It sort of has helped me to trust the process of ideas, and my own thinking, and that, you know, if an idea comes to me in a certain way, that that's the way it's meant to be expressed in this moment, in that, I'll get another chance to express it a different way. Because that's how ideas work.

 And so for me, it is if you struggle with, you know, believing the ideas or the things you should be saying permission to say the things, acknowledging sort of the magical pneus of what you have to give an offer and value and that kind of stuff. So really good book for you. It is one I have reread another one I've reread, which I don't often do, because I find, you know, most of the time, I'm like, Yeah, I remember reading this, okay. And, and I do I have a pretty good memory for the books I read. But this one, you know, I always go back to it. And I might even just read 50 pages, and then be like, Oh, okay, that was what I needed right now to sort of rethink and be re permissioned and have a different, like deeper level of faith in sort of how the cycle of ideas and, you know, the magic that is creation of ideas and things and helping people and just letting it to work.

 Right. It's, it's a book that freed me very much to let my ideas just come out in the way they're meant to come. I you know, it's funny looking back on it, I'm not even sure that's what she was trying to get me to do. Right. But I know that that's what that book has done for me. Number five, and this is the last one ish is a book. One of my dear friends made me read. And it is a book by Dan Harris. It's called 10%. happier, it is about meditation. She made me read it sometime in 2019. When I was in a place where I was really scrambled and struggling. She had read it and she was like, You know what, you really need to read this book, it would be worth it for you. And I was like, yeah, yeah. And she was like, no, no, not kidding. Read the book, I'm pretty sure she mailed it to me and sent me a Kindle copy. And yeah, it was a it was an implicit demand as it were. 

That's why we have friends who love us like that. 10% happier is all about Dan Harris's particular journey to meditation. And here's the thing I had been someone who had always thought about meditation and couldn't figure out how and that book,  was the most human and readable version of how and why to meditate and how to approach it in a way that felt like me. And the kinds of supports that people had, and have and sort of the expectations of it and the humaneness of it. It was the most human version of it I'd ever come across. And it really helped me to have permission to do that. 

And to start to like, ground myself with meditation, and then journaling eventually and all the things but I really owe a lot of how I resettle myself day to day about how I reground myself as a business owner, as a parent as a human, how I managed to work with worry and anxiety and, you know, do the scary things that you do as an entrepreneur, continue to get up and show up and do the next thing and sort of work through it. I owe a lot to that particular book. Get also the apps that they have, because I use that literally every day. It is really insightful like that. But it is not like a very pie in the sky version of meditation, which I appreciated, I needed someone to make it very tactile for me, and very human. And having that as an approach was like, Oh, I can do this any way I want. 

Okay, and I can remember getting done with that book and thinking like, oh, this might actually be something I can do, I might be able to figure this out holy cow, I just picked that tick off my sleeve. So pardon me for like freaking out a little bit. I took my dog for a walk in the woods earlier. And clearly, I picked up a tick while I was there, gross. So this is an excellent book, it is well worth the read. It is if meditation is something you're thinking about. Or you're just trying to sort of navigate running a business and kind of keeping your feet on the ground and keep showing up and keep doing the thing. It was a really useful book for me in that way. And that is my five there are others that I have like on my little side list. One is the Go Giver, which if you haven't read is really worth it and a short. Another is thrive by Arianna Huffington, which was a book I didn't expect to like but really served a purpose for me.

 And especially when I was in a space where I was having a really hard time I read thrive and 10% happier like right at the same time. They were very important for me. And I'm sure there are others, you can feel free to throw me the books that you love loved and that have made a big impact on you and your business over the last bunch of years. I would love to hear about them. I'm happy to read them and share them and pass them around. Let this episode be an opportunity for you to give yourself a book gift this year, whether it's one of these or any other book, please like read something new try something experiment. 

I'm reading a book next about crocheting, because that's what I'm teaching myself to do this year. And it's I'm not even I don't even understand all the words yet. But I will. If you have questions for me if coaching is something in your 2024 plans, please let's talk I am as you know, a human being an I like to have conversations with other humans like you. I'm happy to do that. Also, coming up. Starting in the next two weeks, probably I am opening up my course which is called selling for weirdos. If you are somebody who doesn't feel like you fit in the sales world if selling doesn't feel like the way you want it to if it feels really hard and complicated, but you would rather do it with connection and by offering invitations to people that they can take or not.

 And you'd love to be really grounded and really yourself about it. This is for you. So if you want to learn more about it come to my website, or into my Facebook group or my LinkedIn. It's going to be all the places but I'm happy to tell you more if you have questions also, from there, I will see you in the next couple of weeks on the podcast. Thanks for listening