Hi everyone, its Finola again from Ask Finola How, well, this
is Ask Finola How, and this is episode 45 and today we're
talking about books that made a difference in your business and
the question was this, from real entrepreneur: I'm looking for
some reading inspiration to take with me on holidays, what are
the books that had the biggest impact on you and your business?
Okay? So I have to loads share with you because I am touched
and moved and changed by everything I read. So it's
difficult to say, "This is the best, this is the best, this is
the best" because they all, you know, all you want from a book
is to plant some seed or give perspective on one or two
different things. So it was hard to do this because I kept
listing loads of them. So I'm going to give them to you, what
came to me, but it's not exclusive, I will say to you.
There are many more that had an impact on me. Not always
business books, you know? So here's some.
The first one I want to share with you is "The Surrender
Experiment" by Michael Singer, and it's this beautiful idea of
– and this really opened my mind to stuff and I really like
Michael Singer, because he does, he also wrote "The Untethered
Soul". And "The Surrender Experiment" is the story of his
life. And it's incredible, this story. It's – the story is, he
made a choice one day to simply say yes to everything. He
surrendered to what the universe wanted for him, what would come
as opportunities that might come, and it was this
experiment, saying yes, and trusting that it would work out.
Now he had some difficult points along this journey, but from
where he was, to the business that he created. So he's a yoga
guy, deep, reflective guy, a writer, who ended up creating
this entire business and industry around software in the
medical industry. It's incredible, and an easy read.
And it will actually make you ask yourself the question of:
What if I said 'yes'? That's always good in business, if you
say, yes, what could happen? Okay, so there's one for you.
The other one that I read years and years ago, and I recommend
it to anybody in business, which is "The E-Myth Revisited" by
Michael Gerber. And it talks about – and I talk about this a
lot in my programme – which is this idea of the path or the
journey of the entrepreneur, and what you can expect because I'm
a real believer when you know the journey, know the journey
before you take it. So it's like just having the map. It's the
whole principle behind Get Strategic, behind How Great
Marketing Works. It's about mapping everything. But Michael
Gerber did this beautifully in "The E-Myth Revisited". This is
not 'e' as in internet related. It's 'e' as in entrepreneurial
myth revisited. Check it out, kind of think it's required
reading if you are in business, and it will change your life.
Another one finished recently should have read it years ago
but here you go. "Atomic Habits" by James Clear, really love it.
Simple, great, great ways of thinking about habits, how they
can change your thinking, how every little step you take. So
don't think about the giant leaps, think about all the tiny,
tiny steps that make up the giant leap. And doing them
consistently, consistently, consistently. Because that, when
I'm asked about the secret of success, or the magic behind
great marketing, it is about consistency, that builds
momentum. Really check it out.
Another one for you and I'll bore you now with all of these.
"The Lazy Genius Way" by Kendra Adachi. And I kind of – I've
talked about this recently, and it's really worth reading as
well, again, a very simple book to read. And it's just about
finding the ease in things, and that is the genius way to
accomplish stuff.
Another one for you, "Good to Great" that was important for
me, I took some of the lessons from it and incorporated it into
the Get Strategic programme and it was a study of a large
quantity of businesses to see what it took to go from a good
company to a great company over time and what is the formula for
that? Again, worth reading.
"Influence" by Robert Cialdini, really interesting kind of was
conflicted reading this because it is about – it can be viewed
as manipulative marketing in some ways. It's what causes
influence, but it will give you some of the ingredients that
will help you do your marketing better. Don't go the
manipulative route, just understand the kind of
anthropological aspect of this, of how people make decisions and
how you can influence those decisions, but not control those
decisions. I was conflicted reading it, but realise it's
still important to know this stuff. Okay.
"Purple Cow" by Seth Godin. My go-to if anyone is ever asking
about marketing. "The Purple Cow" is – and I love Seth Godin
– but "The Purple Cow" is, you know, this idea that there are
black cows, there are white cows, there are brown and white
cows. But what does it take to be a purple cow? What makes you
remarkable? And this idea of remarkable is worth remarking
on. Again, if you're starting out in marketing and trying to
understand marketing for your business, I'm kind of like, thi
sis the first book you should read. It will change how you
think about your business and how to market your business. And
hopefully, you'll be more positive about marketing,
because of it.
I'm going give you – I'm just going to list the others.
They're also really good, because I have to tell you what
I'm going to read it on my own holidays. So the other one is
"Shoe Dog" by Phil Knight, which is a great biography about one
of the world's greatest brands, about Nike, so really read this,
or sorry, really, yeah, really read this. And it's also a
story. I like reading stories. So this is a great story and you
learn a lot from it.
Another story, which is by Marty Neumeier, which I loved. It took
all of his books, it's called "Scramble". He took all of his
books, kind of mashed them together, threaded a story
around it so that you could see how to apply all his thinking
into an actual situation. And that's just a beautiful way to
learn about how Marty Neumeier thinks about brand, about
growth, about all of that stuff. Really worth reading.
Last two, "Building a Story Brand" by Donald Miller, if you
want to know how to write really good copy, how to reach your
customers properly in terms of messaging, required reading.
Absolutely. Last one. And that's not the last, it's just the last
on this list. "They Ask, You Answer" by Marcus Sheridan. It
will help you write better content for your website, and
will change how you think about how you write content for your
website, and how you produce content. And it really kind of
leans into this idea of listening to what your customer
wants, and just giving it to them. Like, it's not
complicated. We tend to overcomplicate it. But this
allows you to sit into what your customer needs to know and then
you can deliver on that.
The ones I've taken with me on holidays on my lovely Kindle are
the following. "Unshakable" by Tony Robbins. It's a financial
book. I'm kind of really interested in this. I do like
Tony Robbins, and how he thinks about stuff. I'll let you know
how to get with it. Excuse me, "Switch" was a recommendation
from one of the guys on my podcast, Greg Chuchra really
recommended this and it's, "How to Change Things When Things Get
Hard" by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. Another one is "Scaling
Up: How Few Companies Make It and Why the Rest Don't" by Verne
Harnish. You can see a trend here, it's things I'm really
interested in. And as we have already started this, and this
is a kind of nice, lovely read, because I really love her stuff.
And it's "Everybody Writes" by Ann Handley, and I never got to
finish it. So going to finish it while I'm on holidays.
My last thing for you is, we're going to start a book club for
the Get Strategic group and for anybody who's been involved in
any of the How Great Marketing Works programmes. And I'd love
to hear what you're reading and what you'd like to discuss in
the book club. We'll do it monthly. Let me know your
thoughts. Let me know your reads because I love to read because I
am ultimately changed by it every time. This has been Finola
Howard. Yes, I'm on holidays for another few weeks. And this has
been episode 45 and it's the books that changed your
business, how you think about your business. And the question
I was asked, "I'm looking for some reading inspiration to take
with me on holidays. What are the books that had the biggest
impact on you and your business?" They're the ones that
impacted me. But I tell you, it's not an exhaustive list. So
have a great day everyone, and I'll see you next week. Take care.