The Books that Shape You

There are some books you read that leave a profound impact on who you are going to be. The books that have dog-eared pages, highlights, stains on the pages... those are the ones I tend to recommend to others.

This is a selection of mine. My favourite books are about health, entrepreneurship and marketing.

From the #BulletproofDiet to #SethGodin's "All marketers are Liars" to learning about the Finnish term "#SISU" - the insights and tactics I've taken away from this segment of my library have been game-changers.

CLEAN EATING:

I am at the top of my game when I'm eating well. At the beginning of the COVID pandemic, I found myself drinking too much wine and stress-eating. I felt puffy, slow and foggy. "This ain't me!" When I find myself slipping into bad habits, I tend to re-read:

• Melissa Hartwig's "It Starts with Food" (or the Whole 30 reset program)

• Ben Angel's "Unstoppable"

• Dave Asprey's Bulletproof Radio podcast is something I listen to each and every week.

This content is eye-opening and actionable. These books help to re-inspire me to eat and drink for fuel rather than stress.

MARKETING:

Although all the titles mentioned here are game-changers, the one I'll focus on in this blog is "Marketing Made Simple" by Donald Miller.

BUY THIS BOOK. The downloadable PDF found at the link above is a valuable opt-in as well.

The concepts throughout are easily worth 100x the value of the book. It starts out explaining the best approach to marketing at a high level. About half way through - this book becomes your step-by-step guide to creating (or fixing) your messaging, website, lead generator, etc.

With my clients, I really focus on using the Marketing Made Simple approach. It's simple and focuses on the prospect's problems.

Here are a few insights:

1. What makes a good lead generator? Capture an interview with an industry expert; Create a checklist for your prospects to use when trying to navigate their problem; Make a worksheet your prospects can use over and over again...

2. At the top of your website... address your prospects problem FIRST. Then, talk about how you're going to solve it. Most of the time our headlines are about us, our products or services. Instead, flip the focus to be on your customer and their problems.

3. Pictured below... Go and do a quick homepage assessment on your website.

(see I told you I highlight and dog-ear my pages!)

ENTREPRENEURSHIP:

And finally, when it comes to entrepreneurship these three things hit me hard:

• Going 'all in' - from Gary Vaynerchuk. This guy isn't for everyone but I like him for his no bullshit approach to life and business.

• Tim Ferriss' book "The 4-Hour Workweek". This will change your mindset about how to level up your efficiency game.

AND

• Design Thinking. This method of brainstorming and tackling wicked problems using innovation is what has made me the gal with 'all the unique ideas'. I studied it at Queen's School of Business and it is the approach I use with my clients. You know who else puts Design Thinking into action? Google. (And you can, too). Read more about Design Thinking on this prior blog "Google's 8 Principles of Innovation".

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These are just some of the books that have left a dent in who I am. Although I don't find as much time as I would like to read, I do love a good personal development or business book.

What books have shaped you?