Episode 15: My Top 5 Business Reads in 2019

Welcome to the Pursue You Podcast, where we are empowering you to continually reflect, design and pursue who you were created to be so you can give the gift of your best self to your family, community, and business!

In Episode 14 last week I shared my top 5 personal reads of 2019 as well as my history with reading and how it’s been a journey for me to become a “reader”. Today I’m re-enforcing the important things to consider as you start or continue on your reading journey, and also sharing with you the top 5 business books I read as a part of my goal to pursue growth in my business. I hope this list will help you tune into the conversations these books and their authors are starting and maybe add a few of them to your own reading list for this year.

12:05 Book 1: Developing the Leader Within You 2.0 by John Maxwell – This book is a great Audible listen for those of you that prefer audio books. It’s an update from the first edition, but even the author considers it more of a re-write. The big takeaways for me were how to understand your priorities and determine the difference between something that’s good to be doing and what’s best to be doing, and also how to see failure as a constant companion to success.

20:00 Book 2: Leader Shift by John Maxwell – This book is another favorite from John Maxwell if you’re looking for a book on how to grow as a leader. My favorite shifts he discusses were shifting from pleasing people to challenging people and how to shift from maintaining to creating.

24:40 Book 3: Clockwork: Design Your Business to Run Itself by Mike Michalowicz – This book was recommended to me by Jaclyn Mellone of the Go-To-Gal Podcast. This book is perfect if you have a goal to organize and streamline your business this year. The author writes all about how to create systems to automate your business and get it to run like clockwork without you having to be the driving force behind it.  

29:30 Book 4: Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility by Patty McCord – This book came as a recommendation from Amy Porterfield. It’s a book she uses anytime they on-board a new team member and it’s all about creating a culture of freedom and responsibility among your team. Two key points for me were focusing on honest, timely feedback with employees and making sure that the visions and ideas of all team members are being communicated openly and consistently.

34:15 Book 5: Rocket Fuel by Gino Wickman – This is a great book for any of you that feel you need a better understanding of your team members or what team member you might be missing. The author says that there are two types of people – visionaries and integrators. There’s an idea person and then there’s the person that loves to bring those ideas to fruition. It’s important to understand that one isn’t better than the other, because without the other neither of them can be useful. The book also comes with a test to determine whether you are a visionary or an integrator.

I hope this is enough insight into these books that you know which ones you need to add to your 2020 reading list. We are all living our own lives, these books resonate with me and where I am at. These are what worked for me and my goals. Wherever you are in your business, the more content you can consume, the more your life and business will grow. Where you are is where you’re supposed to be. Find a topic that gets a fire going in your belly that you can pursue. Pursue that which excites you. Don’t let what other people love sway you unless it’s aligned with where you are and where you want to be at the end of 2020.

Other business books I read in 2019:

• The Ideal Team Player by Pactrick Lencioni

• Traction by Gino Wickman

• Put Your Dream to the Test by John Maxwell

• The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle

My 2020 Business Book List:

• Profit First by Mike Machalowicz

• Radical Candor by Kim Scott

• The Founder and The Force Multiplier by Adam Hergenrother

• Dare to Lead by Brene Brown

• Fierce Conversations by Susan Scott

• The Millionaire Real Estate Investor by Gary Keller

• High Performance Habits by Brendon Burchard

Subscribe to the Podcast

I am grateful you were here for today’s episode! To make sure you don’t miss out on future episodes, I encourage you to subscribe to the podcast. Click here to subscribe on iTunes.

In order to help others find this podcast and help inspire them, I would love for you to leave a review of the podcast. Share something that motivated you, or something that helped you reframe the way you approach your life and goals. I’d love to hear how you’re pursuing your best self. Click here to review the show on iTunes. You can go to “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review”. Your comments are greatly appreciated!

More Episodes You’d Be Interested In

Episode 14: My Top 5 Personal Development Reads in 2019

Episode 13: Set Goals You Actually Care About

Episode 8: Pursue You Picks: Do Less

Episode 14: My Top 5 Personal Development Reads in 2019

Welcome to the Pursue You Podcast, where we are empowering you to continually reflect, design and pursue who you were created to be so you can give the gift of your best self to your family, community, and business!

I’m going to start today’s episode with a question? What was your favorite book that you read in 2019? What if I asked what was your favorite book of all time? What would your answer be? The reason I want to ask you this is because a few years ago I would have had to think back to college when I was forced to read books, and I would only read the cliff notes version, and after an assignment I’d forget it all. Once I got into business, I read books here and there, but I want to share today how I used to think about reading, because I don’t want you to feel intimidated by a personal reading list and just skip over this episode. I want you to know that reading wasn’t always a natural thing I loved to do. I was too busy. You’re probably feeling the exact same way. As I’m recording this year in 2019, however, I have read more books this year than I have ever read in one year. Reading impacted me in such a positive way this year that I want to inspire you and share with you some books that you may want to check out in 2020.

[4:00] I share how I developed a passion for reading. It all started with listening to podcasts. As I started to enter leadership positions in my real estate team, I started consuming more podcast content, and I discovered book recommendations from my favorite shows and their guest interviews.

[8:30] I share how I was inspired by Chris Suarez to read books on the things I claim to value most. This year was a focus on personal development, so my books are all tailored to that. Don’t worry, I’ll do a separate post on my favorite business development books in the future!

[10:50] Book 1: Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder by Ariana Huffington: Ariana focuses on the third metric of our lives that we need to focus on aside from just pursuing money and power as we seek to create a life of success. She teaches us how to focus on our well-being, wisdom, wonder, and giving, and how all of these together are going to help us become the people we want others to remember when we’re gone.

[15:30] Book 2: Keep Your Love On: Connection, Communication, and Boundaries by Danny Silk: Danny focuses on relationships in his book and especially on teaching us how to recognize whether these relationships allow us to feel confident or are causing us to feel vulnerable. He focuses on three points: connection, communication, and boundaries.

[20:30] Book 3: Today Matters: 12 Daily Practices to Guarantee Tomorrows Success by John Maxwell: If you are looking for a book that is going to spark a fire in you, this is the book to add to your 2020 reading list. John points out that we tend to do three things: over-exaggerate yesterday, overestimate tomorrow, and underestimate today. He then follows with 12 daily practices to make today matter.

[24:30] Book 4: Girl, Stop Apologizing: A Shame-free Plan for Embracing and Achieving Your Goals by Rachel Hollis: Rachel is very inspiring in this book, and it’s a great choice from this list to listen to on Audible. Her book helped me see excuses I needed to let go of, habits I needed to develop, and skills I needed to acquire.

[31:45] Book 5: Marriage Meetings for Lasting Love: 30 Minutes a Week to the Relationship You’ve Always Wanted by Marcia Naomi Berger: I love this book and it’s practical teaching on how to establish marriage meetings with your spouse. Whether you do it weekly or seasonally, I encourage you to take a look at how to set up a meeting with your spouse and have intentional conversations that include appreciate, chores, planning good times, and discussing problems and challenges.

[36:00] I share a few of the other books I read this last year that you might want to check out for your 2020 reading list. I also share about my goal to really make reading the Bible a priority for myself in 2020.

[38:00] I share practical tips on how reading changed my nighttime routine. Instead of screen time before bed, this was a perfect opportunity to read. I’ll take 5 or 10 minutes checking in on social media, and then I’m done, and I allow myself to read before bed to get my mind and soul prepared for sleep.

I recently read a quote from Warren Buffet, “This is how knowledge works, it builds up like compound interest, all of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will do it.”. I have been the busy one. If you had asked me a few years ago what I read, I wouldn’t have been able to answer you. It wasn’t a priority. It can be hard to get started, but maybe one of these books will put you on a path to success this year. It’s easy to make excuses, but I hope that you can find something in your world that ignites your passion for reading. You can take your self and your relationships to the next level through personal development by consuming more of these books. My 2019 is living proof for me, and I hope I can be a spark to get you started or to the next level because investing time into yourself is the best investment you’ll every make.

My 2019 Reading List:

• Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder by Ariana Huffington

• Keep Your Love On: Connection, Communication, and Boundaries by Danny Silk

• Today Matters: 12 Daily Practices to Guarantee Tomorrows Success by John Maxwell

• Girl, Stop Apologizing: A Shame-free Plan for Embracing and Achieving Your Goals by Rachel Hollis

• Marriage Meetings for Lasting Love: 30 Minutes a Week to the Relationship You’ve Always Wanted by Marcia Naomi Berger

• Do Less: A Revolutionary Approach to Time and Energy Management for Ambitious Women by Kate Northrup (hear more about how this book impacted me in Episode 8: Pursue You Picks: Do Less)

• The Alchemist: A Fable About Following Your Dream by Paulo Coelho

• Sit, Walk, Stand by Watchman Nee

My 2020 Personal List:

• Lore: Harnessing Your Past to Create Your Future by Jeanette Schneider

Subscribe to the Podcast

I am grateful you were here for today’s episode! To make sure you don’t miss out on future episodes, I encourage you to subscribe to the podcast. Click here to subscribe on iTunes.

In order to help others find this podcast and help inspire them, I would love for you to leave a review of the podcast. Share something that motivated you, or something that helped you re-frame the way you approach your life and goals. I’d love to hear how you’re pursuing your best self. Click here to review the show on iTunes. You can go to “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review”. Your comments are greatly appreciated!

More Episodes You’d Be Interested In

• Episode 13: Set Goals You Actually Care About

• Episode 8: Pursue You Picks: Do Less

• Episode 7: Screen Time Hacks

Episode 13: Set Goals You Actually Care About

Welcome to the Pursue You Podcast, where we are empowering you to continually reflect, design and pursue who you were created to be so you can give the gift of your best self to your family, community, and business!

Goals, goals, all types of goals! Any SNL fans out there? I love the skit Back Home Baller and the song “Bowls, bowls, all types of bowls”, and if you haven’t seen it you might want to watch it, but today, we’re not talking about bowls. We’re talking about goals! Like many of my stories, I had one of my most amazing revelations about goals at a retreat I went to in October. This message is applicable any time of year if you are thinking about setting goals, but I wanted to share it now as we’re approaching the beginning of the new year because I know many of you are deep in goal setting mode. Now, I’ve been the person who always knows what the next goal is and I’ve been the person who has no time to even think about setting goals, so whichever one you are right now, I hope this will help change the way you think about goals, and let you see that when you care about the goals it will be much easier to work towards achieving those goals.

Before we start, I’m going to be walking you through a worksheet that will be extremely valuable as you work on your goal setting. If you want to go ahead and download it now, you can do that here.

[3:00] I share the story about the retreat I attended and what happened while I was brainstorming a business plan for Pursue You during a quiet time. The outcome was not at all what I expected, but I asked myself two questions afterward in order to decide if my goals were right or now. I’m going to challenge you to ask these questions when you write down your overall goals for the year. 1. If I accomplish these goals, will I feel happy at the end of the year? Alternatively, 2. If I don’t accomplish these goals, will I feel bummed at the end of the year?

[7:00] What I came to realize after answering these questions was that in order for me to truly be happy, I want to know that I am showing up as the best wife and mom. This was a meaningful goal to me. I knew I could accomplish the business goals, but they weren’t meaningful and that is the mindset we need to change as we set goals. We need to set goals that as we accomplish them, allow us to love who we have become as a result.

[9:40] Hear how I’m turning the tables on you and giving you a road map to setting goals that you actually care about.

[10:50] Reflecting: I challenge you to first start with reflection. Think about your past and how you’ve shown up. What are you most proud of? What would you classify as your top priorities in your life? If I didn’t know your heart and I just looked at your calendar or where your energy is spent, what would I say your priorities are? Is there an area of your life that you feel is lacking?

[12:10] Now that you’ve reflected, it’s time to design. In order to design our goals, I want you to download my free Life GPS worksheet. Goals. Priorities. Strategies.

[15:10] Goal. What is the one thing that if by doing it you will feel fulfilled? This can often be the most difficult part to set, but it needs to be something that’s going to make you feel better about who you’ve become after you’ve been through the process of achieving it.

[16:00] Priorities. To identify your priorities, refer back to your answers to the reflection questions earlier. Do the things you say are priorities actually turn out to be your priorities? Write down at 3-5 priorities that will be placed above anything else and will ultimately help you achieve your overall goal.

[24:00] Strategies.  These are the plan of action. Be sure to set SMART strategies, meaning they are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely. If you’re looking for an example, refer back to my strategy when I wanted to cut down screen time. I talk all about it in Episode 7: Screen Time Hacks.  

Do you see how the Life GPS works together? It’s all about creating goals that you actually care about. You want to be passionate about taking action, and once you do accomplish it you’ll love the person you have become as a result. That’s the whole point of goals. I hope this has helped you see that. I hope this worksheet will allow you to feel better about yourself when you look at your strategies, priorities, and overall goal. Don’t forget to grab the worksheet, download it and set your goals for 2020. Let’s be people that set meaningful goals that will allow you to pursue you so that you can give the gift of your best self to your family, your community, and your business.

Download the Life GPS Worksheet

Subscribe to the Podcast

I am grateful you were here for today’s episode! To make sure you don’t miss out on future episodes, I encourage you to subscribe to the podcast. Click here to subscribe on iTunes.

In order to help others find this podcast and help inspire them, I would love for you to leave a review of the podcast. Share something that motivated you, or something that helped you re-frame the way you approach your life and goals. I’d love to hear how you’re pursuing your best self. Click here to review the show on iTunes. You can go to “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review”. Your comments are greatly appreciated!

More Episodes You’d Be Interested In

Episode 7: Screen Time Hacks

Episode 6: Good Enough to Move On

Episode 5: Pursue You Picks: The ONE Thing

Episode 10: The Pruning Challenge