I have always loved books but the genres I'm loving the most right now are Business books and Personal Growth books. And truthfully, the more business books I read, the more I understand many are actually personal development books in disguise.
Isn't that fascinating? In order to grow our businesses, we need to grow ourselves….
I honestly didn't realize there was a correlation between me, my habits, my history, my thoughts, my feelings and my business. I assumed business was more about “Here's the recipe. Now go do these steps and you'll have success”. Apparently, I was wrong! Haha!
If you're like me and thought the same thing, I'm here to tell you that you need a combination of both…sound business strategies and a deep understanding of yourself and how you tick. Without knowing yourself on a really deep level, you may struggle in unexpected ways despite having all kinds of business tools at your disposal. I still learn this daily as I keep uncovering new things about myself.
Fortunately, there are amazing people in this world who recognize this connection and create beautiful books to help us navigate all of it. Here are some of my favorite books and the lessons I have learned…
My Top 5 Business Books for Professional Growth
*Full disclosure: The link to each book is an affiliate link. But you know me, so you understand that I'm recommending each book because of the profound impact they have had on me and my business, not the commission I receive from the affiliate link.
1. E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber
When I started my real estate staging business, I always envisioned myself in the role of Sr. Stager. After reading this book, everything changed. I came to understand that while I founded my business because I loved the idea of using my styling skills to help people sell their houses, the role of Stager is only one position inside of a staging business. If I stayed in my role as Sr. Stager, I would have essentially created a job for myself, not a business.
I needed to transition from learning how to stage to documenting how I stage so I could hire and train others to stage. That's what I did and now I've got a staging business!
This transition was an important one because it saved me from the path of burnout and resentment that I was falling into as my business grew beyond my capacity. Today, I am so fortunate to have an incredible team–who our clients love–and now my Sr. Stager trains all of the new stagers who join us.
In addition, hiring a team of stagers trained in the RHI way, I enjoy passive income because I am no longer filling that role in my business. I have income coming into the business every day while I am on vacation or doing things like writing this blog for you.
Your turn! If you are still a company roster of one, it's not too early to start envisioning the day when you have a team. Start documenting how you do things so that someday, you can give yourself a promotion.
2. Atomic Habits by James Clear
This book is sooooo good! We've all heard the expression that we are our habits and in business, I would say our businesses are our habits. Our businesses are a wild reflection of who we are and the actions we take over and over and over.
And just like any habit, what you accomplish to build and move your business forward is a result of the small, repeated actions you take until you don't have to think about them anymore, they just happen.
In our businesses, creating good habits can come in the form of systems we put in place. By creating a system, we have the step-by-step checklist to get us started and then eventually we don't need that checklist anymore, things just happen in the same way every time because we have “practiced” the habit over and over again.
Is there something you want to create as a habit in your business? Start mapping out that step-by-step system to help you get started!
3. The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy
Small, smart choices + Consistency + Time = Radical Difference. Such a simple, yet elegant illustration of what I have seen play out in my own life and business. Much like James Clear's book, this book shares the power of habits created and committed to over a period of time yields major results.
I like to share the story of my business growth as an example of the Compound Effect. My business was built by attending a weekly networking group every Tuesday morning from 7:00 am – 8:30 for 6 years. Six years! I credit the success of my business to the connections I made and the confidence I built in speaking about my business every week. This was a small, smart choice made consistently and I gave it time to generate the radical difference. To this day, I can point to that networking effort contributing to 95% of my business.
How can you create a compound effect in your business?
4. Free To Focus by Michael Hyatt
This book came out long after I had learned many of the strategies in it but what I loved was the way it taught me to say “no” more intentionally. As a recovering people pleaser, I have always struggled to say no even when my gut was telling me no was the honest answer for me.
I had never considered that saying yes to something meant saying no to something else. And typically the thing that was being set aside because I was saying “yes” to things I didn't really feel in alignment with were the things I really, really wanted to be doing. This was so illuminating and I so appreciate that Michael Hyatt brought this message to me.
So how about you? Where have you been saying yes when your heart and gut are saying no? I encourage you to notice and start to think about the real cost to your goals with every non-aligned yes.
5. Profit First by Mike Michalowicz
I was paying everyone…except myself….for years. It felt horrible but it felt like the only option…until I read Profit First. Reading this book was validating because I learned that I wasn't the only business person experiencing this but it also taught me step-by-step how to fix my situation by taking profit for the business and my salary first. In the beginning, I was so nervous to take “too much” for my salary so I started with a small amount each week. Over the years, I have grown comfortable taking a much more generous salary for myself and it amazes me that energetically, I draw more income into the business to meet my new salary when I increase it.
If you love actionable steps and feel like you have a greater understanding of the money flowing into your business, I highly recommend this book.
In my new mentoring program RethinkYou we dive into many of the concepts I have learned in books like these as I have grown my business. If you would love to learn more and have mentoring from me as you do it, I'd love to have you join us inside RethinkYou.
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