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The Two Books You Need Right Now To Grow Your Business by @CasiYost

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by Casi Yost | Featured Contributor

I first heard about these two books over podcasts. Are you surprised? By now you shouldn’t be.

The first is the “Artists Way” by Julia Cameron

This book is what allowed me to creatively break through to get to the mindset where I needed to be to actually take myself and my business seriously.

The premise of this book is that it helps you to unlock your creativity. Lets be real honest here – as soon as we get into high school and then move into college, the creativity is beat right out of us. The real world doesn’t like when we don’t conform, so our creative thinking goes right out the window.

OR we’re too distracted by trying to make money, party, look good on social media, etc., to actually take time to be creative. Because well, that is a “waste of time,” when you could be doing something to make you money. Right?

So wrong.

Some of the top athletes, CEO’s and most successful people in their fields take time to just sit and think.

Don’t believe me? Ryan Holiday does this, major companies and Silicon Valley have what are called “think tanks,” where they creatively come up with solutions to problems or create ideas for things to make money.

You can’t expect to grow your business if you don’t designate time to dream big and come up with new ideas.

And no, the five minutes in the shower don’t count. You need large amounts of dedicated time DAILY to do this. I do this three times a day.

WHAT? But you’re busy! You work and have two jobs!

I know. I fit it in. Right in the morning, when I drive to work and when I drive home. Those are my 2.5 hours a day to think.

You don’t have to have this much time, but because I live so far away from my work, I have this “luxury.”

So how did the “Artists Way” help me in the first place?

Morning Pages. Total breakthrough machine.

How it works is that you write and don’t stop until you have filled three pages each morning. Yes in the morning.

This allows you to brain dump anything that is blocking you from thinking clearly, get your ideas out so they aren’t bouncing around and blocking you once again. It allows you to work through feelings, ideas, whatever.

It helped me because I have ideas and don’t know how to execute them. I need to talk them through and writing them out allows me to look at my idea from point a to point z because its on paper!

There are so many advantages from doing just the morning pages, but there are other excersize’s people can do.

Don’t take my word for it. When you research top performers like Tim Ferris, you notice there is a trend where the most successful people in their industries do something similar to this.

the book the daily stoic, an iphone, pen and lipgloss on a table

Now, the other book is totally in another area: Philosophy.

Don’t zone out on me here. I totally thought the same thing too.

“Ugh, really? Do I have to?”

Yes. It is digestible. My favorite author of all time as you know by now is Ryan Holiday. He has written so many good books that honestly helped me re-frame my mindset, but I’ll talk about that in another post.

This book, “The Daily Stoic” has one piece of wisdom for you each day and it seriously sets the tone for how I think about problems.

The way I use the information from the book is this:

  • If I approach my problems from a different perspective and different angle, maybe I will have a better outlook, suffer less, and use my problems as a stepping stone or opportunity.

This book allows you to re-frame the way you think so that you can approach problems and life in a way that sets you up for success. Totally amazing right?

This is the one thing I keep telling people: you need to change your mindset about how you approach your business.

Why? If you do the same thing over and over with the same results, why don’t you do it a different way? Maybe you’d get what you wanted: success.

the book the daily stoic on a couch with an iphone and pillows

So… this book and other books I talk about (Gary Vaynerchuck and Crushing It) totally do that.

If you want to grow your business, you have to invest in yourself and your business intelligence. You want to know your stuff right? Well start learning, and don’t stop.

I wrote a “short” overview of all the things I’ve done to grow my business HERE in case you’re interested in looking at that too!

Have any books you think I should read? Drop them below:

Thanks for reading friends!

XO,

Casi

Time = Gold (and … money = silver) by @SBSLEducSoltns

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by SJ Barakony | Featured Contributor

Putting Productivity ahead of Busy-ness in Business

 

“I’m so busy!”

“How are you? How’s business?  Busy!”

 

There are mild variants,  yet, the theme is constant: The individual is … say it with me now …. B-u-s-y.

Since when did our nation’s backbone, entrepreneurs, decide that this status was the end all, be all, in conversation, let alone in practice?

Let’s reframe. First, though, empathy & grace are necessary.

I know: There’s a LOT on your plate;  I’m sure many of these are on your calendar, scribbled on sticky notes, and/or are pop up reminders on your smart device:  Payroll. Review insurance coverage. Talk to the V.A; accountant; and/or financial advisor. Respond to client messages. Etc …

Still, we shouldn’t aspire to busy-ness; when we stop, if merely for a moment & reflect, we realize that as entrepreneurs, we’re solution providers & producers.

Thus, the more we produce, the more pro-ductive we are: it’s productivity which we should strive for, a 1:1 replacement for the ‘busyness’ that is our default answer to so many questions.

Painting a picture to aid in this mindset shift, we revisit the 1st few words …

 

Time = Gold.

 

… and now can move to implement this truth in our business first ( self-leadership ), then, model it for staff + customers, lastly, replicating it to other entrepreneurs in our network.

 

Those who are wise won’t be busy, and those who are too busy can’t be wise.”
― Lin Yutang

Click to Tweet

Lin Yutang #quote

 

 

Precious Metals

 

Gold :  

Time is an irreplaceable asset, just like gold. Gold is finite & very rare: Its value has held firm for thousands of years & once was used regularly in commerce worldwide. Just like there’s always been a 24 hour day, the amount of gold available for mining is constant; fluctuation in the ‘price’ of gold is due to the underlying currencies, just like your productivity ties to how well you lead yourself.

Silver :

Money is a reflection, a flag, which signals how much value you’ve added to the marketplace; your monetized service, product, &/or specialized knowledge is your entrepreneurial bridge b/w problem identified & solution provided. We look to silver now, as its value is also stable, yet it’s more abundant in nature than gold. So, with an abundance mentality x growth mindset, you know you can grow your share of this not fixed pie.

 

 

Two must read books

Without a shred of doubt, I wholeheartedly recommend both. Each has a high ceiling of potential energy which can be tapped to lead to dramatic improvements in your productivity & reduced busy-ness.

 

E-Myth: Revisited

The Fifth Discipline

 

Stephen R. Covey

He passed away over 6 years ago, gone & not forgotten as a pioneer; through his off the charts levels of contribution, we have much to tap into. The 4 quadrants is something to study often, & implement in short order.

 

Covey’s Time Management Matrix, in the written word

Or perhaps you’d learn better from a visual?

 

 

Suggested ‘Twitterverse’ Follows

 

A Helpful Guide to Becoming Unbusy by Joshua Becker

How to Stop Being Busy All the Time from Gus Razzetti

4 Ways to Break Free From Being “Too Busy” penned by Rikki Rogers , culled from The Muse

 

Leverage = Legacy

 

This concept is transformational.  Pulling from the vastness of the internet, here are two marvelous resources. Once you take this small two-step seriously, my advice is to keep going!

 

Kelly Azevedo

Amanda Abella


Systems Thinking?  

 

Its powerful.  In a previous post, you learned all about the power of principled self education.

Here’s a superb opportunity to practice what you read by visiting Donella Meadows ‘s website.

And if you haven’t yet bumped into this infographic, please, I implore you, dive in over the next 24 hours. Your income can become systems driven wealth through active application of this business truism.

 

In my ongoing discovery, I’ve repeatedly shared these maxims with those whom I mentor, in coffee 1:1’s, & elsewhere: Why? They’ve allowed me to run multiple business ventures at the same time, all while making strides towards being productive = gold = time & (more) passive = silver = money.

 

Next steps:

 

 

What can Westminster Abbey teach about implementing this content?!  

 

This inscription, when understood at a deeper level, reflects the ongoing value of lifelong learning.

 

Action Time

 

As with anything you choose to read, listen to, or watch, the truest formula = what you do next, how you proceed, & why?

Reflect, through meditation, prayer, yoga, or in a moment(s) of silence on this post, please, & thank you for reading!

 

In short …

 

  • A producer is productive; a consumer is busy. ‘Busy’ shouldn’t be a status, symbol, or state of being for the wise entrepreneur
  • Time = gold.  Money = silver.  Prioritize your irreplaceable asset;  focus on it and not on money (income, wealth) as #1.
  • Review the links to invest in 2 highly recommended books
  • Covey’s quadrants/matrix is a terrific tool in and by itself
  • Suggested Twitter follows & some of their scholarly tweets. #MustReads
  • Understand systems & leverage in your entrepreneurship education
  • Leadership starts with self

 

Five Books Your Brain Wants You to Read by @vmcntosh

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by Victoria McIntosh | Featured Contributor

Need a bit more processing power? Struggling over and over with a puzzle you know can be solved, if only you could see the answer? While not everyone will become masters of general relativity or cosmic theory, there are ways we can sharpen our minds like steel traps, and find better answers to the puzzles we come across. Critical and creative thinking, the ability to solve problems with both logic and imagination is something we can all strive to get better at, and the desire to learn more is part of the fun. If you’re getting ready for a mental marathon, the authors and their inspirations below provide excellent exercises, advice and timeless wisdom to better your brainpower. Some of these books I’ve recommended before; some are completely new and some a little out there. All have given moments of pause and provided new invites into how to process incoming data.

1. Mastermind – Maria Konnikova

Unquestionably a favorite, Mastermind was first introduced to me at a professional development conference from a longtime security professional. I picked up the book from the local library, started to read, and after the first chapter went out to purchase a copy of my own: I needed this one my shelf. Writer Maria Konnikova breaks down the mental processes of Holmes brilliantly, combining detailed analysis of Sir Doyle’s writings with studies on psychology and neuroscience, identifying Holme’s method of mindfulness, observation, and putting pieces together while demonstrating the detective’s own tactics for getting un-stuck. If you select but one book to improve your mind, make it Mastermind.

2. How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day – Michael J. Gelb

Born in Florence in 1452, Leonardo Da Vinci had a particularly rare kind of genius: he’s known for his detailed observations of science and inventions, but more famously for his paintings and works of art. Da Vinci was a man who could equally use both the right and left sides of the brain, a rare talent that gave us one of history’s most loved intellectual. In his book, Michael Gelb explores Leonardo’s life and times against his power of “whole-brain” thinking. Gelb’s book is presented less as a psychological paper and more of a workbook: with exercises, activities and actions designed to break open the seven principles behind Da Vinci’s great mind, and showing readers how they too can encourage their own renaissance thinking.

3. It’s Not About the Shark – David Niven

Sometimes when getting wrangled up in a problem, it’s hard to find the way out. Between “watching a boring movie,” and “calling your friend with the purple hair,” Niven provides some very different advice on getting through the mess, with memorable real-world anecdotes that keep you reading, the book’s title coming unquestionably from Spielberg’s experience with Jaws. Under Niven’s instruction, you’ll learn to avoid dismissing your most out-of-the-park ideas; sometimes they’re exactly the solutions you need. If you’re stuck and looking for advice on creative problem solving, It’s Not About the Shark is for you.

4. Curious – Ian Leslie

“The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know,” is a famous quote of Albert Einstein, but what drives us to keep learning? Sure, that monkey can hold up a picture to get a banana, but does it ever wonder why silly humans are so interesting in how it learns in the first place? In Curious, Ian Leslie poses is a line of thinking that may become the critical intellectual capability in a future of rising artificial intelligence: the ability and interest in asking “why?” It’s an interesting perception, with Leslie providing examples of how asking questions and the desire to learn more can have significant impact on brain health, with some big payoffs.

5. Genius Foods: Become Smarter, Happier, and More Productive While Protecting Your Brain for Life – Max Lugavere

Sometimes what our brains really need is food, and certain foods can offer better results when we need thinking power than others. There are a few books out there to read on the topic, and Lugavere’s should definitely be one on your list. Genius Foods packs a punch for advice, both for immediate brain boosts and keeping your memory sharp with age. When brain fog becomes a nasty frustration, Genius Foods is here to help.