34: What I'm Reading: 4 Books to Transform Your Life and Business

The next one I'm reading right now and I'm only about halfway through and I can't believe how much it has impacted me already.

I'm Bonnie Christine and this is where all things creativity, design, business and marketing unite. I'm a mama living in a tiny town tucked right inside the Smoky Mountains, running a multi seven figure business, doing the most creative and impactful work of my life. But when I first set out to become an entrepreneur, I was struggling to make ends meet and wrestling with how to accomplish my biggest dream of becoming a fabric designer. Fast forward to today. I'm not only licensing my artwork all over the world, but also teaching others how to design their creative life and

experience the same success.

This I'm here to help you spend your life doing something that lights you up. I'll help you build a creative business that also creates an impact, changes people's lives, gives you all of the freedom you want, and is wildly profitable. Welcome to the Professional Creative Podcast.

I love it when I feel like I have time to read a book. And I have recently finished four that I am so in love with. So I thought that I would share them with you here today. Always my goal if we go on vacation or go on a trip, to leave work behind and have a good book to sit down with. But in my day to day life I feel like the only way that I can really consume the books that I want to is by listening to them in the margins. So I typically listen to audiobooks though. Let me tell you a little secret. I have a hard time deciding on whether to do an audiobook or a paper book. I love having a paper book as well. And sometimes you just want paper, while other times you just want the audio version. So for me, sometimes I will listen to a book while, while I'm driving or while I'm on a walk. And of course a paper book wouldn't serve that purpose well. But then other times I'm in the bed and I would rather read with a paper book. So a couple of years ago I just gave myself permission to buy both the audiobook and the paperback book of any book that I wanted to read. And it's just this little expense that actually feels so, so luxurious. And I do it without any guilt. I used to have guilt around it like I should decide which one would serve this book the best, right? But I just decided no more guilt. Buy them both, consume them and come back to them whenever you want in whichever format that you want. So these four books I have full, full disclosure. I have in both audio and in paper form. And so like I said, I listen to books in the margin, in the nooks and the crannies. I do it while I'm driving to the gym or to the studio. I'll do it while I'm on a walk or while I'm doing something a little bit mindless like picking up around the house. So as I tell you about these four books, I would love for you to be thinking about your favorite read over the last few months or maybe even last year and come tell me about about it. Find me on Instagram. I'll post about this episode and let me know what book has been your favorite and how has it impacted your life. Okay. Book number one is called Buy back your time by Dan Martell. Now this book was introduced to me by Stu McLaren and Stu had Dan come speak to our mastermind. And we all got a copy of Dan's book. And when I heard Dan speak about it, I instantly knew this was the book that I needed. I have since devoured it, finished every word, and it is so good. So let me just tell you a little bit about the concept. The concept is that you calculate your buyback rate. In other words, how much are you worth per hour? And then you use that as a filter to hire out anything that you're doing in your business that you, you don't actually need to be the one doing anymore. And this works for any business at any size. Meaning if you are a one person show, you can read this book and list all of the things that you've been doing that perhaps you could outsource. The key here is that it gives you back your time. And you can use that time to do the things that you love most or do the things that only you can do that actually drive a lot of growth to your business. Dan also does a really good job of helping you analyze the tasks that you're doing and audit whether you should be doing them at all or not. He does a great job of explaining what your very first hire should be and then how you move on from there. So it's been really good. I've taken tons of notes and it's a, it's a great read. I have thoroughly enjoyed getting a peek inside Dan Martell's brain. Now the second one is called Two weeks Notice by Amy Porterfield. Now, I did an episode with Amy, it's episode 28 and it's on her book, two weeks notice. And so I highly recommend you go back and listen to that because I got to ask her some incredible questions based on her book. But let me tell you, I would have done anything to have this book when I was starting my business. I mean I still took tons of notes even though I have been doing this for over a decade. But truly when I was starting my online business, this book is worth its weight in gold. Amy does an incredible job always of laying out really logical, step by step actions that you can really get to work on, meaning none of it feels ethereal or over our head. It's all very much exactly what you need to do in order to get established and start creating income as a business. And so I just absolutely loved and devoured every word of this book. I highly recommend it. It's also brand new. So go get a copy of Two Weeks Notice by Amy Porterfield and check out episode 28 to hear a little bit more from Amy herself about this book. The next one I'm reading right now and I'm only about halfway through and I can't believe how much it has impacted me already. It's called the Power to by Craig Groeschel. Now Craig is a pastor, so this book is written through that lens, but it's really about habit forming and making powerful changes in your life that you want to stick. And I'm all about creating new habits that serve my life well. And so every day I'm only dipping into this about 10 minutes at a time. And I can't believe how I'm thinking about the teaching all day long. So far, the overarching theme is that our behavior is due to what we believe about ourselves, meaning we do what we do because of what we believe about ourselves, and that any lasting change or habit has to start with an identity transformation as opposed to just the behavior modification. And so it really has had me thinking about what I believe about myself. What are the identities that I want to align myself, you know, like a person like me does What? Well, a person like me gets up early and reads and has a good morning routine. A person like me works out and drinks a lot of water. A person like me is creative and draws every day. It's that kind of thinking. And from there our habits fall into place as we begin tackling more about the type of person that we want to become. And so my overarching theme takeaway so far has been around being disciplined and being able to choose what I want most over what I want in the moment. So choosing what I want most over what I want in any given moment. And so it's been really, really impactful. If it sounds like a good fit, go check it out. It's again called the Power to Change by Craig Groeschel. So the last one I want to share with you is called High Performance Habits by Brendan How Extraordinary People Become that Way. Now, I got to hear Brendan speak at a conference last November, and I resonated with the way he thinks and the way that he really delivers information so much. And so it was right after that that I picked up a copy of this book and enjoyed it immensely. Not only because it's about the habits of high performers, but because of the way that he teaches and speaks and inspires. So this book covers six habits that honestly are different than you would ever probably expect. It's about clarity and energy and raising necessity and increasing your productivity, developing influence and demonstrating courage. And so one of my goals over the last few years have been to really work on my leadership skills. So not only to become a higher performer, but also to become a better leader. And so this book just met me exactly where I was. Brendan is so inspiring. He's also incredible to listen to. So again, I've got the audio and the paperback of this one, but I love the audio version because it's Brendan speaking directly to you about all of these habits. And so I highly recommend that one as well. So now it's your turn. I would love to hear about what you're reading right now or the best book you've read in the last year that has impacted your life. You can find links to all of the books that I've shared today over in the show notes for today's episode, so you can find that at professionalcreative.com forward/vlog34. Always work to create the beauty that you want to see. Come alive in the world and remember, there's room for you. I'll see you next time, same place, same time.

See you then.