Escape Overwhelm: Fiction's Power in Business Growth

Welcome to the Overgivers Anonymous Podcast. My name is Angela Mondor, also known as The Geeky Girl. In this podcast, we're gonna be talking about some amazing things to help you get over overgiving. Hi, and welcome to this episode of the Overgivers Anonymous Podcast. Today I have a unique treat. I, I'm somebody who likes to read. I've read a lot of books over the last few years. In fact, it was 2020 when the change actually happened. I didn't used to read a lot of books. Now, I literally have my Kindle sitting right here. Books are part of my all day, every day. In 2020, I found that I was becoming overwhelmed with all the news and all the social media, and everything was just tumbling around me, and it was really difficult for me and my mental health to move through. And I don't know what it was. I don't know the exact moment, but something tweaked and I thought, you know what? I need to do something different with my time. I need to think about how I can possibly navigate what was happening. And I thought, you know what, instead of using my mobile device and popping on social media when I have a down moment, I was going to start reading fiction books. I was going to start putting myself in stories and thinking about things that weren't connected to real life. I wanted to put myself into fiction. I had been listening to audiobooks up until this point. I've listened to a lot of business books in audio form at that time, previous to that time. But I thought, you know what, I'm gonna throw myself into the world of fiction for a little while and see how that goes. I have to tell you that really cool things have happened from that experience. I won't go into complete detail about it, but I read hundreds of books every year now. I literally have replaced social media for the most part with spending time reading. Sometimes I'm reading books about business. Sometimes I'm reading biographies. Sometimes I'm reading books about fiction. It has opened my world a lot. I've seen things through other people's eyes. I have been introduced to different ideas and thoughts that have come about through other people's eyes, obviously the authors and those characters that they build. Today I'm going to share with you 4 books that are maybe not your normal go-to business books, but I think that they will be valuable certainly for you to at least look at and think about. A lot of them are autobiographies. I learn a lot from other people's experiences, so that's why I'm bringing these ones to the table. But they're not all autobiographies. Let's go forward and I'll move through them one at a time. I'll tell you about the book. I'll tell you why I like the book and why I think it actually is connected to business, because you may not see it right away. The first book I wanna talk to you about is called Greenlights. It's actually written by Matthew McConaughey, published in 2020. And it's interesting. It gives you obviously perspective on his life because it is a biography on his life, and it has personal stories and insights. The title's really cool though. The title of Greenlights, it's actually derived from McConaughey's metaphor of moments in life when things align and go well. And so it's like when you, when you're driving down the street and you just sort of catch a green light and you're like, okay, I get to go. I get to go. There's a green light. And so he literally will say, and of course it's read by him as well if you listen to the audio version, which is neat because you get to hear his inflection in it. And, you know, I can still hear now to this day when he says green light. It's a very interesting and in-depth story of his life, his journey, his life philosophy. Reflections on his life and what's happened to him. Obviously, he fills it with anecdotes and experiences and relationships that he's had throughout his years. And it's literally his guide to living his life authentically, being authentically him, and being able to— he tries to encourage the readers, us, to find our own green lights. What do those mean for us and how we navigate the yellows and red lights as well, having a positive mindset and those kinds of ideas. There's lots of humor in the book, the fantastic stories, his resilience and how he adapted his life is important as well. His self-discovery throughout the process is something that comes about through it. And like I said, his pursuit of happiness and positive mindset is really important. In terms of You know, as a book for business, it is a valuable piece to be able to think about how can I be resilient? How can I be adaptable in these situations? How can I authentically look at my own self-discovery and become who I am? As an actor, he obviously is running a business. He is creating a brand around who he is. He's created this business model, which has— he's had to adapt through his very first roles in through where he is today. And having— listening to his challenges and listening to how he handles those challenges, listen to how he has built his notoriety, can give you some ideas and thoughts perhaps on how you can use your own authentic self to influence your life and your business as well. So that book was very powerful. I loved— I actually listened to that one on Audible. I didn't read it. I listened to that one, but it was good. And it did give me some great ideas for my business, even though it's not a business book, it is a biography, but I was able to take some things away from it in terms of how he used these pieces to grow his brand and his notoriety. So if you look at it from that perspective, it certainly is a great book that you can push into. The business side of it without actually being a business how-to book. The next book is The Alchemist, which of course is not a biography, and it has been around actually since 1988. And it was originally published in Portuguese, which is kind of cool. It's been translated into numerous languages worldwide. It's a fantastic book where we follow the journey of this young person named Santiago, and he embarks on these quests and, and it's It's a very interesting journey that he goes through. And there's some neat pieces that pull out in terms of his journey and how he pursues his dream and how he sees the world around him and how the universe conspires to help him to achieve his goals. It's a very interesting book. One of my— I actually have on my wall right there, I have these sayings that I have taken from the book. And the first one is, Don't say that again. My life might be listening and give it to you a second time, or I give you less next time. That is in specific in relation to in a part of the book where somebody says, oh, you know, life always shits on me, or there's always something bad. And it's like, hold on a second, life might be listening. They'll give you even less next time because you weren't grateful of this time that you got whatever. Um, that was a really interesting piece. And then there was another piece that came out of the book that was poignant enough, it's been on my It's been on my wall for a while now. Um, it's everything that happens once can never happen again, but everything that happens twice will surely happen a third. So just because something bad happens to you one time doesn't mean to say it's gonna consistently happen to you a bad time again in a bad way. However, if maybe it happens to you bad a second time, perhaps think about maybe there's some changes you need to make so it doesn't happen a third. So it's interesting how for me that piece of the book was like, hey, you know what? Regardless of whether this was a good or a bad experience, it doesn't mean to say say it's going to happen again, but if it does happen again, then maybe there is a pattern that we need to look at, right? That was a really interesting— those were interesting quotes that I got out of the book. And of course, you know, it's something that lots of people have read. I'm sure you've heard people in your circle talk about it. It definitely is, you know, a great journey to listen to. In terms of why an entrepreneur or a business owner might find this valuable from a business perspective, it does emphasize the concept of following your passion, about being, you know, encouraging you to find out what your passions dreams are, um, and to aligning your actions with your personal aspirations. Obviously, the other piece is resilience and overcoming challenges, because of course Santiago has a lot of those, uh, throughout the book. Um, and being able to peel that out and say, how, how can I use my own resilience and how can I overcome challenges so that I can see, you know, the way towards the end as well? And trusting in your journey and trusting in your intuition. Our guts are so powerful. We learn to tune them out early on, but if you can learn to tune into your own intuition, your decision-making process is so much faster. And there's amazing things that can come out of listening to your own intuition. So those are some really great themes from a business or entrepreneur perspective that you could get out of that. And so it was a really great book. That one also, I listened to using the Audible version of that one as well. I think all 4 of these actually were Audible books, to be honest. Um, the next book I wanna tell you about is called Becoming. It's a memoir that's written by Michelle Obama, um, who's former First Lady of the United States. This book was published in 2018, and it was an account of her life right from her childhood experiences all the way through, of course, you know, in living in the White House and her experiences there in the White House. I love reading about people's personal experiences from their biographies, learning who they were, what experiences they had as they grew up, and, and how those maybe impacted them, whether it actually influenced them, or whether they made other choices based on what happened to them, those kinds of ideas. But she does describe the challenges that she had living in the neighborhoods that she did, what her opportunities were, and how she faced that in this, you know, in living in the working class, and how she excelled at school. And eventually, of course, she went on to Princeton and Harvard as well, or Harvard Law School. So her professional and personal journey was interesting to hear how her journey went through and how she made it her own as she was going through it. She was, whenever I watched her as part of, because of course being a Canadian, I, I mean, we're outside of what happens, but when I would see both her and, you know, her husband going through the experience about being in the White House. She always seemed to have her own stuff too. It wasn't just, oh, she's his wife. It wasn't that way. She had her own aspirations. She had her own intentions and what she wanted to create in the universe. Her community outreach and her public service and the things that she did, she was very loud and proud about those things. And I think that shone through. It wasn't just, oh, she's just the president's wife. No, she had a lot to give as well and continues to after as well. So of course, you know, what, what those challenges were like while raising their daughters and raising their daughters in such a strange circumstance, because how many people, there's very few people get raised through the, you know, being living in the White House and those kinds of ideas. And of course, her journey about living in the White House and, you know, the behind the scenes look about what that looked like for her and, you know, exploring her own identity, like I said, and her self-discovery and those kinds of things. And the concept of her legacy and impact is what I saw when I watched her and, you know, watched what was going on in the public eye with her. So it's a really, really intimate, powerful book. Of course, she reads it as well. If you listen to the audio version, you get to hear her read it. Sometimes I find that's really impactful when the author or the person who the biography is being written about is actually read by them on Audible, because they, they inflect things that maybe would come differently if it was just read by somebody who's reading their book, right? Um, in terms of why this is a cool book for entrepreneurs or business owners, um, again, the resilience and the personal growth piece. I think that as business owners and entrepreneurs, being resilient is super important, but the personal growth— if we can grow as human beings, that allows us to grow in our businesses as well. So having that Listening to other people and how they manage to find those resilient moments and those growth moments can help me personally, and maybe even you, to find different ways where you can embrace those pieces in your life as well. Balancing the career and family life. A lot of us balance that, whether we're balancing children, young children, or whether we're balancing aged parents. Maybe we're balancing a marriage while we're also trying to run a business. The personal life and the career, or the personal life and the business, is something that, you know, can be a challenge. And so listening to the way other people deal with those things is important. And she goes into what that looks like and how she had to balance not just having children, having a husband who is the president, but also her aspirations and her goals and her wants for her legacy as well. So that was kind of cool. Also, She definitely was a leader. And so listening to how she speaks about leadership can help you if you're thinking about leadership in your business as well and what kind of leader you are, want to be, aspire to. You know, her approach to the leadership and community engagement and pursuit of her meaningful goals, all of those things are really— can be of value when it comes to an entrepreneur or business owner when we're thinking about Our impact and our dreams in terms of how our business is going to impact those around us as well. Last book, funny as hell, gotta tell you, also a biography. I also listened to this one on Audible and it was actually read by Kevin Hart himself. The book was called I Can't Make This Up: Life Lessons. And it was a memoir about his life published in 2017. It was a really great book. not just because you heard about his childhood and the struggles that he went through as a kid, how he had ups and downs in his— in the entertainment industry, in the career, and, you know, how growing up in Philadelphia gave him other challenges and those sorts of things. But of course, his storytelling and his humor and just what he brought to the table was so awesome, um, that it was great to hear his experiences with his family's relationships, with his family, the relationship with the entertainment industry. And then, you know, the way that his his story all comes together is so amazing. Today, after reading this book, I don't just see him as Kevin Hart the comedian; he's Kevin Hart the business owner, the mogul. To listen to what he's done with his business and how he's incorporated all these different pieces into his business, he's built a legacy. He has built a massive company. That doesn't just revolve around him getting on stage and making money. This is one of the major reasons why this book specifically is really something that I think that it would be valuable for entrepreneurs to hear about. He takes the concept of diversification to the next level. Reading his book, listening to his book, you'll hear what he's done and how he's moved from just being a comedian to his diversification inside his business Phenomenal, just absolutely phenomenal. Obviously his resilience and perseverance and what he had to go through in order to complete or to accomplish what he has. There's a lot of transparency in the book, a lot of authenticity. You're going to learn a lot about his life, his mistakes, his setbacks, the hard work he had to put in, the journey that he had, you know, had gone, has gone on up until that time. Obviously there's been more since. And of course, his humor and the positive attitude and how he managed to go, all right, next, through the crazy things that happened to him along the way. This book, I know I feel like I saved the best for last in terms of an entrepreneurial book, but his concept and how he was able to take his career as a comedian and say, how can I grow this so that I'm not the only one? As an entrepreneur, we have a hard time with that sometimes. It's sitting back and going, okay, I only have X amount of hours every day and I want to grow my business and I want to make more money, but I can't make more money because I don't have enough time. His concepts and the things he's done might spark some ideas for you on how you can take your business and diversify and to change what you're doing inside your business so that you can grow, so that your money isn't connected directly to your time, essentially. So it's a fantastic book. Yeah. I hope that you enjoy these books. Uh, certainly we will make sure there's links to every single book here so you can quickly and easily grab them for yourself. Um, share them with your friends and always, you know, let me know what you think about these books. Leave me comments, send me an email at clientcare@geekygirl.ca. I would love to know your thoughts on these books. I hope you have a fantastic day and I look forward to talking to you next time. Thank you so much for listening to the Overgivers Anonymous podcast. Your support means the world to me. You can find show notes for this episode and other goodies at overgiversanonymous.com. And if you enjoyed this episode or you enjoy the podcast in general, why not join us in the Overgivers Anonymous Facebook group where you can connect with overgivers from all over the world? Head on over to geekygirl.ca/group.