278: The 3 Books That Changed My Life

Today on the podcast, I am sharing three books that have had a massive impact on me and on my success as an entrepreneur. I'm going to give you all of the details on the inside. Come join me. Welcome to the E Commerce Roadmap, the podcast for store owners who are growing their sales without spending a fortune on ads. Each week you'll learn actionable strategies and tips that will fast track the growth and profitability of your E Commerce business. So buckle up and join your host, Susan Bright Bradley, as we dive into the work that will grow your sales this year. Hey there. Welcome back. So a few weeks ago I posted a question in the inner circle in our members only community and the question was simply if you could ask me anything, what would you ask? And the reason I asked that question was that I want to always make sure that I'm delivering content to our members and our whole audience that is relatable to them and it actually serves them well. It answers some questions for them. But also I was interested in what's on their mind, what they might be thinking about right now. And one of the questions actually inspired this episode. And the question was from Louise. She asked, what are the best three books you have ever read which have impacted both your business growth and personal development? And I thought, wow, what a great question. Because I see this question come up repeatedly both in my feed, my, my meta feed, but also in our group. People are always asking recommendations of books. And the truth is that I do have three books that have had a massive impact on me, first of all, as an entrepreneur and I believe that they have really contributed a lot to my success. But also there's one book that I've read recently, actually this is a new one to my list and it's had a big impact on me and how I, I would say, manage myself in the world. It's really had an impact on how I behave and how I'm interacting with others. And so I'm just going to dive in and share these with you. And I think it's super timely because it's as I record this, it's the beginning, early summer. People are always looking for great reads. Every one of these is a easy, quick read. It's not full of filler that sometimes you'll find in self improvement books where they just go on and on to keep you engaged there easy. They are quick to read and they are highly actionable. And so I'm just going to start right with number one and the first book that has had probably the biggest impact on My strategy as a business owner is the book called the One Thing. So this book is written by Gary Keller and Jay Papazan. I actually had the opportunity to meet Jay about a year ago, and that was exciting for me because this is a book that I read every year, and I read it between. Between Christmas and New Year's every year. And at this point, I don't read it all the way through, but I read it to bring myself back to what's important. So this book was a real game changer for me. And here's what it's about. This book, I think, demonstrates how to get. They call them extraordinary results, and they do it in a simple way in the book, and it's in a way that you will be able to replicate. So what I would say to you, in short, is this book shows you how to look at the big picture and identify what it is you need to focus on to move the needle. And what's really interesting to me is if I have a zone of genius, I think this is it. And so what this book did for me particularly, I think it made me better at that. But particularly what it did for me is showed me how I could apply that to all sorts of different scenarios, like to. Even if I'm doing a weekend retreat with our members, I could apply it to that. If I've got a project that we're working on internally with the team, I can apply it to that. If I'm doing a team retreat, I can apply it to that. If we've got a course that we're supporting, I can apply it to that. And so that's why it's important to me. Why I think it will be important to you is because time is your most precious resource. Remember that. We all think that it's money. We all think that we're super, super careful about how we spend our money. But if we were as careful about how we spend our time as we are about how we spend our money, I think that you'd find that your business grew faster and you probably have more money as a result, because time is actually your most precious resource. And it won't matter how hard you work, you will never be able to create more time. We all have the same amount of time. And so when you read this book, you will take a hard look at how you're spending your work time. And before you know it, you will see that there are tasks, there are things that you're doing that you can eliminate, and you'll see the value in staying focused on that work that takes you to your goals. One of the other things that I think was really good for me was every time I reread that book and get back centered on, okay, what is the work I can do that will take me to my goal the fastest? And one of the things that has helped me so much, and I will often share this with clients, is that once I go back to that and I realize the thing, the one thing that's gonna move the needle, then I can run all the tasks I think I have to do through a filter and say to myself, hey, is this thing that I think is so important right now ultimately going to get me towards my goal? Now, we know there are some things that you have to do all the time, but this is a really good for getting you out of that routine of just doing and doing and making you really question the ultimate value of that task and valuing the time that you're going to spend on that task. So I would say that once you do this, you'll be able to eliminate tasks and really stay focused. And so when I look at store owners that we work with, this is a skill that many people have to develop still. And I and they always have questions about how to spend their time and what they should do. And so if you read that book for no other reason than that solving that problem, it's totally worth it. Now for me, I think it was life changing the strategy. And I think that applying that concept, that one thing concept to my business, which I have done for many years now, probably first read that book, I'm gonna say maybe seven or eight years ago, and I would say that every year I read it and it contributes to my success in a big way. I've applied it to my work life for sure. But really, if you think about it, you can apply this to your, like, to your whole life. You can apply it to your personal life. You can apply it to your goals for your, whether it's your financial health or whatever it is you want in life, you can apply this to it. So I would say you could even use it for quick sprints in your work. We certainly do that. Or you could use it for planning a vacation. What is the one thing that's going to give you the outcome you want? The vacation of your dreams. And so I highly recommend it. We'll put the link in the show notes for this and don't miss it. It's easy, so go get it. None of these are affiliate links, by the way, but I really do believe they Will help you. The second book that has had a really big impact on my financial health is the book Profit first by Mike Michailwitz. And really the Promise of Profit first. The book is, they say it right in the tagline, it's to turn your business from a cash eating monst to a money making machine. And if you follow the concept in that book, it does exactly that. And they share that with you throughout the book. Mike does in a way that makes complete sense to people like us business owners. And I think it's super important to you because almost every product based business owner that I know, and this is even the ones that have high volume, like even the seven figure store owners or multiple seven figure store owners, this applies to them too because at some point they struggle with cash flow. All of us do as store owners and worse, many people who have a high, relatively high volume store and actually you look at that from the outside and look in and think, hey, that's a really successful store. But they are not able to pay themselves well. They haven't set themselves up for long term success. And so this book is something I recommend all the time and I believe you should do it. Because if you haven't experienced a cash flow crisis yet, know that unless you have a strategy to manage your money set up and in place, you will likely work really hard for years with very little to show for it. And so I read Profit first actually when it was first published. It's probably the first big business book that I read. And at that time I had sold my first business and that was a seven figure business that literally was in decline for more than a year or two. And I just kept going and going with that business. And even though at the end of the day when I sold the business, I'd spent 20 years building that business, I realize now that I sold that business for far, far less than I could have sold it for if I had only prioritized the financial part of my business. And I have to tell you, like, it's still, it's years ago now, years, and I've experienced lots of success since then, but I can still remember that I spent many sleepless nights with that seven figure business on my back, worrying about my cash flow, worrying about my debt. And, and after I read Prophet first the book, I realized, oh gosh, it didn't have to be that way. I created that, what do they call it, that cash eating monster. I created that cash eating monster. And so what I would tell you is when I bought, we squeak, I committed to myself to follow the profit first rules. And I have done that ever since then. And I'm happy to share with you that that since that time I have not spent one minute worried about my business's financial health. Since then, I think, boy did I ever learn my lesson in that first 20 years. And I just thought it was normal. And I'm sure there are people listening to this right now that think that. Always scrambling, always checking your bank account, checking your line of credit, checking your credit cards, juggling. I bet you there are lots of people that think that's just normal. That's what we do. But now I know that's not normal and it doesn't have to be that way. And so I learned that lesson in a really hard way. But thank goodness I learned it hard enough that when I bought we squeak and took it from where it was when I bought it to the place where I could sell it for a really nice, healthy profit. That lesson stuck with me. Now something to note though is there is actually a version of a profit first specifically for E commerce. But I actually don't think you should read that one. I highly recommend you read the original one. It's the version that is authored by Mike Michalwitz. It's the one that started everything. I would read that one and then I would go and grab Sierra Stockland's book and that is inventory genius. Or go follow Sierra and learn how to apply it to your business. Because all you have to do is you have to have an inventory account too. And I think that is much more simple than the actual Profit first for E commerce. So go have a look at that and add that in to your profit first strategy and you'll be good to go. I promise you if you do the work, you can be debt free, you can pay yourself well and you can truly be profiting from your business. And once you do that, you have a very saleable business. So don't put that on the back burner. That is something that every store owner should do right away. So the third book I would love to recommend to you is the Let Them Theory. Now the Let Them Theory is by Mel Robbins. And full disclosure, I think I knew Mel Robbins was some sort of a person of influence, but I have never read anything she's written. I had never seen her really until she started popping up in my feed with short form video and I started listening to some of her video and that's what got me hooked. I just started listening to her on some of those really short videos And Mel promotes the book as a life changing tool. And I feel like I agree it is again, it's a tool you can use. Just like profit first is a tool and the one thing is a tool. This feels like a tool to me. And so when I think of how I would explain it to you, basically I would tell you it's a masterclass in self management. And I think that's important to you because anyone who's running a business needs this book. Because almost every business owner I know, like pretty much all of you, struggle to separate your emotions from your facts. When you're thinking about your business. You struggle to separate or even recognize that you're thinking about your emotions rather than the facts of your current situation. And what I would say is the result of that, and I see this all the time, is that often you stay stuck because you can't get past that roadblock. The roadblock might be, I tried that already and it doesn't work. Or the roadblock would be, oh my customers are different, they don't like email. Or the roadblock will be, I think of one person that kept telling me their customers didn't like, I didn't like promotions like it, just that those are roadblocks, those are your emotions, those are not facts. And when you can't get past that, you are throwing up roadblocks for yourself all over the place. It might be, my customers don't like it when I post 3 times a day on social media. Who knows what it is, but what it leads to is poor decision making. And it's decision making that is reactionary and based on what you're perceiving, your perception and your emotions around that perception rather than data. And for us as e commerce store owners, data is our friend and data will point the way to success every single time. But if you let your emotions take over, then you never actually even look for the data. And so you just keep going and doing things that bring you very little result and make you feel like that was a failure too. And it doesn't take long before you feel like you're failing. But I want you to read this book because I think you will learn a new skill that will first of all make you feel better about your business, but also change how you show up in your business and also of course, how you show up in the world. This book is super new for me, but. And I know that I'm already really analytic and I don't actually very often get emotional in my business life, I might have a moment where sometimes something happens that really throws me off and I go stand in the corner for a little while. But I shake it off pretty quickly. And I am a firm believer in the data. But I would say that even for me in my business life, I have high expectations of myself, but I also have high expectations of others. And you might be the same like you might feel like you need to control every situation. I know I often revert to that, thinking I will I should just control it all. But I read this book cover to cover and often with a self help book, I don't read the whole thing but I read it cover to cover. And for me the concept was simple and easy to follow and I walked away feeling okay. Mel Robbins understands me and I had a new awareness of the power that I have to manage myself and get more of the mental peace and quiet that I have been craving. And I would tell you that for me because I am analytical and my business is I'm pretty good at that. But for my personal life I think this is going to be incredibly helpful. And so I think this is another one of those books that I will read more than once just as a refresh to remind myself, hey, if things don't feel like they're going the way I would like them to go, I'm probably the common denominator here. Let me go back and read this and see how I can manage myself in a way that gets me the result I want. And so I would highly recommend this book. Quick and easy read, highly actionable. So that's it for now. I have a couple of other books that I think are really good and helpful and I may share them along the way. But what I want you to know is these three have had. It sounds a bit hokey but a profound impact on me and that these are they're also like something you should keep in your back pocket because they are that good and they are that simple and they are not boring. So I highly recommend if you haven't read them, go get them. I'd also love to hear your take on some of these books after you have so don't hesitate to tag me. I would love to hear. Anyway, that's it for this week. Thank you for spending your time with me. I can't wait to see you next week. I hope everything goes your way this week. Hey, if your sales are slower than you want them to be and you're not sure what to do next to reach your sales goals, I want you to head on over to the show Notes and grab a link to get your copy of my new course, Conversion School. It's absolutely free and inside the lessons you will learn our step by step process to grow your sales without spending a fortune on risky ad strategies and without discounting your products. The strategy that you will learn in Conversion School works for e commerce stores of all stages. You'll use your store's data, so if you're starting out, you'll learn how to get consistent sales every day. And if you're an established store looking to really scale your sales, you'll use your data to learn how to achieve significant sales growth every month, month over month. So head on over to the Show Notes, grab the link and get your copy.