MBA1409 My Top 5 Books for 2019

Foreign. Welcome to the Hundred Dollar MBA show. Your place to be for a better business every day with our daily 10 minute business lessons for the real world. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher Omar Zenholm. I'm also the co founder of the Hundred Dollar mba, a complete business training and community online. And in today's lesson you will learn what are my top five books for 2019? For those who know me well, I love a good book, especially a great business personal development, autobiography, biography of some sort and I read about 50 books a year. Some of those 50 books are not so great, but these five are the best books I've read in 2019 and highly recommend you read them now. I love doing this episode at this time because we're towards the end of the year, we're reaching the holiday season season and we're going to have a bit of time on our hands. Whether we're digesting our big Christmas meal or waiting to ring in the New year. And you might be thinking, hey, what's a good book for me to read or to listen to on Audible? These are my recommendations. I share why they're my recommendations and why you should read them too. Really excited to share these top five books today. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. Today's episode of the Hundred Dollar MBA show is supported by Podia. Podia helps thousands of creators earn money from their passion. It's an all in one digital storefront that you can sell courses, memberships and digital downloads in one place. It's the most creator friendly platform on the market with zero transaction fees and a super friendly 24, 7 life support team no matter what plane you're on. So they're gonna take care of you even if you're just getting started. What's great about Podia is that it eliminates all the technical headaches. It takes care of every aspect of of selling your course or membership or digital download. If you've got video courses, they do the video hosting for you. If you want an easy way to charge your members on a reoccurring basis for a membership, Podia takes care of it. You want a secure way for people to download your products. When they pay for them, they take care of that too. They also offer free migrations on their shaker plan. Best of all, Podia puts their money where their mouth is. They have a 30 day free trial with no credit card required. So if you don't love it, you don't pay a penny. If you're looking to start a online course, sell any kind of digital product, or start a membership site. Check them out and support the show by going to podia.commba that's P O D I a.commba these top five books that I've read this year are so good. I would read them over and over. They will help you improve in some way, whether improving your business directly, improving who you are as a leader, as a person, as a thinker. And I want to go through them right now. I'm going to give you some of the reasons why you should read this book, why you'd be interested in this book and explain why it's definitely worth your time. My first top book for 2019 is the Laws of Human Nature by Robert Greene. Robert Greene is a dynamic author. He's one of the best selling authors of all time. His book 48 Laws of Power broke crazy records and this is his latest book and in my personal opinion, I think it's his best book yet. It really goes deep on understanding who you are as a human, who we are as humans, because hey, we interact with humans all day long. Whether it's within our team, whether you're hiring a freelancer, whether it's your customers or clients, whether it's your friends or family. And understanding how the human being ticks really, really helps you understand how to get the most out of yourself and other people, how to work with them, how to close those deals, how to make sure that you're finding what's in the interests of your customers and delivering it. A word of warning though, about this book. It is dense, it's a long book and it's very thought provoking and deep. So it's not one of those books you really can zoom through. We have a book that you can really zoom through in today's list. I'll mention that later, but this is a book that's going to cause you to and ponder and stop. So it's going to take you longer than you normally would in reading any other book. But that's not a bad thing. While you're pondering, take some notes in your note taking app. Ask yourself how you can apply this in your life, in your business, in your team. Highly recommend this book. It's a masterpiece in my opinion. The Laws of Human Nature by Robert Greene. My next top five book for 2019 is a short, super easy book to read but incredibly powerful and insightful. And that's Product Led Growth by Wes Bush. Wes Bush is a product led growth expert and you can check them out@productled.com and this book is a must read for anybody who is in the online space who's selling software and it gives you a framework, a mindset and tons of tips on how to market your product based on what it is, how to use your product as a marketing tool, how to create viral marketing. It's one of the most comprehensive marketing books for any SaaS company. Software as a Service Company that I've read. It's an easy read and it provides really good, real practical examples from real companies. I read this book in one sitting on one flight. It was so simple to read and easy to read and enjoyable. I highly recommend to check it out Product Led Growth by Westbush My third top book for 2019 is Extreme Revenue Growth by Victor Chang. If you're starting out in business or have been doing business for some time, this is totally a must read because it really breaks down the most important thing to think about when you're building a business, making money right, making a profit. And he explains step by step how you can set up your business so it does that. Set up your product so it does that. Set up your team so it does that. It's really well written, it's simple and it shows you in plain English how to make more money with your business. This book, as well as the first two I mentioned have their own must read episodes here on the show, so make sure you search for it on our website over@100mba.net. I go into detail about this book and why you should read it, but this makes my top five for sure. My only gripe about this book is that it's only available on paperback, so if you like reading on the Kindle or you like audiobooks, you're out of luck. But it's worth it. I would get the paperback. It's such a good book. My fourth top book for 2019 is trillion dollar Coach by Eric Schmidt. Yes, Eric Schmidt from Google, the CEO of Google. And Trillion Dollar Coach is about the story of Bill Campbell who passed away recently, who was the coach for many of our biggest entrepreneurs out there as well as ones that have passed away like Steve Jobs. He also coached Larry and Sergey over at Google and a whole lot more. That's why he's called the Trillion Dollar Coach. I found this book so helpful when it comes to leadership, about motivating your team, about finding out how you can make your team work more efficiently, more effectively, just tick at a better rate. I mentioned in my must read episode for this book that Bill Campbell was a football coach actually. And his skills, his experience on the field helped him help all entrepreneurs of all kinds in the boardroom. I got this book on audible and it's a great book on audible, great narration and each chapter really goes deep on some really good lessons on how to really be a great leader. A lot of us struggle with this, especially if you've been solopreneurs for a while. We know how to manage ourselves, but we don't know how to manage others and get the best out of them. Also knowing when you have to cut somebody loose on your team, how you can figure out is it worth keeping them or grooming them or improving them. Or maybe it's best to let them go. Check out Trillion Dollar Coach by Eric schmidt. It's my fourth top book for 2019. Now number five. Number five made this list because it's so good. Now number five is very interesting because I haven't finished reading this book yet. I'm actually in the process of finishing this book. I'm about 75% done. But the first 75% already is amazing. It's a great, great book. One of my favorite books ever and that's why I had to include it in this list. And that book is what you Do Is who youo Are by Ben Horowitz. Ben Horowitz is one of my favorite authors. He wrote the book the Hard Thing About Hard Things, one of my favorite books of all time. So when he released this book in late October, I was all over it. I was like, I gotta get this book. And I got it on Audible because his narrator for his books is pure Money. He is absolutely amazing. So, so good. And this book is all about how to build a great team culture. Now this word is tossed around a lot, culture and how to create a great company culture and all this stuff. And it's really just a bunch of buzzwords. He really breaks it down what that means. How to create an environment that really works for your business and your goals and your outcomes. How to attract the best talent and make sure that they are loyal. He does a fantastic job referencing a lot of things he mentions with stories from history, modern day leaders, as well as correlating them to leaders in business so you could see how the lessons that were taught in history are applicable to the lessons that you can apply in modern day business. And we're talking about stories from Netflix, from his own company, Loudcloud before he sold it, companies like Google, Apple, and more. Even though this book is about company culture, it's really about how to run a great business, a great place to work. I'm so enjoying this book and I highly recommend you pick it up. And if you like audiobooks, the audible version is dynamite. What you do is who you are by Ben Horowitz. Those are my top five. My recommendation, buy these books now because you're not going to regret it. These books will help you and I've read a lot of books and some of them are not so good. These are great. I got more on today's episode, but before that, let me give love to today's sponsor. Support for today's show comes from Honeybook. It's what you've always dreamed of. You started your own business. You have no boss. You are the boss. But reality check, running your own business is hard. Thankfully, HoneyBook makes it easy. HoneyBook is an online business management tool that organizes your client communications, bookings, contracts and invoices all in one place. It's perfect for freelancers, entrepreneurs or small business owners that want to consolidate services they already use like QuickBooks, Google Suite, Excel, and Mailchimp. With HoneyBook you can automate your busy work. They have easy to use templates for emails, proposals, brochures and invoices. They also have email signatures and built in automation to save you time and get you paid faster. That sounds good. Simplify your to do list and stay in control with HoneyBook. And right now, HoneyBook is offering our listeners 50% off when you visit honeybook.com MBA payment is flexible and this promotion applies whether you pay monthly or annually. Go to honeybook.com mba for 50% off your first year. That's honeybook.com mba I've always said this on the show, but I want to repeat it again because it's so important. I believe books are one of the best, best ROI personal development tools ever. I mean, the return on investment you get for buying a book that's $8, $10. Sometimes they're on sale on Amazon for $2. The insights, the knowledge, the perspectives you gain, the strategies. It's incredible in my book. I can't believe it. Pun intended, right? But it's incredible what you get out of a small purchase. I'm a big book fan because of that. Also because books take some time to read and it's not like a YouTube video. It gives you a chance to digest the information, to think about how can I apply this in my business, in my life, in my world? And I'm a big believer that you have to be super conscious about the stuff you put in your Brain. I learned this from Jim Rohn. Jim Rohn says, stand guard at the gates of your mind and make sure you don't pile in stuff in your brain that is not helpful. And that's what books do. Books allow you to put the good stuff in and therefore you produce great results. Just like good food has good ingredients, a good brain has good stuff in it. So pick up these five books, highly recommend them. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. If you love what you hear, I want you to hit subscribe right now. And whatever you use to listen to podcast, please do that for us. It means a lot. And also share this show with your friends and family on social media. Make a screenshot right on your phone and share it on whatever you love. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat. Whatever it is, share it with others and let people know that you listen to this podcast. It means a lot. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. It's the holiday season and I really believe one of the best gifts you can give somebody is a great book. Some people don't like giving books because they feel like, huh, it's not, you know, that exciting. Or maybe it looks like I'm, you know, talking down to them. Hey, read this. You know, you could learn a thing or two. No, what I like to do is write a little note right inside. The book on the first page is usually blank and just say, hey, I read this book recently. It really opened my mind with xyz. I really enjoyed it. I wanted to share that with you. Maybe we can have a chat over lunch or dinner about what you thought of the book and it's a nice, friendly way to say, hey, this helped me and I want what's good for you. I want what's best for you. Here you go. Here's my gift. And it's such a simple gift, but it can really move mountains. It can really help people change their perspective and change the way they think about their business and their life. Books have changed me in a lot of ways, and a book is what really got me going as an entrepreneur. My uncle gave me Rich dad for Poor dad as a gift. I read it, it changed my life, changed the way I thought about how you can make money in this world. Entrepreneurship was a new door that opened up in my head. So I'm forever grateful for that book. Gift from my uncle. That's it for me today, guys. Thank you so much for listening and I'll check you in tomorrow's episode. Q and A Wednesday I'll see you then. Take care. Of sam.