Read to Lead Podcast

To say today’s guest and I have a lot in common would probably be an understatement.

Erik Fisher is a podcaster (check), speaker (check) and coach (check). In the past year, he has added Productivity Author to his list of accolades (maybe author will be something I too can add one day).

Erik’s speaking gigs include Podcast Movement (August 2014), a conference I was also fortunate to speak at, as well as this October’s Social Media Success Summit and 2015’s Social Media Marketing World.

And, Erik became an author last fall with the release of the first in a three part series on goals called Ready Aim Fire!: A Practical Guide To Setting And Achieving Goals (Beyond The To Do List Book 1).

This year, Erik and co-author Jim Woods, have followed it up with the release of Hit The Mark!: Improve Your Focus Boost Your Energy Make the Most of Your Time (Beyond The To Do List Book 2).

Hear Our Conversation Now

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In today’s episode, Erik will share:

Why taking things “as they come” is not a good strategy

What can happen when we branch out too far from our strengths

How to tell the difference between a hobby and a passion

And much more!

Business Gets Personal 1-Day Event with Dave, Seth & Gary [Sponsor]

Dave Ramsey is teaming up with marketing powerhouses Seth Godin and Gary Vaynerchuk for a onetime event in New York City. It’s called Business Gets Personal and it’s happening on October 2nd. Find out more here.

Save $100 on every ticket you purchase when you use the discount code readtolead at check out.

Limited Time – Get 30% Off an Annual Subscription to Blinkist [Sponsor]

Tired of unfinished books on your shelf? Wanna read more books in less time? Like, say, as many as four of your favorite business books in an hour?

With Blinkist, glean the main ideas and key insights from some of your favorite business books in just 15 minutes. To start your free trial today, just click our special Blinkist link. This month, they’re celebrating the launch of their new Android app!

Use the discount code Androidishere during the month of September 2014 (even if you own an iOS device) to save 30% on an annual subscription!

Erik’s New Book

You can order your copy of Hit the Mark!: Improve Your Focus,

By his 35th birthday, Mike Michalowicz had founded and sold two multi-million dollar companies.

Confident that he had the formula for success, he became an angel investor…and proceeded to lose his entire fortune. Ouch!

Then he started all over again, driven to find better ways to grow healthy, strong companies. Among other innovative strategies, Mike created the “Profit First Formula”, a way for businesses to ensure profitability from their very next deposit forward.

Mike is now running his third million dollar venture, is a former small business columnist for The Wall Street Journal; is the former MSNBC business make-over expert; is a popular keynote speaker on innovative entrepreneurial topics; and is the author of The Pumpkin Plan, and The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, which BusinessWeek deemed “the entrepreneur’s cult classic.”

His latest book is called Profit First: A Simple System to Transform any Business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine.

Hear Our Conversation Now

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In today’s episode, Mike will share:

* Why he believes Generally Accepted Accounting Principles are Killing Your Business

* The steps you need to take to get your business profit ready

* Simple solutions for “destroying” debt once and for all

* And much more!

Business Gets Personal 1-Day Event with Dave, Seth & Gary [Sponsor]

Dave Ramsey is teaming up with marketing powerhouses Seth Godin and Gary Vaynerchuk for a onetime event in New York City. It’s called Business Gets Personal and it’s happening on October 2nd. Find out more here.

Save $100 on every ticket you purchase when you use the discount code readtolead at check out.

Limited Time – Get 30% Off an Annual Subscription to Blinkist [Sponsor]

Tired of unfinished books on your shelf? Wanna read more books in less time? Like, say, as many as four of your favorite business books in an hour?

With Blinkist, glean the main ideas and key insights from some of your favorite business books in just 15 minutes. To start your free trial today,

If I could live my 20s and 30s over again, I think I’d live those decades the way Chris Guillebeau has his.

For starters, he visited every country in the world (193) before he turned 35!

He’s built an amazing tribe of fellow non-conformists through his blog and first book, he followed that with writing an instant New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller and, this week, releases his third book called The Happiness of Pursuit: Finding the Quest That Will Bring Purpose to Your Life.

If you’re anything like the people whose stories Chris shares in the book, you are continually cognizant of your own mortality and are driven by the desire to leave this world better than you found it. If that describes you, or the ‘you’ you’d like to be, then you’re in for a real treat.

Hear Our Conversation Now

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In today’s episode, Chris will share:

* That a Quest doesn’t always involve going on a literal journey

* Why pursuing a Quest inevitably means saying “no” to some things

* The signs to look for deep down when attempting to identify your own potential Quests

* And much more!

Business Gets Personal 1-Day Event with Dave, Seth & Gary [Sponsor]

Dave Ramsey is teaming up with marketing powerhouses Seth Godin and Gary Vaynerchuk for a onetime event in New York City. It’s called Business Gets Personal and it’s happening on October 2nd. Find out more here.

Save $100 on every ticket you purchase when you use the discount code readtolead at check out.

Limited Time – Get 30% Off an Annual Subscription to Blinkist [Sponsor]

Tired of unfinished books on your shelf? Wanna read more books in less time? Like, say, as many as four of your favorite business books in an hour?

With Blinkist, glean the main ideas and key insights from some of your favorite business books in just 15 minutes. To start your free trial today, just click our special Blinkist link.

Jared Easley is the co-founder of Podcast Movement, the first of its kind, podcasters-only, national conference. In fact, the very first edition of the conference took place just a few weeks ago.

He is the president of PodMov University, a membership site that grew out of the conference and is designed to provide community-based learning from podcast experts.

He is the creator and host of Starve the Doubts, a podcast about overcoming self-doubt and managing your fears. And, he is the author of the new book Podcasting Good to Great: How to Grow Your Audience Through Collaboration.

Hear Our Conversation Now

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In today’s episode, Jared will help you understand:

* Why you should seriously consider launching a podcast

* How you can leverage a podcast to achieve your Big Hairy Audacious Goals

* Where generosity and authenticity rank in the networking hierarchy

* And much more!

Limited Time – Get 30% Off an Annual Subscription to Blinkist [Sponsor]

Tired of unfinished books on your shelf? Wanna read more books in less time? Like, say, as many as four of your favorite business books in an hour?

With Blinkist, glean the main ideas and key insights from some of your favorite business books in just 15 minutes. To start your free trial today, just click our special Blinkist link. This month, they’re celebrating the launch of their new Android app!

Use the discount code Androidishere during the month of September 2014 (even if you own an iOS device) to save 30% on an annual subscription!

Jared Easley in Action

Jared’s New Book

You can order your copy of Podcasting Good to Great: How to Grow Your Audience Through Collaboration right now.

Books Jared Recommends

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen R. Covey

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: How I Learned to Live a Better Story by Donald Miller

How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie

For most of us, when we think change, we resist. There are things, it seems, that begin happening inside our body that tense up at just the idea of it.

Change is something we all have to face from time to time, but the word change sounds so abrupt, doesn’t it?

What if we could think instead to shift, much like an entrepreneur’s business idea might do when it comes to responding to changing market conditions?

Shift feels more gradual, more baby step-friendly, more evolutionary and, maybe most important, less stressful.

In her book Make Your SHIFT, Beverly Flaxington reveals the five most powerful moves you can make to get where you want to go. Change, in other words, doesn’t have to be hard.

Hear Our Conversation Now

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In today’s episode, Beverly shares:

* The problems with traditional goal setting

* The techniques you can use to successfully deal with difficult people

* Why understanding the behavioral patterns of those around us is so important

* What she strives to achieve whenever giving a public talk

* And a lot more!

Sponsor – Blinkist – Sponsor

Tired of unfinished books on your shelf? Wanna read more books in less time? Like, say, as many as four of your favorite business books in an hour?

With Blinkist, glean the main ideas and key insights from some of your favorite business books in just 15 minutes. To start your free trial today, just click our special Blinkist link.

Use the discount code readtolead to save 20% on an annual subscription!

Bev Explains Make Your Shift

Get Bev’s Books

You can order your copy of Make Your SHIFT:: The Five Most Powerful Moves You Can Make to Get Where YOU Want to Go right now.

Check Amazon for a complete list of Bev’s books.

Books Bev Recommends

Changing Behavior: Immediately Transform Your Relationships with Easy-to-Learn, Proven Communication Skills by Georgianna Donadio

The Zen of Listening: Mindful Communication in the Age of Distraction by M.A Rebecca Z. Shafir CCC

Connecting with Bev

For more on what Bev is up to,

If you’re anything like me, you love learning about how the brain works and why we behave the way we do.

It’s one of the reasons why I love Carmine Gallo’s new book Talk Like TED: The 9 Public-Speaking Secrets of the World’s Top Minds so much. Carmine digs into much of the neuroscience behind how we respond to things like compelling stories, a speaker’s ability to convey passion, and his or her body language.

In doing so, he manages to uncover the nine secrets of all successful TED presentations.

Hear Our Conversation Now

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As Carmine argues,

Ideas are the currency of the twenty-first century, and the ability to communicate your ideas persuasively is the single greatest skill to achieving your dreams.”

In today’s episode, Carmine shares:

* What scientists have discovered – and quantified – about how passion can be used to inspire, energize and influence others

* New research that shows how  your stories “sync” your audience’s mind to yours, allowing you to create far deeper and more meaningful connections

* How TED presenters exhibit natural body language and verbal delivery more typical of having a conversation instead of addressing an audience

* The ways TED speakers have practiced – sometimes rehearsing for 200 hours

* And plenty more!

Talk Like TED Book Trailer

Carmine Gallo Resources

Visit Carmine’s website for more on his book, speaking schedule and other resources.

We referenced several TED talks, very much worth your time if you’ve not yet viewed them:

* Why Schools Kill Creativity – from Sir Ken Robinson

* My Stroke of Insight – from Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor

* We Need to Talk About Injustice – from Bryan Stevenson

Books and Authors Carmine Recommends

In all, Carmine mentioned 3 authors. He enjoys the works of Wayne Dyer and Joel Osteen.

He also regards the work of Nancy Duarte quite highly. Carmine mentioned slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations, and I particularly enjoyed her book Resonate: Present Visual Stories ...

Even if you don’t consider yourself a fan of all things Apple, it’s impossible to deny that the company has improved virtually every category they’ve chosen to enter.

From products and packaging, to marketing and advertising, the hits seem to far outweigh the misses. But what is it about Apple that has them firing on all cylinders more often that not?

When Ken Segall, author of the book Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple’s Success, asked himself that question, he found a common thread in all the data, feedback and meeting notes.

Hear Our Conversation Now

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In a word, it’s all about Simplicity.

When everyone else wants to include every feature but the kitchen sink, Apple says “Let’s wait on that.” When everyone else wants to offer a plethora of model choices, Apple counters with, “How about just a couple?”

It’s this “simplicity as religion” that serves as the common thread among all the successes.

In today’s conversation with Ken, we’ll learn about:

* How Apple defines Simplicity

* Why more companies don’t just do what Apple does

* Why Steve Jobs insisted on keeping meeting groups small

* The dangers of trying to please everyone

* How being jettisoned from Apple was the best thing that could ever happen to Steve

* Why most “nos” should be challenged with a dose good ol’ common sense

Resources Discussed

Download Ken’s book for FREE with a free 30-day trial of audible. Just go to https://readtoleadpodcast.com/audible.

Upcoming Projects

Ken is currently working on his next book. Whereas his current book was about identifying all the elements of Apple’s passion for Simplicity, Ken’s upcoming book will break down how to successfully implement Simplicity within a company’s culture and how to ward off the complexity temptation.

Comment and Share

Be sure to leave your comments and ask any questions by simply scrolling down to the bottom of this page.  We would love to hear from you and welcome your feedback.

Please consider rating the podcast with 5 stars and leaving a one- or two-sentence review in iTunes.  This helps tremendously in bringing the podcast to the attention of others. I am mentioning the names of all who rate the podcast with 5 stars in future episodes.

We encourage you to join the Read to Lead Nation on Facebook.  It’s a community of like-minded leaders and leader-to-be, as well as fans of the Read to Lead Podcast.

You can tell your friends on Twitter about your love of reading and our new podcast by simply clicking this link and sharing the tweet you’ll find at the other end.

And, by all means,

The first time I heard the name Pat Flynn he came up three times in a single week.

There was a friend, a blog and a podcast all referencing this guy. I had to find out who he was and why he was so important.

If there was ever the perfect example of an individual honestly and ethically making his own way on the internet – employment be damned – Pat was it. A more personable, down-to-earth guy you’ll never meet.

He’s the proverbial exception to the rule. Nice guys finish last? Hardly! In Pat’s world, nice guys are right where they should be: at the top of their game and graciously showing the rest of us how it’s done.

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In his new book, Let Go, available exclusively via Kindle and the Snippet App for iOS, Pat shares his story of being let go from his job in architecture in 2008, despite doing everything right. In short, it was the best thing that could have ever happened to him.

In this episode, Pat shares about:

* How he took something he was already doing and turned it into an ebook that leveraged the perception of his expertise

* The impact adding a podcast had on Pat’s online business

* Determining what it is you bring to the table no one else can?

* The importance of a dedicated physical space for those working from home

* Letting go of being on the “right path” and trying to fulfill societal and/or family expectations and, instead, living your own dreams

Pat Flynn Resources

Pat is the creator of the Smart Passive Income blog and the Smart Passive Income podcast.

Pat can be reached via e-mail at Pat [at] smart passive income [dot] com and on Twitter at @PatFlynn.

Let Go by Pat Flynn is available via the Kindle App for just $2.99 as well as on the Snippet App for iOS.

Pat mentions another podcast (but doesn’t name it) that was instrumental in 2008 as he learned all he could about starting an online business. That podcast was 

If you suffer fear and anxiety from just the idea of having to speak publicly in front of others, then you’ve come to the right place.

I’m excited to share with you a brand new book called Fearless Speaking: Beat Your Anxiety. Build Your Confidence. Change Your Life. by Gary Genard.

As an actor and speech coach, Gary shows you how to overcome stage fright and grow your confidence through his proven method for eliminating speaking fear. He’s even included 50 hands-on exercises!

If you suffer from speech anxiety, Fearless Speaking can change your life. With it, you can begin enjoying public speaking today, and reap the rewards!

Hear Our Conversation Now

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In today’s episode, Gary will help you understand how to:

Put your fear into perspective

Turn negative beliefs into positive thinking

Use body language to broadcast confidence

Halt a panic attack before it starts

Acquire the skills to become a dynamic speaker

And much more!

Get 20% Off an Annual Subscription to Blinkist [Sponsor]

Tired of unfinished books on your shelf? Wanna read more books in less time? Like, say, as many as four of your favorite business books in an hour?

With Blinkist, glean the main ideas and key insights from some of your favorite business books in just 15 minutes. To start your free trial today, just click our special Blinkist link.

Use the discount code readtolead to save 20% on an annual subscription!

Gary Describes Fearless Speaking

Books Authored by Gary

You can order your copy of Fearless Speaking: Beat Your Anxiety. Build Your Confidence. Change Your Life. right now.

Gary also wrote the book How to Give a Speech.

Books Gary Recommends

Gary thoroughly enjoyed Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain.

And, Gary recommends you check out The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons: The History of the Human Brain as Revealed by True Stories of Trauma, Madness,

Today, I have the pleasure of bringing you one of my new favorite books.

In fact, the author collaborated with Liz Wiseman several years ago on one of my top five favorite books of the last five years. I’m talking of course about Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown.

As the inside front cover of the books states, Essentialism is more than a time-management strategy or a productivity technique. It is a systematic discipline for discerning what is absolutely essential, then eliminating everything that is not, so we can make the highest possible contribution toward ht things that really matter.

Essentialism is not about one more thing. Instead, it’s a whole new way of doing everything. It’s about doing less, but better, in every area of our lives.

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In today’s episode, Greg will help us understand:

* How to decide what’s essential

* Why it’s important to practice saying no

* Why doing less at work WON’T hurt your reputation

* Why LESS is best

* And much more!

Get 20% Off an Annual Subscription to Blinkist [Sponsor]

Tired of unfinished books on your shelf? Wanna read more books in less time? Like, say, as many as four of your favorite business books in an hour?

With Blinkist, glean the main ideas and key insights from some of your favorite business books in just 15 minutes. To start your free trial today, just click our special Blinkist link.

Use the discount code readtolead to save 20% on an annual subscription!

More on Essentialism from Greg McKeown

Books Authored by Greg

You can order your copy of Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less right now.

Greg also collaborated on the book Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter by Liz Wiseman.

Books Greg Recommends

Greg recommended an essay by Tennessee Williams called The Catastrophe of Success.

Greg is also fond of The Hour Between Dog and Wolf: How Risk Ta...