9 Best Business and Personal Development Books to Enhance your Business
Books are my savior. I believe in the power of books. I believe you can teach yourself almost anything from a book.
One of the most lovely things that’s been passed down from my mom is her value on reading for information. I have countless memories of her, curled up on the couch reading up on her topic of choice: education.
She was a teacher for most of her professional life. She worked long hours then would read about her career on her time off.
At the time I thought how boring it must be but now as an adult with a passion for business, I completely understand and am grateful I had this normalized as a child.
I read a ton.
And most of the books I devour are business, marketing, personal development related. I try really hard to squeeze in a novel here and there so I can rest my brain.
My kids and I trek to the library regularly. My favorite method for book choosing is just to peruse the marketing/finance/business section and grab a few that look good. If I pick 3, for sure one will be a winner.
My favorite podcasts also give amazing book recommendations. There will be a blog to come on my favorite business podcasts!
So here’s what I’ve read recently that I’d love for you to hear about.
#1 Best Business and Personal Development Books to Enhance your Business: The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks
This book is half self-help, half business-strategy book. This is the book I’ve been looking for but not realizing existed. It helps you deep dive into what is holding you back and not getting to that next level in business or life.
Key takeaway: we all have Upper Limit Problems that keep us treading water where we are. If you yearn for growth and momentum but keep getting stopped up, read this book, discover yours and do something to change it.
#2 Best Business and Personal Development Books to Enhance your Business: Why 10x is Easier Than 2x by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy
Learn how and why to set big “impossible” goals in order to make you think differently about how you move forward in your business. The main premise is that if you set reachable goals like “I’m going to grow by 20% next year”, you just do all you’ve been doing but more. Or to phrase differently, you just work harder.
On the other hand, if you set a 10x goal, which for most people seems ”impossible”, you suddenly have to completely change how you do things. You have to change how you think about your business, your life and your goals. You have to let things go, focus, develop new skills, etc.
Key takeaway: play with setting a 10x goal somewhere in your life and then make a plan to get there. Here’s where I love a good brainstorm session.
#3 Best Business and Personal Development Books to Enhance your Business: How to heal your life by Louise Hay
The mother of self help, Louise Hay, discusses a very simple but radical concept. All your problems in life: health, relationship, emotional distress, money, etc. stem from not fully loving yourself.
It sounds so simple! Yet, did anyone ever teach us this? Probably not.
Especially us women - we are never good enough, smart enough, pretty enough, skinny enough, sexy enough, etc.
I’m putting her practices to use in a big way. This book inspired my February personal 30 Day Challenge of listening to a self love affirmation every evening before I go to bed.
Key takeaway: Practice self love, I mean complete, radical self-love with no strings attached.
#4 Best Business and Personal Development Books to Enhance Your Business: You are a badass by Jen Sincero
I’ve had this audio book almost on repeat for 2 months. I’ve been going through an exceptionally hard personal time and keeping belief in myself strong as I travel this path and heal is important. And so I’m really focused on only consuming positive, uplifting, belief-stimulating content.
Jen is a funny, engaging and inspiring author who writes on dreams, goals and creating the one precious life you want to live without being encumbered by doubt, fear or worries about what others think.
If you like audio books you’ll LOVE Jen’s reading. She’s fantastic.
Key takeaway: You have one life. Don’t settle for anything less than your dreams. You are a badass, go make a plan to achieve your dreams and if you don’t get there at least you experienced the journey of working toward them.
#5 Best Business and Personal Development Books to Enhance Your Business: You are a Badass at Making Money by Jen Sincero
I’ve listened to this book SO many times. Again for the above reasons: to keep belief high, doubt and fear low and to inspire me to go for my big goals.
I’ve become aware of so many long-held beliefs about money that really aren’t true or helpful. This book helps re-write your beliefs so you can move forward in a way where you can think, talk and act positively about money.
Key takeaway: be very intentional about how you think and speak about money. It matters! Question your beliefs about money. Are they true? Do they serve you for the good? If not, it’s time to come up with some new beliefs.
#6 Best Business and Personal Development Books to Enhance Your Business: How to Make Good Things Happen by Marian Rojas Estapé
This is a book by a psychiatrist on the connection between mind, brain, body and emotions. You will learn how disease manifests from negative emotions, how cortisol works in the body and techniques for processing emotions for a healthier life.
Since this book is written by a psychiatrist, it’s loaded with science and case studies. I cannot recommend this book enough. If you’ve just gotten into coaching, are an optimist in training, or are curious how to make your life better, you must read this.
Key takeaway: pessimists have lifespans that are 19% shorter than optimists. The good news? You can become a more positive person! Reading this book is one step in that direction.
#7 Best Business and Personal Development Books to Enhance Your Business: The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace Wattles
This is an old and classic book on the mindset needed to amass wealth, get rich, make money, and be happy. My favorite take away from Get Rich is on the idea of competition.
Wattles states that (and I’m paraphrasing here), “you cannot be on the creative plane when you are operating on the competitive plane.” What this means is that you can extricate yourself from competition by focusing solely on your creative mind, creative ideas and creative actions.
Key takeaways: Create, don’t compete. And, in agreement with all the money mindset books I’ve read, you must create a definite financial vision (what I call money manifesto) before you can get there.
#8 Best Business and Personal Development Books to Enhance Your Business: Be Seen by Jen Gottleib
I heard about Jen and her book on Amy Porterfield’s podcast. First off, if you don’t yet listen to Amy’s podcast, please do. She consistently has excellent information on marketing online and all things business. In addition, her guests are amazing.
I’ve found so many new people and new books through her. Be Seen is a guide to be seen out there as a business owner. She gives you actions to take and very concrete things to do - not just concepts to think about. I appreciate this.
As an introvert I love a good networking event as long as it’s super organized and I always know what I’m supposed to do. Most often though, networking is a bit more free flowing. Jen’s created games for us introverts so we can enter any event with a plan, a goal and a timeline for leaving.
Does this sound like what you need? You’ll be encouraged to go out there and do what you need to do as the face of your business.
Key takeaway: Even incredibly famous, face-forward people struggle with the spotlight. Find your true voice, learn how to share it and let go of the struggle.
#9 Best Business and Personal Development Books to Enhance Your Business: The 12 Week Year by Brian Moran
This is the only time management and organizational book you’ll need. I’m a huge proponent of time management. Having squeezed growing my business in between caring for my kids and family, I’m always looking for ways to seek out the most productive means to get things done.
Each 12 week block, I’m focusing on a few key tasks that I then score for completion on a weekly basis. I’m excited to have a system for tracking my actions and see if they correlate with the results I’m wanting.
Key takeaway: Turning away from annual planning and instead focusing on 12 week goals keeps you super focused on key tasks and creates lots of momentum. Learn how to set 12 week goals, create the tasks needed to get there, and create a system for tracking results.
Now it’s your turn.
Grab one of the above books this week, read it and comment below on your key takeaway.