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I went back through 131 episodes of guest book recommendations and sorted the most recommended into seven shelves, one for each problem an agency owner is likely stuck on.
Agency Forward explores the future of agencies as tech and AI drive down the cost of tactical deliverables. Topics include building competent teams, developing strategic offers, systemizing your business, and more.
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Chris DuBois 00:01
It's easier than ever to start an agency, but it's only getting harder to stand out and keep it alive. Join me as we explore the strategies agencies are using today to secure a better tomorrow. This is Agency Forward. All right, hello everyone. I wanted to do an episode purely talking about the books that people have recommended on the show. At the end of every episode, if you're a longtime listener, you'll have heard me ask everybody what is one book that every agency owner should read, and so I basically took of the 131 episodes that are out at the time of recording this. I went through and found the top books and broke them down into like segments. So based on whatever your problem is, we have multiple books recommended for you to read. Now, I ask this question purely so that I can expand my TBR list, right, to be read because I read a lot of books. Minimum goal every year of like 50, but that includes fiction, nonfiction. We'll do audio books as well as like physical books. So that I have probably four different books going at any given time, which is a pro tip. I'm just gonna throw that in as a thing on the side. If you have, some people say like just read one book over and over and over. Okay, I think that's poor logic, mainly because you don't know if that one book is actually gonna solve your problem, and if you can't read it once and pull everything you need, then that's probably a failure on how you're reading. And so I would recommend taking a piece of paper, just like you know regular printer paper, fold it into thirds is what I use so that I can use as a bookmark. But then as I'm going through the book, I'll highlight in the book. I don't care. I'm a savage like that. But the I will on the left side of the page write whatever the actual note I want to remember is, and then on the right side try to immediately apply it. So say we're reading a copywriting book, and they give some tip for how to write headlines. I'll write down whatever that tip is, and then on the right I'll try recreating my website's headline. You know, a couple ways using that tip. So now, when I finish the book, I have immediately applied something from it, and I can just use all that right away. Okay, so that's one thing. That wasn't even the pro tip. I was just about to mention the pro tip. Actually, was have multiple books going so that when you're in the mood for a certain book, it's very easy to get into it and actually flow with it. I think a lot of times people will pick up a book and they're just not that interested in it in the moment. Like they might be tomorrow, they might be in the different mindset, and so you can pick it up and you can you can go like get right into it. Right, it's like almost achieving flow state much faster, and so I'd recommend doing that. I also would recommend going back to some books in other times. Right, I'm not saying you shouldn't reread books ever, but when you're in a different place in your business in your life, it is much easier to pull other pieces of information from these. Essentialism is one of my most gifted books by Greg McHune, and I've reread that one a couple times. And and every time it's like I pull something different from it. And so, anyways, with that, let's let's get this started. So the first kind of segment that I broke these up into is the "I Am the Bottleneck" problem. So if you're struggling with this within your agency, here are the books recommended. First one up, "Traction" by Gino Wickman. This one is actually, I think, the most recommended book on the podcast, interestingly, though I think most of the guests who acknowledge this one have admitted, like upfront, that nobody's like they're never really excited about the book. Like they straight up call it boring. Multiple guests have said this, and I have the transcripts to prove it.
Chris DuBois 04:17
But but they recommend it anyways because it's it is one of the the strongest books for, um, like getting making sure your business like you're actually using proper business practices within your agency to get a get it going. Now, I've talked to a lot of guests, even like in EOS implementers, which is what traction is. If anyone like, it's the how do we apply the entrepreneurial operating system in here? So your level 10 meetings, scorecards, the accountability charts, setting up rocks, things like that. It's all coming from this book. Everyone is probably running this, but I've had multiple guests say like there is no perfect version of this. Every agency will run like a bastardized kind of version of Traction, and so, anyways, that is a book a lot of people recommend. Another one is the E Myth. Yeah, a lot of people bring this up. the The E Myth, actually, I think it was Ryan Watson. Was I have a quote from him on this one saying that the e myth is kind of like traction before traction existed, and so if you feel traction was too systemized, systematized, however you say that word, this is this is one of those books you should probably check out. Jody Grunden, actually, I think he he used this to build his like CFO delivery as like a repeatable process, specifically so that his partners could take over his seat and and it worked. So if you need actual ideas, but the one of the concepts in the book is like the franchising kind of prototype, where it's like if you can build your business to sell 5000 copies of this business, it forces your decisions to be a lot more documented, so that someone else can step in this role, right? Breaks up like you have the technician, the manager, the entrepreneur, and like everyone has different tasks and there's different jobs. But most founders are only really good at one, and so being able to understand that is is super helpful. So, anyways, that's another one. Buy back your time by Dan Martell is the next one. I talked to Dan about this book. Not on the podcast, though. I should actually invite him to join. The all right, great book. If you want to just get some systems for like the buyback principle here, often like we're we're continuously just spending time wherever we feel like we should, but he uses the drip matrix, and so if you look at like last week's calendar, and then you just break it into delegation, replacement, investment, production, you can see where a lot of your time is actually going, and that'll give you some insights in where you should be applying time. And then what's the other con the replacement ladder was the other concept here where you have like an order for how you should be hiring. So like first you do admin, then delivery, marketing, sales, leadership, and this way you stop hiring just like out of panic because you have like a system for how you're looking at actually buying back your time, yeah, all three of these were great reads. I've read all of them; they're yeah, solid. So, segment two is that nobody can tell what we're for. Nice positioning shelf that you can you can add. So, this is probably the second most recommended book on the list. Is the Business of Expertise by David C. Baker, who's been on the show. The that was episode 53 with with David. If you want to check it out, but the idea of expertise is a function of pattern recognition. The that's something I've seen forever across every agency, and so even when I read this book the first time, I was like, "Yes, someone else is saying it," and yes, I just made that claim that I was saying this before on my own for whatever that's worth. Dave, if you're listening to this, thank you. But the concept is real, right? The reason an agency can be is good at what an agency can do is because you get to do reps of the same thing over and over, and that is more reason to do the same thing because everybody in your team is going to get better. You're going to acquire that expertise more, and then you're going to stand out more.
Chris DuBois 08:59
The some other concepts from the book, just the economics of being an expert. It's like you're paid for pattern recognition, not for hours. And so, when you that's like it's probably the argument that makes like non hourly pricing obvious rather than just brave. But yeah, there's a a bunch of bets like in this book. I like how he frames positioning as subtraction, where expertise comes from refusing the work that'll break that pattern. I think that's a really good concept, and and something every agency should consider. But let's see. Next book is the Boutique by Greg Alexander. I actually haven't read this one yet. Marcel Pettibog had called this a little bit of everything, and so that's that's what put it first on my list. But you should. Read it when you don't yet know what you don't know. So hopefully that makes sense. There's a there's a lot to it. It is meant for boutique service firms, obviously. So like general business advice is is not really like included in this. Now there's an eight-part model that runs all the way through, like to an exit. And so, if you are someone who is looking to to exit at some point, this could be a great book for you. But again, I haven't read this one yet, so I can't speak too much about it. And then the last one for this section is the Win Without Pitching Manifesto by Blair Ends. He's got 12 proclamations that are just short and declarative. Alex James, one of my one of my favorite guests, had him on a couple times. He's what I'd like to consider the Australian version of me, but he he rereads it several times a year, and then it says he pulls out something new every time, so that's again credence to what I was saying at the start of this episode. Stop pitching for free, right? That's the ultimate claim. The expert is not auditioning. I think that's huge. The number of clients that I have had who stopped just giving away stuff like to when someone would ask for a proposal strategy, they they were giving away so much, but it's like no, you're they can pay you for that strategy. There is value in what you're you're giving them. Let's see, Claire Quanza, another another guest on the pod, had said it's less about the pitch and more about running the relationship. So the final meeting is a confirmation, not a performance, and that was a good reframe and spot on. And so, anyways, those are three more for that. The next section is growth stops when I stop selling, and so we've got a couple of other books here. First one being the Challenger Sale by Dixon and Adamson. I I like this one for just being that that challenger. We got so teach Taylor take control. Basically, you're going to lead with commercial insight that the buyers didn't already have, and you're you're using that to challenge them to think differently about whatever they're talking about, right? So you're not just sales for the sake of selling; you're sales for the sake of shifting mindsets so that you can actually, you know, help someone as you're getting that deal across. Next one, the man side sales, one on one by Bob Mosta. I can never pronounce his name right. I read this one on a flight recently. Another good book. I love the the idea. So you have supply side sales, which is like let's just get this out the door, and then you got demand side sales where you're really listening to the buyer to see what they need, why they need it, how they need it, so that you can then sell to them in a way that like they're kind of guiding the process, but you're forcing it along a path. If that makes sense, that's probably not even the best way to describe that. But you got the four forces of switching, which are the push, pull, anxiety, and habit. And so you can through this model, you can actually like diagnose why a deal has stalled, and all of this stuff just super valuable.
Chris DuBois 13:39
If you this is like this book, if you are allergic to like selling and like just like regular selling, I would recommend checking this out because it really puts you on the same side as the the buyer. It makes it much easier to stomach if you're someone who doesn't like sales. They ask you answer. My Marcus Sheridan. Marcus was guest number two. I think it was the first episode I recorded. Second one that went live. This one, man, I was using this one running an agency because we use it for our SEO side. But you have the big five content, cost problems comparison reviews best in class, and you should be publishing all of them, including price. Like just being super honest, because these are the the big five article types are the the pieces of content that people are actually searching for, and so by creating those pieces, you are going to be the one who finds stuff. He also has concepts like assignment selling, where you make prospects consume the content before the call. This way, you don't go into the call just like having to talk about all the details, right? And almost like lecturing them on on what the purchase is going to be. It's like they're showing up educated, and because they put in a little effort, it also gets. Them to, um, like I don't even know what the right word is. It's like they they feel like they're they're more part of this, right? They've put in something, and so there's almost like a sunk cost going on for them if they just bounce from the call. It's like, well, I did the work, I gotta get something from this. Um, and then next one, building a story brand by Donald Miller, and that one came up quite a few times. Tyler Pygott said that by the version two because the original is starting to show its age. Now, with this, so building a story brand is man. All right, this is personal opinions here. I think there's a lot of good stuff in there, especially for someone just starting an agency. I do feel like it's very beginner esque. I read the full thing on a treadmill in just like a single session, and and it was like easy to digest. Like QuickBook, there's a lot of great stuff. The grunt test, one-liners, and then like the SB7, where you you're kind of you frame the customer as a hero, right? You're the guide, very hero's journey type stuff. It's all great. Donald Miller, super smart guy, but I would definitely recommend this towards someone who is just starting an agency. I think a lot of a lot of people will figure a lot of this out just by purely being in business. Let's see. So segment four, it works, but I can't leave it. One of the biggest books here was "Built to Sell" by John Warlow. The um. Um. Yeah, I mean, this was a solid one. Every guest, I think, added the same caveat: was like, "Read it, even if you'll never sell." Um, and that was a that was good. Like a sellable agency is just an agency with clean operations and real pipeline, right? Like whether you're going to sell or not. That is something that you want to have within your business. Juliana Maralonda, her pitch for this was a it's a novel and an easy one to finish, even if you never finish books. So if that fits you, then this is a book I would check out. Another one that's came up a handful of times, good to great by Jim Collins. So I have a caveat to this, but I'll go through some of the notes on the book. So you get like the hedgehog concept is in here. You should find something that you have passion. You're the best in the world. There's an economic engine. Essentially, it's a positioning tool disguised as like strategy, which all positioning is strategy. If you believe stuff I do, there's also this concept of like level five leadership, where personal humility plus professionalism, or like professional what was it like professional will, which is the opposite of most like founder brand building. And if if you can have that level of leadership, awesome. Now I would caution you as you're reading this book.
Chris DuBois 18:06
A lot of the companies I can't remember the exact percentage, but I had looked this up. There's a decent number of the companies mentioned in this book from Good to Great have actually gone out of business, and that's a risk of writing a book like this, right? When you're studying all these, because a choice later can actually impact everything. And I'm thinking through that as I write my own book. It's like how many actual live examples do I want to give, knowing that all it takes is the market to have one little shift, and now something that was very strong for a year is now you know knocked out by something else, so let's see. Ready, fire, aim by Michael Masterson. This is another good one. The this is like the the anti theory book on the shelf. It's very tactical to the point. Let's like the it's organized by revenue stage, so that should make it a little easier for you to like find what the founder's job is different in each, and so like he'll break down all the steps you have to take. Stage one is essentially nothing but selling, and then like as you move later, there's more optimization. But like that's it's almost like that's a privilege that you have to earn by as you get to those stages, and I 100% believe in that concept because the number of agencies I've talked to who are just trying to refine SOPs and like do all these things to tweak the business, but they don't even have 500k a year in revenue. It's like just go sell. Like you'll figure. I promise you will figure it out just by selling and executing more, and seeing what works and what doesn't. So, all right, let's move into segment five. I I have seven segments, so we're almost there, folks. Thanks for sticking with me. Revenue is up, and there's no cash, so. First book recommendation was Profit First by Mike McCallowitz. I liked this one. This is great. Read it when running an agency. Sales minus profit equals expenses, right? Obviously, if you take your profit off the top and then force the business to like run on what's left, then it means you are always going to have some money in your pocket. Do not make the mistake that a lot of agencies do when hoping to sell. They they leave money in the bank, like the the founder won't take a strong salary because they're worried that it'll make the numbers look bad for that sale. But when they're doing the math on the sale, they're going the whoever is buying is going to be looking at what would it cost to replace the founder, and that number is going to be you know maybe a couple 100,000 to bring someone in who can just run this. So you so even if you were leaving money in the bank, they're still doing the math to see what's up here. The yeah, and so I'd recommend pay yourself now, like make the money on the on the way out the door. Separate bank accounts for for everything, so that this is like a behavioral design. You're not just using like willpower and discipline. The I do like so like Eli Rubel, who's actually doing a lot for like finance stuff with agencies now, but he he doesn't follow the system like literally. But brought up a couple times how the mindset changed how he runs his money, and so you do have permission to like take this principle without the whole apparatus, I guess. Next, digital dollars and cents by Jody Grunden. Already mentioned Jody earlier, and he did not recommend this book, even though it's his. I got a signed copy somewhere. Actually, I get a lot of signed copies from this list. That's fun. The this is like management accounting built for agencies specifically, so everything about AGI, gross margin utilization. This is not generic like small business finance. Essentially, this is like to connect your P and L to operations, so the numbers tell you what you should be changing. You know, like next week. Marcel said one of the the first books that he read in the industry, and this was a a direct input into how parakeeto was built. And so, as everyone who's a friend of the show knows, that I'm fond of parakeeto.
Chris DuBois 22:30
They are very good at what they do, and this is the fact that they were reading this book right before as as they were creating Perakuto, should be enough of a credibility piece for this book here. Segment six: My team isn't what I need it to be. Radical candor has come up a handful of times. You should care personally and challenge directly. Oh, this by Kim Scott. If anyone hasn't read this one yet, I feel like this is a very popular book everywhere. So, but the common failure with like with most leadership and getting into this radical candor isn't cruelty. It's like it's a like ruinous empathy. The yeah, there's a lot in here for just how to have these, you know, conversations. Sarah still said it didn't give her a new instinct, but it gave her practical examples of things she hadn't considered saying. And so, even if you're just going to use it for that lens, like to get ideas for how you can better approach conversations, I think it's a good one to pick up. Next one is "Dare to Lead" by Brene Brown. the man. It's been a while since I think I listened to this one. But painting done. You describe like the finished thing in detail instead of just assigning a task. This this concept was like Jen Spencer, former CEO smart bug like this was her whole reason for recommending it was like rather like say this is what we need to do or like what we're aiming for and then just set someone out to get it done rather than giving them every single step. A term that I've heard in so many places, but clear is kind, vagueness dresses politeness is is often what causes like rework. Tim Kilroy on one of his three times on the show said that it changes your business relationships, and your intimate relationships and your family relationships in that order. And so, I mean, that was a pretty pretty big claim, and again probably worth reading. All right, last segment. The problem is me. The most recommended book here was Atomic Habits by James Clear. Systems over goals and identity based habits. Yeah, don't focus. On just like hitting the goal, you try to become the the kind of operator who would hit that goal, and then through these habits, it makes it happen. There are four laws that he brings up in this: the obvious, attractive, easy, and satisfying. And you're because you're trying to design all of these habits for behavior change, not just for motivation. Yeah, I liked Sean Lang. Actually, had a good angle on this one too. Most of us run on unconscious patterns, and the book's real function is making them visible enough to choose. And I thought that was a great way to to put it. But yeah, there were okay. That was seven segments. That was a lot of me just talking about books and from scraps of notes that I have everywhere. There were 77 other books that made it onto the show that I'm just not covering here. I mean, we have some people argued against business books. Tiger Joseph is talking about Don Quixote as one. Bobby Gillespie gave Endurance and the Indifferent Stars Above. Chris Gillespie gave Team of Rivals and said it's the best business book he's ever read, and it's obviously not a business book, so yeah, we got tons of these. I've also had guests who wouldn't name one. That's happened a couple times. There isn't one book that's a holy grail. And I will say, like, I personally hate being asked that question because the first thing I ask is, "Well, what's your problem? Which is why I broke these into segments for this, because if like I I could recommend books all day, right? I'm reading at least 50 a year, but that one book that you need is not going to be the same one that I would recommend for someone else because we need context around that decision. And so I don't like the question, but I do like seeing what people just go to based on their area of expertise, and so let's see. Yeah, I think Dave Baker is probably the most recommended person for books.
Chris DuBois 27:13
Like his name comes up a lot across all of because he's got multiple titles, and then Traction was probably the most recommended book, and so yeah. With that, we got it's 131 episodes worth of book recommendations. I guess some of those are solo casts, and so those don't count. But if you're with me, go grab some copies of this of these books, I'm not going to give you an Amazon affiliate link so you can support the show because I don't have the drive to also do that. But it is very much worth grabbing some copies of these based on whatever problem you have. So hopefully this was helpful for you. We'll see you on the after the next I don't know 130 something episodes. That's the show, everyone. You can leave a rating and review, or you can do something that benefits you. Click the link in the show notes to subscribe to Agency Forward on Substack. You'll get weekly content, resources, and links from around the internet to help you drive your agency forward.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai