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The Wellness Creator Podcast is your go-to source for expert insights and actionable tips in the evolving world of health, wellness, and spiritual-based business. Join us as we explore proven online growth strategies, chat about current trends, and interview fellow wellness creators who’ve managed to turn passion into profit by helping people live better, healthier lives.
Jeni (00:01)
Hello and welcome to the Wellness Creator Podcast. Today's episode is about our current favorite business books that might help you get unstuck or reach that next big business milestone.
Sandy (00:14)
Yeah, think we've probably mentioned them all in the past, but we thought it would be like a nice little recap to give you a sort of a list of like the business books that made a really big difference to us in our lives over the years.
Jeni (00:27)
Yeah,
especially like these, this is I would say like the last two years for me, because I feel like we did an episode maybe four years ago on top business books. And I would say that mine have changed. So yeah, let's get into it, Sandy. Why don't you? Yeah, no idea. All right. Yeah, what are, okay, so what is your, I have.
Sandy (00:40)
I have no idea what we say on that podcast, so I have no idea if these are repeats then. That's all right. If I don't know, the listeners don't know.
Jeni (00:52)
Kind of three, well, I have two books and then one series of books that I wanna talk about. So what is your first one you wanna talk about?
Sandy (00:58)
My first one, I'm even going to use the camera, is Alex Hermosy, $100 million offers. I know, there's a reason, there's a reason. So this book is written by Alex Hermosy, who is like a gym guy and that was his business was sort of saving gyms that were failing or helping gyms make more sales on membership and so on. He's a dude, bro, through and through.
Jeni (01:02)
I didn't expect that. I didn't see that coming. Yeah.
Sandy (01:23)
You've probably seen him on Instagram. He's got like the nose thing. I don't even know why he wears that nose opener thing. Like he's a dude, right? Fine. However, I think what he lays out in this book is extremely helpful to a lot of our listeners who may be lean into the feminine side of business. A lot of men's manifestation, like let's just wait till it comes. All of that. I think this is a really good balancing book.
to get you in a little bit more thinking position, a little bit more strategy. I think his stuff is really good. He kind of irritates and annoys me as a person, but I think his material is good. The book is full of little doodles and sketches. And, um, I think from my brain, that was really helpful to, he would just draw a little diagrams, um, to, explain a concept. And in particular, he has an equation. So this book is a hundred million dollars offers.
And he talks about how to build your offer. What are the components that you need and also how to establish the value. Like what is the value of that? Your ideal quintessential client. What is the value of this offer to them? And he's got this little model. actually taught a whole workshop on it in our old coaching days. It's extremely helpful. It really, really is well, I think for that alone, this book is worth it. He also has a hundred million dollar leads, which I've
Listen to One Audio, which I didn't get as much. It's like email list and it's just all the same stuff. So if you aren't familiar with building email lists and what to do with nurture sequences, that is a good book. But I think $100 million offers has some unique ⁓ material in it that you don't see anywhere else.
Jeni (03:08)
Yeah, it's definitely, if you are at the point in your business where you're ready to scale, like you've gotten something off the ground, I would say that that's a great book. If you are like brand, brand new, that book might overwhelm you, but it is, like you said, Sandy, like it is diagrammed out. I mean, it's definitely if you wanna kind of play big and you wanna make a lot of money in your business, like that's a great resource. I agree with you.
Sandy (03:33)
I don't know, I would disagree with it if you're brand new because it talks about pricing, which is what people get really hung up on in the beginning. I think it would be all right for beginner beginners. ⁓ I think it's for people who
Know what they want to sell or like have an idea of what their niche is and they know their market, but they're really confused about the strategy to like, to like bringing it together and marketing and talking about it cohesively. Like, I don't know. I, and he talks about bonuses and urgency and stuff. Like I think all of that stuff is, I think it's all right for a beginner, but. All right. Number two book, Jennifer.
Jeni (04:15)
Okay, ⁓
yeah, I'll just start with the series of books. And it's basically all of Benjamin Hardy's books. And I have them kind of still all on my bookshelf. I didn't even grab them all because I think I have four. ⁓
think that his best book, most inspiring book from a mindset perspective is 10X is easier than 2X. So again, like if you're ready to kind of think big, I also think it's a really motivational book. I personally, I have all of his paper books, but I also buy his books on Audible because he reads his own books and I think he's really engaging as a narrator of his own work. Some people are not, but he is particularly good.
Sandy (04:42)
Mm-hmm.
Jeni (05:05)
And his are the kind of books that you want to listen to like for me over and over again. They're really motivational and he's really ⁓ kind of like lived this out over the last decade himself. Like what he's like really living and operating what he's teaching in those books. so yeah, so I would say 10X is easier than 2X, which is really the concept that.
going much bigger than you think is possible is easier than just sort of incremental growth, which on its face is a very radical idea. So I love that book.
Sandy (05:38)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, what is the coach or who is the coach that he based that off of?
Jeni (05:44)
yeah,
it's Dan Sullivan. Yeah.
Sandy (05:46)
Dan Sullivan, right, which he's been coaching business. Dan Sullivan has
been coaching business since, I don't know, the 80s or something. And he's established and Hardy kind of took these concepts, applied them, and then wrote a book jointly with Dan Sullivan. I think I agree with you. And also at the end of those audio books, I knew this would be mine too, but I knew you were going to mention it. The end of the audio books, remember that Dan Sullivan and
Jeni (05:53)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Sandy (06:12)
and the author have a conversation and it's so good and you don't get that in the hardcover, in the actual book. And they're just chat about different concepts or how it came up or different like stories or examples of people. That was worth the cost of the audio book for me.
Jeni (06:20)
Yeah. Yeah.
yeah. I would say like for, I don't know exactly how much Dan Sullivan charges for his coaching program, but I think it's in the many thousands, many, many thousands. it strategic coach? Is that his business? Yeah. Yeah. So it's like, it's, it's, I think you have to be at a certain revenue milestone in order to join his program. ⁓ but you get like kind of the nuggets and the wisdom of
Sandy (06:37)
Yeah, it's tens of thousands. ⁓ yeah, think so. That's right. Yeah.
Yeah, correct.
Jeni (06:55)
his teachings through these books, which I would say is well worth the cost of a copy. And yeah, and Benjamin Hardy also, I'll just add, he has a YouTube channel and he goes over kind of a lot of his like, his current thinking on his channel and he's just worth following. I think Dan Sullivan's ideas are amazing, but he's also like, the magic for me is him bringing his like organizing brain and his expertise to it.
Sandy (07:00)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Yeah. Isn't he a psychologist or something?
Jeni (07:26)
Yeah, he might have a podcast. don't maybe that's what I'm watching on YouTube. I don't even know.
Sandy (07:30)
No,
isn't Benjamin Hardy a psychologist? Like, doesn't he come at it from a...
Jeni (07:33)
psychologist.
Yeah, he was, ⁓ I think he's like organizational design. I mean, we should look it up. He was in a PhD program, I think when he first started working with Dan, like that's my memory. But yeah, he's like a PhD business design guy. But he's very, very skilled at taking kind of more complex theoretical ideas and grounding them in very practical.
Sandy (07:37)
⁓ that's right. That's right.
Yeah, you're right, you're right, right, yeah.
Jeni (08:02)
applicable language and concepts. Like I just, it's hard to find someone that is both good at thinking in complex ways and then simplifying it like that.
Sandy (08:04)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
And, but he's also applied them to his own business, right? Like there's that extra layer. He's like, I did this and this is what happened and here's why I think it works. You know? Yeah.
Jeni (08:15)
Yes, yeah, the stories of his, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yep, yeah, and he is a person who has like a lot of children and he gets in, I mean, he's a busy guy, right? He was like in a PhD program, growing a business, like writing multiple books, collaborating with other, like he's just one of those people that's like, how do you do all of the things you do?
Sandy (08:28)
Great.
with six kids or something.
Jeni (08:39)
Like how are there that many hours in the day and he actually does in some of the books get into How he's able to do that. So I just yeah, I just like I didn't want to just single out one book I think it's sort of his entire You know collection of business writings I would just recommend if you're sort of at the space where either you're feeling stuck You're ready to go to the next level or you're looking for like a mindset Kind of refresh and some some like really inspiring content
Sandy (08:40)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, okay.
Jeni (09:11)
All right, what is your next one?
Sandy (09:13)
Um, the company of one by Paul Jarvis, right? Yep. This was, it was written in 2019. So it's a little bit old, but still all relevant. Paul Jarvis is one of Jenny's like, I want to meet him in, yeah, like I want to, he lives on Vancouver Island. So we always just joke about like landing there and like knocking on Paul Jarvis' door. um,
Jeni (09:15)
⁓ love that book. my gosh. Yeah.
Yeah.
he's like a hero for me.
Sandy (09:36)
This book is really the company of one. think the title is sort of self-explanatory. It's about building a company without a giant ass team. And I think it keeps you focused on like better over bigger. Cause I think the main narrative is like grow scale grows, you know, Alex Hermos, he grows scale grow. it's an, and Paul, Paul worked in corporate and then he like went and started his own company of one and he's incredibly successful.
Jeni (09:56)
Hmm.
Sandy (10:04)
and a whole lot happier. So I think for those of you who maybe intuitively feel like, I don't know if I want a big team ⁓ or like three assistants or any of that, like there is a way to do it, to be very profitable and to be very joyful in your business. And Paul sort of talks about his like realization of this concept and, ⁓ and how he does it. So it's a really refreshing take on, business in today's age.
Jeni (10:33)
Yeah, and if I'm remembering correctly, I just was like looking it up. Isn't his wife like a firefighter or something, like a wild land? Like he just has this remarkable life in the same way that Benjamin Hardy, I would say like in a very different way. I think he's like Mormon and has a giant family and lives his version of a wonderful life, like Paul Jarvis.
from what I understand from listening to interviews with him and seeing him speak over the years, like he's living his version of kind of a wonderful life. And I think, I love that you picked that book. I am sure that was in my last, the last time we did this podcast, that was in one of my recommendations. I haven't thought about that book for a while, but I think like part of...
What is so wonderful about him and his thinking is that he has created a business that like really suits his light, his goals, like his lifestyle. And for some people it is building, you know, the world's biggest whatever. And some people it is like for him, it is having the ability, I think to do what he wants with his time and to live in a beautiful far away place. And I, I think that's true success. So
Sandy (11:24)
Right.
Yeah, he has the freedom that he wants.
Jeni (11:47)
I mean, thank you for bringing
that book up. I haven't thought about it in a long time. Okay, so I am going to go with a book that maybe does not seem like a business book, but it is Wanting by Luke Burgess, The Power of the Medic Desire and Everyday Life. I love this book so much. This is...
Sandy (11:51)
I know I just went through my bookshelf and I was like, this one, this one. Okay, what's number four?
Oh, I about that one,
Jeni (12:14)
One of the best, I think this isn't like my top 20 favorite books of all time, certainly nonfiction. I would like, this isn't like a strategy or a tactical book at all, but I do think a lot of the material in this book applies to crafting an offer, understanding your audience, understanding behavior of customers. And yeah, the power of memetic desire in everyday life. If you don't understand mimesis,
This is really something I would consider at least go and watch the TED talk. But it's really like, he is a scholar of Rene Girard, the sort of late famous Stanford professor, philosopher who really kind of like brought this mimetic desire theory to life. This is also the underpinnings of a lot of big social media startups like.
It's like Peter Thiel's, was Rene Girod versus Peter Thiel's mentor also. There's a whole storied ⁓ world there, but it's really important, I think, to understand for yourself, as a person, as a business owner, as a human operating in the world, what is driving your own behavior and your own desires. And then obviously understanding that about yourself will help you understand it about other people. Yeah.
Sandy (13:39)
Yeah, I completely forgot about that book. That's a really good one. Yeah. Okay.
Jeni (13:43)
Yeah. Yeah,
I don't know. This book is kind of heady to get through. It's very theoretical in some parts, but also has amazing examples about brands like Ferrari. I'm just remembering the kinds of things that he talks about in Zappos. He goes into a lot of brands that you've heard of and explains why they took off or why they failed when they did.
⁓ I love it. He also talks about the like the role of scapegoating in our culture. Like there's so much here that's relevant to all of us just as humans operating in the world, operating on the internet. ⁓ Can't recommend it enough. Yeah.
Sandy (14:25)
Amazing. Okay, my next one is, I do think we've talked about this one, Profit First. I know we've talked about it a lot in our coaching. Profit First by Mike McCallewitz. And I think it is so helpful for people starting out or in the first couple of years of business who aren't paying themselves, who we've coached so many people who just take the money in and spend it on business expenses and don't actually take a salary. And this is really about organizing your money that's coming in.
Jeni (14:26)
Okay, what is your next?
Sandy (14:54)
and making sure that you do make profit, that you do pay yourself because the whole point, and I think unfortunately, and maybe surprisingly, this is forgotten. The point of having a business is to make profit, to have dividends. It's not just about making, you you do all this work just for a salary. That's not the point, right? And ⁓ the point is at the end of the year, you've got some profit and you can make more than you would just working for somebody else. So anyway, this book goes through it and it, ⁓
I've got it underlined everywhere, but it really explains the numbers and it's easy to understand. It's not a bookkeeping book, although maybe you could argue it is, but it's not like boring. It's just like gets you really excited about like handling your money and thinking about it a little bit differently and really controlling expenses. Like, can I afford that or can I not? So, yeah, I think this is this is really good. He also wrote Clockwork.
Jeni (15:34)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Sandy (15:52)
and by Mike McCallwitz. And that one, that one was good too, but this is very, that one's about like productivity. This one I think is a must have for any beginner, like under three, four year. Well, I actually know, you know, if you are struggling with money and you're not taking a profit or a salary, then you need to read this book.
Jeni (16:09)
Yeah, yeah, I think so. And I mean, the concept of this just so in case people don't know is that you also kind of like he recommends that you have, he's the one that recommends you have like a lot of different accounts, right? That like you get a banking system set up. And I don't think you need to actually do that in order to make it work. You can do it theoretically, but I think that's a sticking point for people. But it's basically like have different buckets of money, like to manage.
Sandy (16:22)
Yeah.
No.
Jeni (16:36)
to manage it in a certain way so that like you're just being very strategic and responsible with your resources from day one, which I think makes a lot of sense. I did not love that book. I do agree that it's an important book, but it just, think for those of us that like are allergic to things like taxes and bookkeeping, it's like, man, but there are also, will say, Sandy, there are a lot of people.
like VAs and consultants who've been trained in his methods, like it's pretty easy to hire someone now too, who sort of like knows the profit first methodology. So it's good to like understand it, but you don't have to be the one that implements it either. You can hire for that too, like an OBM or someone can manage that for you. Yep. Okay. And then my final one that I wanted to talk about is probably also a little bit unexpected. And this is maybe more of like a,
Yeah, just more of a mindset book again, because so much of being successful in business is mindset and it is The Mountain is You by Brianna Weiss. And I know you don't love this book, Sandy, but I think some of our audience will. And there are, it's just like these little vignettes, like these tiny little two or three page essays that are, I find quite helpful, especially if you find yourself
kind of in like circular logic around certain decisions in your business. And I just have this one page marked that I wanted to talk about where she talks about instinct and fear can feel similar, which is I think really relevant to many of us in business, which is where we start to think that, oh, when something feels off, that's our intuition telling us no. And,
And it's not always the case. And I think she does a really good job of making the distinction between like sort of intuition or instinct and fear. And, you know, ⁓ just because something doesn't feel good doesn't mean that you shouldn't do it. And she sort of talks about like, your instinct is really a response. Like your intuition is a response to like a physical.
issue like you're as an animal, as a living creature, able to understand intuitively like when you're unsafe. But when you're just like thinking through problems in your head, for example, problems about your business and you're like, no, no, that doesn't feel good. That's really not your intuition. Like she does such a good job. Like I think so often we hold ourselves back and I will raise my hand here and say that I personally relate have related to this.
Like we'll hold ourselves back because we'll think like, my intuition is saying don't do it. But really it's like, we're just kind of scared and talking ourselves out of it. So if you also have issues like that with your mindset and you want some like kind of tough love in like these little bite-sized pieces, I really like that book for that reason.
Sandy (19:43)
And I, I didn't, I, it's not that I didn't like it. It's, think the problem was I bought it on my Kobo and I think he needed the physical copy of it. Like I was trying to read it like page by page and I was like, yeah, yeah. So buy the physical copy and it's like, you could just open it up and see where it lands. Cause they're just little paragraph B, you know, a couple of paragraphs kind of points.
Jeni (19:50)
⁓ yeah, to like go. Yeah, no, it's not like a sit and read book. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, and I search
for like certain words in here, like, I just go through, I mean, yeah, this is all highlighted for me. But yeah, like if I just need something, like I'm sitting down and I'm sort of feeling a little stuck or ⁓ underwhelmed or something, I'll just like pick it up and kind of flip through and see if something catches my eye. And in that way, it's pretty powerful. Yeah.
Sandy (20:22)
Mm-hmm.
And
did you say who the author was?
Jeni (20:33)
Brianna
Weist, W-I-E-S-T, I don't know if I'm saying that, Weist, Weist, I don't know if I'm saying that right. But yeah, and then, was that all of them or do you have one more? ⁓ okay, yeah, I mean, I would say that, how would you sum up how your business recommendations have changed over time, if at all,
Sandy (20:38)
Bye.
That's all. No, I did three.
⁓ you mean for books or business?
Jeni (20:59)
Yeah, like books. Like, has your taste in business books changed over the last few years?
Sandy (21:02)
Yeah. So, so
what I brought was very like practical strategy things. I was thinking more of the listener for me. I don't want to read any of these books currently. just because I've like done it, got it, you know, learned it. So I think it's more of definitely more on the mindset side of things, which I didn't bring today. ⁓ so I appreciate your, recommendation. So I think it's more like
Jeni (21:12)
Yeah.
Yeah, totally.
Sandy (21:32)
How do, it's more like, how do I say this? It's more like, what do I need to do in business so that I feel independent and free and making money? That's sort of my thinking right now as opposed to like, we have to make profit. You know, of course we have to make profit, but I feel like we've got all those, you know, those are all tuned in after 10 years.
Jeni (21:44)
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I agree.
And when I was like thinking about this exercise, so just so the listeners know, we decided to do this episode and we didn't tell each other which, you know, we obviously didn't share which books and I figured we would have some overlap, but you knew I was gonna pick the Ben Hardy books, which was smart. ⁓ And I was thinking about it and I have just taken a giant box of books to donate like a couple of weeks ago.
Sandy (22:08)
And you're just the one.
Jeni (22:19)
And so Profit First was in that box actually because I feel very done with that. And a lot of other tactical business books, like I just took and gave to the thrift store because I felt like I'm done. Like we've already established these systems. I know them. And the books that I feel drawn to are exactly what you said, more mindset focused, and like focused on balancing what it means to be an entrepreneur with
Sandy (22:22)
Yeah.
Jeni (22:48)
having the life that you want or the life that I want. And I think that that's just like a natural transition. We figured out those kind of like operational things and now what it means to be a business owner or a founder is very different. But I also will say like, for those of you that haven't figured all those systems out, I'm just gonna put a little AI plug here. I like so much of the tactical stuff I feel like you could get.
Sandy (22:55)
Yeah.
Yes, true.
Jeni (23:18)
in like
an index card size response from Chad GBT or whatever. Like honestly, the books that I would say like sit down and read or get on an audio book are going to be these more story-based or mindset-based books because like you are operating in the age of like tactics being readily available on demand basically for free.
and you maybe don't need to go through the like heartache and long hours that we did figuring this all out. Like it's a different time.
Sandy (23:55)
Yeah, absolutely. Totally different time. Totally different. That was not available at all.
Jeni (23:58)
Yeah.
Yeah, I know. Like, I just remember like having to hire people to learn how to make an email sequence. Like, I remember being like, I don't really understand what this is. Like, you know, and now, first of all, things have gotten so normalized, but there's just so much content and there's AI to help you and it's a different world. Like, what it takes now looks different. So I think that's part of why I really was excited to do this episode was just to say like,
Sandy (24:07)
Yeah.
my god.
Jeni (24:31)
If you've listened to one of our older shows where we talked about the recommendations, business tools, business books, it is a bit of a different world. The concepts are still the same, but how to access the content and the concepts has changed. So, yeah.
Sandy (24:45)
Mm-hmm. Yep.
All right. Good episode. Thank you, Jenny.
Jeni (24:50)
Alright, thanks, Andy. We'll see you all next time.