I am an absolute nerd.
I am.
I love books. I love smelling books. I love picking out books. I like picking books by their covers and their titles. I love books so much that I’m resurrecting the #GirlBoss book club, and today we’re talking all about the new selections.
The #GirlBoss book club was something I had started a couple years ago, because It felt like the perfect excuse of how to merge my loves of working with reading at the same time. It was super fun, but it started to become too much of a job. And when it starts to become a job, its just not fun anymore.
That being said, I’ve really missed having reasons and excuses to read really great books. So today, I am resurrecting the #GirlBoss book club and I wanted to announce what our next 10 books are going to be. I’ve got 10 books for 10 months, but I might throw some other really fun ones in.
These books are focused on personal development, finance, mindset, how to be a boss, and more. The book club is very informal. I truly just wanted to create a space where I can say, “here are some really great books that I’m going to be reading and I’ll be talking about and sharing.” We’re going to have discussions about them and some really great conversation starters around the books happening in the #GirlBoss club. What I’m also hoping to do is collect reviews, thoughts and feedback on books – not just the 10 I’m listing today.
Think Goodreads, but for business books. I see this going in so many really cool directions, so I had to bring the book club back.
Be sure you join my free Facebook community so you can join the conversation!
So in no particular order, here we go.
1. Necessary Dream by Anna Fels
Description: Despite the huge advances women have made in recent decades, their ambitions are still undermined in subtle ways. Parents, teachers, bosses, and institutions all give less encouragement to women than men, and women still grow up believing that they must defer to men in order be seen as feminine. If their ambition does survive into adulthood, too often those ambitions must be downsized or abandoned to accommodate “wifely” duties of household chores and child care. As a result, women–unlike men–continually have to re-shape their goals and expectations.
Yet expressing ambition, pursuing it, and getting recognition for one’s accomplishments is critical to identity and happiness. In this groundbreaking work, Anna Fels draws on extensive research and years of her psychiatric practice to offer an original and deeply useful examination of ambition in women’s lives. In the process, she illuminates just what is necessary for women to articulate–and fulfill–their dreams.
Why I’m selecting it: As an entrepreneur and mom, I’ve always found it difficult to balance dreams with obligations, and how big is too big or too small? Curious about this idea of ambition and how to articulate it well.
2. Shark Tales: How I Turned $1,000 into a Billion Dollar Business by Barbara Corcoran
Description: The inspiring true story of Shark Tank star Barbara Corcoran–and her best advice for anyone starting a business. After failing at twenty-two jobs, Barbara Corcoran borrowed $1,000 from a boyfriend, quit her job as a diner waitress, and started a tiny real estate office in New York City. Using the unconventional lessons she learned from her homemaker mom, she gradually built it into a $6 billion dollar business. Now Barbara’s even more famous for the no-nonsense wisdom she offers to entrepreneurs on Shark Tank, ABC’s hit reality TV show.
Shark Tales is down-to-earth, frank, and as heartwarming as it is smart. After reading it, don’t be surprised if you find yourself thinking, “If she can do it, so can I.” Nothing would make Barbara happier.
Why I am selecting it: I’ve watched Shark Tales and have always found Barbara Corcoran to be kind, yet firm. No-nonsense but inspiring. So I loved the chance to hear her story and what it takes to be a real GirlBoss (my definition).
3. Limitless by Jim Qwik
Description: Belief that you are limited might be holding you back from your biggest dreams. In Limitless, I share tools that will help you cast off your perceived limitations.
You’re going to learn how to upgrade your brain and memory. What’s more, you’ll learn how to increase your focus, optimize your work time, and form healthy habits.
Limitless helps you learn anything faster, and once you’ve done that, there is nothing holding you back from your dreams.
In these pages, you’ll discover:
- The secrets to memory and recall
- A simple method for learning anything FAST
- The 4 supervillains of learning
- My #1 tactic to remember names
- And much more…
Why I am selecting it: Asked to read this in July and found the ideas fascinating between memory (which I admit sucks) and brainpower — not a woo woo book, one about your brain and capacity to learn and do.
4. Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
Description: Rich Dad Poor Dad is Robert’s story of growing up with two dads — his real father and the father of his best friend, his rich dad — and the ways in which both men shaped his thoughts about money and investing. The book explodes the myth that you need to earn a high income to be rich and explains the difference between working for money and having your money work for you.
Why I am selecting it: One part of my brand and how I coach women is all about making money — and how to use marketing to do it. So I want to get my hands on anything I can about money, finances, investing, common-sense principles that unfortunately are not passed down generation to generation or taught.
5. The Now Habit by Neil Fiore
Description: THE NOW HABIT offers a comprehensive plan to help readers lower their stress and increase their time to enjoy guilt-free play. Dr. Fiore’s techniques will help any busy person start tasks sooner and accomplish them more quickly, without the anxiety brought on by the negative habits of procrastination and perfectionism.
Why I am selecting it: I often pride my self on how much I get done on a tight deadline — but procrastination causes a lot of anxiety, that I’ve never actually considered. So I wanted to see if it’s possible to stop using it as an excuse and to get into action faster, without guilt.
6. Contagious by Jonah Berger
Description: What makes things popular? If you said advertising, think again. People don’t listen to advertisements, they listen to their peers. But why do people talk about certain products and ideas more than others? Why are some stories and rumors more infectious? And what makes online content go viral?
Wharton marketing professor Jonah Berger has spent the last decade answering these questions. He’s studied why New York Times articles make the paper’s own Most E-mailed list, why products get word of mouth, and how social influence shapes everything from the cars we buy to the clothes we wear to the names we give our children.
In Contagious, Berger reveals the secret science behind word-of-mouth and social transmission. Discover how six basic principles drive all sorts of things to become contagious, from consumer products and policy initiatives to workplace rumors and YouTube videos. Learn how a luxury steakhouse found popularity through the lowly cheesesteak, why anti-drug commercials might have actually increased drug use, and why more than 200 million consumers shared a video about one of the most boring products there is a blender.
Contagious provides specific, actionable techniques for helping information spread—for designing messages, advertisements, and content that people will share. Whether you’re a manager at a big company, a small business owner trying to boost awareness, a politician running for office, or a health official trying to get the word out, Contagious will show you how to make your product or idea catch on.
Why I am selecting it: As a marketer, we’re always breaking down and dissecting what makes things go viral? How does someone get picked up by a huge influencer? What makes the difference? Since we’re all entrepreneurs building empires of one sort or another, I thought this book would be insightful and perhaps encourage creativity in how we approach marketing ourselves and our businesses.
7. Get Out Of Your Head by Jennie Allen
Description: Are your thoughts holding you captive? I’ll never be good enough. Other people have better lives than I do. God couldn’t really love me. Jennie Allen knows what it’s like to swirl in a spiral of destructive thoughts, but she also knows we don’t have to stay stuck in toxic thinking patterns.
As she discovered in her own life, God built a way for us to escape that downward spiral. Freedom comes when we refuse to be victims to our thoughts and realize we have already been equipped with power from God to fight and win the war for our minds.
In Get Out of Your Head, Jennie inspires and equips us to transform our emotions, our outlook, and even our circumstances by taking control of our thoughts. Our enemy is determined to get in our heads to make us feel helpless, overwhelmed, and incapable of making a difference for the kingdom of God. But when we submit our minds to Christ, the promises and goodness of God flood our lives in remarkable ways.
It starts in your head. And from there, the possibilities are endless.
Why I am selecting it: Negative self-chatter plagues me more than I’d like to admit. So when this was suggested to me on my Kindle last week, I was intrigued. Yes, it has a religious overtone — she’s a Christian author and I like her work. I liked it because even the title called me out and I wanted a non-woo woo approach to mindset.
8. You Are a Badass At Making Money by Jen Sincero
Description: You Are a Badass at Making Money will launch you past the fears and stumbling blocks that have kept financial success beyond your reach. Drawing on her own transformation – over just a few years – from a woman living in a converted garage with tumbleweeds blowing through her bank account to a woman who travels the world in style, Jen Sincero channels the inimitable sass and practicality that made You Are a Badass an indomitable bestseller. She combines hilarious personal essays with bite-size, aha concepts that unlock earning potential and get real results.
Learn to: Uncover what’s holding you back from making money
- Give your doubts, fears, and excuses the heave-ho
- Relate to money in a new (and lucrative) way
- Shake up the cocktail of creation
- Tap into your natural ability to grow rich
- Shape your reality – stop playing victim to circumstance
- Get as wealthy as you wanna be
Why I am selecting it: I read this book years ago, but know it’s so helpful in getting out of the money stigma nad shame we bring to our adult lives and certain businesses. I love her snarky nature and wanted to dive in again to the beliefs surrounding money and how to break them.
9. No Excuses: The Power of Self-Discipline by Brian Tracey
Description: No Excuses! shows you how you can achieve success in all three major areas of your life:
- Your personal goals: self-discipline can help you realize that you are responsible for your success and shows you how persistence really does pay off.
- Your business and money goals: self-discipline can make you a better leader and a better manager, help you close more sales and make more money, improve your time-management and problem- solving abilities, and make you more effective and successful at work.
- Your overall happiness: self-discipline can help you be happier, healthier, and more physically fit, and it can help you in your marriage and your relationships with your children and friends.
Why I am selecting it: I am the queen of excuses for why I don’t need to start something … see my earlier recommendation of procrastination. But it’s not just business. It’s exercise, diets, connecting with others, sending emails, responding to texts…. so much that I always chalk up to not having enough self-discipline.
10. Stop Missing Your Life by Corey Muscara
Description: In Stop Missing Your Life, mindfulness teacher Cory Muscara takes us on a journey into the heart of what is required for real change, growth, and happiness. He exposes how the phrase “be present” has become little more than a platitude, imbued with the misguided message to be present just for the sake of being present, and reveals how to achieve true Presence: a quality of being that is unmistakably attractive about a person, and one that only comes when we’ve peeled back the layers of guarding that prevent us from being our full, honest, and integrated selves in the world.
Muscara shows how we build internal walls, what he describes as a “Pain Box” inhibiting us from living a deeply connected and meaningful life. He offers a four-part FACE model (Focus, Allow, Curiosity, and Embodiment) that helps chip away at those walls and builds our capacity to experience the richness of our lives Stop Missing Your Life ultimately teaches how we can find peace in the chaos and become better people for our families, our communities, and our world.
Why I am selecting it: I think COVID has taught me more than anything how to appreciate where I am — but I also think I have a lot to learn in how I show up present always — no matter how crazy or normal life is.
I am really excited about the 10 books I’ve selected. I’m excited to share them and have discussions with you. I really do want to see what comes up for you while reading these.
One thing I haven’t mentioned yet – how do you join? Just go to malloryschlabach.com/bookclub and join the list. I’ll be sending you the book list, reading order and a link to join the #girlboss club where the discussions are happening. What I’m really hoping comes out of this is great conversation, personal development, challenging yourself to think differently and giving insight to others. Starting us off in August is going to be Get Out Of Your Own Head by Jennie Allen.
I am super excited to get this started – so let’s go guys!
About Marketing Magic:
The Marketing Magic podcast is where women entrepreneurs trying to do all the things come to get inspiration, business strategy, and on-air coaching on how to get their business noticed and growing. If you have a business that people need to know about in order for it to grow, you’re in the right place. This is the place to uncomplicate your marketing. Be sure to listen, subscribe, and leave a review! Join the conversation of other unapologetically successful women in her Facebook community, The #girlboss Club.
