Welcome back. I’m excited about this episode, because we’re going to talk about something that’s pretty near and dear to my heart. I’ve talked a little bit about my goals, and one of them for last year was actually to read 52 books. That’s a book a week. Some people are really amazed at that volume and other people are like, “Oh, well, how in depth did you get?” Are you going to kind of want to poo poo on the idea? It’s funny because haters are always going to hate. You just can’t get away from it. And, frankly, when you’ve got haters, maybe you’ve started to arrive. People are actually listening to you that they want to argue with you, so nothing wrong there.
I read these books through a combination of good old fashion paper copies and audible.com. I listen to Audible quite a bit, especially as I was commuting to work and doing some other things, mowing the lawn, whatever it was. I always tried to be plugged in and listening and learning. Some of these books that are fantastic, like fantastic, I would read over and over again. And some of them were like, meh, I could probably do without seeing that one again. A bunch of them were actually network marketing focused, as you might expect, and some of them weren’t. I read everything from spiritual topics to business topics. I’ve got a few of my favorite authors sprinkled in for some leisure reading, I guess you could say, that are fictional books. I curtailed quite a bit. I’m a big fan of reading fiction. It helps me to shut my brain off at night, frankly. It’s usually when I read those.
Some of the highlights, I’m going to start from the back, so from the most recent. This book in particular had a huge effect on me. It’s called The Obstacle Is The Way, Ryan Holiday. I cannot emphasize this book enough. I cannot recommend it enough. It talks about that getting through your obstacles is actually what becomes the vehicle for your progress. I highly recommend that for anyone. Just as a breeze over here. Some of the network marketing focused books that I read. We had a Get Over Your Damn Self, which was a network marketing focus book. We’ve got The Miracle Morning for Network Marketers. We’ve got Ice Breakers, How to Get Instant Trust, The One-Minute Presentation. Let’s see. Building the Business in 15 Minutes a Day, Learning the Business One Story at a Time, The Game Of Networking, How to Build Network Marketing Leaders, volumes one and two. Motivation. Action. Results.
There was quite a bit here. The Four Year Career was, actually, a really great one, as well. Freakishly Effective Social Media; frankly, that wasn’t my favorite. I probably not going to pick that one up again. Some of the other ones that maybe you could skip the next go round. Frankly, I would probably skip the How to Build Network Marketing Leaders, volume one and two, and Motivation. Action. Results. They weren’t broad enough for me. They get hyper-focused and then really, really repetitive. Same with Building the Business in 15 Minutes a Day. It just got a little old.
Some of the other books that I loved, though. One of the books I read was actually of one of my personal heroes, it’s called To the Rescue – Thomas S. Monson is, a biography. It’s by far the largest book that I read. It was 500 pages. A good old hardback on that one. It was fantastic, and I highly recommend learning about him and what an incredible man he was. I read a book called Calling On the Powers of Heaven. Again, I’m very spiritual, and that was a big one. Really talks a lot about the same sort of idea, this one just had more of a spiritual twist to it. The Greatest Salesman in the World, and The Richest Man in Babylon; I cannot recommend them enough. They are oldies and classics. You definitely should do it. I read The Four Agreements, and I had a lot of people who loved this book and talk about how Tom Brady uses it. It just wasn’t for me. High Performance Habits by Brendon Burchard was fantastic. I cannot recommend that one enough, along with Willpower Doesn’t Work, which is from Benjamin Hardy. I love his blog as well. He’s actually one of the most read bloggers on medium.com. I cannot recommend enough, picking that one up.
A lot of these books were really fantastic, and they gave me a lot of different insight into my own thinking, into my own goal setting. One of them that really impacted me, I think was The Compound Effect, which is a fantastic read, as well. It helps a ton for really understanding that it’s the compounding of the little things that make big things happen. That was the takeaway that I got, and it was just awesome. The 5 Second Rule was amazing, and I totally recommend picking that one up. Mel Robbins did a fantastic job in laying that out. She’s got a TEDx Talk and a number of other things that were fantastic. By far the most impactful book is, a spiritual book for me, The Book of Mormon. I love to read that. It’s actually a part of my every day. I’ll read it again. In fact, my goal in 2019, I’m going to read it twice, once in English, once in Spanish, porque habla Español, and I want to take that additional learning and meaning, but I recommend that everybody try and do this.
It was hard, and it took all year long. There were times that I was behind, and I did a whole blitz and listened to a lot of books and read a bunch, especially through the summer when I was doing yard work, plug in my AirPods and off I went. It was great. Whenever I spend time on my button on my bicycle, I also listened to a book generally, because I spend long periods of time on the saddle, and that becomes a great place where I can engage my mind and learn as I go. 52 books in a year, maybe it’s not for everybody. What I can tell you is that I learned a ton.
Now in this coming year, I’m not going to read 52 more books. I’m not going to do it, but I am going to focus in on reading 26 books, and I’m going to go in more depth with those books and I want to be able to really mark them up. Some of these, I’ve marked up beyond all belief. I’m talking about The Richest Man in Babylon or The Greatest Salesman in the World; those things are dog-eared, and they do great. Another one that’s actually been dog-eared so many times–I’ll read it again, because it’s time for me to do that again–would actually be As A Man Thinketh, which is a phenomenal book. It’s really more of a pamphlet. It’s pretty small but has incredible wisdom that’s ingrained there. It helps me to keep life in perspective. Through all this time I had a fun time tracking it. I talked in my last podcast about measurable results, and so I literally had a piece of paper up on my wall with 52 slots for each book. I posted a picture of it on Instagram last night, as well, talking about how I had completed this. I cannot emphasize what a cool thing this was, and I hope that all of you will take that into account.
I wanted this to really help me as I grew into 2019, especially as I’m getting ready to deliver 21st-Century Recruiting because there’s so much of it that goes into it. I read a ton of different network marketing books to try and understand the mentality that I’m working with and of others. I’m excited for you guys to get that into and to get a hold of it.
That’s what I’ve got for today, guys. Please make sure you go on the Facebook page and like it, that’s a facebook.com/MLMdonedifferent. Also, pull the podcast up on iTunes or Stitcher or Spotify, or wherever you’re consuming this, and like it. Give me a comment. I really appreciate that. It helps me to get out to more people. If you guys want me to do some training for your teams, please reach out to me directly jr@MLMRenegade.com. Happy to do that, especially to get you guys the videos for the 21st-Century Recruiting Kickstarter, which you guys can be looking for those to be there shortly for you. You guys have a great night. We’ll talk to you soon.
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