Shownotes
If you’re a regular listener, you already know some of Matt and Kia’s favorite books, as well as have a long list recommended by all of their guests. In this podcast, listen in to hear their all time top 5 must read books and why. Don’t miss Matt and Kia’s “cliffsnotes” so you know which books you want to read first! And they couldn’t resist mentioning a bunch of other awesome books you’ll want to add to your list as well, including, of course, Profit First by Mike Michalowicz.
Matt:
- Book Yourself Solid – Michael Port (https://amzn.to/2MG3DNp)
- Hug Your Customers – Jack Mitchell (https://amzn.to/2Xn64oQ)
- Purple Cow – Seth Godin (https://amzn.to/2JUxm2I)
- Customer Mania – Ken Blanchard (https://amzn.to/2WC4QsI)
- High Performing Habits – Brendon Burchard (https://amzn.to/2JWpu0K)
Kia:
- The Secrets of World of Mouth Marketing – George Silverman
- Blue Ocean Strategy – W. Chan Kim & Renee Mauborgne (https://amzn.to/2MBHBeG)
- Getting Stuff Done – David Allen (https://amzn.to/2If1Fho)
- StrengthsFinder 2.0 – Tom Rath (https://amzn.to/2MrpQhK)
- Boundaries – Henry Cloud and John Townsend (https://amzn.to/2MmTx3t)
- Love Does – Bob Goff (https://amzn.to/2XppnxB)
[00:00] Welcome to from nothing to profit, a photographer’s podcast with Matt and Kayak where each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster.
[00:15] Hey everybody, welcome to the podcast. Today’s episode is gonna be kind of fun. As you know, probably from listening to the podcast, Kai and I are big book fans and so we wanted to kind of share our top five books for each, I guess just top five bucks. So kind of do you have your top five bucks? Are you ready?
[00:31] I do. Now I kind of have a top five books in lots of different categories into books. So I tried to make this one my business top five, so yeah.
[00:43] And that’s what I kind of did too. So these will be, what’s interesting is I think there’ll be business books, but there’s so much like kind of this self help in there and just about like getting rid of head trash and stuff like that. So, but I think, yeah, the minor definitely business centered for sure. So
[00:55] yeah. Yeah, I always do books that like has kind of shaped my life because I do have certain authors that I feel like their viewpoint on the world has helped me figure out who I want to be. Like Madeleine L’Engle or Anne McCaffrey, which are not really, people don’t really read those very much, but I felt like for this podcast I want him to be pretty specific and do things that are going to help people straight up in their business. So I’m a cyber fraud.
[01:21] That’s where I’m at too. Cool. So do you want me to start? I’ll start. It doesn’t work. Yeah. Yeah, you do your first one. Okay, so the first book, this one I’m doing first because it was one of the first books that we read that actually launched our business and helped us and it’s actually book yourself solid by Michael Port. Have you read that one yet? No, I haven’t. Okay, so it’s a, it’s a general business book. It kind of talks about like basically he has likes on some philosophies in there like a red rope policy, which is basically like not everybody can do business with you kind of thing. And that was really good for us so that he starts to make you think like, okay, you have the small set of people that you’re marketing to and that you’re working with and you don’t need to work with everybody. So it’s just a really kind of a general book about business, but it’s, it’s super good and really comprehensive. It’s a pretty easy read. He’s entertaining and he’s got, he’s got some other ones out since that I haven’t read all of them, but um, so my first book, his book yourself solid by Michael Port.
[02:13] What’s like the one thing that you took from that you said maybe that you, you wanted to make it look like you were over subscribed essentially your people, you know, people couldn’t necessarily all I’ll get in. Is that the main thing you took from that?
[02:25] No, that’s more, has more as like his is like a red rope policy. Like, okay, so you’re going to become a portrait photographer and you only want to shoot one session a week while knowing that then you need to have a policy in place that everyone comes to. You has to spend x amount of dollars kind of idea to make it worth it. You know what I mean? That you’re not going to do, you’re not going to do your one session a week on somebody that’s going to spend $50 so he just helps you like build Your Business Plan and then tells you how to protect the business plan and then not then starts to move into how to market that business plan. So it’s like, it’s kind of like planting your and saying okay, this is what our business looks like. And it helps you decide what that is based on your goals and who you are as a person.
[03:05] Yeah. So he kind of aligns your business with you and then, and so when I’ve read it the second and third time I looked, I was in business for years and I’ve read it and I was like, okay, we’re doing this one thing over here and it’s actually not aligned with who we are and what we want to do. So we’d just like could cut it. So it’s just like, it helps you align your business to you and then align your business to your customers and just makes a healthier business. So yeah. That’s awesome. Okay. Are you ready for my first one? Yeah. Yeah. What’s your first one?
[03:32] Okay, so I went through actually my bookshelves because I like to keep my books physically where I can get to them and I actually write, I was writing in them a lot before and I think I’m going to start doing it again because looking back I’m like, oh, I can see what I liked about it when I underlined and I write notes in it. So this one is the secrets of word of mouth marketing by George Silverman. Okay. Haven’t heard of that one? No. Hold on a minute. How to trigger exponential sales through we’re runaway word of mouth, which really, it’s so funny because when I read it probably 10 years ago, I was like, oh my gosh, this is so amazing. But now it’s even more so like more important.
[04:08] Well in here and I, I don’t want to take too big of a tangent, but I haven’t been really struggling with like online marketing stuff. Like Facebook ads aren’t working as well as they used to and things like that. So I’m like, what would I eat? What did I used to do? So that may be,
[04:19] yeah, word of mouth. Yeah. So I’m opening up to page 21 just out of curiosity to see what I liked. And so I have a little note that says senior models, speakers gambles in Ted’s many sessions at stores. Okay. So I don’t know what that meant, but I’ll read you the paragraph that says why easier. The best way to avoid work and still get something done is to have someone else to do it. That’s what advisors, experts and peers do. It’s a way of getting out of people to put in the work and risk of getting, gathering information and trying products. That way you don’t have to take the time spent on research as an anchor. The rest of doing it yourself there for the best way to increase profits is to accelerate your little product decisions. So essentially he’s saying have other people tell other people about your products.
[04:58] Yeah. So yeah, cause yeah, cause then your whole sale system can be much shorter because you’re getting qualified people in that already kind of are down the road and you can have somebody else do that lifting for you. Yeah, yeah. Super Smart.
[05:10] Yes. The secrets of word of mouth marketing by George Silverman. And I think it’s so funny I knew it, I was afraid this was going to happen and then I knew it was going to happen. I’m probably going to have to read this again. Have like, yeah, I’ve dog eared most of the pages in it.
[05:23] That’s all. It’s obviously a good one. Yeah. So what do you think the chances are that we get through our 10 bucks and we, neither of us have read either one of us.
[05:30] Strive not to do the ones that were there that I knew for sure would be the same. So we may have to do as same book. One, two. Okay.
[05:37] Yeah, and I know there’s actually one book on the end that you know where I’m going to finish because I figured I figured you wouldn’t but it just in case somebody hadn’t listened to that doesn’t listen to podcasts regularly, they can get the book. Okay. Anyways. All right, my second book, my second book. Let me find the author is hug your customers. I’m looking it up real quick by Jack. Have you read that one? No. Okay, so it’s this whole book about, it features the case studies of a couple of businesses. The one I remember from the book is this. There’s a company in New York that sells suits and it’s like this little small mom and pop type soup place that actually has a lot of sales people because they’re very busy, but it’s like on a corner in New York, it’s been there for forever.
[06:17] Like you would never go there to buy like a $2,000 suit. But like everybody goes to this place to buy like a $2,000 suit. And the idea is he looks at these businesses and figuring out why they’re so successful and when he finds out is that they have some type of customer database where they keep track of things that are happening in people’s lives so that when they come back in, you can talk to them about what’s going on. So you take Andy, he goes and buys a suit. He mentions like, yeah, you know, we’re doing soccer right now and cars on the road and soccer and stuff like that. They just make a note, no big deal. They talk how they have the conversation. Make a note next time Andy comes in and says, hey, is soccer still happening? You know what’s going on.
[06:52] And he just boom, instantly like, wow, these people care about me. And the conversation just instantly starts like, oh no, no, soccer is over, you know, you know, whatever. And so when you’re there, it becomes a conversation about like friend of friend instead of like salesmen to suit buyer. You know what I mean? Yeah. So it’s really cool. So he features a couple of businesses in this, but the, this is the one I remember. So here’s an example. So this guy buys us really nice suit and he’s like flying. He’s flying to Japan to do a presentation. So he buys a new suit for this presentation and for whatever reason it doesn’t come together and it’s like kind of a mass and it’s like one of their best customers are really worried. The next customer comes in and they’re talking in there and he says, you know, they’re all kind of friends at this point.
[07:32] And he says, well, what’s going on over there? What’s all the commotion was about that? And they said, oh, you know, so and so, or a suit. We didn’t get it done in time. He’s on is on a plane to Japan and it doesn’t have a suit. We feel awful, blah blah. And he said, Hey, I’m going to that conference. I’m just taking the red items to Japan. I’ll take his suit for him. And like, so the guy buys a suit, it takes it somebody else’s suit because like of that relationship they’ve built and actually takes and delivers the suit at no cost and just to do the right thing. But it’s this whole concept that like if you hug your customers, what relationships you can build and what, what it actually does. So just a really cool customer relationship book. It’s feel good stories but also has like systems and it on how to actually do it and stuff like that. So it’s really, really good.
[08:10] I have your card. I love that because when you’re a smaller in a business, you really can’t do that. I mean, I think that’s what makes most businesses successful when they first start out, especially a sales type business. But yeah, it’s been putting it in a system so that everyone that works for you can do it. Yeah, that’s really smart.
[08:28] Well it’s really interesting. We do a pretty good job of this, but we should do a better job. But the way they do it as like, you know, they just like the very first thing they do is say like, Oh, let me look up your measurements real quick. And so they’re not allowed, I mean they’re looking up the measurements with what they’re looking at. It’s all the notes. And then they go over and they say, let me show you our new suits that we got in. Oh by the way, first conversation and then it just takes off. And so anyways, it was just super slick. So, well the way we, we’ve used to do it and we just don’t do, like I said, good job is like we always say, hey, let me pull up, let me pull up your past order and then we can look at all their notes and stuff too. So just an idea. Okay. So what’s your second book?
[09:01] So my second book is called Blue Ocean strategy. Yep. I’ve read that one. Have you read that one? Yeah. Bye. I don’t know the, cause you said w Chan, Cam and then Renee mal born. I don’t know.
[09:11] Yeah, there’s like two professors at a Harvard or something like,
[09:14] yeah, yeah, yeah. So I, um, when I read this book, it was really eyeopening I think because I’ve been in the business long enough, 20 years to see times when everyone’s doing the same thing and you know, they’re getting mad about all the competition and then the business changes some way it goes, you know, black and white to color film or from color to digital or digital prints to digital products. And it talks totally shakes everything up. And then there are people that come out of that doing something completely different than everyone else and they’re in the blue ocean rather than being where the everyone was before in the red ocean where everyone’s fighting for the same clients doing given the same products. And so we have to offer cheaper offerings. And so what I love about this book is I feel like it just kind of informs my decision making all throughout being a business owner is thinking what are, what can we do, what can we offer that no one else is offering right now? Because now when the digital world is pretty much everyone just gives digital files to be a studio that offers framing and albums and printing is a blue ocean.
[10:21] Do you worry is to be the norm.
[10:23] Yeah. Or to be a studio with a studio that’s a blue ocean. Having props, the backgrounds that other people can’t get. So
[10:30] yes, I was talking to grant, you know, our business because we found him on the podcast before and what you’re talking about today about our meeting this morning was about leveraging our studio, like more so than we’re already doing because we pay for it. So we might as well get the most out of it.
[10:43] So yes. Yeah, absolutely. And that’s one of the things that I’ve done this year is creating backgrounds and sets. We’ve spent hours working on creating things that are going to be really fun to shoot and make our Instagram feed look fantastic, but it’s also about creating a blue ocean.
[10:58] Awesome. Yeah. So let me talk about my experience with Blue Ocean real quick. So I read the book, I thought it was like horribly written, obviously written by like two non authors at um, at Harvard, you know, like literally a boring, like I think it was probably a research paper that they just put a card back on it. But it’s so interesting. I read it, I was so bored while reading it and then I’ve thought about it for like literally the last eight years, you know, you read some books and they just like whatever, they come and go in one ear out the other. But I’ve literally thought about that book. So it’s like the concept and it is so profound that it sticks with you. You just have to find a way to get through the actual yeah.
[11:36] Type of stuff throughout the read. Why you will notice that I did not mention that I was willing to read it again.
[11:41] Right, right. It’s such a profound topic and they do such a good job with it. So
[11:48] yeah. Yeah, this is fun. It’s what I like about it is all of our books have been about different things, so. Okay, so that, what’s your next book?
[11:56] Okay, so my next book is purple cow by south of Cook, Seth Goden. A lot of people actually works with blue oceans a little bit. So I read all Seth Golden’s books and he has amazing books. He actually has a book, I think. I don’t remember. I’d have to look it up. What? Like, I don’t know who stole my doc or something like that. But it’s basically all of his blog posts. I read that like every day, like I’ll wake up and just read one of his blog posts. It’s really good. Yeah. So, but anyway, so purple cows, one of his books that came out and it’s about how to do remarkable things so that in a sense like marketing takes care of itself and his whole concept is that like if you do something different and you do something remarkable, people will talk about it. And therefore the book you yes.
[12:35] Similar to blue ocean strategy where it’s like if you’re doing something different than everybody else in leveraging that, then you’re going to, you’re going to be just fine. So I don’t have to say much more because it’s very similar, but it’s a, it’s an entertaining book. Super a south garden. If you don’t follow him as one of the smartest guys in the world and you can watch them on youtube and stuff like that as well. But um, yeah, so purple cow is probably my favorite book. If you’re going to pick one up, it’s probably my favorite, but he’s got like 12 bucks out now. His latest one that’s called like this is marketing and it was really good. Like it’s a really good reset for everybody that I think digital marketing in some aspects of it made a lot of us marketers lazy cause we’re like, oh, we can just run a Facebook ad and people call. Um, and he kind of calls everybody out about being lazy about marketing and his new book, which is good too. But anyways, first one pick up his purple cow. So
[13:19] that’s good to know. I really love listening to Seth Godin and whenever I get a chance, I listen to podcasts. He does, but I get frustrated with his writing because I feel like I can only read a snippet before I feel like I need to take action. And so I can’t just sit and enjoy reading. So it’s not a novel, it’s not a novel or in a bus on a research paper either. It’s a couple of sentences that make you want to get up and go do something.
[13:45] Yeah, he has a really, so he has this really unique writing style. That’s cool. Like, so his blog, I don’t know if you know that his blog is like...
