Episode Summary

In this episode of the Make Space for More podcast, host Melissa Swink shares her top five business books that have significantly influenced her approach to entrepreneurship. Each book offers unique insights into the importance of leveraging expertise, financial management, and a relaxed mindset toward success. Melissa encourages continuous learning and provides actionable takeaways from each book, making this episode a valuable resource for entrepreneurs looking to scale their businesses!

Key Highlights:

• Continuous learning is essential for personal and professional growth. Reading books that are tactical and actionable can drive results in your business.
• Here are the five books Melissa recommends: 
• “Who Not How” by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy
• “10X is Easier Than 2X” by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy
• “Profit First” by Mike Michalowicz
• “We Should All be Millionaires” by Rachel Rodgers
• “Chillpreneur” by Denise Duffield-Thomas

About Melissa:

Melissa Swink, Founder & CEO of Melissa Swink & Co., has a team of virtual assistants who provide administrative and marketing support for small businesses and non-profits.

Since 2012, Melissa and her team have helped more than 100 businesses grow through the services they offer, and she is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs create profitable, scalable businesses they love.

Her work is all about doing what works (and eliminating what doesn’t) and driving real, measurable results. Visit www.melissaswink.com to learn more! 

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Hi everyone, welcome to the Make Space for More podcast where we talk strategies for growing and scaling your business in a way that's authentic and aligned for you. I'm your host, Melissa Swink, and In today's episode, I am going to share five business books that I continuously go back to. I reread them again and again. I refer back to them at times. I send them as gifts to clients. I recommend them to others. So we're going to dive into that today. But before we do,

If you are thinking, know what, Melissa, I'm really not a reader. I'm not sure this episode is for me. Maybe I'll sit this one out. Stick with me. And I just want to acknowledge that I personally enjoy reading. I enjoy reading a physical book, probably because I spend so much time on a screen of my day to day work life. But I also want to acknowledge that that might not be your thing. Maybe for you, you prefer to listen to audio books.

or maybe you are watching YouTube videos and that's kind of the way that you do your continuous learning. I think continuous learning is important for personal and professional growth, but that might look different to different people. So if I'm talking about books here, number one, know that I do not consider listening to an audio book as cheating. People who love audio books sometimes are like, I don't really read, I just listen to the books. I consider that reading.

Or maybe I'm talking about a book today and you feel compelled to search this book or this author on YouTube and see if there's an interview with an author or if there's a discussion about the book, feel free. It is all fair game. So whatever makes sense for you and your preferences, I want you to get this information. The other thing that you should know about me is, especially when it comes to business books, I really love the ones that are very tactical.

and fast reads. So certainly there's a time and a place for some of those deeper reads that really make you think about mindset or your own alignment or just your connection to others and the work that you're doing. There are certainly great books out there. These are going to be more tactical. So if you like tactical and quick and actionable, these are going to be your jam. So without further ado,

want to share book number one, and this might be backwards for those of you who are watching on YouTube, Who Not How by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Berry. So this is actually a book that I gift to our clients when they first start working with us. If you're not familiar with me, I own a virtual assistant services company, and so we are the who's that our clients are hiring to help them get the things done. And what I love about this book is,

So many times as especially entrepreneurs or as leaders or executive directors, whatever your role might be in your organization, a lot of times we have these projects on our plates or we get these ideas and we think, okay, how can I do this? And we're trying to rearrange things in our calendar in order to make time to get the things done or this could look like doing a bunch of research and...

learning how to get things done from an expertise or a skill set standpoint, and we can burn a lot of energy that way. It's a really fast way to burn out. So this book turns that idea on its head is like, what if we ask who can help me with this, not how can I do this? And so really this book is talking about leveraging others' expertise and how that can create much bigger

and faster results from simply doing something yourself because we know that our time and our energy is very finite. So love this book and the details that they go into there. Again, this is something that we give to our new clients just to start planting that seed of rather than getting stuck in the DIY mindset, how can we actually advance our work together more quickly because now you've got a whole team of people who are here to help you.

I think also the overall concept in terms of speeding up results and getting to your goals faster is, you know, I think that I get so much more done when I have help from my team. I shouldn't say I think, I know. I know that I do because here's the thing, even if it's something that I have the expertise and the skill set to do myself, doesn't necessarily mean that number one, it's a best use of my time.

Or number two, that something else isn't going to derail me from getting to that thing. We all have a bunch of projects that we keep putting on the back burner, whether it be in our businesses or maybe even at home. But when you start getting other people involved, things speed up much more quickly. Even if they are doing the initial research and making the recommendations on the next best steps and you're approving it along the way.

you're going to get into momentum so much faster by having other people. And they're also going to be providing that accountability of, hey, we said we're doing this thing and here's what I need from you for the next step. So you're much more likely to follow through on something when somebody else is asking you for it. So I love the added accountability and the expertise that comes along with having a team, not only for the day to day, but also projects as well. Okay, so book number two.

same authors, Dr. Benjamin Berry and Dan Sullivan, 10X is easier than 2X. And you might be thinking, well, that doesn't make any sense. 10X, like doing 10 times the amount of the thing or 2X of the thing, but let me explain a little bit. So how they organize this book is they're really presenting the idea that 2X growth is basically doing more of the same thing. So

Maybe your business brought in $100,000 last year and you want to double that. You want to get to multi six figures this year. You want to hit 200,000 or more. So what does that mean for you? That can look like just overall more. Maybe it's selling larger packages or maybe it's working with higher end clients or maybe it's adding in a couple of new services, but ultimately you're doing more of the same thing.

So, but when we look at this from a 10x perspective, what if you wanted to 10x? What if you wanted to go from 100,000 to a million? And if you have to pause for a second, you would have to do things very differently. It's not that linear kind of gradual growth. This is an exponential 10x growth. And so by looking at things for that perspective, it really narrows down the path to get there.

there are many, many, many different ways that you could go to X. If you want to go from 100,000 to 200,000, there are many ways that you could do that. But there are a lot fewer ways that you could go from 100,000 to a million. And that's really what this book is about, is figuring out what is the path from where you are now to where you want to be, and what does that path look like, because there are fewer ways.

to get to 10X. And with that being said, it's actually easier that way because there aren't just so many different directions you could be going. It is very clear because there are a lot fewer options in order to get from point A to point B. And so you're gonna be focusing on bigger and better things to create that massive growth. But ultimately, in order to create that massive growth, you're gonna need to let go of 80 % of what you are doing now.

So you're going to get rid of 80 % and ultimately focus on your 20%. Now, when I say get rid of your 80%, that could mean eliminating some things completely, but more than likely, it looks like who else on the team or how do you need to hire who can take over some of these things so that your plate and your energy is freed up for that 10x leap. So these books go really well together. The first one I mentioned, Who Not How,

and the 10X is easier than 2X. Obviously, they're by the same authors, but they really do go hand in hand and work well together. That is something that I am also focusing on this year is taking a look at what are the most important things that I need to be spending my time doing and who else do I need on the team in order to release that 80 % and what else do I need to delegate to my own assistant and other team members in order to be able to free me up to get those things done.

highly encourage you to check those two books out. Okay, the third book that I highly recommend is Profit First by Mike Mykowlowicz. I think I'm saying that correctly. I did practice it a little bit and I have heard it said. So if I pronounce that incorrectly, just go with it. Just go with it. But basically what I wanted to tell you about Profit First is that the system outlined in that book

has been a game changer for my business finances. Not that they weren't in order before. I'm a very organized person. I'm a numbers person. Fun fact about me, I started off as an accounting major in college, and then people kept saying, you have too much personality to be an accountant. Maybe you should switch to business management instead. And that's what I did. And I certainly appreciate those.

thoughtful, well-intentioned comments, but I really do. I'm pretty analytical, so I do love the numbers. But here's what I want to tell you about Profitverse. And you might be like, I am the opposite. I hate numbers. This book is also for you as well, because it makes all of this so much easier. So what used to happen with my business, and I see this with a lot of other colleagues of mine and other business owners as well, is there's some guesswork, especially when it comes to

How much should I be investing in the business? What should my expenses be? How much should I pay myself? How much should I put into a savings account for my business? How much should I set aside for taxes? And it's just this big gray area. And I can tell you that many, many times things are out of balance. I know people who...

pay themselves too much and they leave very little to run their business on and they're not making investments in their business, which eventually could come back to hurt them. And I also know people who are investing so much in their business that they're not taking a salary. And so what this book really outlines based on where you're at in business, so you might just be starting out or you might be seven, eight figures or beyond, it has a different scale based on where you're at in the type of business

that you have. So this really is applicable to so many different scenarios, but it outlines for you exactly what your percentage allocation should be. It also outlines a way for you to make sure that you stay within those percentages by basically kind of funneling money into different smaller sub accounts. I'm not going to get into the details of the system, but I can tell you that it is just so much easier and a game changer when you know

exactly what's coming in and exactly where that money is going to go and that things are in balance. Okay, so just wanted to share a little bit more about my experience with ProfitFirst. The other thing that I was thinking about is, I think they talk about this in the book as well, is it's very easy for a business to become a cash eating monster because if you're a business owner, you're an executive and nonprofit,

You know that there are so many things that you can be investing in at any given point in time. There are so many different types of software out there. There are so many great team members that you might want to hire and invest in. All of the things, it's overwhelming. And so this just helps you really keep in line of here's what I need to be investing in in my company in order for things not to become upside down to the point where what am I working for? I'm not even getting paid to do any of this.

So that's definitely not what we want. So profit first is a great one. Moving on to book number four is We Should All Be Millionaires by Rachel Rogers. Now, you might be thinking about this, and I actually mentioned this in our previous episode with Jenny Schubring about discovering strengths. This book actually encouraged me to reach out to her and learn more about my strengths because they talk about that in this book. But you might be thinking by that title,

It seems a little bit superficial like it's not all about the money and that's definitely not the case with this book. So what Rachel ultimately talks about is that building wealth and it's extremely important tool for empowerment and this building wealth allows you to create change, support your community, live your dream life, all the things. know, unfortunately, it costs money to live in this world and it also costs a lot of money to change it.

So if you see injustice happening or if you see a cause that you really believe in, ultimately, the more that we can contribute monetarily to those things and advance the work in those areas, the better off the future will be. So it's not just self-serving, becoming a millionaire and owning a yacht and all these vacation homes. And now if that's your dream, fantastic, but that is not the only thing that she talks about in this book.

So I just don't want you to think by the title. I don't want you to judge a book by its cover. I don't want you to judge a book by its title. This is a great one. The other thing that she talks about in here is scarcity thinking versus abundance thinking. Another way to think about this is what are million dollar decisions versus what are broke decisions? And she breaks down, you really prioritizing the bigger picture and future growth. And she does this in such...

in easy to understand and even fun way. There are times when I read this book that I laugh out loud at some of her examples and I find myself often nodding along like, yeah, she's right. That's a great point. Things like that. The other thing that I love about this book is she really spends a lot of time talking about setting boundaries around where you're spending your time and your energy and relationships. So this is a fantastic book. I have a lot of great takeaways from it.

I am due to reread it again, if I'm being perfectly honest. She talks about things like creating your million dollar schedule and hiring your dream team and what that looks like. And it just opens up your mind to so many possibilities and also for the greater good of our communities and our planet and our society as well. So that is a fantastic one. Highly recommend you to check that out. Last.

but certainly not least is Chillpreneur by Denise Duffield Thomas. Now I will tell you that this book is a little bit more on the woo side. So some people are like, woohoo, I love this. I love the spiritual. I love maybe the more abstract ways of thinking about growing businesses and wealth and abundance and all of that. Fantastic. I also, if you're not so much into the woo,

I still highly recommend this book. Maybe there are some things, you know what, I like this concept called take it or leave it. You take the things that makes sense for you that align with you and you just leave what doesn't. But I just wanted to mention that this one is a little bit more woo than some of the others. The others are very tactical and practical. But this one, what I appreciate about Chilpreneur and Denise's work in general is that I think it was...

one of the, she is one of the first authors and I've read other books of hers as well, to really let me think about success in a different way because I know when I started my business, another fun fact about me, when I started my business, I worked with mostly male clients and I've found that they focused on hard work.

In fact, there was a joke around the co-working space that I was working out of at the time. It's great to be a business owner. You have all the time freedom you want. You can choose what 80 hours a week you want to work. That was the joke. There was always this understated who works harder. I can redline longer than you can sort of a thing. With that being my early experience in business and just the community that I was in,

when I started listening to Denise Duffield-Thomas, she was really the first one that introduced the idea that success doesn't have to come from grueling hard work. It really comes from allowing good things to come into our lives. And so for me, another way that I like to think about this is I like to think about planting seeds. Now, I'm not a gardener, much to my mother's disappointment, just kidding, it probably doesn't bother her that much, but I am not a gardener, she is a gardener.

But I still think about this as a concept of we want to be planting seeds and we want to nurture those seeds. And some of those seeds are going to grow faster than others and some are going to grow at all. And so that's the way that I think about just overall building my business over the years is I'm having great conversations with people. I am doing my part by regularly checking in, providing value whenever I can and

business will flow my way at some point in the future. And sometimes it doesn't always look like the way that I thought it was going to look, but good things are flowing back to me. So I love that Denise presents things in this way. She talks a lot about money mindset and how it's key for growth and success. So if you love mindset work, particularly around money, she is a great one to follow. And overall, I think the concepts in this particular book of hers,

really aligned with the make space for more process that I talk about. She talks a lot about simplifying your business, simplifying your life, finding ways to automate things, finding ways to delegate things. In fact, I think she kind of jokes about how lazy she is. I don't think she's lazy. But you get the idea where she's like, listen, it doesn't have to be work, work, work all the time. We don't have to be available and constantly grinding in order to make a buck. There's ways to

Again, be more forward thinking and more intentional about how you're building your business, but then also allowing that to come into you however it's going to, which is not always completely up to us. Sometimes there are things that I hope to happen in life and business that then ultimately something else comes along and you're like, that's even better. I'm actually really glad that this thing over here didn't materialize. That's what she's talking about in this book.

Love that one. So if you're looking for a more chill way of running your business, that book is a great one. Well, thank you so much for tuning into this week's episode. If you enjoyed today's information, would you please take a moment to just leave a review on wherever you're listening to this podcast, whether it be Apple podcasts or Spotify or any of the other great ones out there, that would be fantastic. It just lets the algorithms know that, hey, this is a real show by a real person. And you know,

It just puts it on the radar that this is something that we are invested in for the long term. So if you can help us out, that would be fantastic. And I will be back next week with another episode of the Make Space for More podcast. Have a great day, everyone. Bye bye.