How Books Can Shape Success  ## Metadata - Author: [[The Duct Tape Marketing Podcast]] - Full Title: How Books Can Shape Success - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/6d763c61-d884-4608-8c3b-2f8710ddf760 ## Document Notes ## Highlights - **How Todd Picks Transformative Books** - Todd evaluates books by whether they teach something new and provide clarity through strong storytelling. - He prioritizes works that change thinking and present ideas clearly and artfully. Transcript: Todd Sattersten I think both are true. And I think there's certain criteria. I think the first thing that I look for in books now are, are they teaching me? Are they approaching the project in a different manner? Right. John Jantsch Right? Todd Sattersten Like all of us have been doing this long enough, whether I've just started in the industry or I've read lots of books and I have lots of experience. We need something that changes our thinking about really important topics. I think that's the first thing. I think the second thing is, gosh, I want clarity, right? I want books that when I read them, I'm going, yes, this makes sense. I understand it. It's good storytelling. Like you're really judging the book just as a book, like as almost in an art kind of way. Like, is the writing good? Do I understand what they're trying to teach me? ([Time 0:01:50](https://share.snipd.com/snip/46f92e0f-0eab-49a2-a817-9a05f7755770)) - **Omitting Favorites Was Painful** - Todd admits he agonized over omissions and jokes Duct Tape Marketing deserved a spot. - He structured his book to mirror broad small-business topics similar to John Jantsch's approach. Transcript: John Jantsch Yes. Duct tape marketing. Todd Sattersten Like, of course I had to, I had to agonize over that. Well, here's what I think is interesting. I was thinking about these parallels before I came on that I think the 100 best has a lot of parallels to duct tape marketing. And what I mean by that is what I love about your book and what I've loved about it from the start, you and I hung out in the old 800 CRE days that you cover this really broad set of topics within Your book. Like, what are all the things that a small business owner needs to think about? I tried to do something similar in the 100 best where I said, let's make a small chapter on customers. What does an ideal customer look like? Let's make a small chapter on marketing, on sales, on influence. So there's a, where do I go put duct tape marketing was like kind of one of those problems that we had to go solve. ([Time 0:02:48](https://share.snipd.com/snip/f7734856-f25c-49b0-b716-204552539205)) - **Neuroscience Reframes Work Behavior** - Neuroscience has reshaped how we understand workplace behavior and decision moments. - Todd repeatedly returns to David Rock's Your Brain at Work for practical brain-based strategies. Transcript: Todd Sattersten Know, I think that when you look at books in general and you look at the last 20, 25 years of business and self-help, I think the neuroscience, just the study and expansion of how much we Know about neuroscience has really changed our view on a whole wide range of things. So the book that I think does this best in encapsulating that and encapsulating that in a work setting in particular is a book called Your Brain at Work by David Rock. I think he's done the best job of taking this neuroscience saying, hey, when you're frustrated at work, this is probably what's going on. Hey, when you get into a situation where you show up late for a meeting and you're going in and you need to try to bring your best self to that meeting, here's the things you need to be aware Of that are probably going on with you, like literally in your brain, that if you don't slow down just a little bit, you're probably going to miss an opportunity in those next moments That are really important to you. So I just love how he finds these moments that are normally challenging for us in a variety of different ways, and then shows us what's going on, and then gives us a different approach To those. So I got to be honest, that's one that I keep coming back to. ([Time 0:04:12](https://share.snipd.com/snip/63308a71-3a67-43c6-b396-467a49429582)) - **Work And Life Lessons Intertwine** - Work and life books overlap because workplace problems mirror personal problems. - Combining both lets readers apply relationship and personal-development lessons to work challenges. Transcript: Todd Sattersten Yeah. So one of the reasons I wrote a book about 15 years ago called the hundred best business books of all time. And what I found with that is it was super helpful. A lot of people loved it, but I found that categorization a little confining, that there were topics that I couldn't talk about that I wanted to. And to your point here, I love that I think we've gotten to a point in most work settings that we realize the problems that we're dealing with in the workplace often look an awful lot like The problems we're dealing with in our personal lives, whether it's, you know, at home, whether it's I'm on a community board, whether whatever the case might be. And so I love the fact that I could put both of those together. ([Time 0:06:02](https://share.snipd.com/snip/4dad0dbd-cff6-442d-8fc0-c6e1b8f8570b)) - **Pick Practical Habit Frameworks** - Read Tiny Habits by B.J. Fogg for practical, stepwise habit formation and breaking bad habits. - Use his clear process-focused guidance to build small repeatable behavior changes. Transcript: Todd Sattersten That's a great question. So I'm looking at my shelf right here. I have all 100 sitting right here. Here's what I would say. I think that Tiny Habits by B.J. Fogg is criminally underrated. I think there's what's fascinating to me about the habit space is that you had a book like A Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg. A lot of people love that. A good summary of all the research. Kind of very meta. John Jantsch A journalist take. Todd Sattersten Right? You have Atomic Habits, which if you don't have a copy, you have three copies. And if you haven't tripped over it in any bookstore, 25 million copies. Thanks, James Clear. Right. But B.J. Fogg is a book that came out roughly in the same era as Atomic Habits. And I think that if you love process, if you love here are the steps, here are the things, I think he does it better than anybody, both figuring out how to form good habits, but then actually Also how to break bad habits. I think it's he perfectly addresses both of those. And I think we all have both of those that we got to work on. ([Time 0:10:46](https://share.snipd.com/snip/809d774c-9bd0-42f4-b933-43f1b244f2a6)) - **What Makes A Business Book Timeless** - Timeless business books avoid dated references and focus on human interactions and situations. - Books written this way (e.g., Seven Habits) remain relevant across decades. Transcript: Todd Sattersten I think we still read books like Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. We still read How to Win Friends and Influence People because they are largely written in a way where time is not in the text. They're talking about something. They're talking about literally a conversation with someone, a situation they found themselves in. And you wouldn't know if it was today or if it was in 1920. And so I think the books that stand the test of time, Peter Drucker's Effective Executive, I think is another book that fits in this category. Here you've got these books that are written in the 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, I guess into the 80s. Like that's what Seven Habits was. I think those are the kinds of books that stand the test of time. So I think that piece is important. I also think though, we should have books that we put next to those that do speak to a modern context. Like if you think about books that were, I don't know what the dividing line is. Maybe it's 2010, maybe it's 2005, sort of pre-iPhone, post-iPhone. Like it's hard to know what to do if they're focused on technology. Like how do you, right? How do you figure out which book to work on? So I think that you can write a book that's timeless. ([Time 0:12:23](https://share.snipd.com/snip/3f284ab1-01d5-477e-8263-0b8ccdc339c2)) - **Read Where You’re Uncomfortable** - Read intentionally in areas where you feel uncomfortable to force real growth and self-awareness. - Use the book's chapter topics to target specific difficult problems and challenge your assumptions. Transcript: John Jantsch I think, some guidance in this about when to read what in life. So can you share any stories, examples of how the right book at the right time can be transformative? Yeah. Todd Sattersten I mean, the first thing I want to say is that I think we love reading books that we're really comfortable with. Like what? The things that we already know things about or. Validating almost. Validating. Yeah. Lots of almost reading for business entertainment. Like I'm entertained because, oh gosh, that's such an interesting story, whatever else. The encouragement I would try to give your listeners today would be read in a spot that you are uncomfortable. So if, you know, if you open up the end pages, the very front of the book in the hundred best, we have 25 different topics. My guess is there's something you're trying to work on. That's really difficult. And I'm going to give you four books to sort of survey that problem, kind of survey the area of where that problem, what that problem might look like and four different solutions for how That, how you deal with it. So if there's anything I would love people to do is I'd love people to read more for really true self-improvement rather than maybe for, I don't want to say fake, but maybe for a validation. ([Time 0:15:30](https://share.snipd.com/snip/66760a17-f2c9-4192-9a69-43da38912312)) - **Use Summaries As Reading Gates** - Use Todd's concise reviews as gateways: read the review, then decide which full books to read. - He aims to summarize, interpret, and provide takeaways that prompt you to read the original work. Transcript: John Jantsch So you synthesize most of these books into some cases a page, two pages. Am I going to like get the essence there and like, thanks, Todd, for reading that book for me? Or do you really suggest that like if something resonates, go get them? Todd Sattersten Yeah. So my intention, both with this book and with the prior book was always, I want to convince you to go read the book. Like I want to give you, like someone described this to me the other day. They said, I don't feel like there were views of the books there that, but rather you write interpretations of the books. Like there's an interpretation there of, here's something that's really important that this author is bringing up. I would think there's a rough summary, frankly, of what you get out of each one of them. But I try to give an opening quote to kind of frame up what I think the author's really talking about. Oftentimes it's the promise of the book followed by that interpretation, 600 words, 700 words. And then there's a takeaway at the end of every review of like, here's something if you wanted some more questions to think about, maybe a short framework that kind of frames up how the Author talks about it. So I try to give a lot of different utility within those reviews that even if you just read the review, John, I think you would still get something out of it. But gosh, do I hope you go read these books? ([Time 0:20:23](https://share.snipd.com/snip/6cd07557-cad6-46af-a238-afdb37278989)) - **Three Must-Read Books For New Founders** - For young entrepreneurs read Badass, Influence, and The Coaching Habit as your three starters. - These teach customer focus, persuasion fundamentals, and coaching skills to scale leadership. Transcript: John Jantsch Yes. The first book I would probably choose, Young Entrepreneur, that's the persona we're talking about. Todd Sattersten First book I would have someone go read is Badass by Kathy Sierra. And again, I'm going to tie this to your framework. One of the first things you say is make sure we understand who your ideal customer is. Kathy does it as well as anybody. And this is her, this is my favorite line from her. We shouldn't compete about, um, how does she say it? She wants us to compete for having the most educated, the most successful customers, like the best users, the people who can do it better than everyone else. So I think that's the first one I would say. I think that was really good. John Jantsch I love that because I mean, that's, they're going to get results. Yeah. You're going to actually help them. Todd Sattersten Right. Make that the metric. Make the metric of how much better are you making your customers? And if you do it better than your competitors, you're not going to have any problem being successful. John Jantsch Right? Yeah. So that's one. Todd Sattersten That one's really important to me. I don't know how you can't probably read Sheldini book Influence. Gosh, entrepreneurs, whether we're talking to investors, customers, employees, other stakeholders, we've got to have good influencing skills. We've got to understand what tools are available to us in a variety of different situations. And if we don't understand authority versus making commitments versus scarcity versus liking, we just don't understand the basics of those pieces. I think we're really missing out. John Jantsch Robert told me that he actually wrote that book so people wouldn't be unduly influenced and then created the greatest book on influence. Todd Sattersten Well, he said he was afraid he'd be too much of a dupe for the techniques that people would use. And so I feel like you can read that book and say, like, almost like you said, you can use them for forces of evil, but I think you can also use them for the forces of good. So I'm hoping. John Jantsch Yeah, that's certainly right. Absolutely. All right. Todd Sattersten We're up to number three. Number three. I think if I am an entrepreneur, then the last thing I need to be able to do is I need to be able to coach people, frankly. And I think coaching is an underrated skill. I think it's becoming the primary skill of being a good manager with the new generations, what kind of management they're looking for. They're not looking for how to be told what to do. They're looking for, gosh, how can you make me better at what I'm doing? So I think coaching is really good. I'm going to probably go with The Coaching Habit by Michael Bengay-Staner. It's a short book. There's seven questions. And if those seven questions don't improve the conversations again that you're having with your employees, that you're having with your spouse when they're struggling, when you're Having with your kids. I can't, I can't say possibly like it's the surest way into it. And then go check out the other three books that I've got on coaching in the 100 best. But coaching is such an important skill. ([Time 0:21:56](https://share.snipd.com/snip/d30276ef-414c-47ca-8335-e769cb0c7d08))