About the Books Losing my Virginity In little more than twenty-five years, Richard Branson spawned nearly a hundred successful ventures. From the airline business (Virgin Atlantic Airways), to music (Virgin Records and V2), to cola (Virgin Cola), and others ranging from financial services to bridal wear, Branson has a track record second to none. Many of his companies were started in the face of entrenched competition. The experts said, “Don’t do it.” But Branson found golden opportunities in ma...
Aug 02, 2020•16 min•Ep. 83
About the Book Is happiness really the key to a meaningful and fulfilling life? We are all obsessed with happiness. There are thousands of books, presenters, and courses trying to teach us how to be happy. But are we more happy? No! We are the most depressed, anxious and medicated group of people in history. The happiness movement has failed us. Strive turns our ideas of happiness upside down and reveals why challenge, struggle and setbacks are the keys to living a profoundly satisfying life tha...
Jul 26, 2020•18 min•Ep. 82
About the Book The guide to shortening your execution cycle down from one year to twelve weeks Most organizations and individuals work in the context of annual goals and plans; a twelve-month execution cycle. Instead, The 12 Week Year avoids the pitfalls and low productivity of annualized thinking. This book redefines your “year” to be 12 weeks long. In 12 weeks, there just isn’t enough time to get complacent, and urgency increases and intensifies. The 12 Week Year creates focus and clarity on w...
Jul 19, 2020•17 min•Ep. 81
About the Book In 2009, Simon Sinek started a movement to help people become more inspired at work, and in turn inspire their colleagues and customers. Since then, millions have been touched by the power of his ideas, including more than 28 million who’ve watched his TED Talk based on START WITH WHY — the third most popular TED video of all time. Sinek starts with a fundamental question: Why are some people and organizations more innovative, more influential, and more profitable than others? Why...
Jul 12, 2020•17 min•Ep. 80
Sign up to the bookmark newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/1119b1358a84/thebookmark About the Book Business was simple; now it’s competitive. Clients were easy; now they’re demanding. Communication was straight forward; now it’s overwhelming. Resources were limitless; now they’re stretched. Employment was secure; now it’s uncertain. Often the world feels like it’s all too much. It’s exhausting trying to work out ‘what to do&rsqu...
Jul 05, 2020•15 min•Ep. 79
Sign up to the bookmark newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/1119b1358a84/thebookmark About the Author Pat is one of the founders of The Table Group and is the pioneer of the organizational health movement. He is the author of 11 books, which have sold over 6 million copies and been translated into more than 30 languages. As President of the Table Group, Pat spends his time speaking and writing about leadership, teamwork, and organizational health and consulting with executives and their teams. Prior ...
Jun 28, 2020•13 min•Ep. 78
Sign up to the bookmark newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/1119b1358a84/thebookmark About the Book Stephen M. R. Covey, widely known as one of the world’s leading authorities on trust, asserts that it is “the most overlooked, misunderstood, underutilized asset to enable performance. Its impact, for good or bad, is dramatic and pervasive. It’s something you can’t escape.” Thankfully, it is also the thing that can dramatically improve your personal and professional succes...
Jun 21, 2020•17 min•Ep. 77
About the Book Plenty of experts argue that anyone who wants to develop a skill, play an instrument, or lead their field should start early, focus intensely, and rack up as many hours of deliberate practice as possible. If you dabble or delay, you’ll never catch up to the people who got a head start. But a closer look at research on the world’s top performers, from professional athletes to Nobel laureates, shows that early specialization is the exception, not the rule. David Epstein examined the...
Jun 14, 2020•20 min•Ep. 76
About the Author Ryan Holiday is a writer and media strategist. When he was 19 years old, he dropped out of college to apprentice under Robert Greene, author of The 48 Laws of Power . He had a successful marketing career at American Apparel and went on to found a creative agency called Brass Check , which has advised clients like Google, TASER, and Complex, as well as many prominent bestselling authors, including Neil Strauss, Tony Robbins and Tim Ferriss. He is the author of ten books, includin...
Jun 07, 2020•12 min•Ep. 75
About the Book Jerry Colonna helps start-up CEOs make peace with their demons, the psychological habits and behavioral patterns that have helped them to succeed—molding them into highly accomplished individuals—yet have been detrimental to their relationships and ultimate well-being. Jerry has taught CEOs and their top teams to realize their potential by using the raw material of their lives to find meaning, to build healthy interpersonal bonds, and to become more compassionate and bold leaders....
May 31, 2020•17 min•Ep. 74
About the Book Creativity, Inc. is a book for managers who want to lead their employees to new heights, a manual for anyone who strives for originality, and the first-ever, all-access trip into the nerve center of Pixar Animation—into the meetings, postmortems, and “Braintrust” sessions where some of the most successful films in history are made. It is, at heart, a book about how to build a creative culture—but it is also, as Pixar co-founder and president Ed Catmull writes, “an expression of th...
May 24, 2020•14 min•Ep. 73
About the Book Long hours, an excessive workload, and a lack of sleep have become a badge of honor for modern professionals. But it should be a mark of stupidity, the authors argue. Sadly, this isn’t just a problem for large organizations—individuals, contractors, and solopreneurs are burning themselves out the same way. The answer to better productivity isn’t more hours—it’s less waste and fewer things that induce distraction and persistent stress. It’s time to stop celebrating Crazy, and start...
May 17, 2020•17 min•Ep. 72
About the Author Sent to the most violent battlefield in Iraq, Jocko Willink and Leif Babin’s SEAL task unit faced a seemingly impossible mission: help U.S. forces secure Ramadi, a city deemed “all but lost.” In gripping firsthand accounts of heroism, tragic loss, and hard-won victories in SEAL Team Three’s Task Unit Bruiser, they learned that leadership―at every level―is the most important factor in whether a team succeeds or fails. Willink and Babin returned home from deployment and instituted...
May 10, 2020•17 min•Ep. 71
About the Author “My name is Michael. I can hop. Do you want to see me hop?” That’s how Michael introduced himself to bemused strangers at the supermarket when he was three. Michael Bungay Stanier is at the forefront of shaping how organizations around the world make being coach-like an essential leadership behavior and competency. His book The Coaching Habit is the best-selling coaching book of this century and in 2019, he was named the #1 thought leader in coaching, and was shortlisted for the...
May 03, 2020•19 min•Ep. 70
About the Author The “New Guru You Should Know” according to Fortune. BJ Fogg runs the Behavior Design Lab at Stanford. He invested over 20 years researching and teaching insights about human behavior. His early research on Persuasive Technology has informed the design of products that millions love and use (like Instagram, which his student co-founded). Now, he is taking everything he knows about behavior change—including his experience personally coaching 40,000 people – to help people lose we...
Apr 26, 2020•20 min•Ep. 69
About the Author Chris Voss has used his many years of experience in international crisis and high-stakes negotiations to develop a unique program and team that applies these globally proven techniques to the business world. Prior to 2008, Chris was the lead international kidnapping negotiator for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as the FBI’s hostage negotiation representative for the National Security Council’s Hostage Working Group. During Chris’s 24 year tenure in the Bureau, he w...
Apr 19, 2020•13 min•Ep. 68
We are living in a strange time, one that will be written about, analysed, reflected on and remembered for decades. And everyone’s experience of it is so very different – whilst some are struggling with loneliness or financial insecurity, others are seeing the opportunities that come from adapting and embracing some new ways of working. Whilst pushing us physically apart, it’s also unifying people – with many people commenting on how they are connecting more with the people who matter most, albe...
Apr 13, 2020•14 min•Ep. 67
About the author “My name is Michael. I can hop. Do you want to see me hop?” That’s how Michael introduced himself to bemused strangers at the supermarket when he was three. Michael Bungay Stanier is at the forefront of shaping how organizations around the world make being coach-like an essential leadership behavior and competency. His book The Coaching Habit is the best-selling coaching book of this century and in 2019, he was named the #1 thought leader in coaching, and was shortlisted for the...
Apr 05, 2020•18 min•Ep. 66
About the Author Kim Scott is the author of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller Radical Candor: Be a Kickass Boss without Losing your Humanity and the co-founder of Radical Candor LLC. Kim has been a CEO coach at Dropbox, Qualtrics, Twitter, and several other tech companies. Previously, Kim led AdSense, YouTube, and Doubleclick Online Sales and Operations at Google. Known for her ability to generate billions of dollars in revenue from millions of small customers while keeping h...
Mar 29, 2020•19 min•Ep. 65
About the Author Elizabeth Gilbert was born in Waterbury, Connecticut in 1969, and grew up on a small family Christmas tree farm. She attended New York University, where she studied political science by day and worked on her short stories by night. After college, she spent several years traveling around the country, working in bars, diners and ranches, collecting experiences to transform into fiction. Elizabeth is best known for her 2006 memoir EAT PRAY LOVE, which chronicled her journey alone a...
Mar 22, 2020•18 min•Ep. 64
About the author Emma Isaacs is the founder and Global CEO of Business Chicks, Australia’s largest community for women, and is passionate about encouraging women to be bold, to be courageous and to take risks. Emma can take something good and turn it into something spectacular with no experience required. After seven years of running her own recruitment business which she acquired at just 18 years old, Emma was invited to a small event run by a group called Business Chicks. After hearing the bus...
Mar 15, 2020•16 min•Ep. 63
About the Author Jen Oleniczak Brown is the founder of The Engaging Educator (EE), a women-owned and operated company dedicated to helping people find their unapologetic, authentic and best voice, communication style and self through improv-based education. Since 2012, EE has served over 50,000 students, working with such companies as Viacom, Food Network, The New York Times, Saks Fifth Avenue and CBS. Aside from her entrepreneurial endeavors, Jen has done three TEDx talks on the power of improv...
Mar 08, 2020•17 min•Ep. 62
About the Author Lynne Cazaly helps individuals, teams and organisations transition to new ways of thinking and working. Lynne is an international keynote speaker, author and a master facilitator. She is the author of 6 books. Lynne is an experienced radio broadcaster, presenter and producer having presented more than 10000 hours on-air. Her background is as a communication specialist, having lectured in under-graduate and post-graduate programs in several of Australia’s Universities and consult...
Mar 01, 2020•19 min•Ep. 61
About the Author Simon is an unshakable optimist who believes in a bright future and our ability to build it together. Described as “a visionary thinker with a rare intellect,” Simon teaches leaders and organizations how to inspire people. With a bold goal to help build a world in which the vast majority of people wake up every single day feeling inspired, feel safe at work, and feel fulfilled at the end of the day, Simon is leading a movement to inspire people to do the things that inspire them...
Feb 23, 2020•19 min•Ep. 60
About the Author Jim Collins is a student and teacher of what makes great companies tick, and a Socratic advisor to leaders in the business and social sectors. Having invested more than a quarter century in rigorous research, he has authored or coauthored six books that have sold in total more than 10 million copies worldwide. Driven by a relentless curiosity, Jim began his research and teaching career on the faculty at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he received the Distinguishe...
Feb 16, 2020•18 min•Ep. 59
About the Author Jim Collins is a student and teacher of what makes great companies tick, and a Socratic advisor to leaders in the business and social sectors. Having invested more than a quarter century in rigorous research, he has authored or coauthored six books that have sold in total more than 10 million copies worldwide. Driven by a relentless curiosity, Jim began his research and teaching career on the faculty at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he received the Distinguishe...
Feb 09, 2020•18 min•Ep. 58
About the Author Nir Eyal writes, consults, and teaches about the intersection of psychology, technology, and business. The M.I.T. Technology Review dubbed Nir, “The Prophet of Habit-Forming Technology.” Nir founded two tech companies since 2003 and has taught at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford. He is the author of two bestselling books, Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products and Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention an...
Feb 03, 2020•18 min•Ep. 57
About the Author Dr Amantha Imber is an innovation psychologist, founder of Australia’s leading innovation consultancy Inventium, and co-creator of the Australian Financial Review’s Most Innovative Companies list. With a PhD in organisational psychology, Amantha has helped companies such as Google, Apple, Disney, LEGO, Virgin Australia, Commonwealth Bank and many others innovate more successfully. Amantha’s thoughts have appeared in Harvard Business Review, The Huffington Post, Forbes, Entrepren...
Jan 26, 2020•14 min•Ep. 56
Want to get productive in 2020? This book could be for you. About the author Productivity king David Allen is considered one of the world's leading authorities on getting things done. He has spent over three decades researching, teaching and coaching, and has been recognised as one of the top executive coaches by Forbes and the top 100 thought leaders by Leadership Magazine. David has written three books, including the 2001 bestseller, Getting Things Done: the Art of Stress-Free Producti...
Jan 19, 2020•21 min•Ep. 55
PS. This episode sounds a little different as I recorded it as a full video episode - you can catch the video on YouTube or IGTV . To celebrate 1 year of Steph’s Business Bookshelf and a new decade, in this special episode I am sharing the five top tips I use to read over 30 books a year that you can use to build your own reading habit. With new years’ resolutions in full swing, and more people wanting to hit the books to increase their knowledge, enhance their career prospects, make a personal ...
Jan 12, 2020•8 min•Ep. 54
