163: The Simple Habit That Expands Your Influence and Boosts Your Career with Jeff Brown the Author of “Read to Lead”
Author and podcaster Jeff Brown is Dr. Brad Miller’s guest on Episode 163 of the Beyond Adversity Podcast.
Jeff Brown is a speaker, author and consultant who, after many years as an award winning broadcaster was downsized out of a job. He then started the “Read to Lead Podcast” which is a four time best business podcast nominee. On the “Read to Lead podcast” he has interviewed great authors such as Seth Godin, Michael Hyatt and Alan Alda each week,
Jeff leads in person and virtual workshop training helping executives and teams, install a culture or reading for success within their organizations,
Jeff’s new book is called “Read To Lead: The Simple Habit That Expands Your Influence and Boosts Your Career.”
The book is available at readtoleadbook.com and if you purchase before August 31, 2021, there are almost $500 of bonuses, including the audio book, which are there for you.
In Episode 163 Jeff talks with Brad about how reading was almost educated out of him in school and how his love of reading was rekindled in the workplace through a leader in his organization who valued the power of reading and how Jeff then applied his reading to success in the workplace.
Jeff share how people innately know reading is good but often neglect reading because they haven’t leveraged the why and how and the practices of reading.
He then goes on to share many of the processes describes in the book which address these concerns such as:
- Understanding the many benefits of reading.
- Schedule a time to read and protect it.
- The power of small steps in reading.
- Reading strategically for what you want to get out of a book.
Moreover, Jeff talks about the power of reading to speak to any adverse event in your life and how to start and benefit from an intentional and consistent practice of reading.
Episode 163 of The Beyond Adversity Podcast will give the listener powerful and practical processes to make your life better through reading.
The Beyond Adversity Podcast is all about helping people to navigate adverse life events and emerge to a life of peace, prosperity and purpose and is published weekly by Dr Brad Miller at DrBradMiller.com who is devoted to helping people to “Grow Through What You Go Through.”
https://readtoleadpodcast.com/
Transcript
Dr. Brad Miller here with you, my friends on the
Brad Miller:beyond adversity podcast where we look to help you to navigate
Brad Miller:adverse conditions in your life to achieve your life peace,
Brad Miller:prosperity and purpose is our privilege today to have a great
Brad Miller:author with us a first time author but a great author
Brad Miller:nonetheless. His name is Jeff Brown. He comes from the world
Brad Miller:of radio originally, and has been in podcasting for the last
Brad Miller:several years. He is an award winning radio producer and
Brad Miller:personality. He formerly had a nationally syndicated Morning
Brad Miller:Show. But after about 25 years or so, but eight years or so
Brad Miller:ago, he transitioned into the world of podcasting, and became
Brad Miller:boss free in his life. And he has a nominee for the best
Brad Miller:business podcast. And he's been privileged to interview hundreds
Brad Miller:of great leaders, including Seth Godin, Simon Sinek, john
Brad Miller:Maxwell, Liz Weissman, Dr. Henry cloud, several others, including
Brad Miller:Alan Alda. I also know him as a as a personal mentor, and the
Brad Miller:husband of a wonderful woman named Annie, and kind of the dog
Brad Miller:dad of a couple of cool little dogs. And also importantly, in
Brad Miller:my life, at least, an Indianapolis Colts fan. So
Brad Miller:Welcome to Beyond adversity, Jeff Brown.
Jeff Brown:Well, thank you, Brad, for for having me. It's a
Jeff Brown:thrill to be here. And I appreciate the invitation very,
Jeff Brown:very much.
Brad Miller:So good to have you with us. I mentioned that you
Brad Miller:are a first time author. And your book is called read to read
Brad Miller:to lead and you have a co author, Jesse was iski. And but
Brad Miller:we're talking to you today. And we just love to hear some more
Brad Miller:about the book and about you and your journey here. But I want to
Brad Miller:start in this kind of a place that may be a little different,
Brad Miller:perhaps, I'm not sure if you've spent much time in elementary
Brad Miller:school classrooms recently. But over the years, my I've been in
Brad Miller:various parent teacher conferences and things like
Brad Miller:this. And it seems like in every elementary school classroom,
Brad Miller:there's a big poster on the wall that says reading is
Brad Miller:fundamental, with an emphasis on the fun like an underlined and
Brad Miller:bolded out word fun. And then fundamental. So we're gonna get
Brad Miller:into your story a little bit. But what do you think, makes
Brad Miller:reading fun? and fundamental? Or perhaps not? Because a lot of
Brad Miller:people have struggle with reading?
Jeff Brown:Yeah, I think a lot of people who don't read and
Jeff Brown:that's that's most of us, unfortunately, most of us in the
Jeff Brown:US don't read in part because they're not aware, like I was
Jeff Brown:not aware for so long, that there are actually books out
Jeff Brown:there that they would love to read, they just haven't been
Jeff Brown:able to find them yet. So often in school, we grow up having to
Jeff Brown:read things we don't want to read about subjects we're not
Jeff Brown:interested in. That's just the way the education system has
Jeff Brown:been designed. And in my view, no offense to educators. It's in
Jeff Brown:need of an overhaul. There's a lot of industries in need of an
Jeff Brown:overhaul these days. And that's just one of them. I teach my
Jeff Brown:sister is an educator and a great one. But, you know, I went
Jeff Brown:from having this love of reading as a child, that my mother
Jeff Brown:instilled in me to having the desire to read, I would argue
Jeff Brown:educated out of me, then not until my early 30s rediscovering
Jeff Brown:a love for reading and I rediscovered that it became fun
Jeff Brown:and fundamental to my career. Because I discovered there were
Jeff Brown:books out there written about topics that I wanted to learn
Jeff Brown:about and topics that interested me and people that interested
Jeff Brown:me. And I find that when when you focus on reading books about
Jeff Brown:subjects, you're fascinated by about people you're fascinated
Jeff Brown:by, you'll never get bored with reading, reading will always be
Jeff Brown:fun. Certainly, there's fiction, and you know, much of what I
Jeff Brown:read is nonfiction. And I think fiction is great for, you know,
Jeff Brown:sort of building your creativity, muscles and that
Jeff Brown:sort of thing. But I really want to learn, I want to soak up
Jeff Brown:knowledge, I want to take the things I'm learning and put
Jeff Brown:those things into practice. And I do that primarily through
Jeff Brown:reading biographies about people that I am fascinated by and
Jeff Brown:about reading through reading nonfiction books on a number of
Jeff Brown:different topics, you know, like personal growth and mindset and
Jeff Brown:leadership and business and jobs and career entrepreneurship,
Jeff Brown:etc. So I never get tired of learning new things about any of
Jeff Brown:those areas. And it's why I've been able to maintain a
Jeff Brown:relatively modest by some standards, pace of, you know, a
Jeff Brown:book a week for for quite a number of years. So, thankfully
Jeff Brown:that love for reading that was educated out of me has has made
Jeff Brown:a comeback little less than 20 years ago and shows no signs of
Jeff Brown:slowing down anytime soon.
Brad Miller:Well, certainly That is the case not only
Brad Miller:writing this book, but also, you know, the topic of your podcast
Brad Miller:is read to lead. So you've obviously made some significant
Brad Miller:transition. What do you think were some of the factors? You
Brad Miller:know, you mentioned how he was kind of educated out of you, I
Brad Miller:found that an interesting statement, because I think
Brad Miller:that's relatively common, you know, that folks have some love
Brad Miller:of reading in elementary years or whenever. And then as adults,
Brad Miller:somehow it becomes less impactful or less important.
Brad Miller:What were some of the factors for you that transitioned you
Brad Miller:some of the actions that you either took or happened to you
Brad Miller:that helped you lead you back to reading after being apart from
Brad Miller:it for so long?
Jeff Brown:Yeah, great question. I was working at a
Jeff Brown:company at the time radio company, where the leader of
Jeff Brown:that company understood the value of books and continual
Jeff Brown:learning, lifelong learning. And so, you know, he sort of allowed
Jeff Brown:himself in my view to get caught reading by staff, too. By that,
Jeff Brown:I mean, he practiced and he allowed other people to witness
Jeff Brown:that. And so when the time came, when he had the idea to start
Jeff Brown:sort of an in staff in house book club, the reception was
Jeff Brown:pretty positive, because that's something we saw him doing. We
Jeff Brown:saw him bringing those ideas, he was learning to meetings and saw
Jeff Brown:his enthusiasm for reading. And so when he offered to supply
Jeff Brown:books for us, and bring us together once a week to talk
Jeff Brown:about books were reading together, most of us were pretty
Jeff Brown:excited about that idea. And even even me, someone who at
Jeff Brown:that point wasn't doing a lot of reading was excited about that.
Jeff Brown:And so one of the first books I remember reading was Seth Godin
Jeff Brown:purple cow, I was desiring to learn more about marketing
Jeff Brown:anyway. And so you know, that book just hit me at the perfect
Jeff Brown:right time. And as I read it, I absolutely loved it fell in love
Jeff Brown:with reading all over again, thanks, in large part because of
Jeff Brown:this leader, Matt, and Seth, coming together, though they've
Jeff Brown:never met, they came together to help, you know, sort of reignite
Jeff Brown:my love for reading the stars and planets aligned, if you
Jeff Brown:will. So, as I began to read more and more, that was just the
Jeff Brown:starting point, I began to see opportunities come my way that
Jeff Brown:weren't coming to other people, colleagues and others in my
Jeff Brown:industry. And I attribute that sort of, you know, hockey stick,
Jeff Brown:type projectory of my career, beginning, because of that
Jeff Brown:habit, I was practicing that nobody else around me was really
Jeff Brown:practicing. And that being intentional and consistent
Jeff Brown:reading. So as I began to practice that more and more, I
Jeff Brown:saw more and more opportunities come my way that
Brad Miller:Jeff, you mentioned about how you basically had Seth
Brad Miller:Godin as a kind of a virtual mentor through a book. And then
Brad Miller:also you had a mentor, who led you into who by example, was
Brad Miller:reading and so what, tell us a little more about that situation
Brad Miller:in the workplace, how that impacted you.
Jeff Brown:Yeah. I had a leader was fortunate enough to have a
Jeff Brown:leader who understood the value of lifelong learning and was
Jeff Brown:practicing that himself. And we were able to see that practice
Jeff Brown:to see that he was in his office a lot of times reading a book, I
Jeff Brown:remember the first time seeing that and thinking, why is he not
Jeff Brown:working? Why is why is he Why does he think it's okay to read,
Jeff Brown:while he's at work to be doing that on his own time. I mean,
Jeff Brown:that's how limited thinking was at the time he it was all about
Jeff Brown:making himself a better leader and a better employee for the
Jeff Brown:organization. But over time, I kind of came around to realizing
Jeff Brown:that and it wasn't long before he offered the rest of us an
Jeff Brown:opportunity to learn from the same books he was learning by,
Jeff Brown:you know, buying books for the staff and urging us to come
Jeff Brown:together every week to talk about the books that we were
Jeff Brown:reading together. And then the first book I remember, reading
Jeff Brown:in that group was purple cow by Seth Godin, that was sort of my
Jeff Brown:reintroduction into nonfiction. Not having really spent any time
Jeff Brown:in nonfiction. For the entirety of my adult life. I fell in love
Jeff Brown:with that book and fell in love with Seth and his work. And that
Jeff Brown:just reignited in me a love for reading that has not ended that
Jeff Brown:was 1819 years ago, and it continues to this day. And as I
Jeff Brown:began to practice this habit, consistently and intentionally,
Jeff Brown:I began to see the doors swing open for wonderful opportunities
Jeff Brown:for me as an employee of that organization and outside the
Jeff Brown:organization that I don't believe ever would have come my
Jeff Brown:way had it not been for practicing that habit on a
Jeff Brown:regular basis.
Brad Miller:So I just think it's awesome that you had your
Brad Miller:you know, your personal mentor, if you will, within the
Brad Miller:organization, but also the virtual one through through
Brad Miller:books. And I think that's an important distinction. However,
Brad Miller:they really through books, you can be mentored through Socrates
Brad Miller:and Plato and Lincoln, anyone for the past, as well as
Brad Miller:contemporary thinkers as well. You could speak into your life
Brad Miller:that led you to do This and to lead you to be back into reading
Brad Miller:some more. Then what were some of the impacts of that? what,
Brad Miller:how, what was some of the results of that? How did that
Brad Miller:you've? The second part of your book is the leadership part. How
Brad Miller:do they influence your career, your leadership, your your
Brad Miller:application of your career and what you do now?
Jeff Brown:Yeah, early on, in that period of time, when I
Jeff Brown:began reading, as I mentioned, I began getting lots of
Jeff Brown:opportunities to do things others weren't getting the
Jeff Brown:chance to do. And that started with speaking with getting up in
Jeff Brown:front of other factions within the company, I was experimenting
Jeff Brown:based on what I was reading, I was experimenting with marketing
Jeff Brown:ideas, I was experimenting in the areas of social media,
Jeff Brown:social media was was new at the time, this is in the mid 2000s.
Jeff Brown:And on into 2008, when Facebook was sort of making itself
Jeff Brown:ubiquitous. And as a radio company, we were trying to
Jeff Brown:figure out, you know, what do we do with this? How do we leverage
Jeff Brown:these tools, more intimately connect with our listeners. And
Jeff Brown:so I was reading books on these topics, and begin practicing
Jeff Brown:what I was reading the things that I practiced and experiment
Jeff Brown:with that didn't work people quickly forgot. But the things
Jeff Brown:that I tried that work, people noticed. And so I was asked to
Jeff Brown:then, at a national level, speak to all of our operations
Jeff Brown:directors and share with with them when I was learning, I was
Jeff Brown:asked on a national level to speak to our entire sales team
Jeff Brown:about how to leverage some of these tools and what they were
Jeff Brown:doing. And that eventually led to the president of the company
Jeff Brown:at one point, decided he had wanted to land on a new vision
Jeff Brown:for the next 10 years from 2010 to 2020, is 2020 vision, he
Jeff Brown:called it and he was going to be like a good leader does he was
Jeff Brown:going to be visiting several of the radio stations to get input
Jeff Brown:from local stations as to what that vision should, should
Jeff Brown:include contain. And so my leader, the gentleman who had
Jeff Brown:started this book club, went came to me and said, I want you
Jeff Brown:to be the one that presents on our stations behalf as to how
Jeff Brown:you think our direction should go these next 10 years, which
Jeff Brown:was itself an honor. And I attribute that again, to a lot
Jeff Brown:of what I was doing with regard to reading. And so I put that
Jeff Brown:presentation together, ran it by my boss, he signed off on it
Jeff Brown:presented to the president of the company, and our staff when
Jeff Brown:he came by. And that led to two major things. One is he then
Jeff Brown:invited me to come to Colorado Springs to the home office and
Jeff Brown:present to the executive something that rank and file
Jeff Brown:employee had never done before. That that same presentation. And
Jeff Brown:then later when he would go to put together his communication,
Jeff Brown:his presentation for this 2020 vision once it was finalized,
Jeff Brown:and communicated to the rest of the world. He asked me to build
Jeff Brown:that presentation for him after seeing what I had done. Now the
Jeff Brown:presenting I was doing and the presentations I was creating, I
Jeff Brown:had never really done presenting much for everything I was doing.
Jeff Brown:I was learning from books, both delivery and content, and how to
Jeff Brown:present what your what your what you had to say, I learned all
Jeff Brown:that from the books I was reading. And so it was again,
Jeff Brown:books and the reading I was doing that made all of those
Jeff Brown:things possible. And no one not one single person I worked with
Jeff Brown:in that entire company was seeing opportunities come their
Jeff Brown:way. Like this I was the one person that I know of that was
Jeff Brown:reading on an intentional and consistent
Brad Miller:level transformation took place
Brad Miller:opportunities that came plays as a direct direct result of your
Brad Miller:reading and application of your reading to in your workplace.
Brad Miller:And so that's a part of the key here is the when we read stuff
Brad Miller:to comprehend into to use it and to allow it to be a change agent
Brad Miller:in your life. And so I want to visit with you just a few
Brad Miller:minutes here, Jeff, about this whole matter of you know, when
Brad Miller:people get stuck in whatever they need to you know, adversity
Brad Miller:is some situation people get stuck, I believe, and they have
Brad Miller:to take actions to get out of but that transformation is more
Brad Miller:than just an intellectual thing. I believe intellect is a part of
Brad Miller:it, to tell us what about how reading in your case? What other
Brad Miller:other people's cases can be transformative of the mind, the
Brad Miller:spirit, the emotions, how do you think reading can be
Brad Miller:transformative on deep, deep, deep levels?
Jeff Brown:Yeah, a lot of ways. The cool thing is, is whatever
Jeff Brown:you're facing, whatever the issue is, be it health related,
Jeff Brown:like you were talking about or being some hurdle you're trying
Jeff Brown:to overcome, you're not likely to be the first person to have
Jeff Brown:had that struggle to experience that struggle. And the other
Jeff Brown:thing to realize is that more and more often than not more
Jeff Brown:likely than not someone else who's been up against that same
Jeff Brown:struggle has written about it has come on the other side of it
Jeff Brown:and written about their experience having come on the
Jeff Brown:other side of it and how they did it. And so virtually no
Jeff Brown:matter what you're facing, what hurdle, what problem, what
Jeff Brown:issue, what setback, there's probably somebody else who's
Jeff Brown:experienced and is also written about it. And so anytime you
Jeff Brown:face a problem anytime you face an obstacle, an obstacle issue,
Jeff Brown:whatever, search for books on that topic you're likely to find
Jeff Brown:not just one, but several, grab two or three that that
Jeff Brown:fascinates you based on description, you judge a book by
Jeff Brown:its cover if you have to, and then dig in. And if you get
Jeff Brown:partway into a book, and it's just not doing it for you,
Jeff Brown:you're not obligated to finish it set aside and go to the next
Jeff Brown:one. You know, maybe maybe it picked up a lemon out of the
Jeff Brown:group. Nope, no harm, no foul, go on to the next one. It was
Jeff Brown:what 1520 bucks, not a big deal. When you think about, you know,
Jeff Brown:a $20 book, and you come away with just one great idea or one
Jeff Brown:great thing you can implement that can change your life. That
Jeff Brown:was that was a great investment that was 20 bucks. well spent.
Jeff Brown:So I think with regard to your question, you know, how can or
Jeff Brown:what are some of the ways books can help us I think the, the
Jeff Brown:ways that books can help us are too numerous to mention. The
Jeff Brown:beauty is, is that no matter what you face, there's a book
Jeff Brown:out there are books out there for you, they're gonna help get
Jeff Brown:you through it.
Brad Miller:Let's get personal for a second, what are some
Brad Miller:books that may have been impactful, some specific titles
Brad Miller:or some things in your life that may have been impactful that
Brad Miller:were transformative, either on, you know, business related or
Brad Miller:personal or spiritual or anything of that nature with
Brad Miller:that,
Jeff Brown:I would say on the business side, I mentioned Seth
Jeff Brown:Godin, his purple cow that's always going to have a place in
Jeff Brown:my heart just because it was so part of the process of kind of
Jeff Brown:bringing me back to reading and recognizing that love that had
Jeff Brown:been dormant. I'm a big fan of Liz Wiseman's multipliers, how
Jeff Brown:the best leaders make everyone smarter, in large part because I
Jeff Brown:feel like it was written about that leader I was mentioning
Jeff Brown:earlier who brought books into the workplace. He is a
Jeff Brown:multiplier type leader, the type of leader that Liz talks about
Jeff Brown:the type of leader who isn't intimidated by the fact that
Jeff Brown:they've hired people smarter than they are in the areas
Jeff Brown:they've been hired to, to, to come in and grow. And so he
Jeff Brown:understood how to leverage the collective brain power of the
Jeff Brown:room. And that's what a multiplier leader type leader
Jeff Brown:does. And that's what Liz writes about. In her book multipliers.
Jeff Brown:I'm a big fan of the work of Todd Henry. Die empty unleash
Jeff Brown:your best work every day is one of my favorite books from him.
Jeff Brown:And of course, books like Seven Habits of Highly Effective
Jeff Brown:People, Stephen R. Covey, How to Win Friends and Influence People
Jeff Brown:by Dale Carnegie, some of those classics, Dan Miller's 40 days
Jeff Brown:to live the work you love personal level, you know, a lot
Jeff Brown:of the books that I read, are really for sort of the business
Jeff Brown:side. When it comes to the personal side, I would say you
Jeff Brown:know, books on communication, I just finished one speaking of
Jeff Brown:communication called listen like you mean it by a Mina, bingo,
Jeff Brown:chia. And to think about how to pronounce her name, Ian homina
Jeff Brown:vengo che listen to like immediate, great book on
Jeff Brown:communication. So that's one near and dear to me. I'm reading
Jeff Brown:a book right now, this is really public speaking and related, but
Jeff Brown:it can serve you in so many different ways called Do you
Jeff Brown:talk funny, recommended to me by a former guest on my podcast,
Jeff Brown:read to lead. And it's a book about just implementing humor
Jeff Brown:into communication and in presentations and that sort of
Jeff Brown:thing, but I'm getting a lot out of that.
Brad Miller:But what is compelling What is it is our
Brad Miller:common theme about these books that cooks you they get you that
Brad Miller:makes that makes you say, Okay, I want to read this book, and I
Brad Miller:want to read more by this author, or I am just hooked into
Brad Miller:this whereas some other titles you mentioned, we may just look
Brad Miller:you know, gloss through it and say, Okay, go to Goodwill pile.
Jeff Brown:Yeah, you know, a lot of authors touch on in one
Jeff Brown:way or another, the topic of mindset to a degree now there
Jeff Brown:are books just on mindset that focus solely on mindset, like
Jeff Brown:Carol Dweck, mindset, or john a cuffs soundtracks, which is
Jeff Brown:really a book about mindset. And I find it a lot of authors will
Jeff Brown:hit on that topic at one point or another. It's mentioned
Jeff Brown:briefly in my book even read to lead. But mindset is something
Jeff Brown:that just add this, the negative mindset for many of us is
Jeff Brown:something that just so adversely affects us more than we realize.
Jeff Brown:I think when you have enough self awareness to realize that
Jeff Brown:things like happiness, attitude, your reactions and responses,
Jeff Brown:things of that nature in your life, or a choice, you get to
Jeff Brown:decide today, whether or not you're going to be happy. You
Jeff Brown:get to decide today, whether that roommate that you consider
Jeff Brown:lazy, is really lazy or not. Or if that's just your attitude
Jeff Brown:toward them, you could change your attitude toward them
Jeff Brown:actually impact their level of what you just you feel to be
Jeff Brown:laziness, just in how you approach them. So you have more
Jeff Brown:you know, control then then you think The way to approach life
Jeff Brown:is with an abundance mindset. versus a scarcity mindset. It's
Jeff Brown:so many of us approach it. And I even fall into this. Even though
Jeff Brown:I know better. having read a few books on the topic, I fall into
Jeff Brown:it occasionally just like anybody else. But knowing that
Jeff Brown:you get to choose in any given day when those feet hit the
Jeff Brown:floor, that you can say things like today is going to be a
Jeff Brown:great day, and truly mean it. And then do your darndest to go
Jeff Brown:out and have a great day and roll with the punches if and
Jeff Brown:when they come. Or you can wake up like a curmudgeon who got up
Jeff Brown:on the wrong side of the bed. And that can affect every
Jeff Brown:interaction you have throughout the rest of the day. That your
Jeff Brown:energy and the energy that you bring to every interaction
Jeff Brown:situation you're in, has a ripple effect.
Brad Miller:And that is such an important factor in overcoming
Brad Miller:adversity, which happens to all of us. We choose how we react to
Brad Miller:add adverse events. And you're saying that this particular line
Brad Miller:of books is compelling to you, to help you with your mindset.
Brad Miller:And so in sharing that with others, which you share on your
Brad Miller:podcast, and now through your book, what are some ways for
Brad Miller:instance, if you're going to gift somebody a book? Or maybe
Brad Miller:you do this? What are some books that you might give someone to
Brad Miller:help them
Jeff Brown:have a good question? Well, I've gifted How
Jeff Brown:to Win Friends and Influence People a few times, especially
Jeff Brown:to young people. I think of a nephew of mine, DJ who I gifted
Jeff Brown:that book to when he was 13. He's 17. Now, he devoured that
Jeff Brown:in a couple of days, I think the classics like that I mentioned,
Jeff Brown:Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Some of those books that
Jeff Brown:have been around for you know, 30 years or more, are great
Jeff Brown:books to gift to young people. I think for someone new in the
Jeff Brown:leadership realm, who's maybe been thrown into a position
Jeff Brown:where that that requires him to then lead a group of people
Jeff Brown:maybe they've never done that. Have them read multipliers Bible
Jeff Brown:is my you know, if you're like I was back in my days, and radio,
Jeff Brown:suddenly thrown into the marketing side of radio and
Jeff Brown:something that at the time I had no experience in, you're at a
Jeff Brown:job or suddenly you're having to, to help with the marketing
Jeff Brown:or marketing ideas or, or understand you know, what that's
Jeff Brown:about read purple cow, Seth Godin, I would, I've gifted that
Jeff Brown:book, I've gifted all those books I've just mentioned
Jeff Brown:numerous times, depending on the situation and the individual.
Jeff Brown:Yeah.
Brad Miller:And that has to do with building on relationships,
Brad Miller:that, you know, that's what I'm trying to get is we invest in
Brad Miller:relationships, and one of the ways we could earn investor
Brad Miller:relationships is through the gift of reading. And I do have
Brad Miller:done that with my own children and with others as well. gifted
Brad Miller:differences together as better by Simon Sinek is one of the
Brad Miller:books I've gifted out. But let's I want to just as we kind of
Brad Miller:bring us around here, one of things I really loved about your
Brad Miller:book, Jeff, is that you had some of the things we've been talking
Brad Miller:about here about the kind of the theoretical type of thing and
Brad Miller:the transformative type of saying about books and about the
Brad Miller:importance of books and the reason some scientific data and
Brad Miller:things like that, which I find fascinating. But it also you
Brad Miller:talk about some of the actual habits and disciplines and the
Brad Miller:things we got to do to develop a habit of reading, but give us a
Brad Miller:few nuggets, a few things that if we're speaking a life of a
Brad Miller:young entrepreneur or a young business man or woman, what are
Brad Miller:some disciplines or some habits that we could help learn from
Brad Miller:your book that can be helpful to us?
Jeff Brown:Yeah. When folks tell me that they struggle with
Jeff Brown:finding time to read one of the first questions I ask is whether
Jeff Brown:or not they're scheduling their reading time. And more often
Jeff Brown:than not, the answer to that question is no. People think
Jeff Brown:well, I want to read more and then think, well, I'll, when I
Jeff Brown:think to do that, I'll do that thing, or I'll, I'll get up in
Jeff Brown:the morning and read or I'll breathe before I go to bed. And
Jeff Brown:it's it's no more than a thought. But I think if you're
Jeff Brown:going to build that habit, on a consistent basis, or anything
Jeff Brown:else, for that matter, it's got to be something that you're
Jeff Brown:intentional about. And that means scheduling it, what gets
Jeff Brown:scheduled gets done, Michael Hyatt says and so that means I
Jeff Brown:schedule my reading, that's the only way I'm able to read a book
Jeff Brown:a week is by setting aside time carving it out in my calendar
Jeff Brown:and on my day planner, which means it's protected. And nobody
Jeff Brown:else can, can take that time unless I give it away. Right.
Jeff Brown:And so that's that's step number one. And step number two, I
Jeff Brown:would say is don't be afraid to start small. Or as BJ Fogg, Dr.
Jeff Brown:BJ Fogg in his book tiny habits calls tiny and he suggests, you
Jeff Brown:know, building habit recipes, and attaching those to things
Jeff Brown:like anchors, he calls him and so let's say you want to read
Jeff Brown:more, let's say 30 minutes a morning, but what are you
Jeff Brown:already do in the morning, without any effort at all that
Jeff Brown:you don't even have to think about? Maybe if you're like me
Jeff Brown:that's drinking a cup or preparing a cup of coffee or
Jeff Brown:several cups of coffee, well, then your habit recipe might be
Jeff Brown:something like when I start the coffeemaker or when I when I say
Jeff Brown:Down with my cup of coffee, I will read for 30 minutes may not
Jeff Brown:sound 30 minutes may not sound tiny to you, if that's the case,
Jeff Brown:and you can strip it down even further you can, it can be, when
Jeff Brown:I sit down with my morning cup of coffee, I will read page one
Jeff Brown:of this new book or I will read paragraph one or I will read
Jeff Brown:sentence one or I will read the Table of Contents contents or I
Jeff Brown:will sit down with my cup of coffee. And I will open the book
Jeff Brown:to first date. And that's that's that's your goal is to open the
Jeff Brown:book. And the next day the goal can be the same, I will open the
Jeff Brown:book to the first page, do that for several days. And also
Jeff Brown:celebrate that as silly as that sounds like give yourself an
Jeff Brown:Attaboy or a tiger woods style fist bump or a victory sign with
Jeff Brown:your arms in the air kind of a thing. program your brain to
Jeff Brown:want to do this again because it felt good. In other words, even
Jeff Brown:if it's something as simple as opening the book to the first
Jeff Brown:page. Eventually you'll get to the point where you're like,
Jeff Brown:well, I'm here anyway. Why not? I just read for a little bit.
Jeff Brown:This worked for fog, a more personal example to him. When it
Jeff Brown:came to flossing his teeth. His goal was to have a great, great
Jeff Brown:anchor for him was brushing his teeth, which he did anyway
Jeff Brown:without thinking about it. So his recipe was after I brush my
Jeff Brown:teeth, I will floss one tooth. And that was the goal. And when
Jeff Brown:he floss one tooth he celebrated. And eventually that
Jeff Brown:led to much like I described earlier. It's like, well, I'm
Jeff Brown:here, why don't I floss a second tooth? Well, why don't I do one
Jeff Brown:more. And before you know it, you're flossing all the teeth or
Jeff Brown:you're reading for 30 minutes instead of just opening the book
Jeff Brown:to the first page. So schedule time to read. And then don't be
Jeff Brown:afraid to start small. If you have to
Brad Miller:sell you're trying to find ways to make it fun and
Brad Miller:fundamental. Good. Well, hey, I just got one more question for
Brad Miller:you, really. But before I ask you that question, is there
Brad Miller:anything that you really want us to know about your fourth book
Brad Miller:here read to lead that it's just foundational debt that I've not
Brad Miller:touched on here that we've not touched on here.
Jeff Brown:And I've kind of hinted at this, but it's just
Jeff Brown:this idea that it is this, if this is something that you you
Jeff Brown:kind of innately know you should be doing more of No, you need to
Jeff Brown:do more of it. You're just looking for some something that
Jeff Brown:will help you get over that hump that I would encourage you to
Jeff Brown:grab the book is going to help you understand why this is a
Jeff Brown:habit you need to develop if I haven't already done a good job
Jeff Brown:of that in this interview. It's going to help you understand
Jeff Brown:where to begin what books to start with, based on where
Jeff Brown:you're at. And then the third section, the book is just going
Jeff Brown:to help help you understand how to make the most of the habit
Jeff Brown:how to get the most out of what you read and put what you read
Jeff Brown:into practice. And if you get the book before August 31 that
Jeff Brown:read to lead book calm, there are about $500 worth of bonuses
Jeff Brown:including a mini course you get the audio book for free if
Jeff Brown:you're if that's more your style, when you purchase a
Jeff Brown:physical copy, the audio book comes for free. There's some
Jeff Brown:other bonuses there as well, autograph book played even. And
Jeff Brown:depending on who you purchase the book through when you go to
Jeff Brown:read Tilley book calm, you can even get 40% off the cover
Jeff Brown:price. So it's like 11 bucks and chain so you just for that you
Jeff Brown:get all those bonuses, so I encourage you to check it out.
Jeff Brown:Again, it's retailing book.com.
Brad Miller:And we'll have connections to all that in our
Brad Miller:show notes at Dr. Brad Miller calm here on beyond adversity.
Brad Miller:We got one more quick question for you. It may or may be quick
Brad Miller:maybe for another topic another day. But this is your first
Brad Miller:book. Congratulations around your first book. What did you
Brad Miller:What was this one nugget you learn from reading all these
Brad Miller:books that you applied to writing? Yeah, what did you
Brad Miller:learn from your all your reading that you've done? That was
Brad Miller:impactful and writing a book?
Jeff Brown:Gotcha. Yeah, a lot of a lot of which is I knew I
Jeff Brown:wanted to include a quote, a favorite quote to begin each
Jeff Brown:chapter I've seen their called epigraphs. I've seen other
Jeff Brown:authors do that. And I knew I wanted to do that. I knew I
Jeff Brown:wanted to end each chapter with some sort of over to use
Jeff Brown:segments like okay, now it's your turn to kind of think about
Jeff Brown:what you've read and, and, and run with this. Here's some tips
Jeff Brown:on how to do that. I knew I wanted to end each chapter with
Jeff Brown:some book recommendations. And those were ideas that you know,
Jeff Brown:I got from, from reading so many other books. And then just the
Jeff Brown:writing process in general, I knew was important to me to
Jeff Brown:begin most chapters with a personal story, whether it was
Jeff Brown:for me or my co author, Jesse to really you know, draw the reader
Jeff Brown:in, to sort of anchor them into the chapter before jumping into
Jeff Brown:the content of the chapter. So those are just some of the
Jeff Brown:things that just reading so many books I took away from that I
Jeff Brown:knew I wanted to implement in this book, what's a stellar
Jeff Brown:reference,
Brad Miller:the book is called read to lead and the subheading
Brad Miller:that the subtitle is the simple habit that expands Your
Brad Miller:influence and boost your career Jeff's Brown. Jesse was this key
Brad Miller:where our guest today on beyond adversity, the author of read to