The Extraordinary Business Book Club

"How do I discover my change making contribution, and how do I do that in a way so that I don't fry myself in the process?" The balance between stepping up to make an impact in the world and stepping back where necessary to protect our own wellbeing and energy can seem an impossible one to find. And that's why Katy Murray argues that change-making is first of all an inner process: recognising and...

'The process of writing, the process of reflecting on where we are right now and what must happen for us to move forward towards where we want to be, this is a process of living with greater intention.' What's your most precious resource? Time? Money? Or is it, in fact, your energy?  No matter how smart or skilled we are, if our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual energy is depleted, day aft...

Ever wondered how a journalist picks which expert to provide a quote on a story in your industry, or why a national paper runs a story on your competitor and not you?  Media relations might seem like a dark art, but when you understand what journalists are looking for, it's easier to pitch a story that will grab their attention, so that YOUR business can benefit from that powerful exposure.  In th...

'Having a book has really begun to change how I think about my business and my brand... I am truly surprised about the ripple effect it's having.' At the risk of being meta, there's a lot about conversation in this conversation. Conversations between managers and their sales team that empower and enable; conversations that spark ideas and reveal needs; and the conversation that the author has with...

Storytelling is one of the most basic human impulses. And in the digital age, it's also one of the most complex and confusing: how do you choose between the multitude of channels and tools to help YOUR story connect with the people who matter the most to your business?  Rob Wozny has been in the storytelling game all his life, as a journalist, content strategist and professional business communica...

In 1907, pioneering psychologist William James wrote this:  'The human individual lives usually far within his limits; he possesses powers of various sorts which he habitually fails to use. He energizes below his maximum, and he behaves below his optimum.' That insight reflects the message of my guests on this podcast recently, and inspired the title of this episode: we CAN do hard things. This is...

'If you've got something that's important, meaningful to you, that needs to be heard, why not say it on one of the biggest platforms?' Have you thoughts about giving a TEDx talk? If so, you've probably got lots of questions. How do you apply, for a start? How do you put together a TEDx-worthy talk? How on earth are you supposed to do it without an autocue? And perhaps most fundamentally of all, gi...

'Writing is a form of figuring it out. And in fact for me, sometimes it's essential. It's like, what do you think about this? I don't know, I haven't written about it yet.' Dan Pink has written quite a few books, and they've done pretty well. So how does he do it? It's about showing up, he says, especially on the days you don't want to, and it's also about curiosity, hunches, thinking onto paper,...

'We don't compromise rigour and intellectual honesty, but we try to make it as accessible as possible.' I don't know what you and your life partner achieved in lockdown. Eric Lonergan and Corinne Sawyers wrote a book.  They brought their complementary skillsets - Eric in economics and monetary policy, Corinne in climate and sustainability - and produced Supercharge Me: Net Zero Faster , a call to...

'The basic failure of strategy work is a failure to define the challenge that you're trying to meet.' Richard Rumelt is one of the world's leading authorities on strategy. He's also a keen rockclimber, and it was climbing that gave him the inspiration for his new book: The Crux.  In this wide-ranging conversation we talk about why strategy is such a controversial concept in business, and also why...

Do you make a difference? Or do you make excuses?  Tim Bradshaw has done many remarkable things in his life, from military training to endurance events, and when I spoke to him he had just returned from a relief mission to Ukraine.  He's simply living out his mantra: #BecauseICan. And it turns out that writing a book was the adventure that took him further out of his comfort zone than any that had...

"We all want to grow our business. And we often do that by spending quite a lot of money... But the reality is in front of us, we have all the new clients we need." Graham Eisner perfected his technique for asking clients for referrals without embarrassment on either side at Goldman Sachs, and has been teaching business owners how to do it to grow their business ever since. At its heart, his metho...

'You cannot go into PR without building relationships.' Louise Third has embraced this principle in the planning and writing of her book PR on a Beermat, first by partnering with the originators of the beermat idea to develop it for PR, by writing collaboratively with partners, and by involving journalists and other media professionals to share their expertise in her book.  In this fascinating con...

'I think it's kind of a miracle. How can a human mind... all by itself, come up with an idea it never had before? You know, in a dialogue, I can understand how I can get a new idea from you, but how can I get a new idea from myself? That's amazing.' So much of writing is about trust - trusting yourself, that you will find something worth saying; trusting that the words will come and that others wi...

'Accountability is... probably the most empowering concept you have to live the life you want to live, when you understand it.' When we speak about accountability in business, very often the context is negative. It's about consequences and blame. But if we see accountability as ownership, it's a radically different, more empowering concept. That's what Brian Moran and Michael Lennington discovered...

Put an author in front of schoolchildren and you can guarantee that before too long, one of them will ask: 'Where do you get your ideas?' It's a good question, and one that's just as important for business book writers. In this week's 'best bits' episode we look back over recent conversations to see, well, where DO authors get their ideas?  (So if someone asks you that question from now on, you ca...

'[Writing] is a craft. It's no different to knitting or painting by numbers or whatever, you just have to learn the craft. It might take practice and it might take learning a few rules, but, you know, they're not that scary.' For Robert Kelsey, writing is an essential business skill in the knowledge economy. And he won't accept excuses. In this conversation he shares his fear-free approach to effe...

'I delighted in writing it. That doesn't mean I found it easy.' Time management has been seen as an issue for individuals for too long: Helen Beedham argues that the real issue is systemic. The way that organisations manage and value time, she says, is broken. And it's not just a productivity issue, it's hurting our wellbeing and working against inclusion and diversity, too.  Developing that insig...

'Expressing an idea and getting it out there is a very skilful process... the principle is to get the other people as interested in the idea you are.' Creative work is to a large extent invisible - which makes it tricky for managers to manage. It also means that we're left with the challenge of making our invisible ideas visible if we're going to do anything with them.  In this fascinating convers...

In a world that screams 'Just Do It!', inaction has a bad reputation.  But sometimes, strategic inaction is exactly what the situation demands - and much more productive in the long run than the rush to do something, anything. In this week's conversation I talk to Jinny Uppal about how she learned this for herself, and about writing, publishing, crowdfunding and curiosity.  

Anyone can have an idea for a book. Writing, publishing and marketing it? That means becoming an author, and that involves a whole lot of learning.  In this week's podcast I chat around the virtual campfire to seven members of the Extraordinary Business Book Club - some have just begun their first book, others have written several - about what they've learned so far in their journey as authors.  P...

Back in episode 286, I set out a list of things that editors hate and how to avoid them. Apparently that was very helpful, but lots of people have suggested that I needed to do a more positively focused companion episode, so here it is: what makes editors' hearts sing?  These ten tips come partly from my own experience of nearly 30 years as an editor (ahem), but also from the Practical Inspiration...

"We knew that a handbook had to be incredibly practical... we tried to help people to really work through the stages that you need to think about." There could hardly be a more important topic for businesses to engage with today than sustainability, and yet most businesses are still at the very early stages of formulating their sustainability strategy. So when David Grayson, Chris Coulter and Mark...

'It starts off as me working out what I think, and then it becomes something I'm going to share with other people... The point at which I allow myself to start imagining a reader is really important.' Writing isn't just a tool for communication, and your book isn't just a product. In this thoughtful and practical conversation, best-selling author Cathy Rentzenbrink reveals how she approaches both...

They told Christian Busch that it would be 'academic suicide' to do a PhD on the science of luck. But it turns out that luck isn't a random force at all: the results may be unpredictable, but the process of becoming luckier is a simple matter of creating more connections and joining the dots more effectively.  In this conversation, he explains more about how to become luckier by adopting a 'serend...