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Hey there. My name is Brian Beers. I do this podcast to help ordinary people make life changing money by owning franchises. I own a portfolio of franchises. I help people buy their first franchise. I partner with people to scale their franchise. It's literally my life. So if you want to learn more about making money by owning franchises, go to brianbeers.com I have a weekly newsletter where I share very tactical advice on everything that I talk about here on the podcast. So let's go. I have read hundreds of business books and here's the truth. Most of them are complete waste of time, but nine of them have helped me build a $45 million per year empire. And today I'm going to break them down. No fluff, just actionable takeaways. These books have transformed how I run my business, how I manage my time and build wealth. And I've organized them into three stages of growth. Number one is building a foundation. Number two is scaling the business and and number three is building the empire. So let's dive in. Every successful business starts with a strong foundation. It's not just having a great idea. It's about setting the right habits, having the right mindset, and executing strategies that get you through the tough times. So in this first section, we're going to focus on principles that help you build a rock solid base. And we're going to start with Atomic Habits by James Clear. The big takeaway in this book is that small, consistent habits lead to massive long term results. In the book he talks about the story of the British cycling team. And for years they were just stuck in mediocrity until they applied this concept of marginal gains. Focused on small improvements, just 1% a day. So they made these tiny adjustments like optimizing the diets, tweaking the bike seats, widening the tires, all these tiny little things that compounded over time and eventually they dominated the Olympics in the Tour de France. In business, it's the same. Success isn't about this like giant strategic move. It's about incremental improvements every day that are driven by habits. If you can build new habits into your routine, that growth is going to start to compound. And it's going to be slow in the beginning, but all of a sudden it's going to be like a hockey stick. So for example, one thing I do is I look at one of my big goals, like my massive annual goals that I want to accomplish and every single morning I look at that list and I pick one thing that I could do that day that will help me get those goals. Accomplished for your team, it could be calling five potential referral partners every single day, no matter how busy you are. And these small, repeatable actions push your business forward without having to rely on, like, bursts of energy and inspiration. Because the problem is if you only rely on, like, inspiration in these bursts, you're going to get tired and you're just, like, not going to do it, and then you're not going to have the success. But a habit can be ingrained in you. And once it's ingrained, or once it's just part of your life, brushing your teeth every night, you don't think about brushing your teeth. It takes no mental energy to have a habit ingrained. And this allows you to free up your mind so then you can focus on taking your business to the next level. You can focus on things that really matter, like your family and your future. And this is why Habits matter. And Atomic Habits is a great book that has a lot of tactical strategies on how to actually build habits. Book number two is Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. Now, the big takeaway in this book is that you have the ability to harness the ridiculous power of intentional thinking. Now, this book was written just a few years before I was born in 1937, but it still contains timeless wisdom that's relevant today. Running a business is much more of a mental game than it is a practical one. If it was a practical one, anybody could could read any book and automatically know how to run a business right and scale it. It'd be so easy. But that's not the case because running a business is hard. And a lot of it comes down to the way you think about it. And I know some of you are going to roll your eyes, but stick with me here. I'm telling you, this works. So Hill talks about having a crystal clear vision of what does success look like for you. And in the book, he shares a story about Edwin Barnes. He was a man who had no money, no connections, but he had dreamed of becoming a business partner with Thomas Edison. He he didn't have the resources, but he had a clear vision. Barnes worked as a janitor in Edison's office and he was there every single night. He'd help Edison with his projects and eventually he proved his worth. Now, his determination and belief in his own vision eventually landed him as a business partner to Thomas Edison and made him a very wealthy man. For you, it could be a certain rev new milestone. It could be a lifestyle where you have a ton of free time, or you could work anywhere in the world. Whatever it is, you want to get specific, write it down and then be intentional. But the actions that you take to work towards the goal, this is how you move from just owning a business to creating a life that has wealth and freedom and all the things that you desire. Book number three is 10x is easier than 2x by Ben Hardy and Dan Sullivan. The big takeaway here is that achieving a 10x goal, a huge goal, right, is actually easier than a 2x smaller incremental goal because there are fewer paths that lead to to that level of massive success. And it forces you to eliminate distractions and focus on what truly drives growth. You can't just do more of the same and expect different results. Instead, you have to focus on a few very, very high impact areas that lead to this massive growth. So in the book, he shares a story about a business owner who's overwhelmed, tried to double his revenue from one year to the next. And he kept tweaking everything, right? He was adding new marketing channels, he was just in price in. He was actually trying to offer more products, but the complexity became paralyzing and he couldn't grow. So Dan Sullivan went to him and said, here's what we want to do. We want to set a goal that is not to double your revenue, but what if we had to 10x your revenue, what would you change? And he realized that in order to hit a 10x goal, he couldn't just make these minor little adjustments, he had to simplify. So instead he focused on the highest margin services and he stopped offering products that weren't driving big results and then automated as much as he could. So he achieved that 10x growth way faster than he ever thought was possible by narrowing down his focus. He cut out products, he cut out distractions. He didn't try to do more, he actually did less, but did it way better. Ask yourself, what is one thing that if you focused on entirely like you went all in on, it could multiply your results. For years, my 10x action was acquisitions. So we were on a tear. We were buying as many franchises as we can. I doubled within a year, I was up 50% the next year. We had massive, massive growth in a short amount of time due to acquisitions. But now I am focused instead on driving sales in one category of our business. And if I can achieve 25% growth as a company, I would double my net profits in one year. And I wouldn't increase my overhead, I wouldn't have to do any acquisitions, I'd have to hire a few more people. But I could double my profits by increasing my sales by just 25% and and specifically in this single category. And the reason is TEDx is easier is because it forces you into clarity. So you're no longer chasing all these small little changes all over your business. Instead you're focused on bold strategies and simplifying your decision making. By doing less and aiming bigger, you free yourself up to focus on the things that truly matter. Section number two Scaling your business. So once you've built a strong foundation, the next challenge is growth. But growth isn't about working harder, it's about working smarter. And this section is all about scaling. So we're to explore strategies for creating systems, finding the right people and focusing on high impact activities that allow your business to grow without you being tied to it for 24. 7. Book number four is scaling up by Vern Harness. The big takeaway here is that you need to build structured systems for predictable, sustainable growth. The biggest thing that separates business owners who buy themselves a job from those who build massive companies is is their ability to replace themselves. Many people are familiar with traction or eos. That's a watered down version of scaling up which provides a much more detailed step by step playbook. Vern Harness breaks every business into four key areas. People, strategy, execution and cash. By focusing on finding the right people who are aligned with your business vision, ensuring your strategy is laser focused, tightening your execution by measuring specific performance and managing cash flow with discipline. We use his frameworks on setting goals, analyzing our team and creating our meeting cadence. And then these systems allow us to grow without losing control. The whole goal is to reach the point where your business can function without you. So you, the owner, don't have to be the one driving it forward because you have a system and everyone's following the system. The system is what's driving it forward. And everyone knows what you are accountable for and what you are responsible for and the numbers you have to hit. What we talk about clarity and all this stuff. The whole point of this system is to give everybody clarity about what direction we're going in and how we're going to get there. Which leads me to book number five, which is who, not how. Also by Ben Hardy and Dan Sullivan. The big takeaway here is to focus on building the right team rather than trying to do everything yourself. Every business is in the people business and you must build a team in order to build a business that gives you freedom. So don't try to master every aspect of your business. Instead ask yourself, who can I bring onto my team to handle this. And by delegating key tasks out, you're capable of not only getting better results, but you free yourself up to focus on the high level stuff, the stuff that only you can think of, the things that you are the best in the world at. So start by identifying the key areas where you're weak or just spending a lot of time on. It could be sales, it could be operations, it could be marketing, it could be bookkeeping, whatever it is. Being able to delegate is very difficult for a lot of owners and, you know, the business is their baby and they think, well, nobody can do this as good as me. But you have to shift your mind to value progress over perfection and the right who can unlock the next level your business. For me, I've done this multiple times. I used to be the district manager overseeing our six locations. Eventually I replaced myself and that allowed me to focus on growth. And we did more acquisitions and eventually it was me. And we had two district managers that reported to me and, and I continued to drive them every single day. And then we did more and more acquisitions. So now I had four or five district managers reporting up to me. I was acting as the coo, but I wanted to continue to grow. So I hired a COO who took over my role in running that business and he is way better at it than me. So we talked about the challenge of delegating and like giving up really the reins of the business to somebody else. But at the end of the day, he's way better at it than me. And then now I have a lot more time and freedom on my hands because continue to grow in the business, to continue to diversify, to build content like this, which opens up my world to whole new level of opportunities and investments in partners. So by continuing to bring people into your world who excel at certain things, it allows you to multiply way quicker than if you tried to do it all on your own. The next book we're going to talk about is the Power of One More by Ed Milet. So the big takeaway here is that podcast. Pushing yourself just a little bit further can make the difference between good and great. You know, running business is tough and there'll be times when you feel like you've done all that you can. And Ed shares a powerful story about his early day in sales. He was on the verge of missing his quota and was feeling completely burned out. He'd already made dozens of calls that day, and instead of calling quits, he said, I'm going to make one more call. And that single call turned into a breakthrough. It was a big sale that helped him not only hit his target, but gave him the momentum to exceed his goals for the rest of the month. It ended up being a turning point in his career. Showing him that extra effort at a moment when you're ready to stop can make all the difference. Identify areas in your business where a little bit of extra effort could yield big results. For example, I drive my sales team to make 20 cold calls per day and I want to challenge them to now make one more call every day, just 21. And if they do 21, man, we could probably do 22 in this extra push builds discipline. It proves to to yourself that you have the ability to do whatever it takes to win. And this can become extremely powerful when you can couple it with the vision that you have from Think and Grow Rich, aligned with a big 10x goal, and then building it into your daily atomic habits. Now we move on to Section 3, which is building the empire. Now that your business is growing, it's time to think even bigger. Building an Empire looks at how you invest your capital, take calculated risks, and create a business that can last for generations. This is where real legacy starts. And to kick us off, we're to talk about a book called Am I Being Too Subtle? By Sam Zell. The big takeaway here is to take calculated risks and recognize unvalued opportunities. One of my favorite stories in this book is about railroad cars. At the time, the railroad car industry was struggling and most investors saw it as a declining sector and were jumping ship. But Zell saw this as a huge opportunity. He recognized that that the supply of rail cars was shrinking. But the demand for rail cars was still very steady, if not growing by 2% a year. He bought all the rail calls that he could at a huge discount, and then was able to lock in long term profitable leases from the transportation companies. And he ultimately made billions of dollars from this investment. And sometimes the biggest opportunities are in places that other people are overlooking. And by being bold and taking calculated risks in undervalued assets and you can seize opportunities that other people miss. So over the years, I've acquired multiple franchises from owners who were struggling. Many of them were unprofitable, if not losing money. But since I knew the business well, I was able to negotiate great seller financing deals. I was able to implement my process and quickly turn these around. In my best deal, I bought a single franchise for just $50,000 down. And it has profited over $2 million since then. So identify where do you have an unfair advantage and then exploit it in a good way? That's how Sam ended up becoming one of the best investors of all time and is how I've made millions of dollars operating franchises. Book number eight is Profit first, by Mike McAlowitz. The big takeaway here is that it's easy to prioritize profit from day one when you're small, but it becomes a lot more of a challenge as your business grows. And it's so easy to fall into a trap of chasing bigger and bigger revenues from when your expenses are also getting bigger and bigger. And you just think, I'll figure out profit later. What the book teaches us is that profit should come first. Literally, that every time that revenue comes into your bank account, that you take a percentage of it and you move it to another profit bank account. And by keeping profit is the top of your mind, you avoid cash crunch that could totally derail you. This is how you follow this. You set up three bank accounts, one for profit, one for. One for taxes, and one for operating expenses. And then every week we transfer on Monday an amount of money into our profit account and a certain amount of money into our tax account. And then as we start to grow, we try to increase the percentage that we're transferring into that profit account and the tax account and so that our profitability scales alongside our revenue. This comes in very handy during tax seasons when you owe the government, like, a big chunk of money. And instead of stressing out of like, where are we going to pull this money from you? You should have more than enough in your tax account. If you did the math right and you followed the system every single week. You know, think about when you go to the grocery store. You get this massive cart. You're going to buy more stuff than if you had a small cart. And it's the same in business. The bigger your bank account becomes, the more money you tend to spend on unnecessary things. And so by removing the profit from that operating account, you intentionally shrink it. You shrink that cart, and it forces you to be more lean, create creative and profitable. Number nine is A Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel. The big takeaway is to simplify your investments so they don't distract you from growing your business. Because once your business starts making money, it's very tempting to spread your wealth across multiple investments. But each one of those investments takes up mental space, time and energy that would be much better spent on your business. So his lesson is very simple. Just focus on an automated investment strategy and into a low cost index fund, set it and forget it. And now your attention can go on what matters. And these incremental gains that you think you might get by constantly trying to outsmart the market are peanuts compared to the returns you'll get by focusing on growing your business. And I've made this mistake so many times. I've spent countless hours investing and researching and reading and worrying about all these different things I did. Individual stocks, options, crypto, commodities, drop shipping, passive Amazon stores, real estate, syndications, vending machines, like you name it, I've probably thought about it or if not like put some money behind it. And the truth is none of these investments produced a return that was worthy of my time. And every minute I spent thinking about these was a waste of time that took away from the real wealth engine, which was my business. So simplify your approach. Don't worry about what you see on Instagram or TikTok or any of these people. Do it. Just keep it simple. Research the three fund portfolio which he talks about in the book. And all that means is you're going to invest into three funds that give you diversity, that give you income, and that give you growth. And keep it simple. These nine books have helped me grow a massive business and the real magic happens when you take these lessons and apply it to your own journey. So I want to hear from you. Drop in the comments below. What's your favorite book that you're reading right now? Which ones have had the biggest impact on you? Which one of these books did I recommend that you're looking forward to reading? I'll see you in the comments. Cheers. It.