Loading summary
Transcript235 lines
- [00:01]
A
Welcome to the Upside podcast where we help you get unstuck in your life and your business by elevating your thinking and provoking meaningful change from the inside out. And today is the last episode of 2025.
- [00:13]
B
Wow.
- [00:14]
A
I know. And I have Tommy Flood with me today. I'm really excited about this episode. I've had this planned for, oh, I don't know, eight months.
- [00:21]
B
Eight months?
- [00:22]
A
Well, I had.
- [00:22]
B
It only informed me like yesterday.
- [00:24]
A
Well, you were a last minute call.
- [00:26]
B
Okay.
- [00:27]
A
No, I'm just kidding.
- [00:27]
B
It was going to be in my place.
- [00:29]
A
I don't know. It was just going to be me. I don't know. We've talked about this more than yesterday. This did not happen yesterday. But this episode is all going to be about 20, 25 books in review.
- [00:38]
B
Yep.
- [00:38]
A
And so we are going to share some of our top picks from what we read this year with all of our upsiders today and some of Our favorite just AHAs and what we kind of glean from the books. And as you can see if you're watching on YouTube, I have a stack of books here and Tommy has nothing. Yeah, yeah. So he didn't read any books. He's just going to comment on what I read.
- [00:58]
B
Comment on your.
- [00:59]
A
I'm just kidding.
- [01:00]
B
So you actually, I AI your books?
- [01:02]
A
Yes.
- [01:03]
B
ChatGPT. Tell me what I needed to know about.
- [01:06]
A
That's really progressive of you, actually. Okay, so I read hard copies usually. You read a lot of digital.
- [01:14]
B
It's interesting because I feel like we're kind of opposite in that I read digital when it comes to personal growth. Books more. And you read digital when it's fiction. I read hard copies of fiction more. And you read digital fiction.
- [01:30]
A
Yes. So why is that for you? Because to me, I want to be able to highlight it, to write in it, to look back on it.
- [01:37]
B
Amazing fiction.
- [01:38]
A
I read it in two days. So I just want to be technology.
- [01:41]
B
You can now highlight right on it. Look back at it. Matter of fact, you can highlight and then press a button and it puts all of your highlights in one document so that you can just look at them all in one spot. What all did I really learn in this book?
- [01:54]
A
Smart.
- [01:54]
B
Yeah. Okay. No, I think for me, honestly on that it's. For me, it's. I hear of a book and a lot of times when I hear what I'm inspired to jump in and grab it and I don't have time to wait. Like I'm inspired to jump in now and so I will download it on Kindle or Apple Books and I will start reading it instantly and tell everybody what you.
- [02:16]
A
How you read. Because this is so fascinating to me. You listen and read and listen and read. And you point with your finger. Yes, Tell everybody about that. Cause this is a great hack for somebody who maybe is not a fast reader or needs to increase their reading. So give everybody this hack.
- [02:31]
B
Last year, one of the books I read was Limitless by Jim Quick. And he is about unlocking the power of your mind. And one of the very first trick that he gives is that you should follow with your finger, you know, the very thing we used to do as children. He says you should do that because it actually causes you to read faster. Like his whole purpose is you shouldn't read with the audible internal voice. You should just watch words. And the faster you move your finger.
- [02:59]
A
Through that and then you listen on audible. And how fast do you listen on audible while you're reading?
- [03:04]
B
Depends on who the reader of the book is. There are some, like Grant Cardone, I have to like tone that down to like one and a half times speed because he talks faster than I do in real life. Whereas one of the books we read today, the Science of Scaling, I read it three and a half times.
- [03:19]
A
So interesting.
- [03:19]
B
I would say I don't ever get above like a 4x on there just because I did. But what it does is one of the things I learned in that is that when you read. I've learned this years ago, but Jim Quick mentioned it again and that is if you have trouble with your brain wandering when you read, it's because you're not reading fast enough. And the faster you read, the more focused you stay on it. So I do.
- [03:42]
A
The thing wanders like it's getting bored.
- [03:44]
B
Yes. I start thinking about application or what's going to be for dinner.
- [03:50]
A
Yeah. Okay, well, I. That's a good tip. Okay. We've got seven books, one book in common that we both read. And we were gonna go through the. All the books we read, but we decided that was gonna be a really long episode and so we skinnied it down.
- [04:06]
B
You just wanted to do that because you wanted to show all of your listeners that you read more than me.
- [04:10]
A
I did wanna do that. So I'll just go ahead and go on the record now and say I read more books.
- [04:14]
B
Tommy Schlest, she read more.
- [04:16]
A
I'm just trying to catch up in your smartness. So, uh, so we're gonna go through seven books and kind of what we got out of those. The first one though, that we both read was The AI Driven Leader by Jeff Woods.
- [04:26]
B
Yep.
- [04:27]
A
I know you really loved this book. I declare talk about who should read the AI Driven Leader.
- [04:32]
B
Um, I think any leader like anyone in any form of leadership. And I mean I think that means leader at your church, leader in your family like I, I if you in which you also know me if you don't out there. I think everybody is a leader at some extent. It's just we're all differing levels and we lead in different aspects. So I would honestly say I think that everybody needs to read this book but I for the sake of officiality I will say every leader needs to read this book.
- [05:00]
A
So this book, I can't remember who referred this book. Was this a book that we heard about at Megacamp? I don't remember where I heard about this book and I read it with our ALC at my office, our agent leadership council. And so how we do that. We read a book together every quarter. So I sent a list out of books people nominated and we were going to go based on our five focuses of our of the GO network and so embracing the digital frontiers one of our focuses. And so there were some AI books on there. And my first thought when I saw an AI book was not that I'm not wasn't excited about AI but the thought about reading a book about AI felt like it was going to be very technical textbook. Yes, it sounded boring. It just felt like a real energies up to me. And yet this book was excellent because it gives you really, really practical AI frameworks and ways to think about and use AI within the context of improving your leadership.
- [05:58]
B
So yeah, and by telling a lot.
- [06:00]
A
Of stories and telling a lot of.
- [06:01]
B
Stories, telling how stories keeps you riveted, involved in that and keeps you going.
- [06:06]
A
So one of the things it says is the true game changer isn't using AI to craft better emails. It's harnessing AI to elevate strategic thinking. And so Jeff woods says in this book that the reason this is not a technology book, the reason this is a leadership book, it's about how do you become a strategic thinker which is really one of the aspects of being a great leader. He said that strategic thinking is what separates you from the competition from either growing or dying.
- [06:33]
B
Well, I mean it's, it's. We see so many people one, they use AI as any kind of a GPT as, as just to glorify Google.
- [06:42]
A
Yes. And most people I think are using, most business people I think are using it probably for that at this point.
- [06:47]
B
Or to create like write emails. I think I've heard like 96% of all business emails this year are going to have been created by AI.
- [06:54]
A
Sure.
- [06:55]
B
But I think the thing about this one is, and what he says in there about that, you still have to be the thought leader and allow AI to be your thought partner. That's probably one of the things that has stuck with me on my AI journey over the last 13 months now. And that really was there. And quite honestly, when this book came along and kind of was like, I don't remember where we heard of it either, but we were obviously together somewhere and heard about it and it gripped me, this book did. And I honestly, I've said up until the last couple of weeks, this was my favorite book I read all year.
- [07:32]
A
Well, and it's interesting because I think I read this in Q2. 2. I think it was our maybe Q3. Q2 or Q3. Maybe Q3.
- [07:39]
B
No, I think you read it in Q2.
- [07:40]
A
Did I read it Q2? So again, I feel like I was.
- [07:44]
B
Waiting for you to finish this. This one I didn't buy.
- [07:46]
A
Oh, you've read my actual book with all my highlights?
- [07:48]
B
Yes.
- [07:48]
A
Awesome. Well, and I feel like my AI journey has evolved so much in the last eight months. So when I read this, I was using AI, but again, so much less than what I am now. So it was a really great kickstarter to kind of that journey and to thinking differently about it. But talking five things. Strategic thinking, decision making, content creation, idea generation, and then analysis. Yeah, and I think analysis is where I have a real opportunity to elevate how I'm using AI with putting in giving it data to really analyze and help me predict or create solutions, that type of thing.
- [08:29]
B
Crunch the numbers. Take the. I've found that it does a great job of telling you the story that your numbers say so. Numbers are the language of business. And so in our world, you know, we get monthly reports and putting those reports in and say what is the story that this tells me has kind of changed into that. I would tell you that I think for me in this book with the AI driven leader that's come in there and why I say I think everyone needs to read this is it gets down, as I said earlier, just about it being your thought partner, but it's less about how you apply it. There's tons of ways to learn in there. But what it inspired me was it made me think the question I've always said in business and in leadership, the first question is who? There's even A book by one of the authors that I have out here. Says who? Not how. I think AI is changing that up and making it really. The first question you ask is, how can AI help me with this? And that's what that book really put in that way. And then you go, well, now who can do that?
- [09:33]
A
Yes.
- [09:33]
B
But the first question is, how can AI help me think through this?
- [09:37]
A
Okay. Love it. All right, so moving on. So next book we're gonna go to one of yours, the Science of Scaling, which is on my list for 2026. Read.
- [09:44]
B
Yes.
- [09:44]
A
Or maybe. I mean we're filming this right now, recording this in November, so maybe I'll read it in December.
- [09:49]
B
Maybe. Okay. So by Dr. Benjamin Hardy and Blake Erickson.
- [09:53]
A
Okay.
- [09:54]
B
After reading the end of the book, you'll know why I make sure I add Blake Erickson in there. Because at the end of the book gives you not to spoil it, but it tells you why he's in there. This book is really.
- [10:03]
A
That kind of intrigues me now. I really want to read it. Yeah.
- [10:05]
B
This book is great for entrepreneurs and business leaders.
- [10:08]
A
Okay.
- [10:09]
B
Really that entrepreneurial. And if you're leading any kind of a business. And Benjamin Hardy kind of gives his model for scaling a business to a hundred x. And it's not a sequel. So Benjamin Hardy wrote three books with Dan Sullivan, the strategic coach. One of those, the last one was 10x is easier than 2x.
- [10:32]
A
Great book.
- [10:33]
B
And this is actually like the next step of that. Even though it's not the sequel. You might have to read the first one to get to this. But this is 10x is equal to 2x. This is how to 10x to 100x your business in that realm. And um, it, it is, it. It really challenges the way you think with a lot of stuff that we have done that we've done, you know, through goal setting and coaching agents and business leaders and so forth. But you know, things like stretch goals and like it's a simple framework that is you reframe your goals, you raise your floor and then you refocus on the activities that matter. So it's a three, three step model that you take through to that reframe your goals. Is. He talks about impossible goals and impossible timelines, which. The impossible goal piece, you know, we, we do a bold. In bold, a program that we have business objective life by design. You write down your goal, day one, scratch it out, double it, and there's that to kind of stretch you to go bigger. I love it. He has a definition in the book of A stretch goal. It's a scientific def. I didn't even know there was a scientific definition of a stretch goal. But he says an impossible goal is when you don't know how to reach and one that requires radically new approaches and paths to realize. And this book really challenges you to set a big goal, crunch that timeline. Now he calls it, using time as a tool so that you have literally, you don't know what the solution is. You have to think differently. Which then leads you to the AI driven leader to get AI to help you think differently.
- [12:20]
A
Okay, so how, if somebody is listening and they think, I like to set realistic goals, I don't want to set goals that I think I can't meet. I don't want to be disappointed. I don't want my goal to feel unattainable. How does that book change that mindset this gives you?
- [12:39]
B
He talks about time like linear planning versus holistic approach of time. So we have forever been trained to think as a society that time is sequential. Whatever goes in order.
- [12:57]
A
Yeah. Goes in order.
- [12:58]
B
Yeah. Goes in order that like, you know, the past then determines the present and the present determines the future. And he talks about how the science realistically of it is, is the future actually determines the present and the past determines. They all combine together. Three aspects of time, Past, present and future are not linear as we think of them. They are in our internal being, the way we were created to be. They are holistic as well, all the way around there. And so the thing about that, that gets you is you, when you realize that, you realize, okay, a big goal actually determines who you are and what your activities are today rather than there's nothing wrong with setting small goals, but you will have small results with small goals.
- [13:45]
A
Well, and I think big goals require you to show up as somebody totally different.
- [13:48]
B
Absolutely.
- [13:49]
A
And so it causes you to say, okay, not only do my activities have to change, my mindset has to change, my habits have to change. It causes kind of an all in type shift.
- [13:59]
B
Yeah.
- [13:59]
A
In who you are.
- [14:00]
B
Well, part of the, part of the model is raising the floor. And what he talks about, what raising the floor is, is in order to do big stuff, you have to say no to stuff that's not important. And if you're setting small. He talks about this in there. And I think if you want to set small goals, what you have to realize is, is you're going to fall into the noise. 99% of what we encounter every day is noise. And the thing is, can we stay focused on the signal in the Middle of the noise. And that is what big goals and short timelines help you do. Like, think about focus. When you're driving in a car and you're driving, I've left the house and driven out of the neighborhood, and I get to the end of the neighborhood and I'm like, I don't really remember getting here because I'm driving like 20 miles an hour. But I hit the tollway on the way to the office and I'm doing 90, 95, even in west side traffic. And the faster you go, the more focused you actually are. And so shrinking that timeline with a big goal causes you to be more focused and get things done faster.
- [15:07]
A
Okay, love it. Next one. Okay, so next one for me is Wealthy and well Known by Rory and AJ Vaden. And I have talked about this book already on the podcast. And to be totally honest, if you go back and listen to the episode with Colette where we talk about personal branding, so much of the concepts that we talk about in that episode really are in wealthy and well known. But in my opinion, anybody who is in business of any kind, whether you are a business owner, an entrepreneur, you are the face of somebody else's business. Building your personal brand right now is such a huge piece of strategy for 2026. Yeah, 26. 26. And I believe that the. It's the digitization of your reputation out of times holistic. Right, right.
- [15:58]
B
It could be 2029.
- [15:59]
A
We're in all the time zones at the same time. Okay. I don't really even understand that at all. That'll be a whole other thing. I'll have to.
- [16:04]
B
Well, when you read the book, get.
- [16:05]
A
My brain around that. But, but anyway, so Wealthy and well Known will really take you through the branding journey. And it's got great collateral with it and free resources so that you can do the exercises along with reading the book. So it's going to have you really focus on developing your avatar. Who is that ideal client? What are the problems that you're solving? And the key to, to doing this book well is to do all of the exercises with it. So it'll help you write a great bio. It helps you. One of the concepts is the five title test. So I'm changing now how we're titling episodes for better click rates and response and that type of thing. So I've gotten some little nuggets from this along with some really great concepts just on personal branding. So this to me is for anybody, whether you haven't started a personal branding journey or you are in Your personal branding journey or if you need to tweak it. Absolutely.
- [17:07]
B
Because I think one of the things Louis Vaden says is when he talks about your personal brand, you know, his simplified definition is working. Definition of that is your digital reputation.
- [17:17]
A
Yep.
- [17:17]
B
I think that's really important. It's why a personal brand, like, I think some people in business out there hear personal brand and they're like, oh, I'm not an influencer. That's not for me.
- [17:27]
A
Right.
- [17:27]
B
Yet we have the concept of the digital reputation. I mean, we'll go back to the first book we talked about. Your digital reputation is whether or not AI is going to find you and recommend you.
- [17:39]
A
Yes. So, and actually, my third book I'm going to talk about in a minute. I think you read AI Driven Leader first, you read Wealthy and well Known second. And then actually, let's just go out of order. I'm just going to go straight into it. The third book you read on that stack is Endless Customers. And so in my opinion, read them in that order and read them quickly because we have to get going on these game plans. But this, this author was a guest at Keller Williams Mega Camp. So I heard him speak on stage, bought the book, and this is really for. He says specifically, this is for any business owner that wants to have endless customers, but who's not looking for a quick fix. And I think that's so important because really, this book is about playing a long game.
- [18:24]
B
Yeah.
- [18:25]
A
It's not about putting one video out and going viral and changing your business overnight. It really is about getting really strategic with your online presence so that you are creating trust both with human beings and with AI for recommendations. And so that AI is referring you. And so he gets really, really specific, though, about how do you do that.
- [18:50]
B
And who's the author of this book? We didn't say it.
- [18:52]
A
Oh, I didn't say it. Marcus Sheridan.
- [18:54]
B
Yeah.
- [18:54]
A
Marcus Sheridan and the team at Impact. He gets credit on the. On the COVID and the team at Impact, But Marcus Sheridan is the. Okay.
- [19:01]
B
If you ever hear Marcus Sheridan speak, he will be the guy that it feels like he's yelling at you the whole time because his speaking style is to be very elevated.
- [19:08]
A
And it is.
- [19:09]
B
Yeah.
- [19:10]
A
But you won't fall asleep. Okay, so I love this paragraph. This is, this is what he says. He says the businesses that will dominate the next decade won't be the ones with the best AI tools or the biggest marketing budgets. They'll be the ones who dare to think differently about trust, transparency, and customer relationships. They'll be the ones willing to do what their competitors won't even consider. They'll be the ones who understand that in a world full of infinite information, trust becomes the ultimate currency. And so he gives kind of the four, the four things that, that you must do to build trust. And that is say what others aren't willing to say, show what others aren't willing to show. Sell like others aren't willing to sell. And be more human and more connected than others are willing to be. And so specifically one of the things he talks about just to give you an, kind of an idea of what types of, of recommendations he has in this is to talk about price, to be upfront about price. Even if it's a range. You know, sometimes you can't give somebody the exact price. But don't shy away from the money conversation.
- [20:18]
B
Yeah.
- [20:19]
A
And consumers are more knowledgeable than they've ever been. They want more choice. They, they want access to on demand information. They want a self serve experience. Meaning they don't want to have to talk to you to get the information. They want to get it when they want to get it.
- [20:33]
B
Yeah. The modern consumer and it's only getting more and more. They want transparency, they want access and they want control. And I think that's what Marcus does a really good job. I haven't read this book yet. I kind of been waiting for you to finish it to grab that one as well. Gotta be frugal. It's Christmas present time.
- [20:55]
A
Right.
- [20:55]
B
Don't have to buy an extra Kindle book. But I think with, with Marcus, I mean I think his story like I love his Save the things that others won't. He tells that story of he bought a 15 passenger van for his church. And the one he bought was because the video of it started with. Let me show you the things that are wrong with this first.
- [21:13]
A
Yes.
- [21:14]
B
And it showed the few little things that are wrong with it first. And that built a level of trust in him that I think he drove across the country to pick that man up.
- [21:23]
A
Yes. It's here's the reasons why you wouldn't want to work with me.
- [21:26]
B
Yeah.
- [21:26]
A
Or here is all of the things that could go wrong with this type of different transaction.
- [21:32]
B
We think normally. Right.
- [21:34]
A
It is a definite shift. But it's all about the creation of trust. And so he said, you know who should read this book again? Business owners who aren't in it for a quick fix, but also who have a long sales cycle. So if you're in an industry such as real estate where a consumer is going to do a lot of research and information prior to the sale before they ever pick up the phone. Then the strategies in this book are perfect for your interesting.
- [22:02]
B
Or if you're transitioning in the world of real estate, like we teach at the Go Network, that we're moving not just a transaction, but redefining success beyond the transaction. You've got a nine to ten year live cycle where they're in the house and that's where you can really build that trust and transparency and give them access and control through that cycle.
- [22:20]
A
Absolutely, yeah. This book though is going to be very hard to implement if you don't have a lot of clarity on your personal brand. Because if you don't know who your, who you are, your client is not everybody in the world. It's not anybody who could use me or anybody who could listen to me. It needs to be a very specific person. And if you don't know exactly who you're talking to, what problems you're solving for them, what they're feeling, thinking, asking and all of that, then this book is going to be overwhelming because you're gonna have no clarity on where to start. But if you have a lot of clarity on that brand and that avatar of who you're serving and the problems that you're solving, well, then this book, Endless Customers is okay. Now how do you do this? How do you put out video and execute a strategy that's gonna win you trust with human beings and when you trust with AI?
- [23:09]
B
And I think one of the things about this is like just as a last minute plug, I'm pretty sure when he started this journey, his company got about a thousand visitors a month to his website and 18 months later, he was getting over a million visitors a month to his website.
- [23:22]
A
He was a fiberglass pool company.
- [23:25]
B
Yeah.
- [23:25]
A
Is the business that he built through these strategies and they are the number one pool trafficked website in the world.
- [23:33]
B
Yeah, it's crazy. I mean over a million visitors a month to his website. Like that's not some legion.
- [23:39]
A
I mean I take it it's not bad. Okay, Tommy, I skipped. I skipped you.
- [23:44]
B
Next book was a Dave Ramsey book and it was Build a business. You love mastering the five stages of business and this book any entrepreneur should read. So even if you're.
- [23:58]
A
Did you buy this book after his interview with Craig Groeschel on the podcast?
- [24:03]
B
Yes.
- [24:03]
A
Okay, so it's a great episode. After you listen to the upside, of course. Go listen to Craig Groeschel's episode with Dave Ramsey.
- [24:09]
B
Yes.
- [24:10]
A
Obviously I've known Dave Ramsey. I've heard him teach. I'm not a big student or follower of Dave Ramsey per se. He was so great on that podcast. I had so much respect for him, not just as a finance person, but as a business person.
- [24:23]
B
Yeah. Well, I think that's the thing, is many of us are very aware or very tuned into Dave Ramsey the financial guy.
- [24:31]
A
Right.
- [24:32]
B
This is Dave Ramsey, the business owner. His financial company has hundreds of employees now. And he talks about really being an entrepreneur.
- [24:40]
A
Huge organization.
- [24:41]
B
Yeah. And it's really. It's kind of. He's. It's a follow up to his book, the Entree Leader. So the entrepreneurial leader. Entree Leadership, I think it's called. And it's the follow up to that. So he kind of talks through. And really it's for whatever stage he talks about. There's five. I'm trying to say this word again. There's five.
- [24:59]
A
Sequential.
- [25:00]
B
Sequential.
- [25:00]
A
You're trying to put an S. And then you said it. And then I was trying to put the S in there. Sequential.
- [25:04]
B
Sequential.
- [25:05]
A
Okay. Austin's over here nodding his head. He's like, I wanted to pipe in.
- [25:08]
B
You should have piped in Austin.
- [25:09]
A
We were really struggling.
- [25:11]
B
But it's the. There's five stages that businesses go through. Like, it starts where he calls it the treadmill operator, as you could just hear, and I would tell you probably most of the real estate agents that are part of this. This is when you do everything and you just feel like you're running out of treadmill conflict. And then it ultimately ends up where you're the legacy builder. This is where you've built a business that the. The founder can step away from, and it actually continues to grow. And I think in all of these, the first aha. That you get out of it is I'm not the only one that hits these different things, because in each phase, he talks about what the phase is about, and then he gives you what the biggest obstacle is in that phase. Right. So, like, the second phase is the pathfinder. This is where now I've got people on there, and we're just really being pioneers and we're figuring out our path as a team. But the biggest obstacle you run into then is this lack of a unified vision or direction. And he talks about how you solve that and how you go through those pieces. And the reality is he talks about that many times in your business, you may be at stage four, and then you may go back to stage one.
- [26:16]
A
Kind of like that is a hard thing for people.
- [26:18]
B
Yes.
- [26:18]
A
That is a really, really hard thing. I was consulting with somebody today, and I'm so glad we're having this conversation, because I will be texting him and saying, I have a book for you to read, because our entire conversation was, you need to build a business you love.
- [26:31]
B
Yeah.
- [26:32]
A
Don't build a business you don't love. Don't do it to grind this thing. And he's very successful.
- [26:36]
B
Yeah.
- [26:37]
A
And it's time to slow down for a second and say, what. What actually brings you joy? What do you want? What are we trying to accomplish here? What are you trying to build? Let's build something that you love.
- [26:45]
B
Yeah, absolutely.
- [26:46]
A
So that sounds. Sounds like this.
- [26:48]
B
Yeah. Well, that's the deal is how do you. How do you do that? How do you go with that? And it. It's. It's also just refreshing to know that. And I think it's something that we all don't realize is at whatever business we're in, we start a business and we think we hit a phase, that we should step back a step or even two. And so therefore, we think we're failing when that happens and realize it's not a failure. Something has changed in the business that you need to go back. You might have actually grown so much. You need to go back to that pathfinder phase and spend some time reuniting everybody around vision and the direction of the company. Why you're actually doing this.
- [27:24]
A
Right.
- [27:25]
B
To be able to then take the new group through the next levels out of where we can get to.
- [27:30]
A
Okay. Love that one. Okay, let's talk about the benefit of doubt. That was another one that you read.
- [27:36]
B
Yeah.
- [27:36]
A
Did I miss one?
- [27:37]
B
Well, you missed that one.
- [27:38]
A
Oh, it's this one. It's my turn. I thought I had to give you two in a row.
- [27:41]
B
Nope.
- [27:42]
A
Okay. All right. So beyond the leader.
- [27:45]
B
Yeah. You. You. You're talking about five.
- [27:49]
A
Yeah.
- [27:49]
B
Because you read more.
- [27:50]
A
Oh, because I did read more. So I. My percentage of books I got to share was higher.
- [27:54]
B
Higher.
- [27:54]
A
Yes, I do. I'm so glad that you brought that up again. It's just because I'm not as smart as you, so have to read more to catch up. So I loved this book. And again, I had a podcast episode interviewing the author, Dr. Tony Bridwell.
- [28:08]
B
Yes.
- [28:09]
A
And that one was. Go back, I don't know, a couple months. We had a great conversation, really, about the clumsies concepts of this book. But I wanted to bring it back to the table today, really, Because I think this is one of my favorite leadership books that I read this year and I have taken the concepts, I'm teaching them, I'm internalizing them. It was the most practical to me.
- [28:30]
B
Yeah.
- [28:31]
A
Of things that I felt like I could take and use immediately. So it's beyond the leader and it's a fable, so it's a story. So if you're not a big reader, this would be a great book. Number one. It's not that long. It's not a super long.
- [28:45]
B
I think I read that on a Saturday morning.
- [28:47]
A
Yes, it is.
- [28:48]
B
It took both of our cars to get washed. And while I sat out there and read there, I read like the 45 minutes they did it. I went. I did another one, then I went home and spent like 20 more minutes. I was already done.
- [28:57]
A
Yes. It's not a long read. It's not a hard read. It's rich with content.
- [29:02]
B
Yes.
- [29:03]
A
But it's all in story form. And so I like that. It's just like a different kind of take on it. And it's. And because it's in story form, the characters are teaching. And you're also seeing the application in real life. Yes. How does this apply in a real world situation and made up fable situation? Right, right. I'm sure it's based on true story, but really based on, you know, in a business situation. And then also he correlates it into personal. Personal life and personal situations.
- [29:33]
B
So Tony is an incredible consultant.
- [29:35]
A
Yes.
- [29:36]
B
He's an incredible leadership consultant. He understands people. He understands organizations with people, how they work together. And I will tell you the thing that nailed out of that for me, I applied to was, you know, that a great team is both engaged and effective.
- [29:53]
A
Yes.
- [29:54]
B
Right. And that, like, it's, it's. I saw in my world how many teams I've led and been on that were really good at one or the other and how you make those. We talked about this in an example of one of the teams we serve on at church. Like, we came in and realized this is a really effective team and we are not engaged with each other at all. You also have teams that are really good on the engagement side, but they don't get stuff done.
- [30:22]
A
We're not executing.
- [30:23]
B
Yes.
- [30:24]
A
But we're excited and we want to.
- [30:29]
B
And we like doing it with each other.
- [30:30]
A
Absolutely.
- [30:31]
B
We're not winning with them, but you.
- [30:33]
A
Gotta get something done.
- [30:34]
B
Yeah. And I think that that's probably the piece of that book that jumped out to me.
- [30:37]
A
I love it. So go back and listen to this episode. It is a great book. Anybody that's a leader, which oh, that's. Everybody should read this book.
- [30:44]
B
Love it.
- [30:45]
A
Okay.
- [30:45]
B
My next one was the Benefit of Doubt by Craig Groeschel. We've already mentioned him once on here. It's his latest book that. Come on. And it's for. Literally, it's for everyone. Because it is a concept about the spiritual journey of walking through when you have questions. And I think whatever spiritual journey we're on, we always end up facing questions in time. And I think in our time together in ministry. One of the reasons this book really spoke to me is I can't tell you I'm myself individually, but how many people we've walked through. And he doesn't say it in there like this. I don't believe. But it's the fact that doubt and unbelief are not the same thing.
- [31:28]
A
So how does he describe the difference?
- [31:30]
B
I don't know that he really describes the difference. He just tells you why doubt shows up. I took away that. They're not there. He probably said that in there, but I took away that because you should.
- [31:38]
A
Send that to him for his sequel.
- [31:40]
B
But I think a lot of people, when they have doubts, when they have questions, that they think it's a sign of unbelief. Whereas actually questioning things can be the fastest way to grow your faith. It can grow your belief even quicker. And it's funny, he's got like a couple of different points, but he talks about, like, you know, doubt doesn't equal weak faith. And he uses the example of Abraham and Sarah like Abraham's the father of faith in the Bible, but yet they both really doubted God when he said, y' all are going to have descendants as many as the stars in the sky like that. And they were like 90, as a matter of fact. I think Sarah left at God and right. So there were people, the fathers of the faith, and yet they had a lot of questions that went in there. I. I heard a podcast this week with Ed Mylett. I have no idea what this podcast was, but it was a bunch of different things chopped up. And in it, he had Auntie Ann, Auntie Anne, the.
- [32:41]
A
The pretzel. The pretzel lady Jillian would be able to meet her. She's her biggest.
- [32:46]
B
That's why I stuck around. Lucy K. On that first I was going to tell you, but her. Her story, her journey is crazy.
- [32:52]
A
Okay.
- [32:52]
B
She said that one of the thing is that her. All of the hard stuff that she faces, that it's reframed her theology and it just comes down to this. Life is hard. God is Good and life's going to be hard. God is always good. And I just thought of that in there. It also talks about how I thought this was. I'd never. I've read this passage in the Bible so many times. But he talks about doubt is actually an invitation to a deeper relationship with God.
- [33:24]
A
So that was my thought on this. When you're talking about the idea that doubt is, is part of, part of our faith, because if you, if you press into doubt and it causes you to ask a question, there's relationship in question because it's communication, it's seeking. And so when we allow doubt now, you could take doubt and allow it to push you.
- [33:47]
B
Yes.
- [33:47]
A
And to retreat. But when you allow a question to lean in and to get curious and to come from, from a place of seeking and of asking and of wondering, that's really the journey of faith. Right. It's that we get to seek. When you seek, you will find.
- [34:03]
B
Well, he tells the story in Matthew 28 when the resurrected Jesus Christ appears to the disciples. There's a scripture that I just never read it this way. But he said they worshiped and some doubted. And then the next passage is what in the Christian faith we call the Great Commission, where Jesus says, go into all the world and make disciples. He didn't tell just the ones that worshiped him to go do this. He told the ones that doubted to go do it too. And it's an invitation. Doubt your doubt. If you'll take your doubt to God. And this like one of the things I took out of the book is God. Like none of my questions are too tough for God. Like sometimes I feel like, oh, I'm asking the wrong things. Like it doesn't matter the subject matter. Okay. But when we take our doubts to God rather than retreat from them, it actually creates an invitation for us to get deeper in relationship.
- [34:57]
A
So I love that. So I read the Bible this year and I want to give a big.
- [35:03]
B
And the overachiever you are.
- [35:05]
A
Yes.
- [35:06]
B
You did it, what, a month and a half early?
- [35:07]
A
I did it a month and a half early. But that is because. So this is what's interesting. I said I read everything hard copy. But for the Bible this year I read it on an app. And the reason I did that was because it told me exactly what to read. I could check it off and there was a lot of satisfaction every day of clicking the little bubble and then it showing me my progress. And so because I knew this was a, you know, year long essentially journey. And so the way that they had it. They built in time for you to get behind, essentially for the slackers like me.
- [35:37]
B
For the slackers miss a day or two or a week.
- [35:40]
A
And honestly, I did miss days, no doubt about it. I just caught up. I didn't miss so many that I couldn't catch up. So I caught up along the way. Definitely didn't not miss a day, but it was a really cool experience. I haven't read the Bible cover to cover in years, and I haven't been as faithful to read us consistently in years. And so this was a really awesome thing for me this year. And Sarah Lasen and Tara Newton both read the Bible in 2024 and they had posted. Posted about it on social media. And I thought, I need to do that.
- [36:18]
B
Yeah.
- [36:19]
A
And so I just want to thank them for encouraging me and I just want to encourage anybody. If you've never read the Bible cover to cover, whether you're a believer or not, maybe you have a lot of doubt. What a great journey to go on and ask questions. I think for me, though, the biggest thing that I took away from that was just the reminder that it's not my story that God's a part of, it's his story that I'm a part of. Yes, of course he's a part of my story.
- [36:48]
B
Yeah.
- [36:48]
A
But he's the main character. And when you read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation and you realize that the story is continuing on, I'm not the main character. And so when things get stressful or challenging, it's not about me at the end of the day, it's not about what I want. It's not about all of those things. It's about him. Right. And it's about the story that he's doing on the Earth. And so I think that perspective just overall was the coolest part of that.
- [37:14]
B
So when you were in this early on, probably March or April, we were sitting down talking.
- [37:21]
A
I was in numbers, probably somewhere you.
- [37:23]
B
Were like, man, these people in the Bible were messed up.
- [37:26]
A
Yes.
- [37:26]
B
Like they did some weird stuff and they were messed up and that. But I think it's like there's some drama. Well, that's what she said. Right. It's what she showed there, is that we're part of his story, not him, a part of ours. And so that means we're not perfect and never going to be. And it's about when you read. I think that when you read the Bible and it's another thing, we might think, oh, I can't do this, I can't do that. Well, go read some of the Old Testament. You realize, well, at least I'm not that bad. But I think that that concept gets down to is it makes you realize where our place is. Yeah, I love that.
- [37:58]
A
I love it. Thanks for coming on with me.
- [38:00]
B
Thank you for having me. This was fun.
- [38:02]
A
We'll post all of these books and authors, and if you are not subscribed to teresaflood.com, you're gonna miss that. So I will send all of that out to you. And you know what? We'll include links so that you can go to Amazon and purchase these books. Absolutely. And I would love to hear from any of you listening what you read this year, what your favorite book. I got to put together a reading list for 2026.
- [38:25]
B
Now, just remember, leaders are readers, leaders are readers.
- [38:28]
A
Readers are not all leaders. No, but leaders are readers.
- [38:31]
B
Not all readers are leaders, but leaders are readers. And make sure whatever, wherever, whatever amount of reading you do just up at 1% in 26.
- [38:41]
A
I would totally agree with that. My dad was in the book business growing up, and what he always taught me was that you read nonfiction to learn about ideas, and you read fiction to learn about people and about human beings. And so I read a lot of fiction only on vacation because I get my nose in a book and I can't get out of it. But even read fiction because it causes you to be a better reader and fall in love with reading.
- [39:02]
B
So that's the. That's the first lesson I remember your dad teaching me was that. And it is something that I have carried and I share every white.
- [39:09]
A
Yeah.
- [39:10]
B
Yeah.
- [39:10]
A
It's a good one. All right, well, everybody, that is a wrap for 2025 on the upside. So thank you so much for being an upsider. This has been such an amazing journey. We, of course, will be in January with new fresh episodes, all of the fun things. But remember, when you invest in your personal growth every single day, it's going to yield you great returns.