The Three Books That Transformed My Business

There are so, so many great business books out there!  In fact, I seem to always have an ongoing list and constantly feel “behind” when I don’t have time to read them all.  But there are three books that have really been instrumental in helping me design and run both my psychotherapy practice AND Simplified SEO Consulting.  You may have heard about them before, but here’s my take:

Business Book 1: Profit First

Profit First is one of several excellent business books by Mike Michalowicz.  While I’ve benefited from reading several of his, Profit First was instrumental in how I do business!  Basically, it’s a money system for managing your finances that sounds kind of complicated at first, but makes managing money actually much easier!

At this point, I follow Profit First’s system pretty closely.  For instance, I absolutely use multiple bank accounts.  That’s so important for me. I can hop on my bank app at any point in time and tell if I can afford something.  For my private practice, I follow his twice a month distributions (therefore my team has twice monthly pay days) and for Simplified, our cash flow is different so I have a once a month distribution day.  I have tweaked the percentages to work for each of my businesses, but that’s what you’re supposed to do. 🙂

I heard Kasey Compton (owner of Mindsight Behavioral Health in Kentucky and therapist business coach) talk about this one on the Practice of the Practice podcast when I was about a year into my private practice journey.  The truth is, the system sounded so complicated.  Two years out, I’m SO thankful I dove right into the Profit First system and recommend it to other business owners all the time!

Business Book 2: Building a Storybrand

Building a Storybrand by Donald Miller is a game changer when it comes to marketing your business. I think I’ve read this book about 3 times.  And did a group study where I met once a week with friends to talk over the concept.  And (of course) filled out a brand script.  Why? Because Donald Miller has a great formula down for marketing!

Furthermore, I attended the Storybrand training once on my own in Summer 2020 to perfect my own brand script and loved it so much that Danica and I went through it again together in late 2020!

At this point, we’ve had several clients come to us having read Storybrand or having worked with someone to create a brand script. We LOVE working with clients who know the Storybrand framework. Why? Because you understand your brand pretty well already! If this applies to you, please share your brandscripts with us! It gives us some GREAT information to pull from as we optimize your page!

I will say there is one place that I disagree with the advice given in the book, so you may want to check out my blog post about Storybrand & SEO here.

Business Book 3: The Ideal Team Player

In the Ideal Team Player, Patrick Lencioni identifies common problems you may face on a team and exactly the type of people you want to hire so your team runs efficiently.  The words he uses to describe the ideal team player are hungry, humble and smart.  

I don’t see myself as a manager.  Leadership is one of those things I honestly feel pretty insecure about.  However, I want to be a great leader and therefore have read many books on this topic.  Of all the books I’ve read, this has been the most influential to me.  Why? Because for me, a HUGE part of becoming a better leader has been hiring the right people.

In each of my businesses, I need a slightly different skillset in the people I hire.  However, I need good team players for both.  Therefore, I use questions designed to assess if someone is “hungry, humble and smart” throughout the application process in both businesses.  Of course, I also ask questions about clinical skills for my psychotherapy practice.  And for Simplified I ask about a person’s ability to learn new skills, past experience with websites, etc.  But without a doubt the most important thing I look for is that their personality will fit so we can maintain a positive team atmosphere.

Constant Improvement Balanced With Focus

While I’m listing out my three favorite business books, I also wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the importance of balance.  When I read a list like this I feel this immense pressure to immediately read all the books and apply all the principles.  However, I’ve found that doesn’t work out so well.  I tend to do better if I instead choose one business book at a time and take time to read it, evaluate what might fit for my own practice and spend some time applying it before I jump on to the next book.

Looking for SEO Help?

And of course, if you’re looking for help with Search Engine Optimization for your website, we’d love to help.  Simplified SEO Consulting offers “Done for You” monthly SEO packages for those looking to outsource and “SEO Training” options ranging from several online SEO courses to our 12 Week SEO Coaching program.  We specialize in helping those in the helping professions such as therapist, psychiatrists, chiropractors, SLPs and those in related areas. If you are interested, you can set up a 30 minute pre-consulting Zoom call to discuss our options!