I'm a big fan of learning. As a business owner, it’s always a goal to become a better business owner and build a bigger, better business - wouldn't you agree?
And of course, we all get better through continued learning.
To me, when you keep learning you’re training your brain to play offence, not defence.
- Defence = resistance and reaction
- Offence = attack and score
Defence just isn’t a good business position. Whereas, playing offence keeps you sharp, giving you strategic advantage and helps you implement powerful systems and processes to continuously hit your goals.
But you don’t have to attend courses to keep learning because there are plenty of awesome books available that can teach you:
- How to think big
- How to get the right things done
- How to use systems and processes to scale your business
- How to do effective marketing
- How to build great teams
- And more
This is the type of stuff I love reading about. The best news is, if you don’t have time to read, you can listen to books on Audible. This is what I do and when I'm doing other stuff, I can listen to my audio books and continuously learn and be inspired - whether that’s during my runs along the beach, doing house/yard work or driving to a business meeting.
No excuses. Take your clinic to the next level.
Grab these 3 incredible books before the summer is over...
3 Books Every Clinic Owner Should Read This Summer
#1: Oversubscribed: How to Get People Lining Up to Do Business with You
By Daniel Priestley
This book was gifted to me by my friend Chad Madden and I absolutely love it.
If you want a long line of patients who want to oversubscribe to your service (yes that means a very full schedule), you have to read this.
It will get you zoned right into questions like: Is our marketing campaign-based? Do you have a marketing calendar? Are you measuring your marketing to see whether it makes you money? For example, your marketing campaign will give you how many leads, how many phone calls, how many booked. Do you know your marketing acquisitions?
This book will change your mindset regarding the way you’re doing business and set you up to be found and actively pursued by more patients.
#2: #AskGaryVee: One Entrepreneur's Take on Leadership, Social Media, and Self-Awareness
By Gary Vaynerchuk
I'm a big fan of Gary Vaynerchuk. He’s inspiring, unconventional and absolutely kills it as an entrepreneur, especially on social media, which is how he built a million dollar empire in just a few short years.
I met Gary Vee at a marketing conference I attended last year where I learned a ton of valuable strategies. You can read about that over here.
If you want more patients in a noisy social media world, you need to read this book. I love the format of this book because it’s got a Q&A style that pretty much answers any question you may have about the whole social scene. It also offers lots of practical advice that you can put into action to grow your business with social channels.
#3: Crucial Conversations Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High, Second Edition
By Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan and Al Switzler
My good friend Tanja Yardley from CBI, who I have a lot of respect for, introduced me to this book. Tanya and I did a presentation together in Victoria last year at the Canadian Physiotherapy Association conference where we taught clinic owners how to be manage clinics more effectively.
The book talks about how to have the difficult discussions with your clinicians or front desk staff. You’ll have to admit, having the tough conversations is something we generally want to avoid. And when it gets heated between two people, how can you make it safe to talk again? How can you get the relationship back on track? It really just outlines how to have these types of difficult conversations, which we all come up against in business.
For instance, crucial conversations include:
- Your physiotherapist wanting to leave your clinic to work for the competitor
- Your clinician wanting to setup their new clinic across the street
- The front desk staff member who starts crying when you start giving them a performance review
- Having to tell a clinician they are doing the wrong thing
This book will give you a ton of practical tactics to deal with almost any situation. And having the ability to have quality conversations makes your business better for everyone.
I recommend you commit to reading those 3 books in 2017 because I know they will take your clinic up many levels.
11 More books I highly recommend
Here’s a shortlist of some more books that have made their mark on my life and business.
The Magic of Thinking Big By David J. Schwartz
The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done By Peter Drucker
Mastering the Rockefeller Habits By Verne Harnish
The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing By Al Ries & Jack Trout
From Good to Great By Jim Collins
The E-Myth By Michael Gerber
Start With Why By Simon Sinek
Who: The A Method for Hiring By Geoff Smart
The 4-Hour Workweek By Timothy Ferris
Delivering Happiness By Tony Hsieh
How to Win Friends and Influence People By Dale Carnegie
I’d consider all of these books classics. No matter when they were written or how many times you read them, there is always something incredibly valuable you can draw from them.
