Everyone benefits from reading– even if it’s just one good book occasionally. Reading is known to reduce stress, improve brain connectivity, increase sleep quality, fight depression and more. When building your business, branding yourself, or looking for personal growth, these four books are a great place to start!
Here are my four book suggestions straight out of The Branding Boutique— They will kick-start your creativity, confidence and drive when it comes to developing your very own brand! They are easy reads whether you are a big reader or not.
So now you know my top 4 reading suggestions. However, which one you should start with is entirely up to you, and where you are in your journey. Here are some brief summaries & why I chose them as my top four recommendations.
- You Are A Badass by Jen Sincero
- Length: 256 Pages, 27 short chapters.
- An entertaining how to guide
- This book is all about mindset. Sincero provides you with inspiring stories, humorously intelligent advice, and simple exercises to help you in identifying those self-sabotaging behaviors that we all exhibit from time to time.
- My Opinion: this book is a little more on the “Woo-woo” side, so if you are more logical & practical there may be better recommendations. However, the message itself has often put me in a good headspace, and has led to a lot of introspection and internal growth. It’s also a book you can return to at different stages of your life and still find relevance. I strongly suggest the audible version of this book, especially for those of you who sit in rush hour traffic!
- The Obstacle Is The Way by Ryan Holiday
- Length: 224 pages
- Uses experiences of well known athletes, politicians, and tech pioneers.
- Drawing inspiration from stoicism, (an ancient Greek philosophy of enduring pain or adversity with perseverance and resilience). Stoics are the type of people who focus on what they can control, while also letting go of everything outside of their control. They turn new obstacles into opportunities to improve in all aspects of their life.
- My Opinion: This book challenges you to think differently and approach your problems from new perspectives. Though I don’t consider myself to be a Stoic, this book helped me so much in my personal life. In the short amount of time it took me to finish it, I learned how to step back and become an observer in the conversation, progress the conversation further, and think more rationally and clearly about what was happening. If you are an emotionally reactive person like me, you may benefit greatly from The Obstacle Is The Way and learn how to develop and maintain an open, productive line of communication with people in your life.
- The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
- Length: 190 pages, short & concise
- A practical guide for succeeding in any type of creative career. Deeming itself as “nothing less than Sun-Tzu for the soul.” This guide is meant to enable you to attack any type of creative roadblock by identifying the “enemy” everyone of us must face… I wonder who that is.
- My Opinion: An inspiring book for a majority of people. It’s been a few years since I read this one and I still suggest it every time someone asks me (I am planning on circling back to it in the near future). In every ambition we have there are obstacles, sometimes they are easily overcome and other times it can take years to get through them. I will be the first to say, I have a lot of experience with obstacles and often times I find myself as the last major piece in my way. I found that The War of Art truly helped present some vital breakthroughs for myself within relationships, creative blocks and self limiting beliefs.
- Show Your Work by Austin Kleon
- Length: 224 pages
- A book displaying why generosity trumps genius. It’s a refreshing take on becoming more successful without all the self-promoting jargon you so often hear.
- My Opinion: This book really is a breath of fresh air. Austin Kleon is an artist as well as an author. He actually includes his art, in the form of sketches and doodles in place of some paragraphs, which was super helpful to me, being a visual person myself. This helped me move forward and stay engaged in the message of the book; embracing the communal nature of creativity— a lesson I think we as creatives sometimes forget or hide from. It can be really frightening to share your own work, but it is vital if you want to grow your creative career. Ultimately, I found that this book is a great reminder of why we chose creative paths.
So now you know what my top recommendations are. I have linked each of them to Amazon where you can purchase them and find other inspiring literature from the authors.
It was really difficult narrowing down my first set of recommendations for you, so if you have any questions about these books or need a bigger list, please feel free ro reach out to me, I would love to hear from you.
Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoy at least one of these quick reads. Let me know what you think!
—
Carly
