5 Books to Help you Build your Brand and Your Business
Whether you are just starting your side hustle or a seasoned solopreneur, these must-read books will help you build your brand, business and everything in-between.
01
Building a Story Brand
by Donald Miller
Reading Time / 1 week
Rating / ✮✮✮✮✮
One of my favorite books of all time. If you only have time to read one book from this list all summer, pick this one. Especially if you write your own copy or create your own content but would not qualify yourself as a creative, this book gives you an easy formula to follow in order to clarify your message and your customer.
02
The Brand Gap
by Marty Neumeier
Reading Time / a short plane ride
Rating / ✮✮✮✮✮
Written by the Brand God as I call him, Marty Neumeier. I’ve read and love nearly all of his books. They are my brand bibles.
And one of the best things about all of them is that they are designed to be read in a few hours or “a short plane ride” as he prefaces. Written whiteboard overview style, each book is jam-packed with powerful principles that are gonna last you…well, probably forever.
And I say that because Marty wrote this book over 15 years ago. And to this day, his basic principles on branding still hold true. He was way ahead of his time and this is A MUST READ if you own a business or are building any kind of brand. Consider this book Branding 101, the first course anyone and everyone should read if they want to truly understand what branding is (and isn’t), and why and when it works (and doesn’t).
03
Zag: The Number One Strategy of High-Performance Brands
by Marty Neumeier
Reading Time / a short plane ride
Rating / ✮✮✮✮✮
Oh yea. Another Marty book.
I mean, do yourself a favor and read all of his books. But this makes the list and is considered one of the top 100 business books to read of all time.
It is second in Neumeier’s sequence of brand books (so I suggest you read Brand Gap first) and it focuses in on how businesses can (and should) harness the power of differentiation.
My goal this summer is to get through all of Marty’s books and I just finished this one yesterday. Run, don’t walk, people.
04
Manage Your Day-to-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus, and Sharpen Your Creative Mind
by Jocelyn K. Glei
Reading Time / 1-2 days
Rating / ✮✮✮✮✮
Just like the few books before this, it is written in short, thoughtful pieces. No long, drawn-out chapters. Just power-packed bite-sized bits of knowledge, insights and ideas that you can apply right away.
This is the holy grail book for me when it comes to the ways in which we build our daily routines, balance work and life and optimize our productivity, creativity and focus. A roadmap for creating the structure and systems that us side hustlers and solopreneurs need to actually make things happen in our businesses and lives.
I actually re-read this book every few years, along with two others in this series. It’s a wonderful collection of short thought pieces from the greatest minds and it’s always sitting at arms-reach on my desk.
05
Effortless
by Greg McKeown
Reading Time / 2-3 days
Rating / ✮✮✮✮✮
Greg is the author of another of my favorite books and international best-seller Essentialism, which I also recommend.
His new book—Effortless—just came out this summer and I’m about half-way through. It is based on the very simple idea that not everything has to be so hard.
As always, Greg gives you a very clear guide to achieving your goals and in many ways his thoughts on this matter are a response to burnout culture—which for anyone trying to build a side hustle, brand or small business…. needs to hear.
As Daniel H. Pink reviewed, “if you’re squandering energy on pointless tasks and struggling to complete what really matters, this book is your salvation.”
BONUS
Inward and Clarity + Connection
by Yung Pueblo
Honestly, it’s no surprise I can’t get my list of books down to five. It’s like asking me to pick a favorite child.
So, I do want to add a BONUS book (or two). These are books filled with short poems and prose by Yung Pueblo. What I love about these is that I don’t actually sit down and read them all at once.
Everyday before I wake up or head to bed, I flip to a random page to see what message awaits me. It’s only a few seconds of reading and I take that message or intention with me as I start or end my day.
If you aren’t familiar with Yung Pueblo, his works are introspective short poems about life, growth, self-awareness, the subconscious… deep stuff, but written in a light and lovely format.
Clarity + Connection is his newest book, just released this past April. Inward was the first book he released and also a favorite of mine.
Well, happy summer reading all! And I’d love to hear what you think of these books. Love? Hate? Read already?
Comment below or tag me on instagram.
