The Extraordinary Business Book Club

'You need a higher level of challenge and truth telling if you have set the bar high for yourself and your organization.' Liam Black has become known as the 'gloves-off mentor' for his no-nonsense, straight-talking way of supporting social entrepreneurs and purpose-driven leaders. When the work you do matters so much to people's lives, it can be hard to see situations objectively, or to keep any kind of work/life balance.  But capturing that voice in a book isn't easy. In this characteristically direct conversation, Liam shares the awfulness of writing - those wet Wednesday afternoons when the words die on the page - and the joy when the magic happens, the vulnerability of putting your book out into the world and the way it creates new connections when it's there.  Probably the most truthful conversation about writing you'll hear all week. 

'We've all been missing a trick, because sport has been showing us day in, day out, not just how to improve, perform and achieve, but how to do so on a sustained basis, in a way that ensures that we can consistently deliver results when it matters.' Catherine Baker qualified as a tennis coach before she qualified as a lawyer, and throughout her career has been fascinated by the interconnectedness of sporting and professional excellence. In her new book Staying the Distance, though, she argues that by drawing lessons for business only from the high performance we see, we're missing out on the reality that underpins that performance: what elite athletes do when noone's watching, the routines and rest that allow them to sustain that performance.  It turns out this is also true for writing...

The Independent Publishers' Guild annual Spring Conference is one of the highlights of the year for the book industry. I seized the opportunity to speak to six movers and shakers in the world of books to put to them the questions that you'd have asked if you'd only had the chance.  You're welcome.  Discover:  How to find out EVERYTHING you could possibly want to know about getting published with Alysoun Owen, editor of the Writers' and Artists' Yearbook;  A better way to buy books online if you care about independent bookshops with Nicole Vanderbilt, Bookshop.org's UK MD;  Why TikTok is moving into the book-selling space and what you can do to promote your book there with Matthew Perry, Head of Books on the TikTok Shop;  How you can think ahead to make the most of translation opportunities as an author with Clare Hodder, rights consultant and Rights Manager for Practical Inspiration Publishing; and Things to keep in mind if you're planning to start a podcast, with Small Wardour's Carla Herbertson and Danni Haghan, formerly at Apple podcasts.       

'Work fits into this bigger thing that we call life. And if you are more joyful in work, that will spill over and you will be more joyful in life.' You may not have used the terms 'WorkJoy' and 'WorkGloom' before, but I bet you immediately know what they mean, AND which is your most common daily experience. The good news is that you have much more control over that experience than you might think.  In this week's conversation, Beth Stallwood talks to me about how we can find ways to bring more joy into our working lives, and how those lessons spill over into the work we choose to do for ourselves, such as, say, writing a book. Discover your own power - it was there all along - and also how to build the squad that will support you: the cheerleaders, challengers, comrades, creators, connectors and conjurers who will transform your writing experience into something altogether more joyful. 

"People don't just pick up a book once, read it, put it down, and then that's the end of their relationship with that idea.... we can move in a person's life in multiple ways." Sarah Stein Lubrano describes The School of Life as 'a modern press': books are vitally important, but they're only one part of a wider ecosystem of ideas. There are many lessons here for business book writers, and many ideas too: how might YOU build in experiential strands, and opportunities for your readers to learn and reflect for themselves alongside their reading? And what does it look like to be actively engaging for good in a content landscape that is so often based around distraction and monetizing the consumer's attention?  A fascinating interrogation of the role of books, and indeed the nature of authorship. 

This is a podcast about business and business books. You might think this is unpromising territory for talk of love: but you'd be wrong.  No hearts and flowers here, but real, thoughtful, passionate insights into what it means to be in relationship with those we work alongside, how we express love as part of leadership, and how passion fuels the work we do.  With contributions from Professor Lucy Easthope, Yetunde Hoffman, Dr Deb Mashek and Richard Fox. 

'Seeing somebody need you, seeing somebody in pain, is not necessarily traumatizing: not being able to help them is a moral injury that is traumatizing. So I also wanted to challenge ideas of what hurts.' Most of us run away from disaster. Similarly, we try to avoid painful emotions.  For Professor Lucy Easthope, expert and adviser on emergency planning and disaster recovery, heading towards the most traumatic diaster scenes as others flee in the opposite direction is par for the course, as is leaning into the rawest human emotions of grief, horror and anger. How do you do this every day and stay not only sane but cheerful? And how do you write about it in a way that readers can bear?  In this truly extraordinary conversation, we explore courage, clarity, how writing helps both ourselves and others, and why books should be available on prescription. If you only listen to one podcast this week, make it this one.   

'We as individuals are systems ourselves, aren't we?... And so when we diagram ourselves using a work model, we often see for the very first time how these elements interrelate.' You may be familiar with the Business Model Canvas - but have you ever thought about using it for yourself, rather than your business? Dr Tim Clark did, and discovered that this simple but powerful visual tool had astonishing power to help move his own and others' thinking forward.  Words are powerful, but visual thinking can help us see things differently, and in their totality.  In this fascinating conversation we talk about what it's like to adapt someone else's model, the difficult of creating a highly visual book, and the inescapable fact that writing is Really Hard Work. 

'When I went into [writing a book], people were telling me, oh, it's going to be so lonely. you're going to lock yourself in a room... nothing could be further from the truth. This was the most collaborative process from day one.' If you want to do work that matters, the unavoidable truth is that you're going to need to collaborate with others at some point. And that can be the most joyful, creative, energising experience.... but very often it isn't.  What IS it about collaboration that's so damn hard? Turns out that even with the best collaboration tools and project processes, in the end it all comes down to relationships. The good news is that you can learn to collaborate better, and Deb Mashek has spent years researching exactly how to help you do that.  The other good news is that you can bring those collaboration skills to the process of writing your book, and make it not only better but more fun along the way. Find out how....  

It's easy to get caught up in the fluff - in work and life. Whether it's focusing on the font family rather than the purpose behind the brand, the endless social media scroll rather than the deep thinking we know we'd rather be doing, or the drive to answer just one more email rather than stopping to rest, we're all guilty of losing sight of the really important stuff.  In this Best Bits episode, I look back over my recent conversations and pick out some insights from these extraordinary thinkers and writers on how we can - and indeed must - focus on what really matters. With contributions from:  Tessa Misiaszek on branding; Phil Barden on goals; Ollie Henderson on the relationship between work and life; Joy Burnford on writing as a route to deep thinking;  Alison Jones (hello) on the passion behind the writing;  Bec Evans on finding what works;  Rob Orchard on being infatuated with what you're doing; Mark Leruste on why YOUR story matters; and Sarah Sparks on why YOU matter, and why you need to look after yourself.  Food for thought, indeed.