“If you are ever going to ask someone for advice, don’t. Read a book instead from someone who actually knows what they are talking about.” – Clay Clark
Does this seem a little harsh? Maybe. But it is 100% true. The fact is, most people are wrong about most things. How do I know this? According to the Washington Post, 75% of men cheat on their spouses. According to Inc. Magazine, 85% of job applicants lie on resumes. Additionally, according to Forbes, 75% of people steal from the workplace. I don’t know about you, but that tells me that I don’t want advice from most people if I am personally doing better than 75% and 85% of the rest of the world as a business coach when it comes to basic moral character. But when it comes to seeking advice, where do you turn? A BOOK. It’s literally that simple.
There are many reasons you may be seeking advice. Ultimately, you want to find a book from an author that is proven to be doing well in the particular subject that you are seeking advice in. For example, you wouldn’t want financial advice from most people when according to CNN, the average person has less than $400 saved in their bank account. Where can you turn? As a business coach, I will give you a list of topics I find many business coaching clients seek and resources that I personally read and found to be impactful in each area.
1. Search Engine Optimization:
The Myth: I believe Google Search results are out of my control.
WRONG: Read Search Engine Domination by Clay Clark and Jonathan Kelly
You may download this book for free on our business coaching website and you too can learn the secrets to getting to the top of Google. It is not out of your control. It is in fact, 100% within your control and the results speak for themselves.
2. Financial Success:
The Myth: I will never be able to retire because I can not afford to save for retirement.
WRONG: Read The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach
David Bach teaches you the secrets to becoming an automatic millionaire. You can learn the power of compound interest and why paying yourself first should matter above all else.
3. Sales Success:
The Myth: I wasn’t born being good at sales and it’s not something I can do.
WRONG: Read Soft Selling in a Hard World by Jerry Vass
Creating a successful sales system is not hard. Hard sales is over. Consumers are smart and tired of the hard sell. Jerry Vass can teach you how to effectively master the soft sell with practice using a proven system that is actually simple. You don’t have to be “good at sales” to simply learn how to solve problems for a buyer and ask appropriate questions to determine the problem to solve.
4. Managing Employees:
The Myth: Managing people is impossible in this entitled culture we live in.
WRONG: Read Winning by Jack Welch
Jack Welch, the infamous General Electric former CEO had a forty-year career effectively winning in multiple markets and gaining market share by effectively managing an entire company. Jack Welch is arguably the world’s best manager. He teaches the importance of candor when managing people, categorizing your A, B and C players and much more.
To summarize and provide credibility to Clay Clark’s quote, I do not and never will pretend I know more about search engine domination than Jonathan Kelly. Nor will I ever say I know more about financial management systems and saving money and other investments than David Bach. I will also never say I can manage people better than Jack Welch or create a better sales system than Jerry Vass. But, I can read their books as many times as I want and take the trial and errors within those pages that took them years to overcome. I can then learn from their obstacles and execute what they teach which makes me a better business coach. What I won’t do is ask 85% of the population that, as we already stated, are wrong about most things.
