Hi my name is Holly Hierman, CEO of Fit Finances, former Vice President of Chalene Johnson’s company, Powder Blue Productions and I’m really passionate about helping people start their own home businesses. I love small business! I grew up with both of my parents owning small businesses. When I started working for Powder Blue Productions, many, many moons ago, it was a very small business. In fact, I was the second full time employee ever to be hired and in just a couple years time, I worked my way up to the title of Vice President! I have a sincere passion for helping small businesses get off the ground and really launch!
Now, throughout my journey with Chalene and Bret Johnson and working with them closely in building up this company: which eventually they sold for millions and millions of dollars. I learned so much during that process and one of the things that I learned was that, in order to have more, you have to become more! And that was one of the principles that was really drilled into me when I was working for Chalene and Bret. She was REALLY into personal development and it took me a little while to catch on to why, but soon I discovered the passion within myself too for personal development.
Today I want to talk to you about my top ten book recommendations for anybody who has a business, and maybe you haven’t done anything with it yet or you already have a super, successful business. And I love recommending these books to people because they have literally changed my life so dramatically and it has made me the business owner, the leader and the person I am today.
You may not know this, but the equivalent of what you will become within the next five years will be the average of two things: Number one, the people you surround yourself with, and Number two, how you fill your mind. So that’s personal development! So who you are going to become in the future is greatly determined upon those two things. I want to impress upon you the importance of really filling yourself up with amazing knowledge, with positivity and creativity. Just having the possibility of knowing what you can achieve, it literally is all up to you! It’s all in your hands!
Here are my top ten book recommendations for honestly anybody, but if you are a business owner, you’ve got to read these!
Number one: The very first book I read when I started my network marketing business was, “The Magic of Thinking Big” by David J. Schwartz. I love this book because at the time I was coming from a place where…I had more of a small perception of what was possible for my life because of what I was going through. I was going through a big struggle at that moment. When I read that book, it really helped me to start believing again in the possibility of something that was greater than myself and I knew I had to change my mindset and start thinking and dreaming big once again! So that’s, “The Magic of Thinking Big!”
The second book I have for you is, “The Slight Edge, “ by Jeff Olson. It’s a phenomenal book and it has to do with the little simple things that seem completely insignificant that you do or fail not to do every single day…that will be the culmination of who you will become!
So it’s little tiny things that you do or don’t do every single day. Think about it like this: By drinking one soda every single day, what will that make things look like within ten years from now, or if you choose not to do that. If you chose to quit; eliminating one soda out of your diet every single day….it doesn’t seem like a lot, but it has huge results in the long run.
The third book recommendation that I have for you is one of the newer ones that I’ve read. It’s called “Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals” by Heidi Grant Halvorson, PhD. What I love about this book is that it really addresses the psychology behind why some things are really easy for us to obtain, but why other things seem to have a hurdle; that sticking point. Why can’t we just stick with the New Year’s resolution or whatever it may be? I’m sure that you have certain goals or things that you would aspire to do. You just don’t know why you can’t fix that one thing about yourself. This book really opened my mind to the psychology behind that, how it all works, the power of your will-power, how it is a muscle and it can get tired and how we can protect that. So, it’s a really really fantastic book, especially if you find yourself not being able to get over certain hurdles.
Ok, number four, I love this book! “Failing Forward” by John Maxwell. This is a phenomenal book, because so many people think that success happens overnight; that it comes easy; that if we don’t get what we want within a month, two months, three months, then that means you need to throw in the towel, when, in fact, that is completely opposite of what’s true. If you study the people who are successful you’ll soon see that what they have in common is that they fail more than anyone else, but the difference is: they just keep on going. They don’t stop when they hit a road block. They don’t stop when they hit an objection. They don’t stop when they feel like they fail. They keep going because they know that life is a learning process and during that process, as long as you keep at it and don’t give up, then you’re sure to win. You just gotta outlast people. “Failing Forward” that’s a fantastic book!
Another one of my favorites, and I’m actually re-reading it right now is called “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill. Fantastic book because, again, just like “The Magic of Thinking Big”, it really hones it on the fact that you must be so clear about your goals and you must not give in no matter what. You can will things to happen and whether you believe that is true or not just look at the things that you constantly think about….and again over time the things that you think about will come about. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard that saying before, but what you think about will come about. What I love about this book is that it’s not just about getting rich or anything like that…..it really is about success and how to achieve success, and it really gives you details on “if you want to be successful then do these things”. Make sure you’re focused. I love it. It’s a great book. So check that one out if you haven’t read it yet.
Some of these books are older, but you know what? The principles still stand true. So, that’s one of those ones that is a little bit older, but I think you’ll like it.
Ok, number six on my list is also a newer book. It’s called “Start” by Jon Acuff. I recommend this book to entrepreneurs who are having a hard time getting off the starting block. They just can’t seem to take that first step toward whatever it may be. Whatever the task is that you’re looking for, like “I just can’t make myself do……that,” then I recommend this book to them. It really addresses how to get started, really in anything that you want to achieve. It addresses how in the heck to overcome that fear and that paralysis. So, this is a great book for you if you’re finding a hard time just getting off the starting block.
Number seven! My favorite mentors, and mentors from afar of course, because I’ve only met him a few times in person. I wish he was my personal mentor in person, but he’s one of my favorites, Brian Tracy. He wrote a fantastic book called “No Excuses”. Hmmm! This probably hit home for some of you. You know I’ve been leading people in starting their own businesses and helping them to learn that process for over 7 years now. One thing that I find is that a person who is full of excuses is a person who never seems to get their business off the ground. This book really helps to turn the tables. Helps to see everything, and if you are making excuses in any part of your life and helps you to strip that away in order for you to move forward. Right? This is all to make you a better person, a better entrepreneur, a better wife, husband, son, daughter, a better parent. All of these things will help you in so many different areas of your life, but specifically, of course if you’re in business, these are my top ten of course.
Number eight on my list is called, “The Millionaire Next Door” by Thomas J. Stanley. I love this because I’ve found some people may have quick success or may have come into some money all at once and some have worked really hard to earn their money. What this book covers is how to protect what you’ve earned and how that when you really earn something, when you really work hard for something that you really work to keep it as well. I mean there’s a reason that people who win the lotto, even if they’ve won millions of dollars are usually bankrupt within a couple of years time and it’s the journey in getting people to become a millionaire that allows them the ability to appreciate it, and save it, and keep it or to be show-y and think that that’s all that there is and buy a bunch of stuff. So, this book really covers, when you’re on the road to millions how you can keep it. It’s a great book because it really changed my mindset in how I was helping people and how I was training people and mentoring them, but then also how I was treating my own fortunes as well. Once we started to really take off and have a super successful business then it helped me to think differently about money that was coming in. I believe that it’s really helped us and we’ve been able to protect that.
Number nine on my list is the book called “Push”. This book was written by Chalene Johnson, of course you heard me mention her earlier. I ran her company for ten years. She, by far, has been the most inspirational mentor to me all throughout the years, and she still mentors me from afar through her video trainings and emails and all of that stuff. I absolutely love the concepts in this book. One of the reasons is because it really makes you identify your priorities it also helps you on the path of not just setting goals, but really focus and figure out: Is that goal the right goal for me? Is this the right time for me to achieve that goal or go for that goal? What’s at stake? It really goes behind the scenes. There are a lot of books out there about goal setting. The reason I recommend “Push” is because it talks about not just go after a goal, but think about why you want to achieve that goal and is it going to negatively affect the most important areas of your life. It really helps you to break things down. I used to feel guilty when I would set a goal and not achieve it and then after reading this book I was like, “oh my gosh! I didn’t go for it!” I didn’t go for it because it wasn’t going to benefit my family or it was going to be too much time away from my work or whatever it may be. It really brings about a lot of clarity when you’re goal setting.
Ok, number ten on the list is one that is very specific to network marketing, which is of course what I do. I love network marketing. I believe that it is the way of the future. I believe that in order to have a fantastic life where you don’t have to work a ton of hours but you make a very comfortable income; part time hours, full time income: and part time hours so that you are in charge of the rest of your life! I believe that the only way to do that is through network marketing. Network marketing is fantastic! So this book is specifically about that. If you’re not quite sure what network marketing is…it’s a lot of those work from home businesses, online businesses, and you’re very much your own boss, but you know what? There’s a danger in that too. When we’re our own boss, a lot of times that means that we don’t really know what to do because we’ve never been our own boss before. So, the book that I recommend for you is called “Go Pro” by Eric Worre. This is a fantastic book! “Go Pro” covers why so many multi-level marketing companies fail or why so many people dip their toe in the water and then say it’s a scam or they run away or that thing doesn’t work or I scared off all my friends and family, I mean all that stuff that you hear about home businesses. Thank goodness there’s not as much of a stigma towards home businesses as there was even just 5 years ago. It used to be a lot harder to talk to somebody about having a home business than it is today. It’s a lot more accepted and I believe that’s because people are starting to realize that when we get older we might not have social security anymore. There isn’t a retirement with pension for people in our generation anymore. Literally the future is going to be what you make it. I know that you see this. Baby Boomers now are not able to retire. They’re still having to work in to their 70’s and 80’s in order to make ends meet because it’s just not there. Society is not set up the way it used to be. So, I love “Go Pro” because it breaks down so many things. Not only, why network marketing is a profession, and if you chose to make it a profession, it tells you exactly what to do in order to make it an extremely, extremely successful profession.
So, thank you so much for taking the time to watch this video. I really hope that it served you well and of course feel free to share with a friend.
Have a great day, Bye!
For more info on starting your own online business, click this link: www.StartMySideBiz.com
