AJV (00:01): So for the last three years, one of the personal goals or commitments that I have made to myself was to read two books every month of the year. And I initially made that goal so that I had some accountability and deadlines. I’m a a highly deadline oriented person but one of the things that I really wanted to do is go, Hey, if I have extra time, I wanna be filling my mind with things that challenge me, grow me, make me think, make me better, versus potentially getting sucked into watching tv. I’m not saying that’s bad, I’m just saying it’s good to limit it. But I really wanted to kind of set these things of going like, Hey, if I have the time, this is what I wanna be doing. So 2024 was my third year doing this the first year I said, let’s, let’s just commit to reading one book a month. AJV (00:54): And then in 2023, I did two books a month. And then 2024, I did two books a month. And one of the things that I have found is at the end of the year, I do a reflection of, of all the books, 24 books that I read last year plus the Bible. So technically 25 what were the most influential books that had the biggest impact on me, the ones that I have found that I have put into daily practice the most, and ultimately the ones that become my evergreen recommendation. So when someone says, Hey, what’s a good book that you’ve read here lately? I pull up the note on my phone, I literally keep it right here, and I keep the list of all the books that I’ve read and why I think they’re so significant. And I go, okay, well, let me tell you the five most influential books that I read last year, and here’s why. AJV (01:40): So that’s what I’m gonna do for you today on this particular episode. So these were all books that I read in 2024. And these are gonna be my top picks. I think I, I think I’ve highlighted six. But these are my top books and why, and this is a great thing to be doing as we enter in a new year, as we’re kind of like in Q1 of 2025. So I know if this, that you’re listening to this sometime in the future, this is when we’re recording this for context, right, Q1 of 2025. But it would be good for you to go, man, what’s my reading goal this year? Like, what challenge do I wanna set out for myself? And what are the books that are out there that I wanna read? And I’ll tell you one other quick thing before we get started is that there are tens of thousands of books that are printed every single year, new books. AJV (02:29): There is so many opportunities to read amazing books and not so amazing books. And one of the policies that I have put in place is I only read a book once I have rather heard the author speak, I’ve listened to several of their podcasts, and I’m like, man, like that is someone I wanna learn from. Or they have just been so consistently referred to me that I’m like, okay, at this point how have I not read this book? And so I would would just say, for whatever it’s worth, not only do I recommend these books, but these are books that had been repeatedly recommended to me at the point of like, well, I have to put it on the list. I have heard these authors speak in person. I have read other pieces of their work. I have listened to countless interviews with them. AJV (03:18): But these were not first time introductions where I just went through Amazon or walked through Barnes and Noble and was like, you know, any mey mighty move that one. That is not how this happened. So these were already pretty pre-vetted before I put them on my queue. Right? So with all of that said let me get through this so that I don’t keep you here for the next three hours. The first one is Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guera. And we were fortunate enough to have Will Guera on our podcast, the Influential Personal Brand podcast. And so if you have not yet listened to that particular episode, Rory interviewed Will about a year ago and a phenomenal, phenomenal episode. And I, let me just kind of tell you why I picked Unreasonable Hospitality. And although Will comes from the hospitality industry, this is not a book for the hospitality industry. AJV (04:15): This is a book about how to bring hospitality into your industry no matter what you do. And I love it because it approaches hospitality on an individual level, like a personal level, as a leader, as a business owner, as a, a frontline employee, as someone who interacts with customers on a customer service, a sales, a a experiential level. But more importantly, what I love about this particular book is it is back to the roots of what does it mean to serve people well, whatever your job may be. And I love that it took the approach of the hospitality industry in this particular case a restaurant. ’cause It’s like, it does not matter if you’re the one busting tables taking phone calls and seeding people. You’re the one serving the food, cooking the food washing the dishes. Like there is a very interconnected, intertwined element of every restaurant, thus every business, thus every relationship where every role matters and one is not above the other. AJV (05:22): And they all connect into what is the client experience? What is the customer experience, and what is the employee experience? Right? I think on average, most adults are gonna spend 60% of their waking hours at work. Think about that for a second. Post school in your adult life, 60% of your time in going to be at your job with your colleagues, with your boss, you better pick something that you love and enjoy and do it with people that are more like friends and family than, you know, coworkers and colleagues. And I think that’s about the heart of this is, and how do you bring service into every element of what you do? How do you take pride and excellence in your role regardless of what your role is? It’s like it, you are the one taking out the trash. How can you be the best trash taker outer on the planet? AJV (06:21): I often get to play the role as trash taker outer at Brand Builders Group. We have a lot of live events, and it’s all hands on deck. And one of the things that I love about our team, it’s like, no one’s above taking out the trash. We’re gonna do it with a smile on our face. We’re gonna make sure it’s swift, we’re gonna make sure it’s clean, we’re gonna make sure it’s quiet. And it’s, and I think that is back to the heart of service. It’s like, how do we welcome people so that they feel invited and cared for? And this is an experiential book with so many tactical takeaways of how to do that as a leader, as a business owner as a, as a frontline employee of how do you go above and beyond? How do you just pay attention to your customers and your employees to do things that make them feel welcome, unreasonably welcome, right? AJV (07:12): And so that is why that was my first pick of 2024. In fact, we loved this book so much that we made it our mandatory book of the quarter in Q2 for our entire company to read. One of the things that we do at BBG is we have a Book of the Quarter Club. And out of all the books that Rory and I have read, we go through and say, which ones do we think are so important? They need to be, you know, more cemented into the cultural language that we talk about. And Unreasonable Hospitality was one of those books for us in 2024. So that was my first put my first pick and my first recap for you Will Gera Unreasonable Hospitality. It’s the art of bringing service back to your work. And it’s so, so good. I would also say, if you are are an audio listener, this is a great audio book, will has an amazing voice. AJV (08:00): But he’s got so much personality and charisma in his storytelling. It’s like, I found it very hard to want to hit pause because it was, it was one of those books where it’s like what’s gonna happen? Like, what’s, what’s next? Like, don’t leave me hanging. I wanna know what you did for that customer. I, I wanna know what they said. So it is also one of those books that I would just say, if you love audios, this is a great audio. Not all of my books are, I think great on audio, but this particular one was great. My second pick is a personal pick. I have read a lot of books on relationships and marriage. Rory and I are about to celebrate 15 years of marriage this year in 2025, which is so awesome. And I love him more today than I did the day we got married, which I think is the biggest win. AJV (08:48): But this by far was the best book on marriage that I have ever read. And it’s rare that Rory gets on the bandwagon and reads a book with me. But I was talking about this book so incessantly that he was like, okay, okay, I think I’m gonna read this too. Now he also read Unreasonable Hospitality, but this is one of those personal pics that he was like, man, like I need to read that. So here it is, sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas. And here is why I think this book is really important now. Yes. Is it about the, the, the marriage covenant? Is it about husband and wife? Yes. but I would just say for anyone who is married, who is engaged to be married, who wants to be married one day this, this is a great book for the context of what is marriage? AJV (09:40): What does it mean to be a good partner in marriage? What are ways to uphold the relationship in a way that, you know, similar to unusable hospitality in a way that serves your spouse? And I think this was a really good book an inner look at what is the point of marriage. Now, for those of you listening to me that know me, like, you know, my background is very faith heavy. I am a, a strong believer. And I do believe that like marriage is like the marriage covenant under God. And one of the things that I found was really amazing is that what I loved about this book that was different than every other book was this is not a communication book. This is not a, men are from Mars, women are from Venus. Let’s talk about our differences. AJV (10:26): Even though clearly there are lots of personality, inherent traits, differences biological, cultural, all the things, right? Clearly men and women are extremely different. But what I loved about this book is the whole point is like, marriage is not meant to make you happy. Marriage is meant to make you holy. And through the lens of that, it’s like how do you look at the context of your marriage as this relationship with another human being? Right? My husband of going, this isn’t like about me de my happiness depending on what he does for the marriage or what even I do. It’s like, how is this relationship making me a better human being in light of God? Right? So it is a faith heavy book. I’ll put that up there for all of you who, who are like, no, that’s not for me. Totally right. Fine. Just want to let you know upfront. AJV (11:19): But in terms of where, I think this was one of the strongest marriage books I’ve ever read, was the inherent focus on what is the goal and purpose of marriage. And I think that, at least for me and my upbringing of how, like even how I went through premarital counseling and getting married, being married, I have never ever heard anyone talk about it this way of like, the challenges are not meant to separate you. It’s to grow. You and I, I’ve heard this a million times and I do believe it to be inherently true. It’s like growth happens in the challenges and that’s no different in marriage. I’ve heard people say to me before, man, it’s just not supposed to be this hard. Says who? . Like, who said relationships weren’t supposed to be hard? Who said marriage wasn’t hard? Like marriage is hard. AJV (12:09): Parenting is hard. Being in business is hard. Sales is hard. Like there are hard things, but we can do hard things. I think it’s the attitude and the commitment and the loyalty and the pro we take to doing hard things. And marriage is a, it’s a, an act of obedience and discipline. And I had never looked at it that way before. And it was a very good thing to go like, how do I keep myself in check of not putting my happiness on Roy’s to-do list? But it’s like, no, like this, this is, this is more of a test of my own endurance of like, can I run the race that’s been given to me with who I chose to run the race, which was my husband? And that doesn’t mean every day is perfect most certainly is not. But at the end of every day, it’s like I can genuinely through a new lens, look at my marriage and look at my husband and go, man, I’m so grateful that you are mine and that I am yours. AJV (13:07): And I think a lot of that self-talk and that appreciation came through the lens of this book. And that by itself has strengthened our marriage and my per my personal take on marriage and the way I approach disagreements or household tasks or anything like that really shifted through the pages of this book. So that, that was my second pick, A personal pick for the year, but Sacred Ga Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas. All right. Next one, I have I have my little list here of all the ones that I picked out. The next one I picked, sorry, I’m looking through all of these this is an oldie but a goodie, which was the Go-Giver by Bob Berg. Again, super great audio read, you can knock it out and probably a daily commute. It’s about a 90 minute read. AJV (14:02): It is extremely short, and it is very what I would say anecdotal in its nature. It’s very like chocked for chocked full of a story. And here’s what I love about this book, and it’s actually one of the books that we’ve picked to be one of our books of the Quarter for 2025 for our team at Brand Builders Group is the Go Giver is all about the lessons you learn through relationships and removing perceptions removing what I would say would be expectations that you have on other people. And there are five laws that you learn in this book, and I’m gonna give them to you in a quick recap. It’s the law of value, which is what you give versus what you take. It’s the law of compensation, which is all about how well can you serve. AJV (14:52): It’s about the law of influence with putting others above you and ahead of you. It’s about the law of authenticity being true, being true, honest to yourself. And it’s the law of receptivity. How open are you to accepting what people have to give to you? And it was through these five laws, and they each come with a different encounter and a different individual and a different anecdotal story all through, like the same main character. And I loved this book so much for two main reasons. One, if you’re listening to this, have you ever had the thought, what’s in it for me? And let’s just be honest. We’ve all had that thought. Likely by the time that you listen to this today, you have already had that thought. I have already actually even said those words, I think to my husband. He was telling me about something he was gonna do, and I was like, well, what’s in it for you? AJV (15:48): And I literally like, had to bite my tongue and catch myself and be like, oh my gosh. Like, it doesn’t have to be, there doesn’t have to be anything in it for you to do it, right? And I think that’s the, the heart of this book. It’s like, are you doing it to be of service? Are you doing it to get something in return? And that approach to relationships and to business is absolutely vital. And at some point, it’s the, the truth of it sneaks through, right? And I think it’s a really important book and approach of how people do business and how they build business relationships, right? And I I love what the book talks about. I said, the three fundamentals of why you work are to survive, to save and to serve, right? Those are the three fundamentals of work, right? AJV (16:37): Survival, right? You gotta pay your bills, buy food, pay for shelter, right? But then it’s to save so that you have some surplus for retirement or for vacations, or whatever you’re gonna use it for. But then it’s to serve like we work to serve people. That is a part of what we do, regardless if we view it that way or not. And I think this was a really great book on each one of those elements. And one of the things that I love is this entire book back to the, the Law of Compensation is your income is directly tied to how many people that you can touch, how many people you can impact, right? And if you look at it through the lens of that, it’s like, if you go, how many people can I serve today? How many people can I help? AJV (17:21): How many people can I impact? Not how much money can I make, right? Not as well. What can I, you know, make in a salary or a bonus or a commission, or how do I make more money? It’s how do I serve more people? How can I impact more people? How can I help more people? And if you just went through every single day of like, all right, here’s my goal of helping this many people today. If you just shifted from, man, I need to make this much money to, I need to help this many people, how much money, how much more money would you make in 2025? And that is why it’s one of my recommendations for 2025, is it’s a perspective shift of not how much money can I make or how much money can I save? It’s how many people can you help? AJV (18:07): And if you focus on helping people, I have no doubt you will make more money. But if you always focus on making more money and not helping people, it, at some point, it’s just going to burn you out. It’s exhausting. And you’ll likely not hit those goals at the speed that you would like, but if you focus on helping people, you’ll likely hit them faster and you’ll hit, you’ll exceed them faster as well. So Go-Giver by Bob Berg. That is my third recommendation from books that I read last year. Alright, the fourth one. And listen yes, I’m aware that this might be biased, but this was also one of our books of the quarter in 2024. And it, again, it’s an oldie, but it’s a goodie. This particular book has been out for more than 10 years. And it’s Take the Stairs and it was written by the one and only Rory Vaden. AJV (19:04): But here’s why it made my list. You know, I’m just gonna be honest, it’s been about 10 years since I read this book, right? I read it, helped edit it clearly read it again when the book came out, and my husband wrote it. But it also has been a decade. And we picked this book to read because we are embarking on our new book that Rory and I have written together that we are launching later this year, this, this summer. And one of the things that we wanted our team to do is go back and read the very first book that Rory wrote in preparation to be like, okay, what’s it gonna be like for this entire team to do a new book launch this year? And I reread it, and I was reminded of how good this book is and how timeless the principles are, and how evergreen the truths are. AJV (19:57): And I actually listened to most of this book with my kids in the backseat. So they could listen to their daddy talk about discipline and success and time and faith and action. And it’s, it was fascinating for my kids to pick up on these little things. And it just was such a great reminder to me that not only is this a great book, it it’s a book for all ages. Like, there is nothing about this book that did not apply to my 5-year-old and 7-year-old, that what doesn’t also apply to me in my life. It’s do I have faith? Do I believe that things will eventually work out for my good, right? Regardless of how hard today is do I believe that discipline is important and necessary for my success and my personal and professional life? And what does discipline mean? AJV (20:53): Do I believe that there is a there’s an onus on me to take action and not wait around for other people to do things for me, not wait around for it to show up on my doorstep on a silver platter before I go and do something, right? Am I willing to take action and do something before I’m ready to do it? And is there reward in the action versus being perfectly ready? Right? Those are, those are some of the things. But also what my kids really latched onto was this story that my husband talked about called Mr. M, which is a little guy who sits on your shoulder and m stands for mediocrity mediocrity. And this, this little guy who sits on your shoulder, Mr. M is the one who whispers in your ear. You can’t do that. AJV (21:38): You’re not smart enough for that. You, you don’t have enough experience. You’re too young, you’re too old. You’ve never done that before. It’s that little mediocrity monger who whispers in your wi your ear. You can’t, you’re not enough. This isn’t for you. This is for somebody better than you. And that’s what my kids latched onto. And quite honestly, it’s what I latched onto. And it was the power of do you have a management system over your words and your thoughts? And this is where I spent most of my time reminiscing about the book and talking about this book with my kids. I ended up also talking a lot about this with our team of how often do we hear it’s like, well, I just don’t have time for that. I just can’t take that on. Like, there’s not enough hours in the day to do that. AJV (22:29): Like, that’s too much for me. And here’s what I keep telling my kids, and here’s what I tell our team, and here’s what I’m gonna tell you. Whatever you believe is true, and whatever you tell yourself the most is what you believe. I’m gonna say that again. Whatever you tell yourself the most is what you believe. And whatever you believe is true, if you believe that you can’t because you’ve been telling yourself I can’t for the last 10 years, then magically you can’t. Right? For some reason, other people can, but you can’t. That that is not because that’s true. No one else has more minutes in the hour or hours in the day than you do. We all have the same, some of us have just said, I can do it anyway. Right? We all have things vying for our tension and more than we can manage in most cases, between the different social platforms and family commitments and work commitments and technology distracting us from our, like distracting us and taking our attention. Like we could all sit here and go, there’s just too much to be done in a day. Or there, there’s a difference saying, which is, I choose where I spend my time. AJV (23:59): I mean, that’s it, right? It’s, it’s, it is a difference in going, this is where I choose to spend my time, versus, oh, I just can’t fit it all in, right? It, it, it’s the exact same thing. It’s like, no, that just means you have to say no to some things because you have chosen that other things are of more significance at this time, at this season of your life. And those are all mental choices that we get to make. That’s a discipline, that’s an obedience. That that’s also a faith element of going, I believe that this thing is right for me. But I just thought it was just so important in this particular book to go back and, and re harness the power of our thoughts and our words and what we say to ourself, and how that becomes our actions and our beliefs and ultimately our reality. AJV (24:45): And now, that’s not the whole essence of take the stairs, but it’s why it made the list. And my favorite quote that I don’t even remember reading in this book, I don’t even recall Rory ever mentioning this in a keynote, which I have heard hundreds of times over the years, but this was the number one quote that stuck out in this particular time, reading the book, right? Different season of life, different season of business. But this was the quote that stuck out to me that I’m gonna share with you. Frustration only happens in the absence of perspective. Frustration only happens in the absence of perspective. Now, perhaps this stuck out to me at the season of life because I say the words, I’m so frustrated on a daily basis with everything going on or perhaps that that was just the message that I needed to hear in this particular book. AJV (25:40): But that was something that I thought was really powerful because I think I hear a lot of people say, I’m just frustrated that I’m not where I thought I would be. I’m, I’m frustrated. Things aren’t going faster. I’m frustrating. This isn’t working the way that I want to, or it didn’t happen this way. I’m just frustrated and I hear those words so often. And I think that that also ties into that is Mr. M, Mr. Mediocrity, Mr. Mediocrity, that sits on your shoulder telling you the untruths, right? Being frustrated is a, a choice. When we don’t have perspective, it’s the other option to going. No. Like, there’s perspective here of like, and, and maybe it’s not going as fast as you want, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t progressed. And it’s a choice of going, am I, am I happy with progress? AJV (26:30): Am or am I dissatisfied with the lack of speed? And those are just, those are perspective shifts. And I think it was a really good review for me at least to go. It’s like, where am I missing perspective? Like, where am I not paying attention to all the progress and all the good, and I’m only focused on all the lack of progress and all the bad, right? So all of those things combined was really that internal mindset general inspiration book that made my number four pick for 2024, which was Take the Stairs by Rory Vaden. And then not well, I mean, gosh, if I’m going through these, there’s, there’s like five more that I probably could pick. But this is, this is the last one that I’m gonna pick and I’m gonna share with you. I forgot I had highlighted so many as I’m reading back here, the last one that I picked is What Got You Here Won’t Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith. AJV (27:32): I think this is one of those timeless reads that I will probably make a habit to go back and read if not every year, every couple of years. I think that this is a, a really important read for anyone who has gotten to a point where they’re like, okay, I know what got me here won’t get me there. And that could be a personal or professional endeavors. But I think that at some point, whether it’s one year, three year, five year, 10 years doing something, the things that you started with eventually have to change and evolve and elevate. That includes systems, processes, people business models, prices. At some point, things have to change for you to keep growing, right? And I, I think it’s a really, really important book as people are stepping into what I would say a level up kind of mentality. AJV (28:29): Like they’re ready to up level, they’re ready to take it to the next level, whatever, you know, phrase you wanna use there. But this was a, this was a book that I thought was really, really important because it focuses on the things that you can do that are super simple. And I, and I loved so much of that. Like, I thought it was so important, just the importance of listening and, and, and gratitude and, and some of those best practices. And I think it was also really important to talk so much as I think in business we talk so much about what we should do, and we don’t talk enough about what we shouldn’t do, right? And I, I love this in this book, is that we have to talk about what we have to stop doing as much as we have to talk about what we need to start doing. AJV (29:20): And I think that as an organization and, and being, you know, my previous life, a consultant to a lot of organizations, there’s a lot of talk around, well, this is what we’re going to do. There’s not a lot of talk about, this is what we’re not going to do. This is what we need to stop doing as an organization or as an individual. But that’s a really important part of this, right? If we’re only talking about all the things that we’re gonna start doing or all the things that we are doing, then we’re leaving out a huge category of things. And hey, there’s also some things that organizationally speaking, categorically speaking, we don’t do. And I feel like that is a missing part of the puzzle. That if you are listening to this and you’re going, man, I wonder if we have a culture problem or a communication problem or a collaboration part problem, or if you’ve ever said, it feels like the right hand and the left hand don’t know what they’re doing, it’s probably because you’ve been focusing on just one part of that. AJV (30:15): Maybe you’re a part of a, a team that only talks about what we’re not gonna do, and you need to spend more time talking about what you are gonna do. But I find more often, specifically in the newer parts of the year and the early parts of the year, it’s a lot more conversation around, these are all the things we’re gonna do this year, and there’s not a lot of talk about, and this is what we’re not gonna do this year. Both are equally important for clarity, communication, collaboration, and culture, the four C’s, right? Clarity, communication, collaboration and culture. And you need to both know what you’re going to do and what you’re not going to do as an individual, a team, a company, you know, whatever it is that you wanna be. But I think that’s a, a really, really, really important thing. AJV (31:02): So there’s a feedback matrix that they share and that Marshall shares in the book, and it’s like, what do you stop doing? What do you start doing? What do you need to do less of? And what do you need to do more of? Right? So high level, that would be a very quick thing that you can just go back is a feedback perspective on, man, what are we doing as an organization? It’s like, what do you need to stop doing? What do you need to start doing? What do you need to do less of? And what do you need to do more of very simple components to help you take like a holistic perspective. I mentioned earlier that I loved that there was such a huge part of this book about listening. One of the things that I discovered about myself in this book is that I need to be a better listener. AJV (31:47): If you would’ve asked me before this book, aj, are you a are you a good listener? I would’ve said, yeah, I’m a great listener. I listen all the time. After reading this book, I’d be like, Ooh, that might be an area of weakness for me. And he goes through this entire checklist of, are you constantly thinking in your mind what you’re gonna say as the other person is talking? If so, you’re not such a great listener. Are you constantly interrupting to get your thought in? If so, you’re not such a great listener. Are you constantly counteracting like, well, that’s not true in your mind. You’re not such a great listener, and then this is the one that hit me. Are you constantly finishing other people’s sentences? And if so, maybe you’re not the great listener that you thought you were. And I caught myself going, man, I, I think I do interrupt too often. AJV (32:37): I, I think I do try to finish sentences too much. And I went through and I shared this with Rory, and he just laughed out loud. And I was like, okay, well, that was probably the confirmation that I needed there. Like, this is, this is an actual goal of mine this year. This is a commitment to myself as I’m going to be a better listener. And again, we’ve probably all been taught this before, but I thought this was a really important skillset to get back to, which is simply think before you speak. Like, and so, like one of the goals that I’ve had for myself, as soon as someone’s done talking, I’m gonna let there be a nice pause before I speak. And I practiced this yesterday in a conversation, and after this individual was done sharing their thoughts I just paused and I said, is there anything else? And they said, no. And I said, okay. AJV (33:33): And then I said, okay, let, let me share my response. That is not typically my mo in that, but it was so helpful to them to be like, wait, is there anything else? No, I’m not that. I had a little pause because I needed to, to get my thoughts. Then I proceeded. And I have found that that’s so easy. It’s easier for me to do in, in-person conversations, but I’m trying to do the exact same thing in written communication. And if I don’t have a good clear response during some written communication, I’m just saying, Hey, I, I’ve seen this and I’ll get back to you. This was actually some feedback that was given to me because I didn’t do that. I saw the message. I knew I wasn’t ready to respond to it, so I just didn’t respond. And the feedback I got was, Hey, that was, felt really inconsiderate. AJV (34:24): That was like a really important message I sent. And then you just didn’t respond. And I was like, yeah, I was gathering my thoughts. They said, well, that would’ve been just good to know. And I said, oh, good, good feedback there. So now I’m just saying, Hey, I have received your message. I’ll be back to a response in the next couple of days. And it’s because I actually need the time to sit and listen. And even though they weren’t talking, it was in writing, I was still listening. And I think that these are just little things that make communication and collaboration and culture so much better because you have more clarity. So if you have never read this book, I highly recommend what got you here won’t get you there. Again, doesn’t matter if you are in any position in a company leader frontline, employee, owner, it doesn’t matter. AJV (35:15): It is for you. And I also think that this is one of those books where it hits some of the most practical things, like listening and saying thank you and giving feedback and receiving feedback but then also brings it up on a higher level as well. So it’s, it’s very into the weeds with like, here are things you can do, here are checklists, here are reminders, here are best practices, as well as some of the higher overview stuff that I think is really, really, really important. Here’s, and here’s again, I’m trying to like do some pull out quotes from each of these. And here’s what I would say this is one of my favorite quotes from this book. No one, and this is not a direct quote, this is my interpretation of the quote, so don’t cite me. No one changes by learning things. AJV (36:07): They only change by doing the things they’ve learned. And I think that’s also a great quote to end my book recap for 2024. Because here’s what I have found about people who do read and go to a lot of classes and seminars and sign up for courses and programs. And I think all of those things are good. The question is, but are you doing anything with what you’ve learned? It’s one thing to say, Hey, I read 24 books last year. It’s another thing to go in. Here’s what I learned and I’ve implemented from every single book that I’ve read now, I’m not gonna be able to implement every single thing that I jotted down in my notes from every single book. What my goal has been in this process in the last few years is what’s the one thing that I need to take from this particular book and put into action in my life? AJV (37:00): What is the one thing? And so for this book, right, what got you here won’t get you there. It was listening. Like, I took that to heart and said like, I have had an aha moment. I need to improve my listening skills in a, in a very important way to be a better communicator, a better leader, a better friend, a better spouse. But that was like my one thing I took away. And one of the things that I find is that if, if you as a reader can just take a moment of reflection at the end of every book and go out of everything that I’ve read, all the quotes, all the things, what’s the one thing that I’m gonna put into practice? And really try to make it one, that doesn’t mean you can’t do more, just highlight one. Then you’re not just learning things, you’re actually doing things. And that’s what creates change. Learning things does not create change. Doing the things that you’ve learned is what creates change. So regardless, if you go and read any of these books that I read last year I would say whatever books or whatever podcasts that you listen to or read this year or whatever coaching programs or courses that you participate in, ask yourself, what’s the one thing that I can actually start doing to create real change in my life?