Power Up: March Edition

A turbulent month with some – shall we say – questionable weather? March came with highs and lows which meant dashing outside in the garden with a good book and getting cosy on the sofa with a good book. Either way, our Power UP reading club, got together every week to share what they had been reading.

Surprisingly, this month saw a majority of traditional books, although anything from blogs, podcasts and even TedTalks are accepted as “reading” in this book club.

Here’s a list of what the team have been reading this month with some insightful takeaways and hopefully inspiration for your next read too!

The ONE Thing

Author: Gary Keller with Jay Papasan

Reader: Dan Long

Rating: 8/10 

Synopsis

A book that is packed full of ideas and wisdom which you can start putting into practice in your personal and professional life, right away. It’s definitely a book you want to keep close-by and keep referring back to with so many anecdotes and quotes.

I’d recommend this book to anyone – it will challenge the way you think about your daily life and surely set you up for success.

Key takeaways

🟧 Ask yourself: What’s the ONE thing I can do such that by doing so, everything else will be easier or unnecessary?

🟧 Make good habits and stick to them

🟧 Multitasking is a lie. When you try to do two thing at once, you either can’t or won’t do either well

🟧 Don’t spread your willpower too thin. You have a limited supply so use it to focus on what matters most

Read it yourself 👉 Buy Online

Super Engaged

Author: Nikki Gatenby

Reader: Andy Smith

Rating: 7/10

Synopsis

This has been written by lady who bought into a Brighton-based agency. It’s written in a really candid and honest way as though she’s talking directly to you as the audience. There’s lots of storytelling and insights into where they went wrong as an agency, which is a breath of fresh air, when you normally only hear the hero’s story. But, with each hurdle they had to overcome was a really good lesson, which again, is just refreshing and insightful to see into the life of another agency.

talking to you book with lots of insights into where they went wrong as an agency and what their learning were. 

Key takeaways

🟧 It’s okay to make mistakes

🟧 You have to go with your gut

🟧 For me, it was good to hear from someone that has been what I’m going through now, so a lot of the content in here is really relatable

Read it yourself 👉 Buy Online

Manifest: The seven steps to living your best life

Author: Roxy Nafousi

Reader: Sarah Smith

Rating: 8/10 

Synopsis

This is something a little bit different for me to read. It’s very spiritual but actually a lot of the lessons in this book are practical for you to put in place and really work on your mindset. It’s about visualising what you want to achieve in your life and how to get it, which is really interesting! It goes beyond just thinking about your dream car or material dreams, it talks more around serving others and how that will be the key to success. 

Key takeaways

🟧 Be clear in your vision, visualise what you want to achieve and go beyond the materials, think about your emotion and how you would feel

🟧 If you think about how you want to make other people and fulfilling your life and relationships, all the other things will come as a result of that

🟧 As a company owner, if you focus on other people achieving their goals will in turn help the company achieve theirs

Read it yourself 👉 Buy Online

The three building blocks for customer experience transformation

Author: McKinsey

Reader: Becky Evison

Speed rating: 8/10 

Synopsis

It’s about how to create success in customer experiences. They breakdown their framework and operating model. Through the McKinsey Company operating model, they have seen 15% – 20% uplift in sales conversion rates, 20% – 50% reduction in service costs, and increased customer satisfaction from less than 20% to more than 50% in two years.

Key takeaways

🟧 Build aspiration and purpose – A good CX aspiration delivers on company purpose and brand promise.

🟧 Transform the business – Problem-solve in teams to reimagine experiences, products, and services.

🟧 Enable the Transformation – Implement new experiences for customers by uniting mindset and efforts across technology stack, agile operating models and performance management.

Explore the the entire framework in detail here 👉 Read on McKinsey

Never eat alone

Author: Keith Ferrazzi

Reader: Jordan Bambridge

Rating: 8/10 

Synopsis

The author is a well know guy for networking. The concept of the book is never eat alone – always have dates with people and build a network. If you’re looking for a dream job or network, how do you put yourself in that area to put yourself in the place you need to be to achieve your goals. If you can build effective relationship through offering value, the network you have can often be the value offering you give to others. 

Key takeaways

🟧 Don’t keep score, don’t keep count of how many times you or someone in your network does favours for each other

🟧 Don’t be afraid of asking for something from people in your network, you can build relationships

🟧 Build it before you need it. Don’t look to build a network because you need one, get it prepared 

🟧 Always take initiative, never wait for someone to ask you for a favour

Read it yourself 👉 Buy Online

What are you doing with your life?

Author: J.Krishnamurti

Reader: Be Peters

Rating: 7/10 

Synopsis

When I first started reading this book, I was frustrated with it. It poses more questions that it answers, so it’s very philosophical! That said, the questions it does pose are very thought provoking which often leads you to your own conclusions rather than teaching you someone else’s thoughts and beliefs. 

Key takeaways

🟧 Being intellectual doesn’t make you clever, knowing how to apply your intellect does

🟧 Soft skills such as empathy, understanding and confidence are massively under-respected and should be focussed on a lot more in schools to teach young people how to master them

🟧 You need a combination of intellect and empathy (knowing when to apply your intellect) to be really clever…

Read it yourself 👉 Buy Online

Join us each month as we share what we’ve been reading, how we would rate it and what we’ve learned from it. Sign up to our newsletter to receive regular content and reading recommendations for the team!