The Books That Changed My Life (& Leadership)

[00:00:00] “What recommended books can you share that are impactful?” This is a question I received during a recent private event Q&A and I, seriously, I love this question so, so much because there are just so many books that have impacted my life in a major, major way. And I would love to share them with you
because here’s the truth. Pretty much any challenge you’ll ever encounter, you could find a book that literally walks you through exactly how to navigate it. So if you’re looking for some highly recommended leadership, self-help and personal development reads, stick around because I’m sharing the top 10 books today that changed my life and how they could change yours too.
Honestly, while I was going through and selecting the 10, I think some of them may surprise you because in creating the list, they actually surprised me aswell.
If you’re new here, my name is Corrie LoGiudice. I’m otherwise known by Corrie Lo, and I’m a professional keynote speaker, facilitator, executive coach, [00:01:00] as well as author myself, who helps, leaders transform overwhelm into confident action.
Now, before I dive in, ’cause we do have a lot to cover this episode, I categorize all of these books that I’m sharing with you today as impacting my leadership, in some way, shape, or form.
That’s because they’re all, for the most part, self-leadership books because you can’t lead others if you can’t lead yourself first. So with that framing, let’s go ahead and dive into the first one. And by the way, too, these are in no particular order. Though I will say I went through a stream of conscious noting down the top 10 for me. So the ones that had, the greatest impact would probably be at the top of the list. But again, I’m not, like, ranking them specifically by that.
All right, so first book, number one, is ‘Getting Things Done’ by David Allen . Now, for context, this book first crossed my radar back, I’d say, 2003-ish. I had just gotten a job working for my family’s business. I was a fine artist, suddenly [00:02:00] found myself working in corporate. They brought me in to do graphic design and to try to build out a marketing department when I had zero business experience at all.
And I found myself really overwhelmed. Like, I did not understand, ’cause I went from waiting tables before this and painting, making fine art and painting. I went from that to suddenly having to have executive functioning skills in a corporate role. Which I didn’t go to standard college. I went to art school, so this was, like, a very difficult thing for me to wrap my head around.
And the thing that I loved about this book was that it helped me figure out a system for my thoughts in my brain. Now, I know for a lot of folks, I’m sure they probably have an updated version of ‘Getting Things Done’ at this point now that things are so tech-savvy.
But I still use the same exact framework that he teaches in using my digital tools that I use for all of my project planning, my task management, so on and so forth. I use the same exact process today. So his framework works amazingly. And basically, it’s the foundation of what I speak on now in terms of doing a [00:03:00] brain dump.
I learned that from this book. So one of the easiest ways to work out your thoughts when you’re really, really overwhelmed is by getting them out and on paper. So ‘ Getting Things Done’ by David Allen, he gives you a great system to kinda catch all these ideas and then to go through your ideas and sort them out on a regular basis.
So if you haven’t checked out this book yet, and you really, really struggle with the more executive functioning side of it. Figuring out how to take what’s in your head, put it on paper, put it into action, ‘ Getting Things Done’. That book, by far, I would not be where I am today and have got an as much accomplished in my life and career as I did if I did not encounter that book. So that’s number one.
Number two is ‘Start With Why’ by Simon Sinek. And this one was one, again, across my radar. I was trying to become a better leader. It was probably right after I had gotten divorced. I actually talk about this in my book, ’cause I remember it vividly. I had gotten the audiobook to listen to while I was driving along the California coast with my son, that we [00:04:00] were on a vacation.
And I remember listening to this book, and it really was like a light bulb going off in my brain in terms of like, it’s so important to ask why. Why is your business in business? Why are you leading people the way they are? So certain aspects of what he taught in that book, I’ve absorbed into some of the processes and the things that I teach. Whether that be with, coaching clients or even on stage, when I’m or giving keynotes.
But that said, ‘Start With Why’, anytime anybody asks me who’s just becoming a leader, who just got a promotion or who wants to get a promotion more or less and wants to develop their career, I always tell them to start with that book. Because knowing why is foundational when it comes to clarity. And you cannot lead effectively if you are not clear on why things are important, why they are or aren’t aligned to their vision, why you’re even doing them to begin with. So, so important, so check out that book. You will not be disappointed.
The next one, and this is a more [00:05:00] recent read for me, within the past, I’d say three or four years. It’s ‘Buy Back Your Time’ by Dan Martell. So this book transformed my business in a big way, because I was one of those business owners that was kind of proving to everybody I could do it all myself.
Like, I came from corporate, and I’ve got my little scrappy startup and I don’t need help, I can do it all on my own. And Buy Back Your Time literally showed me how I was basically burning money by doing it myself. I might as well have taken out all the cash in my wallet and just set it on fire, because I was not using that time effectively, and I should’ve been buying back my time, as he said.
Basically, it’s a book that teaches you how to leverage various types of delegation, most importantly, by hiring out your team. Whether that be you as a business owner or even if you’re working as an executive or in a career, there are multiple different ways to buy back your time that you could build into your business plan, for whatever you’re responsible for.
And I found his frameworks super helpful. And in fact, it’s interesting, when I had read the [00:06:00] book, I had then decided, you know what? I’m gonna buy back my time by finally getting a virtual assistant, and now that virtual assistant has been with me, I think, two or three years at this point, and now I have two more in addition.
And I’ve been more or less, kind of by accident in a way, expanding my team the way that he recommends to do it in the book. So if you are a business owner, you’re a leader, with a budget that you’re responsible for and building out your team. ‘ Buy Back Your Time’ is such a great read ‘ cause it’ll give you all the frameworks and things that you need to be looking at to understand the value of said tasks and how to best assign and delegate them. So highly, highly, highly recommend it.
So number four is a bit of a surprise because it’s not as productivity and leadership vision-focused as all the others, but it’s just as important for me. So number four is ‘It Starts With Food’, which is by Melissa and Dallas Hartwig. And actually, I think Melissa goes by Melissa Hartwig Urban at this point. They’re now divorced. But either way, It Starts With Food, which was [00:07:00] the book that more or less introduced the concept of the Whole30. If you’ve been following my channel for any amount of time, if you’ve read my book, I talk about the Whole30 because it has had such an impact in my life.
Granted, it doesn’t work for everybody, but it worked really well for me. And what it taught me and why it is so important from a leadership perspective is how individualized our physical health Our biochemistry is all so different and basically, if you’re not familiar with what the Whole30 is, it’s a 30-day, very short-term eating protocol where you eliminate all highly inflammatory foods.
So for 30 days, for a very short period of time, you’re eliminating sugar, alcohol, grains, legumes, dairy, and any kind of processed foods, obviously. So these are all highly, highly inflammatory foods. And the first time I did it was, 10 or 15 years ago and I had been a longtime vegan and I was still having various health issues pop [00:08:00] up here and there.
And I remember by about day 14, usually when you get two weeks into it, you have, what’s described as tiger blood, that you feel this, like, crazy burst of energy. And it was the first time in my life I ever understood what it was like to fully present, locked in and energized without needing to rely on things like coffee.
I did not think it was possible. I also thought things like brain fog were normal. And I’ve learned, again, I’ve been doing this 10 or 15 years at this point, that for me, gluten and dairy in particular are highly inflammatory for me, and gluten in particular causes really bad brain fog, which when you make your living as a professional speaker and you’re meant to be on stage and, speaking off the fly, that’s a no-go.
From a high performance standard that cannot happen. So ‘It Starts With Food’
was really pivotal for me to learn how to take care of my body as well as my mind, ‘ cause they’re connected, through the brain-gut axis. But to learn how to more or less fuel my body and my mind in a [00:09:00] way that works for my specific biochemistry.
And that’s been a game changer. I had a couple of months where things were really stressful and whatnot, and I’m actually doing the protocol right now that I’m past my book launch month and everything to reset myself and to get back to that, foundational high energetic state that I know I could be through doing the process.
So again, it’s a protocol. I love it. If you’ve struggled with food, if you struggle with brain fog, if you struggle with, energy and you’re expected to perform at a high energetic capacity, whether it be mentally or physically I highly recommend checking it out.
So number five, this is another one of my favorites, and the title is really catchy. It’s ‘Get Rich, Lucky Bitch’ by Denise Duffield -Thomas. Now, again, it’s not a typical leadership book, but it was so important for me to learn because it’s a money mindset book that’s really designed for women from the perspective of women, but anybody can get value from the book. I recommend it to so many people, male or female.
And it’s learning how to reprogram self-limiting beliefs surrounding [00:10:00] money. It was a very quick read. It’s very funny and immediately upon implementing some of the stuff that she talked about, I got immediate results out of it from a money mindset perspective, and my pay has increased and everything else every year since. I’ve also worked with Denise through her money boot camp program as well, which her book kinda leads to and it’s been a transformative experience in terms of my business and my career.
So a lot of times too, people will ask me like, “Hey, what are like great podcasts to listen to?” and stuff like that. I always recommend Denise’s stuff. And if you haven’t read ‘Get Rich, Lucky Bitch’ and you are looking specifically for information on how to help with money mindsets, that’s definitely one of my top picks
so I just went through the top five. Before I continue to round out the top 10, I would love to know what are some of your favorite life-changing books? Drop them in the comments below. I’d love to add them to my summer reading list.
So number six is a book called ‘Deep Work’ by Cal Newport. Now, this book, again, it’s more of a productivity book versus a [00:11:00] leadership book, but the whole thesis on it is different strategies and things that you need to know about how to get into that deep focused flow state, to know that you’re doing really effective deep work, hence the title of the book.
What I wasn’t expecting to learn through reading the book was how to actually structure my days to really accommodate being in that deep focus state. So probably the most impactful takeaway I had from the book, and you’ll have so many more by reading it, but the most impactful I had is that from a biological perspective, from neuroscience I should say, that your brain maxes out on focused work at four hours a day.
So in reading this, I was like, “why is there an eight-hour workday if after four hours it’s basically diminishing returns?” Like, that’s ridiculous. But either way, it helped me design my days that now in my business, I work for four hours a day ’cause anything past that, it’s not deep focus work.
That or if you’re working in a career, you’re working a nine-to-five, you’re in a leadership role, it [00:12:00] still applies because you wanna protect that four hours for you to really do the focused, uninterrupted work before you do things like phone calls or administrative work or things that take you out of that focus.
So ‘Deep Work’ was such a great read to learn how to make more out of the focus time that you’re actually putting into your work.
Number seven is a book called ‘Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less’ from Greg McKeown. Hopefully I’m saying that right, Greg McKeown. And this one was really pivotal for me in learning how to reduce things to only what’s absolutely essential.
What is it that needs to happen, what is it that’s a priority? Which from a leadership perspective is so important ‘ cause it applies to multiple different things. Whether it be being able to focus on one specific mission and having everything aligned to that. To making sure that for your scheduling and everything, that you’re only working on what’s absolutely essential to move the needle and to give yourself filters and stuff to get rid of things [00:13:00] that will kinda distract yourself from that.
And granted, I read it a really long time ago, but that said, when I was going through my, Kindle list and looking at all the books I read, I’m like, “Oh, that was one that really impacted me.” That I remember it helped me so much in learning, as a complement to what we were talking about with deep work, on how to, from a strategic level, make sure that I was really focused on the right things and only what was truly essential
Number eight is gonna be a surprise because it’s not leadership or productivity or anything like that. It’s ‘The Power of Now’ by Eckhart Tolle. So ‘The Power of Now’ is more of a spirituality book, but it basically teaches you how to become really focused and in the present moment. At the time that I had come across this book, I had just lost, my partner to suicide, and being in the now was very painful to say the least, and I was also really struggling too at that time.
I had in the years prior to that, I had gotten divorced. I was commuting a lot. I never got to see my kid, and I always [00:14:00] felt like I was never actually present where I was. When I was at home, when I wanted to be with my kid, I was thinking about what I had to do at work and when I was at work, I was thinking about all the trauma and stress I had gone through and thinking about wanting to be at home with my kid.
So I was never really fully present. ‘ The Power of Now’ taught me how to do that. So it was highly impactful. Bonus points, too, if you’re into audiobooks. I had done the audiobook of this one, and Eckhart Tolle’s voice, his accent and everything is so relaxing and so chill. And it’s actually a book that I will come back to on a fairly regular basis, like once every year or two, and I’ll re-listen to because it was that impactful for me to learn how to recenter and really focus on the now.
And last but not least, number 10 is ‘The Miracle Morning’ by Hal Elrod. So this is what, it really falls more under the productivity side of it. And again, I read this book like 10 years ago or so, but if I remember right, Hal had actually interviewed, a slew of highly successful people and asked them what habits systems and routines they were doing that led to that [00:15:00] success. And he more or less coined this term called the Miracle Morning, where every single morning you’re doing a routine.
So his SAVERS framework goes through S is silence, affirmations, visualization, exercise, reading, and scribing or journaling. So I’ve used some sort of variation of this for, I’d say, the last 10 to 15 years, as my morning routine, and it sets foundation for everything that I do throughout the day.
So it’s been really important. It center me. It helps focus me. It helps me kick off my day with a bang. And that said too, I don’t do everything specifically, like in order in that morning. Sometimes I do stuff later on in the day, like affirmations might be later. But they’re all practices that I incorporate into my day, and as a result, it’s had a huge impact, which is why it made number 10 on my list.
So to recap, I know this is a longer episode, lots and lots of information through this. But to recap the top 10 books that changed my life, you’ve got ‘Getting Things Done’ by David Allen. We’ve got ‘Start With Why’ by Simon Sinek. We’ve got [00:16:00] ‘Buy Back Your Time’ by Dan Martell. ‘ It Starts With Food’ by Melissa and Dallas Hartwig.
Get Rich Lucky Bitch’ by Denise Duffield-Thomas. ‘ Deep Work’ by Cal Newport. Essentialism, The Disciplined Pursuit of Less’ by Greg McKeown. ‘The Power of Now’ by Eckhart Tolle and ‘The Miracle Morning’ by Hal Elrod.
So hopefully you found my sharing this today helpful. If you have a question about any of the books or anything else that you would like for me to answer, please feel free to leave a comment below, and I just may feature it on a future episode.
And if you enjoy reading leadership, self-help, personal development books, you also might enjoy my book, ‘The 5 Overwhelm Culprits™’ that’s out. It’s designed to help you transform overwhelm into confident leadership action, or more or less to save your sanity without sacrificing your success, and it’s available for purchase in the show notes.
You could also learn more ways to work with me, whether that be one-on-one through coaching and advisory or through speaking and workshops for organizations and teams in the show notes as well. So thank you so much for being here, and I will see you on the next episode. I’ll see you next time.
Thanks for checking out the Next Step with Corrie Lo. If [00:17:00] this episode resonated with you, share it with a friend, subscribe, and leave a review. Together, we’ll transform overwhelm into action, and we’ll keep taking the next step towards confident leadership. See you next time