As a small business owner, you’re constantly trying to keep all the balls in the air. You always have so much to do. And there never seems to be enough hours in the day. You know that it’s important to read books, so you can get new perspectives to solve old problems. Or even get ideas to drive your business forward. But you can never find the time to get any reading done. If you change your definition of what it means to read a book, reading with the intent to learn to grow your business will make all the difference for you.
What is Reading with the Intent to Learn?
Reading with the intention of learning is reading with a purpose. When you read a book, you read to learn what you need to know. It’s just-in-time learning. But most significantly, you’re reading books that will have an impact on your life. And in turn, has an impact on the lives of your customers and clients. If you don’t provide value to your clients and customers, they’ll disappear, and soon you won’t have a business.
So what does this mean? And how do you start the process?
The Process: Reading with the Intent to Learn
Nothing significant ever happens without a plan in place. If you want to progress in life, it’s important to know your destination. However, you need to be flexible in how you get to your destination, making changes and course correcting as the external environment dictates. What does growing your business mean to you? At the end of next year, where would you like to land? Let me ask you this. In a year's time, if you and I sat down for coffee, what would you have had to experience for you to feel happy, fulfilled, and satisfied?
Write down the following:
- Personal and professional goals.
- Practical problems you want to solve.
- Pressing questions you want answers to.
The next step is to find books that will help you. Ask for book recommendations from family, friends, and peers. Read through the book descriptions to identify the books you want to read. For each book you decide to read, write down your one-sentence purpose for reading it. Keep in mind that you’re reading with the intent to learn. You intend to read with purpose to achieve a goal.
Before you read each book, preview it first to decide which sections and chapters to read. This will save you lots of reading time. And you’ll be reading to learn what you need to know. If you read the right books, and apply the ideas you generate, you’ll be able to grow your business. Take time to work through this process. One tip for you is that when you’re reading, make sure that you’re listening to binaural beats audio. It helps you to get into the flow, so you remember more of what you’re reading.
Have you read?
Leadership Reading: Read to Learn What You Need to Know
The Perfect Day Formula by Craig Ballantyne, Book Review
Case Study: Reading with the Intent to Learn to Grow Your Business
For me, at the end of next year, I’d like to have 1500 subscribers to my membership site, the Art of Learning. And, I’d also like to write and publish two books. The first is on Intersection Thinking, and the second on Profit Reading.
Grow Subscribers to 1500
To grow my subscribers, I have already started reading books on how to successfully grow membership sites. I operate a professional development membership site. However, the books I’m reading cover several industries. For instance, I’ve read one book on gym memberships, and I have another to read. And I have read a book on subscription boxes.
Reading books on a topic across multiple industries and niches is one element of intersection thinking. And reading multiple books also gives me different perspectives. And I’ll be better able to craft a strategy that will enable me to grow my subscriber count. If I break down my strategy into specific actions to take, and I take action, it’s likely that I will achieve my goal of having 1,500 subscribers. It won’t be easy, but it’ll be doable.
While I was reading Subscription Marketing by Anne Janzer, the author mentioned turning fans into advocates. Having read that reminded me, it was time to review my notes on 1000 True Fans by Jongo Longhurst and Superfans by Pat Flynn. I quickly looked at my notes and I found information to include in my strategy. Both books included models to turn people into true fans.
Write and Publish a Book on Intersection Thinking
According to Rohit Bhargava, author of Non-Obvious 2019: How to Predict Trends and Win The Future:
“Intersection thinking is a method for creating overlap between seemingly disconnected ideas in order to generate new ideas, directions, and strategies for powering your own success. It can create a crossover gamechanger. It allows you to think in a way your competitors aren’t.”
Bhargava was predicting intersection thinking as a trend. You won’t find the concept elsewhere, and that’s why I want to write and publish a short book on the topic. I’ve already conducted journal article research on interdisciplinary studies because that’s the closest I could get to the concept of intersection thinking.
The next step is to summarize the journal articles. After doing that, I want to analyze my book notes of books that span multiple disciplines. I used to be more intentional about reading across disciplines and this is something I need to do more of in the new year. I want to test intersection thinking for myself and see what happens. A great example of an intersection thinker is Elon Musk.
Write and Publish a Book on Profit Reading
For the book that’s about profit reading, I have to interview avid readers to determine if the concept holds true. I’ve interviewed about five people already. However, I’d like to interview another 10 to 15 people. Once again, when you conduct research, you won’t get any related results. So I’ll have to play around with search terms to get the theoretical knowledge I need for the book and compare it to the results of the people I interview.
Of course, for me to achieve these goals and grow my business, I have to break each goal into action steps. That’s the only way I’ll get to where I need to be by the end of next year.
Final Thoughts: Reading with the Intent to Learn to Grow Your Business
When you decide to read a book, make sure that you’re strategic with your book choice. Yes, it’s good to read books for entertainment, but you should be intentional about that choice. To grow your business, decide on your goals, then read the right books that will give you ideas and strategies to get to where you need to go.
Next Steps
If you want access to my Bookish Notes please consider joining my membership site, the Art of Learning.
