The Extraordinary Business Book Club

Episode 388 - Writing powerfully with John Simmons

06 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

'If I'm not doing my own writing, I'm not properly thinking.' You'll be familiar with the idea of visual identity in branding: but what about verbal i...

Episode 387 - Build a Better Business Book with Josh Bernoff

30 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"Unless you have a way to differentiate, then you don't really have any sort of justification for putting out yet another book." T...

Episode 386 - How to Write a Self-Help Book with Ginny Carter

23 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ginny Carter, experienced ghostwriter and award-winning author in her own right, discovered when judging the self-help category for the Business Book ...

Episode 385 - Disruption in Action with Adrian Hornsby

16 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

'The problem that you have here, it's not a writing problem. It's a thinking problem.' When Adrian Hornsby faced the challenge of how to convey comple...

Episode 384 - Motivation with Catherine Stothart

09 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

'Motivation is what drives your choice of what to do, and also how hard you try and how long you keep trying for.' With a wealth of experience in coac...

Episode 383 - Find your 9others with Katie Lewis & Matthew Stafford

02 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"Oh, this is why people write books. This is actually quite addictive, this feeling that you've produced something and it is having an impact." Katie ...

Episode 382 - Book marketing with Karen Williams

25 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

'I thought it was going to be a 20% update and I think the content has changed by about 80%.' This might sound familiar to anyone who's sat down to up...

Episode 381 - The Modern Maverick with Ed Haddon

18 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

'We need, at the moment, mavericks. We need people of independent thought, courageous, wanting to do things differently, but we need to do that in ser...

Episode 380 - All about the Voice

11 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In a sense writing a business book – any book, really – is quintessentially about finding and using your voice. You're talking across time and spa...

Episode 379 - Revolting Women with Dr Lucy Ryan

04 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When Lucy Ryan's research revealed that midlife women were walking out of corporates in droves at the same age that the men around them were stepping ...

Episode 378 - How to Fund the Life you Want with Robin Powell

28 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

'There's all this academic, peer-reviewed, time-tested academic evidence as to how we should invest, and yet we have a whole industry that is trying t...

Episode 377 - The Writer's Voice with Anne Janzer

31 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"In everything we write, we choose a voice." Poets and novelists talk a lot about their writing 'voice', but nonfiction writers, and especially busi...

Episode 376 - Do Deal with Richard Hoare

24 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"When we're talking about Do Deal, we're really talking about the verb of how you deal with people... as an ongoing kind of living thing." Richard Hoa...

Episode 375 - Semiotics & structure with Rachel Lawes

17 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

'I'm not going to live to be 10,000 years old, so I'd rather just write material that someone's actually going to use. So top-down writing works for m...

Episode 374 - Leader as Healer with Nicholas Janni

10 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When your work is about experience - helping people access a different physical and emotional state so that they can reconnect with their embodied, in...

Episode 373 - Rethinking creativity with Dennis Sherwood

03 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"What's important about creativity is not novelty, but difference. I want something different from what is happening now, and difference is much easie...

Episode 372 - In the Moment with Neil Mullarkey

26 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"It's not thinking on your feet, it's listening on your feet. Yes and, what are you saying? How can I build on that? How can I move in the direction t...

Episode 371 - Conscious Inclusion with Catherine Garrod

19 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Catherine Garrod led Sky to become the most inclusive employer in the UK. Her message is clear: if you're not consciously including everyone, you're u...

Episode 370 - The agony and the ecstasy

12 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

No, not the Michelangelo biography by Irving Stone, but the highs and lows of the maddening, marvellous process of writing a business book. In this be...

Episode 369 - The Leap to Leader with Adam Bryant

05 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

'Everything at its core has to be one of those three things: a great insight, a great story, or a great practical approach.' Adam Bryant, creator of t...

Episode 368 - Centennials with Professor Alex Hill

29 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

'What you leave behind is what you write... no one talks about the article that changed their life, and they're not read for decades after they've bee...

Episode 367 - The Solutionists with Solitaire Townsend

22 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

'A book is a job title that stays with you for life. I will forever be author of The Solutionists... This is your long tail. This is how you remain ha...

Episode 366 - My Back Pages with Richard Charkin

15 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Publishing as an industry has more than its fair share of extraordinary people, but there are few to rival Richard Charkin. Over his 50-year career he...

Episode 365 - Idea stewardship with Melissa Romo

08 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

'I thought I was sitting down to write a book. I was not sitting down to write a book. I was sitting down to create idea stewardship. And that's a muc...

Episode 364 - Smart Career Moves with Susan Doering

01 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Really recognize who your audience is... [and] parcel up the pieces, the topics, the themes according to their needs. Not according to what I know, bu...

Episode 363 - But Are You Alive? with Eloise Skinner

24 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

'I have worked with a coach in the past who used to tell me things that have been very helpful, like it is your responsibility to the book to try and ...

Episode 362 - Pay the Price with Steven Adjei

17 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

'A lot of writers tend to shy away from the gritty parts of [entrepreneurship], the pain parts, the price part. I thought, Why not, I'm going to go f...

Episode 361 - Tame Your Tiger with Catherine Erdly

03 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When you run a small business - especially a retail business - it can feel very much as if a tiger has not just come to tea, but moved in. It's always...

Episode 360 - Leaning in

27 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In a world where so many opt to lean back - to disengage, scroll the feed, consume and comment rather than create, plug into the playlist rather than ...

Episode 359 - Gloves Off with Liam Black

20 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

'You need a higher level of challenge and truth telling if you have set the bar high for yourself and your organization.' Liam Black has become known ...

Episode 358 - Staying the Distance with Catherine Baker

13 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

'We've all been missing a trick, because sport has been showing us day in, day out, not just how to improve, perform and achieve, but how to do so on ...

Episode 357 - Top Tips from the IPG Spring Conference

06 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Independent Publishers' Guild annual Spring Conference is one of the highlights of the year for the book industry. I seized the opportunity to spe...

Episode 356 - WorkJoy with Beth Stallwood

27 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

'Work fits into this bigger thing that we call life. And if you are more joyful in work, that will spill over and you will be more joyful in life.' Yo...

Episode 355 - The School of Life with Sarah Stein Lubrano

20 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"People don't just pick up a book once, read it, put it down, and then that's the end of their relationship with that idea.... we can move in a person...

Episode 354 - The Valentine's Special

13 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is a podcast about business and business books. You might think this is unpromising territory for talk of love: but you'd be wrong.  No hearts a...

Episode 353 - When the Dust Settles with Lucy Easthope

06 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

'Seeing somebody need you, seeing somebody in pain, is not necessarily traumatizing: not being able to help them is a moral injury that is traumatizin...

Episode 352 - Business Model You with Tim Clark

30 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

'We as individuals are systems ourselves, aren't we?... And so when we diagram ourselves using a work model, we often see for the very first time how ...

Episode 351 - Collabor(h)ate with Dr Deb Mashek

23 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

'When I went into [writing a book], people were telling me, oh, it's going to be so lonely. you're going to lock yourself in a room... nothing could b...

Episode 350 - What Matters

16 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It's easy to get caught up in the fluff - in work and life. Whether it's focusing on the font family rather than the purpose behind the brand, the end...

Episode 349 - Work/Life Flywheel with Ollie Henderson

09 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

'I'd done a lot of reps before I started writing the book, and that helped enormously.' Ollie Henderson would like to talk to you about work-life bala...

Episode 348 - Written with Bec Evans and Chris Smith

02 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

'How can you get to more people beyond coaching courses and beyond webinars? Well, you write a book.' Bec Evans and Chris Smith met in a bookshop and ...

Episode 347 - Slow journalism with Rob Orchard

19 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

'Slow journalism for us was just a way of encapsulating that feeling that when you take your time, you can do something more quality.' In a media land...

Episode 346 - Exploratory Writing with Alison Jones

12 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

'If you give your brain a question, it can't help but go looking for answers. That's how we are designed. And when you know that, you suddenly think, ...

Episode 345 - Glow in the Dark with Mark Leruste

05 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

'Your story is about you, but it's not for you. Someone, somewhere woke up this morning needing to hear your story to not feel alone.' For most of us,...

Episode 344 - STOP with Sarah Sparks

28 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

'We are designed for acute episodes of stress, but what we're not designed for is chronic episodes of stress. That's stress after stress after stress,...

Episode 343 - Decoded with Phil Barden

21 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ever wondered why people don't immediately shout 'Of course!' and shake you warmly by the hand when you share your new idea with them? It's because we...

Episode 342 - Don't Fix Women with Joy Burnford

14 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

'How do I .. move from being a curator to a creator? That was a big shift for me, and I think I got there in the end.' People often talk about the val...

Episode 341 - Branding with Matt Johnson and Tessa Misiaszek

07 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

"Of course we want to predict, what's the world going to be like in 5, 10, 15 years? How can I, as a brand, put myself in an advantageous position to ...

Episode 340 - The joy of constraints

31 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We don't live in a perfect world. If you're hoping to write a business book, I bet there's something that's getting in your way. Not enough time, lack...

Episode 339 - Positively Purple with Kate Nash OBE

24 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

'We are not here to be inspiration. Instead [we] invite back those who feel inspired to think about what they're inspired to do as a consequence.' Fro...

Episode 338 - Crafting Connection with Felicity Dwyer

17 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

'It's important to think about connecting with ourself first [because] whatever kind of interpersonal communication we are involved with, we are alway...

Episode 337 - Corporate clowning with Em Stroud

10 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

'Because we are the truth tellers, we say really what's going on. Because we use humour, we get away with saying stuff that other people can't... The...

Episode 336 - Ten Year Career with Jodie Cook

03 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What kind of timescale guides your thinking? Do you focus on how great things will be when you make a killing selling your company decades from now, o...

Episode 335 - Fortitude with Bruce Daisley

26 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Interested in social media, podcasting, business books and business? It's hard to think of someone who can speak with more authority on all of those t...

Episode 334 - Marketing Strategy with Jenna Tiffany

20 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

'Strategy is effectively the map which takes you to your destination... tactics are the vehicles you're going to use to get there.' Jenna Tiffany has ...

Episode 333 - Ethics in finance with Dr Kara Tan Bhala

12 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Students of finance don't typically expect to be grappling with theology and philosophy. But over a long career in Wall Street, Dr Kara Tan Bhala has...

Episode 332 - Dark Social with Ian MacRae

05 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The internet is a funny old place. Most of us can't live (or certainly work) without it, and our online relationships and conversations are just as re...

Episode 331 - Forget the First Million with Lucy Cohen

29 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When it comes to writing a business book, are you a planner, or a pantser? If your natural style is more seat-of-the-pants than perfectly planned, you...

Episode 330 - Writing energy

22 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How do you generate, manage and sustain the energy that's needed to write a business book? Physically, mentally, socially and even spiritually, there ...

Episode 329 - Crazy Busy with Zena Everett

25 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

'[We're] not actually dropping into the deep flow work and thinking that we have when we write, because that feels wonderful; we're switching all the ...

Episode 328 - Buy This, Not That with Sam Dogen

18 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

'If you stay consistent, you grow your brand, you grow your message. I think sooner or later, something good will happen and you won't be able to anti...

Episode 327 - Rebuilding with Sara Tate

11 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

'How often does anyone really start with a blank sheet of paper? Certainly not at my age, you know? You don't, you start from where you are... we wan...

Episode 326 - Tech Trends with Bernard Marr

04 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

'It's not very difficult to write a book, but you need to start writing... I put my content on LinkedIn, for example, and this is where you then get f...

Episode 325 - Change Makers with Katy Murray

27 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

"How do I discover my change making contribution, and how do I do that in a way so that I don't fry myself in the process?" The balance between steppi...

Episode 324 - Energize with Simon Alexander Ong

20 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

'The process of writing, the process of reflecting on where we are right now and what must happen for us to move forward towards where we want to be, ...

Episode 323 - Exposure with Felicity Cowie

13 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ever wondered how a journalist picks which expert to provide a quote on a story in your industry, or why a national paper runs a story on your competi...

Episode 322 - Sales Coaching Essentials with Mark Hayes

06 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

'Having a book has really begun to change how I think about my business and my brand... I am truly surprised about the ripple effect it's having.' At ...

Episode 321 - Storytelling for Business with Rob Wozny

30 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Storytelling is one of the most basic human impulses. And in the digital age, it's also one of the most complex and confusing: how do you choose betwe...

Episode 320 - We can do hard things

23 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In 1907, pioneering psychologist William James wrote this: 'The human individual lives usually far within his limits; he possesses powers of various ...

Episode 319 - TEDx Tips with Catherine Sandland et al

16 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

'If you've got something that's important, meaningful to you, that needs to be heard, why not say it on one of the biggest platforms?' Have you though...

Episode 318 - The Power of Regret with Daniel H. Pink

09 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

'Writing is a form of figuring it out. And in fact for me, sometimes it's essential. It's like, what do you think about this? I don't know, I haven't ...

Episode 317 - Supercharge Me with Eric Lonergan and Corinne Sawers

02 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

'We don't compromise rigour and intellectual honesty, but we try to make it as accessible as possible.' I don't know what you and your life partner ac...

Episode 316 - The Crux with Richard Rumelt

25 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

'The basic failure of strategy work is a failure to define the challenge that you're trying to meet.' Richard Rumelt is one of the world's leading aut...

Episode 315 - Because I Can with Tim Bradshaw

18 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Do you make a difference? Or do you make excuses?  Tim Bradshaw has done many remarkable things in his life, from military training to endurance even...

Episode 314 - Just Ask! with Graham Eisner

11 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

"We all want to grow our business. And we often do that by spending quite a lot of money... But the reality is in front of us, we have all the new cli...

Episode 313 - PR on a Beermat with Louise Third

04 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

'You cannot go into PR without building relationships.' Louise Third has embraced this principle in the planning and writing of her book PR on a Beerm...

Episode 312 - Free-writing with Peter Elbow

28 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

'I think it's kind of a miracle. How can a human mind... all by itself, come up with an idea it never had before? You know, in a dialogue, I can under...

Episode 311 - Accountability with Brian Moran and Michael Lennington

21 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

'Accountability is... probably the most empowering concept you have to live the life you want to live, when you understand it.' When we speak about ac...

Episode 310 - Where do you get your ideas?

14 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Put an author in front of schoolchildren and you can guarantee that before too long, one of them will ask: 'Where do you get your ideas?' It's a good ...

Episode 309 - Fearless writing with Robert Kelsey

07 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

'[Writing] is a craft. It's no different to knitting or painting by numbers or whatever, you just have to learn the craft. It might take practice and ...

Episode 308 - The Future of Time with Helen Beedham

28 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

'I delighted in writing it. That doesn't mean I found it easy.' Time management has been seen as an issue for individuals for too long: Helen Beedham ...

Episode 307 - Invisible Work with John Howkins

21 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

'Expressing an idea and getting it out there is a very skilful process... the principle is to get the other people as interested in the idea you are....

Episode 306 - In/Action with Jinny Uppal

14 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In a world that screams 'Just Do It!', inaction has a bad reputation.  But sometimes, strategic inaction is exactly what the situation demands - and ...

Episode 305 - Things that authors learn (around the campfire)

07 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Anyone can have an idea for a book. Writing, publishing and marketing it? That means becoming an author, and that involves a whole lot of learning.  ...

Episode 304 - Things that editors love

31 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Back in episode 286, I set out a list of things that editors hate and how to avoid them. Apparently that was very helpful, but lots of people have sug...

Episode 303 - Writing a handbook with David Grayson

24 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

"We knew that a handbook had to be incredibly practical... we tried to help people to really work through the stages that you need to think about." Th...

Episode 302 - Writing it all down with Cathy Rentzenbrink

17 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

'It starts off as me working out what I think, and then it becomes something I'm going to share with other people... The point at which I allow myself...

Episode 301 - The serendipity mindset with Dr Christian Busch

10 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

They told Christian Busch that it would be 'academic suicide' to do a PhD on the science of luck. But it turns out that luck isn't a random force at a...

Episode 300 - The writer's network

03 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A great way to celebrate a new year and a tricentenary episode: a 'best bits' compilation of wisdom from recent guests talking about one of the most i...

Episode 299 - A Twixtmas meditation

27 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

'We're designed as cyclical creatures, from the most basic microcycle of breathing in and out to the annual cycle of the seasons, and if the New Year ...

Episode 298 - The commissioning editor's view with Eloise Cook

20 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

What DO commissioning editors look for in business book proposals? Eloise Cook is the publisher responsible for Pearson's business list, and in this c...

Episode 297 - The 12-week Year for Writers with Trevor Thrall

13 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

'No one wants to be preached at or talked down to, or made to believe it's fancier than it is. This is not rocket science. This is just good, plain co...

Episode 296 - Unprepared to Entrepreneur with Sonya Barlow

06 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

'What's the worst that can happen?' It might not sound like the most positive of mantras, but that simple question lies behind Sonya Barlow's astonish...

Episode 295 - Book production secrets with Jo Bottrill

29 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

What's the magic by which the Word document you've been working on for so many weeks and months is transformed into a book? Jo Bottrill, head of Newge...

Episode 294 - Built on Rock with Michael Buckworth

22 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

"Talk to anybody who will listen about your idea. That's the way that you improve it." Michael Buckworth is an anomaly: a lawyer who's also an entrepr...

Episode 293 - The Long Game with Dorie Clark

15 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

'You have to be good enough and you have to be persistent, [and] if you combine those two things together, then if you keep putting yourself in new si...

Episode 292 - Lunchtime Learning with Lucy Ryan

08 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

'I came to writing really late. I was told I couldn't write... I had no first degree. I came to learning at 40 plus with an idea that I couldn't write...

Episode 291 - The Art of Questions with Michael Leckie

01 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

'It's not that you're wrong. You're just no longer right. And that's a big difference.' Michael Leckie has built his career on asking good questions a...

Episode 290 - The Best Bits: Words have power

25 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

"We sometimes forget the value, or the power, or the impact of words because, 'Hey, we're speaking the whole time, or we're writing the whole time... ...

Episode 289 - Medium, message and meaning with Jeremy Kourdi

18 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

'Why would you write 28 books? To get good at some of the stuff that you're writing about.' As well as writing those 28 books, Jeremy Kourdi has exper...