The Extraordinary Business Book Club
Episodes
Episode 288 - Why weren't we taught this at school? with Alice Sheldon
11 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
'I would encourage every author to have their own-book-shaped plan and their own-marketing-shape plan that is theirs, because that is what creates the...
Episode 287 - Writing and happiness with Megan Hayes
04 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
'The individual is a research project, every time we try something new we're being a kind of scientist in our own life.' Megan Hayes studied the links...
Episode 286 - Things that editors hate (and how to avoid them)
27 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When you're writing a business book - or indeed any business writing - WHAT you're saying is the most important thing, of course. But HOW you say it...
Episode 285 - Inclusive AF with Jen O'Ryan
20 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
'They need to be able to 'get' the concepts that I'm trying to convey in whatever space they have available on the top of their phone screen.' Used to...
Episode 284 - The Art of Enough with Becky Hall
13 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
'How can we fall back in love with the idea of enough as a way of living, so that we stop striving and start thriving?' The Art of Enough is the chall...
Episode 283 - Exponential with Azeem Azhar
06 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Humans don't easily 'get' exponential growth - we've evolved in a linear world, and the pace of change we're facing now can leave us wrong-footed and ...
Episode 282 - Author-speakers with Bobbie Carlton
09 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
'Author-speakers... are often people who are true thought leaders, on a mission to share their knowledge. And yes, there are people who blog and there...
Episode 281 - Mental fitness with Jodie Rogers
02 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
'There's something about the writing process, the words on the page, just holding you accountable in some way to your thinking.' Jodie Rogers has iden...
Episode 280 - The Best Bits: The joy of business books
26 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We talk a lot on this show about the grind of writing business books, and indeed of business in general, but there's a lot of joy to be found in the p...
Episode 279 - Wot the Book! with Leanne Hamley
19 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
'We wanted to explore how books, which seem to be a real missing link in the corporate world, could be brought in and really used to enhance people's ...
Episode 278 - Boring2Brave with Mark Choueke
12 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
'Be a bit braver with what you define to be a business book, you don't need to follow a template.' Why is B2B marketing typically so dull? Whereas con...
Episode 277 - Making Workshops Work with Penny Pullan
05 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Penny Pullan was talking about virtual leadership and running virtual events long before it was fashionable - now that the rest of the world has caugh...
Episode 276 - The thousand-day lessons
28 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Earlier this year, I passed the 1,000-day mark in my #goldenyear running streak. In this week's episode, I reflect on what I've learned from building ...
Episode 275 - Born Digital with Robert Wigley
21 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Much handwringing goes on over the impact of technology on young people. Many domestic disputes centre on the amount of screentime that should or shou...
Episode 274 - Breaking rules with Jackie Fast
14 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
'You don't have to have everything figured out when you sit down at your computer.... just start writing.' Jackie Fast sees writing a book just like e...
Episode 273 - Work on your Game with Dre Baldwin
07 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
"I don't care how big of a following you have, who your publisher is, what kind of marketing plan you put together, how big of an influencer you are:...
Episode 272 - Three Peaks Leadership with Philip Levinson
31 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
'Taking an all-seeing, all-knowing, conquering, dictatorial approach to managing people is going to land you in a world of pain.' Philip Levinson al...
Episode 271 - You Lead with Minter Dial
24 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
'What elements of your imperfection are you going to bring to the table?' That's the powerful question that strategist and storyteller Minter Dial pos...
Episode 270 - The Best Bits: Writing what you need to learn
17 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It's one of the great paradoxes of business books that they're written by experts, but the process of writing them is itself what builds expertise. In...
Episode 269 - Own Your Day with Diana Marsland and Julie Nerney
10 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
'This experience has taught me, like a lot of the work I do in life, that where you start isn't necessarily where you'll end up... the book we've writ...
Episode 268 - Effortless with Greg McKeown
03 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
'One of the first principles to make progress in writing is to have the courage to be rubbish because all writing, literally absolutely all of it, sta...
Episode 267 - The Family Business with Keel Hunt
26 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In our fascination with tech start-ups and big corporates, we might be tempted to overlook the family business. Keel Hunt describes Ingram as 'the qui...
Episode 266 - Ahead of her time with Judy Piatkus
19 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
'I think we're going to have another watershed moment... there's going to be business pre-pandemic and business post-pandemic. And I wonder how many b...
Episode 265 - Struggling with Grace Marshall
12 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
'Productivity isn't just about efficiency.' As a Productivity Ninja, Grace Marshall was used to helping people who were struggling - with overloaded i...
Episode 264 - Toxic with Clive Lewis
05 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
'The hardest part is getting started, getting that first paragraph on the page. And once I've been able to do that, generally for me, my writing then ...
Episode 263 - Lead Beyond the Edge with Frederique Murphy
29 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
'The reason why I was able to write it in 12 weeks is that I mapped out my entire book, sticky note by sticky note... And then I was relentless. I jus...
Episode 262 - No Filter with Sarah Frier
22 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Instagram has had a massive impacting in shaping our culture over the last decade - it's redefined our measures of success and celebrity. It's easy no...
Episode 261 - Let's Play with John Williams
15 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
'Everything is sales... the title should sell people on reading the subtitle, the subtitle should sell people on flipping it over to look at the blurb...
Episode 261 - Let's Play with John Williams
15 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
'Everything is sales... the title should sell people on reading the subtitle, the subtitle should sell people on flipping it over to look at the blurb...
Episode 260 - The Best Bits: Finding courage
08 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Writing a business book is a particularly visible form of leadership - how do you find the courage for that? In this week's look back through my most ...
Episode 259 - Just doing it with Drew Ellis
01 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
'If you can just get over the fear of failure and treat failure as a learning process, then... you're going to go on to do some great stuff.' From des...
Episode 258 - Launching While Female with Susanne Althoff
22 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
'In a way you have to be really cocky and bold to say I'm going to write a business book and it's going to be worthwhile and lots of people will want ...
Episode 257 - Happy Ever After with the $7 Millionaire
15 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
For most of the guests on this show, writing a business book is part of building a personal and professional brand. This week I talk to someone who ha...
Episode 256 - Make Your Own Map with Kathryn Bishop
08 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
'By the way, do you have a strategy for you? Because if you don't, you should.' That throwaway line in a top-level strategic meeting was a game-change...
Episode 255 - Experimenting with Steven Van Belleghem
01 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Steven Van Belleghem sees opportunities to experiment everywhere. When he works with brands like Google, Microsoft, and Disney to help them combine te...
Episode 254 - Influence with Sara McCorquodale
25 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
No business can ignore social media influencers these days, they're part of the fabric of our lives both personally and professionally. But what are t...
Episode 253 - Nine Types of Leader with James Ashton
18 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Having interviewed hundreds of CEOs as a journalist, James Ashton started to notice some patterns. He got curious. In this fast-changing world, where ...
Episode 252 - Leadership and love with Yetunde Hofmann
11 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
"Organizations, not government... hold the key to change in the world, and therefore when we write, we've got to write with the business, the organiza...
Episode 251 - Project Future with Rob Kerr
04 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As a project manager, Rob Kerr was accustomed to evaluating options and allocating scarce resources for maximum impact. The magic happened, however, w...
Episode 250 - The Best Bits: Questions & answers
28 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We often say that something raises more questions than answers as if that's a bad thing - but perhaps it's a more dangerous state of affairs when we h...
Episode 249 - Powered by Purpose with Sarah Rozenthuler
21 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
'The writing process took about four years and the actual material gathering for the book probably took more like 15 years...' Sarah Rozenthuler, psyc...
Episode 248 - Reflective practice with Gillie Bolton
14 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
"As writers, what we need to do is find an occasion when that usher is off duty and we can get up there and nip behind the curtain." Gillie Bolton ess...
Episode 247 - Speaking to the future
07 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
'It is good to speak to the future, the future will listen.' Those were the words of Ptahhotep, an ancient Egyptian vizier, who lived back in the 25th...
Episode 246 - Shaping and shifting with Jonas Altman
30 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
'I have a lot of enthusiasm. I bring in so many things and often the reader [is] like, where are we going?' Jonas Altman finds writing hard. Which is ...
Episode 245 - Sorting the spaghetti with Dave Coplin
23 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
"When you're trying to create something, when you're trying to change something, when you're trying to think differently about something, writing for ...
Episode 244 - Purpose Ignited with Dr Alise Cortez
16 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
So many people [are] skimming the surface of what they can be and do in the world. And I was too. So often in life and at work it can feel as if we're...
Episode 243 - Bookshop.org with Jasper Sutcliffe
09 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
'A town isn't a town without a bookstore. It may call itself a town, but unless it's got a bookstore, it knows it's not foolin' a soul.' - Neil Gaima...
Episode 242 - Making the world shut up with Uri Bram
02 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
'With a book you're not just paying for the pages you read, you're paying for someone to make the rest of the world shut up for a minute while you ca...
Episode 241 - Infinite Leadership with Dr Pippa Malmgren
26 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
'If you are in a position of real power and authority, it's the dialogue with yourself that defines your capacity to run an organization.' Dr Pippa Ma...
Episode 240 - The Best Bits: The Writing Lab
19 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In some ways every week on the Extraordinary Business Book Club we're talking about the results of a book-writing experiment - and many books are them...
Episode 239 - The Long Win with Cath Bishop
12 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Cath Bishop has performed at the highest standard in three very different fields: sport, international negotiation, and business coaching. An Olympic ...
Episode 238 - Attention! with Rob Hatch
05 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
"We are bombarded every single day by buzzes and dings and notifications... I wanted to help people find some simple ways to reclaim the power of the...
Episode 237 - People Stuff with Zoë Routh
28 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
"Some days it feels like an emotional connection with the people who need to hear it. And those are good article days... it's a great pleasure when pe...
Episode 236 - Unpacking stories with Shuhrat Ashurov
21 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The best business books include powerful stories that get across key points in a memorable, engaging way. What if we could make those stories accessib...
Episode 235 - Misadventures with Gayle Mann and Lucy-Rose Walker
14 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
'Failure can be quite a deceptive word... misadventures feels like a much more forgiving word that allows you to go off and try stuff.' Gayle Mann and...
Episode 234 - Being Less Zombie with Elvin Turner
07 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
"Being open to the journey of innovation of your own book is really important..." Someone told Elvin Turner as he prepared to write his first book to ...
Episode 233 - Loving your imposter with Rita Clifton
31 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Imposter syndrome gets a bad rap, but it can be rocket fuel, says Rita Clifton. 'It's a drive, you know, go with it and use it.... you worry that you'...
Episode 232 - Lessons from the Virtual Writing Retreat
24 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Q: What do you get when you throw together a bunch of people all working on different business writing projects into a 2-week virtual retreat? A: Lo...
Episode 231 - The Writer's Process with Anne Janzer
17 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
'Writing is a way of doing something physically while thinking deeply, it's a container for deep thought in your life. If you think about it that way,...
Episode 230 - The Best Bits: The Journey of Writing
10 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Yes it's a cliché that writing is a journey, but that's because it's TRUE. In this week's Best Bits episode I look back over the last few conversatio...
Episode 229 - Authors and events with Sasha Frieze
03 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How are events changing in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic, and what does that mean for you if you're an author? Award-winning events producer ...
Episode 228 - Busy@Home with Tony Crabbe
27 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In a pandemic, we discover that we can do things we'd never imaged we could. Companies that have told staff for years that they can't work at home hav...
Episode 227 - Mission: To Manage with Marianne Page
20 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
'Systems transform lives.' After discovering the power of systems and processes in her career with McDonalds, Marianne Page now spends her time teachi...
Episode 226 - Relationships at work with Richard Fox
13 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
'It's part of building a physical legacy. The work that I do now, working with people all the time, you are aware of the changes that people make in t...
Episode 225 - Leader with Katy Granville-Chapman and Emmie Bidston
06 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
"Leaders... really can bring a lot of joy into people's lives. They can uplift them, they can inspire them, they can help them connect to their purpos...
Episode 224 - 65 Roses and a Trunki with Rob Law
29 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
"When faced with personal challenges and business challenges, it's going to take a lot of energy to overcome them. So why not use that energy wisely a...
Episode 223 - Smoke and Mirrors with Gemma Milne
22 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
'Writing the book was one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life... There's no quick fix. Everybody finds it hard. What differentiates people...
Episode 222 - Future-Proofed with Tom Cheesewright
15 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Tom Cheesewright spends his life gazing into the future to help businesses identify and respond to trends and technology, but his advice for writers i...
Episode 221 - Writing like a journalist with Rachel Bridge
08 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
'Ask yourself continually: is this boring me?... Because if you're bored writing it, there is no chance that anybody is going to want to read it.' F...
Episode 220 - The Best Bits: Whole Self Writing
01 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
One of the great privileges of hosting this podcast is the way that so many extraordinary business book authors are willing to share the vulnerable st...
Episode 219 - Jigsaw writing with Patrick Dunne
25 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
'I decided not to do research, then write, then polish, but to have a big jigsaw approach, and do each day what I felt like doing. So if I felt like d...
Episode 218 - Being a Change Superhero with Lucinda Carney
18 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
If you're overthinking things and tying yourself in knots, make a cup of tea and have a listen to this. Lucinda Carney is a woman who Gets Stuff Done,...
Episode 217 - The Master Plan with Chris Wilson
11 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Just occasionally, you have a conversation that rocks you to your core. One of those conversations that shows you how little you really know of life, ...
Episode 216 - Step Up Step Back with Elsbeth Johnson
04 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
'In leadership communication, and indeed in the process of writing a business book, the more and better the quality and time spent on the thinking, t...
Episode 215 - Soft Skills Hard Results with Anne Taylor
27 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
'The more I shared my personal experience... the more vulnerability I showed, the more impact it had when I got feedback from other readers.' It's ama...
Episode 214 - The Human Edge with Greg Orme
20 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The opportunities for celebration aren't what they used to be right now ('I treat myself and visit the kitchen every now and then..'), but Greg Orme i...
Episode 213 - Watertight Marketing with Bryony Thomas
13 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
'Anyone who says writing a book is something you can do in 12 weeks or something is just telling people to write a bad book. ' It took Bryony Thomas f...
Episode 212 - The Monday Revolution with David Mansfield
06 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
David Mansfield has a library of business books at home. Many of them are very good, many include great concepts and strategies. But he kept finding h...
Episode 211 - The Simplicity Principle with Julia Hobsbawm
30 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
'It was actually like falling in love, if I'm honest.' If you've fallen out of love with writing your book and even with your own ideas, this is just ...
Episode 210 - The Best Bits: Resilience
23 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A slightly unusual Best Bits episode, which is fitting for these unusual times. In the face of uncertainty and anxiety, we're talking about resilience...
Episode 209 - Resilience and writing with Jenny Campbell
16 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
What does it mean to be resilient, and how can we become more resilient more often? That is Jenny Campbell's life work, and her findings at The Resear...
Episode 208 - Writing short books with Hassan Osman
09 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
'I'd love to write a book, but I have a full-time job and a family, I just don't have time.' If that sounds like you, you need to hear this. Hassan ...
Episode 207 - Treating your writing like a business
02 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The dictionary defines 'business' as 'work relating to the production, buying, and selling of goods or services.' So if you're writing a book that you...
Episode 206 - Crazy ideas with Celia Gaze
24 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
When she decided to quit a good job in the NHS to develop a run-down farm, people thought Celia Gaze was crazy. When business was flagging and her res...
Episode 205 - Loonshots with Safi Bahcall
17 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
What does it take to write the most-recommended business book of the year? Safi Bahcall, author of Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win ...
Episode 204 - The One About Fear
10 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Writing a book, like doing pretty much anything that matters, involves a quantity of fear. Many people let it stop them, and instead spend their time ...
Episode 203 - Personalization with Rob Baker
03 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
'If we feel there's some of us, our fingerprints in the work that we do, and we're able to make a difference in the work that we do, and it's aligned ...
Episode 202 - Unfair Advantages with Ash Ali and Hasan Kubba
27 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
'We followed the lean startup principles of creating a product... we actually did an MVP version of our book... we kept testing our material... And we...
Episode 201 - Hype Yourself with Lucy Werner
20 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
If you have excuses, be prepared to shed them now... Lucy Werner's book story is quite simply extraordinary. Having entered the 10-day Business Book P...
Episode 200 - The Bicentenary Episode
13 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Celebrate with me - The Extraordinary Business Book Club is 200 episodes young! So along with the Best Bits of the last few (absolutely brilliant) con...
Episode 199 - New Year Special: Goal Setting
06 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
No matter how many you've seen, there's still something a bit special about a new year: however 2019 panned out for you, 2020 is a blank canvas waitin...
Episode 198 - The Top Ten Reads of 2019
30 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
I set myself a tough challenge for 2019: read 100 business books in the year. It was a close thing, but I hit my target (if we allow manuscripts as we...
Episode 197 – Audio first with Karen Williams
23 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Audio books are big news. But they're also expensive and complicated to produce - or are they? Determined to find out for herself, Karen Williams publ...
Episode 196 - Finding what works with Helen Winter
16 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Writing a book is hard work. One of the best things about this podcast is that so many guests reveal the brilliant, extraordinary, sometimes hilarious...
Episode 195 - Practical Inspiration Author Day takeaways
09 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This week saw the first ever Practical Inspiration author day. More than 40 authors at every stage of the journey - from just signed up to three years...
Episode 194 - Starting Up with Richard Hall and Rachel Bell
02 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
There's never been a more entrepreneurial age. The barriers to entry for setting up a business have crumbled over the last decades while our sense of ...
Episode 193 - People Powered with Jono Bacon
25 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
'It's tempting, especially when you're a consultant, to not share anything. Because you're worried that what you do, what you talk to your clients abo...
Episode 192 - Why are we Yelling? with Buster Benson
18 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
"Half of the reason I decided to do this book was to learn... what does it take to write a book? Not only the process that you go through but what is ...
Episode 191 - Your Business, Your Book with Ginny Carter
11 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
When you write business books for a living, writing your own brings an unexpected problem: 'Sometimes I thought it was quite outrageous, in fact: Hang...
Episode 190 - The Best Bits
04 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Writing a business book is a delicate balancing act between being fully yourself and being fully in service of your reader. How do you "do you" to the...