The Extraordinary Business Book Club
Episodes
Episode 189 - Podcast publicity tips with Kelly Glover
28 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Kelly Glover is the queen of podcast promo. She's booked thousands of authors, entrepreneurs and experts as guests on top podcasts and taught them how...
Episode 188 - From our Frankfurt correspondent
21 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Another Frankfurt Book Fair, another series of fascinating book-related conversations, but this year I managed to capture just a few of them for the b...
Episode 187 - 10 top tips for reading business books
14 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
At the start of 2019 I set myself the ambitious target of reading 100 business books in the year. Now we are 78% of the way through the year, and I am...
Episode 186 - Talking Business Books with Andrew Hill
07 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
'It sometimes feels like I get to see every business book published.' As managing editor and business book reviewer for the Financial Times, not to me...
Episode 185 - Fear, Money, Purpose with Nancy Youssef
30 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
'But that's really vulnerable. I don't really want people to read that.' 'Well, that's your story. And if you really want to give this your best shot...
Episode 184 - True Profit Business with Karen Skidmore
23 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
'We build the road and the road builds us.' Sometimes, writing a business book can be a profound experience of self-discovery. Karen Skidmore descri...
Episode 183 - Free Range Humans with Marianne Cantwell
16 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Writing a book is rocket-fuel for your profile, of course. But what happens five years later, when your thinking and your business have moved on and y...
Episode 182 - Leadership and Language with Chris Hirst
09 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
There's a lot of hot air expended on the topic of leadership. It can seem as though 'leadership' is a complex, arcane concept far removed from the rea...
Episode 181 - Improv and business with Norm Laviolette
02 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
If you need some encouragement to write in your own voice, this could be just what you need. Norm Laviolette could have called his book 'Developing a ...
Episode 180 - The Best Bits
26 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The last few episodes of The Extraordinary Business Book club have included some extraordinary conversations about business and books, and one thing t...
Episode 179 - Creative Thinking with Chris Griffiths
19 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
'Today, if you always do what you've always done, even if you do it faster, you're going to get left way behind... it's not knowledge that's power and...
Episode 178 - Believe Build Become with Debbie Wosskow and Anna Jones
12 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
'We wanted to create a monster global sisterhood of amazing women who have each other's backs.' Old Boys' Networks have been the invisible scaffolding...
Episode 177 - Powered by Change with Jonathan MacDonald
05 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Jonathan MacDonald is extraordinary in many ways: a victim of bullying as a child who grew up to practise 'radical forgiveness', the youngest ever Cha...
Episode 176 - Future Fit with Andrea Clarke
29 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
'The discovery process is everything. It's the whole project.' Andrea Clarke describes the three months she spent writing her book as being in 'a pu...
Episode 175 - Plain Speaking with Charlie Corbett
22 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
'We've got more ways to communicate with one another than in any time in human history, and yet we've completely forgotten how to communicate with one...
Episode 174 - Work Fuel with Colette Heneghan
15 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
'If you ask people do they have a plan for the week, do they know where they need to be, do they know the clients that they'll be meeting, they've pre...
Episode 173 - The book of the future with Tom Cheesewright
08 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The young Tom Cheesewright found his purpose in life when his mother bought him a copy of the 1979 Usborne Book of the Future. Now he's an Applied Fut...
Episode 172 - Writing and creativity with Harriet Kelsall
01 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
You might not think of yourself as 'a creative', but if you're an entrepreneur or a business book author that's exactly what you are, insists award-wi...
Episode 171 - Writing and AI with Chris Duffey
24 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
What if you had some help writing your book: a collaborator to transcribe your ideas, do the grunt work of researching huge amounts of material, boun...
Episode 170 - The Best Bits
17 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
A few of the stand-out moments from the last few Extraordinary Business Book Club episodes - this week we're asking.... why? Why write a book, when ...
Episode 169 - Improv and writing with Neil Mullarkey
10 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
'Improv is always, "Let's just start something now. We don't know where it's going to go, but we'll start now. Whatever tools, whatever cast we have."...
Episode 168 - The Numbers Business with Della Hudson
03 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Think you're in a profession that doesn't lend itself to writing a book? Della Hudson trained as a chemist and is now an accountant, but her book The ...
Episode 167 - The Learning Imperative with Mark Burns
27 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
'Think about your audience. What stones do they have in their shoes? And what possibilities do they dream of?' And with this great advice from his e...
Episode 166 - Defining You with Fiona Murden
20 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Self-development books are big business - but is it just navel-gazing on the hand or esoteric theory on the other? 'At the end of the day people wan...
Episode 165 - Work the Future Today with Whitney Vosburgh
13 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
When we talk about 'the future', we're subconsciously distancing ourselves from some indefinite, hypothetical construct. But in reality, argues Whitne...
Episode 164 - The Reality Check
06 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Something a bit different this week: I buttonholed some of the top voices in the book industry at last week's IPG Spring Conference and asked them: W...
Episode 163 - All In with David Grayson
29 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
'What is the business case for being unsustainable?' Professor David Grayson has been involved in social enterprise before it was even a thing, and ov...
Episode 162 - How to Have a Happy Hustle with Bec Evans
22 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
'[The principles behind the book were those of] the lean startup: build, measure, learn, which meant running experiments, testing stuff with users and...
Episode 161 - Mindfulness for Leaders with Dr Audrey Tang
15 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
'Mindfulness is… all about recognising where we're coming from, and who we are, and how we like to think, and where we're going with all that inform...
Episode 160 - The Best Bits
08 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
A few of the stand-out moments from the last few Extraordinary Business Book Club episodes - there's a celebratory feel as it marks the fifth birthday...
Episode 159 - PR for Humans with Mike Sergeant
01 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As a journalist, Mike Sergeant's job was to communicate complex issues clearly and quickly. He had to find within huge geopolitical issues the human s...
Episode 158 - Always Time for Coffee with Kate Minchin
25 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Kate Minchin claims her entire career has been built on a mountain of coffee beans. Which sounds a bit precarious, but you get the idea: getting the ...
Episode 157 - Reflections on the London Book Fair
18 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Fresh [sic] from the London Book Fair 2019, where Practical Inspiration Publishing was an exhibitor, this week's episode is a reflection on the big th...
Episode 156 - Funny Business with Brendan Barns
11 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
'Our events are a bit like a business book; a business book should give you new ideas, cutting edge content, stuff that you haven't thought about befo...
Episode 155 - The Amazon effect with Natalie Berg and Miya Knights
04 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Amazon has revolutionised retail, and it's showing no signs of stopping. To understand the Amazon effect, and consider what might be coming next, we n...
Episode 154 - Upskilling with Chris Watson
25 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
'Wouldn't it be helpful if somehow you could anticipate the key skills that would be needed in the future to support people's professional growth?' An...
Episode 153 - New narratives with Anjali Ramachandran
18 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
'Constantly trying to be open to knowing about things that we're not that comfortable with, I think that's important.' Most of us live inside a bubble...
Episode 152 - Blinkist - finding books with Niklas Jansen
11 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
'We have trailers and teasers about a movie. So why shouldn't there be a teaser or trailer for a book?' When Niklas Jansen graduated he knew he wanted...
Episode 151 - Design, creativity and joy with Niki Schafer
04 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Designers look at life differently, and writers can learn a lot from their approach. Niki Schafer's aim as an interior designer is to design happiness...
Episode 150 - The Sesquicentennial Best Bits
28 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
There aren't many opportunities to slip the word 'sesquicentennial' into conversation, so make the most of this one by recommending it, casual-like, t...
Episode 149 - Building out the brand with Graham Allcott
21 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Graham Allcott is one of the most productive people I know. Which isn't surprising. His book How to be a Productivity Ninja was a huge success when it...
Episode 148 - Disrupting Yourself with Whitney Johnson
14 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
'We are learning machines. It's the biology of who we are.' We're used to thinking about disruption as a force that shapes industries, products and se...
Episode 147 - The Children's Fire with Mac Macartney
07 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In a world facing unprecedented social and ecological challenges, Mac Macartney has a challenge for businesses: 'There is no organisation in this worl...
Episode 146 - The Reading and Writing Resolutions Special
31 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
What one habit will make the biggest difference to you and your business in 2019? Billionaire Mark Cuban puts his success down to the fact that he s...
Episode 145 - The Mother of All Jobs with Christine Armstrong
24 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
If you're a working parent, you won't need telling that this isn't really working. You might not, however, be aware that it's not working for pretty m...
Episode 144 - The Post-Truth Business with Sean Pillot de Chenecey
17 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Oxford University Press identified 'post-truth' as its Word of 2016, in the wake of both Trump and Brexit campaigns, and we've all been quietly adjust...
Episode 143 - The future of work with Alexandra Levit
10 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The days of getting one degree and working your way up the ranks with one employer are long gone, says Alexandra Levit. In the future of work: 'You ha...
Episode 142 - The Crucible's Gift with Dr James Kelley
03 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Why does adversity make some leaders and break others? Dr James Kelley stumbled across the answer - he thought he was going to write a book on corpora...
Episode 141 - Lead Like a Coach with Karen Morley
26 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Karen Morley knew there'd be no problem writing about the principles of leading like a coach, and she found it relatively easy to structure her ideas ...
Episode 140 - The Best Bits
19 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
A few of my favourite moments from the last few Extraordinary Business Book Club episodes, and this time we're thinking about grit, which comes throug...
Episode 139 - Being the champion of your book with Pete Williams
12 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Writing a great book is a good start. But it's only a start. After that comes the marketing, which is every bit as important as the writing. 'If you...
Episode 138 - Talking out the book with Elaine Halligan
05 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Elaine Halligan has an extraordinary story. Her journey to becoming one of the world's leading parenting experts began with her own son's difficulties...
Episode 137 - Making the Boat Go Faster with Ben Hunt-Davis
29 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
'While we're doing one thing, let's just do it as well as we can and make sure we are spending our time, of which we have so little, let's spend it w...
Episode 136 - The Leadership Lab with Pippa Malmgren
22 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
'A 20th-century leader was very analytical, it's all about the drill-down into detail and numbers. But frankly, that did not serve us very well, and ...
Episode 135 - Be More Pirate with Sam Conniff Allende
15 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
"You've got to ask yourself what is more important. Is it selling books, or starting a movement?" Sam Conniff Allende is in the business of movement-m...
Episode 134 - Real Confidence with Michelle Sales
08 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
'Now, I look at work and life and what I know in a different way, it's almost like I'm attuned to looking for opportunities to bring my thinking toge...
Episode 133 - Ghostwriting and Frankendrafts with Derek Lewis
01 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
'The first draft of the manuscript is just ugly. There are pieces, and parts, and this part doesn't match that part. It looks like a Frankenstein mons...
Episode 132 - Design your life with Ayse Birsel
24 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
'When you're being creative, all you're trying to do is see the same things differently, and from that, see if you can drive new ideas, solutions and ...
Episode 131 - An Unforgettable Launch with Michael Brown
17 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
This is a very special episode for lots of reasons. Firstly because it's shorter than usual. Secondly because much of it was recorded live at one of t...
Episode 130 - The Best Bits!
10 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
A hand-picked selection of treasures from the last few Extraordinary Business Book Club episodes, with the focus on other people - how can they help y...
Episode 129 - Happy Money with Elizabeth Dunn
03 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Money can't buy you happiness - unless you're smart about it. Dr Elizabeth Dunn reveals the surprising ways in which money CAN make us happier, and al...
Episode 128 - Writing and speaking with Hugh Culver
27 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Hugh Culver has done a lot of stuff in his life - from leading adventure holidays in the Antarctic to giving keynote speeches to companies and confere...
Episode 127 - Leading Through Uncertainty with Jude Jennison
20 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Horses don't care what your job title is. They're not impressed by the car you drive. The only way a horse will follow you is if it trusts you. And it...
Episode 126 - Writing backwards with Andrew Davis
13 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
'I've finally decided that I really should be writing books backwards.' Instead of locking himself away in a room to write a book (as he did first tim...
Episode 125 - Getting social with Michelle Carvill
06 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
For many CEOs, 'doing' social media is terrifying. Much easier to hire a millennial to do it for you. But in a world in which trust in corporates is a...
Episode 124 - Finding your story with Martin Norbury
30 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Most business book authors aren't professional writers. Martin Norbury failed his English O-level twice, but he knew that he had a story to tell that ...
Episode 123 - Becoming a Superhero with Sarah Windrum
23 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
What's your mission statement? We can get caught up in business - and indeed in business writing - in showcasing ourselves. We airbrush the version ...
Episode 122 - The Paula Principle with Tom Schuller
16 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In the 1960s, Professor Laurence Peter articulated the famous Peter Principle: that an employee in a hierarchy tends to be promoted to 'his level of i...
Episode 121 - Reaching Out with Molly Beck
09 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
'The more people you know, the more stuff you get done. It's as simple as that.' But reaching out is an art: targeting the right people, approaching t...
Episode 120 - The Best Bits!
02 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Highlights from the last few Extraordinary Business Book Club episodes, with a focus on fixing the problem every writer cares about: how to get going ...
Episode 119 - Writing to change the world with Euan Semple
25 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Think that what you say on the internet has no impact? Euan Semple says think again. 'An avalanche only ever happens because the last snowflake fall...
Episode 118 - Longitudinal writing with Sarah Kessler
18 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The gig economy - flexible and empowering, or exploitative and uncertain? Sarah Kessler is fascinated by how work is changing, and her book Gigged fol...
Episode 117 - Creativity and collaboration with Roger Mavity
11 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Former ad man, CEO of both the Granada and Conran Groups and Chairman of Citigate, Roger Mavity is also a renowned author, artist and photographer. ...
Episode 116 - Collaborative Advantage with Paul Skinner
04 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We've been stuck on the idea of competitive advantage as the key to strategy for a long time now. Paul Skinner thinks it's had its day. 'Where compe...
Episode 115 - After the Awards with Campbell Macpherson
28 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Campbell Macpherson hasn't really stopped grinning since March, when I handed him the Business Book of the Year trophy at the Business Book Awards cer...
Episode 114 - High-Fidelity Publishing with Barbara Gray
21 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
"I don't want people to buy my book." That's a sentence I honestly don't think I've heard an author say before, ever. But Barbara Gray's vision for ...
Episode 113 - Friend of a Friend with David Burkus
14 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Networking is (quite literally, it turns out) a 'dirty word', but Dr David Burkus brings together studies and stories that show how we've got it wrong...
Episode 112 - Apology-free writing with Denise Duffield-Thomas
07 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
"People feel like, if they haven't been 'chosen', then 'Who am I to write a book?'... I just think: don't wait to be chosen. If this is something you ...
Episode 111 - Unsafe Thinking with Jonah Sachs
30 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
"There's this comfortable way of thinking that we're programmed by evolution to enjoy, which is thinking in patterns. That makes life so much easier ...
Episode 110 - The Best Bits!
23 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Another helping of best bits from recent episode: we're talking about 'fast books' and 'slow books' - which kind is yours? - writing with a co-author,...
Episode 109 - Books and business models with Steve Scott
16 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Steve Scott started writing and publishing to build his business, but pretty soon his business became writing and publishing books: he now has more th...
Episode 108 - The story behind This Book Means Business with Alison Jones
09 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Something a bit different this week: I interview myself to pull out some of the learnings from the process of writing This Book Means Business, a book...
Episode 107 - Playful publishing with Jurgen Appelo
02 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Leadership expert Jurgen Appelo's advice to first-time authors is simple: 'Iterate.' He goes on to explain: 'You need a feedback cycle. You need to kn...
Episode 106 - The Business Book Awards with Lucy McCarraher
26 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
On 16 March 2018, the inaugural Business Book Awards ceremony took place in London. It was an extraordinary occasion, bringing together the top names ...
Episode 105 - Report from the frontline of independent publishing
19 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Something a little different this week: a report from the bleeding edge of the publishing industry, also known as the IPG Spring Conference. This is o...
Episode 104 - Collaboration & design with Edgar Papke & Thomas Lockwood
12 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Have you ever thought of business as art? Edgar Papke and Thomas Lockwood, experts in organizational culture and design respectively, wanted to encour...
Episode 103 - Writing down the music with Elaine Gould
05 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Music notation may seem a world away from business books, but the parallels are striking: when music editor Elaine Gould wrote what was to become the ...
Episode 102 - Pre-suasion with Robert Cialdini
26 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We like to think of ourselves as rational beings. But over the last 30 years or so behavioural science and psychological research has conclusively pro...
Episode 101 - Hiding in the bathroom with Morra Aarons-Mele
19 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
'I always wanted to write a book... but it was never my time. My husband wrote a book, my father passed away, I have three little kids, I mean, I have...
Episode 100 - The Centenary Celebrations!
12 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Join me to celebrate 100 episodes of The Extraordinary Business Book Club! I puzzled over how to mark this milestone for a while, but in the end I dec...
Episode 99 - The Culture Code with Daniel Coyle
05 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
'We're all continually learning. Learning is a kind of scaffolding. To me, that's the most beautiful metaphor for writing a book and for learning in l...
Episode 98 - Doughnut Economics with Kate Raworth
26 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
'If five years ago somebody had said to me, "So you know, Kate, are you ever going to write a book?" I would have said, "No, no, no, no, no. I don't w...
Episode 97: Publishing from all sides with David Roche
22 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
David Roche has seen publishing from pretty much every angle: publisher, bookseller, author, reader, mentor, consultant and industry maven. He's been...
Episode 96 - Turning talks into books with Miranda West
15 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
How do you turn a great talk into a great book? It's not as easy as you might think. Miranda West is the founder of Do Books, which originated with ...
Episode 95 - Content marketing & books with Joe Pulizzi
08 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Joe Pulizzi is 'the godfather of content marketing'. Founder of the Content Marketing Institute and author of five books (one every two years), he has...
Episode 94 - New Year, New Writing Habits
01 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to 2018 - what are you planning to do with it? If the answer - in part at least - is 'some worthwhile writing', this episode is for you. I've ...
Episode 93 - Christmas Special 2017
25 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Pour a glass of sherry, munch on a mince pie, and put your feet up with a few of my absolute favourite moments EVER from the Extraordinary Business Bo...
Episode 92 - Trusted with Lyn Bromley & Donna Whitbrook
18 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The launch of Trusted was a very special occasion. When one of my authors has a book launch it's ALWAYS a special occasion, of course, but this one wa...
Episode 91 - The business book in the arena with Raj Nair
11 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Raj Nair hasn't written a business book (yet). As Executive Vice President and President, North America of the Ford Motor Company, leading one of the...
Episode 90 - The Best Bits
04 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Another satisfying helping of the choicest morsels of practical inspiration served up by recent guests. Listen to: Dr Lynda Shaw (business neurosc...