August 2024
August felt like a really challenging month:
At work, I am currently backfilling a sales role, I have a few parental leaves either in-flight or coming up, and in addition to this, I lead a team of sales people and it’s 4 months until the end of our fiscal year. That’s a lot of work!
In addition to this, Ronnie and I took some time off work to travel to Paris for the Olympics (late Jul to early Aug), had a few pre/wedding celebrations (a local bachelorette, a local wedding, and got ready for a destination wedding), and on top of all of this, we got hit with Charlie getting sick for a few days, me getting completely knocked out by food poisoning and then Ronnie having some work travel. OH… And Charlie started walking!!! Holy-stinking-macaroni.
And yet, as I am putting together this newsletter with all the things that I / we did during the month, I’m like wait… Was August a challenging month? August was also a lot of fun!
I got to see my besties pretty much every weekend, I got to see my mom, dad, and both brothers, I even got to have dinner with my grandma! I got to travel to Paris with my hubby/the love of my life, I got to celebrate a dear friend on her wedding day — she was absolutely stunning and the speeches were some of the best I’ve ever heard, while also getting to catch up with my sorority sisters (in town for the aforementioned wedding) who are the best gals in the world, and I got to get myself ready to go to Napa to celebrate my bestie/podcast co-host Lauren for her wedding to the love of her life! It’s impossible to complain about any of this…
So I think what I am realizing is that I am just freaking tired. August WAS challenging AND fun, and exhausting. And those three things can all exist at the same time when describing the same month.
Maybe that’s just August? But more and more I think I’m realizing that’s just life as a parent? … or maybe, just life? Anyone else?
How was your August?
Alright… onto what you really want from me: some really great books, products, and recipes to enjoy as we all fall into September.
What I read / listened to:
Never Enough by Andrew Wilkinson (I started this but got more excited for the other books, so I stopped reading it, perhaps I will return to it next month)
10x is better than 2x by Benjamin Hardy and Dan Sullivan
THIS BOOK! Wow was it good. One of the big ideas that I loved was this (it’s an analogy, so go with it): If you make it your goal to be a great tennis player, you could hire a ton of different tennis coaches in the world to help you achieve this goal, that takes a lot of time and effort to find the right coach. On the other hand, if you make it your goal to be a triple crown, world champion tennis player, there’s probably about 2 people in this world who you can hire to coach you to the level you need to help you achieve this goal. A person with 50 hours to spend on this goal can either a) interview 50 different coaches to make a decision on who can coach them or b) spend up to 50 hours getting in touch with, preparing for, and having a meeting with the 2 coaches who have trained athletes of this caliber before and who can train you to be the tennis world champion you want to be.
The problem put more generally: People are too general, and too small in their thinking (and therefore coordinating of efforts) of what they want and how they achieve what they want — it’s actually more convoluted figuring out how to be a ‘great tennis player’ than it is to figure out how become a triple crown, world champion tennis player.
The solution, put more generally: If people were more specific and way bigger in their thinking, the path to getting to 10x is actually way easier than 2x.
Why you should read it? So much practical advice on how you can incorporate this type of thinking into your day-to-day work and/or anywhere in your life you want to go 10x.
The big idea: The world has never been more saturated from a consumer products perspective, it makes it insanely hard to compete and win, because “very good” isn’t good enough anymore. Very good, is actually an everyday occurrence. Remarkable, on the other hand, is not. Remarkable is an idea/product/service worth sharing about. And products deliver such an remarkable experience are the winners in today’s market. They win because “Sneezers” (people who tend to try and share their findings about great products earlier than the rest of the world) can’t help but to spread the news of these products, and with the new communication tools consumers have at their disposal (the internet, social media, etc), news has never travelled faster.
Why you should read it?: if you lead marketing for a brand, work with / advise people who do, or you’re considering launching your own thing… there’s some great core ideas here you should be considering ahead of your product design and launch phases.
Excessively Obsessed by Tasha Oakley
The big idea: There is no shortage of remarkable ideas, what’s missing is people with the desire and endurance to build them.
Why you should read it? Well, what this book aims to do is scare you out of the dream of being an entreprenuer thinking it will be ‘better than what you are doing now’ by giving the real real and lessons from an entrepreneur running a hot, $20M/yr consumer business. If you don’t get scared straight after listening, you’ll walk away with a roadmap to starting your own thing without stepping on the common landmines that first time entrepreneurs step on which can be majorly de-railing.
Multipliers by Liz Wiseman (GUILTY — I am currently reading this book, it’s not done yet, but I had to share bc it’s soo good so far)
The big idea: There are two types of leaders in this world: the idea killers/energy sappers AND the amplifiers, who make the people around them feel smarter, more capable, and get creative juices flowing and problem-solving going. You’ve probably worked for both. Your employees are definitely working for one of these types of leaders. Who do you want to be?
Why you should read it: Well, I am currently reading it because my bestie, Tasha (a baddie, who leads employee engagement for a prestigious Global Management Consulting Firm) said it was a life-changing read for becoming a better people leader… Say no more!
This podcast episode on The Newsworthy (my fav daily news show: 10 mins or less of fast, fair, fun news to keep you informed of global and national news) feat. ‘The Lazy Genius’ who talks about her forthcoming productivity book PLAN which helps people do more with their precious time while balancing life around workload.
Why you should listen to it: I think everyone is feeling their workload pick up a bit as the world returns from Summer-Mode into School Year Mode, and I know that prioritization and keeping your mind right during this time can be a challenge. This 20 min podcast episode brought me a lot of clarity and peace this weekend in thinking about my own workload and so I thought I would share in the event it could help any of you. Enjoy!
Where we went:
Paris — We went for the Olympics and it was insane. SOOO fun. My bestie (Lauren Doyle, who wrote the foreword for my book) won a Bronze Medal for Women’s Rugby. Here’s what she had to say to young girls inspired by her journey.
Napa (coming soon)
What we watched:
LOL Ronnie got super into Mission Impossible this month, and each week, we worked our way through the EIGHT movies about one hour at a time. Honestly, they’re a lot of fun, and if you’re looking for some adventure from your couch, you’ll probably really enjoy them.
A few thoughts:
Tom Cruise doing all his own stunts is absolutely insane and soooo cool, he makes me want to bail on everything and become an action film star… what a freaking blast his workdays must be.
I miss the days of DVDs having the “Special Features” sections of movies where you could watch like 6 hours of content that was like ‘the making of’ or ‘how we came up with the score for the film’ … anyone else? I bet the BTS for these films would be so cool to watch.
Tom Cruise still looks great and is so fit. Did you know he is 62? YOU GO DUDE.
What I cooked:
Mediterranean Chicken Meatball Bowl — These are Ronnie’s new favorite thing ever, hands-down the most requested thing lately outside of Cauliflower Tacos
Honey Lemon Salmon with Broccolini — THE EASIEST Salmon recipe ever, and knock your socks off good
Healthy Butter Chicken — SOOO good, so healthy
Poke Bowls — on Poke Bowls, on Poke Bowls. We keep switching up the ingredients and having fun with it
Delightful discoveries:
This is niche, but for the parents out there… Honest Diaper Cream Spray. What a great product, such an innovative application. ABSOLUTELY game-changing.
Seeds of Change Phytonutrients Face Wash — I made a friend at the gym who reps this product and he gave me some to try. It smells so good and the powder texture washes with the teeniest little exfoliating vibe! A delightful discovery!
What I am looking forward to in September:
Charlie’s first birthday!!! OMG she’s turning one! Can you guess her birthday theme?
Some work travel to Napa and Idaho to see some customers! There’s nothing like being on the road, getting to see people you really enjoy working for and with in person!
My quarterly strategy day / board meeting with my pals Lauren and Kasia! We’ve all been up to some really exciting things and spending time together is always such a cup-filling/overflowing day!
