Success Advice
5 Books You Need to Read if You Want to Become a Better Leader

When you run your own business, you’re more than a business owner, you’re a leader. And if you want your business to be successful, you need to be the kind of leader that inspires the best in your team. Being a great leader isn’t necessarily something you’re born with, it’s something you learn.
One of the best places to look for tips on how to improve your leadership skills might surprise you: your local bookstore. Books are a great way to learn more about the skills necessary to lead your team to success.
Here are five books you need to read if you want to be an exemplary leader:
1. Daring Greatly: How The Courage To Be Vulnerable Transforms The Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead – Brené Brown
Many people believe that the key to great leadership is perfection. They think that if you want to lead, you need to appear to have all the answers all the time. But according to author and researcher Brene Brown, nothing can be further from the truth. According to her research of a decade, the key to great leadership is actually admitting that you don’t have all the answers. It’s all about being vulnerable and human with your team.
In “Daring Greatly: How The Courage To Be Vulnerable Transforms The Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead”, Brown talks about the benefits of vulnerability in the workplace and how allowing your team to see the real you – flaws and all – is (despite popular belief) a leadership asset and leads to more engaged and successful businesses.
If you’ve ever struggled with feeling like you need to be everything for everyone in your business, this book is a must-read.
“If you’re not in the arena also getting your ass kicked, I’m not interested in your feedback.” – Brené Brown
2. How To Win Friends and Influence People – Dale Carnegie
One of the most important parts of being a great leader is getting people to do what you want them to do – and to like you while they’re doing it. “How To Win Friends and Influence People” is timeless in the business world; it was written by Dale Carnegie in 1936. But this classic is just as much a relevant and important read for business owners and leaders today as it was when it was written over 80 years ago.
In this book, Carnegie shows you how to make people you interact with in your business feel valued, heard, and appreciated – whether it’s team members, colleagues or clients. He also talks about how to win their influence and get them on your side on important business decisions without inspiring resentment, which is an absolute must for an effective leader.
If you want to improve your relationships with the people in your organization and get them on your side on the important stuff (and what leader doesn’t?), make sure you pick up this book.
3. Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers – Tim Ferriss
Wouldn’t it be great if you had a panel of the richest, most powerful, and most successful people in the world to offer you leadership advice whenever you needed it? It certainly would. And while you might not be able to have the most successful leaders in the world at your beck and call, “Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers” is definitely a close second.
In this engrossing read, “The 4-hour Workweek” author Tim Ferriss, has gathered some of the best business and leadership advice he’s heard in his years of hosting “The Tim Ferriss Show,” a podcast where he interviews billionaires, icons, and world-class performers (as the title suggests). “Tools of Titans” features actionable advice from his 200+ guests on how to be a better leader, how to increase your performance, and how to build a better business (and life in the process).
4. The Obstacle Is The Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials Into Triumphs – Ryan Holiday
When faced with obstacles, you have two decisions: you can let them sink you or you can use them as opportunities for growth. And if you want to be a great leader, you need to show your team that the latter decision is the only option.
In “The Obstacle Is The Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials Into Triumphs” author and entrepreneur Ryan Holiday, explores how the Greek philosophy of stoicism (which is the philosophy of facing challenges adversity and challenges with resilience), has helped some of the most successful leaders in history overcome obstacles and adversity and transform them into triumphs – triumphs that lead to unparalleled levels of success.
If you want to foster a culture in your business that embraces obstacles and uses them as launching pads for bigger successes, you need to lead the charge – and “The Obstacle Is The Way” will show you how to do that.
“The obstacle in the path becomes the path. Never forget, within every obstacle is an opportunity to improve our condition.” – Ryan Holiday
5. Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ – Daniel Goleman
If you want to be a great leader, it’s important that you’re book smart. But it’s even more important that you’re emotionally intelligent. In “Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ” psychologist Daniel Goleman, talks about the importance of emotional intelligence – the ability to bridge the rational and emotional minds to better relate to ourselves and our teams.
In this book, Goleman breaks down the five core characteristics of emotional intelligence, why they’re important, and how to cultivate them in order to be a more effective and empathetic leader. If you want to create a better connection with your team – and inspire better work in the process – you need to add this book to your list.
Great leadership is an evolution; if you want to be a successful leader, you need to constantly work on becoming better. With these five books, you’ll be well on your way.
Image courtesy of Twenty20.com
Change Your Mindset
You Become What You Absorb: How Input Shapes Your Life
We let the world dictate who we spend time with and what input we allow in, rarely stopping to consider the effects it’s having on us

“Input” is anything from the outside world that influences your mood, mindset, and emotional state. It includes the media you consume, the books you read, the podcasts and music you listen to, and the movies and shows you watch. But it also encompasses much more: the environment you live and work in, the conversations you have, the people you surround yourself with, and the events, personal or global, that unfold around you. (more…)
Success Advice
This Overlooked Skill Drives Real Business Growth
It strengthens relationships, enhances decision-making, and fosters trust.

In every successful leader’s toolkit, one skill stands out above the rest: the ability to listen. While good leaders are known for making confident decisions, great leaders understand that those decisions are only as strong as the information they’re based on. And that information? It comes from truly listening to their teams, peers, and even critics. (more…)
Scale Your Business
Tired of Wasting Money on the Wrong Marketers? Here’s How Smart Entrepreneurs Are Finally Hiring Right

If you’ve ever Googled how to hire a Facebook marketer or best TikTok marketing agency only to spend thousands on someone who couldn’t deliver…congrats, you’ve joined a very expensive club! For many entrepreneurs, hiring a digital marketer feels like more like visiting a casino and gambling with your runway, than it feels like securing a partner who’ll help build your business. Often, it feels like you’re betting on a stranger to grow the dream you’ve poured your savings into.
And way too often, you lose that bet.
You don’t need another list of the “Top 10 Agencies” with five-star testimonials and polished logos. You need to know which marketer can actually drive results for your business. Not in theory. In practice.
This is where entrepreneurs are learning to pivot. And it’s why a new platform called TruthMetric.com is turning heads across the startup world.
Why Most Startups Burn Through 3–6 Marketers Before Finding the Right One
Here’s the hard truth: most startups don’t fail because of their product, they fail because they can’t get sales or sell it fast enough. And in trying to fix that, founders usually go through five or six marketers, burning tens of thousands before finding someone who truly knows how to convert.
You build your product, get your website live, maybe even launch an ad campaign. But when you search for help and look up how to “hire a YouTube ads agency” or “top Facebook ad expert for Shopify”, you get hit with a sea of shiny portfolios, “ninja” titles, and endless promises.
Three months later, you’re still waiting on your first profitable campaign, and you’re most likely out tens of thousands, feeling utterly defeated…and maybe grinning with an affinity for that upcoming boxing class with a picture of that marketer’s fac……nevermind.
If this sounds like you, it’s time for what one entrepreneur called a strategic shift to scale smarter, not harder.
Introducing TruthMetric.com: The Transparent Marketplace for Hiring Marketers Who Deliver
TruthMetric.com isn’t just another freelancer platform or agency directory. It’s the first hiring solution where you can see three years of real, verified marketing performance before spending a dime.
That includes:
- Verified ad campaign performance
- Actual return on ad spend (ROAS)
- Industry-specific experience
- Platform specialties (Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, Google Ads, and more)
Whether you’re looking for a Facebook ads expert, a TikTok marketer, or a YouTube growth strategist, TruthMetric.com lets you filter and compare based on what actually matters, results.
This level of clarity is something you won’t find on platforms like Upwork or Fiverr. And it solves what many founders know too well as the New York Pizza Problem: where every marketer claims they’re “the best,” just like every pizzeria in Manhattan says they’re #1. Often without showing you results, you get sucked into this dream of collaboration, until the nightmare commences the moment you fork that first invoice payment. Hence the deception that leads to many business owners losing their hard earned savings and budget to launch their grand idea.
With TruthMetric, you finally get the data to decide for yourself, BEFORE you hire. Now if only New York Pizza shops had the same transparency then maybe you’d finally find the best pizza in New York, perhaps the perfect post work out after a boxing sesh? I think so!
Why Founders Are Shifting to Results-First Hiring
Most entrepreneurs think they need to do it all themselves, until they burn out or burn through their budget. That’s exactly why this founder had to drop the Superman complex and hire a marketing genius.
What makes TruthMetric so powerful is that it turns hiring into a confident move, not a hopeful one. You’re no longer guessing. You’re choosing from proven performers. You know what vertical they dominate. You know their past client performance. You see the monthly results from the campaigns they ran, and the outcomes they achieved.
It’s not just efficient. It’s empowering.
Scaling Quickly Requires Automation and Eliminating the Noise
Founders who scale quickly understand one thing: growth isn’t just about hustle, it’s about systems. TruthMetric is the system for finding great marketers at speed. No more DM’ing ten freelancers or interviewing agencies feeling like you are asking the world of them to just see some prior results. Instead you get to see the information you need to make an informed decision and plug into verified talent, all ready to perform.
This difference allows for you to match perfectly with the right talent quickly. If you’re building your business to run lean and fast, this convenience plugged in with automation can help you scale your small business right alongside your new marketing hires.
Why TruthMetric Is Also a Boon for Marketers, Not Just Founders
This isn’t just a win for founders, it is a gift for great marketers, too.
If you’re a freelance marketer who’s been quietly pulling 10x ROAS for clients while being passed over for flashy agencies, you now have a stage where your results speak louder than your brand.
TruthMetric is a true meritocracy. No fluff. No sales tricks. Just data.
If you’re tired of being overlooked and ready to stand out based on what you actually deliver, this is your home.
The Secret Weapon for Investors and M&A Operators
There’s another angle here that some of our readers might miss.
Investors, private equity firms, and M&A advisors should be drooling at the thought of having a proven talent pool they can plug and play and the ability to use TruthMetric to revive underperforming companies. Imagine acquiring a business or becoming an active investor, then dropping in a verified operator with a history of explosive growth in that niche.
It’s plug-and-play. Scale on demand.
That kind of insight has never been available before. You couldn’t do this on Upwork. You certainly can’t do it through a friend-of-a-friend referral.
And when it comes to attracting high-performing talent, here’s how to hire top talent and keep them around.
Let’s Really Drive This Home…
If you’ve wasted money on agencies or freelancers who couldn’t deliver, it’s not because you’re bad at hiring, it’s because the game was stacked against you. Trusting dreamy charismatic sales pitches over data was a doomed approach from the start.
TruthMetric levels the playing field by showing you what no other talent marketplace does and that’s proof.
Real marketers. Real results. Real growth.
It’s time to stop guessing and start hiring based on data.
Visit TruthMetric.com and make your next marketing hire the one that actually works.
Personal Development
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