It’s been a minute! Since last landing in your inbox, I spent 2+ weeks in India, where I celebrated a good friend’s wedding, traveled in Kerala, and visited the Taj Mahal.
I really want to record a video about *shudder* personal branding but just haven’t been able to prioritize it yet. If this is something on your mind, I’d love to hear your questions or what you’re grappling with, so I can try to address it in the next video/newsletter!
In the meantime, I’m rereading Danny Meyer’s book Setting the Table. It inspired me to send this round-up of the business books that have had the biggest impact on my career thus far.
My favorite business books:
Productivity:
Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman: Honestly, not a day goes by since I read this book that I don’t think about some concept from it. The premise: Our lives are around 4000 weeks, and there’s no way we’re going to ever reach the end of our to-do list, so how do we prioritize what really matters, and feel ok about it?
Paving your own path:
Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway by Susan Miller: If you’ve talked to me face to face in the past month or so, you’ve probably heard me mention this book 50 times. I needed a major boost of confidence as I start a new venture (more on that below), and this was the mindset shift I needed. Highly recommend the audiobook.
Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans: I recommend this book to anyone in a transition phase, or considering a new path. It’s also great if you know you need some change, but aren’t sure what it is.
Branding:
Building a Story Brand by Donald Miller: This book shifted my thinking to always place the customer as the hero of your marketing. I use it as a basis for my framework for determining the value proposition.
: Likewise, this book is the basis of my positioning framework. Positioning is one of those marketing terms that never really clicked for me before this book (something I’ve heard from others too), but April’s approach makes it so clear, specific, and useable on a day to day basis.Let My People Go Surfing by Yvon Chouinard: The Patagonia founder’s memoir is the epitome of talking the talk and walking the walk. I strongly feel no one can get through this book without wanting to drop everything and work for Patagonia.
Social Health and Hospitality:
Together by Dr. Vivek Murthy: Written by the U.S. Surgeon General, this was the first book that opened my eyes to our societal problems with loneliness, and how vital social health is. Immensely readable.
The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker: Will make you rethink every gathering you’ve been to, and every one you host after! All about taking gatherings like weddings, dinner parties, birthdays off default, and making them more intentional and meaningful.
The Power of Ritual by Casper ter Kuile: We are declining in religion in most Western countries, but we still crave ritual — different than routine — and the essence of spiritual practices. Casper’s book shows how we can incorporate it in our everyday lives and in our communities and businesses.
Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara: The perfect follow-up to Setting the Table, from one of Danny Meyer’s former employees and eventual owner of Eleven Madison Park. Real talk: We tend to be pretty stingy when we’re running businesses. It can feel like every line item counts. This book is all about asking, what do we gain by giving more than feels right?
Story time: When I ran guest services at Shake Shack, one day I was told to just give out a gift card or free fry coupon to anyone who wrote in. I asked with disbelief, “Anyone??? But what if they don’t deserve it?”
They said, “Anyone. Most don’t redeem the coupon so it’s a small loss to us, and it makes everyone feel really special, heard, and taken care of.” I don’t know if that’s still their policy, but that commitment to generosity and increasing brand affinity has inspired me ever since. This book is full of even better examples than that one.
Setting the Table by Danny Meyer: I read this for the first time in the weeks between accepting my job at Shake Shack out of college and my start date, and it just reinforced for me how right that decision was.
Danny’s approach has influenced my career ever since, and I’m listening to the audiobook now to get inspired again as I work on opening up my pousada. If you’ve never read it, it’s a must.
Speaking of my pousada:
You might have heard me mention this over the past year or so, but alongside my branding work, I’m venturing into something exciting, which is opening my own pousada aka b&b aka motel here in Brazil.
I’m getting ready to share some updates this week, so if you’d like to receive those, please sign up here.
I’m going to keep this space focused on brand strategy and will share updates on the pousada with that list. Exciting times!!
Other brand bits and bobs:
I’m still on my How I Built This binge and some episodes that have stood out:
Liquid Death is a great example of fantastic brand, but where I struggle is that the product has no differentiation. I think the best companies are a great brand matched with a great product, and if you overindex on one or the other, it’s going to run into challenges at some point. For more on Liquid Death, I’m loving
’s brand breakdowns in her newsletter:On the other hand, Too Good to Go is the perfect example of a company I’d love to see more of — serving a beneficial purpose to the planet, to businesses, and to customers, all with clear brand messaging. More of this please!
Another brand newsletter I’m loving is
’s with comprehensive breakdown of packaging design in different categories. So fun.I loved
’s take on vulnerability, and when it feels authentic vs. performative on social media. It’s great for anyone thinking about showing up more as themselves online or building in public:On the same topic, this piece from Tyler Denk at Beehiv on building in public is a useful read.
One of my inspirations for career shift to running a pousada and doing my brand strategy work simultaneously is Rachael Yaeger, who runs the agency Human NYC and Roscoe Motel in upstate New York. I loved this feature by Elizabeth Goodspeed on Rachael and other designers who have opened hospitality businesses.
This interactive feature on menu design trends is really fun.
I have a lot more bits and bobs but this is getting long so I’ll save them for next time, hopefully when we’re exploring personal branding!
Let’s chat!
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I'm not a big business book person but I can't wait to add some of these to my list—maybe I'll get into audio books this year.
thanks for the shoutout, brandy! <3