#78 - AI, Synchronicity & One Focused Goal: 10 Summer Reads That Feed Your Mind, Soul and Sales

In this episode, I’m sharing my favorite summer books for your business, your mindset, and your soul. 

In Part 1, I share the whole 10-book list with a snippet on each. Then in Part 2 I'm breaking down my top three pics in more detail.

You’ll hear why The Alchemist is my forever go-to, why The ONE Thing is a must-read when you feel scattered, and how The Alignment Problem is keeping me thoughtful about using AI in my work. 

Get the full list by clicking here — and enjoy this gentle nudge to slow down, feed your brain, and dream big this summer. 💛✨

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Mindset to Market is produced by Deborah C. Smith and designed to inspire and support big-hearted creatives in finding their own unique path, building a sustainable business, and creating financial, spiritual, mental wellness and abundance.

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Transcript

 Okay guys, what do AI, synchro, destiny, and focused business strategy have in common? Answer? They're all core topics covered on my summer reading list. So can we just pause for one moment and admit that the world feels like it's moving so fast right now, like it's absolutely on fire with the news.

Politics, the algorithm, social media, the endless to-do list that is typical of a solopreneur and it can just honestly feel like we never get a break. So one thing that has always helped me to slow down and honestly feel human again is reading. Reading real physical books. The kind with pages that I can flip through can underline, connect dog ear and come back to later that I can share quotes from.

It feeds my brain and it gives me a break from, from screens and tech, and it just makes me feel like I'm human again. So. This summer, I've put together a short reading list for your mind, your business, and your soul, and I'm gonna cover the whole stack in today's podcast and just give you a little sneak peek at what you'll get from each book.

Plus I'm gonna drop in a little deeper with my three top favorites. So let's get to it. Hey there. Welcome to the Mindset To Market Podcast, your go-to place for practical tools and solutions for the everyday challenges of being a creative and spiritual solopreneur living in a material world. I'm your host, Debra Smith.

I'm a holistic business coach with 17 years of experience, and I help my clients bust through mindset blocks and build a daily practice that prioritizes your business's financial growth. As well as your personal health and wellness. I'm here to offer you support, creativity, mindset, practical how-tos, and getting into imperfect messy actions so you can find balance while building the dream business.

If you're a purpose-driven soul entrepreneur who's working on that dream one day at a time, then you're in the right place. Let's dive in. All right, my book nerds, let's dive right into this summer reading list. If you are like me, then. Even just picking up one new book and flipping through the pages feels like a return home, and it really does kind of calm me down.

So, carving out space in my day to read, I feel like I'm winning. So let's dive right into this list. And just so you know, this, this list includes books that I, some of which I've owned for many, many, many years. And I'm obsessed with, and I've read multiple times. Uh, some that are just really great tools that I think would support you on your journey and others that are new to me that I'm exploring and that I'm really excited about sharing.

So, without further ado, let's go first on my list is a classic, it's The Alchemist by Paulo Colo. If you've read this book, then you already know it's a timeless fable about trusting the whispers of your heart and finding treasure where you least expect it. I'm gonna highlight this one, so we'll come back to it for a deeper dive.

Um, but just The Alchemist by Paulo Coello is one of my oldest. I think it might be my favorite book probably if you've read it right now, you're smiling from ear to ear. 'cause you know, it's like a warm hug. Again, I'll talk more about this in a minute, but that's number one on my list. Uh, number two is a book that was new to me.

It's called, it's Time to Give Feck, FECK. It's by Chaz Ebert. And Chaz really set out to share a very powerful message with the world about how to lead with kindness, compassion, and forgiveness. And I got this book from my older sister, Stacy. She gave it to me. She's a professional publicist and she works with a lot of a-list and celebrity clients.

Chaz happens to be one of her clients, and my sister supported her on a book tour, and so Chaz is an African American woman and she was married to themed movie critic. Roger Ebert in her book, describes and details the struggles that they faced. And their journey really to overcome racial challenges, being an interracial married couple, and it leans in really hard to how they dealt with that.

That is this beautiful depiction of how you can invite people into. A conversation about our differences in So Feck, FECK. It stands for forgiveness, empathy, compassion and Kindness. And it's just a beautiful guide to how to lead with these, these characteristics. Um, and just how we desperately need more empathy in the world.

Check out Chaz's work. Follow her. Chaz Ebert, she's really amazing. The link is in the show notes, and this book was just so inspiring to see people going out there and really sharing these tools and from her from a point of view of her story. So it's really great. Um, next up is The Financial Feminist by Tori Dunlap.

This is a clear, empowering take on money specifically for women who wanna spend, who wanna save and who want to invest on their own terms. If you are not already following Tori, this is your sign. Go look her up. Get this book, follow her, use her tools. Read her book. It's actually kind of a workbook as well.

And Tori is a self-made millionaire. She's an investment, uh, coach, and she's a badass. And she just really tells it like it is. And if you are a woman, you know, trying to make equal pay in this world and just would love to see. Balance scales, um, in this lifetime. Read her book, financial Feminist. It's awesome.

She's awesome. And click that link. Check it out. Next up is a book called Manifesting Made Easy. This book was written by my friend Jen Mazer. Who I have known Jen for many, many years. We go way back to Brooklyn Music scene days. Um, her life partner is a, I was in a band with him for many years, so we have a real connection of music and art and creativity.

Um, but she, her career, she's a powerful life coach. She runs a program that's a mastermind. Uh, she has, I think, multiple books actually, and she is called the Queen of Manifestation by her community. And this book is really a soulful starter guide for turning your dreams into actual reality without a lot of overwhelm.

So what I love about Jen's book, and I have given this book to many of my clients, is how she breaks down the the manifestation process into just really simple exercises, daily practices, step-by-step things that you can do right away and immediately feel the impact. So she takes this kind of lofty, maybe.

Um, woowoo ish concept of manifesting, and she turns it into basic actions that you can take. And I am woo in my, you know, connection to the solar and celestial bodies in my, generally speaking in my life practices. I'm very ritual driven, but I'm super grounded in science, backed in my, you know, beliefs and the way that I.

You know, a pursue business. And so I just love this book because it takes this really kind of spiritual and hard to prove energy practice and it turns it into just basic steps that you can take. Check it out. Manifesting Made Easy by Jen Maser. She's an amazing woman as well. It's a great book, and she's helped a lot of people achieve their dreams through just practical steps.

So love her. Love this book. Go check it out. Okay, next up is the one thing. The one Thing by Gary Keller. Um, I'm also going to do a deeper dive on this one. This is a really powerful book. This is so important, I think. For small business owners, particularly solopreneurs, particularly anyone who gets overwhelmed by all the things, by doing all the things, by wearing all the hats.

I'm gonna highlight it so I'm not gonna go too deep into it right now, but it's just a, a practical reminder that focusing beats hustle every single time. Clarity changes everything. And we'll dive into this deeper in just a minute. Okay, next up on my summer reading list is the classic, my favorite, a lifelong read it many times book Atomic Habits by James Clear.

Guys, this is truly a business bible. I don't know if you've read this or not. If you've been with me for a while, then you know already that I preach about this book and I literally build, uh, my entire nutrition coaching program. Was built on this premise of daily atomic habits. Now this is a business focused book, but it really, it applies to anything, health, wellness, money, relationships, anything you wanna achieve in life.

And the main concept is that your tiny little daily behaviors create compound interest and shape your big life changes. So it shows you how to make habits actually stick. And it's really. Got the science and the data that I personally need to motivate me. But with that page turning storytelling, that really dials it in.

So it's really easy to read. It is not too heady. It's not too, you know, it does not bog you down. It feels like a quick read. Um, business owners, please put this book on your shelf. It is so powerful to understand that like sometimes just the 1% better. Changes everything. Sometimes you feel like you're in the weeds and you are lost, but you, if you can remind yourself to take just one tiny baby step towards the goal, that is enough for that day, and then take a one more tiny baby step the next day.

And then one more tiny baby step. And what James does in this book is he breaks down how that scientifically creates compound interest. Compound interest, like. It, it, it, it, it exponentially increases the rate at which you achieve your goal. So if you don't understand that already and you're not using this practice, it's a powerful read.

Get it on your book list, read it this summer, and, you know, changing your behavior is the hardest part of any kind of change in our lives. Like, that's the big thing. That's why coaches work. That's why we need support systems, because it's hard to change our behavior. So, yeah, atomic Habits. It's a win win.

Every time I've read it multiple times, I share it with lots of people. Grab it. Okay, next up is Untamed by Glennon Doyle. Ah, this book, it is a raw and just powerful invitation to break the rules, to trust your wildest intuition, to trust yourself and to live uncaged in this one. You know, wildlife that we have.

So as a collection of short stories, it reads like a manifesto, like wrapped in a wildly addictive memoir. It is a page turner for me. Um, and there's literally holy shit, wow. Moments on every single page. Like multiple times when I was reading this book, I had to stop and go, wow. Wow, okay. Right? I needed to hear that.

And it's just for women, you know, men read it too. So you can understand women's wild intuition better. But this is really an invitation to return to your untamed self. I mean, it's exactly what the title says. I just feel in a, in a world where we have been, you know, blamed and shamed, and curtailed into behaving in proper ways, this book really gives us permission to break out of those patterned ways of thinking and being that really hold us back from our true power.

And I love this book. I highly recommend every woman read this book, business Owner or not. Okay. Next up is Mindset. Mindset by Carol Dweck. So is another classic, and maybe you've already read it, but for those of us who really understand and care about the fact that we get to choose how we perceive situations and our mindset, the way that we.

The the point of view we have about situations and the way we respond to them predicts a lot of the outcomes that we get to in our life from the actions that we take. So this really takes a deep look and a detailed look at the difference between a fixed mindset versus a growth mindset. That's what the book is about.

It's about fixed and stuck versus growth oriented. And why growth oriented really unlocks so much possibility for us. So from the point of view of a business owner, it's an amazing tool to have in your toolkit because frequently I refer back to this book and think about like, I catch myself in rigid thinking.

I catch myself in a fixed mindset like there's my way or the highway. There's black and white, only one way to go. There's a right way. It's very perfectionist, right? To think that there's only one way to do something, whereas a growth mindset. Allows you to see possibilities outside of your normal pathway.

It gives you permission to take a different route, and often it unlocks forward motion, which unlocks momentum, which unlocks growth, which unlocks, you know, when we're talking about business connections, sales, money in your pocket, you know? So applying this concept to how you think about your business is a really key.

Tool. So I really appreciate her work in this book, it's Mindset by Carol Dweck. Go look it up. Next is another book that is mindset focused, but on a little different, um, take on it. It's called Incognito by David Eagleman. I picked this book up after my mom had her stroke because I wanted to better understand the neurology of the brain, the science and the kind of tissues of the brain.

Um, and my sister and I, we've been learning so much about neurology as we co care for, uh, our parent who is now for all intents and purposes, disabled, she had a stroke. It injured very targeted segments of her brain. She has what's called severe aphasia, which means the language center in her brain that chooses.

Creates original thought and then strings words together to put together a sentence has been dismantled so she can no longer talk in a sentence that makes any kind of sense. Word finding has become impossible for her, and so the neuro pathway that leads to the brain that that transmits that particular, uh, language skill has been damaged pretty much it seems permanently.

However, she can read a book. She can pick up a book. And the information, the data, the symbols, the letters go in through her, you know, eyes. She receives that information. She reads through her eyes, she looks at the words, and that goes to the language center in her brain that translates it into meaning and then translates it into language and words.

And she can pick up a book and read and sounds like a normal speaking human being, but she can't. Answer your a question or string together a sentence so she knows what she wants. She knows how she feels and she knows what she means, but she can't say it. But she can read and she can write, and it's just wild to think that there's a tiny little pin, pin size segment of her brain that controls this language center.

And so anyways, it, it fascinates me. I also wanna support her. So I started reading this book and. Incognito by David Eagleman. It gives you a peek inside the unconscious brain. So it's, it's like we're not as in control of our brains as we think. Like there's a hu entire swaths of our behavior that are just on autopilot.

It's like we don't even have clearance to the highest level of thinking inside of our brains, and that's okay. Like you don't think about breathing, you don't think about crying, you don't think about blinking all day long. We are performing. Activities that are led by our unconscious mind and brain that we don't even think about that are keeping us alive, standing upright, and interacting with the world.

And we just dismiss the powerful tool that our brain is that's super computer of a brain. So it also gives a glimpse on how you can continue to build neuropathways and grow and strengthen the muscle of the brain, even as we're aging. So. I recommend this book if you yourself, deal with any kind of neurodiversity, if you are dealing with a neurological disorder in yourself or your family.

If you're just curious about how the brain works, if you're fascinated like I am, about the different parts of the brain and how you can work to strengthen those, it's just pretty fascinating stuff. Um, it's a little nerdy, I admit, but really cool book. Um. So check it out. Um, next up is the alignment problem.

This is a clear-eyed look at how AI actually works and what can go wrong when our values get lost in the code. Now I'm gonna do a deeper dive on this one, so we'll come back to it in just a minute. Um, and then the final book on my list right now, you guys is the year of Yes. By Shonda Rhimes. Um. If you've ever needed permission to just say yes to your own life, this book will hand that to you.

Wrapped in Shonda's, truly brilliant, funny, and deeply human storytelling. So maybe you're familiar with Shonda Rimes. She was the creator of Grey's Anatomy. She created Scandal, uh, how to Get Away With Murder. She's literally built an empire with her words, but behind the scenes, she is was an ultimate introvert.

And really just said no to almost everything that scared her. So the year of Yes is like the story of what happened when she challenged herself to say yes for one whole year, to invitations, to adventures, to uncomfortable conversations, and really putting herself in the spotlight in ways that kind of cracked her open.

Excuse me. So it's warm, it's honest, it's gonna make you ask, where have I been hiding behind? No, when. My whole life has been waiting for me to say yes to certain opportunities, and I really appreciate how honest she is in this book. And it just really inspired me to look for areas in my life when I'm saying no outta fear, and to just challenge myself to say yes more.

Um, so pick it up. Check it out. Shonda is a genius and she deserves our attention. Okay, so I'm gonna dive in now a little bit deeper to three of my top picks. And out of all of these books, I just wanna take a minute and spotlight these three because I feel that they especially are timely for us right now.

So, as I mentioned, my all time favorite book at the top of this, it's number one on my list. Um, you love it. I love it. But let's revisit it. The Alchemist and, excuse me, Paulo Coello. It's, it's. It's my all time favorite book for a reason, and I recommend this over and over because it, every time you read it, you see something new about yourself.

So The Alchemist is this book that's part Fable. It's part gentle reminder that if you can trust your path, like truly learning to trust your inner guides, your inner wisdom, even when it doesn't make sense, even when it doesn't seem logical on paper. This book is about listening to your heart. And in noticing the signs on your journey that the universe keeps sending you that you're on the right track or that you might need to course correct, and just having courage to take steps in a direction that you don't always understand or that doesn't necessarily make sense, and maybe that don't make sense to other people.

Or even just in the moment, it might not make sense to you, right? But if you're standing at a crossroads in your life, or if you're in your business journey, you're, you're questioning things and you're just not sure, read the alchemy. This will give you permission to listen deeper to that inner knowing.

It will feel like a trusted friend that's just like whispering in your ear. It's okay, keep going. This is gonna be worth it. And sometimes. You know, no amount of external validation is going to solve for what you need to hear coming from your own self. We solopreneurs, we need to believe in ourselves. We need to believe in our vision.

We need to trust the inner guide, the inner knowing, the voice that is whispering in your ear. That is your. Future self calling you forward to that next level CEO moment. I believe this with all my heart, but not only that, my life's work is proof. I now can look back and say, yep. The moments when I listened to that, that tug, that poll, those were the moments that I had breakthroughs even despite, you know, external challenges and maybe people in my life telling me that I was crazy.

So The Alchemist is gonna be that book that. Feels like a little warm hug when you feel, you know, when you're questioning, pick it up, read it, share it, read it over and over again. It never fails to help me feel just, just a sense of confidence in myself, so I highly recommend. Um, okay. Next I have to share a deeper dive on this book, the Alignment Problem by Brian Christian.

Guys, this book is new to me. I haven't even finished it yet, but it's at the top of my stack for so many reasons. So I was looking for a book on the impact of ai. I really wanted to learn more. I've started to use AI like every single day in little practical ways to support my business, but I don't honestly don't know enough about the bigger picture.

So I want it to be educated about the real impact of my actions, right? I wanna know. Like what are the ethical questions that need to be answered as I personally adapt AI into my work, and it's not just for me, but it's how I'm helping my clients because we're building really simple, sustainable systems that help us grow our income in sales, right?

So personally, how I'm using ai, I just use chat, GB, BT and Claude, but I've created these AI mega prompts and I've been sharing them with my clients that have helped me really adapt. To having like a little mini marketing agency inside my business. So mainly I'm using these four executive function tools.

I do not use them to write for me in the way that I know a lot of people are doing, but only because I'm a writer, I, I can sniff out AI writing like really easily. I don't love it and I think it's gonna become a very. I think it's, we're already there actually where people can see that you wrote your post with AI and they're kind of like, I just think it's gonna distinguish people who are really putting in the little extra work into their business and their personal brand versus people who are just like leaning in hard to AI tools and not really doing the work and really.

C connecting the dots. So yes, use it. Yes, help it for use it for executive function, use it for scripting, use it for organizational tools. Even use it to write drafts, but make your work personal is my opinion. That being said, I've created an AI that's like, you know, it helps me reassess my work priorities.

It's like a little social media manager. I have a podcast assistant. Um, I even created an AI that helps me. Keep on track for annual financial goals. It's like a critical business manager, and I love it so much, and so using it all the time. But this book, the A, the alignment problem, it digs into this wild world of ai, not the sci-fi robot stuff, but the real machine learning systems that we're already using every single day.

And it explores what happens when the algorithms that we build don't actually line up with our human values like fairness, like safety, like bias, right? And it looks at the ripple effect that it, that AI is gonna have on everything from hiring to self-driving cars. So it's part storytelling, it's part warning, and it's part hopeful.

Look at the researchers working to fix these problems before we. You know, it takes our hands completely off the wheel. So if you wanna clear eye-opening peak at what's really happening under the hood of ai, and if you're using it in your business already, like, and if you wanna really get to be on the know of why this matters for all of us, then please pick up this book and read it.

It's, it's important. I think it's a New York Times bestseller for a reason. If you're curious about the ethics, the pitfalls, and the people trying to get this right. Give it a read click, click the link, grab it. Okay, and my final deep dive for my reading list is The One Thing by Gary Keller. So maybe you've already read this book.

If not, I highly, highly recommend this for business owners, small business owners, solopreneurs, you gotta read this book. This is one of those books that I come back to anytime I feel scattered or pulled in too many directions. So. For my solopreneurs who are like, uh, raising your hand right now, like, that's me.

Do I post on social media? Do I work on SEO and my blog? Do I do sales? Do I, what am I doing? How am I running my day? Let's be honest, this is every single day of our lives, right? When you're an entrepreneur, you have a lot on your plate. You're wearing all the hats. So the big idea of this book is that when you focus your energy on just one clear, meaningful thing.

One thing that's going to truly move the needle inside your business. Everything else falls into place. It feels lighter, it feels simpler, it feels less stressful, and it's a practical guide to cutting through the overwhelm, the noise, it, it gets you out of, you know, scrolling mindlessly on the internet and sets real, helps you set real priorities.

It's going to give you permission to do less, but do it better. And it's really important. It's really important that we understand this concept and that we use the tools. So if you ever feel like you're spinning your wheels or if you're drowning in like never ending to-do list, please read the one thing.

This book is gonna feel like a breath of fresh air. It's gonna help you understand the power of focus, and it's gonna get you out of fomo. It's gonna get you outta spinning, um, and give you a break from all the noise in your, in your business practices. So, yes, that, that's it. The, the one thing, and to be honest with you, I, this is really how I work with my clients.

I've sort of pulled the concept of the one thing into my summer camp project. Uh, so summer camp is underway. We're on week two already, and every, I have guided and worked one-on-one with all the people inside this program to really choose a single project to focus on this summer that's gonna build their business.

So each member has chosen a project, and that's the sole focus inside the coaching group. They can be working on other things outside of this coaching program, and they are, but inside the program, everybody is on a focused track, right? So the point is that we're gonna get it done because we're going to weed out the noise, weed out the, you know, multiple project ideas and focus it.

And so we've got a few people who are scripting and filming. Spotlight trainings this summer that they're gonna share inside, like private Facebook groups. We've got a couple ladies who are launching a podcast this summer. I've got three clients who are launching a brand new, uh, weekly newsletter, and I've got two who are hyper-focused on developing their new signature offer.

And so it's, it's just, it's great to be helping them apply this concept of the one thing. Um, and watching them do it and watching them see like, oh wow, when I just take baby steps on this one project and this one, you know, focused business asset, that's going to be a needle moving asset that's going to bring new visibility and new clients, which is gonna lead to new sales.

It's really exciting. Um, and if you are wishing that you had this kind of support for developing a business asset like this. Summer camp is on underway, but I can still, I have a few ways that I could still support you, um, some free resources. Um, specifically I created a free training. I, I ran this a couple of months ago and I've got the replay video available.

I, I launched it as a, a webinar masterclass called Align to Scale. But really what it is, it's an AI signature offer prompt that's gonna help you really hone in on. Exactly how you can show up inside your business offers that combines your soul, calling your skills, your unique value proposition, and also meeting your client in the marketplace where they're at.

It's an amazing, it's a mega prompt that I built. It's like an interview prompt, and the training kind of teaches you how to use that. So in the training, it talks about why a signature offer is gonna lead to greater sales quicker and with less stress, and then it gives you the tool. And teaches you how to use it.

So I'm gonna put that link in the show notes, but just so you know, it is a replay of my masterclass. It's at deborah c smith.com/ai-signature-offer. That's deborah c smith.com/ai-signature-offer. And that's gonna show you exactly how to use the tool, how to build systems at scale, uh, your work without burning you out.

And this free tool is, is helping me. It's helping my clients get so clear on our offers and who they're for. That literally sales are becoming inevitable because it's just so dialed in. So if you're designing your business, if you're working on growing your sales, please watch this training. It's free, and I made it for you.

Um, and then I've also got a freebie that's like a checklist for, for launching your digital product. But. It really goes hand in hand with the digital product toolkit, which is a short sig. It's a spotlight course that I created. It's a toolkit. It's got everything inside it. You might need, um, step-by-step, mini, very simple, like three minute long training course to help you create, design and launch a digital product that aligns with your high ticket offer.

So if you've got. You know, an idea for a physical, like a digital product that's been just sitting there in the back of your, you know, top shelf of your business, mind collecting dust. Then honestly, the summer is a great time to get it done so you can launch it in the fall. It's on sale right now for just $47.

Plus I created a support group for, you know, anyone that's doing this work. So definitely grab that right now while it's on sale and get to work on your digital product. And then, or just grab the digital product checklist, um, because that will help you. Kind of map out your entire project from beginning to end.

Um, and third, if you're really ready to make moves, if you're like, I want to scale, I want this fall to be my biggest season in sales. I wanna fill out my coaching program, I wanna launch my offer, and you want coaching, um, I do have some spots open. In starting in July for my three month coaching program.

So this is laser focused. It's done with you, it's weekly coaching. It combines marketing strategy, tech support, hands-on help signature offer creation, um, with the mindset work, the wellness holistic foundations that we all need as solopreneurs so that you feel truly aligned and also healthy as you grow.

So important. So come hang out with me in any of those places. All those links will be in the show notes. Um, grab the signature AI prompt, get your offer clear, build a digital product. And if you want to do that with loving support, I would love to meet with you and see if we're a match. Zero stressful, you know, salesy type stuff.

I do little mini kind of brainstorming sessions with my potential future clients and we just decide, right, you know. Whether or not we're a good match. And that's it. So check the show notes for all of those links you guys, and pick up a book and, and read this summer with me. And hey, if you want to do a book club type thing, please message me and let me know.

I'm interested and I, I'll see you soon and until we meet again, as always, happy reading, happy book, nerding out. Um. Oh, and if you have a favorite book that you would like to share with me, I would like to hear about it. So please drop me a line and until then, may you be vibrant.