Categories: Podcasts

#040: The ReWork Book Club

EPISODE #040

The ReWork Book Club

Guest: Mary Fisk-Taylor

Chair of Professional Photographers of America
Richmond, Virginia
https://hayesandfisk.com

DATE: March 17, 2022

Welcome to the first episode of The ReWork Book Club with my book bestie, Mary Fisk-Taylor. We both agree that much of the success we have achieved in our businesses can be attributed to the lessons we’ve learned from books. This book club series is all about distilling the key ideas from some of our favorite books to show you how they made a difference in our business, how we applied them, and how they can best help you in your business.

In today’s episode we discuss Carol Dweck’s Mindset, and Effortless by Greg McKeown. Mindset was gifted to Mary during a particularly challenging time in her life, and it completely changed her perspective on just about everything. Effortless, which she read afterwards, then helped her to put in place and sustain the practices which help her thrive.

Some of the key concepts that we discuss today are the difference between a fixed and a growth mindset (and how to cultivate the latter), learning fast versus learning well, letting go of perfectionism, and residual results.

We are all works in progress, and learning to look at the inevitable challenges of life as opportunities rather than problems will be transformative in ways you didn’t know were possible!

Here’s a glance at this episode…

[01:02] What you can expect from the first episode of the ReWork Book Club!
[02:18] The vital role that books have played in mine and Mary’s lives.
[03:44] How Mindset by Carol Dweck changed Mary’s perspective on life.
[05:19] Mary explains the difference between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset.
[06:28] Examples of how a fixed mindset prevents people from achieving their full potential.
[10:22] How Mindset helped us to better handle failure.
[15:17] Some of the lessons we learned from Mindset about raising children.
[17:17] Learning fast versus learning well.
[18:48] How the process of relationship building with clients changes as your business grows.
[21:26] An example of how people with a fixed mindset approach selling their products, and opposed to the approach used by people with a growth mindset.
[27:11] Advice for dealing with clients who have a fixed mindset.
[30:09] Brief overviews of Greg McKeown’s books, Essentialism and Effortless.
[31:33] Factors which prevent us from starting, finishing, and sustaining essential projects.
[33:28] An explanation of the concept of residual results, and examples of how this can play out in real life.
[36:26] The benefits of starting small, whatever your final goal is.
[38:38] Results from a study on how self-given pep talks influence peoples’ commitment to exercise.
[42:46] Benefits of breaking down your work into 90 minute chunks.
[43:46] Why you shouldn’t be worried if you don’t sleep straight through the night.
[46:01] Streamlining processes; one of Mary’s key takeaways from Effortless.