EP36 | Our Favorite Books for Business, Entrepreneurship & Private Practice

Annie: Hey, Leah.

Leah: Hey there, Annie. How are you today? I'm great. How are you? I'm doing great. Annie. Excited to be podcasting with you again today and so excited about our content.

Annie: Me too, because we're talking about quite possibly one of my favorite topics in the whole world, which is Yay!

Leah: You have quite a bit more passion about books than I do, but I am definitely what I call an information junkie. So in my junkie like habit, books definitely play a huge part. But I know you like had a blog about books and like the super fast readers. So you're like the book, you know. goddess over here. I'm

Annie: a little crazy about books. So I was like, when we came up with this idea, I'm like, Oh yes. All the things I love together in one place. So before we get to talking about the actual books that we love, love, love Leah, what is your motivation for today?

Leah: So I think it's so important to recognize that in our profession, we just really have to be lifelong learners and really just outside of our profession as humans, you know, we're always growing and learning very, very early on back in my sales days. So this is back like in my very early twenties, I was in sales and the, my mentor at the time would give me all these motivation books and like sale, like how to be the best sales person, blah, blah, blah. I can't even remember who it was. I wish I could credit the person and maybe somebody out in the world knows, but it was this tapes that I used to listen to. It might even be like Zig Ziglar, maybe. I don't remember, but he is like, you want to better yourself. If you could just read five pages a day of a book, five pages a day. Every single day, like just commit, like no matter what, before you go to bed, you're gonna read five pages a day. You could read just an astronomical amount of books every year. And I thought that was such a neat way to look at it because I am not a great reader. I'm not a fast reader like this super fast reader over here. I'm a slower reader. And because I have dyslexia, it's just, it's more. It feels like a tedious task, but when somebody broke it down like that, I was like, okay, you know, I could commit to something like that. And so I would encourage all of you to think about what you could commit to and be a lifelong learner like this. And it doesn't necessarily have to be always about work. It can be a fiction book or a motivational book. But I think this is something that I've tried to really incorporate in my life is this kind of habit of taking in some reading every single day. And I have read. a ton of books because of it.

Annie: That's great. I love that. I mean, like, cause you know, for me, it's not hard to find time to read cause I, I love it. And it, it really feeds my soul. But I know like just in my own family that we're, we've got four people in my family, me, my husband and our two daughters, and we are all very different kinds of readers. And it actually, it's been great for me not to be in a family of bookworms because I'm like, Oh, other people. have just different relationships with books than me. And that's, that's great. And that's fine. And sometimes, you know, being a super fast reader is the name of, you can actually still find it. I think I had it for 11 years and I read, um, over a thousand books during that time and wrote a blog post about each one. And then I decided it was like, oppressing me. And I'm like, I don't need to write. And that was like choosing books based on whether I thought like, I'd be like, Oh, I don't, I want to read this book, but I actually don't want anybody to know I read this book. I'm like, well, that's time to stop your blog. But sometimes I can get into reading as just consuming and not really feeding my soul. So I have to be kind of intentional. I really, I like. structure my reading. So like when I read before bed, that's for whatever fiction book I'm reading. I do not read non fiction before bed. I will be up all night if I do, but I read for pleasure every night before I go to bed, no matter what, even it's like 45 words and I just am out. But Sunday afternoons is when I like to read like nonfiction books that are like, you know, journalistic kind of books. In the car, I like to listen to, I like to listen to audiobooks and I like to kind of go for the more like newsy current events kind of thing or really, really juicy fiction book. And then for clinical stuff, I, I do that while I'm eating lunch. So that's my, my lunchtime reading. I don't know. I do. I'm very systematized in my life and it just seems to work for me. And then my final rule as a reader is that if I go on vacation or go on any trip, I always bring, I try to think how many books could I conceivably read During this trip. And then I bring one more case because of that one time we went to a family reunion in Nebraska and I didn't bring any books. And the only book that was in that house was Heidi by Johannes firing. And I had to read it like six times. And I'm like, I will never let this happen to me again. So, oh my goodness. That's where I'm coming from with this whole thing. And I've learned to be very patient with my kids who are, who are not addicted to books the way I am. Yeah. She's totally fine. Yeah. It doesn't, it's not, not here, neither here nor there for me. So.

Leah: Probably a good balance. I could see if you guys were all as big of readers as you were, y'all might never get to talk. You'd just be reading all the time. You might never get to interact with each other. Yeah. So for our content today, Annie and I are going to talk about some of our favorite books. And we're going to start with you, Annie. So let's go over your top books. So what's your first book?

Annie: So obviously, like, these are not going to be like, top three books of all time, like right. in our, in our life. Like, you don't need to know that. Like my, one of my favorite fiction books of all time is Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Suzanne. Like that's not super helpful for like, that's outside the scope of this podcast. Right. So we try to break down, talk about like, okay, books that are good for clinical practice and books that are good for building our business or kind of nurturing ourselves as entrepreneurs. So that's sort of the category that we're looking at here. So my number one most helpful clinical book, and this is especially for those of you that are getting ready to take the exam for the first time, or if you have to recertify by exam in the last. few cohorts like I do. It's the breastfeeding atlas. You just can't pass that exam without it. I go back and refer to it as someone who came from a non healthcare background looking at the breastfeeding atlas. Some of those pictures were things that I had never seen before and were the kinds of images I'd never had to look at before. So seeing a photo of a breast abscess, to be honest, the first time I saw it, I found it very upsetting. I'm like, I don't want to do this. Like I'm not a nurse. I'm not a doctor. And by making myself look at these pictures, really helping to build my clinical skin and to be able to, you know, face with compassion, whatever thing I might be visually presented with and not, you know, being able to accept it and handle it like having that exposure to those upsetting graphic images of injuries was really helpful for me. And every time they updated, I buy the update. So that's, that's a clinical book I can't live without. What about you, Leah? Yeah.

Leah: So my favorite clinical book is Sucking Skills. I just love that book so much. It has, it's just so, so thick and juicy with so much information in there. I've read it. chapters over and over. I've highlighted in 10 different colors, like different things. It is a well worn book and it's definitely one that I refer back to really frequently because there's, there's always going to be, I think with the breastfeeding atlas too, it's like, there's going to be some things that you might only see once in your entire career, you know, or twice. And, you know, like for me, I've worked with Thanks. I think like three cleft babies. So yeah, it's not in the forefront of my mind. And it's so helpful to have such a reliable, amazing resource when I go back and like, okay, I'm going to have this new client that has a more unique situation. It's like, I can just go back through and revive my memory about all these things that we can do for this. The certain situation and it's just such a great book. I love it so much. I hope every IBCLC out there would read that book.

Annie: That one was definitely a close second for me with Breastfeeding Atlas. Like you, I refer to it all the time. I wouldn't like if you were studying for the exam to take the exam for the first time, it would not be one to read to prep for the exam, but it's one that you're going to read as soon as you take that exam while you're waiting for your exam results. Read that book. Somebody told me that. Yeah. Before you take the exam, you're going to have a really hard time learning those complicated concepts because your brain is in like exam mode, exam mode. And then as soon as you're done taking the exam, you're going to find yourself open and receptive to learning more complicated things and actually doing like study into these, like go deeper into these clinical topics. And I really found that to be true for me. So those are two great books clinically. I know we don't always talk about clinical stuff here, but like, Definitely make somebody in your life buy them for you as a way to say, I think you're amazing because you're an IBCLC or going to become an IBCLC.

Leah: Yes, definitely. Those are good ones. Okay, so what's your, what's second on your list moving out of maybe some of the clinical stuff?

Annie: So second on my list, this was a hard one because, because I do read everything and I was like, Hmm, do I pick something about privacy? Do I pick something about kind of like the state of healthcare? I, there was a, I mean, the, I was going to give you one for free, which is, I think you should talk to someone by Lori Gottlieb, which I got for Christmas. And it's a therapist talking about her own therapy. And it was, I think like all of us could like really benefit from it. And I mean, it was just like a beautiful read and like. So moving and like brought me to tears many times, just the way she talks about how much she loves her, her patients and how much she got out of therapy. So that's, that was not my book though. My book that I want you all to read is called the big letdown by Kimberly seals. So Anybody who has seen her speak or has read this book, please, if you're listening to this in your car, don't scream and wave your hands up and down and cheer with joy and happiness of how much you love her because I don't she doesn't want you getting into a car accident because of how much you love her.

Leah:But yes, I love you, love her that much.

Annie: We love her that much. She is. She has crashed your car worthy of love for what she's done in this book, which is really putting the pieces together about you. How damaging the marketing of infant formula has been to health care and how they have co opted the conversation around infant feeding to make it about their own profit motivations. And she's got great ideas for how we need to get forward, but she, she is such. a top level journalist. Her research is impeccable. Her writing is amazing. Just you really can get swept away. This is one that, you know, being aware of these equity issues and these public health issues is critical. If you are going to be a good health care provider, especially if you come from a dominant culture, you've got to read this book because she is going to make you see what you don't know about yourself and about the white privilege that you have and about. How damaging this culture is for all families, but particularly for families from marginalized communities who are at risk to die at much higher rates than dominant culture people because of all the things she talks about in the books. And we have to know that and we have to bring that to our clients and to into the work that we do.

Leah: Yeah, it's, it's so important to open your eyes and keep them open. It's easy to, to shy away and not want to really dive deep into it, but it's, it's such important content. And the thing I love most about her, and this is just, she's just a rare unicorn, is that a lot of times if you're you're a really good writer. You might not be as great of a speaker, you know, because you're like in your head and you write and you're like, and as amazing as she writes, she speaks like just as amazing. And I just, I got to see her. USLCA last year and I went to all her sessions and it was just, she was really awesome and uh, she just had amazing, amazing content to share. So I think that you picked an amazing book.

Annie: So what's your next pick?

Leah: Yeah. So in a different sphere, mine was about entrepreneurial. things. I love Marie Forleo and have followed her for many years and love a lot of her content, but she came out with a book last year called Everything is Figureoutable. And not only did this just shift, you know, just general entrepreneurial things, but just like a mindset paradigm shift for me. It was just, it's such a good book. It's a great read, like all of it's just so encouraging and I'm really well balanced. And so if you're an entrepreneur or even just, you know, A regular person wants to, you know, just have a good mindset about life in general. I felt like this book was so helpful for me. So everything is Figureoutable by Marie Forleo.

Annie: I read that book too. I really like it. and, um, , we talked about it. We need to talk about it. I like her shift in there where she says, when you have something that you're like, I can't do that, she says. Change the sentence to. I won't do that. And so you can kind of see how you're choosing certain things. So, you know, sometimes there are going to be things that are like, it's not like she's like this. These are the only three words you need to live your life. I don't think that's true. But, but I think some certain things are when you shift that focus. I found that to be kind of helpful for like some bad habits that I have are just kind of tendencies to really see the power in how you name things. There's a, another podcast that I love. I think I've told you about it, Lee. I can't, I don't know if you've actually listened to it yet, but it's called by the book and it's these two. Comedians and writers who, um, they choose a different self help book and then they live by it for two weeks and then the podcast episode is how, what happened and they're very well structured too. And what I like about them is that they don't come in being like, this book is going to have nothing to offer me, so I'm just going to make fun of it. It's not snarky. Like they've actually had some episodes where they were like, Like moved and like changed and transfer like really deep places and other times were like, this is kind of silly and didn't really work for me. And I'm like dying for them to do everything you're audible. So if you guys are listening, it's a really fun podcast, especially if you want to like learn about self help books, but don't feel like you have time to read it.

Leah: Yes, I think you did mention that podcast before, so I definitely need to go and listen to it to add it to my giant list of podcasts. So, Annie, okay, so your final book, what, what's the next book that you found really helpful?

Annie: So I had a really hard time choosing a third book because I'm like, I didn't, I was like, I could stay in the lactation world. I could stay, you know, in this like tech world or privacy world, but I just kept coming back to a book that has meant a lot to me for, you know, over 25 years. I've read it a bunch of times. I had a. alternate life where I was a writing professor and adjunct and teaching creative writing and I used to teach this book and it is called Walking on Water Reflections on Faith and Art by Madeline Lengel. So if you recognize that name it's because she wrote A Wrinkle in Time and is one of like the greatest human beings of all time just for writing that book but she has such a delicate nuanced and open approach to Living in the universe. That just sounded like so out there. That was so profound, so profound that she talks about the, the way surprise comes into your life. And so she has this one anecdote in the book where she was talking about writing one of her novels. And as she was writing. A character walked in and the character who was already in the scene was very surprised to see him and then she wrote and Madeline was very surprised to see him because until now I hadn't planned to have anybody like this in my book. I didn't even know who this person was who just showed up in the book that I was writing and she went with it and, you know, incorporated it into the draft and then went back and rewrote to kind of put this person in that until that moment she didn't come up with him. She's like, he showed up. And I had to put him in the book and I just love that has always made such an impact on me because I feel like life is this combination of opportunity, things that you work for, and then things that come to you and being receptive and open. I've gone through a lot of shifts in my professional life and done a lot of different jobs. And each time there was always a sense of like, well, this just showed up. I didn't think about this. I didn't have this wasn't in the plan. And so she really says like, you know, it's just Be, be open to surprises and see where, where they'll take you. And then, and then that just like ties into my, like one of my like favorite life quotes of all time, which is from Hamlet, which is the readiness is all. The readiness is all. So that's my third book. It's super.

Leah: Super woo. And now I really want to listen to, or well, I could probably listen to it. I love, I love audio books, but yeah, it's definitely something I would never really consider reading. But now that you, you talk about it, I'm like, Hmm, you really piqued my interest. So thank you so much for that. What's your third book? Yeah. So my third book is another like newer book. So I didn't go way back. I guess I could have, like you said, there are so many books that I love, but I was trying to think of like, what would be helpful for our listeners of things that I've found really helpful. And so this one is You're a Badass. And first of all, just the title is awesome. And it is a book about just, it's another kind of motivational, entrepreneurial spirit type of book. But one of the things I like is each of her chapters, there were several that. Kind of could be chunked out and just stand alone and sometimes when I'm just having a bad day And I love her so she has a couple of chapters in there like just She's kind of can be rough around the edges like hey, you know, you just need to get it together You just need to get Get it done and really motivational like you can do this. Do not hold yourself back. Like don't get in your own way Kind of mentality and sometimes I just need that kick in the pants And so i'll just listen to these couple of chapters over and over because I just love Her like the way she presents it on an audiobook and so I have it on audiobook and I play them over and over And I really enjoy that. She just kind of gives me a kick in the butt sometimes when i'm standing in my own way or feeling kind of like, Oh, it's too hard. I can't do any of it. And it's like, no. Yes, you can. You got this.

Annie: I need to read that one. I read her. You are a badass about money. I read that one. And I was like, Oh, I should read the first one. And then I forgot.

Leah: Yeah, it's, it's a really good book and it's an easy read. I mean, I did it on audio and it was such a like, It just flowed really nicely and it had a lot of great funny stories and stuff. So I highly encourage you if you want some motivation and, and a slight kick in the pants, it can be really helpful for those times where you're kind of feeling like down or kind of stuck. She's really good at getting you unstuck.

Annie: Awesome. I love it.

Leah: So, as we wrap up today, let's just talk real briefly about how we work in, I think we've kind of both mentioned, but we'll just give a couple quick thoughts about, um, how we work in reading and I'll just start with audiobooks are how I make it happen. So I just, I have audiobooks queued up and when I get in the car. I try to listen to some in between visits like almost every day. So it's either a podcast or audiobook, but usually at some point it's an audiobook every day. And I've gotten through so many books like that. I cannot even tell you how many books that I have read, quote unquote read, or listened through audio. And then my little trying to read a little bit every night. I have a big old stack of books that that are by my bed that I read a little bit every night. How about you, Annie?

Annie: Yeah, I, I like to try to fit reading in during, like, when I'm eating lunch on the, I mean, I spend time on the train and I like to listen to audio books when I'm on the train because it's hard to, like, for a long time when I would commute in to work, I would read my book on the train. But now that we all have phones, I, I do find that has changed my ability to like sit and read a book on the train. Also, the trains are a lot more crowded. These days than they were back when I worked in Manhattan before I had kids and you can't really sit down. So I listen to audio books and that makes me look forward to long drives and long train rides. Yeah. And then also just Having a list of books that I want to read and making sure I prioritize what like if there is something clinical that I need to read, I have, you know, that's gets more priority than something fun, but just reading every day or listening and listening counts. Many of us are auditory processors and I often for information type stuff. I get it better by listening than I do by reading.

Leah: Yeah, for sure. So Annie, as we wrap up, what's our tech tip today?

Annie: So the tech tip for the day is actually an anti tech tip, which is how to organize all the books that you want to read. So I'm going to tell you how I do it and you are totally welcome to copy this workflow and use it as you want. So I buy a book as soon as I get it. Whether I buy it from my favorite local bookstore, which is Astoria Bookshop in Astoria, or I order it from the big bookseller that gets them there tomorrow, I open it up right away and it has to go in its pile. So if it is a clinical book, it goes in the pile next to the chair, my thinking chair, which is where I write and where I hang out. It's my family chair. So that if I'm just sitting there with my family and I need to pick up a book, I can pick up one of those books. And that's for like clinical books that I'm trying to make through, go through slowly. And then if it's fiction, it goes in my bedroom. I have a pile next to my bed and they go in order of how I want to read them. So the more I want to read it, it goes to the top, but sometimes I'll have to trick myself and I'll say, you know, I've had this book for a long time and I really should. Either read it or pass it along. I'll put it higher up in the stack and I won't let myself read a book I'm like really wanting to read until i've actually given the book that I haven't been given haven't given a chance yet So I kind of have to like triage in that way, if that makes sense, it's really important because the books can get upset if you let them sit there for too long and don't and don't pay attention to them. So I'm really mindful of my books, their relationship to me and how I'm treating them and making sure that they know that they're important or that if I've decided they're no longer important that they go out into the world. So I'm also a big fan of when I'm done reading a book, I live in a small apartment, I do not keep every book. That I read, and they go to the thrift store, they go on the free table. We set up a free table at our homeschool club, which we don't do anymore. But like you can find free tables in a lot of places. We have one of those little book boxes at our park. I give them to a friend. I might even leave them. You know, on a stoop because books should be free and they need to go out into the world. So organize your books. They sit around too long, read them. And then when you're done, pass them on and get those great messages out into the world. And that is my non tech tip for today.

Leah: I love it. I love it. It's a good tip, even if it's not techie. Well, it was great chatting with you today. And this was such a fun topic. And now I have more books. That I need to read. Me too. Yes, yes, well, it was great talking to you today. Take care, Annie.

Annie: Bye.