As a member of the Read to Lead Nation, you are in for a treat (by the way, click that link to join the group on Facebook).  Author, speaker and career coach Dan Miller will be the show’s first official guest.  This is so fitting when I think about all the encouragement I’ve received from Dan these last few months.

Image courtesy Sankai at iStockphoto

I Love to Read

Since then, Dan has been a gracious sounding board in my life and instrumental in helping me to dig ever deeper into my passions and loves.  First and foremost, of course, are my wife, my family and my miniature Dachshunds (Fritz and Frank in case you were wondering).  But the one activity I enjoy more than almost any other is reading.

But it wasn’t always this way.  I used to hate reading, writing or anything else that didn’t involve sitting back and soaking in whatever content I could consume passively.  That all changed when a leader I was blessed to be mentored by (Matt Austin) instilled in me the importance of reading every business, marketing, leadership, and personal development book I could get my hands on.  The Aha! moment for me was when he shared this tidbit: “Once you’ve read five books on a single subject, you now know more about that subject than probably 80- to 90-percent of the population.”  It wasn’t until that moment that I truly appreciated the power of a book.

As I dug deeper into my passion of reading, I realized that if I could do anything I wanted, it would be talking with others all day about these fascinating books and sharing what I was learning along the way.  It was about this same time I realized I had exceeded my modest goal of reading 3 books in the first 3 months of the year, times 3?  By the end of March, I was on book nine, with books ten and eleven waiting in the wings.  I thought to myself, “Self, that’s nearly a book a week!”  It was then and there on my commute home that the idea of a weekly podcast dedicated to fostering more non-fiction reading was born.  I remembered the mantra I’d first heard uttered by Michael Hyatt: Leaders read and readers lead.  I began to get really excited and felt I was really on to something.

But Where to Start? 

I started thinking of who I had some connection to that I could likely get a “Yes” from.  What authors could I interview, and soon?  After Dan, Jeff Goins, Jon Acuff and Liz Wiseman all came to mind.  I started getting even more excited.  As my mind wondered further, I began to make a dream list.  In addition to the authors already mentioned, there was:

Michael Hyatt – Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World

Seth Godin – The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly?

Daniel Pink – To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others

Dave Ramsey – EntreLeadership: 20 Years of Practical Business Wisdom from the Trenches

Chris Guillebeau – The 00 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future

Blake Mycoskie – Start Something That Matters

Simon Sinek – Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

Joel Manby – Love Works: Seven Timeless Principles for Effective Leaders

Timothy Ferriss – The 4-Hour Workweek, Expanded and Updated: Expanded and Updated, With Over 100 New Pages of Cutting-Edge Content

Would any of these folks talk to me?  What’s the worst that could happen?

I Love the Sound of Yes!

In addition to Dan Miller, requests for interviews have gone out to:

– Robert D. Smith, author of 20,000 Days and Counting: The Crash Course For Mastering Your Life Right Now

– John Lee Dumas, host of the Entrepreneur on Fire podcast and author of Podcast Launch – A Step by Step Podcasting Guide Including 15 Video Tutorials

– Jeff Goins, blogger and author of Wrecked: When a Broken World Slams into Your Comfortable Life

And guess what?  All returned with a YES answer!  Isn’t that awesome?  We’re batting a thousand here at Read to Lead and we hope to see it continue.

Who would like to see, er, hear, on the Read to Lead Podcast?  Shoot me an e-mail with your favorites to jeff [at] readtoleadpodcast [dot] com.  By the way, author interviews are being scheduled as I write. The plan is to launch the Read to Lead podcast officially in July once the first several interviews are in the can.

Win a  Copy of Dan’s Book

Finally, if you’d like a shot at winning a copy of Dan Miller’s latest book Wisdom Meets Passion: When Generations Collide and Collaborate, share a question for Dan and I by going here and leaving a voicemail:

https://www.speakpipe.com/ReadToLeadPodcast.  You can do it straight from your computer’s browser.  And, if I use your question in the podcast, you win!

Thanks so much for your support and for joining with the rest of the Read to Lead Nation on what I hope will be a powerful and growth-filled journey.

___________________________________________

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”