All small business and professional advancement coaching clients can get a head start by reading (or listening to) these books. For StoryBrand: I recommend buying (or finding at your local library!) a physical copy of the book, as you’ll be working through it fairly intensely. Having the source to reference is very helpful.

Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message so Your Customers Will Listen (Don Miller)
Essential reading for anyone in marketing – INCLUDING YOU, no matter what you do. Business owner? Use it in ad campaigns and customer service system development. Middle management? Bring this up the chain and work with your C suite to better market your company to your employees. Stay at home mom? Apply this to market dinner to your kids! The gist is that we’re all entirely self-centered, so a good marketing message focuses on the fact that your customer is self-centered, too.

Extreme Ownership: How US Navy SEALs Lead and Win (Jocko Willink, Leif Babin)
Everything is your fault, and that is the most optimistic way to view the world. This is about rejecting your internal victim mentality and learning to recognize your areas of influence, both internal and external. This is a key to understanding my coaching practice and is a non-negotiable read. The combat scenes are gratuitous and the authors’ voices distasteful to some, so make good choices for yourself when choosing the audio or text version (and do a bit of skimming if you need to get through the stories).