The Books That Shaped Me

Angie Smith
  • 5.0 (4)
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The Books That Shaped Me is a space for leaders to share their journey. They highlight books, memories, moments that forged them into who they are today. #leadership #faith #UnBreakable

  1. 2d ago

    Bloom Where You’re Planted (Even When It Makes You Angry)

    What does it take to go from hiding in the shadows, watching other people live their lives, to running an award-winning media company that shapes the future of a whole city? Laura Terry is a Georgetown, TX-based entrepreneur, marketer, & podcaster who has spent 30 years helping businesses find their voice and connect with their communities. She hosts The Unbridled Creative and Be Locally Loved, and runs Be Local Georgetown. She and Angie talk about saying yes to a calling that terrifies you, why your messaging matters more than your marketing budget, and what happens when you stop performing and just be who you are. ■ Walking on Fire: A grandma at a Tony Robbins live event grabbed her hand and pulled her across 14 feet of hot coals. That moment was the first step toward becoming who she is today. ■ The 2 Millimeter Tweak: You don’t have to leap across a chasm to change your life. Small, consistent adjustments made over decades will land you somewhere completely different. ■ Building a StoryBrand: Donald Miller’s framework rewired 30 years of marketing instincts in one audiobook. The core shift: you are not the hero of your customer’s story. You are the guide. ■ A Day in the Cemetery: Her coach told her to spend an hour walking through a cemetery and call him after. What she found there made her decide to stop being someone she wasn’t, whatever it cost. ■ The Power of Moments: Be Local’s real mission isn’t selling ads. It’s curating the moment when someone goes from feeling like an outsider to feeling like they belong. 00:00 Sponsor: WinStar Insurance Group 1:02 Welcome: Laura Terry 2:46 📚 Unleash the Power Within by Tony Robbins 4:15 The Tony Robbins firewalk 8:45 The 2 millimeter tweaks philosophy 13:58 Bloom Where You’re Planted 19:33 Be Local Cedar Park and the COVID pivot 21:25 Approaching Mayor Trader shaking in her boots 23:27 📚 The Power of Moments by Chip and Dan Heath 27:25 Be Local’s mission beyond advertising 31:44 📚 Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller 36:27 The day in the cemetery 43:07 The Unbridled Creative Podcast 48:25 Be Locally Loved Podcast 54:48 Angie’s Outro ◼ How Marketing Works by Laura Capes Terry (unpublished) Laura Terry: ◼ Website: LauraCapesTerry.com ◼ Instagram: Laura Capes Terry MBA OK ◼ The Unbridled Creative: theunbridledcreative.com The Books That Shaped Me: ◼ Book a call with Angie - https://link.ask4tea.com/widget/booking/u4kVkzFPLBx7jwJLpSZh ◼ Work with Angie (UnBreakable Life coaching) - https://angiesmithsummitconsulting.com ◼ Subscribe for new episodes every week - https://www.youtube.com/@AngieSmith-SummitConsulting?sub_confirmation=1 ◼ Listen on podcast- https://rss.com/podcasts/the-books-that-shaped-me-with-angie-smith-fea-gina-dodd ◼ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/angie-smith-connector ◼ Follow Angie on FB - https://www.facebook.com/angie.smith.2021 #TheBooksThatShapedMe #LeadershipPodcast #AngieSmith

    Bloom Where You’re Planted (Even When It Makes You Angry)

  2. Oct 23

    The Books That Shaped Me Featuring Scott Francis

    What does it take to build a company from 35 people to $450 million in revenue, and still feel the pull to start over from scratch? Scott Francis is a Stanford-trained computer scientist and serial entrepreneur who spent 7 yrs at Trilogy Software, 4 years at Lombardi Software, and then co-founded BP3 Global in 2007, leading it for nearly two decades. He and Angie talk about the books that shaped his career at every stage, why the best companies treat reading like a competitive advantage, how process can either set people free or crush them, and what it looks and feels like to follow an entrepreneurial calling even when the safe path is right there. ■ The Iliad at Stanford: Scott explains how a class on Homer’s Iliad as oral tradition, written in strict meter, rewired how he thinks about structure and communication. The constraints of the form weren’t limiting; they made the story last 3K yrs ■ Trilogy’s Reading Culture: He describes how Trilogy Software used books like assigned weaponry. Good to Great, Built to Last, Crossing the Chasm, Solution Selling, Challenger Selling. Every employee read the same books so the whole company could operate from the same mental model. ■ Process as Freedom: At Lombardi Software, Scott learned the difference between process as an enabler and process as bureaucracy. He explains how the right process clears the path for people to do their best work, and the wrong kind just adds friction and blame. ■ Joining at the Inflection Point: He shares what it was like to join Trilogy when it had 35 employees and ride it to $450 million. The growth wasn’t just financial. The experience reshaped his entire picture of what a company could become and what he wanted to build. ■ The Entrepreneur’s Itch: Scott explains why, after years of success inside other companies, co-founding BP3 in 2007 wasn’t optional. The pull toward building something of his own was a calling, not just a career move. 0:00 Sponsor: WinStar Insurance Grp 1:15 Meet Scott Francis 3:30 Stanford and The Iliad 7:00 Why Homer still matters in business 9:30 Joining Trilogy at 35 employees 12:00 Books Trilogy assigned & why 15:30 Good to Great and Built to Last 17:45 Crossing the Chasm and sales methodology 20:00 Lombardi Software & process design Process as enabler not bureaucracy The entrepreneurship itch Co-founding BP3 Global 2007 Leading BP3 for nearly 2 decades Red Fridge Society and meeting Angie ◼ The Iliad by Homer ◼ Good to Great by Jim Collins ◼ Built to Last by Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras ◼ Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore ◼ The Challenger Sale by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson ◼ Solution Selling by Michael Bosworth Follow Scott Francis: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sfrancisatx/ ◼ Book a discovery call with Angie - https://link.ask4tea.com/widget/booking/u4kVkzFPLBx7jwJLpSZh ◼ Work with Angie - https://angiesmithsummitconsulting.com ◼ https://www.youtube.com/@AngieSmith-SummitConsulting?sub_confirmation=1 ◼ https://rss.com/podcasts/the-books-that-shaped-me-with-angie-smith-fea-gina-dodd

    The Books That Shaped Me Featuring Scott Francis

  3. Oct 2

    The Books That Shaped Me Featuring Steph Spector

    What if the book that shaped your entire career was one you picked up at age 10 — from the wrong section of the bookstore? That's exactly what happened to Steph Spector, writer, editor, and business writing coach, and it set her on a path that's anything but conventional. Steph helps professionals and creatives find their voice on the page — not the corporate, buttoned-up version, but the real one. The one that actually sounds like them. In this conversation, she shares how lessons from a childhood writing book became life principles, what happened when a shy 23-year-old was asked to teach a six-hour grammar class to a room full of intimidating adults, and why 80% of the people who show up to her classes say the same heartbreaking thing. We also get into farm life in Pennsylvania and Blanco, Texas, tiny house living, coaching writing for Apple's executive team, and the memoir that made her cry on a walk and rearrange her whole perspective on complaining. Books mentioned in this episode: 📚 Robert's Rules of Writing by Robert Macello 📚 Writing Fiction by Gotham Writers Workshop (ed. Alex Steel) 📚 Cathedral by Raymond Carver (short story) 📚 Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain 📚 The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby Connect with Steph: 🌐 stephspector.com 💼 LinkedIn: Steph Spector Connect with Angie: 🌐 AngieSummitConsulting.com 💼 LinkedIn | Facebook The Books That Shaped Me is proudly sponsored by Winstar Insurance Group in Cedar Park, Texas — owned and operated by Stephanie Dew. Specializing in first responders, wineries, breweries, childcare facilities, and more. A team that truly values their people. Learn more at [winstarinsurance.com].

    The Books That Shaped Me Featuring Steph Spector

  4. Sep 25

    The Books That Shaped Me Featuring Michael Ciccolone

    Episode Title: From the Marines to the Courtroom to the Boardroom | Michael Ciccolone, Blackline GC Description: What happens when an attorney decides the billable hour model is broken and builds something completely different? You get Michael Ciccolone. Michael is a Marine veteran, former Chief Legal Officer, and the founder of Blackline GC — a fractional general counsel firm offering flat-fee, subscription-based legal services to growth-stage companies. He built a model designed around relationship and trust, not billing anxiety, and nine months in, every client has renewed. In this conversation, Michael takes us from his childhood in New York and a love of the library, to deployments in Anbar Province with a bomb-detecting German Shepherd named Cindy, to building a law firm that puts small business owners in the same room as the legal expertise that used to be reserved for companies ten times their size. We talk books — from Stephen King to Aristotle to Dan Martell's Buy Back Your Time. We talk Sicily, self-care, and what his sister taught him about living now instead of waiting for retirement. And we talk about what it means to be an underdog advocate in a profession not exactly known for that. This one is full of wisdom, warmth, and a few stories you won't see coming. 📚 Books mentioned: Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell, Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, Last of the Mohicans, Dracula by Bram Stoker, Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, Rhetoric by Aristotle Connect with Michael: michael@blacklinegc.com | LinkedIn: Michael Ciccolone Connect with Angie: AngieSmithSummitConsulting.com The Books That Shaped Me is proudly sponsored by WinStar Insurance Group — Cedar Park, Texas. Faith, trust, and authenticity in everything they do.

    The Books That Shaped Me Featuring Michael Ciccolone

  5. Sep 18

    The Books That Shaped Me Featuring PJ Diamond

    This episode is proudly sponsored by WinStar Insurance Group, owned and operated by Stephanie Dew out of Cedar Park, Texas. Real coverage, real integrity, and a heart for the people they serve. I'm joined by PJ Diamond, a leadership voice with Leadership Austin and a genuine global citizen. PJ walks me through the books that built her, starting with a poem her sisters passed down before she could read it herself and ending with the one that gave her permission to define motherhood on her own terms. In between, we talk about growing up the oldest of three, a Rotary exchange year in Argentina, teaching kindergarten in Japan, therapy that saved her life, and what it means to belong to yourself before you belong anywhere else. 📚 Book Mentioned: Life Doesn't Frighten Me by Maya Angelou (illustrated by Jean-Michel Basquiat) 📚 Book Mentioned: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho 📚 Book Mentioned: Ishmael by Daniel Quinn 📚 Book Mentioned: The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John C. Maxwell 📚 Book Mentioned: Others Like Me by Nicole Louie Connect with PJ Diamond on LinkedIn, and find me at angiesmithsummitconsulting.com if you want to keep the conversation going.

    The Books That Shaped Me Featuring PJ Diamond

  6. Sep 11

    The Books That Shaped Me Featuring Kat Rector

    Finding Your Voice, Your Tribe, and Yourself with Kat Rector In this episode of The Books That Shaped Me, I sit down with Kat Rector, a tech leader and mom of two boys who I've admired from afar since we first connected on LinkedIn. Kat opens up about her divorce, years of burnout she didn't recognize until she named it, and the slow work of reconnecting with herself. We talk through the books that carried her: Attention Management by Maura Thomas, I'm So Effing Tired by Amy Shah, MD, You Are a Badass by Jen Sincero, and Atomic Habits by James Clear. Kat also shares how Wolf Pack by Abby Wambach, Iron John by Robert Bly, and Wild at Heart by John Eldredge shaped the mentoring bootcamp she built to surround her sons with strong men. This one covers hustle culture, building your tribe on purpose, raising boys with intention, and learning to sit still long enough to hear your own thoughts. Connect with Kat on LinkedIn or Instagram, search Kat Rector and her blog DearFellowMoms.com. Want to talk through your own season of change? Book a call with me at angiesmithsummitconsulting.com.

    The Books That Shaped Me Featuring Kat Rector

  7. Sep 4

    The Books That Shaped Me Featuring Dave Leon

    Dave Leon, an executive, business, and life coach based in Austin who spent 34 years in corporate America first, seven years on Wall Street, then 27 years in enterprise tech and SaaS sales, including over a decade selling cloud and AI services for a major hyperscaler. Dave was laid off twice. The second time, at 56, he sat with himself for three months until he ran out of excuses. In the years that followed he was also diagnosed with cancer and went through a divorce, all inside about 18 months. Out of that he rebuilt his own definition of success (peace plus joy, no variable for wealth) and built his coaching practice around five pillars he mapped out on his own whiteboard. We talk about stoicism, neuroplasticity, why saying your own name can interrupt a bad pattern, and the book that reframed rigid goal setting for both of us. Books that shaped this episode: A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy by William IrvineLimitless by Jim KwikTiny Experiments: How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World by Anne-Laure Le Cunff

    The Books That Shaped Me Featuring Dave Leon

  8. Aug 28

    The Books That Shaped Me Featuring Carrie Davis

    My guest is Carrie Davis, VP of Patient and Employee Experience at Hanger, Inc., born without her left arm and wearing a prosthesis since she was nine months old. We talk about growing up as an empath, the difference between performative confidence and the real thing, and why she's letting go of the five-year plan at 55. Carrie also opens up about the day she traded a plain prosthetic hook for one covered in Swarovski crystals, and what that taught her about being seen. If her story has you thinking about your own next chapter, book a call with me: angiesmithsummitconsulting.com o Lead by Brené Brown Wolfpack by Abby Wambach The Gift of Change by Marianne Williamson The Human Margin by Dr. Catherine Meese The Thin Book of Trust by Charles Feltman The Speed of Trust by Stephen M.R. Covey The Empath Leader by Claudia Katarucci Strong Ground by Brené Brown CONNECT WITH CARRIE linkedin.com/in/carrie-davis-05805b12 #TheBooksThatShapedMe #UnBreakableLifeCoaching #FaithForwardLeadership #EmpathLeadership #ServantLeadership #LimbDifference #DisabilityAdvocate #TrustAtWork #CampNoLimits #PersonalDevelopmentPodcast

    The Books That Shaped Me Featuring Carrie Davis
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4 Ratings

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The Books That Shaped Me is a space for leaders to share their journey. They highlight books, memories, moments that forged them into who they are today. #leadership #faith #UnBreakable

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