In a marketplace where everyone is at the top of their game, it is important to give yourself an edge. In order to continuously progress and develop skills that set you apart, you must stay educated and practice lifelong learning. Experts with a voracious appetite for success, Warren Buffett, Mark Cuban, and Bill Gates, all have one thing in common: immersing themselves in reading. It is a proven fact that reading improves brain connectivity and function.

At our core, the Exit Planning Institute is an education company dedicated to providing relevant and valuable knowledge. In order to fulfill this, we continue learning and growing by expanding our knowledge base.

Brooke Norman, Vice President of Marketing at the Exit Planning Institute lives by the same belief system. If you have seen her speak at CEPA, the Summit, or even just talked to her, she is constantly referencing books that have heightened her industry knowledge and transformed the professional she has become. In order to prevent stagnant performance, she takes time to mentally stimulate herself by reading.

Brooke believes that a truly holistic marketing knowledge base includes the following topics: marketing acumen, leadership, emotional intelligence, psychology and cognitive understanding, sales (because sales is everything), public speaking, and business planning and strategy.

Her reading list will give you the chance to glean a bit of her unique marketing perspective. By reading one book per month, you have the opportunity to gain a wealth of knowledge that can immediately apply to your practice. Improving your marketing is as simple as taking time to expand your body of knowledge.

Top Marketing Reading List

Below is a list of Brooke’s top reads for a crash course in the major topics that make marketing successful and the reason each book made the list.

Marketing Acumen

1. 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries and Jack Trout

“Simple read, holds true decades later.”

2. 10x Marketing Formula by Garrett Moon

“How I wish every creative professional thought. It helps you harness your creativity and explains how to tie your creativity to the ground so that it takes off.”

3. How to Write Copy That Sells by Ray Edwards

“This is the book that helped me realize what our company exactly is in the advisory community. It offers simple and very clarifying instructions on who you are in the marketplace and how to write about it.”

Strategy

4. Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne

“This book provides examples that make you think about how you can use this lesson in your own practice. Specifically, I latch on to the example of Southwest Airlines competing with cars as a generic form of transportation, instead of other airline brands. It makes you think outside of the box.”

5. Contagious by Jonah Berger

“STEPPS is a key formula our team lives and breathes by for messaging and effective marketing.”

Psychology and Cognitive Understanding

6. Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss

“Probably the most important negotiation sales business book I have ever read.”

7. Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

“Overall, the most important book I have ever read.”

In interviewing Brooke about this, she had a few influential psychological picks, if that interests you reach out.

Business Planning and Strategy

8. Scaling Up by Verne Harnish

“The reason being, like it or hate it, marketing people lack business sense and this book helps put a framework around actions and financial results.”

9. The Ultimate Sale by Justin Goodbread

“If you are an advisor who has a marketing person helping you market these kinds of services, buy them this book. It is the best layman’s description to business transactions. This is a read that will turn a marketing person into a subject matter expert.”

Public Speaking

10. Ted Talks: The Official Ted Guide to Public Speaking by Chris Anderson

“Breaks down the science and neuroscience of how to expand someone’s world view.”

11. TED Talks Storytelling: 23 Storytelling Techniques from the Best TED Talks by Akash Karia

“23 story telling techniques from the best ted talks ever given. It is amazing how your words can live in someone else’s head.”

Blanket Category:

12. Harvard Business Review Series

“Critical and super accessible way to read a little about a lot.”

About Exit Planning Institute:

The Exit Planning Institute (EPI) is an education company that provides exit planning education to advisors and middle market business owners.  We view exit planning as a strategy, not an event.

EPI leads the professional services profession with the best industry content, ongoing support, and owner education platform, all of which align with our mission: Change the outcome.

Only 2 out of every 10 businesses that come to market actually sell.  We want to increase the number of saleable businesses.

Only 30% of family businesses successfully transition to the second generation, only 12% transfer to the third, and the success rates diminish from there.  We want to improve those intergenerational transitions.

Of those that succeed in the sale of their business, 75% experience “profound regret” within one year of exiting their business.  We want to understand why and create strategies that achieve profound success, wealth, and satisfaction.

EPI is an education company, powered by an elite community of top advisors and owners, all focused toward creating a valuable, transferable future for the business marketplace.

• Change your outcome.  Learn more at www.Exit-Planning-Institute.org.
• Educate business owners.  Learn more at www.OwnerReadiness.com.
• Become the Advisor of the Future.  Learn more at www.EarnCEPA.com.