Get to Know out Speakers with this #MILLSUMMIT Must-Read List
Article Written by Jenn Wells, #MILLSUMMIT planning committee member and co-Founder of BrandSwan.
Looking forward to the #MILLSUMMIT but don’t want to wait 2 whole months to start learning something new? We hear you, you ambitious beast. That’s why we collected this list of books and resources from our #MILLSUMMIT speakers, experts, and thought leaders.
Take a look! You never know what will spark the next big idea.
BOOKS AUTHORED BY #MILLSUMMIT SPEAKERS
STOP GETTING IN YOUR OWN WAY: A NO BS GUIDE TO CREATING THE BUSINESS OF YOUR DREAMS
Jaclyn DiGregorio
Even though women-owned businesses in the United States have grown by 114% in the past 20 years, they still only account for 4.2% of total U.S. business revenue.
Best-selling author Jaclyn DiGregorio knows what it’s like to work long hours on your business and be disappointed time and time again. After struggling for three years to build a sustainable business, she made a powerful decision to change her mindset. In Stop Getting In Your Own Way, Ms. DiGregorio details the many ways that ambitious women can shorten the time it takes to build a successful business, increase their income and expand their impact.
BACK ON COURSE: DRIVE BUSINESS PERFORMANCE THROUGH GOLF
Connie Charles
People do business with individuals they like, trust, admire and respect. That’s why golf is such an important business tool. It’s not about the deals you make while you’re on the course — it’s about the relationships you build that can lead to deals. In one round of golf, you’re able to establish a solid relational foundation.
Why golf? Because the golf course perfectly replicates the business world in showing how people function when they’re confronted with challenges that affect their individual performance. You can tell a great deal about how people operate in the business world by spending time with them on the golf course. Back on Course: Drive Business Performance Through Golf gives an inside look at what the game can reveal and how to use that information to excel in business.
CULTURAL AWARENESS: A STRATEGY THAT CAN INFLUENCE YOUR JOURNEY TO SUCCESS
Eunice Gwanmesia
Have you ever moved somewhere new that was so different that you had to relearn everything? Like a new way of getting around, a new lifestyle, or even which gestures are socially appropriate?
In her debut book, Cultural Awareness: A Strategy That Can Influence Your Journey to Success, Dr. Eunice Gwanmesia shares her own personal journey to success -- from her native village in Cameroon to the academic elite of Delaware State University -- and how cultural awareness played a defining role in her ability to achieve her goals.
THE KNOWING
Valerie Lane
“We all want our stories to be heard, but it’s tough to say them out loud, especially for the first time.”
The Knowing is a compelling novel about debunking stigmas surrounding mental health, LGBTQ+ themes, and survivorship. This book directly speaks to those struggling with mental health issues as well as family members of people going through trauma who want to grapple with what they can do to help and understand mental health in a new way.
From the outside looking in, Harper’s life is perfect. She has the dream job, the Pinterest apartment, and is engaged to the love of her life. But when she decides to leave her fiancé for seemingly no reason, Harper must come to terms with the reality she’s hiding from everyone, including herself.
ARTS & NUMBERS
Elaine Grogan Luttrull
The creative class—artists, actors, writers, musicians, freelancers, dancers, performers, and the like—are known for applying their passion for creative expression to everything they do. Perhaps the one thing that most fills this group with apprehension is the rigid world of numbers. This leads to problems arising from the unconventional financial and business situations of creative professionals, as well as the nonprofit organizations with which they're often affiliated. Finances, budgeting, and business matters can be dreaded, if not outright ignored, by creatives--to the detriment of their artistic pursuits.
Author, artist, and CPA Elaine Grogan Luttrull has written Arts & Numbers to help creative professionals find the same confidence in their financial dealings as in their chosen mode of expression. It is an engaging, accessible guide that covers a variety of must-know topics, such as budgeting, cash management, visual charting, taxes, employment, and business etiquette. In a simple, straightforward style, Luttrull draws examples from smooth-flowing narratives depicting common issues within the arts worlds, as well as from her own personal anecdotes. Unlike stuffy textbooks and patronizing business books, Arts & Numbers is a lively and artfully done ally in helping creative professionals plan their present financial situations and secure their futures.
100 BETTER DAYS: DAILY QUOTES TO IMPROVE YOUR MINDSET
India Sage-Williams
100 better days is a collection of poetry and affirmations about believing in yourself. This is a book about working on self-doubt, healing from the inside out, empowering yourself and no longer seeing yourself as the victim but the victor. Each chapter serves a purpose to elevate your thinking process and inspire daily growth. A reminder that mental growth happens daily and willingly.
WIRED THIS WAY: ON FINDING MENTAL, EMOTIONAL, PHYSICAL, AND SPIRITUAL WELL-BEING AS A CREATOR
Jessica Carson
Creators are wired complexly. In their lightest moments, they are passionate, ambitious, intuitive, and possess a host of other bright qualities. But entrepreneurial spirits are often victim of a darker side of their nature: they are particularly prone to mental health issues, stress-related illness, and other vulnerabilities of mind, body, and spirit. The media has breathlessly chronicled the peaks and valleys of today's creators--glorifying their strengths and villainizing their weaknesses--not realizing that the light and dark within entrepreneurs are two sides of the same coin. Wired This Way explores why the mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual distress among creators is not an indication of brokenness, but of a rich inner complexity that's prone to imbalance. A creator's struggles and strengths are one in the same, and the solution doesn't come from without, but from within. Using the wisdom of 10 creator archetypes found within the entrepreneurial spirit--the Curious, Sensitive, Ambitious, Disruptive, Empowered, Fiery, Orderly, Charming, Courageous, and Existential Creator--readers will learn how to integrate their light and dark qualities for mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being. Rooted in psychology, neuroscience, mindfulness, and ancient wisdom traditions, Wired This Way is a user's manual for self-understanding, self-acceptance, and self-care as an entrepreneurial spirit.
BORN FIERCE: HOW TO UNLEASH THE CONFIDENT WOMAN WITHIN
Taria Pritchett
In a world of social media self-esteem, media mediocrity, and filtered worthiness it is so easy to forget who you are, why you are here, and what you are here to do. Whether you are ready to step into your purpose, love yourself more, or bounce back from a failed relationship, Born FIERCE is the ultimate women’s empowerment guide. This step-by-step guide empowers women to set their own standards and define their own destiny, to let go of baggage and forgive the past, and to fall in love with themselves and unleash the confident woman within.
TAKE THE LIMITS OFF, SERIES 1: 9 WAYS TO STOP TALKING AND START DOING
Joyce Dungee Proctor
This book is a quick read that will inspire, motivate and enlighten you! Practical and engaging with truth on every page, Joyce Dungee Proctor has given us a simple, elegant way to "Stop Talking and Start Doing!" Utilizing her decades of experience as a leader in career and job coaching, business management and training, and as an executive coach and inspirational speaker, the author shares with us her process to empowerment. Incorporating ALL she has learned with the personal stories she has accumulated along the way, we are provided with a profound and common sense approach to business and life. We are also provided with a workbook-type format that allows us to immediately begin to USE what we learn. Setting goals and creating realistic steps to achieve them, surrounding yourself with your "Dream Team" and operating based on a "Circle of Trust" are part of the NINE WAYS to start moving in the direction of your hopes and dreams. These are part of the toolbox the author offers to help TRANSFORM your life. Without a doubt, this book - the first in a series - is a MUST HAVE for your bookshelf. If you are stuck or seeking a new way to begin, you really owe it to your Self to stop talking and start doing. Happy reading!
MEMOIRS OF A WORKING MOTHER: FIGHTING FOR BALANCE, MANAGING EXPECTATIONS AND CHANNELING LOVE
Linda Arrey
Memoirs of A Working Mother is the unfiltered and insightful truth, according to International Board Certified Life and Leadership Coach, Linda Arrey. As the founder of a diverse philanthropic organization for female leaders, Linda has long advocated for the discovery of balance and compassion for women thriving at home and in the workplace.
Through a robust offering of stories, strategies, and anecdotes, the pages of this book reveal the challenges and triumphs of finding balance with family, returning to work after childbirth, battling fibroids, and above all else, the quest to love the reflection in the mirror. Working mothers deserve to use their God-given talents to create sanctuaries of love for their families and to thrive outside of the home, guilt-free. After all, we wear the capes.
OTHER RESOURCES FROM #MILLSUMMIT SPEAKERS
Nonprofit AF — Nonprofit articles by Vu Le
Fola Financial Blog — Tax and financial advice from Sheneya Wilson
The Manifestor Mindset — Articles, videos, and podcasts from Matt Higgins
Free Entrepreneurial Resources — Downloads & email tips from Samantha Hearne
Neenfit — Fitness tips from Juannie Jimenez (Neen)
Funding Fuel — Investment and funding articles from Pedro Moore
Runaway App — Mental health toolkit from Satvik Sethi