This month’s best business podcasts and books for your franchise

Need some business advice or feel stuck in a rut? We’ve rounded up some of the best entrepreneur podcasts and books.

If you’re a franchise owner, you’re probably always looking for ways to grow and improve your business. However, that’s not always easy in isolation. Seeking inspiration externally from industry experts via podcasts and books can be a great way to rejuvenate your business mindset.

In this article, we’ve shared our top business podcasts and books for franchise owners this month, covering vital topics such as social media marketing, cultivating the right mindset, and becoming comfortable with failing.

These resources aim to help you continue taking your business to new heights, regardless of whether you’re new to franchising or are a veteran in the industry.

1. Mistakes That Made Me with Eman Ismail

Listen to this podcast when you need some reassurance that it’s ok to fail sometimes.

Mistakes That Made Me is the podcast that asks extraordinary business owners to share their biggest business bloopers – so you know where to find the potholes and avoid them on your road to success. Join email strategist Eman Ismail as she chats to some of the brightest minds in business about how to push through failure and accept it as an important and necessary part of building a brand. Because, as it turns out: your biggest business mistake often leads to your largest lesson and inevitably your biggest blessing.

MUST LISTEN EPISODE: Launching Without a Plan with Amy Posner & Kirsty Fanton

2. Social Media Marketing with Michael Stelzner

Listen to this podcast when you need to navigate social media marketing.

Publishing weekly since 2012, Social Media Marketing helps marketers navigate the ever-changing marketing jungle with expert interviews from leading marketing pros. Join Social Media Examiner’s founder Michael Stelzner as he helps you discover new strategies and actionable tips to improve your marketing, with the most recent episodes covering Facebook ads, video, and storytelling, and turning Instagram stories to conversions.

MUST LISTEN EPISODE: Getting Started With GA4: A Practical Approach

3. Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson

Read this book to gain insight on one of world’s most famous business brains.

From the author of Steve Jobs and other bestselling biographies, this is the astonishingly intimate story of Elon Musk, one of the most fascinating and controversial innovators of our era – a rule-breaking visionary who helped to lead the world towards electric vehicles, private space exploration, and artificial intelligence. Oh, and took over Twitter. At the beginning of 2022 – after a year marked by SpaceX launching 31 satellites, Tesla selling a million cars, and becoming the richest man on earth – Musk spoke ruefully about his compulsion to stir up dramas. “I need to shift my mindset away from being in crisis mode, which it has been for about 14 years now, or arguably most of my life,” he said. It was a wistful comment, not a New Year’s resolution. Even as he said it, he was secretly buying up shares of Twitter.

For two years, Walter Isaacson shadowed Musk, attended his meetings, walked his factories with him, and spent hours interviewing him, his family, friends, coworkers, and adversaries. The result is the inside story, filled with amazing tales of triumphs and turmoil that addresses the question: are the demons that drive Musk also what it takes to drive innovation and progress?

4. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

Read this book to foster a money-making mindset.

Napoleon Hill, one of America’s most loved motivational authors, devoted 25 years to finding out how the wealthy became that way. After interviewing more than 500 of the most affluent men and women of his time, he uncovered the secret to great wealth based on the notion that if we can learn to think like the rich, we can start to behave like them.

By understanding and applying the 13 simple steps that constitute Hill’s formula, you can achieve your goals, change your life, and join the ranks of the rich and successful. In this updated edition, Dr. Arthur R. Pell provides examples of men and women who, in recent times, exemplify the principles that Hill promulgated. With the success stories of top achievers such as Bill Gates and Steven Spielberg, he proves that Hill’s philosophies are as valid today as they ever were.

5. If In Doubt, Wash Your Hair by Anya Hindmarch

Read this book for motivation, encouragement, and lessons from launching a global brand.

Anya’s Sunday Times bestselling book, now available in paperback, shares what she has learned during her busy and eclectic life as a mother, stepmother, entrepreneur, and businesswoman; what she still worries about, and what sage advice she has received along the way to becoming a global brand name. From practical tips and quick fixes to profound observations about confidence and creativity, this inspiring handbook will show you how to live and work a little better – and why the answer can be as simple as washing your hair.

For more resources on success in franchising (including networking on social media, the impact of AI, and experiential marketing) check out the free latest edition of What Franchise.

Author: Lorenne Brogan