“On Selling,” by Mark H. McCormack, is the best book on selling I’ve ever read. His kernels of wisdom and insight are timeless. Don’t let the copyright date dissuade you. He demonstrates the long curve in selling works (even in this digital age). It’s not about the sale now but the sales of tomorrow. And that, in the end, is what most salespeople really want. Repetitive sales.

  

On Selling
Mark H. McCormack

Mark McCormack proves in “On Selling” that he knows something about sales. He started International Management Group(IMG) and would represent some of the top athletes in the world. He started IMG with $500. After he died in 2003, his family sold the business for $750 million. His most famous book was probably “What They Don’t Teach You at the Harvard Business School.” McCormack, a legend in sports marketing, never got an MBA from Harvard. He didn’t need it, nor will you after reading this book. Find it here. 

  

Impact Players
Liz Wiseman

We all want to make an impact. It usually helps the business and, yes, we all have an ego, and making an impact is how you measure your effort. Liz Wiseman’s “Impact Players, How to Take the Lead, Play Bigger, and Multiply Your Impact” is a fresh dose of advice to significantly improve your HVACR organization. Wiseman talked to 170 leaders and even more managers and employees to get to the nut of things: What differentiates impact players from everyone else? She boils it down to the sacred five tips you can implement after finishing the book. Find it here. 

  

Get Different
Mike Michalowicz

OK, we all know we should differentiate or, in plain speak, be different. The dilemma is how to do it. Mike Michalowicz, a best-selling author and top marketing expert, shows the way. He offers a simple and actionable formula: It’s the DAD formula: different, attract and direct. His approach favors a small, low-cost, low-effort method that will work for virtually any business. He doesn’t hesitate to criticize himself in a chapter entitled “The Magic of Mistakes.” Find it here. 

  

How I Built This, With Guy Raz
Host Guy Raz

The show’s host, Guy Raz, is unrelenting about his podcast featuring  successful entrepreneurs. In every episode,  coaxes entrepreneurs Raz reveals “deep, intimate moments of doubt and failure” while exploring the road to ultimate success.  Some have described the podcast as a “masterclass on innovation, creativity, leadership and how to navigate challenges of all kinds.” For example, a recent podcast with Gene Berdichevsky suggests that he and his team could make lithium batteries about 40% more efficient, driving a burst of possibilities for battery-powered products. Find it here. 

  

The Daily Stoic
Host Ryan Holiday

If you’re an HVACR owner or manager, you’ve been stoic sometimes, wondering what to do next, even when things seem to be at a dead end. But you don’t cry to anyone. Instead, you suck it up and get on with it. This podcast with Ryan Holiday says there is a way to use the teachings of famous stoics like Marcus Aurelias and adapt them to modern life. He talks to notable figures from sports, academia, business and more to understand how a stoic attitude helped them and how it can help you. Find it here. 

  

The Ed Mylett Show
Host Ed Mylett

Do you want to be a Peak Performer? Is there a way you can inch forward or blast ahead if you just change how you’re doing things? That’s where host Ed Mylett comes in. He probes unrelentingly with top performers about how they got that way. A recent interview, for example, with Deion Sanders revealed the coach’s battles with suicide, depression and life-threatening issues and his fight for survival. Listen to the podcast and learn about “Coach Prime’s Success Game Plan.” Find it here.