Tools we actually use
and recommend to every client.
Every recommendation on this page is curated for business owners who want to run a tighter, more professional operation. Nothing here is filler. If it’s listed, it earns its place.
This page contains affiliate links. If you purchase through one of these links, we may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. We only recommend tools and books we have personally used or vetted for the businesses we work with.
Reading list: conversion & positioning
Simon Sinek
The book that reframed how an entire generation thinks about leadership, Sinek’s central argument is that the most influential people and organizations don’t lead with what they do, they lead with why they do it. If your messaging feels flat or your business struggles to create genuine loyalty, this is the book that shows you where the problem actually starts.
Jon McNeill
Written by a former Tesla president who watched Musk turn a company on the brink of collapse into a $20B operation in under three years, this book breaks down the exact five-step framework Musk used to eliminate complexity, accelerate execution, and set goals most leaders wouldn’t dare put on paper. If your business feels like it’s moving slower than it should or carrying more process than it needs, this is the operating framework worth studying.
Morgan Housel
Housel’s core argument is that financial success has almost nothing to do with intelligence and everything to do with behavior and since behavior is driven by psychology, most financial advice that leads with math and data is solving the wrong problem entirely. If you have ever made a business decision that looked irrational on paper but felt completely justified in the moment, this book explains exactly why that happens and how to catch it before it costs you.
Eric Ries
A raw and honest memoir following one boy’s journey through the streets of South Los Angeles where family, love, and street loyalty exist side by side, and every choice carries real weight. If you believe that resilience and character are built in the hardest moments, this is the story that puts that idea into vivid, human terms. I know this author personally which is exactly why I can tell you this story is as real as it gets.
Eric Ries
Ries follows up The Lean Startup with an argument that hits closer to home for any business owner with principles that companies don’t lose their way because of bad people, but because of poorly designed systems that quietly bend even well-intentioned leaders toward decisions they never planned to make. If you have ever watched a business you respected drift from what made it worth building in the first place, this book explains exactly how that happens and what has to be built into the structure from the beginning to prevent it.
Walker Deibel
Deibel’s argument is straightforward and hard to argue with, instead of spending years and capital trying to build something profitable from zero, buy a business that is already generating revenue and grow from there. If you have ever considered owning a business but assumed starting from scratch was the only path, this book makes a compelling case that acquisition is the smarter, faster, and significantly less risky route to ownership.
Reading list: The Personal Shelf
Thornton D. Withers
A raw and honest memoir following one boy’s journey through the streets of South Los Angeles where family, love, and street loyalty exist side by side, and every choice carries real weight. If you believe that resilience and character are built in the hardest moments, this is the story that puts that idea into vivid, human terms. I know this author personally which is exactly why I can tell you this story is as real as it gets.
David Goggins
Goggins turned one of the hardest childhoods imaginable into the fuel for a level of physical and mental performance that most people cannot comprehend and his central argument is that every one of us is operating at roughly 40% of what we are actually capable of, with the other 60% locked behind discomfort we have been conditioned to avoid. If you have ever wondered what you are truly capable of when everything in you wants to quit, this book will permanently change how you answer that question.
Jocko Willink, Leif Babin
Two Navy SEAL commanders who take everything they learned leading men in the most hostile conditions on earth and translate it directly into leadership and business principles. The core argument is that total accountability owning every outcome, good or bad, without exception is the foundation that everything else is built on. It bridges your personal shelf and your business toolkit naturally, which makes it a strong closer for the section.
The Applied Visual is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
