Have you ever wondered what books your fellow chamber of commerce professionals are reading? But you value your time and only want to read what comes highly recommended?
If so, we have gone back into the deep dark archives of the Chamber of Commerce Professionals Group on Facebook and pulled out all the book recommendations from your peers.
If you’re looking for a chamber of commerce professionals books reading list, here it is!
We also have a bonus resource at the end of this article for those of you who may not want to spend hours reading a book and just want concise, digestible blog posts or podcasts.
Chamber Resources: the ultimate chamber reading list for chamber professionals by chamber pros
These books have been recommended by chamber professionals throughout the world. Some of them are about chamber management, while others are good reads on invaluable topics like management, productivity, and creativity.
- Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert. From the publisher: “Elizabeth Gilbert digs deep into her own generative process to share her wisdom and unique perspective about creativity. With profound empathy and radiant generosity, she offers potent insights into the mysterious nature of inspiration…She discusses the attitudes, approaches, and habits we need in order to live our most creative lives.”
- Leadershift: The 11 Essential Changes Every Leader Must Embrace by John C Maxwell. From the publisher: “… the key to not just surviving but to continual innovation, improvement, and influence is to learn how to leadershift. This book helps leaders make the changes the current fast-paced environment demands.”
- Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. From the publisher: “the author’s famous investigations of ‘optimal experience’ have revealed that what makes some experience generally satisfying is a state of consciousness called flow”…. The book asserts that “ by ordering the information that enters our consciousness, we can discover true happiness and greatly improve the quality of our lives.”
- Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin. This book explains that “it’s human nature to seek out tribes… now that the internet has eliminated the barriers of geography, cost, and time. Social media gives anyone who wants to make a difference the tools to do so… Tribes makes you think about the opportunities to mobilize an audience that’s already at your fingertips. It’s not easy but it’s easier than you think.”
- Making Remarkable: How to Deliver Purpose, Inspire People, and Build a Platform for Exceptional Results by Adam Legge. From the publisher: “… becoming remarkable is increasingly difficult in a world of disruptive change, limited resources, and intense competition.” The author, “Shares a framework for the modern, dynamic high-performing organization and how to get there. It is part blueprint and part assembly manual.”
- The Magicians of Main Street. America and its Chambers of Commerce, 1768- 1945 by Chris Mead. From the publisher “this original history tells how pickup teams of American Business people change their communities and sometimes their nation and the world”… “This book (also) discusses the massive chamber efforts to promote transportation an obsession that continues to this day.”
- Follow You Anywhere. 22 Little Lessons for Team Leaders. by Kyle Sexton. From a review: “This is a home run on team development. There are revelations in this book for both the experienced leaders and those who are just joining the ranks of leadership.”
- Remembership: New Strategies for Remarkable Membership Organizations by Kyle Sexton. From the publisher: “Many of today’s membership organizations are living on yesterday’s bread while their members drink tomorrow’s wine. if your members are putting up with it now they won’t for long. This book is about renewing your membership development strategies because your memberships may be worth less than you think.”
- This Is Where You Belong: Finding Home Wherever You Are by Melody Warnick. From the publisher: “In the spirit of Gretchen Rubin’s mega-seller The Happiness Project and Eric Weiner’s The Geography of Bliss, a journalist and embarks on a project to discover what it takes to love where you live. She dives into the body of research around place attachment… then travels to towns across America to see it in action. Inspired by a growing movement of placemaking, she examines what its practitioners are doing to create likable locales.”
- 13 Ways to Kill Your Community by Doug Griffiths. From the publisher: “13 Ways to Kill Your Community is lively, full of personality, conversational, breezy, succinct, and fun. …underneath all the fun is a clear breadth of experience and a no-nonsense, practical approach to community building, which can be easily grasped.”
- I See Stupid People: and They are Getting on My Last Nerve! by Cheryl Caldwell. From the publisher: “I See Stupid People is a little pick-me-up for dealing with and working with the generally annoying and IQ-challenged breed of humans… I see stupid people is chock-full of what we’re all thinking but the PC in us won’t let it out.”
- The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson. From the publisher: “Manson doesn’t sugarcoat or equivocate. He tells it like it is–a dose of raw, refreshing, honest truth that is sorely lacking today.” The book “…is his antidote to the coddling, let’s all feel-good mindset that is infected modern society and spoiled a generation, rewarding them with gold medals for just showing up.”
- Retention Point: The Single Biggest Secret to Membership and Subscription Growth by Robert Skrob. From the publisher: This book details “the five fallacies of membership retention that most subscription businesses Implement that actually increase member churn rates, the 10 retention point accelerators that transform your new members from quitters into lifers, and how to achieve 92-98% annual renewal percentages.”
- A Leader’s Gift: How to Earn the Right to be Followed by Barry Banther. From a reviewer: “Barry’s five simple steps reinforce the truth behind leadership: successful leaders give more than they take. A Leader’s Gift can help you fundamentally change your leadership style to get the best out of your business, your employees, and the best out of yourself.”
- Bold New You: 6 Breakthroughs to Playing Bigger in Leadership, Business, and Life by Justin Patton. From the publisher: “If you are one of the millions of people who wake up every morning with a deep desire to play bigger, but don’t know how or where to start, then Bold New You is your road map on how to get out of your own way, take courageous action, and be a better leader of yourself. This book is filled with personal stories and testimonials of how individuals just like you discovered deeper self-awareness, shifted their mindset and the roadblocks holding them back, and made some different choices so they can lead with stronger impact and influence.”
- Chamberology by Diane Probst. From the publisher: “Learn the 15 key skills and ideas that will help you lead your organization to a five-star level.”
- The Fred Factor: How Passion in Your Work and Life Can Turn the Ordinary into the Extraordinary by Mark Sanborn. From the publisher: in this book, the author “…recounts the true story of Fred, the mail carrier who passionately loves his job and who genuinely cares about the people he serves… where others might see delivering mail as monotonous drudgery, Fred sees an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of those he serves. By following these principles, and by learning from and teaching other ‘Freds,’ you, too, can excel in your career and make your life extraordinary.”
Here are late entries from the Chamber Pros Community thread on this topic:
- The End of Membership as we know it, by Sarah Sladek submitted by Jessica Viera.
- Race to Relevance by Harrison Coerver submitted by Becca Melton
- The Membership Economy by Robbie Kellman Baxter submitted by Houssem Eddine Touil
- The War of Art by Steven Pressfield and The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks added by Chrissy Jackson Marquardt
Bonus: The Chamber Reading and Listening List of Blog Posts and Podcasts
These bloggers and podcasters are not all chamber professionals but the topics they tend to write (or talk) about touch on principles that can help chamber professionals and the businesses they work with.
Check out:
- Seth Godin
- Gary Vaynerchuck
- www.Activatingpeople.com
- Chamber chat podcast
- Frank J Kenny blog
- Additional chamber professionals resources
The Chamber of Commerce Professionals group on Facebook is also an amazing resource for those working in the chamber of commerce area. The participants in this group not only understand what you’re going through, but they also provide excellent advice as well as seen in this chamber-pro curated reading list.
