Hey, it’s Bob Negen, and it is summertime, and we all love summertime, and we all love to go on vacation in the summer. And so This episode of Real Retail TV is a a replay of an episode that I made, up in our family cottage up on the French River in Ontario, Canada.

And, Susan’s great grandfather built this cottage. There’s no cell phone reception. Well, there’s a little bit now, but uh-uh no running water, no electricity. It’s super, super relaxing. And we’re a family of readers.

And when, all four of us go up there, it’s usually between thirty and forty books that come with us. And, through the years, and I’ve been going up every year since Susan and I have been together is almost thirty years now. I have developed a summer vacation reading strategy.

And it involves both business reading and personal reading and how it works and it flows for me. And I’ve talked to several people about that and, enough people were interested in my strategy that I’ve made an to Real Retail TV about it up at our cottage camp rainbow on the French River. Here it is. I hope you enjoy it.

So I am here on the French River in Ontario, a province in Canada, and, Susan’s great grandfather built this cottage back in the thirties and it’s just a wonderful, wonderful, place of refuge. It’s super relaxing.

There’s no electricity.

No indoor plumbing.

You know, it’s it’s just a beautiful, beautiful place. It’s a great place to go and unwind. If you’ve been part of our community for any amount of time or if you’ve watched previous episodes of real retail TV, you know how passionate I am about the need for entrepreneurs to get out of their business to to rest, to give their minds, to give your mind a break from the, you know, the work, the grind of running a business, and that’s what this place is for us. And, A lot of people come here up here to fish.

The Negens, we come up here. We fish a little bit, but mostly we come up here to hang out to, be with our friends that we’ve made here on the river and to read on the doc. And this is the pile of books that I brought. You know, let me move my gin and tonic out of the way.

This is the pile of books that I brought. Susan is a much better reader than me. She brought fully this many. Sam brought how many books did you bring Sam?

Six six. I mean, so we bring a lot of, of books. But what I’m gonna do now is I’m gonna share with you the books that I brought why I brought them in the strategy that I have for reading. And, I was talking to someone about this strategy.

They said, you know, you really need to share this. So this episode isn’t for everyone, but if you’re a reader and you want to get the most out of your vacation, relaxation, inspiration, This is something to think about.

So I have, Brad Thor. He, I’ve heard podcast where he was interviewed by James Alticher. I love the way that James thinks and read. So I thought I’d bring that.

This is Bill Canto by Anne Pratchett or patch it. I’m sorry. Susan recommended that book. She’s a great, great storyteller.

And I hope I say this right. Circie, isn’t I saying that right, Susan? Cersei. Cersei.

Okay. She is a, a character in Greek mythology, and then salt fat, acid heat, this is a a book that I’m reading about, how to think about cooking. So those are the those are the personal books. And then the business books that I brought Seth Golan.

This is marketing because I love the way that Seth Golan thinks.

What to do when it’s your turn? Another Seth Gordon book. Michael Masters’s ready aim, fire ready ready fire aim.

You know, our business is going through a period of transition. And this is a wonderful book to help us think about it a little bit. Ari Weinstein approach to the power of beliefs in business. Ari was our keynote speaker at this year. Somebody’s a great business thinker. I love the way he thinks So I brought that.

The War of Arc by Steven Pressfield, you just can’t find a more inspirational book I can’t find a more inspirational book. So these are the business books that I read or that I brought. So here’s my strategy.

So I come up here and I always start with a page turner. You know how it is. You know, you’re an entrepreneur.

You’re working, you’re working, you’re working, and then you go on vacation and it takes a while to unwind.

And that’s why I never start with a business book. I always start with a page turner. Right? Something that’s kinda mindless, something I get to sit on the dock and relaxed and and and and, you know, it’s just a page turn. This was a great page turner, by the way.

What James Alcatcher’s podcast was about is how he writes thriller. So I started with that, but then after that, first book after that first page turner, then I only listen to the inner voice. I only read what I want to read, what I’m inspired to read. And sometimes that’s a business book Sometimes that’s, you know, fiction.

It just depends on what’s brought up. And often, I’ll read one page turner and then I’ll start reading business books. I’ll become inspired. I’ll start journaling.

I’ll do all those things, but that isn’t what happened at on this trip. On this trip, I read Spy Master, Brad Thor, and I didn’t wanna read a business book yet. I wasn’t ready for it. My inner voice said, no.

Don’t read. I mean, don’t read business books. Read, you know, something that will entertain you. Something that your mind will know, something a little easier so that I’ve read Turkey.

And it was it uh-uh as as as as as as as as as as as as as as as as I say. Cersei.

Apologies. Thank you, Sam. So Sam is my photographer, Susan’s over there, on the on the swing. And so, you know, I wanted to read another book that would just engage me not thinking about your my business.

So then I pulled that out and I read it. I spent a little time reading salt, fat, acid heat, so really the first part of our vacation was not spent thinking about business at all. Like I said, we’ve done we’ve had a busy year. A lot of things happening.

A lot of great things happening. But my mind needed to take a break from business. And my inner voice was saying nope. Not yet.

Not yet. Not yet. Then I picked up seth Gones, what to do when it’s your turn, and it’s always your turn. Again, I love seth Golan.

But I wasn’t ready to read a strategy book. I wasn’t ready to read a growth book.

And this book spoke to me. My inner voice is saying, read this book because this book is not about how to become more successful or how to think about strategy. It’s really about why. It’s about The important work that you do, it’s about, you know, really doing your best work.

It’s really about the why, not the how. And my inner voice, again, was saying, that’s a good book for you. So I started reading this, and I wasn’t quite ready. My inner voice was like, no, no, no, not business yet.

So then I started reading Belkanto.

And I’m not quite done with it yet, but then I was ready.

So for the last two days and I end finished the book this morning, I got back to Seth Golden, and I was ready. You see, this is the important thing that I’m sharing with you. You only read when you’re ready to read it. You only read the book that the books that you are inspired to read.

So I read it. I loved it. I was journaling about it. I was inspired by it.

It was awesome. And then I was, done with that, and I’m still going through Bellcanto.

Susan recommended this book. It is a great, great, great story.

I read about ten pages of Michael Masters’s ready fire aim. It’s a great book, but my inner voice was saying enough. I mean, it just wasn’t appealing to me at all. So I put it away.

All these other books?

Great books. Great, great, great books. Guess what? I’m probably not gonna get to any of them and that is alright because the other thing that I wanted to share with you when I think about my reading strategy and I would encourage you to think about when you think about your vacation reading strategy is it’s not about achievement as entrepreneurs or as management in in a small entrepreneurial company.

We often think about achievement. We start a book. Thank god. I’m gonna finish that book.

And that is not the way that I approach it and not the way that I recommend that you approach it. What I do with these business books is I pick up whatever is speaking to me at the moment. I read as much as is inspiring to me. I often will read two or three of these books at the same time.

Whatever speaking to me, I will often read a couple pages and then start journaling and start you know, experiencing what I’ve read, but really my rules and rules rules are flexible, of course. My rules are number one, always start with a page trigger to get my my sort of heart in the right place, and Number two. Never think of a book as an achievement.

Number three. Always pay attention to what my heart is telling me I should read. And four, don’t worry about it. If I start it, I don’t need to finish it.

If I open it up to the middle and start reading there, that’s fine too. Again, it’s always about not forcing anything. You’re uh-uh we’re here on vacation.

First and foremost, it’s about rest, rejuvenation, spending time with our family, spending time with our friends, sitting on the dock, having a gin and tonic.

But so first and foremost, it’s about that.

After that, you want to or I like to have space for inspiration, have space to think creatively but never, ever, ever force it. So that’s how I approach, my vacation reading. I hope that you found it helpful if you have any strategies that you use on your vacation for reading to give you the maximum blend of relaxation and inspiration. Put them down below. And, yeah, Bob Negen. Hope you enjoyed it. From the French river, see you later.