The Final Episode

12 Episodes. Hours of reading, sharing, reflecting, and living this book out loud.

If you missed any of the past shows on this book - we invite you to go back and listen.

Coach Wooden was a master not just on the court as one of the most successful basketball coaches but was even better as a leader in life.

The legacy he left behind will live on in the people he influenced directly and indirectly. Millions of people have heard of him, perhaps heard of the Pyramid of Success, or even know a small fraction of what this man did, who he was, and how he lived.

I (Denise) had this book on my bookshelf thanks to a gift from the author Pat Williams. The first time I read it, I got value, but did not do one key thing - I did not follow the advice of Coach that was given to him by his dad - drink DEEPLY from good books.

I read the book and put it back on the shelf.

When it was time to decide what the next book would be for our show What's on Your Bookshelf, something was pulling me to this book and I am so glad that it did.

Coach's dad (Hugh) gave him a small card when he was 13 years old with 7 key principles on it. John carried that around in his pocket his whole life. The words didn't stay in his pocket, he lived them out loud AND shared them with others.

Coach printed up the principles on small cards and passed them out to everyone he could. It sure would be amazing to see a copy of one that someone may have that was given to them.

Pat Williams was directly influenced and mentored by Coach. Pat was a former professional basketball (and baseball) player and is the founder of the Orlando Magic NBA team. Like many other followers of Coach, his life was changed by the time they had together. Pat penned this and other books about Coach's life and leadership lessons.

What you will hear over the episodes is not a direct play-by-play of the chapters, but rather, an overview of what we learned from reading, how we applied it to our lives, and how our lives were changing through the process.

Now that the episodes are all finished, I find myself even now daily thinking about what I learned and how much MORE of an impact Coach's leadership has had on my personal life - all because I took the time to drink DEEPLY from this book, not just read the words.

I hope you will join us on our journey through the podcast - the format is that we do not want to just gloss over a book, but rather - share why the book is on my shelf, what it means to me, what I am learning, and how you might also benefit from diving into the pages with us. The last episode was a last-minute surprise, and we are so thankful and grateful that the author, Pat Williams, joined me and Scott from his cell phone to talk about his personal experiences with Coach and why he wrote this book. If you are ever in the Orlando area, Pat has a leadership library on display of the many MANY books on his shelf.

You can tour this library at First Baptist Church in Orlando.

Currently, we are exploring the pages and lessons of the next book - Atomic Habits by James Clear .

This past month, I had an opportunity twice to be trained by James. Sam joined me for one of the conferences. Hearing him speak, and reading his book together, has already had a profound impact in the way we approach our daily habits and how to break the cycle of things we want less of in life.

Every book that we recommend in the shows are books I have on my shelf.

• I love to read.
• I love sharing what I am reading.

People often come to me for book recommendations and in most of the leadership development classes I have created or taught, they are based on the lessons learned from good books.

We wanted a way to share more about why these books are so meaningful to me, so special thanks go to Andy Hughes who came up with the idea for the format last December, to Scott Miller for being an incredible back-end producer and editor of our shows, and to Samantha Powell who has joined us as a very natural fit for the conversations and growth we are getting together.

If you have book suggestions or are willing to share what you are learning while you are listening, we would love to hear from you!

Thank you for subscribing. Please share this show with others that may also get value from it!

The book coming after Atomic Habits, is my own book that I published last year. If you are looking for Christmas gifts, I hope that you will consider adding Twelve Days: A Christmas Exploration to someone else's bookshelf!

If you are looking for ways to go even deeper and want to engage with a coach, please reach out to us. If we cannot directly help you, we likely know someone who can!