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Must Read Books & Must Listen To Podcast Recommendations
Marketing Unfiltered #11 - Marketing & Growth Leaders Recommendations
Happy Friday you’ve made it through the toughest week of the work year. This is the 11th instalment of the Marketing Unfiltered Newsletter.
Thank you for reading Harry’s the ‘Age of the Beige article - it definitely kicked up a few great conversations.
This week we have the must-read books and must-listen podcast recommendations from our contributors and I reached out to friends of MU for their top recommendations. There is a great mix of classics and brand-new recommendations you will love.
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📚 Book Recommendations 📚
📚 The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable Patrick Lencioni - recommended by Nicola Anderson, “5 dysfunctions of a team is invaluable for leadership teams” and I couldn’t agree more. Here’s a great 5-minute teaser of the theory and the book
📚 Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein - Nicola also recommended Range, Nicola recommended by saying “Why generalists triumph in the world of specialists with some great examples, look out for Tiger Woods vs Roger Federer”
📚 Eat Your Greens by Wiemer Snijders - recommended by John Lyons, anyone that simply says “is the boss of all marketing books”, you know it is worth the read. It’s an essential read on Marketing science and how to encourage customers to buy more.
📚 Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don't Make Sense - Rory Sutherland - recommended by Harry Lang, it is obvious how highly we think of Rory as Marketing leaders and Rory helps to cement what most of us know, often the best most powerful ideas often don’t make sense.
Harry also recommends The Three Word Brief By Bob Hoffman. Bob is famous for never holding back and he doesn’t miss on the three word brief.
Here’s a teaser ⬇️
📚 Stand The F*CK Out By Louis Grenier - recommended by Simon Swan, Simon definitely makes a case for Louis’ new book “whole heartedly recommend Louis Greniers new book - I think in my years working in marketing, it’s the first practical book I’ve ever come across and all grounded in research from his 300+ podcast interviews. If Marketing Academics decided to add in the practicalities of actually implementing and how to implement marketing - they would be selling thousands 😀”. Louis’ podcast everybody hates marketing is another top recommendation.
📚 Onto the classic - How Brands Grow by Byron Sharp - recommended by Faisal Laljee. He wisely points out in his recommendation “Unless the reader is able to take it with a pinch of salt, the book might mislead the reader to believe that they should ignore their existing customers and focus a heavy majority of their effort on new customers. You have to look past that philosophy to really get the best out of the book”.
📚 Turn The Ship Around by L David Marquet, Recommended by me (Danny Denhard) I read this when I was ill on a holiday and this book has made a real impact on my leadership style and approach, “I intend to” has stuck with me and is a brilliant reframing. Here’s a great video to watch.
» One of my hacks is if you’re not sure of a recommendation check out talks at Google for videos as they tend to cover their books in good levels of detail to see if it is an investment worth making.
My other top recommendations to help you at work:
The Surprising Science of Meetings - Dr Steven Rogelberg (improve meetings and managing your time - meeting recovery syndrome is a standout for most I recommend this book to)
The Messy Middle - Scott Belsky is Adobe's Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Vice President of Design & Emerging Products and offers a great framework for Product and understanding how Product and Design intersect for businesses
Emotion by Design: Creative Leadership Lessons from a Life at Nike by former Nike CMO Greg Hoffman. Great for insights from his time at Nike and stories that will help with connecting the deep brand with Products/SKUs enabling Marketing to win
Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg is by the Professor who taught Instagram founders about habit forming and best seller James Clear on habit forming. Great to understand how tiny habits are critically important not just trying to shock yourself into a new routine.
→ You’re Invited ←
Harry created a LinkedIn Group this week, so if you’d like to chat through any stories or have anything you’d like to discuss - join here
🎙️ Podcast Recommendations 🎙️
Lenny’s Podcast and Newsletter - Nicola Anderson’s recommendation is a great one, she said “i'm quite obsessed with Lenny's podcast - think its really good for marketers for a broader view on product and growth” and we definitely agree. Seth Godin’s episode was refreshing to hear Marketing legend talk about Product.
Harry Dry On How I Write - Recommended by friend of Marketing Unfiltered Chris Hutchings. How I Write was a brilliant interview series getting deep into people’s workflow and writing, this episode is with prolific newsletter writer Harry Dry & is great.
John Lyons also recommended two podcasts (1) The Whole Marketer which helps Marketers build their brand with growth in mind and (2) On Strategy - it dives into the details of the amazing work of Marketers. John also recommended a number of other podcasts in a dedicated LinkedIn post recently.
If you are looking for more Marketing-specific podcasts:
Uncensored CMO - heavy hitters join Jon on the pod, diving into ads and powerful campaigns
Mobile Dev Memo - a weekly extensive look into mobile apps and advertisers and often uncover gems for you to implement
Marketing Freaks (by Overdrive Digital) is a great podcast that helps with all areas of Marketing, but their performance episodes are particularly good. (I’ve been a guest and it was a good chat!)
How I Bult This is a great listen, often going deeper behind the scenes at companies and often understanding the power of brand and marketing.
Huge thanks to Nicola, Simon, John, Harry, Faisal and Chris for sharing their must-read books and must listen to podcasts.
Thanks for reading again this week!
Sharing Is Caring 🙌 If you enjoyed it today please do share with your colleagues, favourite WhatsApp group or in your slack/teams!
We will land in your inbox next week on the 17th with our guest contribution from Emma Clayton on the art of 360-degree leadership.

Have a great weekend.
Thanks,
PS. Remember if you’ve missed any previous newsletters you can enjoy ↓
John’s take on - Brand Investment Your CFO Cannot Reject
My takes on - Political Intelligence The Game To Be Won For Marketing & Growth Leaders & 10 Questions To Improve Your Leadership & Relationships
Simon’s take on - Organisational Cultures Is The Critical Component To Marketing Success
Mila’s take on - Selling the Marketing Dream to Non-Marketers
Harry’s other takes on - If Marketing Dies, It’ll Be Assisted Suicide, Go Odd Or Go Home & Brands Kill Beige
Nick’s take on - Account Board Management To Win Brand Vs Performance
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