Blog Archives
Unapologetic Wealth: Rewrite Your Money Story from Any Beginning
Unapologetic Wealth by Marcia Dawood is a mindset-driven book about money, power, and choice, with a clear focus on women and the emotional baggage many of us carry around finances. Dawood argues that wealth is not just about dollars or net worth. It is about time, health, relationships, and agency. She walks through how money beliefs are inherited, how guilt keeps people playing small, and how redefining wealth can lead to a calmer and more intentional life. The book blends personal stories, history, and reflection exercises to help readers rewrite their money story from the inside out.
The tone of the book felt like a thoughtful conversation rather than a lecture. Dawood writes with warmth and honesty, and I appreciated how little posturing there was. She does not pretend money is simple or neutral. She names the awkwardness, the shame, and the silence around it. That made me feel seen. I also liked that she avoided flashy promises. There is no hustle energy here. Instead, the writing invites you to slow down and actually notice your reactions to money. The pacing sometimes felt gentle to the point of repetitive, but I understood why. She is trying to undo years of conditioning, not rush the reader to a finish line.
The sections on generational beliefs and quiet money guilt felt uncomfortably accurate. I caught myself nodding more than once. The concept of financial fluidity really worked for me. It felt humane and realistic. Not rigid. Not preachy. I did wish there were moments with more concrete examples of change in action, especially for readers who crave structure. Still, the emotional clarity of the ideas outweighed that for me. This book is not about telling you what to do with your money. It is about helping you believe you are allowed to decide at all.
By the end, I felt calmer and more grounded, which is not something I usually associate with money books. I would recommend Unapologetic Wealth to anyone who feels competent in life but oddly hesitant around money, especially women in mid-career or transition. It is also a good fit for readers who are tired of aggressive finance advice and want something more reflective and human. If you want permission to think bigger without losing yourself, Unapologetic Wealth is worth reading.
Pages: 212 | ASIN : B0G6Q45PK9
Collaborative Leadership for the Classroom
Collaborative Leadership for the Classroom lays out a clear path for teachers who want to shift from command and control habits to a way of leading that feels more open, human, and shared. Author Don Broadwell walks through the history of leadership, offers stories from classrooms and his own life, and builds a case for collaboration as the approach that suits today’s students. He explains how needs shape behavior, how teachers can guide discussions without dominating them, and how shared problem-solving can change the feel of a classroom.
The writing carries a kind of calm confidence that made me feel like I was learning from someone who has lived every word. At times, I got caught up in the stories and forgot I was reading a book about leadership. I liked how Broadwell keeps things grounded. He does not dress ideas up in fancy language or make collaboration sound magical. He shows the bumps, the awkward moments, and the kids who surprise adults when given the chance to speak up. I felt a little jolt when he described students discovering each other’s needs because it reminded me how often adults skip that step in real life. The honesty here hit me in the gut, in a good way.
I also had mixed feelings in spots. The structure is solid, but some sections stretch out longer than I expected. The sections on anger and hidden needs pulled me in more than I anticipated. They felt real. I appreciated how the author frames collaboration as a teachable skill rather than a warm and fuzzy ideal. I caught myself smiling at the Crow ritual example because it made collaboration feel simple enough for anyone to grasp, yet deep enough to matter.
I think Collaborative Leadership for the Classroom works best for teachers who feel tired of carrying the whole load alone or who sense that students are ready for something more genuine than top-down instruction. It would also fit leaders outside education who want a plainspoken introduction to shared problem-solving. If you want a guide that feels like a conversation with a wise mentor and if you don’t mind a few slow steps along the way, this book is worth reading.
Pages: 126 | ASIN : B0F7C3WCFL
Starving for Clarity
The MACH-10 PM shows product managers how to use AI to move at hypersonic speed without sacrificing judgment, ethics, or humanity—turning chaos into clarity across the entire product lifecycle. What problem were you seeing that made you feel this book needed to exist now?
I kept seeing a strange paradox where smart product teams were moving faster than ever but feeling less in control. Roadmaps were constantly slipping, and decisions were being endlessly revisited. Product Managers were essentially drowning in inputs while starving for clarity.
AI tools were popping up everywhere, but most teams were either just dabbling or blindly automating. Neither of those approaches actually worked. The missing piece wasn’t intelligence. It was judgment at speed. This book exists because AI changed the pace of product work overnight, yet nobody had rewritten the playbook for how Product Managers should actually lead in the new reality.
Why MACH-10? What does hypersonic speed really mean in day-to-day product work?
The name isn’t about going fast just for the sake of speed. It’s about operating at a velocity where hesitation becomes your biggest risk. In day-to-day work, hypersonic speed means compressing cycles that used to take weeks into days or even hours.
You have to do that without losing the thread of why you are doing the work in the first place. It shows up in how quickly you can frame a problem, test an assumption, and make a call with total confidence. That speed comes from decision density rather than just more activity. AI is the engine, but the PM has to stay in the pilot seat.
Which part of the product lifecycle do PMs most underestimate AI’s usefulness in?
Discovery. By far. Most PMs think of AI as a delivery accelerator for writing specs faster or summarizing feedback. That is useful, but these days it is just table stakes.
The real leverage is upstream in sensemaking and pattern recognition. AI is exceptional at helping PMs see what they would otherwise miss. It helps you surface “weak signals” before they become loud problems by connecting dots across research, support data, and market signals. That is where true clarity is born, yet most teams are still flying blind in that phase.
How does AI change the PM’s role as a leader, not just a contributor?
It raises the bar significantly. When execution and output get cheaper, leadership actually matters more. AI takes the busy work off your plate, but it puts the responsibility squarely on your shoulders.
Decisions happen faster, and the “blast radius” of a mistake gets much larger. Teams don’t look to the PM just for answers anymore. They look to them for direction and restraint. Great leaders use AI to create space to think, space to coach, and space to make fewer, better decisions. The role is shifting from being the smartest person in the room to being the clearest one.
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | Website | X (Twitter) | LinkedIn | Instagram | YouTube | Amazon
At its core, The MACH-10 PM is built on a simple ethos: Speed with Soul — the balance between intelligent acceleration and grounded, human-centered leadership.
Methodical roadmaps and incremental gains don’t win anymore. Speed without clarity is chaos. Clarity without speed is irrelevant. AI isn’t just another tool; it’s a tectonic shift redefining how we work, lead, and compete.
In The MACH-10 PM, a #1 New Release and former Top 25 Amazon Bestseller, founder and product strategist Jason M. Riggs delivers the operating system for modern product leadership. This isn’t about working harder — it’s about transforming from a manager of features into an orchestrator of intelligence.
At the center is the AI-Driven Product Strategy Loop™: a proven system for turning ideas into outcomes faster than ever. It unifies vision, validation, and velocity into one repeatable loop that bridges AI theory with real-world execution.
You’ll learn how to:
Out-leverage, not out-work: offload cognitive noise to AI and multiply strategic impact
Master prompting as a product skill: turn AI into your research, design, and decision-making partner
Orchestrate a cohesive AI stack: move beyond app dabbling with a toolkit built for discovery, forecasting, and acceleration.
Slash insight-to-action latency: turn signals into shipped improvements faster — with evidence, not opinion
Packed with frameworks, field-tested workflows, and ready-to-use prompts, The MACH-10 PM is more than a book — it’s a career accelerator and an operating system for leading product teams in the AI era.
Stop reacting to the future. Start building it with AI-powered product management at MACH-10.
This paperback edition features a durable glossy cover and crisp interior layout, optimized for everyday reference by product managers, leaders, and high-velocity teams.
WINNING MATCH: Leadership for Game Changers—Together Toward the Extraordinary
When I finished Winning Match, I felt like I had just sat through a long conversation with someone who truly understands how top performance works. The book blends stories from elite sports and high-pressure business life and anchors everything in one idea. Extraordinary results happen when remarkable talent meets the right kind of leadership. Dr. Christian Marcolli builds this idea through vivid stories from his own career and the world of champions, and he shows how leaders and high performers create what he calls a Winning Match. It is a simple structure, clear and grounded in real examples, and it sets the tone for the whole book.
I was pulled in by the honesty of Marcolli’s personal story. His rise in Swiss football, his setbacks, his injuries, and the tough moments with careless coaches hit harder than I expected. I felt angry on his behalf at times. I felt protective even. The scenes where he describes being humiliated by his coach or pushed beyond his limits stuck with me. They also made his later insights feel earned. Nothing about his perspective is theoretical. It comes from bruises, joy, heartbreak, and the long road back to meaning. I appreciated that. And I liked how he connected his own struggle to the experience of leaders today. It made the ideas feel more relatable and less like advice from a distant expert.
The leadership ideas themselves were thought-provoking and energizing. Especially the sections on identifying Game Changers and giving them real, thoughtful support. I nodded along and thought of times when I was either the overlooked high performer or the leader stretched thin by weaker contributors. Other moments challenged me. The tone throughout is warm and convincing. Not preachy. Just clear and confident. And it made me rethink how I look at my own teams and how I spend my energy.
By the time I reached the end, I felt both inspired. Winning Match is not a flashy leadership book. It is steady and thoughtful, built on real stories and practical observations. I would recommend it to leaders who want to bring out the best in top performers, coaches who care deeply about development, and anyone who has ever felt the weight of high expectations. If you enjoy books that mix storytelling with clear takeaways, this one will stay with you long after you close it. Winning Match shows that extraordinary performance is never an accident. It is the result of bold talent paired with leadership that knows how to lift it higher.
Pages: 155 | ASIN : B0FVB9XRYW
The Gardener: A Lesson for Leaders
The Gardener follows PJ, a thoughtful and hard-working executive who suddenly finds herself facing two life-changing opportunities: inheriting her grandfather’s farm and being offered the role of CEO at her company. What starts as a simple visit with her grandfather turns into a five-week leadership apprenticeship in the garden. Each Monday lesson uses farming as a metaphor for vision, culture, timing, teamwork, and resilience. The book ends with a clever reveal. Her grandfather is not only a farmer but also the company’s board chairman. The lessons were his way of preparing her for the weight of leadership. It is a clean, warm story that frames leadership principles through family ties and simple moments in nature.
The writing is plain and smooth, which made it easy to sink into the rhythm of each Monday morning. I liked how author James McCarroll kept the tone gentle. The lessons were clear without being preachy. At times, I found myself smiling at G Pa’s calm wisdom. At other times, I felt a tug in my chest when he talked about storms or when he paused to remember his late wife. Those small human touches brought the teaching to life. I did wish PJ pushed back a little more in certain moments. She accepted a lot very quickly. Still, the simplicity of the writing worked. It felt like sitting on a porch and listening to someone who has lived enough life to stop showing off.
What surprised me most was how much the ideas stuck with me after I closed the book. The garden metaphors are not new, but the way they were tied to PJ’s personal doubts made them feel fresh. I found myself thinking about seasons, soil, bugs, and rain in totally different ways. Some lines were especially emotional, especially the parts about rebuilding after storms and choosing people with the right mix of grit and joy. The story kept pulling me along because it stayed grounded in experience instead of theory. I could feel PJ’s nerves and her relief as each lesson clicked. I could feel that mix of fear and anticipation right before the final meeting. The book made leadership feel less like a cold skill set and more like a fully lived thing shaped by patience and resilience.
I would recommend The Gardener to readers who enjoy personal growth wrapped inside a light narrative. It is a great fit for new leaders and for anyone stepping into a role that feels bigger than they expected. It is also a warm read for people who appreciate family-centered stories that offer gentle guidance. If you want a book that teaches without lecturing and comforts while it challenges and leaves you feeling steadier about the storms that come, you’ll enjoy this book.
Pages: 61 | ASIN : B0CTKL1T2Q
The MACH-10 PM: AI-Powered Product Management at Hypersonic Speed
The MACH-10 PM lays out a clear promise. Product managers can use AI to move at “hypersonic speed” without losing judgment or empathy. The book walks through the whole product life cycle, from discovery and roadmapping to launches, growth, and leadership. Each chapter mixes stories from Qualcomm and GoPro with simple models, tool suggestions, and concrete prompts that show how to pull AI into real work rather than treat it like a toy. The main idea is simple. You stop trying to outwork the chaos and instead use AI to gain leverage, clarity, and what Riggs calls “speed with soul.”
The tone of the book is punchy and direct, almost like a seasoned PM talking across a whiteboard after a long sprint. Sentences stay short, the examples feel real, and the metaphors around “MACH-10” and “radar” stick in my head. I liked the way each chapter closes with questions and small exercises, because that nudged me to picture my own workflow instead of just skimming along. The visuals and little tables, like the “AI-powered discovery loop” and the roadmap comparisons, break up the text and make the main arguments easy to recall later.
I found a lot to like. I really appreciated the focus on AI as a multiplier, not a replacement. The sections on discovery, feedback synthesis, and roadmap scenarios felt grounded and very practical. The prompt examples are useful, and the insistence on pairing AI with ethics and judgment kept the whole thing from sliding into tool worship. I also liked the recurring message that PMs should measure themselves by impact, not output, and that the real job is to orchestrate people and systems, not just ship tickets.
I would recommend The MACH-10 PM to working product managers who already know the basics and want a push to rethink how they use AI day to day. I think it will be especially useful for people in mid-level roles who feel stuck in meetings and backlogs and want language and tools to reclaim time for strategy. Leaders of product teams could also use it as a shared playbook for running experiments and setting expectations around AI use. If you want a sharp, fast, and pretty human guide on how to work with AI without losing your soul, this book fits that slot nicely.
Pages: 270 | ASIN : B0FSP1Z1C4
The Backbone of Any Successful Organization
The Right Fit shows leaders how to build thriving teams by treating culture, hiring, development, and retention as one intentional, human-centered journey. Why was this an important book for you to write?
Writing my book The Right Fit was super important because these core elements are the backbone of any successful organization. Here’s why it matters so much:
1. Culture Shapes Everything
- A strong, intentional culture drives engagement, innovation, and retention.
- Many companies struggle because their culture is reactive rather than designed. The Right Fit can help leaders create cultures that align with values and strategy.
2. Hiring Determines Success
- The right people amplify culture; the wrong hires erode it.
- In today’s competitive talent market, hiring isn’t just about skills—it’s about fit, adaptability, and growth potential. The Right Fit can provide frameworks for smarter, values-driven hiring.
3. Development Fuels Growth
- Employees/Teammates want more than a paycheck—they want growth. Development programs are key to retention and performance.
- Insights from the informal leaders can help organizations build continuous learning environments that prepare teams for future challenges.
You emphasize intention and care throughout the employee journey. How can leaders practice this consistently under pressure?
Practicing intention and care under pressure is one of the hardest leadership challenges, but it’s also what separates good leaders from exceptional ones.
This means embedding principles into every stage of the lifecycle—from recruitment to exit.
Here’s a structured approach:
1. Recruitment & Hiring
- Intentional Action: Define clear values and cultural fit criteria before interviews.
- Care in Practice: Communicate transparently about expectations, growth opportunities, and company culture.
2. Onboarding
- Intentional Action: Create a structured onboarding plan that connects new hires to purpose and people.
- Care in Practice: Assign mentors or buddies to make the transition smooth and personal.
3. Development & Growth
- Intentional Action: Regularly review career goals and align them with organizational needs.
- Care in Practice: Offer personalized learning paths and feedback that focuses on strengths and aspirations.
4. Performance & Recognition
- Intentional Action: Use fair, consistent evaluation systems tied to values—not just metrics.
- Care in Practice: Recognize contributions publicly and privately; celebrate progress, not just outcomes.
5. Wellness & Inclusion
- Intentional Action: Build policies that support mental health, flexibility, and belonging.
- Care in Practice: Check in on workload and well-being regularly, not just during crises.
6. Offboarding
- Intentional Action: Treat departures as part of the journey—conduct meaningful exit interviews.
- Care in Practice: Express gratitude and maintain alumni connections.
Inclusion and employee wellness feel deeply personal in your writing. What experiences shaped that perspective for you?
That’s a powerful and reflective question. I have personal experiences which enable me to articulate my points and share examples. I have seen inclusion done well and I have seen it executed poorly—and how it has impacted multiple people (me included). I have also witnessed burnout, stress, or lack of wellness in teams and myself.
If a leader could only take one small action after reading The Right Fit, what would you most hope they do differently tomorrow?
If a leader could only take one small action after reading my book, I would hope they pause before their next hiring or development decision; and ask one intentional question:
“Does this choice strengthen our culture and support the person behind the role?”
That single question shifts the mindset from filling a position or checking a box to building alignment and caring for people as humans, not just resources. It’s a small act, but it creates a ripple effect:
- Hiring becomes about values and potential, not just skills.
- Development plans become personalized, not generic.
- Culture becomes intentional, not accidental.
Author Links: Isaac Johnson Consulting | Amazon
Sustained Courage
The Price of Nice lays out a sharp argument that our cultural obsession with being “nice” keeps us stuck in cycles of false comfort and stalled progress that preserves the status quo at home, in workplaces, and across society. What is the Think–Feel–Do–Revisit framework, and how does it help people break the cycle of niceness?
The Think–Feel–Do–Revisit framework was born out of my work in behavioral communications, not theory for theory’s sake, but years of studying how people actually change.
In my professional work, we borrow heavily from sociology, psychology, and behavioral science to answer very practical questions: What do people believe? What do they feel? Who do they trust? And how does that shape what they will do, and keep doing? We know that behavior doesn’t change just because information is correct or presented. It changes when beliefs and emotions are addressed first.
What clicked for me is that those same tools apply individually, especially when it comes to niceness.
When people stay “nice” in moments that require courage, it’s rarely because they don’t know better. It’s because of what they’re thinking, often unconscious stories about risk or belonging, and what they’re feeling, fear, obligation, loyalty, or discomfort. Those two things quietly determine what they do, usually nothing, and then the cycle repeats.
This framework helps interrupt that pattern. It gives people a way to name what’s happening internally before defaulting to silence. By revisiting the outcome, they build awareness and agency over time. That’s how mindset shifts stick. Not through one brave moment, but through understanding and practicing behavior change on purpose.
What were some ideas that were important for you to share in this book?
One of the most important ideas I wanted to name is that niceness is not neutral.
Growing up and throughout my career, I was praised for being “easy,” “gracious,” and “not difficult.” But I realized those compliments often came up just as I was quietly absorbing harm. Niceness became a way for the system to stay comfortable while I paid the price.
I also wanted to challenge the idea that courage has to look loud or reckless. In the book, I introduce the idea of nerve as sustained courage. Not the big speech once, but the daily practice of choosing yourself, again and again, even when there’s pushback.
And finally, I wanted to make it clear that this isn’t about becoming harsh or cruel. It’s about replacing performative niceness with intentional kindness, the kind that takes action, tells the truth, and is willing to disrupt.
What is one thing you hope readers take away from The Price of Nice?
I hope readers walk away knowing that the discomfort they feel isn’t a personal failing. It’s often a signal that they’re outgrowing the rules they were given.
So many people, especially women and people of color, think they’re broken because being “nice” isn’t working anymore. What I want them to see is that their instincts are intact. They’re just bumping up against systems that rely on their silence.
If readers take away one thing, I hope it’s this: You’re not required to be palatable to be powerful. And choosing nerve doesn’t make you dangerous. It makes you daring.
Author Links: GoodReads | Website | LinkedIn | YouTube | Instagram | TikTok | Bluesky | Amazon
“What’s wrong with nice?!” A simple and powerful question. It demands we interrogate the unspoken rules that shape our lives, often without our realizing it.
“It costs nothing to be nice!” What a travesty of logic. Niceness is not free—it comes at a steep price. It’s a velvet glove over an iron fist, stifling dissent, prioritizing comfort over progress, and conditioning us to accept the status quo. Niceness is one of the most insidious social constructs, keeping us compliant, silent, and complicit in inequity. If we don’t question it, we stay exactly where power wants us—agreeable, easy to manage, and stuck.
The Price of Nice is about breaking free. Amira Barger deconstructs our cultural obsession with niceness, exposes its hidden costs, and offers a practical framework for real change. With sharp analysis and personal insight, she helps readers disrupt the narratives that keep them stuck and reclaim their power.
Guided by four dimensions rooted in social psychology—think, feel, do, revisit—this book offers immediate, adaptable practices for creating change. Because breaking free isn’t only what you know—it’s what you do next.
If you’re tired of “good enough,” this book will challenge you, change you, and call you to more.
