What if the book that shaped your entire career was one you picked up at age 10 — from the wrong section of the bookstore?

That's exactly what happened to Steph Spector, writer, editor, and business writing coach, and it set her on a path that's anything but conventional.

Steph helps professionals and creatives find their voice on the page — not the corporate, buttoned-up version, but the real one. The one that actually sounds like them. In this conversation, she shares how lessons from a childhood writing book became life principles, what happened when a shy 23-year-old was asked to teach a six-hour grammar class to a room full of intimidating adults, and why 80% of the people who show up to her classes say the same heartbreaking thing.

We also get into farm life in Pennsylvania and Blanco, Texas, tiny house living, coaching writing for Apple's executive team, and the memoir that made her cry on a walk and rearrange her whole perspective on complaining.

Books mentioned in this episode: 📚 Robert's Rules of Writing by Robert Macello 📚 Writing Fiction by Gotham Writers Workshop (ed. Alex Steel) 📚 Cathedral by Raymond Carver (short story) 📚 Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain 📚 The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby

Connect with Steph: 🌐 stephspector.com 💼 LinkedIn: Steph Spector

Connect with Angie: 🌐 AngieSummitConsulting.com 💼 LinkedIn | Facebook

The Books That Shaped Me is proudly sponsored by Winstar Insurance Group in Cedar Park, Texas — owned and operated by Stephanie Dew. Specializing in first responders, wineries, breweries, childcare facilities, and more. A team that truly values their people. Learn more at [winstarinsurance.com].

Episode Title: From the Marines to the Courtroom to the Boardroom | Michael Ciccolone, Blackline GC

Description:

What happens when an attorney decides the billable hour model is broken and builds something completely different? You get Michael Ciccolone.

Michael is a Marine veteran, former Chief Legal Officer, and the founder of Blackline GC — a fractional general counsel firm offering flat-fee, subscription-based legal services to growth-stage companies. He built a model designed around relationship and trust, not billing anxiety, and nine months in, every client has renewed.

In this conversation, Michael takes us from his childhood in New York and a love of the library, to deployments in Anbar Province with a bomb-detecting German Shepherd named Cindy, to building a law firm that puts small business owners in the same room as the legal expertise that used to be reserved for companies ten times their size.

We talk books — from Stephen King to Aristotle to Dan Martell's Buy Back Your Time. We talk Sicily, self-care, and what his sister taught him about living now instead of waiting for retirement. And we talk about what it means to be an underdog advocate in a profession not exactly known for that.

This one is full of wisdom, warmth, and a few stories you won't see coming.

📚 Books mentioned: Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell, Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, Last of the Mohicans, Dracula by Bram Stoker, Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, Rhetoric by Aristotle

Connect with Michael: michael@blacklinegc.com | LinkedIn: Michael Ciccolone

Connect with Angie: AngieSmithSummitConsulting.com

The Books That Shaped Me is proudly sponsored by WinStar Insurance Group — Cedar Park, Texas. Faith, trust, and authenticity in everything they do.

This episode is proudly sponsored by WinStar Insurance Group, owned and operated by Stephanie Dew out of Cedar Park, Texas. Real coverage, real integrity, and a heart for the people they serve.

I'm joined by PJ Diamond, a leadership voice with Leadership Austin and a genuine global citizen. PJ walks me through the books that built her, starting with a poem her sisters passed down before she could read it herself and ending with the one that gave her permission to define motherhood on her own terms. In between, we talk about growing up the oldest of three, a Rotary exchange year in Argentina, teaching kindergarten in Japan, therapy that saved her life, and what it means to belong to yourself before you belong anywhere else.

📚 Book Mentioned: Life Doesn't Frighten Me by Maya Angelou (illustrated by Jean-Michel Basquiat) 📚 Book Mentioned: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho 📚 Book Mentioned: Ishmael by Daniel Quinn 📚 Book Mentioned: The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John C. Maxwell 📚 Book Mentioned: Others Like Me by Nicole Louie

Connect with PJ Diamond on LinkedIn, and find me at angiesmithsummitconsulting.com if you want to keep the conversation going.