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.

Finding Your Voice, Your Tribe, and Yourself with Kat Rector

In this episode of The Books That Shaped Me, I sit down with Kat Rector, a tech leader and mom of two boys who I've admired from afar since we first connected on LinkedIn. Kat opens up about her divorce, years of burnout she didn't recognize until she named it, and the slow work of reconnecting with herself.

We talk through the books that carried her: Attention Management by Maura Thomas, I'm So Effing Tired by Amy Shah, MD, You Are a Badass by Jen Sincero, and Atomic Habits by James Clear. Kat also shares how Wolf Pack by Abby Wambach, Iron John by Robert Bly, and Wild at Heart by John Eldredge shaped the mentoring bootcamp she built to surround her sons with strong men.

This one covers hustle culture, building your tribe on purpose, raising boys with intention, and learning to sit still long enough to hear your own thoughts.

Connect with Kat on LinkedIn or Instagram, search Kat Rector and her blog DearFellowMoms.com.

Want to talk through your own season of change? Book a call with me at angiesmithsummitconsulting.com.

Dave Leon, an executive, business, and life coach based in Austin who spent 34 years in corporate America first, seven years on Wall Street, then 27 years in enterprise tech and SaaS sales, including over a decade selling cloud and AI services for a major hyperscaler.

Dave was laid off twice. The second time, at 56, he sat with himself for three months until he ran out of excuses. In the years that followed he was also diagnosed with cancer and went through a divorce, all inside about 18 months. Out of that he rebuilt his own definition of success (peace plus joy, no variable for wealth) and built his coaching practice around five pillars he mapped out on his own whiteboard.

We talk about stoicism, neuroplasticity, why saying your own name can interrupt a bad pattern, and the book that reframed rigid goal setting for both of us.

Books that shaped this episode:

• A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy by William Irvine
• Limitless by Jim Kwik
• Tiny Experiments: How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World by Anne-Laure Le Cunff

My guest is Carrie Davis, VP of Patient and Employee Experience at Hanger, Inc., born without her left arm and wearing a prosthesis since she was nine months old.

We talk about growing up as an empath, the difference between performative confidence and the real thing, and why she's letting go of the five-year plan at 55. Carrie also opens up about the day she traded a plain prosthetic hook for one covered in Swarovski crystals, and what that taught her about being seen.

If her story has you thinking about your own next chapter, book a call with me: angiesmithsummitconsulting.com

o Lead by Brené Brown Wolfpack by Abby Wambach The Gift of Change by Marianne Williamson The Human Margin by Dr. Catherine Meese The Thin Book of Trust by Charles Feltman The Speed of Trust by Stephen M.R. Covey The Empath Leader by Claudia Katarucci Strong Ground by Brené Brown

CONNECT WITH CARRIE linkedin.com/in/carrie-davis-05805b12

#TheBooksThatShapedMe #UnBreakableLifeCoaching #FaithForwardLeadership #EmpathLeadership #ServantLeadership #LimbDifference #DisabilityAdvocate #TrustAtWork #CampNoLimits #PersonalDevelopmentPodcast

Nichola Cotto — Founder & CEO of Women Who Govern, the first career navigation platform for women pursuing leadership in municipal government. Also serves on the CAPCOG Economic Development Advisory Board. Based in Austin, TX. Background spans real estate, nonprofit leadership (Director & CEO of We Are Not Broken), and grant writing before founding Women Who Govern in 2026. Currently an MPA candidate. Recently marked 5 years cancer-free.

Diana Sawyers has spent almost 30 years leading enterprise transformation for the State of Texas. She's also a saxophone player, a guitar student who's played Stubb's and Antone's, a political junkie, and a mom launching two sons into the world. In this episode we talk about all of it, and the books that helped her hold it together along the way.

Diana shares the moment she froze on stage with sticky notes taped to her guitar (and found out later Bob Dylan did the same thing). We talk about teaching inside a maximum security juvenile facility, why she believes music is one of the last truly human things we have left, and what it means to finally be comfortable in your own skin.

Books mentioned in this episode:

• What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver
• The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz
• 101 Essays That Will Change the Way You Think by Brianna Wiest
• The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt

If this conversation resonates, that's kind of the point. The books that shape us usually show up right when we need them. If you're in a season where you're asking what your own next chapter looks like, I'd love to talk with you. Head to angiesmithsummitconsulting.com to book a call.