'Books are made by humans, for humans, in conversation with other humans, and they are still the best vehicle we have for sustained thought.'

It's episode 500 of The Extraordinary Business Book Club. I KNOW!!!

To mark the milestone, I handed the mic over to YOU, the listeners, to reflect on what the show has meant to you over the years.

There are reflections on discovering what to read next, finding community among people with big ideas, and hearing authors speak honestly about the intractably hard work of writing. (Public service announcement: writing a book is difficult not because you're doing it wrong, but because turning an idea into something useful takes real work.)

And in the age of AI, we explore what remains distinctively human about books, and why they matter more than ever.

A celebratory landmark episode about writing, reading, thinking together — and the extraordinary alchemy of books.

'The publishing of the book actually is not the finish line, it's the start line.'

Chris Ducker is a serial entrepreneur, three-times bestselling author, keynote speaker and founder of Youpreneur, where he helps entrepreneurs and industry leaders and experts launch and market their books and grow their authority and their businesses.

In other words, the perfect Extraordinary Business Book Club guest.

And he's here to tell you that too many business book authors treat publication day as the end of the project: box ticked, job done. When actually that's the moment the next phase of work begins.

Your book sits at the heart of your reputation-building ecosystem. Why spend months or years creating a brilliant body of content and then not use it properly? It's going to keep on giving as a source of ideas, stories, frameworks and prompts for marketing, speaking and client conversations if you let it.

We also talk about what personal brand really means (and how to build one), and the two most fundamental questions every business book author should ask themselves: what transformation do I want for my reader, and what do I want this book to do for my business?

'Confidence can fuel good performance, doubt can sap performance.'

Julie Smith's first book, Coach Yourself Confident, focused on the individual experience of confidence: closing the gap between how capable we are and how capable we believe ourselves to be. It won quite a few awards.

Her new book, Contagious Confidence, explores confidence as a performance variable: a powerful way for leaders to help teams do their best work.

But the funny thing about writing about confidence - even second time around, and even with awards in the bag - is that much of the time you don't feel very, well, confident. Julie talks about perfectionism, inner critics (hers is called Nigel) and the 'difficult second album', but also the surprising joy of giving yourself permission to write a shitty first draft and that sensation of freewheeling when it's all working perfectly.

It's a conversation about confidence, leadership, writing, community - and sprouts.