It's just crazy.

(ambient music)

What's up, socials, welcome back to Amy TV,

your space to discover the life that you want

the way that you make it.

Today is a very special day.

Today, January 31st.

Do you remember what video you watched last year

on this channel on January 31st?

That's right, you watched ridiculosity in action.

♪ I know you got the talent ♪

♪ I know you got the game ♪

♪ Post an upload to YouTube ♪

♪ And maybe you could be famous ♪

♪ Well, it's not that easy ♪

♪ Fears start to kick in ♪

♪ Think your content is cheesy ♪

♪ Well, hello, I'm Amy but I'm known as the Vlog Boss ♪

♪ I'm here to make it happen ♪

♪ Step your game up at all costs ♪

♪ At all costs ♪

♪ You can put your trust in me ♪

♪ I'm pretty good ♪

♪ You can ask Gary Vee ♪

It was for my book.

I did a music video for Vlog Like a Boss.

That day was the launch day for my first book,

and that makes today the one-year anniversary.

(applauding) You know.

It's fine. (cheering)

I'm just like an author or something.

(laughs) What?

If you're not aware, if you're brand new to this channel,

the book is called Vlog Like a Boss:

How to Kill It Online with Video Blogging.

And I am very proud of myself, very, very proud.

I'm probably confusing some people

who maybe are just meeting me for the first time

because I have so many last names.

I am Amy Schmittauer and I'm Amy Landino.

Multiple personalities, I hear it's really healthy.

Anyway, I thought it'd be appropriate today

instead of being like, wow, it's been a year.

Lot of things have happened with my book,

but I also think there have been a lot of books

that have changed my life,

and I wanted to kinda talk through what those books are.

There's also something else super bonkers cool

that happened this week that I wanna tell you about,

but it all-encompassing, it's all-encompassing.

I wanna tell you everything.

So we're gonna talk about the books that changed my life,

the ones that motivated me, that taught me a lot of things,

the ones that really at the basic level

allowed me to surround myself with people

who were not only like-minded,

but who were way smarter than me and great influences on me.

And in a world where we are so particular

about who we spend our time with

or at least wish we were particular

and maybe feel like we can't control it,

books are a great way to do that,

a really great way to do that.

If you wanna inject a certain type of expertise

or flair or personality or anything you can think of

from another human, if you want more of it in your life,

read their book.

They put a lot of effort into it and a lot of them into it.

If you're ever wondering what books I recommend

or what books I have read before or anything like that,

any books I talk about here on the show, I have read them.

I'm not gonna talk about something

that I have no experience with.

You can always find out what those books are

with the link in the description

that's gonna take you to The Bookshelf Shop page.

So it's on my website.

It's a full list of every book that I've read,

at least in my professional career.

You can go check that out

and pick up a copy of something that piques your interest.

These are the books that changed my life for the better.

This first one is going to kick off the feels,

all the feels that are gonna happen in this video,

and that is Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk.

If you're new to me, I'm a big fan of Gary Vaynerchuk.

If you're not new to me,

well, what were you expecting? (laughs)

This is the first book that I actually read by Gary,

but I wanna give you a little bit more backstory than that.

Back in 2009 and 2010, I was side hustling.

I was starting to figure out

what I wanted to do as my passion,

and I was picking up clients

on the side of my full-time job.

One of the first people that I actually met

that was in this industry, I guess you could say,

was Lewis Howes, who is extremely well-known

for his insanely popular podcast, School of Greatness.

He's been on this show.

You guys know Lewis probably very well.

If you don't, go check him out.

Lewis is also from Columbus.

At the time, he was building his business

just down the street in downtown Columbus, Ohio.

So we met up for burgers,

and basically I just wanted to pick his brain

about everything he had learned

about what he was doing with internet marketing

and all these kinds of things.

And he gave me two pieces of advice,

and one of them was to read Gary Vaynerchuk's Crush It!.

So that was how I found out about Gary

in the first place was through Lewis.

So because I didn't really wanna buy the book,

I went to the library and I borrowed it.

When I read Crush It!,

what changed for me was really that I found someone

that I felt I could connect with,

that I felt like we had a similar mindset,

but who had already had so much more experience

and was so risky in the way that he tried things

that he was actually able to say from experience,

"Amy, you're on the right track,"

without actually having to say to me directly,

"Amy, you're on the right track."

I was reading this book and I just felt so inspired

that I had figured a couple of things out,

but I should lean even further into them

because they truly were going to be the coming years

of success for business and marketing and my passion overall

and being able to go after the life that I want,

doing the thing that I loved.

Because at the time I'm thinking, is this a real thing?

Am I really gonna leave my job?

Am I really gonna change gears here?

And being able to read a book like that,

that was a very positive influence on me trying

to figure out who I truly was.

At the end of it all, truly at the end of the day,

what Crush It! was for me was finding out

that I could have a mentor

and have them affect me so much

but not actually have to go knocking on someone's door

and say, hey, hi, will you be my mentor?

(laughs) You don't actually have to do that.

Learn everything anyone's ever wanted to teach

by simply absorbing the things that they've created.

That's what's amazing by this world in 2018,

in 2009, in 2010, this book.

Being able to read people's books,

it's a great way to absorb what they would teach you

if you talked to them in person.

Everyone's problems, at the end of the day,

are all the same.

If we're not trying to figure out how to do something,

we're trying to figure out why

and if we actually have the drive to do it

and if we can put away all of our feelings and fears

in order to make it happen,

in order to be able to make a test

and see if we're gonna freak out when we fail.

So a lot of things happened to me

in the moment of reading Crush It!.

Most of all was the first moment I realized

I could give myself permission.

The next book I read that changed my life

was Book Yourself Solid by Michael Port.

One of the hardest things ever, ever, ever, ever, ever

when you finally decide to take the jump

to start your own business is to learn how to sell yourself.

And when you're in a services based business

and you really need clients,

I needed somebody to teach me how to do that.

So actually my very dear friend Matthew Kimberley told me

about Michael Port and the book Book Yourself Solid,

and I just loved that title.

I mean, listen to that title.

That is just music to my ears.

Book Yourself Solid.

I would like to be booked solid.

I mean, it sounds like a lot of work,

but work means I'm making money, ideally,

so I need to know that that's true,

and, also, I need to be booked solid.

Man, it was so practical.

I absolutely love Michael's take

on going out and finding business.

And going out and finding business is important,

even if we live in this world now where inbound is great,

but you can always have more.

You can always make sure that your funnel,

your leads are full,

and you always have someone you can work with

or always work toward more business so that you can grow.

Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki.

I was really surprised I wanted to read this book.

I actually look at that book and I'm like,

eh, what in the heck is that gonna be about?

It had been recommended by so many people that I know now

or had been following at the time.

When I started reading this book,

I was actually very grateful that I started,

because there were some things in there

that I should have known and should have thought about

and also opened my mind to the possibilities.

The biggest take away with this one is

just the mindset of abundance,

that we're not all scraping for the same small amounts

of money or opportunity that are out there.

If we really approach things in the right way,

there's enough to go around across the board.

But not just that; when you're very financially literate

and you start to understand how these things work,

you become even more aware

of how much opportunity there actually is.

The stories that were being told

and the way that it was taught here in this book,

I just love Rich Dad Poor Dad,

and I don't think I've ever looked at money the same.

Ooh, Gilbert, girl.

Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.

If you are a lady who has not read this book,

come on.

This one was just so liberating.

I know it was kind of all the rage when I did read it.

Everyone was talking about Eat Pray Love

and being able to have an Eat Pray Love opportunity

in their life.

But I think what Elizabeth did for me here

was make me realize,

I had already been traveling from an early age in my 20s,

just on my own, but I think I started to understand,

I don't have to wait for others to want to do stuff.

I could go visit a country

and not necessarily see a friend or family member there

and just go and check it out

and feel good about that and be confident in that.

I think when you're brought up,

travel feels like a very family thing.

It's an event.

It's this big deal.

You don't do it very often.