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The Books That Shaped Me

The Books That Shaped Me

by Angie Smith

Books Relationships

Season 2

The Books That Shaped Me Featuring Kat Rector

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.

The Books That Shaped Me Featuring Dave Leon

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

The Books That Shaped Me Featuring Carrie Davis

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

The Books That Shaped Me Featuring Nichola Cotta

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.

The Books That Shaped Me Featuring Diana Sawyers

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.

The Books That Shaped Me Featuring Loree Tamayo

Loree Tamayo built a life running hospitals and long-term care facilities, one that looked polished from the outside. Underneath it was a lifetime of psychological abuse she didn't even have language for, generational patterns passed down from her great-grandmother to her grandmother to her mother, and finally to her. In this episode, Loree walks through the moment she surrendered her life to God with a blank check prayer, and how that same surrender carried her through a devastating marriage, eight years of counseling, and the slow work of learning what a boundary even is. She talks about the anger she didn't know she was carrying, why "no" felt like a foreign language, and how she came out the other side to found Yesterday's Gone, a women's shelter now supported by an army of men who show up to serve the very population abuse once tried to break. This is a conversation about denial, boundaries, forgiveness, and the belief that God writes the best endings, if you let Him. Find Loree at yesterdaysgone.org and hiddentreasureteams.org. She was also recently on Michelle Savage's Her Best Chapter podcast, check it out!

The Books That Shaped Me Featuring Jennifer Buaas

Today I'm sitting down with Jennifer Buaas. We first connected at work conferences over the years, and I knew there was a story here worth telling. Jennifer's path took her from driving a beverage cart at a golf course to the Texas Workers Compensation Commission, then to the Texas Department of Information Resources, and now to KPMG. Every door that opened came through a person who saw something in her first. We talk about mentors who invest their time for no reason other than wanting someone else to succeed, why relationships and connection matter more than we give them credit for, and how public sector workers rarely get the credit they deserve. Jennifer shares the books and voices that shaped her along the way: children's books like Curious George during her early parenting years, Brené Brown's work and her podcast The Curiosity Shop with Adam Grant, the devotional Devotions from the Horse Farm by Kara and Dan Whitney, and Kristin Neff's book on self-compassion, which met her in one of the darkest seasons of her life. We close on listening as the most underrated leadership skill, why AI will never replace human connection, and Jennifer's own book that's been taking shape in her mind for years. If this episode encourages you, share it with someone who needs it today. Want to be a guest or explore a sponsorship? Connect with me at AngieSmithSummitConsulting.com.

The Books That Shaped Me Featuring Carrie Kass

Season 2 kicks off with Carrie Kass, founder, CEO, and TEDx Round Rock Women speaker. Carrie and Angie became friends through the multi-author book Pieces to Purpose, and this conversation picks up right where that friendship started. Carrie opens up about the moment she hit send on her first published story, the trauma she'd buried for decades, and what it cost her to finally speak it out loud on stage. She walks through losing her role in a private equity acquisition, and how that loss became the spark for her new book chapter, The Unacquired Voice. They dig into networking done right, why "what do you do" is the worst way to start a conversation, and how Carrie's community became her business overnight when she needed it most. Carrie also shares the books that shaped her, from The Giving Tree to The Five Love Languages, and previews her new book Voice and Vision, releasing August 5th. This one is honest, funny, and full of heart. Grab your coffee and settle in. www.carriekass.com IG: @thecarriekass FB: https://facebook.com/carriekass18 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carrie-kass-a59114a/ TEDx talk: https://youtu.be/5Jp1xudljow?si=hO3qFLMQ_GdJXImS Connect with Carrie on her social platforms, and connect with Angie at angiesmithsummitconsulting.com.

The Books That Shaped Me Featuring Valentina MacGregor

Valentina MacGregor has lived on four continents, survived a body brace that reshaped her whole life, and turned heartbreak into one of the most meaningful projects of her career. Born in Buenos Aires, raised in Venezuela, and shaped by stints in Italy, London, Glasgow, and Madrid, Valentina joins Angie to talk about what happens when you stop asking permission to be different. At 10 years old, a scoliosis diagnosis put her in a back brace for two years. She couldn't do PE, so she read instead. That's the moment she became a lifelong reader. She opens up about losing her brother after two heart transplants, the book that taught her to trust her own heart over everyone else's opinion (The Alchemist), and why she now photographs women over 40 for her Legends Project, an annual exhibit celebrating the women who dared to pivot. This one will remind you that the hard seasons are usually the ones doing the shaping.

Season 1

The Books That Shaped Me Featuring Vidya Moorthy

0:00 – Sponsor Message A quick thank-you to Windstar Insurance Group out of Cedar Park, owned by Angie's friend Stephanie Dew, for backing this season. 1:02 – Welcome to the Season 1 Finale Angie kicks off episode 10 with Vidya Moorthy, calling her "the crown jewel" to close out the first season. 2:22 – Vidya's Story: Detroit to Austin An MBA in finance, a master's in PR, a career that took her from Detroit to Asia Pacific to Austin in 2021, where she started from zero relationships and built a whole network one coffee at a time. 3:53 – Leading Austin Businesswoman Vidya took over as president in 2024 after founder Olga Adler stepped back. Her mission: get women access to capital, power circles, and new markets, without gatekeeping it behind a big price tag. 6:28 – Raised on Family, Faith, and Education Vidya grew up in southern India in a home that wasn't wealthy but was rich in education. Her name, Vidya, literally means education, and that thread runs through everything she's built since. 11:31 – The Mountain Question "Do you want to climb the mountain to be seen, or to be able to see further?" Vidya's answer to what keeps her climbing, and why she tries to pay it forward without keeping score. 15:06 – Active Listening as a Discipline Vidya breaks down why real listening takes generosity and empathy, and why it's not your job to convince someone to see it your way, just to honor their truth. 17:41 – Book 1: Atomic Habits by James Clear Vidya on why this "everybody's read it" book still changed her life: metacognition, getting 1% better daily, and the idea that profound change starts in the smallest habits. 23:38 – Book 2: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini A story of two women bound together by hardship in Afghanistan. Vidya also shares a beautiful memory of her father's letters and the lesson he taught her about writing with simple, powerful words. 30:46 – A Taste of Her Keynote Vidya previews "The Lion in a Changing Jungle," her talk connecting global shifts, like trade, currency, and policy, to what's actually happening in a small business down the street in Austin. 36:11 – Connect with Vidya Find her on LinkedIn as Vidya Moorthy, or through austinbusinesswoman.com. Their annual awards gala is open to nominations, no membership required. 38:56 – Closing Vidya on never taking a mic lightly, and Angie's invitation to connect for coaching, speaking, or a future episode. 3. Bonus Book Mentioned (not covered in depth) 📚 The Lion Women of Tehran — mentioned by Angie around 28:01 as a similar read on oppressed women finding connection through hardship.

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