10 Great Reads to Help Grow Your Business

Young Professionals Committee
Published
Contact: Rachel Mackenzie
[email protected]
Director, Membership
(202)266-8639

NAHB’s Young Professionals (YP) compiled a list of books that have helped inspire their careers and grow their businesses. These 10 books make great gifts for the upcoming holiday season, or purchases for yourself to get ahead of the competition.

The list features books on various topics, such as culture-setting reads like “Unreasonable Hospitality” by Will Guidara.

“This topic is very related to home building,” said YP Committee Chair Robert Carroll. “We can excel by recognizing our role in creating experiences around our very emotional and personal transactions. This book creates cultural language to move your sales process from transactional to relational.”

Also featured is “Behind Your Back” by Bradley Hartmann, a book about what purchasing managers say when you leave the room.

“Hartmann is a former area purchasing manager for Pulte Homes, and provides insight to how purchasing managers approach their jobs and how they handle relationships with colleagues,” said Wes Robbins, vice president and partner at W Robbins & Company, LLC. Robbins found the book valuable to those looking for insider knowledge on selling to large-volume builders, especially to learn what is and is not important.

Read the full list of books.

Additionally, NAHB’s Young Professionals are celebrating their end-of-year virtual happy hour on Friday, Dec. 13, at 4 p.m. ET. Members are invited to discuss their favorite books from the year, play games and meet fellow YPs. Holiday attire is welcome. Register now.

Subscribe to NAHBNow

Log in or create account to subscribe to notifications of new posts.

Log in to subscribe

Latest from NAHBNow

Land Development | Economics

Jul 30, 2026

AI Data Centers Are Outbidding Home Builders for America's Land

As the demand for data processing increased dramatically with the advent of AI, companies building the centers began bidding up prices of land that had been on home builders' radar.

Sustainability and Green Building | Multifamily

Jul 30, 2026

New Certification Makes NGBS Compliance Easier for Multifamily Projects

A new compliance option in the 2025 National Green Building Standard® (NGBS) is designed to make it even easier to showcase how high-performance features have been incorporated into certain multifamily projects.

View all

Latest Economic News

Economics

Jul 30, 2026

PCE Inflation Eased in June

After reaching a three-year high last month, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge eased in June following declines in energy prices amid a temporary truce with Iran. This marked the first monthly decline in six years.

Economics

Jul 30, 2026

Top Ten Builder Share Across Largest Housing Markets

An earlier post described how the top ten builders in the country accounted for 43.6% of new single-family closings in 2025. BUILDER magazine has now released additional data on the top ten builders within each of the 50 largest new home markets in the U.S., ranked by single-family permits.

Economics

Jul 29, 2026

Amid Supply-Side Inflation Pressures, The Fed Holds

The Federal Reserve held the federal funds rate at a target range of 3.5% to 3.75% at the conclusion of its July policy meeting. There were three dissenting votes on the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), all of which supported raising the federal funds rate by 25 basis points.