Every Book, Framework, and Resource Referenced in From Clinician to Something More
A complete reading list for healthcare professionals ready to build something beyond the clinic.
When I finished writing From Clinician to Something More, I looked back at the books, frameworks, and conversations that had shaped the thinking in it — and realized it was essentially a reading list hiding inside a career development guide.
So I pulled it out and made it an actual reading list.
Everything below was either cited directly in the book and course, referenced in a conversation with one of my guests on the Better Outcomes Show, or has been quietly shaping the way I think about healthcare, leadership, business, and career development for years.
If you’ve read the book and want to go deeper on any particular chapter, this is your map. If you haven’t read the book yet, this list will tell you a lot about where it’s coming from.
Business, Strategy & Expertise
The Business of Expertise — David C. Baker The book I recommend more than any other to clinicians building a consulting practice or professional services career. Baker’s central argument — that positioning is the mechanism that generates expertise, not the other way around — is foundational to Chapter 1 (It’s All About Reps) and Chapter 6 (Know What You Stand For). If you only read one book from this entire list, make it this one.
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less — Greg McKeown The intellectual backbone of the positioning chapters. McKeown’s argument is simple and hard to actually live: doing less, but better, produces more meaningful results than trying to do everything. Every time I talk about saying no strategically, this book is in the background.
Never Split the Difference — Chris Voss Former FBI hostage negotiator turned negotiation coach. The tactics in this book show up in the difficult conversations chapter, the patient expectations work, and every time I talk about how to make an ask that actually gets a yes. Essential for anyone who regularly has to persuade, advocate, or hold a position under pressure.
Selling the Invisible — Harry Beckwith The best practical guide to marketing professional services that I’ve found. Particularly useful for clinicians transitioning into consulting, private practice, or any role where you’re marketing expertise rather than a physical product. Referenced throughout the positioning and marketing chapters.
Thinking in Bets — Annie Duke The book that gave me the clearest framework for thinking about the Cheap Lottery Ticket Strategy. Duke’s core insight — that most decisions are bets made under uncertainty, not right/wrong choices — directly applies to how I think about career moves, small asks, and evaluating risk asymmetry.
Predictably Irrational — Dan Ariely Referenced in the discussions of patient behavior, compliance, and the psychology of healthcare decisions. Ariely’s research on how people actually make decisions (vs. how we think they do) is endlessly useful for anyone trying to understand why patients do or don’t follow through.
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion — Robert Cialdini The foundational text on how trust and persuasion work. Referenced throughout the relationships and referral development chapters. If you’re building a referral-based practice or trying to understand why some professional relationships convert to business and others don’t, Cialdini explains the mechanics.
Leadership & People
Crucial Conversations — Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan & Al Switzler The practical framework for having the conversations most clinicians and leaders avoid. Referenced in both the patient engagement chapter and the leadership chapters — because the skills required to address a patient’s mismatched expectations are the same ones required to address a staff member’s performance issue. The framework is specific and teachable.
Radical Candor — Kim Scott The leadership book I return to most often. Scott’s framework — care personally, challenge directly — is the throughline of the culture and leadership chapters. Essential reading for anyone managing clinical or administrative teams who wants to avoid both the doormat trap and the jerk trap.
Called to Care: Making Healthcare Human Again — Dr. Larry Benz This is the book I read right before purchasing ProActive, and it’s the primary source for the calcification/burnout framework in Chapter 8. Dr. Benz’s research applies positive psychology principles to clinical care in a way that produces measurable outcomes — better patient results, lower therapist burnout, and genuine competitive advantage. Worth noting: 100% of proceeds go to charitable causes in the PT profession.
Leaders Eat Last — Simon Sinek The biological and anthropological case for why leadership is fundamentally about protecting and serving the people in your care. Referenced in the culture chapter. Particularly useful for understanding why the four cultural ingredients in Chapter 9 work — they map onto deep human needs for safety, belonging, and shared purpose.
Who Not How — Dan Sullivan & Benjamin Hardy The book that articulates the core mindset shift in Chapter 11 better than I could. Instead of asking “how do I do this?” ask “who is the right person to do this?” It’s a simple reframe with massive practical implications for anyone running a team or practice.
Entrepreneurship & Business Operations
The E-Myth Revisited — Michael E. Gerber If you own or manage a clinic, this is the book that explains why it probably doesn’t work the way you imagined it would. The technician/manager/entrepreneur framework is referenced throughout the time, delegation, and operations chapters. The first business book I’d recommend to any clinician stepping into ownership.
Rich Dad Poor Dad — Robert Kiyosaki Referenced in the alternative revenue chapter. It’s been called reductive and it’s been called transformational — I think it’s both, depending on where you are in your thinking about money. For most clinicians who were never taught to think about assets versus income, it’s a genuinely useful reframe.
The Practice Freedom Method — Jamie Schreer The methodology behind the bundling and time ownership concepts in Chapter 11. Jamie was a guest on the Better Outcomes Show and the conversation that became that chapter grew directly from his framework. You can also get a free copy at practicefreedomu.com.
Thinking & Decision-Making
Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard — Chip Heath & Dan Heath The elephant-and-rider framework is one of the most useful mental models I’ve encountered for understanding why people — patients, staff, yourself — don’t do what they know they should. Referenced in the behavior change, patient compliance, and culture chapters.
Made to Stick — Chip Heath & Dan Heath The six principles of ideas that last — directly applicable to how you communicate your value proposition, your positioning, and your clinical recommendations. If you’ve ever wondered why some patient education actually works and most of it doesn’t, this book explains it.
The Tipping Point — Malcolm Gladwell Referenced in the relationships chapter, specifically around the Connector archetype — the type of person who sits at the intersection of multiple ecosystems and creates outsized value by connecting people who should know each other. Understanding how tipping points work is directly relevant to referral network development.
Personal Development & Narrative
The Alchemist — Paulo Coelho I don’t normally lead with fiction on a business reading list, but this one belongs here. The through-line concept in Chapter 2 — that the journey toward your personal legend is embedded in what you’ve already been doing — maps directly onto how career through-lines actually work. Short read. High return.
Story Worthy — Matthew Dicks Learning to tell your professional story compellingly is one of the highest-leverage communication skills a clinician can develop — and one of the most underestimated. Referenced in the communication and positioning chapters. Dicks teaches storytelling as a craft, and the skills transfer directly to patient communication, presentations, and content creation.
One Man’s Wilderness — Sam Keith (from the journals of Richard Proenneke) This one is here because of the Read Wider chapter. Proenneke built a cabin by hand in the Alaskan wilderness in his 50s and kept meticulous journals about it. The journals are a meditation on craftsmanship, self-reliance, and building something that lasts — and they’ve changed the way I think about expertise, patience, and what it means to build well. A perfect example of why reading outside your field matters.
Frameworks & Concepts
The Biopsychosocial Model The framework for understanding health and illness through biological, psychological, and social factors — foundational to the approach to patient care described throughout the book. If you want a deeper dive, I put together a course on this a while back: courses.rafisalazar.com/courses/biopsychosocial
The Therapeutic Alliance The research on the clinician-patient relationship as a clinical variable in its own right — one of the strongest predictors of treatment outcomes across all healthcare disciplines. Further reading: Wampold, B.E. & Imel, Z.E. (2015). The Great Psychotherapy Debate. Routledge.
Pain Neuroscience Education (PNE) Referenced in the clinical care discussions. The evidence-based approach to explaining pain mechanisms to patients as a therapeutic intervention in itself. Adriaan Louw has written extensively on this — his book is a great starting point. Also worth exploring Lorimer Moseley’s work at lorimer.com.au.
Adjusted EBITDA The financial metric at the center of the M&A chapters — earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, adjusted for owner-specific expenses and one-time items. Understanding this number is the starting point for any serious conversation about practice valuation. If you don’t know yours, that’s your first action item.
Podcast Episodes
All of these conversations happened on the Better Outcomes Show and fed directly into the chapters they’re linked to. You can find every episode at betteroutcomes.show.
Called to Care — Dr. Larry Benz (Chapters 8, Module 8)
Mergers & Acquisitions in Physical Therapy — Michael Piekutoski (Chapters 13–15, Modules 14–15)
Time Management for Clinic Owners — Jamie Schreer (Chapter 11, Module 11)
Building Alternative Revenue Streams — Tony Maritato (Chapter 12, Module 12)
Ecosystem Mergers — Andy Zapata (Chapter 13, Module 13)
Exit Strategy for Practice Owners — Michael Piekutoski (Chapter 14, Module 14)
Buying a Healthcare Practice — Michael Piekutoski (Chapter 15, Module 15)
It’s All About Reps — solo episode (Chapter 1, Module 1)
My Other Books
Better Outcomes: A Guide to Humanizing Healthcare My first book — the one that started the conversation this book continues. If From Clinician to Something More is about building a career beyond the clinic, Better Outcomes is about doing the clinical work better first.
From Clinician to Owner A practical guide to starting, scaling, and selling a physical therapy, occupational therapy, or medical practice. The operational companion to From Clinician to Something More.
This is obviously not an exhaustive list of all the resources and books available to improve your business or leaderships skills. It’s just the list of books and resources that made it into the book. I try to read 2 books per month, and have been doing so sine 2015 or so. That’s a lot of books! But, for the most part, each book has provided at least one small nugget that I’ve been able to use in other parts of my professional or personal life. So I guess this is just my way of encouraging you: if you haven’t picked up the habit of regular reading, do it!