The Afterword: Hencove’s Book Club Recap—Atomic Habits

A Fresh Chapter: The “Why” Behind Our Book Club Relaunch

The Hencove Book Club has always been a space for sparking ideas and building connections. This year, we’re giving it a new direction. Instead of picking books at random (we’ll miss you, offbeat dark academia picks!), we’re organizing our reading around shared themes that inspire growth both personally and professionally.

Our first pick, James Clear’s Atomic Habits, was the perfect book to start with. Clear shows us that small, consistent actions can build into remarkable results over time in both our professional and personal lives.

About the Book

Atomic Habits has sold more than 15 million copies and landed on just about every “must-read” list out there. Its appeal is in the simplicity of the idea: real change doesn’t happen in one big leap. It happens through small improvements, repeated over and over.

What Marketing Can Learn from Atomic Habits

During our discussion, a few themes stood out as especially relevant for B2B marketers:

• The power of 1% improvements: “Making a choice that is 1 percent better or 1 percent worse seems insignificant in the moment, but over the span of moments that make up a lifetime these choices determine the difference between who you are and who you could be.”
  
  Clear begins with the story of the British cycling team, which transformed from decades of mediocrity into Olympic champions by chasing 1% improvements everywhere. Think redesigned bike seats, minute sleep modifications, experimenting with different massage gels—we’re talking small changes. The point was that no single change won them gold medals, but the compound effect of these micro-improvements absolutely did. Marketing works the same way. Refining subject lines, adjusting page load times, or tightening ad copy might feel minor in isolation, but over time these optimizations compound into stronger campaigns, better user experiences, and measurable results.
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• ‍Systems over goals: “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”
  
  Atomic Habits presents this classic example: a writer who sets a goal to publish a book but never establishes a writing routine. Without a system in place to actually do the writing, the goal of publishing a book stalls. At Hencove, we know that systems are the bedrock of effective marketing strategy. A well-structured content calendar keeps publishing on track, a campaign framework creates consistency across channels, and a disciplined reporting process fuels smarter iterations.These aren’t just operational tools; they’re the infrastructure that makes success repeatable and scalable.
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• Habit stacking: “One of the best ways to build a new habit is to identify a current habit you already do each day and then stack your new behavior on top.”
  
  This one was a team favorite because it is so easy to apply to your everyday life. The beauty lies in its simplicity: one small action can trigger another until you’ve reached a much bigger goal. In the book, this was illustrated through the story of celebrated dancer and choreographer Twyla Tharp. Tharp’s rigorous training schedule demanded early mornings and long hours at the studio. Thinking about the full workout when she was lying in bed each morning was enough to send her scrambling for the snooze button. So she reframed the habit. Her only promise to herself was that she’d get into a taxi at 5 a.m. Once she was in the cab, she gave herself the freedom to do whatever she wanted: go train, turn around and head home, or skip working out altogether. But naturally, being in the cab created the momentum for what came next, and nearly every time, the day’s training unfolded as planned.
  
  Marketing works the same way. Instead of relying on one big splashy campaign, real momentum comes from smaller actions that build on each other. Think of it like this: your first habit of posting weekly on LinkedIn could lead to repurposing content fora newsletter, which could lead to the development of an interview series, which could lead to a strategic partnership. Each time you stack, the results become more substantial.

• Identity-based habits: “Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity.”
  
  Real change sticks only when it’s part of who you are. You don’t just run a marathon; you decide you’re a runner. You don’t just try to quit smoking; you declare you’re not a smoker.
  
  For brands, it’s the same playbook. Identity is the strategy, the north star for every ad, blog, piece of collateral, and sales pitch until it becomes ingrained in everything you do. You can only help your audience know who you are if you know who you are, so we consider this a critical first step in any marketing strategy.

Next on Our Shelf

If Atomic Habits taught us anything, it’s that progress starts with a single step (or in our case, a single page). Now we’re stacking on that good habit, and we’d love for you to keep reading with us.

Next up: The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr. Think less bedtime story, more brain chemistry. We’ll be diving into how stories shape human behavior and how marketers can wield them like superpowers.

What did you think of the book? We invite you to read along with us and share your own aha moments on LinkedIn.