Meet Marcy, A Former CFO Who Turned Her Passion for Books into a Thriving Self-Publishing Career In Retirement
Hi, my name is Marcy and, I’m in the K-Express Program & my nine-to-five is this program.
I was a chief financial officer and I retired early, due to some health conditions, but this program allows me to work around those, those conditions.
So it’s been very viable for me and I love the program.
And how I found it was I was searching for something to not go stir crazy, being home-bound.
And this popped up on Facebook and I found it very intriguing.
I love books.
I’ve always wanted to write a book and will count, so I thought it kind of played in naturally with my interests.
And I jumped in with both feet and have taken it from there.
It’s been quite a journey.
The thing that I did not expect was some instances there’s a real learning curve of collaborating with so many people on the outsourcing realm and then having to wait.
I like to move forward quickly.
And so that’s been an adjustment for me.
But it’s also been a true learning experience because throughout that collaboration I’ve learned a lot more
3 books up, and one of those is part of a series, and the second book in that series is at the formatter right now.
So that’s four books in the can.
And I have, I’m writing or in the phase of writing the fifth book right now.
And I would like to be farther along, but the first book took quite a long time and I think that’s, you know, getting my feet under me and trying to learn the process.
And now the process is becoming easier and I don’t think I could have done it without the one-on-one coaching that the K Express program offers kind of would like to get away from that.
I decided to just do things I know.
So the first book was on accounting, and the series is on finance targeted towards different demographics.
And one of the books is a public domain book, which was one of my favorite books as a kid, Treasure Island, the second and third ones just got published within the last month.
So they’re just starting to gain traction and getting the reviews and they’ve all been very positive.
The first book is gaining traction.
It’s selling one to two copies a day, and, obviously, I’d like it to sell more, but it’s gaining traction organically.
And that’s been published a couple of months, so I’m just getting through the takeoff phase.
As I would call it, I think it’s pretty good considering and I’m using advertising
Favorite review? I think my favorite reviews are those from people who say, this information is going to really help me because I love helping people.
And even in my, even in my career, That was a passion of mine, of imparting the knowledge I had to others and helping them step up. I think that’s important.
One of the things that was unexpected was in my first book was trying to find a ghostwriter.
You know, I went through several, several of them at first and tried to convey where I was going with the book, and they went along with it and seemed to be going in the same direction, and then partway through just went downhill.
So I kind of had to go back to the drawing board.
So that was a challenge for me.
And obviously a bit frustrating, so that slowed down the process a lot.
But I think one of the things that really helped me overcome that was the coaches.
I really respect the coaches and the weekly Q & A.
The one-on-one that you can have with the coaches is you just can’t put a value on it.
So that’s one thing that I think is very important in this.
I didn’t use it with the first book…
But with all the recent books I’ve been using ai, I’ve been using ai.
I find it quite thrilling to start with that and, and tell it what I want it
to do, and then massage it and put together the pieces.
It’s like a puzzle.
Whereas my first book took months, albeit there were some challenges, you know, these probably are taking less than a month to generate, even with the stages of editing proofing, and formatting.
So it’s such a powerful tool and I don’t think we’ve even tapped the surface of what it can do.
I’ve really had to focus and work on my mindset and keep it positive and not be pushed back by roadblocks.
So I really focus on positive affirmations and try to keep the end goal in mind.
Realize that there are going to be setbacks and in my mind’s eye jump over them like I was running a race and I can just leap over them and keep going
And always strive to reach the end that I want to achieve.
And if I fall, I can always get up and always remember that it’s not the end.
I really love to use analogies.
It really helps me to put it into perspective, something that I struggle with and I’m a type A person and I always want to keep going.
And it’s hard to, in my mind, stop and make sure there’s balance in my life and that everything is not getting so cluttered, that I can’t see the forest for the trees.
I think that lends some perspective to the book to always include a, you know, a personal journey, lend some weight to the book itself.
And although it’s kind of hard to share your personal experiences and admit weakness, but I think it helps.
I started in April and I’ve published three books.
One of which is selling a couple of books a day.
The others are just published and they’re starting to sell books as well through advertising.
So it’s always good to follow the lesson plan about what’s gonna help make your book successful.
And I think the next book is gonna come out here shortly, probably within the next month.
My target, might be a little high in the sky… but I’d like to try to hit 20 books as my first goal.
And I’d like to take it big and expand beyond books into a blog and a newsletter at some point.
And maybe flip it at some point, but still stay in the business, just developing it would enable me not to, stress about financial means and relax a little bit.
And travel, which I haven’t been able to do, it’s just been nose to the grindstone for years.
So I think it just allows you to have freedom, which is hard to put a value on.
But here’s my first book, Small Business Accounting, Money Matters Made Easy, A Beginner’s Guide for Entrepreneurs.
So it’s really applicable to all of us.
I’m really proud of it.
And if anybody’s interested, I could send you a link.
Always marketing.
Always marketing.
Don’t forget that!