Author Lucille Friedland, M.S. believes the purpose of her life, her marketing consulting firm, and her writing is to “help create prosperity, health, and well-being for all.” Her first book YOU CAN PROSPER: How to Do More with Less was published in 2016 by RainbowExchange.NET Books. You can find her at Friedland Marketing and on LinkedIn.
What is your elevator pitch for YOU CAN PROSPER?
“Live long and prosper,” alien Spock famously said on Star Trek as he held up his signature hand sign. Today, many people here on Earth want to live better with what they have as well. Some may even find they have less money than they thought they would. In this book you can discover many ways of enjoying life and living longer. It explains how to do so in a way that you can save money, save time, prepare and follow a budget, plus live spiritually. Often based on recent research studies, I share ideas new and classic. In almost all cases, I have tried and/or regularly do these items myself.
What challenges did this work pose for you?
After I wrote the book, I sent it to a group of friends and relatives who critiqued it. Their input and insights were excellent. The most profound came from my sister Jenny Friedland Tender, M.D. She said a large number of my ideas are actually supported by scientific research. Then she asked me to go through the entire book and look up the related research. It took me over a month to do so, thereby adding greater merit to my book. Now readers can read YOU CAN PROSPER quickly or take their time reading dozens of related articles and see the details behind the studies.
What is the most rewarding aspect of having the book in the hands of readers?
When it relates to their lives, people who read my book love it. My greatest reward is hearing that they want to implement my ideas to improve their own lives. I also enjoy their excitement about the book. To my surprise, I have started to take my own advice even more seriously than when I earnestly wrote the book. For instance, I de-cluttered almost my entire home. I donated 30 bags of clothing (and other items) that no longer fit me or I no longer use. And I established a new company called LucilleRuffleScarves. Today I see my life becoming better every day by following the advice from the book.
Tell us how the book came together.
While bedridden and recovering from car crashes (gratefully, I’ve since mostly recovered), I needed to figure out how to live my life and prosper. I wrote and revised the book over a span of about 10 months, taking a break for a few months total during that time. However, I collected content for over 10 years. Ideas in the book arrived as a result of necessity—“necessity is the mother of invention,” as the saying goes.
What makes your book unique in the self-help market?
The book explains how to live well on a budget, then goes into how to increase income, live spiritually, and even shares my personal bookkeeping system. Because it is based on research, it turns out (to my surprise) that many of my ideas and recommendations for living well on a budget also help people live much longer. I wrote complex concepts in a simple way, so it’s a quick read—enjoyable for many in one sitting from cover to cover.
Anything else you’d like readers to know?
When researching and writing YOU CAN PROSPER: How to Do More with Less, I discovered many products that are extremely useful and in some cases fun. It turns out I could create dozens of online stores that offer these products and other ones that are fun, eco-friendly, useful, and unusual. This is how I developed EcoFunShop.com that dovetails with my book. As a Business/Personal Coach, Marketing Trouble-Shooter, and Consultant with Friedland Marketing, I am also able to help readers, business owners, and others to prosper. Please see my website for information about my marketing and coaching services. For paperback and ebook options for YOU CAN PROSPER, go to Where to Buy at RainbowExchange.net Books. And contact me by phone with any questions (including about speaking engagements) at 505-504-3404.
KL Wagoner (writing as Cate Macabe) is the author of This New Mountain: a memoir of AJ Jackson, private investigator, repossessor, and grandmother. She has a new speculative fiction blog at klwagoner.com and writes about memoir at ThisNewMountain.com.
