My Book Was Reviewed By The New York Times

When I was promoting my first road trip and reaching out to local media and journalists I was told I wasn’t an authority unless I was an author. In July of last year after completing the road trip, I told myself I would self-publish a book and it will be part of my financial education toolkit. I was going to make myself an authority.

I decided to make myself accountable and posted this goal of self-publishing a book on personal finance on my Facebook wall. That post led to a friend (who has been following my journey for years and loves my writing) to note that her son worked at Wiley and would make an introduction. A few weeks later, I had a book deal in my inbox from one of the top publishers in the world.

Now, I needed to write a book that would make an impact in people’s lives. I didn’t want to just talk about steps or formulas but focus on motivation.

I began sifting through my presentations, notes and unfinished blog posts and knew I wanted to write about financial awareness and shifting mindset from scarcity to abundance. But I also knew the importance of providing a framework to get from where you are to where you want to be – a budget was going to be the simplest tool to make that happen.

However, people don’t like budgets.

And I knew that we were teaching people how to budget incorrectly. We’re telling them to set financial goals before understanding what lifestyle they actually wanted to live. I believe we don’t stick to our budgets because their is misalignment of our core values and the financial goals we’re told to set.

So yes the reason you can’t stick with a budget is because you’re actually not working towards building your dream lifestyle.

Fast forward a year later, the book has now been reviewed in The New York Times. After learning of the review I was excited but seeing the review in print made me feel an emotion of joyful bliss.

I learned that a NYTimes Review of an unknown author and a book on personal finance rarely happens. In fact, hundreds if not thousands of books are submitted for review hoping it would get the attention of the editor. Well, this happened to You Only Live Once: The Roadmap to Financial Wellness and a Purposeful Life. The book was reviewed.

I still didn’t know what this truly mean. So I researched and asked friends and colleagues.

I was told that having my book reviewed in The New York Times is a game changer. It doesn’t mean I’d be an instant NYTimes Bestseller but it could increase the likelihood people would learn about the book and buy it. But I’ve also been told it adds credibility to my mission on The Road to Financial Wellness.

Since the publication of the review, I’ve been contacted by a number of organizations and news outlets interested in learning more. I’m so grateful for all that is happening.

Links: www.roadtofinanciawellness.com; www.jasonv30.sg-host.com; The New York Times Review, and Amazon.