Jennifer Lancaster of Australia has published five books (Marketing, Money Mindset) based on her own learning. With experience in editing and designing books, Jennifer found her calling by servicing authors and creating a self-publishing course for business-oriented authors called Book Creation Success.
Please briefly describe your latest book.
It is Creative Ways with Money, a mix of stories, exercises and tips that help someone through the mire of making money and investing it.
What motivated you to write it?
The book started with my fascination for how unqualified salespeople tend to “smoke and mirror” us – just as I was back in 1996 in an off-market stocks scam. My prime example is Bradley Cooper, whose undue influence took down a huge insurance company (HIH) in Australia’s largest corporate collapse.
What is the central theme? What motivated you to explore this?
The theme is to take control and realise the influences preventing you from wealth. I realised early on that good people were investing in dodgy real estate deals, fake crypto and phony investment offers, to the tune of $126 million a year (which shot up again in 2021).
Along with sales psychology tricks, the dark underside of the contractor economy is discussed. I talk about the stark difference between what companies promise their delivery drivers, for example, and what they are really paid for their time. I warn against putting time into MLM companies, with startling facts about it.
The more positive side of the taking control theme is making your own side hustle, so we go through the steps of that, starting with the Ikigai diagram – or reason for being. Our own business gives us a more level playing field.
How has your background influenced your writing? To what extent does your own life influence your writing?
My interest in getting money to work for me rather than me working for money is one major influence. It seemed impossible with my first entries into investing in stocks!
My first ebook was about kicking Bad Spending Habits, which is the first step in wealth creation! Also, the sheer audacity of scammers and liars really get my goat.
With my marketing tips book, running a business necessitated looking at free forms of marketing and copywriting for conversion.
Can you take us through the process of writing a book? What do you do first?
I normally take a key concept and make a mind map, then a run-down of chapters. In this case though, I started writing a book about scams and then decided I would broaden it and add about critical thinking so it would be more helpful to the average reader.
What was the most challenging part of writing your latest book?
Keeping to a theme and making it hang together. The use of story and psychological principles and helpful tips can be too disparate – I should have given up, but I’m stubborn. I persisted through editing it, thanks to two beta readers.
How did you come up with the title?
Creative Ways with Money refers to both the bad kind of creative (which we want to avoid on sight) and the good kind of creative – which we want to embrace.
What other books and authors have inspired you?
I loved Mark Victor Hansen books: One-Minute Millionaire, and books by Michael Yardney (wealth through real estate). They inspire me to think differently.
Which of your books are you most proud of?
I am most proud of Creative Ways with Money, because of the unique examples and learnings for the everyday battler.