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PUBLIC RELATIONS
Thursday 30th August 2018

There's more to midlife than a crisis

To mark the release of his first book, Zude PR’s David Sawyer guest blogs for Influence on why it’s never too late to change the path you’re on. And that buying his book will show you how.

In October 2017, I took the plunge and started planning a book.

Ten months of more-than full-time book-producing later, this week I published RESET: How to Restart Your Life and get F.U. Money (The unconventional early retirement plan for midlife careerists who want to be happy.)

All very well you might think, why should I care?

Allow me to make a case.

If you’re a senior PR aged 35 to 60, this book is for you. It’s for all salaried midlife professionals who have seen their joie de vivre wane as their responsibilities, salaries and stress levels have increased. But it’s particularly applicable to PRs and marketers who’ve seen their jobs transform before their eyes over the past 10 years.

When I first started thinking about RESET in 2015, the working title was: “How to Conquer your Digital Fear: a Handbook for Senior PRs”. And you’ll notice that the second section is all about future-proofing your career by taking advantage of the opportunities that digital has to offer. Sound like something you could do with?

Part story, part practical guide, RESET draws on the experiences and research of hundreds of academics, philosophers, PRs, Nobel Prize-winners, actors, Olympic athletes, self-help authors, investors and personal finance experts. I guarantee it’s like no other book you’ve ever read.

Here’s what you’ll get if you read RESET:

  • An idea of what you were put on this earth to do.
  • Increased happiness, purpose and meaning.
  • A practical plan to future-proof your career.
  • A way to declutter your life, so you’re able to see and think clearly again.
  • A fully-costed route to financial independence (you can call it early retirement if you like).
  • A system to manage your finances; and…
  • An investing plan that will knock your socks off and explain how you can ‘get rich slowly’.

You see, for something that ain’t life and death, PR is a tough job, consistently rated one of the top 10 most stressful in the world. Like many professions, it’s one where a commitment to excellence and career advancement can lead to neglect of the most important things in life: us and our nearest and dearest. This book’s about taking a step back, reassessing what’s important and forging a new future, very similar to the old one, but this time you’ll have a plan.

Yes, well, I guess I would say this. I’ve spent 10 months pouring my heart and soul into a passion project (after my own six-year “reset”) and have a book to flog. Don’t believe me? Check out the 28 reviews on Amazon, which have blown me away this week or find out more about RESET here. Paperback and Kindle versions can be bought here.

For this week only, the Kindle version (you can read it on a smartphone with the free Kindle app) is at an introductory price of £2.95, the cost of an overpriced latte.

Lastly, if you read RESET and carry out its recommendations, within a year, you will have transformed your future. It’s never too late. There is always another way. You are the master of your fate: you (and no-one else) are the captain of your soul.

David Sawyer (45) is a United Nations award-winning PR man and 2:40 marathoner. He lives in Glasgow with his wife, Rachel, young kids (Zak and Jude) and pet - Hamsterdam. Owner of Zude PR, RESET is his first book.