You climbed your mountain and achieved success, yet feel restless. What now?
Jackie P. Lyons is a former CFO, board advisor, and a pioneer across finance, technology, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence, with a career defined by firsts. She was among the first to implement SAP in the US, and she later played a pivotal role in one of the largest regulatory mandates in a generation, one that reshaped how the world's largest companies report revenue, guiding global organizations through the transition.
She has served as an expert witness and testified before the SEC, and built a Fortune 500 CFO advisory practice from the ground up. She went on to become a first with a specialty as a Cyber CFO, and is now an early adopter of artificial intelligence in the finance profession. Her career spans Fortune 25 to Fortune 500 companies, where she built a reputation for anticipating and developing skills, technology, and risks.
That same instinct led her to write Beyond Ambition: What Now?.
After decades spent staying ahead of the curve professionally, Jackie turned her attention to a question she couldn't ignore in her own life: What comes after you've achieved everything you set out to achieve? The answer became Adjacent Growth™, her framework for designing a fulfilling next chapter, and the foundation of this book.
Book Title: Beyond Ambition: What Now? Designing Life After Success
Genre: Business Mentoring and Coaching
Website: jackieplyons.com
Hey, Jackie! Thanks for chatting with us. Can you start by sharing what inspired you to write this book?
Who guides you in life after you have reached your summit? You are financially prepared, yet you do not know your next purpose. Most people looking for their next chapter ask this question: What Now? I searched high and low for a book on what comes after the career. It did not exist, so I wrote it.
Why was now the right time to share this idea?
Picture the last week of December. The final guest is gone, the decorations are put away. The new year is right around the corner. That is the hour when the big questions finally hit us, the ones we have been too busy to contemplate: What now?
I wanted Beyond Ambition: What Now? in your hands when that day arrived. It took me six months from concept to launch, at a pace few books ever see. It had to be ready before the holidays, so you can start the new year with a purposeful direction.
Who would you say must read this book?
If you want more out of life and are looking for purpose in your next chapter, this book is for you.
What would you say the top 3 things are that someone will learn from Beyond Ambition: What Now?
Beyond Ambition: What Now? is rich with stories, from arriving under the cover of darkness as federal investigators secured a failed financial institution to floating in the open ocean alongside a humpback whale and her calf. Each lesson is earned through a real moment, so readers see the ideas in action.
- Why “what now” is a different, harder question than “what’s next,” and how to finally answer it. Success is like a mountain range, not a single summit, and it reveals something about your purpose.
- Adjacent Growth™: the framework for adding one new capability rather than starting over. It comes with a concrete practice for staying in growth mode, with new skills deliberately chosen, every year.
- The three scorecards of success, and the one almost nobody learns to measure. You will also see why community needs to be built by design, long before you need it.
Can you tell us a bit about the writing process?
The entire book was written and then rewritten because it was all tell and no show, or as we say in Texas, all hat and no cattle. It was the best feedback I received, yet ill-timed. I went back through my life for the real moments that bring to life each lesson, from the aroma of well-oiled guns inside a failed financial institution, arriving under the cover of darkness as federal agents secured it, to floating beside a humpback whale and her calf, and rebuilt every chapter with a story.
Along the way, I learned how to write a hook. I used artificial intelligence as a thought partner, since learning it was one of my two new goals that year, and I wrote much of the book at sea on a writing retreat during an Alaska Inside Passage expedition. The whole process took six months, and the art of the hook is used in my daily life now.
What was one of the biggest challenges you faced during that process?
Hooks, hooks, and more hooks. After decades of expertise, I knew the lessons downpat, but knowing something and making a stranger care about it by the second sentence are completely different skills. Every chapter, every section, and every opening line had to earn the next page. I drafted openings continuing to add more and more details, looking for that show that would pull a reader in, whether it was a failed financial institution at night or a humpback whale in open water.
Every opening had to answer one question: why would a stranger turn the page? Some of the best comments I have received on the book are about my stories that keep people engaged and wanting to hear more. This was a brand new skill for me.
What was one of your favorite parts of the process?
My favorite part of the entire process was the launch parties, where I felt so much encouragement from everyone in the room. At each event, three individuals read story excerpts aloud, and guests told me the readings were their favorite part of the evening. Many had expected a boring business book and had no idea how engaging the book would actually be.
Stopping in the midst of each story left them wanting more, and watching people lean in and clamor to purchase their own copy was the best proof that the hooks work. Seeing guests stand in line for an autograph was more than I could have ever dreamed.
What are your plans for the future with this book and/or your business?
Bringing the key lessons of Beyond Ambition: What Now? to the main stage is my next goal. This will add a new topic to my speaking on finance, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence. It is exciting to add Adjacent Growth™, life as a mountain range, the three scorecards of success, and community by design to that list.
Connect with Jackie Lyons: jackieplyons.com
Has Jackie’s story inspired you to share your own? Learn more about the book writing support, editing services, book coaching, and more she received as a part of the Author Advantage Accelerator Elite Program? Schedule a consultation today or take the quiz above to find the right program for you and your book!
Other related selfpublishing.com articles:
