Ged Cusack, Financial Education & Inspiration Author
Ged Cusack, an expert in business, spends the majority of his days writing books to empower readers. Through his words, he is able to offer the tools for readers to become successful operators of profitable businesses. And it all started with free advice to help friends.
Cusack: Throughout all of my careers and ventures, I have been interested in seeing others succeed. I try to live by the old Zig Ziglar quote: You will get all you want in life if you help enough people get what they want.
My previous frustrations in coaching have been:
• The people that I coached were less interested in their success than I was (which wasn’t great for me).
• Lots of clients were short of funds, so I worked a lot for free.
• My time was limited, so I couldn’t help as many people as I would have liked.
He created the time to help others by becoming a full-time author.
Cusack submerges himself deep into subjects for research, absorbing the information he learns to produce helpful how-to books. His persistence has resulted in five Non-Fiction books and he is currently putting the finishing touches on his sixth book, whilst he starts on his first Fiction series.
A fan of Sci-Fi fiction, Cusack says, “I want to write the books that I want to read. I have the idea and the framework for a post-apocalyptic series of books and I think it’s time to get (them) out. I have several characters already fleshed out but I am currently working on the geography of the landscape.” His characters will have a strong will to survive. “…they come from varied backgrounds and it is their ability to overcome tough circumstances that makes them special.”
Interviewer: Which actor/actress would you like to see playing the lead character of your fiction book and Why?
Cusak: Idris Elba. The character is a gay man who starts off very selfish and then transitions to become one of the heroes. I think Idris would bring great depth to the character.
So who is this business guru? Ged Cusack has lived in several countries over his 53 years of living. Canada, Cyprus, Germany are just a few that he named. For 22-years of his life, he was in the British military and once retired, he moved to New Zealand in 2004. After that date, his skills set the precedent for his life. Cusack became a business coach, derivatives trader, and spent five years managing earthquake repairs in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Interviewer: When did you decide to become a writer?
Cusack: I started writing by accident. About 30 months ago, I'd finished working in post-Earthquake Christchurch (NZ) house repairs and was sick of the negative atmosphere. I decided to take a new direction and investigated Amazon selling. I immersed myself in e-commerce and started off doing okay. After months of continually sitting down with friends for coffees and telling them how to build an Amazon business, (and sending them instructions) I realized that helping my friends was taking up too much time. The only solution seemed to write it into a book. FBA, Building an Amazon Business, A Beginner’s Guide was born and was published in August 2016.
Since that time, Cusack’s author’s portfolio has increased to include the following titles:
Cusack continues, “Whenever I find something I’m interested in, I immerse myself and look to condense the information down (for others to easily understand). My fiction ideas come from a lifetime of reading that genre.”
Last year, Cusack retired three of his websites that did not meet his requirements. At the end of 2017, he completed his new author’s website. The site is in its early stages but already includes several blog posts. The posts are focused on useful information related to Freedom Businesses and Indie Publishing.
Over the next five years, he plans to create a business dedicated to writing. As he sets out on his fiction writing career, he’s also completing a book on the key elements required to successfully publishing a book on KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing).
Cusack’s tips for overcoming the dreadful writer's block come from the writing coach within him. He says, “If you want to write, then write, if you want to find excuses not to, then you will.” He states that there are never enough hours in the day to do all that he wants to do, but the one thing he doesn’t include in his day is to make excuses.
Ged spends a minimum of 3 days writing and 2 days on administration and marketing. “These are interchangeable depending on where I am with a book. I am most productive after about 10 a.m. but I can write at any time of day. Evenings are mainly reading (sometimes for books I’m going to review).” He’s intending to increase his writing rate in an effort to complete the projects he’s currently working on over the next nine months.
To produce his work, Ged relies on his faithful laptops and an older version of Dragon dictation software. He’s training the software to understand his Yorkshire accent to speed up his word production. He also dictates ideas while taking walks.
Ged spends time away from the computer practicing Wing Chun, going for walks in the woods near his home and catching up with friends. He also finds baking therapeutic but says he has to give the baked goods away to stop himself from ballooning. “I am currently involved in a couple of ventures with other people, including e-commerce and a health and safety consulting business.”
When Cusack was asked to choose his favorite book and why that book is his favorite of all the many others he’s read, he answered this way, “Asking a serial reader to choose just one book is just mean. I love Victor Frankl's, Man’s Search for Meaning, as it helps to put things into perspective.”
His favorite quote is: Whether you think you can, or you think you can't—you're right. ~ Henry Ford. And to the aspiring writers, he offers the following thought. “You have to stay positive and motivated and have a strong WHY. You will hit speed bumps, but keep going.” He follows that up with an appropriate motivational phrase. “Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goals.”
In Ged’s conclusion, he said the following. “I have only been a published author for about eighteen months and I sometimes feel a bit of a fraud but I console myself (in believing) that people must like my books, or they wouldn’t buy them.”
Ged Cusack can be found through any of the links below:
