There’s Someone I Want You To Meet. (LAC Book Review and a Free Book Giveaway!)

I want to set up a match.

You know, a little blind date. The one where your friends find someone for you that they KNOW is perfect for you.

Yes, you.

I want you to meet Jenny.

ABOUT YOU.

YOU: are insanely talented, fresh out of college or somewhere a few years into a job (or maybe you’re transitioning to a new career), and you are deftly maneuvering your way through inordinate learning curves and figuring out what life entails post-school.

Perhaps you feel as though your potential has barely been tapped, that there’s something unsettling about your current situation. Maybe your job isn’t quite the right fit. Maybe you tap your feet at the end of the day, itching for more to do, Maybe you’re not satisfied yet with the status quo and you want more. You know you want to figure out your life and your game plan, but you’re just not sure how.

You are somewhat stressed from time to time, wondering how to figure it all out. Perhaps you’re sometimes in need of a hug (I won’t tell anyone).

As with most people, parts of your life are amazing, but you need some help figuring out the other stuff. (Hello, Budget – what are you?). When your friends talk about 401K’s and BMW’s, you think, Holy Shit, I have debt – will I ever make it? Or perhaps you’re just unsure about making new friends and you’ve moved to a new city and you’re not sure what’s next.

What is next?

Have you figured out your own road map?

MEET JENNY.

About Jenny: Jenny’s story is pretty well-known (it’s really hard for famous people to actually go on blind dates, after all), but if you haven’t met her yet, start here.  If we describe her in words, let’s put a few big ones up there: Googler. Entrepreneur. Author. Friend. Personal-Development Guru. Cupcake Fanatic. Yoga Teacher. Vegas Heartthrob. (What? Who said that?). Yes, that’s right. She’s a Googler and Author who also takes Vegas by storm, her book and highlighter tucked away somewhere in her wonder-woman outfit and killer heels.

Jenny is a rockstar of our generation, and the author of a well-known blog, Life After College.  And now, she’s the author of a book by the same name: Life After College: The Complete Guide to Getting What You Want. (Available on Amazon – launching March 29).  To read the story of the book development and Jenny’s documentation of writing, pitching, editing, and publishing a book, check our the book website, LAC Book.) And check out the book trailer if you care to.

WHY I THINK YOU’D BE A GOOD FIT.

Okay, but let’s focus on this date I want to set you up on.

When life hands you the hard stuff, what do you do?

Jenny Blake makes cupcakes. Actually, she’ll do more than give you a cupcake. She’ll give you a worksheet, cheer you on by the sidelines, dig deep for the good stuff, and then hand you a cupcake at the end with oodles of frosting that’s inevitably decorated as one-of-a-kind, just for you.

THIS BOOK IS YOUR PORTABLE LIFE COACH. This isn’t a book or a manual – it’s a friend in your pocket. Jenny’s heart and soul – and intricately connected network around the world – is layered in bite-sized information that’s enriching, captivating, and more importantly, eminently approachable. Jenny pulls you into her book by virtually sitting down at a cafe with you, chatting with you and making you feel right at home within the first few pages. The book weaves her stories and anecdotes with powerful (but beguilingly simple) templates, tips, tricks and tools for you to use to start changing your life – right now.

YOU DON’T NEED TO GO TO COLLEGE TO READ HER BOOK.  she could just title her blog “Life and everything in between,” and you’d probably find something you liked. A hundred somethings. Life After College is basically just Life. Anyone looking for guidance, coaching, or advice in creating the next big steps in life should check out this book.

THE LIFE PATH. For people in college and earlier, the life checklist is actually fairly straightforward. Go to school. Attend classes and do assignments. Make friends, maybe join some clubs.  At 16, you get your license. As a senior in high school, you apply to colleges or get a job. As college winds down, you collect your accolades, craft your resume, and crank your way through some interviews. And try to land a job.

And then what? For many – if not almost everyone – the life checklist sort of fades after we finally “get a job.”  We’ve made our lists up until this point, and then the list gets fuzzy.  For some people, they know they want to “move up” the career ladder, but they’re not sure how to do it – or, after they’ve worked for a while, why they want to do it at all.  Other people want to get married, have kids, — but this too, is something seemingly unattainable and dramatically harder in practice than in theory.

AFTER COLLEGE IS HARD. If you’re a twenty-something and you’re struggling through your first or second job, floundering in figuring out what you want to do, and generally having a lot of trouble making it through what was supposed to be ‘the best years of your life.’ – don’t worry.  You’re not alone.

Once we extricate ourselves from the cushy educational systems that provide for us, once we flee the nest and leave our parent’s homes, there isn’t really a good rulebook or toolkit that tells you how to get things done and where to go next. After college, there’s just an uncharted path, and not much in the way of support or guidance. Many people stumble along the way, overwhelmed by the enormity of all there is to figure out: from money (how much do I make? where does it go? how do I save? what should I spend it on?) to friends (wait, we don’t all live together anymore!) to the “big picture” of your life (what are my goals? what are my values? who do I want to be?) .

So, insert Jenny. Life After College – both the blog and the book – give you organized, practical tips and tricks for navigating your way through Life after college, and figuring out the steps you need to take to master money, happiness, friends, career, among many other ideas.

AND THE BEST THING? YOU CAN WRITE IN THE BOOK. It’s been many years (for me) since I graduated college, but I found myself writing all over the book as soon as I got it, filling out the notes and ideas I had for my life and realizing how much this organization system can apply to anyone, at anytime. Jenny’s next move should be making a set of books that records these processes over time – so that I can do these exercises every few years and map my progress over time! The book is easy to use because it is so wonderfully organized – and you can start from anywhere, reading whatever chapter calls out to you.

SO GO ON A FIRST DATE. (And the Giveaway!)

And by first date, I mean, read her book. Take the book out to lunch (What did you think I meant?) To make it easier, I’m giving a free copy of the book away to a lucky reader, to be randomly selected on April 3, 2011.

Here’s how you enter: Leave a comment before April 2, 2011, with the answer to one of the following questions:

What was the hardest moment for you after college?

If you could do ONE BIG THING in the next 2 years to change your life, what would you do and why would you do it?