Five Year Life – Special Sales
Five Year Life™ — Corporate & Special Sales
Practical Books for Outplacement, Career Transition, Leadership Development, Coaching, Universities, Advisors, and Organizational Programs
Strategy Defines The Destination. Tactics Move Your Feet.™
Robert Lee Goodman
What Do You Put in Someone’s Hands When Their Career — or Life Direction — Changes?
This page is written for the professional who serves people during transition.
If you work in HR, outplacement, executive coaching, financial advising, leadership development, university career services, alumni programs, EAP or employee wellbeing, workforce development, consulting, or any organizational role where people come to you when something important has changed, the practical question is usually the same:
What can we give this person that they will actually use after the meeting, webinar, coaching session, or separation conversation is over?
The first three Five Year Life™ books were designed to answer three different parts of that problem:
- Your Last Paycheck™: stabilize the financial and career disruption.
- Reset Protocol™: decide whether the old road should even be rebuilt.
- Reset Protocol Workbook™: turn reflection into written decisions, experiments, and 24-hour actions.
Each title stands alone. Together, they form a practical progression from stabilization → strategic clarity → implementation.
START A SPECIAL SALES CONVERSATION
BULK ORDERS · PROGRAM USE · CUSTOMIZATION
Why This Matters Right Now
The labor market is not moving through an ordinary hiring cycle.
During the 30-month January 2024 through June 2026 period used in Your Last Paycheck™, Bureau of Labor Statistics JOLTS data recorded roughly 50 million layoff and discharge events and nearly 100 million quit events. These are labor-turnover events, not 150 million unique individuals — some workers appear more than once — but the scale still represents approximately 150 million moments in just 30 months when a worker-employer relationship ended and somebody had to decide what came next.
Those decisions do not all represent the same problem.
Some people have been laid off, terminated, restructured out, or otherwise pushed suddenly into a financial and professional emergency. Their immediate need is stability: protect cash, benefits, credit, household runway, and the ability to survive a job search that may last much longer than expected.
Others chose to leave. Some left because the employer was wrong. Some because the role was wrong. Some because an industry had changed. Some because technology was altering the work itself. Some simply realized that the career road they had spent years building was no longer the road they wanted to keep traveling.
And behind both groups are millions more people who remain employed but are privately asking the same question:
If I spend another five years doing exactly what I am doing now, is that actually the future I want?
That is why one transition resource cannot serve every person well.
The recently separated employee may need Your Last Paycheck™ first. The successful executive questioning the next chapter may need Reset Protocol™. Someone who already understands the problem but needs a disciplined process for working through it may need the Reset Protocol Workbook™.
For the corporate buyer, coach, advisor, or program director, the advantage is not one universal prescription. It is having several tools designed for several different points in the same broader transition.
One Operating System. Three Different Jobs.
The first three Five Year Life™ books are not simply three books on related subjects. They perform three different jobs.
|
1. STABILIZE
Your Last Paycheck™ |
2. DEFINE
Reset Protocol™ |
3. IMPLEMENT
Reset Protocol Workbook™ |
The person experiencing an involuntary job loss does not need the same first intervention as the senior executive asking whether another promotion would simply deepen an existing misalignment. The person who already knows the strategic issue may not need another narrative book at all — they may need writing space and a concrete process.
That is the advantage of the operating-system approach: deploy the right component for the stage the participant is actually in.
Designed for Entry Where the Pressure Is — Not Necessarily Page One
These books are deliberately designed for readers whose attention may already be under pressure.
Your Last Paycheck™ is built from 23 self-contained Action Plans, so a reader can go directly to the issue that matters most — the first 72 hours, unemployment, housing, food security, fixed expenses, budgeting, credit, résumé, LinkedIn, the hidden job market, AI skills, or rebuilding income.
Reset Protocol™ uses The Question Picker™ and four reading paths so the reader does not have to begin at Question 1 and march through hundreds of pages before reaching the issue that matters today.
Reset Protocol Workbook™ carries that same non-linear architecture into a two-page-per-question write-in format. One question can be a complete session.
That matters in organizational programs because the books do not require every participant to consume identical material in identical order. The participant can begin with the problem that is actually present.
Where the Frameworks Came From
The books draw partly on patterns accumulated across approximately 33,000 candid, one-on-one mentoring relationships over more than four and a half decades. Many lasted for years, and some continue today.
Those relationships crossed business building, career decisions, financial pressure, leadership, reinvention, relationships, retirement, ambition, failure, recovery, and the difficult moments when several of those things collide at once.
I call the accumulated pattern recognition from that experience Compound Knowledge™.
The point is not that thousands of mentoring relationships create universal answers. They do not. The advantage is exposure to recurring questions, recurring decision patterns, recurring blind spots, and recurring tradeoffs across many different lives and circumstances.
EXPLORE COMPOUND KNOWLEDGE™
WHAT IT IS — AND WHY IT MATTERS TO YOU
The Three Core Books in Detail
Every cover below is clickable.
Read the summary first, then use the gold button at the end of each section to visit the complete reader-facing book page.
YOUR LAST PAYCHECK™
First, Financial Triage After the Layoff to Prepare You for the Job Search. Second, Mapping Your New Personalized Career Path in the Age of AI.™
Paperback $25.95 · Hardcover $54.95 · Audiobook $14.99 · Kindle $12.99
442 pages · 8.25″ x 11″ executive format · 23 self-contained Action Plans
↑ CLICK THE COVER TO VISIT THE BOOK PAGE ↑
Your Last Paycheck™ is the stabilization and AI-repositioning layer of the system.
It is designed for someone who has just lost a job, expects disruption may be coming, is supporting a household through income loss, or needs to rethink career positioning before the current role disappears underneath them.
The book begins with the immediate realities organizations often cannot address fully during a separation meeting: cash preservation, household runway, unemployment, housing, food security, fixed expenses, budgeting, credit, résumé positioning, LinkedIn, the hidden job market, AI literacy, and rebuilding income.
The 23 Action Plans let readers jump directly to the issue that is urgent now instead of requiring them to read hundreds of pages before reaching it.
A substantial portion of the book then turns forward toward the AI-transformed job market. It maps 100 emerging job and career titles across the corporate ladder and shows readers how existing experience can be combined with targeted AI skills rather than discarded.
The underlying message is important for experienced professionals:
You are not automatically starting over. You may be repositioning what you already know for a labor market that changed around you.
Best fit for: outplacement packages, separation support, EAP and employee wellbeing programs, workforce development, career centers, union transition programs, advisors whose clients are facing income disruption, and organizations that want departing employees to leave with something practical rather than another brochure.
VIEW YOUR LAST PAYCHECK™
VISIT THE COMPLETE BOOK PAGE
RESET PROTOCOL™
Beyond The Road Less Traveled: The Road Most Desired™
Paperback $27.95 · Hardcover $59.95 · Audiobook $14.99 · Kindle $12.99
466 pages · 8.25″ x 11″ executive format · 108-question core framework · 22 chapters
↑ CLICK THE COVER TO VISIT THE BOOK PAGE ↑
Reset Protocol™ is the strategic clarity layer of the operating system.
It is designed for a different problem: the person whose life may still function perfectly well on paper but who is no longer certain the road they are traveling is the road they most want.
That person may have been laid off. They may have quit voluntarily. They may still be employed, successful, highly compensated, and privately questioning whether another five years on the same trajectory is actually desirable.
The book is built around 108 carefully crafted questions. These are not 108 unrelated journal prompts. Each question has a defined purpose and is supported by framing, composite case examples, Internal Dialogue, drill-down questions, a 24-hour Action, a Hope Moment, and a Deeper Question.
The methodology is deliberately non-prescriptive. Reset Protocol™ does not tell participants whether they should quit, stay, move, retire, start a company, end a relationship, change careers, or preserve the status quo. It helps them examine evidence, assumptions, tradeoffs, constraints, priorities, and possible directions before they decide what — if anything — deserves to change.
The Question Picker™ allows the reader to enter the framework through the issue most relevant today, while four reading paths allow different levels of engagement:
- Question du Jour
- 7-Day Triage™
- 9-Month Sectional Reset™
- 108-Day Deep Reset™
That flexibility makes it especially useful inside programs where every participant arrives with a different problem.
Best fit for: leadership development, executive coaching, career transition, alumni programs, organizational change initiatives, professional associations, mid-career programs, retirement-transition programs, and high performers privately questioning their next chapter.
VIEW RESET PROTOCOL™
VISIT THE COMPLETE BOOK PAGE
RESET PROTOCOL WORKBOOK™
Beyond The Road Less Traveled: The Road Most Desired™
Paperback $20.95 · Hardcover $49.95 · Audiobook $14.99 · Kindle $12.99
271 pages · 8.25″ x 11″ executive format · 108 questions in active write-in format
↑ CLICK THE COVER TO VISIT THE WORKBOOK PAGE ↑
Reset Protocol Workbook™ is the tactical implementation layer.
It uses the same 108-question architecture as Reset Protocol™, but strips away most of the narrative material and turns the framework into a practical write-in system.
Each question occupies a two-page pair with framing, question-specific prompts, substantial writing space, a 24-hour Action, and a Stop Signal that gives the participant explicit permission to treat one honestly completed question as enough for that session.
That makes the Workbook especially well suited to organizational programs where participants need something they can use independently between meetings, coaching sessions, workshops, or program milestones.
It also stands completely on its own. An organization does not have to purchase Reset Protocol™ in order for participants to use the Workbook effectively.
For buyers managing large populations and tighter per-participant budgets, the Workbook is also the lowest-priced physical entry point among the three core operating-system titles.
Best fit for: workshops, coaching programs, university and alumni programs, outplacement and workforce programs, leadership development, offsites, facilitated reflection programs, and any environment where participants need a structured take-home tool rather than another slide deck.
VIEW RESET PROTOCOL WORKBOOK™
VISIT THE COMPLETE WORKBOOK PAGE
EFFICIENT LOVE™
I Had 1,200 First Dates So You Don’t Have To™
↑ CLICK THE COVER TO VISIT THE BOOK PAGE ↑
Efficient Love™ is not positioned as a general corporate-transition book, and I do not want to pretend that it is.
It is a candid relationship-compatibility book based on a ten-year personal search involving approximately 2 million visitors to NovelistSeeksHeroine.com, more than 15,000 serious responses, and approximately 1,200 first dates. Its methodology includes explicit discussion of sexual compatibility alongside character, values, lifestyle, and day-to-day compatibility.
That said, there are legitimate professional settings where it may fit: relationship-focused EAP programs, coaching practices, counselors, employee-wellbeing programs, or advisors whose work encompasses the full personal-life consequences of major career and identity transitions.
For most organizational programs, however, the first three books remain the primary recommendation.
VIEW EFFICIENT LOVE™
VISIT THE COMPLETE BOOK PAGE
STARK NAKED STARTUP™
Novel — Book 1 of the Stark Naked Startup™ Series
↑ CLICK THE COVER TO VISIT THE NOVEL PREVIEW PAGE ↑
Stark Naked Startup™ is not a standard HR, outplacement, or transition-program book. It is the adult fiction title in the Five Year Life™ Series: a romance-forward techno-thriller about an AI startup built around human connection, intimacy, truth, ambition, and unintended consequences.
Its most natural organizational applications are therefore specialized rather than broad: entrepreneurship and startup programs, AI and innovation communities, executive education, technology-focused book programs, adult book clubs, premium client gifting, or other settings where provocative fiction about emerging technology and human behavior fits the audience.
Because the novel includes explicit adult content, any organizational use should be deliberate and appropriate for the intended audience.
VIEW STARK NAKED STARTUP™
VISIT THE NOVEL PREVIEW PAGE
Choose the Deployment That Fits Your Program
Outplacement & Separation Support
Recommended starting point: Your Last Paycheck™
Give departing employees something practical they can use after the separation meeting ends. The book addresses immediate financial triage, household stability, job-search preparation, AI-era career repositioning, and the practical problems that appear in the days and weeks after a paycheck stops.
Organizations can optionally add the Reset Protocol Workbook™ for participants who also need a structured way to think through the direction of the next chapter.
Leadership & Talent Development
Recommended starting point: Reset Protocol™ + optional Workbook
These tools can support high performers, leaders, and executives who are not necessarily in crisis but are reassessing career direction, role fit, priorities, burnout, retirement timing, identity, or broader life architecture.
University, Graduate & Alumni Programs
Recommended starting point depends on population.
Your Last Paycheck™ fits graduating students, displaced alumni, and career-transition populations. Reset Protocol™ and the Workbook may be more appropriate for mid-career alumni, executive education, professional programs, or participants reassessing the next phase of work and life.
Coaches, Advisors & Professional-Service Firms
Books can be provided as client resources, onboarding tools, between-session work, or thoughtful client gifts. Unlike a branded notebook or promotional item, the usefulness of the book does not depend on the client remembering who gave it to them every day. If they keep using it, the association remains naturally.
Workshops, Retreats & Offsites
The Reset Protocol Workbook™ is especially useful when participants need private structured reflection before group discussion. Participants can keep their answers private while still using the same question architecture across the program.
Retail Pricing & the 500-Copy Special-Sales Threshold
These are unusually large-format books. Your Last Paycheck™ is currently 442 pages. Reset Protocol™ is currently 466 pages in Microsoft Word while final production pagination remains subject to manuscript freeze. The Reset Protocol Workbook™ is 271 pages. All three use the unified 8.25″ x 11″ executive format.
That matters economically. Large trim size, high page counts, binding, handling, and shipping create materially different manufacturing economics from a standard 6″ x 9″ trade paperback.
Meaningful publisher-direct bulk pricing begins at qualifying orders of 500 or more books, with a minimum of 200 copies per individual title and format within a mixed order.
At qualifying volume, publisher-direct manufacturing and custom pricing become practical. Shipping, tax where applicable, customization, inserts, and special handling are quoted separately.
For programs below the 500-copy threshold, normal retail purchasing may remain the most economical option. We are still happy to help you decide which title and format best fit the program.
You do not need to solve the economics before contacting us. Tell us the population, purpose, approximate quantity, and timing. We can discuss the most sensible path from there.
Customization Options for Qualifying Orders
Depending on volume, timing, manufacturing method, and program requirements, qualifying orders may include discussion of:
- Publisher-direct bulk pricing
- Single-location or distributed shipping
- Optional organization-specific insert pages with program resources, benefits contacts, support links, or next steps
- Brief sponsor acknowledgment presented in a reader-first rather than promotional style
- Program-specific bundling of two or three titles
- Recurring-program arrangements for organizations with continuing demand
- Licensed internal printing discussions for very large recurring deployments where appropriate
The governing principle is simple:
Protect reader trust first.
The usefulness of these books depends on the person receiving them believing that the material exists to help them — not to turn their transition into another corporate marketing channel.
What to Include in a Special Sales Inquiry
You do not need a formal RFP. A short email is enough.
- Which title or titles interest you
- Your approximate quantity
- The population you are serving
- How you expect the books to be used
- Your desired timing
- Whether books ship to one location or many
- Any customization or insert-page idea
- Your organization and direct contact information
START THE CONVERSATION
SPECIALSALES@FIVEYEARLIFE.COM
Every inquiry is handled personally.
No automated sales funnel. No call center.
A Final Thought for the Organization Making the Purchase
There is a difference between giving someone information and giving them something they can still use after the program ends.
A departing employee may forget most of a separation presentation. A coaching participant may never reopen a slide deck. A leader may walk out of an offsite inspired and return Monday morning to exactly the same calendar.
A book that stays on the desk has a different life.
It can be reopened three days later when a new problem appears. It can be marked up. It can be revisited months later. A spouse can read it. A coach can reference it. A question that meant nothing in October can suddenly matter in March.
That is what these books are designed to become: durable tools rather than one-time content.
If that is the kind of resource you want to put into people’s hands, I would be glad to talk with you.
Thanks,
Robert
Robert Lee Goodman, MBA
CEO and Publisher, Good-Man LLC
Founder and Author, Five Year Life™ Series
44X Founder · Rocket Scientist ·
Four and a Half Decades of Mentoring ·
Chief Dragonslayer™ — Business & Love ·
Novelist Who Successfully Found His Heroine™
P.S. — If you’ve ever wondered what approximately 1,200 first dates, more than 15,000 serious responses, and a ten-year personal quest ultimately produced, there is a page on this site you probably should not miss. It is the real backstory behind Efficient Love™, the original NovelistSeeksHeroine.com experiment, and the decade that eventually led to the one woman I asked to marry.
THE STORY BEHIND NOVELIST SEEKS HEROINE™
READ THE 10-YEAR BACKSTORY BEHIND EFFICIENT LOVE™
P.P.S. — The frameworks behind these books grew in part from approximately 33,000 candid, one-on-one mentoring relationships over more than four and a half decades. Many lasted years, and some continue today. The accumulated perspective from those relationships is what I call Compound Knowledge™.
EXPLORE COMPOUND KNOWLEDGE™
WHAT IT IS — AND WHY IT MATTERS TO YOU