Lessons from the People Who Paid me (and the Ones Who Didn't)

 

Lessons from the People Who Paid me

(and the Ones Who Didn't):

A Field Guide to People Who Will Make or Break Your Brand

Lessons from the People Who Paid Me (and the Ones Who Didn't): A Field Guide to People Who Will Make or Break Your Brand by Ricka Raga is a 2026 best-selling guide focusing on the hidden dynamics of client management, brand strategy, and the realities of running a creative or service-based business.Raga, a brand strategist with over 13 years of experience, shares raw, actionable insights on, recognizing patterns, setting boundaries, and building a sustainable business.

The book is aimed at creatives, freelancers, consultants, and founders looking to move beyond surface-level business advice and build a sustainable brand.

What if the biggest lessons in your business did not come from your best clients, but from the ones who tested your limits?

In Lessons from the People Who Paid Me (and the Ones Who Didn’t), brand strategist Ricka Raga reveals what really happens behind client work. This is a direct look at patterns, mistakes, and hard earned clarity that no course or certification can teach.

This is not a book about getting more clients.
It is about understanding them.

Through real world experience working with businesses across industries, Ricka breaks down the hidden dynamics that shape every project. Some clients move your business forward. Others quietly drain your time, energy, and margins. The difference is not luck. It is pattern recognition and structure.

You will learn how to recognize recurring client archetypes, build systems that protect your business, and shift from reactive execution to strategic authority.

This book challenges the traditional narrative of freelancing and creative work. It moves beyond aesthetics, beyond hustle, and beyond surface level advice. It focuses on what actually builds a sustainable and scalable business.

Inside, you will discover:

• Why experience is about pattern recognition, not time
• How weak boundaries quietly destroy your business
• The real reason beautiful brands fail to generate revenue
• How to filter clients before they cost you time and money
• Why systems, not talent, drive long term growth
• The mindset shift required to move from service provider to authority

Written with clarity and conviction, this book is for creatives, freelancers, consultants, and founders who are ready to stop guessing and start operating with intention.

If you have ever been underpaid, overworked, or stuck in projects that never should have started, this book will change how you see your business and the people you choose to build it with.

Because in the end, your success is not just defined by what you do.
It is defined by who you allow in.

Click here to get

Lessons from the People Who Paid me

(and the Ones Who Didn't)

on Amazon / Kindle 

ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE: The Handbook For Managers and A/R Department ACCOUNTS PAYABLE: THE HANDBOOK FOR MANAGERS AND A/P DEPARTMENT

ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE: The Handbook For Managers and A/R Department

ACCOUNTS PAYABLE: THE HANDBOOK FOR MANAGERS AND A/P DEPARTMENT 

ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE:

The Handbook For Managers and A/R Department

"Accounts Receivable: The Handbook for Managers and A/R Department" by Dr. Lester G. Reid is a comprehensive guide designed for professionals involved in managing accounts receivable (AR) processes. This handbook aims to enhance the efficiency, accuracy, and compliance of AR departments, thereby supporting organizational financial health. It covers fundamental AR concepts, the complete AR process, and the importance of timely collections and precise record-keeping. The book emphasizes training and development, technology integration, compliance, and internal controls, offering practical advice and strategies for optimizing AR operations. With a focus on continuous improvement and leveraging modern technologies, this handbook is an indispensable resource for both seasoned managers and those new to the field, providing essential tools to master the complexities of accounts receivable in today's dynamic business environment.

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ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE:

The Handbook For Managers and A/R Department

on Amazon / Kindle/ Audiobook

Queen of the Island: A True Story of France and The Early Settlement of Canada by Glenn Stewart Coles

  

Queen of the Island:

A True Story of France and The Early Settlement of Canada

by Glenn Stewart Coles

The true story of Margeurite Roberval (nicknamed Daisy) has been told for almost five hundred years. When eighteen-year-old Daisy is forced to sail from France to Canada in 1541, her secret lover gets a job as a settler and follows along. When their affair is discovered, Daisy, her lover and her handmaiden are abandoned on a remote island on the Saint Lawrence River. Facing brutal winters, starvation, predatory beasts, and despair, the three must summon courage, ingenuity, and unbreakable bonds to survive.

Meticulously researched, Queen of the Island plunges readers into the intrigues of Renaissance France. It unveils King Francis I’s hidden motives for sending Cartier westward, the royal court that sealed Daisy’s fate, her surprising influence among the powerful, and the astonishing events awaiting her upon an improbable return home.

Click here to get Queen of the Island on Amazon / Kindle 

    

The Algorithm of Us

Maya Lin believes in data—not destiny. As the lead algorithm engineer behind HeartSpark, the world’s most successful dating app, her entire job revolves around proving that love can be measured, calculated, and optimized. But after a humiliating breakup goes viral, her company’s reputation—and her confidence—take a devastating hit, leaving Maya convinced that love, at least for her, is something better solved with science than trust. Enter Eli Torres, charismatic host of the internet’s favorite podcast, The Anti-Love Experiment. His mission? Prove dating apps manipulate emotions and ruin authentic relationships. And HeartSpark is his No. 1 target. When Eli launches a public challenge encouraging listeners to date without algorithms, HeartSpark panics. To repair the company’s reputation, Maya is forced to work closely with Eli—publicly and professionally—putting the face behind the algorithm directly in the path of its loudest critic. What begins as damage control quickly becomes something more personal, especially as Maya starts to realize she may have miscalculated him—and love itself. Only one problem: Maya didn’t expect Eli to be funny. Or thoughtful. Or devastatingly sincere. Or someone she could fall for—fast, when falling is the one variable she’s sworn never to risk again. As they navigate bookstore meet-cutes, awkward “old-fashioned” dates, and viral challenge videos, the chemistry between them becomes impossible to ignore. But the closer they get, the heavier Maya’s secret becomes… and the more terrifying the idea of losing Eli feels, because when he fully understands who she is and what she represents, the fallout threatens everything—her career, his platform, and the fragile belief that love might be more than data after all. In a world where love is automated, what happens when two people choose to follow their hearts instead? Perfect for fans of The Love Hypothesis, The Soulmate Equation, and The Unhoneymooners, The Algorithm of Us is a hilarious, heart-squeezing, slow-burn romance about modern dating, second chances, and the magic that can’t be calculated.

Click here to get The Algorithm of Us

on Amazon Paperback

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on Amazon Kindle

A Different Approach on the Skills of Life

 

A Different Approach 

on the Skills of Life

By Leatrice D. Williams

What if the most important lessons in school were not only found in textbooks, but in the everyday choices that prepare young people for life beyond the classroom?

A Different Approach on the Skills of Life by Leatrice D. Williams opens the door to a curriculum built from more than three decades of teaching experience, community involvement, and a deep concern for how students grow as thinkers, citizens, and future professionals. This is not a traditional academic guide focused only on grades, tests, and classroom routines. It is a practical world of mock interviews, student portfolios, entrepreneurship projects, character education, public speaking, financial awareness, career exploration, teamwork, conflict resolution, and real-world readiness.

At its center is the belief that education should feel alive. A classroom can become a business trade show, a food truck competition, a career convention, a debate floor, a portfolio showcase, or a place where students learn how to speak, dress, listen, lead, apologize, and think with purpose. Leatrice’s approach brings “old school” fundamentals and modern life skills together, reminding educators that reading, writing, arithmetic, manners, character, and critical thinking still matter in a world shaped by technology and artificial intelligence.

The book carries the atmosphere of a busy, creative classroom where students are not passive learners but participants in their own future. They are asked to reflect on values, make decisions, solve problems, build confidence, and imagine the lives they want to pursue. The curriculum also responds to the social and emotional impact of the pandemic, recognizing that students may need renewed guidance in cooperation, attention, communication, and healthy interaction.

What makes this work stand out is its moral urgency. It asks educators to consider whether students are truly being prepared for life—or simply moved from one grade level to the next. The dilemma is clear: should education remain confined to academic instruction, or should it also teach young people how to function with integrity, independence, creativity, and respect in the real world?

Rooted in classroom experience and shaped by the Foundations program, A Different Approach on the Skills of Life presents education as preparation for more than a report card. It is preparation for interviews, careers, relationships, service, leadership, responsibility, and self-belief.

The final lesson is simple: when students are given practical skills, moral guidance, and room to discover their potential, the classroom becomes a foundation for life.

Click here to get A Different Approach  on the Skills of Life

on Amazon

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on Barnes & Noble

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LeatriceDWilliams/

The Apathetical Man

 

The Apathetical Man 

By Gregory M. McLeod

Imagine waking up inside your own life and realizing you have been moving through it without truly understanding why you are suffering, choosing, or even surviving.

The Apathetical Man unfolds as a deeply personal spiritual reckoning shaped by pain, addiction, mental illness, and a desperate search for meaning. Its world is not built from fantasy landscapes or external spectacle, but from rehab rooms, inner battles, prayers uttered at the edge of collapse, and the long, difficult road back from self-destruction. The atmosphere is raw and confessional, filled with the urgency of someone who has looked at his own life and understood that change is no longer optional. Early on, the narrator frames life itself as a matter of “understanding,” then ties that idea to a near-death confrontation with addiction and the need to choose a different path before it is too late.

A powerful, soul-baring testimony of redemption, The Apathetical Man reveals how understanding, faith, and grace can transform even the most broken life.

At the center of the book is a relentless question: what happens when a man has spent years numbing himself, only to discover that numbness is its own kind of spiritual death? The pages move through themes of grace, endurance, surrender, temptation, discipline, and rebirth, creating the sense of a testimony that is also a call to action. Again and again, the book returns to one recurring framework—chance, choice, and change—not as abstract ideas, but as forces that shape whether a life keeps falling apart or begins to be rebuilt.

What makes this work stand out is the way it treats apathy not as laziness, but as a soul-level crisis. This is a book concerned with what happens when self-will becomes a trap, when pain isolates, and when understanding becomes the difference between living and slowly disappearing. It speaks most directly to readers who know what it means to feel stuck inside their own habits, their own wounds, or their own silence, and who are willing to ask whether surrender might be the first real step toward healing. The dedication itself broadens that reach, extending the book’s burden and compassion toward those struggling with addiction, mental illness, and the families carrying that weight with them.

Sometimes the first miracle is not escape, but finally caring enough to change.

Click here to get The Apathetical Man  on Amazon / Kindle 

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MANUFACTURED MINDS: The Invisible Architecture of Algorithmic Control and the Art of Opting Out

  

MANUFACTURED MINDS:

The Invisible Architecture of Algorithmic Control and the Art of Opting Out

They didn't target your child's attention. They targeted the window before your child could defend it.

Internal documents unsealed in 2026 reveal how major platforms segment children by "age of acquisition" — tracking lifetime revenue projections that are three to five times higher for children captured before age ten. Their internal term for these children is not "users."

It is native integrations.

Your child wasn't exposed to the algorithm. Your child was installed by it. Before identity formed. Before the prefrontal cortex could push back. Before you knew there was a window — and that the window was closing.

Screen time limits don't work. The platforms' own suppressed research proves it: by month six, restrictions return usage to within five percent of baseline. The parental controls weren't built to protect your child. They were built to protect the platform from the appearance of not protecting your child.

Manufactured Minds gives you what the platforms spent billions making sure you'd never have:

• The truth about the "installation window" — and how to close it before the machine opens it
• Age-adapted protocols for every stage: Foundations (4–9), Awakening (10–13), Sovereignty (14–17)
• The Cognitive Immune System — the one capacity the algorithm's entire business model depends on your child never developing
• The Family Freedom Compass — a shared household tool that turns your liberation into theirs
• The Algorithm Spotter, the Choice Game, the Maker Hour, and the Identity Journal — practices that build minds the feed cannot predict

You started this book reaching for your phone. You will finish it reaching for your child's hand.

The platforms called your children native integrations.

This book turns them into native immunities.

K. R. Strand — Researcher, rebel, and survivor of the attention economy.

Your thoughts aren't yours anymore. They're predicted, shaped, and sold — every scroll, pause, and hesitation harvested to keep you hooked, divided, and compliant. Platforms don't recommend content. They engineer your reality. And they're terrified you'll notice. Manufactured Minds is the book that makes you notice — then hands you the escape keys.

THIS IS NOT ANOTHER BOOK ABOUT SCREEN TIME. Every chapter answers the question the previous one planted. Every exercise compounds. By the final page, you won't have merely read about opting out — you'll have performed your own escape.

Click here to get MANUFACTURED MINDS

on Amazon / Kindle