I am very happy to be able to participate in Linda Dessau’s blog book tour for the launch of her book, The Customizable Style Guide for Coaches Who Write: Look Smarter, Write Faster and Get Better Results from Your Writing.

I wanted to share with my readers the conversation I had with Linda to find out more about the book and her gift for writing.

Linda, how did you get started in the writing business yourself?

I was doing a lot of writing to promote my own coaching business. With the help of my brilliant coach (Wink! I was working with Andrea at the time), I came to realize that: (a) I was enjoying the writing more than the coaching, (b) I was really good at the writing and (c) there were other coaches who weren’t good at writing, who could use my help.

Was there a particular struggle or obstacle you had to overcome in order to embrace writing as a stream of revenue for you? What was it that made you take the plunge?

Absolutely, I resisted it, kicking and screaming all the way! I didn’t want to be a writer (even though that was actually a childhood dream of mine); I wanted to be a coach. I had to open my mind and be willing to try something new and trust someone who knew better than me and could see a bigger picture than I was seeing.

Does the income potential for a coach really increase when they finally embrace their inner writer? Can you give some examples of earning potential from your clients or yourself?

I’m one of my own best success stories, having built my ghostwriting and editing business to the point of having a waiting list. Plus, my earnings have more than tripled. And I’ve achieved that almost 100% through online marketing (which is, essentially, writing). While I think of my core marketing activity as relationship building, my business relationships all start, grow and deepen through writing; writing my website copy, writing articles, reports, books and e-books, and corresponding with clients, prospective clients and colleagues.

I love your quote, Andrea, “a confused mind always says no.” Coaches cannot earn if they’re confusing their readers, because their readers won’t say yes to their offer, whether that’s to purchase a product or service or simply to opt-in to a mailing list.

What is your opinion when it comes to speed and writing? I’m a believer of focusing on completion not perfection, but there is always the other side of the coin. Your comments?

Great question! Sandra De Freitas and I actually discussed this on our From Ideas to Income tele-class series last year, because we’d both heard you share about that. I make a conscious effort to let go of perfectionism when it shows up for me, and I wouldn’t want anyone to think their writing needs to be perfect before it goes out into the world to do its work. But I also see how writing mistakes can have a detrimental impact on a coach’s credibility. I want coaches to realize that their writing is making an impression – and they get to choose what kind of impression that is.

Your Style Guide for Coaches is such a great example of writing on a topic that lends you authority and credibility. You could have written any book on the topic of writing, what was the process you went through to decide on a style guide and what are the benefits you foresee as a result of your choice? What can other coaches learn about the possibility that they follow your footsteps and become the leading authority on a topic within their field of expertise?

My decision was a sneaky one, Andrea. My underlying motive was to get coaches writing, because the more coaches are writing, the more editing I will get to do! Over the last three years of editing for coaches, I was noticing the same mistakes coming up over and over again, and some of them were things I had to continually look up myself, to make sure I was handling them consistently. For me, just having this book at my desk has already been a hugely helpful resource for doing my work. So if someone wanted to follow in my footsteps with this type of book, I would say to find a problem you feel passionate about solving, and then do the research. Don’t feel you have to know everything about the topic before you start. I learned a LOT about writing while I was researching and writing this book. So start where you are, claim your expertise and grow your learning from there.

I hope you are enjoying Linda’s book blog tour.
If you missed yesterday destination…the blog tour stopped at Teresa Morrow’s blog at http://www.keybusinesspartners.com/for-coaches-who-write-blog-tour
And tomorrow, August 10th the tour will continue at Katherine Reschke’s blog at http://passionsthatpay.com