subject: Boost Business With a Writing Coach and Book that Makes You the Expert [print this page] Boost Business With a Writing Coach and Book that Makes You the Expert
No matter how lovely or expensive, most business cards get round-filed hours or days after being given out. Even if they avoid the trash can, in a stack of other business cards they're little more than calling cards with laryngitis. And that does nothing to promote business.
But there is one calling card that:
Actually gets filed on a shelf instead of thrown out
Establishes immediate credibility
Generates media attention
This branding dream-come-true is called a book, and having one can boost a business' bottom line. "Sadly, most people never take advantage of this opportunity to become the go-to person in their field," says bestselling writer and acclaimed writing coach Linden Gross. "Why? Because they figure they can't write a book by themselves. But they don't have to."
When Fred and Sarah Swisher, owners of Bend Pine Nursery and Sculptural Landscapes in Bend, Oregon decided they should write a book about landscaping in Central Oregon, the fact that neither had much writing experience beyond promoting their own businesses didn't matter. They knew that Gross, who draws on her background inediting,writing and teachingwhen working with others, would guide them along the way.
The business- and life-partners barely had to write a word during their first writing coach session. They just talked about the challenges and advantages of landscaping in an area strewn with volcanic rock where temperatures can drop to below freezing 365 days a year.
Then Gross asked each to write a Big Sloppy Letter to Linden, something she asks of almost all her clients. The instructions are simple: "Write anything and everything that pops in your head. Don't worry about spelling, grammar, repetition, or anything else. It doesn't matter if your ideas are all over the place. What matters is that you get them all down, so we have something to work from."
Rather than being daunting, this sort of brain dump can be downright liberating. Instead of worrying about what goes where or how it sounds, writers can just let their thoughts flood over them and onto the page or the computer screen. Ironically, this stream of consciousness approach leads to prose that lacks the self-consciousness often found in more purposeful writing. That means that much of this sloppy letter material, once organized, winds up being plopped right into a first draft.
Before long, an outline for the Swishers' book 55 Myths, Tips & Secrets started to take shape. During the writing phase, Gross worked with the Swishers individually to provide guidance, instruction and encouragement. When the manuscript was done, she jumped in as editor and gave it a quick polish.
Then the couple published the book themselves, initially printing just enough copies for the advance readers. Only after making adjustments to the copy based on reader comments and adding quotes to the back cover did they order in any quantity.
Being the authors of a book about landscaping allowed the Swishers to establish themselves as the locallandscaping experts. They built on that reputation with presentations to everyone from homeowner and business associations to horticultural gatherings. Their book also triggered a number of newspaper and magazine articlesalong with a couple of television appearances. And all that helped sales. "Customer and media response to 55 Myths, Tips and Secrets have been beyond our wildest expectations," says Fred Swisher. "The book is directly responsible for generating most of our business last year."
As a writing coach, Gross works with people who love writing and those who dread it. Some of her clients are great with words but disasters when it comes to organizing their ideas. Others have plenty to say if they could only bring themselves to sit down and write instead of sharpening their pencils down to stubs or revising their first page (or paragraph) until their erasers are mere nubs. Still more start to sweat the second they pick up a pen or hit their computers.
"I have helped business professionalsfrom Jill Harris, whose book The Five Guide gained media exposure for her San Francisco Pilates studio to Tara Nicholle-Nelson, a real estate broker whose book hit Amazon's top ten business books listconquer their writing challenges," says Gross. "The first and hardest step is convincing them to put their inner critic on hold until they've gotten their ideas down. Compared to that, the rest is easy."
