Writing Blogs and Articles to Grow Your Speaking Business

By Cathy Fyock, CSP @CathyFyock

What’s the number one best strategy for growing your speaking business?

For me, the answer was simple. Write.

The first few months of my career as a speaker and consultant I did two simple things that created a steady stream of business for more than 20 years. Number one, I wrote a media release, and two, I wrote an article.

When leaving my corporate role in Human Resources, I wrote a media release that I sent to Human Resource Executive magazine indicating that I would focus my business on strategies for recruiting entry-level employees. They picked up the release and published a tiny clip of my announcement. The following month the publication wrote an article on recruitment, and the reporter called me for my insights. I was the only consultant quoted in the article. The subsequent article resulted in two calls to book my speaking and training services, which led to a number of other leads and opportunities.

During those first months I also called on the Kentucky Restaurant Association since my most recent experience in HR was with Kentucky Fried Chicken. I thought I would be a logical choice as a speaker for upcoming conferences and programs. While waiting for my meeting with the Executive Director, I noticed that they published their own industry monthly magazine, and when I met with the director I asked her if the organization was looking for contributing authors, and she indicated that they were always looking for great content from experts (Note: I later learned that nearly all publications accept targeted content from thought-leaders). I wrote an article, which ran in their next publication.

A few months later I received a call from the Canadian Restaurant Association (CRA), asking if I could possibly speak for their upcoming conference. I naturally asked if they had seen my article in the Kentucky publication, and they said no. The CRA director had seen my article in the CRA publication! I didn’t realize that many of these sister associations share their content (since they are always looking for content!). Long story short: I was booked to speak at the CRA conference, and for many other state conferences, as well as for training engagements at a number of national and international restaurant companies. (What is ironic is that I was never booked to speak for the Kentucky Association!)

The moral of the story: writing is a powerful business development strategy. Writing articles and blogs gives you visibility and credibility. It establishes your thought leadership. It reaches potential clients. And it doesn’t cost a dime.

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Cathy Fyock, CSP, SPHR is The Business Book Strategist, and works with professionals and thought-leaders who want to write a book as a business development strategy, and also serves as the Acquisitions Editor for Silver Tree Publishing. She is the author of On Your Mark: From First Word to First Draft in Six Weeks and Blog2Book: Repurposing Content to Discover the Book You’ve Already Written.  If you would like Cathy’s entire white paper on Writing Blogs and Articles to Grow Your Speaking Business, send her an email with “White Paper” in the subject line to Cathy@CathyFyock.com.