Be Open to the Possibilities | Ep. 034 - Cathy Fyock

Join host Lynn Debilzen in this energizing interview with Book Coach & Strategist Cathy Fyock on Redraw Your Path!

In this interview, Lynn learns about Cathy’s journey from aspiring music teacher to HR professional, then consultant to entrepreneur and book coach. Their conversation touches on:

• The power of the pivot and how sometimes we can find the job of our dreams just by stumbling on it
• How approaching potential projects as experiments can open a door to the next steps and an amazing career that you create for yourself
• The importance of trusting your gut as you move along your journey

Tune in for a dynamic discussion on life and growth!

About Cathy:

Cathy Fyock, CSP, SPHR, SHRM-SCP is The Business Book Strategist and works with professionals and thought leaders who want to write a book as a business development strategy. She is the author of 12 books, including—On Your Mark: From First Word to First Draft in Six Weeks, Blog2Book: Repurposing Content to Discover the Book You’ve Already Written, My New Book, and with coauthor Lois Creamer, The Speaker Author: Sell More Books and Book More Speeches. Her book, Authority, is an anthology about the power of authorship and was a Wall Street Journal bestseller. Her newest book is Writer Crisis Hotline, coauthored with full-time author Allie Pleiter.

Since beginning her business in 2014, she has helped over 230 professionals become published authors. She believes that we all have a purpose, and that our stories are the way in which we share our truth with others. She is certain that authors can and do change the world, one word at a time.

Connect with Cathy:
Website: https://www.cathyfyock.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cathy-fyock-973b735/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheBusinessBookStrategist/ 

Connect with Lynn:

• www.redrawyourpath.com
• www.lynndebilzen.com
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/lynndebilzen/

Transcript

Lynn: 0:00

Hey friends, I'm Lynn Debilzen and welcome to Redraw Your Path, a podcast where I share stories of people who have made big changes in their lives and forged their own unique paths. I talk with guests about their moments of messiness, fear, and reframing on their way to where they are now. My goal is to inspire you about the shape your life could take. So let's get inspired. Hi friends, I'm so excited that you are here again this week for another interview with me and Redraw Your Path. This week I had the opportunity to interview Cathy Fyock. She brought so much energy to the interview, it was just, A real joy to talk with her. Here's a little bit about her background. Cathy Fyock is the business book strategist and works with professionals and thought leaders who want to write a book as a business development strategy. She is the author of 12 books, including On Your Mark: From First Word to First Draft in Six Weeks, Blog2Book: Repurposing Content to Discover the Book You've Already Written, My New Book, and with co author Lois Creamer. The Speaker Author: Sell More Books and Book More Speeches. Her book, Authority, is an anthology about the power of authorship and was a Wall Street Journal bestseller. Her newest book is Writer Crisis Hotline, co authored with full time author Ali Pleiter. Since beginning her business in 2014, she has helped over 230 professionals become published authors. She believes that we all have a purpose and that our stories are the way in which we share our truth with others. She is certain that authors can and do change the world one word at a time. at a time. and I got inspired to start writing from this interview and perhaps you'll get inspired to start writing using your knowledge and lived experience. I really hope you enjoy this interview. I can't wait to hear what you think. Welcome to Redraw Your Path, Cathy. I'm so excited to talk with you and hear your story. How are you today?

Cathy: 2:07

I'm great. I'm great. So excited to talk with you, Lynn.

Lynn: 2:10

me too. all right, let's jump right in. So the first question I like to ask guests is give me some context about where and how you grew up. Tell me about little Cathy's life.

Cathy: 2:23

Little Cathy was a handful.

Lynn: 2:25

Really?

Cathy: 2:26

Yeah, she talked too much in class. she was one of those students. but I had a wonderful family. grew up basically in Louisville, Kentucky, where I lived almost all of my life until the past few years. I've recently moved to Florida, but it was a wonderful childhood with a brother and a sister and two dogs and a mom and a dad and just a wonderful life really

Lynn: 2:52

Awesome. Awesome. Were you in the like Louisville city? Were you in the suburbs? What was your neighborhood like?

Cathy: 2:58

of the city. Yeah. Yeah, love their, love the Kentucky Derby, love the Louisville Bats, love, Louisville Slugger, love all of that stuff, Bourbon, all of the things that make Louisville and Kentucky famous.

Lynn: 3:14

Awesome. so with that childhood, most of us grew up with some sort of expectations or external pressures that we didn't ask for, ways of being that we kind of grow up with. what were some of those for you? I'm curious, what molds were you expected to take in life?

Cathy: 3:33

Well, the first story that I really remember is, in first grade, you know how you're assigned to those reading groups? And I was not in the first reading group. And I don't know if that was the Cardinals or the Bluebirds or whatever it was, but I was in like the second or the third reading group. And when I came home from school that day, my dad sat down with me and said, You're smart. You should be in the first reading group. And I expect you to be in the first reading group.

Lynn: 4:07

Okay.

Cathy: 4:08

oh my.

Lynn: 4:09

And the first reading group is the like, better readers,

Cathy: 4:12

top, yes, the smart, really smart, fast readers and all of that. And so I learned pretty early on that my dad had very high expectations for me. He thought I was smart and he thought I should do well. And so that created a certain expectation that I was going to deliver.

Lynn: 4:38

And so how that played out is delivering in terms of like perfectionism, high achieving, things like that.

Cathy: 4:45

Yeah, not so much perfectionism, but I'm a go get things done, big results focused, check things off the list. I'm that kind of a person for sure.

Lynn: 4:57

Awesome. Did you make it into the first reading group then,

Cathy: 5:00

Absolutely.

Lynn: 5:02

Okay, so they were, they had space for promotion, so you could move up.

Cathy: 5:06

Yes. And my dad was right. I mean, sometimes, all it takes is someone saying, Hey, they see something in you and they talk to you about that. And I've never forgotten that. Although it did create a certain, anxiety about, am I always doing as much as I can and I should?

Lynn: 5:27

That's interesting, because we can always be doing more, right? Yeah. I'm curious, you didn't say, Cathy, but were you oldest, middle, youngest? You said one brother, one sister, right? Okay. Do you think your siblings had the same expectations? Of of course. any other expectations that you had placed on you as a kiddo?

Cathy: 5:50

No, I think that was it. I was always the take charge person. In fact, my brother often said his most often, stated phrase was, you're not my mother. So I was always bossy, take charge, see what needs to be done, get it done. that's how I've always operated.

Lynn: 6:11

the go getter, the let's make a plan and make it happen.

Cathy: 6:14

yes,

Lynn: 6:15

Oh, cool. Cool. okay. So now I want to fast forward. So we've set the stage of like your life. I want to fast forward and bookend, which is a perfect time. pun, if you will, when readers will find out what you do, to bookend your life. But I'm curious, like, where and how are you currently spending your days?

Cathy: 6:36

I am working. Even though I am past normal retirement age, I am continuing to work. I love to work. I will probably never. fully retire, although I do have a wonderful reduced work week right now. So basically I work Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and will probably do that until health precludes me from doing that.

Lynn: 7:02

Love that. And you're in Florida, right?

Cathy: 7:04

I'm in Florida, loving the sunshine, loving the palm trees.

Lynn: 7:08

Okay, cool, cool. And, can you say more about, what you're working as or

Cathy: 7:14

Oh, sure.

Lynn: 7:15

on?

Cathy: 7:15

Yes. for the past 10 plus years, I am a book coach. And usually I have to say that twice. Yes, I'm coaching people on how to write books. And primarily I'm working With business people who want to write a book as a business growth strategy. So they're writing a book about their expertise, about what they know. they're writing a book to grow their business, to grow their careers, to grow their platform, to have more, influence. That's what I'm doing and it is so much fun.

Lynn: 7:51

I can imagine. I can imagine. And you probably get to see people grow so much.

Cathy: 7:57

yes. Because sometimes people are coming to you, to me, because they want to write a book almost as a transitional piece. They want to move into something else and a book is the ticket to what's next for them. So I have seen people move into this area of taking over their thought leadership, their confidence, stepping into a bigger version of themselves and going on to do some amazing things. So the work that I get to do, the people I get to do it with is just amazing.

Lynn: 8:33

Oh, that's awesome. That's awesome. And it must be really powerful to see that. okay, now we've bookended your life, so far. let's rewind a bit. I want to hear about, okay, so you grew up in Louisville. You were raised to be a go getter, a high achiever, to get things done. tell us, where did your path go from there? And what was the first big way you redrew your path?

Cathy: 9:00

my path has been anything except a straight line. it has been wild, wooly, unplanned, serendipitous. circuitous, so it has been really wild. I thought my first, direction was to be a music teacher. I was a singer. I love to sing. I loved my music and I majored in music and I got out of college ready to teach music. And what I learned was that they were laying off all of the music and art teachers in Louisville, Kentucky at that period of time. So all of a sudden, did I not have a job, but I was also competing against. Long tenured art and music teachers. so I had to do something else. So what was I going to do? I don't know. I was going to be a clerk and I was a payroll clerk and I was a receptionist and I did some clerical things. Until I stumbled into a role as the human resources director for a company where I started as the receptionist. And I'm thinking this HR stuff is pretty cool. I really like this. So I went back to school and they were a wonderful employer. They were like, whatever you need, if you need to go and take classes, if you want to enroll in college, if you want to, Find seminars, books, whatever you wanted to do to get yourself ready for this role. So I did. I took full advantage, went back to school, joined, the Human Resources Association, got very active and, and that just launched this career as an HR professional and I loved my career as an HR professional. So I. I started, at the company where they gave me this wonderful promotion, and I was there for several years, grew the function, grew my expertise, went on to a larger company, where I was the HR director, and, and then finally was recruited away to, Kentucky Fried Chicken, their corporate office, where I had an even bigger HR role, and it was just so fun and so cool, and I was just living the dream.

Lynn: 11:25

Yeah. Oh my gosh, it sounds like it because starting in that company as the receptionist, or the, secretary, office manager, whatever it might be, and moving into a director of HR role, eventually, that's really amazing.

Cathy: 11:42

first title was Personnel Assistant, and then they made me the Personnel Manager, and then I became the Human Resources Manager. it was a transitional thing. It didn't happen overnight, for sure.

Lynn: 11:55

What was it about HR that really stood out to you? Mm-Hmm.

Cathy: 11:59

Well, I liked it. It was people. It was all about managing people, understanding people. And how they worked in organizations, how they learned. I had a, an education background, in terms of music education. So I was able to apply all of that to my role in the training and development area and just absolutely loved it. Loved it until

Lynn: 12:24

oh.

Cathy: 12:24

job was eliminated. Well, it moved away, with Kentucky fried chicken. They were centralized at the time and they went into a complete decentralization, which meant my. Wonderful job based at the headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky, was going to either Baltimore or Atlanta. So it was like, no, I have a husband who's here and I wanted, to, make sure my marriage was intact. So I thought, I've been thinking a little bit about. Speaking, training, consulting, opening my own consulting firm as an HR leader. And so that's what I decided to do. So that was a huge leap of faith for me to step into self employment and become this HR consultant.

Lynn: 13:17

Yeah. do you remember how you got the inspiration to essentially go out on your own and build your own brand

Cathy: 13:24

absolutely. I was taking a class that Kentucky Fried Chicken offered on effective presentations, and it was a fairly intense, week long course. And at the end, the instructor pulled me aside and said, you have a gift. You really should speak. You should find all the speaking opportunities that you can and leverage that because you really have something there. I thought, I had no idea.

Lynn: 13:59

Wow. Do you remember that instructor's name

Cathy: 14:01

yeah, in fact we went on to author a book together. Dr. Lyle Sussman. And he be we're very good friends. We stay in touch to this day even though he's, retired. But yeah, I will never forget that conversation because it completely changed my how I thought about myself.

Lynn: 14:21

can you say more about that? Because it sounds like you had thought about yourself in one way, and then something that Dr. Lyle Sussman said, just moved your thinking into seeing yourself in a different realm.

Cathy: 14:35

I always knew I liked to talk. going back to that, that, first grade report card, she likes to talk a little too much, but I am a gifted communicator is what I have learned, but I didn't really understand that or no one had really pointed that out to me until Lyle did. And when he said, you should pursue this, you should look for every opportunity Just speak that you can. And the good thing was, even while I was still at Kentucky Fried Chicken, I found lots of opportunities to speak. So I launched a new program, an employment program where we hire older workers. I spoke on that both within our company and nationally. I wrote articles. So I really, it really launched me this whole new way of thinking about myself and stepping out into an area that Really never considered before.

Lynn: 15:32

that time, that you could make a career as a speaker? it sounds like such a naive question, but did you have any clue that you could. Okay.

Cathy: 15:41

just seems so far fetched. But, he also suggested I reach out to Elizabeth Jeffries, who was someone local who was a very active member of the National Speakers Association in Louisville, Kentucky. And I'm a go getter, so I picked up the phone and I called Elizabeth and we've been Very good friends for, what, 30 plus years now. And, she encouraged me to come and join the National Speakers Association, which I did, which again, gave me more skills, more knowledge, more competence around not just speaking, but having a business as a speaker, consultant, coach, author.

Lynn: 16:24

Awesome. Awesome. Okay. So you went from this career in HR that was like a little accidental at the beginning, right? You wanted to be a music teacher. I'm assuming did you keep music as a hobby alongside?

Cathy: 16:38

yes, I have along the way. my voice is given out at this point, but yes, I still love music.

Lynn: 16:46

Awesome. That's beautiful. And so from there, someone saw something in you, kind of sparked something. You started speaking. It sounds like you did a lot of speaking internally, which is you're not getting extra pay for that. You're, just building that skill and muscle. and then you Decided, all right, my job's moving away. I'm going to stay here and start a business for myself. So I'm curious, what did that look like? Did it pan out exactly as you planned?

Cathy: 17:14

Well, even better, In fact, I remember the questions I was asking myself, could I do it? Could I make money? And would I like it? So those were huge questions that I had no idea, but within probably a month or two, I knew that I loved it. I could do it, and I could see a path toward Now, granted, it took me a while, probably a couple of years to make back what I was making in the corporate world, but I was able to recoup that and maybe even surpass that in the role that I took as an entrepreneur.

Lynn: 17:54

Yeah, that's really powerful when you start to see yourself like doing it, like you're doing it, you're doing the dream. what was the next big way you redrew your path, or how did you, how did your path move from

Cathy: 18:06

I worked on my own as an HR consultant, speaker, author for almost 20 years and loved, loved, loved it. But, my mom was working with me in my business and when she passed away, I lost my mom, my best friend, and my co worker. And it was devastating for me. And I felt like I needed to be part of a team. So I thought maybe it's time that I took my consulting and speaking skills, writing skills into a corporate environment. So I thought I need to find the right consulting group because I think that's where my skills would really play best. I did. I found an organization and, That organization was not quite right for any number of reasons. I could talk probably all day about this part of the journey and I went to one firm. I thought, maybe it's just the firm. That's not right. I went to another firm. No, that's not right. I went to a third firm and finally I realized, no, it has nothing to do with working for somebody else. You need to be working for yourself. I loved being an entrepreneur and I really didn't understand that. And what I didn't perhaps understand in the initial part was that you can be an entrepreneur and work As a solo practitioner and still collaborate with other people and have other projects that you're doing with others. so I decided that I was going to go eventually back into my own business. But I didn't know what, because I didn't think, I don't know, do I go back into human resources? Do I reinvent my own business? Do I have to then be careful about stepping on toes from these three other firms that I'd worked with? And how was I going to avoid that? Out of the blue, I get a call from the president of my chapter of the National Speakers Association. And he said, Cathy, I heard a rumor that you wrote one of your books in less than six weeks. Is that right?

Lynn: 20:15

would become an author by that point.

Cathy: 20:17

yes, I had been, yeah, I'd been a five time author by this time I got the call. Because as a consultant, one of the ways you differentiate yourself, one of the ways you put yourself out there, it's a marketing strategy, it's an influence strategy, is you write, you author, articles, blogs, et cetera. So I had, written several books by that time, but he said, I heard this rumor that you wrote it really quickly. Is that true? I'm like, yeah, it is true. and he said, do you have a process? And I had never thought about that. Do I have a process? And I'm like, yeah, I guess I do. And he said, would you be willing to come to our chapter and talk about your process for authoring a book? I'm like, oh, that would be so cool. It would force me to think through what the process is. And he said, but wait, before you say yes, we have a couple of our chapter members who are working on a book. Would you be willing to coach them using your process? And then give a presentation to the chapter. said, I said, Oh, you had me at give a program.

Lynn: 21:25

And they were willing, was he offering pay for

Cathy: 21:29

No, no pay.

Lynn: 21:31

okay.

Cathy: 21:32

But I thought that will, this will be really an interesting experiment. Sometimes, part of life is just saying yes. and just because I thought it was exciting. I thought it was interesting. I thought it would be really fascinating for me to see you. If what I did could translate to other people and, as I started coaching these two women who happen to be friends of mine, they each said to me independently, have you ever thought about becoming a book coach? I'm like, No.

Lynn: 22:03

What is that? Why

Cathy: 22:04

What is, yes, what is that and is there a need? And they said, oh yeah, it's basically somebody who shepherds you along the way, who provides accountability, who provides direction. There's so many people who want or need to write a book, but they either can't get started or they get stuck. And they said, you would be fabulous. So I thought that's so interesting. So fast forward, I gave my presentation for the chapter and that was in spring of 2013. And when again, once again, it was so funny. My friends came up to me and said, have you ever thought about becoming a coach? I'm like, okay, I have now.

Lynn: 22:48

By the time you hear it, four, five,

Cathy: 22:50

yeah, it's I think this is a thing. So that's when I started putting my business plan together. Spring of 2013 and by January of 2014, I launched the new company. But here's the real thing. So what, what credential did I have other than authoring books myself? Well, I wrote a book. About how to write a book. And that became my credential for my new business. And honestly, it has just been a whirlwind ever since that first year. I've, I have just loved my work and it has been just the most exciting, thrilling. energizing thing I could ever imagine.

Lynn: 23:34

yeah, I mean it sounds exciting like just to be able to sit with all these experts in whatever topic they are.

Cathy: 23:42

so smart and they're motivated. They're go getters,

Lynn: 23:45

yeah, I'm curious. Okay, so you said, What credential did I have besides writing five of my own books? Can you say more about that? Because I feel like oftentimes, especially as women, we believe that, we can't do the thing until we get, a stamp of approval from Whoever outside agency it is. can you say more about

Cathy: 24:12

Yes. I would love to because it's one of the big discussion points I usually have, especially with my women authors. they think they, oh, maybe I need to get another credential or maybe I need to go and do more research or maybe I need to go and I'm like, no, you are enough. as you are to write your book. And, but what I think a book does, it provides this seal of approval. It's documentation of your expertise, unlike anything else that anybody can do. you can give a speech, but that's certainly not the same as writing a whole book. in fact, we have the, the phrase, being an authority. Means being an author, and we have the expression, she wrote the book on it. Well, that's for a reason, so there is something really amazing about the credential of writing a book. Now, I don't think I absolutely needed that, but it gave me, at least my, myself, permission to know. I've documented what I'm going to do in my coaching. I have documented my process. I put it all out there. And now I'm just going to basically execute what I've outlined in the book. And that was so smart. And that's, What has really launched me into this because here, I didn't say this earlier. I don't like to write.

Lynn: 25:39

spoiler alert.

Cathy: 25:41

Yeah. Yeah. So I don't like to write. I don't think it, I think it's really hard work. I think now there are some people, and I work with an author. She loves to write. it's like fun time. I mean, it's work, but it's, she loves it. But for me, it is just, hard work. so that's what I tell though a lot of my clients. I think that's what part of what makes me a really good book coach is I don't think it's easy. I think you have to have a plan. you have to work the plan. You have to jump through the hoops and you have to exercise your writing muscles and you have to do a lot of things to become, the author of a book. that's what I help people do.

Lynn: 26:19

Cool. Well, and in many ways that makes you more qualified. To help others write books because you didn't grow up wanting to be a writer. You didn't grow up like Fantasizing about all the books you would write. It sounds

Cathy: 26:33

I had no idea that, I mean, right now I'm the author of 12 books. I just think that is just amazing.

Lynn: 26:41

Yeah, do you ever wake up and just think how did I get here? I like pinch yourself moments

Cathy: 26:48

Yes, I have lots of those. All the time.

Lynn: 26:52

yeah. When you thought, okay, what's my credential? I noticed that you didn't go out and get another master's degree. You didn't, go and get a certification. You essentially created your own credential. Do you remember, like, how you thought through that? Or, did you weigh other options for yourself?

Cathy: 27:12

Yes. I'd always been thinking I wanted to go and get a Ph. D. or a some doctorate degree. there's no ROI in that, at least not in my For me, even though it would have been cool. I love education. I love learning and growing, but that was just not it. A certification. I'm not sure that there was one. So the thing about writing a book. is that it forced me to codify my process. It forced me to say, this is the way I'm going to work with my clients. And this is my philosophy. And this is what I believe. And by articulating that and getting really clear on that, it gave me confidence. In fact, one of the things I often tell, aspiring authors is that. process of writing your own book is transformational and what it does for your confidence, your self esteem, your sense of clarity, your understanding of concepts and how they relate, it is astounding. So I am a huge believer in what the transformational power of a book can do for individuals.

Lynn: 28:29

Yeah, in addition to that confidence, just from a business perspective, how smart that is, because someone might think, I want to write a book, so let's order a book on how to write a book, they'll find you. And then, They might read the entire book. How many books have I read? The entire thing, yet, struggle to put into action. So then it, automatically brings them into your world. Or, if people come into your world, and let's say your price point is a little too high, or for some reason, working together doesn't work out, they can also access your knowledge via the book. It's like a double edged sword strategy.

Cathy: 29:10

It's great for all of those things. It's becoming known as the expert, but yes, I've gotten business. one of my favorite clients, Amy bought one of my books and she immediately messaged me, I think on Twitter at the time. And. And she said, I just want to meet this Cathy Fyock and who are you? And so we struck up a Twitter conversation that later turned into a real conversation and she became one of my favorite clients.

Lynn: 29:40

That's so powerful. you're putting yourself in, out there in the world in ways that you never know how people will find you. And it's that legacy that you're building. I'm curious before I ask you questions about like where your path has moved from there, but, I want to go back to those three firms that you worked at. and I'm just curious. As you, worked at one firm, then the next firm, then the next firm, and found that each of them wasn't a good fit, did the timeline of you, putting in your resignation shrink at all? because I think that's something, I know as a, I'm a people pleaser, and I then have fear about letting people down, right? But, did your self awareness expand across that time so that by the third time you, maybe day one, you were like, this isn't a good fit or I

Cathy: 30:31

I was in that first consultant role for four years, probably would still, might even still be there, but the management saw my role being very different and basically gave me an ultimatum. I had to either Do all like financial consulting and placement and give up all of my HR stuff, which my HR stuff was what I was really bringing. That was the value I brought to the firm. And frankly, that's where I had earned them a whole bunch of money. but they wanted to focus their business and streamline it. And it was a business decision, not a personal one. But that, that one really hit hard. So I just thought, you know what? There's a lot of other firms that would value my HR experience and credentials and contacts. I have a wonderful network. and yeah, so I decided, no, I made a call to a friend of mine who was a consultant and I'm like, are you interested? do you have any need? And within a week I had another offer. and then with the second firm, I loved working for this firm, but we just saw things so differently. And, I love my boss, but We just couldn't work together and we figured that out. but I found someone else. I called to another friend and said, Hey, do you have something with it work out and we had a conversation and again, pretty quickly I had something else lined up. So through my network, I was able to get the next gig. But what I learned is even on the third gig, it wasn't about the gig. It was, I needed to get a completely different gig. It was not working for somebody else was not going to serve me.

Lynn: 32:19

Okay. I was curious just about the self awareness that was building through that time. And, but it sounds like, it really did build. And by the third firm,

Cathy: 32:30

Well, by the third firm, I knew it wasn't about working for a firm. I knew it was like, I have no business being an employee.

Lynn: 32:36

Yeah, yeah.

Cathy: 32:38

I should be an entrepreneur, and that's really my best role.

Lynn: 32:43

Awesome. has your path, redrawn, been redrawn, since that 2013 since launching your business or what has that look like? I know you said you now are in a different geography.

Cathy: 32:53

I do a lot of my work via Zoom. I coach via Zoom, so I've had all over the world, and all over the country, so that's been no, No obstacle at all. how I do what I do has shifted quite a bit. I've learned a lot of things because. I don't have a background as a book coach. I'm not sure many people do. So I had to learn through what really does work with people and what kinds of packages work, for people to get their books done because I didn't want to be someone just taking money. I wanted to deliver on what they were going. What they were signing up for, what they were paying for. So I wanted to be sure that I was crafting a program. For example, the first program I had was like, you sign up with me. It's a year long program. Well, I realize I'm giving people too much time. I need to set a sense of urgency because writing your book, unless you have This imposed urgency, you'll never get it done because they'll always be something more urgent to do. So if you have paid for somebody and it's a six month engagement, Well, I better get on the stick if I'm going to get the book done within the six months. So that was one example of one change that I made. another change is, initially when I started, I did quite a few anthologies where I, basically was putting together a book with let's say 15 chapters. Each one would be Authored by a different person so that people had an opportunity to purchase at a much lower price point a whole coaching package and publishing package, but in conjunction with a cohort. And that was absolutely brilliant because not only did I get a lot of experience through those anthologies, touched a lot of people, I was able to tap into my HR network because basically my anthologies were all HR or workplace related, leadership related, so I could tap into that market and, offer this opportunity and what I learned is that because you've written a chapter in a book, means you are more likely to go on and write your own book. So they might hire me for the next step and, Certainly, I've had several coaching opportunities as a result of that, that anthology. and then I went several years. I didn't do any anthologies and I just did my most recent anthology. We just published it week before last.

Lynn: 35:35

Oh wow, congrats.

Cathy: 35:36

I know it's an Amazon number one bestseller, Thinking about how I package my services has certainly changed. I love doing in person retreats, but sometimes getting people together for retreats, and especially in light of COVID, I just, I canceled one retreat like three times because of COVID and COVID related issues. So I'm finding that, you can do a lot of things virtually. So doing virtual one day, writing retreats can be a possibility.

Lynn: 36:08

yeah. It sounds like you've just evolved and iterated as your business has continued to grow over the last 11 years.

Cathy: 36:17

Yes. Yes.

Lynn: 36:19

that's really powerful. Cathy, I'm curious if you have any advice for folks who are considering redrawing their own path. Anything you would elevate or share?

Cathy: 36:30

Well, you know, normally I'm very strategic and you set out a plan and you work your plan. And occasionally that has worked for me. But, sometimes I'm a person of faith. So sometimes I just got to say, you give it to God and, God has a better, bigger plan perhaps than your own plan. I do feel like once you know where you're going, it's important to, create a checklist and a plan of action and so forth, but sometimes it's being open to the possibilities and things that you never even dreamed were possible, because I never in a million years would have dreamed. about being a book coach.

Lynn: 37:12

yeah. So be open to the possibilities. Give it to God or the universe or whoever is out there, supporting your life to, drop seeds or Pave the way. and then just go for it.

Cathy: 37:27

I know. Just look and be sure that you're looking for the opportunities as they present themselves. and trusting your own gut too, I'll say this, because initially when, I got the idea of being a book coach. My husband said, I don't know, he said, that seems very narrowly focused. Wouldn't you be better to be a consultant for consultants? How to start your own consultancy? Well, certainly writing a book would be part of that. but I thought, no, I think it really needs to be very narrowly niched. And I think that this is where my real expertise are a lot of business coaches and people doing other things. But I think the fact that I'm very unique, I'm not the only book coach out there. There's, there are other book coaches, but they're not as plentiful as say business coaches. And the cool thing now is that I've told enough people about what it is that I do and how I do it that if anybody even mentions, I've been thinking about writing a book. They jump in and they say, I have a friend, Cathy.

Lynn: 38:31

your reputation is out there. that's really awesome. So I love that advice. Be open. take the opportunities and then also trust your gut because you're gonna bring that to a bunch of other people and most of them are going to be like, I don't know,

Cathy: 38:49

I don't know, like a book coach, really?

Lynn: 38:51

yeah, but you trusted yourself. That, that's really beautiful. Cathy, where can people find you? And is there anything you would want to share with listeners?

Cathy: 39:01

Well, if anybody is thinking about writing a book, it, whether it's about your life or your expertise, I would love to just have a conversation. I love just having initial conversations. It's always a free strategy call, 30 minute call. people can reach out to me at my email, Cathy at cathyfyock.com com and I'd love to have a conversation. you can say, Hey, I heard you on Lynn's podcast and I'm happy to talk with you.

Lynn: 39:30

Awesome. Thank you so much. And I'll include all that information in the show notes. And I really appreciate you just showing up today as yourself and sharing your story.

Cathy: 39:40

My pleasure.

Lynn: 39:41

Thanks, Cathy. Thanks for listening to Redraw Your Path with me, Lynn Debilzen. If you like the episode, please rate and review. That helps more listeners find me. And don't be shy, reach out and connect with me on LinkedIn and sign up for my e-newsletter at redrawyourpath.com. I can't wait to share more inspiring stories with you. See you next week.