By Megan M. Seckman

Cathy Fyock is no stranger to change. She started out as an elementary school music teacher, and when that didn’t pan out, she quickly made the change to the field of business. For years, Cathy established a career as a speaker and employment strategist in human relations. She ran a successful consulting business for 20 years with her mother and provided countless businesses with advice on how to recruit top employees and inspire an aging workforce. She was such a master in her field that she literally wrote the book on it. In fact, she wrote seven business books.
Then, her mother passed away.

“When my mother passed away, I instantly lost my partner, best friend, and mother all at once. I tried to do some consulting work for different companies, but soon realized I was meant to be an entrepreneur. I knew I had to reinvent myself,” Cathy explains.

Her world began to change when she got a call from the head of the Louisville Speaker’s Association who had heard that Cathy had written a book in six weeks. He wanted to know her process; he wanted her to prepare a program for the local chapter and coach others in her method. After the enthusiastic feedback she received from her lecture and from coaching two women to write their own business books in six weeks, she knew this was what she was meant to do. She had found a niche.

“The universe has given me a fabulous gift. I’ve never been happier at work; I get to help people realize their dreams. For many, writing a book is on their bucket list. What is cooler than helping people achieve that? I get to hear people’s stories and connect on such a deep level — we share a common theme and work through the process together — it’s incredibly rewarding. This is my retirement…I can’t imagine ever giving this up.”

Making the leap from HR consultant to book coach wasn’t easy. While transitioning careers, Cathy continued to work 40 hours a week for the HR consultant firm that employed her, devised a detailed business plan that also consumed around 40 hours per week, and managed to write a book on how to write a book in six weeks, in six weeks. “There was no such thing as a work/life balance then, but you fall into the thing that is in God’s plan, and it’s just magical — you just do it.”

Those six weeks of around-the-clock work have paid off. Cathy has now helped to publish 100 authors and has created six anthologies of business writing.

Cathy’s advice: “Write the book. One of the best ways to go down a new path and to establish credibility is to write the book on it. You have to ignore the ‘bitch,’ that inner voice that tells you you’re an imposter and are documenting for the world your level of incompetence. Just write the book so you can say, ‘I wrote the book on that.’ And do your homework. Ask as many people for advice as possible, articulate your plan, then do the work.”

Photo by Joon Kim