You know her as Cath Lawson, business woman and blog author with an avatar that dons purple hair and who writes with such honesty and humor, you can’t help but read her every word.
I know her as Catherine, my first and best blogosphere friend who has always been there for me, faithfully commenting on my blog posts whether they were good or not, and emailing me with words of support on those days I didn’t feel motivated.
Today Catherine shares more about herself, how she started blogging, what her plans are for the future, and how she hopes to help others.
Pull up a chair, grab a beverage and let’s listen to Catherine as she takes the “hot seat”.
Welcome To Blogging Without A Blog, Catherine.
1) Can you tell us a little more about yourself and why you decided to start blogging?
I guess I’m what you might call an “accidental business person”. When I started my first business, I didn’t know much about business at all. It was the writing that I really enjoyed.
In 2006, before I sold my fire and flood restoration business, I began blogging. At first it was just a bit of fun and I didn’t blog often, as I was always so busy in my business. I didn’t have any huge ambitions for my blog back then, I just thought it would be nice to share my business mistakes and successes with others.
My posts were infrequent, as I didn’t have a lot of time and I used a blogspot domain. Looking back, those first posts were terrible. I didn’t really have a clue how to blog at all.
2) Why did you name your blog what you did, and how did you pick your tag line?
In May 2007, I started writing on CathLawson.com. I already had a website on there but no blog. I intended to change the domain once I’d found a suitable one. I eventually bought the domain “Success Passcode”. But I went off that idea and decided to keep my own name.
When Men With Pens did a new design for me earlier this year, they came up with a temporary tagline, because I couldn’t think of one. It was “Bold Advice For Business Success”. Recently I changed it to “Tips for Success In Business And Life” but I’m still hoping to come up with something better.
3) With a blog on the rise, what makes you keep blogging and what advice can you offer to new bloggers when they feel like giving up?
When things get too much, consider taking a break. I had a month off this year and a month of last year due to ill health. It does slow your progress down a little but your blog will still be there when you come back.
Keeping going is easy, once you’ve been blogging for a while. You get so used to writing every day, so you may as well be writing for an audience, instead of keeping your work to yourself.
Also, blogging is an investment. It can take a good while to build up a decent amount of regular traffic, but you will get there if you keep writing. And you will reach a point where you’ve invested too much to give up. I have almost 500 posts on my blog now, so it’s the length of two full-length books.
4) What was the turning/tipping point when you realized your blog was making a difference in the lives of others?
Mostly, it was from comments I’d received on social networks and on my blog. Also, I found people recommending some of my posts on places like Facebook and MySpace which was exciting. I get emails from people asking for business advice too and it feels great that they trust me enough to ask.
5) When you blog, what gives you the greatest joy? By that, I mean, is it the writing process, the comments you receive, the interaction with your readers, or something else. Feel free to elaborate.
It’s a combination of everything really. I love the writing process and I also enjoy watching an interesting discussion going on in the comments section. Also, I’ll sometimes write posts that I call “common sense” posts.
They’re usually things that I’ve been doing for so long, they become second nature. But when I see them become popular on social networks and read the comments, it’s a good feeling to know that they’re actually helping folk who are just learning about business.
Also, I like getting to know people I’ve met through blogging and other forms of social media.
6) After we’ve been blogging for a specific length of time, we get to a point where we decide to take our blogs in a new direction; where do you see your blog headed and how do you plan to accomplish that?
I’m gradually getting rid of pages from my old website and turning my blog into a complete site, with additional pages as well as blog posts. And my next plan is to introduce my own products.
I want to help new business owners but keep it affordable for them at the same time. There are a lot of so called business coaches online, who charge a small fortune, yet they’ve never owned a business before they began charging for their services. To me, they’re just scammers. It’s like paying someone to teach you to be a pilot, when they’ve never flown a plane.
Most new business owners are boot-strapping. They simply can’t afford to pay hundreds of dollars an hour for advice they could have got from a text book. So, I’m planning to help them in a way that doesn’t cost the earth, which will increase their bottom line at the same time.
7) On those days when you just don’t feel like blogging, how do you motivate yourself to sit at the keyboard and produce a blog post?
If I already have a long post on my blog that’s attracting a lot of readers, I may not write at all. Other times, I’ll drag something out of drafts and complete it. I tend to get a heap of ideas in spurts, so there’s always around 100 partly written posts for me to work on.
8.) Where do you see yourself and your blog a year from now? 5 years from now?
A year from now, I aim for the business I’m planning to build from my blog, to be profitable.
In five years time, I plan to be helping thousands of people change their lives. And I hope to be more famous than Seth Godin – with more hair. 
Reflecting On The Interview
Catherine, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule and answering my questions. I truly appreciate it.
Knowing Catherine and reviewing her answers, it’s obvious she is on a path to success. She knows when to dive in but also knows when to step back, regroup and/or relax. She’s not in it to get rich quick, but is building her new business venture on helping others to succeed. With her kind heart and concern for others, it’s inevitable she will be a star. Seth Godin, move over, Cath Lawson is on her way. 
Catherine has agreed to take questions from the BWAB readers. Feel free to leave your questions in the comment section and as time permits she’ll come by and provide answers. Keep in mind, she is in the UK and for us in the States, we’re dealing with a large time difference.
Again Catherine, I thank you!
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Don’t forget to visit Catherine at CathLawson.com. Dig through her archives and find the many treasures she has shared. Don’t forget to subscribe to her blog so you can stay abreast on her writings and be there when she releases her next product.
agreed to participate in my A.S.K. (Answers Sharing Knowledge) series, I wanted to know his answer. 
Hi. I'm Barbara Swafford and I'd like to welcome you to Blogging Without A Blog. Grab a seat, share your thoughts and join in the conversation. 
What a great way to end the week. I am honored to have Tom Volkar, Life Work Coach at CoreU and author of Delightful Work sitting down for an interview.
After answering my questions, Tom has agreed to provide free coaching in the comment section. Let’s read what Tom has to say and then share our blogging or business challenges.
Welcome to Blogging Without A Blog (BWAB), Tom.
I promise to make this quick and painless.
Let’s get started.
1). As a small business career coach can you provide us with a short description of what you do and how it helps the person whom you coach?
I guide budding entrepreneurs in the pre-startup and startup phases of their authentic business launch. Some clients come to me needing to discover the business of their dreams and others come needing to validate their idea or strengthen it. We work together by phone and use firm accountability, deep discovery and unconditional encouragement to accelerate their progress. As a result my clients reach clarity and action sooner than they could have on their own.
2). As a business owner, how has having a blog helped your business?
It has shrunk the world by connecting me to clients in Australia, India and Sweden. But even more importantly blogging has accelerated the evolution of my business mastery and coaching philosophy.
3). So blogging has actually sped up your development as coach and business owner?
Yep. The frequent writing, (all in my seize-the-freedom-of-self-employment niche) has focused me to develop a greater arsenal of authentic business building tools. And that has made me more effective as a coach. By writing about and developing tools and exercises I’ve met bloggers who are also interested in joint ventures and community alliances.
4). A short time ago you offered a community building experiment with a free teleconference call for the readers of your blog. What was the purpose of this “experiment” and how did it benefit you and the participants?
The purpose was to increase connection through community building in three ways:
1). By agreeing to authentically comment on blogs that were new to the community members.
2). By posting a business or blogging challenge for all to see in the comments section.
3). By facilitating a mastermind group coaching experience, by phone, where we addressed those challenges.
It built traffic for everyone who actively participated and introduced players to other bloggers who enjoyed the common bond of authentic community building. It benefited me in actual business for my Authentic Business Discovery Course. But the main benefit is that I got to experiment and play with some great folks some of whom I got to coach in my comments section. I like it when readers present a challenge as a comment because as a coach I take a crack at solving their issue so that all can benefit.
5). Knowing the experiment was a huge success; will you be offering any free services in the future in which the readers of BWAB could participate?
Yes I have two no-obligation, group-coaching experiences scheduled right now.
One is a mastermind class on authentic marketing (by registering they’ll be notified for future community building experiments).
The other is a class titled, “Deciding What You Want: How to Get Off the Fence, Drive Through the Fog of Uncertainty and Commit”. Your readers are welcome to register for both at Delightful Work (the first two items in my middle column).
Well Tom, that ends the interview. I’m hoping it was as painless as I promised. I certainly appreciate your time and answers.
We’re going to turn this over to the readers of BWAB, but I can’t promise you they’ll make their challenges painless.
That ends the interview with Tom.
If you have any challenges or questions about coaching, business discovery or community building experimentation Tom has offered to coach you in the comment section (below) or at Delightful Work.
Thank you again, Tom.
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Be sure to visit Tom Volkar at Delightful Work or at CoreU. While there, check out his coaching testimonials.