What happens when an award-winning staffing business owner sells her practice and starts a resume writing and career coaching business? Success that translates into great start up and growth secrets for career industry entrepreneurs! My recent guest, Beverly Smith, did just that, starting a 2nd career in resume writing and career coaching from the farm she and her husband moved to after selling the staffing business. With her business know-how she recognized immediately that learning from an industry expert would be beneficial so she joined CDI, completed the Resume Business Roadmap program ..read more

LinkedIn changes so fast that the CDI Education committee felt it was time to bring you the new and the next by updating our Profile Writing tip sheet with an all-new done-for-you, white-labeled job seeker tip sheet that is free to you and can be customized, given away, bundled, or sold. This LinkedIn profile writing tip sheet is a DEEP DIVE, sharing everything both you and your clients/prospects need to know to creative effective, winning profiles. In fact, there’s so much involved in this 9-page tip sheet that we believe that sharing this (for a fee) with a client who doesn’t select a compr ..read more

I’m pleased to introduce my most recent guest and former private consulting client, Brenda Bernstein of The Essay Expert, who knows a lot about success secrets and growth strategies for resume writers and career coaches. Some of her achievements include transitioning from a public law career to found her business 15 years ago where she now sells senior-level executive resume writing packages for $5K and attracts the best writers in the industry to subcontract for her. She says her business has allowed her to contribute to her retirement while also independently qualifying for 2 mortgages. I’l ..read more

My guest, Cliff Flamer of BrightSide Resumes, truly offered some fantastic start up and growth tips and secrets for career industry pros, stating he hasn’t had to sell his resume writing and career coaching services for over a decade. A former recruiter who’s judged and won TORI resume writing awards and the coveted World’s Best Resume Writer competition, he also ranks CDI a 10 out of 10 for how much member resources and support have played in his success. Below you’ll find written tips from Cliff, including some he didn’t share in the interview, the replay, valuable free and member’s only to ..read more

My guest, Deborah L. Schuster of The Lettersmith, joined CDI four years ago as a 20-yr industry veteran and then discovered numerous other success secrets that apply whether you are starting up or trying to grow your resume writing or career coaching practice. With the 24th annual TORI resume writing awards now open, this interview is timely since she says that joining CDI was one of the best things she ever did for her business. Even after such a lengthy and successful career, what she learned about graphic resume design restored her joy in resume writing and led to her winning several TORI ..read more

When it comes to organizing and coordinating clients and projects in your resume writing and career coaching business, it makes sense to see if there’s an app that can help you. But too often they’re complicated or you end up using multiple for different needs… Asana does this… Evernote does that… Calendly does this… Trello does it that way… Should you have a separate ‘serious’ CRM…? Between multiple solutions in multiple places and the time and learning curve to learn complex solutions, it’s easy to just hit pause. But then you don’t have the benefit of saving time, being organized, and havi ..read more

My guest, Sandra Allison, has some great start up and growth secrets to share as a self-employed resume writer and career coach from her journey from ‘retired and unemployable’ to ‘successful business owner at 70’. She says she’s redefining the vision of grandma in business as she helps Board and C-Suite candidates in 22 countries meet their resume writing and career coaching needs in the industries of tech, finance, and pharma. As her fifth business, started after retirement, there’s a wealth of knowledge coming your way about business and about challenging resume projects and clients. Keep ..read more

Landing huge, nationwide contracts for resume writing services and creating programs used by companies, universities, and the military are just some of the areas in which my next guest, Grant Cooper, will share start up and growth secrets as a self-employed resume writer and career coach. There is so much gold in this interview! One viewer commented: “Thanks, Laura and Grant. Your talk will be increasing my ROI—and I’ve been at this since ‘94, too.” Keep reading for the interview replay, tips (that differ from those in the replay), and supporting resources to start up, build, and grow your bu ..read more

It’s time for more great business success secrets from my interview of career industry pro, Donna Shannon (they/them), who personally mentors their team of 5 resume writers, and has been the force behind their program/course creation and cultivation of a unique niche market. IMPORTANT! While we’ve shared seven (7) start up and growth tips for resume writers and career coaches from Donna below, there are several more that you can ONLY learn if you watch the replay!! Keep reading for her interview replay, tips, and supporting resources to start up, build, and grow your business! Again, don’t mi ..read more

This is Part I of a series. Initially it was one lesson but as it hit ten pages when not yet half way written, I knew it needed to be split up and expanded for you in smaller, more digestible pieces. Please be sure to watch for future installments.  BOBbing. Nope, that’s not a typo and it won’t make sense until you dig a ways down into this lesson. I did that for a reason because I want you to read this. In fact, if you are struggling in your business, you need to read this because I am trying to sneak past some beliefs that are holding you back from your awesome success. Originally I cal ..read more