Writing a Book to Grow Your Coaching Business: What Stacy Ennis Wants You to Know First
If writing a book has been sitting on your list for longer than you'd like to admit, you're not alone. For coaches and leaders, a book feels like the thing that will finally make everything click. The credibility. The clarity. The clients. And according to Stacy Ennis, bestselling author, book coach, and speaker with 17 years in publishing, that instinct is right. But the way most coaches go about it is where things go sideways.
In this episode of She Coaches Coaches, Candy Motzek sits down with Stacy, who has impacted more than 100 books, ghostwritten for a Nobel Prize winner in medicine, and spent nearly two decades helping coaches and leaders harness their unique story to make an impact. This conversation is for anyone who has ever thought seriously about writing a book and wants to know what it actually takes to do it well.
Why Writing a Book Is One of the Most Clarifying Things a Coach Can Do
Stacy doesn't oversell the book-writing process. She's clear about what it is. One of the most deeply introspective journeys you can undergo. And for coaches, that depth is exactly the point.
"Writing a book forces you to sit with your own thoughts. It forces you to clarify those thoughts. And then it forces you to put those thoughts in a manner that will be interesting and helpful for other people," she says.
For coaches in transition, whether that's leaving corporate, stepping into full-time coaching, or simply wanting to grow, the book becomes a vehicle for clarifying everything. The message. The niche. The framework. The stories worth sharing. Coaches who go through the process often emerge with language they didn't have before, frameworks they didn't know they had, and a confidence in their work that shows up immediately in how they speak about what they do.
Stacy works with many people in transition. Former executives moving into consulting or coaching. Coaches expanding into new areas. People in retirement transition. And in almost every case, the book does more than they expected. Not just for their business. For them.
The Mistake That Trips Up Almost Every First-Time Author
The single biggest mistake coaches make when they sit down to write a book is skipping the outline. Or doing a thin version of it and diving straight into writing because they're excited and they want to feel like they're making progress.
Stacy spends up to two months on outlining with her clients. The result is a 15 to 30-page map of the entire book. And here's what she says always happens at about the halfway point.
At 20,000 words with 30,000 still to write, you need a map. Not a perfect map. Routes will change. You'll take a left turn instead of a right. But without that map, the halfway point of a book is where most authors stop, never to return.
The ideation and outlining process is also where Stacy pushes back hard on AI. She's watching the same AI-generated outlines land in her inbox over and over again. Same structure. Same vanilla language. Same disconnection from the person who was supposed to write it.
"The book is already within you," she says. "You don't need to look elsewhere to find it. It's already there."
Starting inside, with your own story, your own ideas, your own expertise, is the only way to write a book that actually sounds like you.
How Coaches Are Using Books to Leave Corporate
One of the most useful parts of this conversation is Stacy's insight into how coaches in corporate are using books strategically to make the leap to full-time coaching.
She shares the story of a client who was an attorney in a leadership role at a law firm while also running her coaching practice on the side. She wrote her book, codified her process, and used it to step fully into coaching. Her book didn't just document what she already did. It gave her the clarity and confidence to do it at a higher level.
The key question Stacy asks every author at the beginning of the process is this. What is the right book for right now that will help you achieve your big vision?
Not the book you want to write eventually. Not the book that covers everything. The book that acts as a catalyst for the specific next move you want to make.
And here's the thing most coaches don't realize. You can start marketing and building your audience from the very first day you start writing. You don't need to wait 18 months for the book to be published. You announce it on LinkedIn. You share the process. You build community around the ideas. By the time the book launches, you already have people who want it.
Why Rushing Your Book Is Almost Always Fear
This is where Stacy is at her most direct. Coaches come to her saying they need to get the book done by the end of the year when it's already March. And almost every time, it's not because there's a real deadline. It's because they're afraid that if they don't do it fast, they'll abandon it.
"They would rather do sometimes a worse job on the book to get the book done faster," she says.
The timeline she recommends is 18 months. Sometimes up to 24. That gives you time to outline properly, write with depth, go through an editorial process, find beta readers, and build momentum before the book even launches.
The exception is a real strategic reason. A keynote booking where the organization will buy 5,000 copies. A conference with a specific date. When there's a solid why, you work with it. When the why is fear of failure or fear of abandonment, you address that first.
What Creative Practice Has to Do With Coaching
One of the more unexpected threads in this conversation is about creative practice and how it shapes not just writing but the quality of a coach's thinking and work.
Stacy talks about the lifestyle design strategies her clients adopt when they're writing a book. Reducing screen time in the morning. Protecting discretionary time before the inbox opens. Creating the space in which deep work actually becomes possible.
These habits don't go away after the book is finished. They become the foundation for better strategic thinking, deeper client work, and a more sustainable way of building a business.
Stacy also pushes back gently on the idea that everyone needs to create at the same time or in the same way. She's currently working on a book about creative productivity and is particularly interested in how neurodiverse brains work and how the standard advice around morning routines and consistency doesn't always apply to everyone the same way.
"A lot of the research that's been done on creative productivity has been done on neurotypical humans," she says. "And I think we don't talk about that enough."
For coaches working with a wide range of clients, this is worth carrying into your practice. There isn't one right way to do the deep work. There's the way that works for the specific human in front of you.
Key Takeaways
- Writing a book is one of the most clarifying things a coach can do. It forces you to understand your message, your framework, and your story in a way nothing else does.
- Skipping or shortchanging the outline is the single biggest mistake first-time authors make. A 15 to 30-page outline before you write a single chapter changes everything.
- The right book for right now is the one that acts as a catalyst for your specific next move, not the book that covers everything you know.
- Rushing a book is almost always fear in disguise. The right timeline is 18 months. Sometimes up to 24.
- You can start marketing and building your audience from day one of writing. By launch day, your community already knows the book is coming.
Ready to Build a Coaching Business That's Actually Yours?
Grab the free course, Stop Guessing and Start Signing Clients, and get clear on your next step: https://candymotzek.lpages.co/vfo/
Download the free Coaching Business Insights Report 2026 for real data on what's working for coaches right now: https://candymotzek.lpages.co/business-growth-survey/
Are you done faffing about? Get the help you need to build your business. Book a free 30-minute call: https://stepintosuccessnow.com/
About Stacy Ennis:
Stacy Ennis is a bestselling author, book coach, and speaker on a mission to help leaders clarify their ideas and harness their unique story to make an impact. Her background includes impacting more than 100 books in her 16-plus years in publishing, ghostwriting for a Nobel Prize winner in medicine, and leading as executive editor of Sam's Club's Healthy Living Made Simple, a publication that reached around 11 million readers. Stacy's work and writing have been featured in Yahoo!, Inc., Insider, Publisher's Weekly, Katie Couric, and the TEDx stage. She is also the host of the podcast Beyond Better and holds a master's in writing and editing from the University of Cincinnati.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stacyennis/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stacylynn/
Free Gift: https://stacyennis.com/10things
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