We recently connected with Leah Forney and have shared our conversation below.

Leah, appreciate you joining us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

2015 was the year that God laid it on my heart to write my first book. I knew nothing about writing and publishing a book. I didn’t know many authors either. I decided to be obedient to the nudge of the holy
spirit and started writing. In 2017, I published my first book, “Unapologetically Me: Living, Owning, and Walking in My Truth,” in which I told the story of my complex relationship with my mother. Little did I know that book would be the catalyst that God used to start my entrepreneurial journey.

Once the book was published, I had to figure out how to get it into the hands of so many people. I wanted to make an impact, but I was unsure how to do so. I started researching ways to increase your exposure as an author. I came across an article that talked about the power of media and how to use it.  I decided to try using the media to grow my audience and get more exposure.

It worked. My first media interview came as a result of responding to a social media post. It was a late-night radio interview where I spilled the unfiltered truth about forgiving my mom and accepting her addiction.

It was then I realized the power of the media. I decided to teach myself how to master the art of pitching for media interviews. As I got more and more media attention, I found myself becoming an expert in this area. I started getting inquiries from other women entrepreneurs and authors who desired the same thing.

I created my coaching business in which I teach bold and ambitious women entrepreneurs how to become their own publicist without spending thousands on a PR company. It’s not just about teaching; it’s about
empowering women to unleash their stories for maximum impact.

Looking back on this adventure, I realize it all began with a book, a message, and my unapologetic voice. It was the book that helped me to discover the path that would lead to true and lasting impact.

Leah, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Absolutely. My name is Leah M. Forney, Your Media Domination Strategist. I have been in my industry of media and public relations for over 6 years. I always say that my book started my business. I am a service based business owner for bold ambitious women entrepreneurs who desires more media coverage, speaking invitations, and brand partnerships for their business. The main problem I solve for my clients is teaching them how to craft a compelling pitch and building their pitching confidence to successfully secure at least 2 media features, speaking invitations, and/or brand partnerships. My services is based on my proven framework that focuses on the 3Ps of Positioning, Pitching, & Profitability. The biggest thing that sets me apart from other coaches in my industry is that my approach teaches women entrepreneurs how to be their own publicist. Nothing against publicists, but when you are first starting your business, you don’t have thousands of dollars to spend on a publicist. The average publicist can cost you at least $3000 a month. My approach is to teach you how to pitch yourself and start boosting your own visibility so that you can make the money to one day hire the publicist. I am most proud of the impact that I continue to make. In 2023, I was nominated 13 times for various industry awards. It is an amazing feeling to know that my industry peers recognize the work that I do and feels as though the world should honor it. The main thing I want potential clients to know is that I offer a variety of services to fit every budget. Sometimes, we talk ourselves out of investing in ourselves because of money but I am the type of coach that cares more about impact and transforming the lives of my clients. That is something you can’t put a price tag on. So if you are interested in working with me, let’s have a conversation on how I can best serve you.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Absolutely, I have pivoted several times in my business. Before my coaching became what it is today, I was running from becoming a coach for 2 reasons. The first reason was I was a mental health clinician at the time and I didn’t want to have a business that was closely related to my professional work. The second reason was I felt like coaching industry was overly saturated. I wanted to do something that I could stand out in. When I finally decided to surrender to becoming a coach, I started off doing clarity coaching session. These sessions were designed to help mainly authors get clear about the book they wanted to write. From there, I started doing book writing coaching in which I would help aspiring authors write and publish their first book. I did this for a while because I was good at it but all I had experience in writing and publishing my own books. However, this type of coaching wasn’t fulfilling me. I started to feel like I was charging these authors money for information that they could Google. I decided to pivot again. This time, I started to focus on one area of book writing that I loved and that was audience attraction. I loved teaching about audience attraction and creating your ideal client avatar. I became so good at it that I would teach it at conferences that I was asked to speak it. It became one of my signature talks. I knew there was more to learn about this topic so I started researching even more and found the connection between audience attraction and visibility so I shifted to focusing on visibility coaching and coined myself the visibility activator for my unique ability to activate what is already on the inside of you. As I continued to learn and grow, I added the media component to my coaching business and that’s how my business started to focusing on media coverage, speaking invitations, and brand partnerships.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

Utilizing Other People’s Platforms has been the most effective strategy for growing my clientele. People underestimate the power of collaboration. I would say about 90% of my clients come from collaborations. Collaborations are very powerful and strategic if you utilize them that way. My definition of Other People’s Platforms is finding people who have similar audiences as you and figuring out a way to collaborate with them where it is mutually beneficial and you can get in front of their audience. A perfect example of this is my signature summit, Elevate Your Pitch. This summit allows for me collaborate with other powerhouses with similar niches and audiences. Each of my speakers brings their audiences to the summit and together we share our knowledge and expertise in a room of 50 to 100 people that may not have ever heard your name or your business. This helps you to boost your visibility, grow your email list, and expand your reach.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.leahmforney.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/@leah_m_forney
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/pitchlikeabawse
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leah-forney-3b089814/
• Other: Check out my podcast, Hey Queen, Thrive! wherever you listen to podcast.

Image Credits
My amazing photographer: Shenna Hair of Shair Photography