We had the good fortune of connecting with Dianna Booher and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Dianna, what is the most important factor behind your success?
The single most important thing that has built my brand is providing practical, useful information in my books, keynotes, and training programs. When I started my business, I knew that selling was NOT my strength (although I’ve sold enough to build a great business and have been fortunate enough to sell the training branch of my business). But that’s really NOT what I set out to do. My driving force was something bigger–beyond a company. I truly wanted to do the research, validate that the processes or tools work, and then hand the information off to others. So the best platform to do that was book writing and publishing. To date, I’ve done that 48 times, selling all 48 books to Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, or McGraw-Hill. In addition to getting my messages out into the world, the book writing/publishing has always been my chief marketing tool. From the very beginning, corporations have hired Booher Research Institute to deliver training, keynotes, and personal coaching based on my published books and articles. Fully 78 percent of all my leads come from my writing. All other products and services flow from the content in my books. So you can easily see that writing helpful, inspirational books have been my passion as well as my paycheck!

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
During my 35 years as a writer of both nonfiction and fiction, I’m most honored by recognition from my peers in the speaking business and fellow writers: –Induction into the Speaker Hall of Fame (by the National Speakers Association) –Rankings on various bestseller lists –an ALA award (American Library Association) for best nonfiction of the year –Lifetime achievement award from ATD (Association for Training and Development)–Dallas chapter –Richtopia’s list of “Top 200 Authors in the World” But my writing journey has NOT been glamorous. In fact, I did not even select this path with a noble goal. In starting out, I was a young mom with two toddlers trying to figure out how to make a living as my husband struggled with severe depression. A friend asked, “What would you like to do?” My response: “I don’t know. Back in school in I liked to write English papers. But how can you make a living doing that?” His answer: “Find out.” So I did–thanks to many great how-to writing books on the market at that time. Once corporations started calling me to teach their employees the skills I wrote about in my books, I had to start building a company to “back-fill” all the opportunities. Out of that challenge was born Booher Research Institute, a communication consulting and training firm. Lessons learned during the years include these: –Never take shortcuts on quality. –Hire great people you’d be honored to have representing you. –Learn from other people with more experience than you. –Do what you love. –Love your customers and your employees!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
–Cowboy Stadium –Dallas cowboy game –Texas Rangers game –Six Flags Over Texas –Downtown Fort Worth–“Cowtown” –Bob’s Chop House –The Winewood Restaurant –Reunion Arena –The “horses” art in Las Colinas

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’d like to give a Shoutout to the following: –ATD, the Association for Talent Development, for relationships in the training industry –NSA, the National Speakers Association, for encouragement and recognition in the field of speaking –Executives among my Fortune 500 clients who have shared their experiences with me to deepen my expertise in organizational and leadership communication

Website: www.BooherResearch.com
Instagram: DiannaBooher
Linkedin: LinkedIn.com/In/DiannaBooher
Twitter: @DiannaBooher
Facebook: Facebook.com/DiannaBooher
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqnoVzvx47SwObH_fq50kXw
Other: www.BooherBookCamp.com