Growing Your Business Like Famed 500-Mile Camino Walker Mark LeBlanc

In 2008, Mark LeBlanc walked the 500-mile Camino de Santiago pilgrimage across Spain. He went back in 2014 for a second walk and again in 2017.

In his career, LeBlanc has delivered more than 2,000 presentations and coached more than 1,000 agency owners, solopreneurs, and practice professionals.

In addition, he has conducted over 170 idea-packed retreats for full-time independent professionals called the Achievers Circle weekend retreat.

But the question is most often asked, "How did you walk 500 miles three times?" His answer: "Like growing a business, you can always take one more step."

During that first trek, he mediated on a simple message about growing businesses: don’t overthink it.

“There is no end to what you could do,” says LeBlanc. “Focus on what you will do in order to move your business forward and get the results you want.”

LeBlanc. CSP, CPAE likens business development to a long journey the owner must travel.

To help with that trek, he has authored or co-authored seven business development books, including the newly enhanced 25th-anniversary edition of his underground bestseller, Growing Your Business! (2024, Indie Books International).

Since it was first published in 1999, people have given copies of Growing Your Business! to friends, family members, prospects, and clients. Currently, more than 80,000 copies are in print.

(Special invitation: LeBlanc, chairman of the board of Indie Books International, will team with Henry DeVries and Devin DeVries to present a three-hour "Marketing With A Book Summit" on Friday morning, February 28, 2025, preceding the Agency Rainmaker Forum at the University of California, San Diego. Attending the workshop is free; you can attend the entire forum for $400 if you register before January 17).

At the Agency Rainmaker Forum, LeBlanc will deliver a keynote speech on "Growing Your Business!"

“Here are nine ideas to get you moving in the right direction,” says LeBlanc. They are:

·       Add a better signature line to your email template.

·       Change your voicemail message every thirty days.

·       Have something of value you can give away online or attach to an email.

·       Mail a personal note or card once a day.

·       Create a color PDF promotional piece you can provide in an instant.

·       Choose a target-rich environment for networking.

·       Sketch out a written profile of your perfect-fit customer or client.

·       Develop a newsletter or memo you can send quarterly or monthly.

·       When sending a note or email, keep your message short.

“These ideas may seem simple or too basic to be considered,” says LeBlanc. “Master these and move on to bigger and bolder strategies. The basics never go out of style and conspire to help build your brand and establish a strong foundation for success.”

LeBlanc shares a tenth idea, which he calls “the greatest marketing strategy in the world,” to get more referrals.

“There remains one strategy that rises head and shoulders above the rest,” says LeBlanc. “I call it the advocate strategy, which can be the least-cost, highest-return strategy you can implement.”

Here are eight action steps from LeBlanc “to get started in a small way” and move forward with the advocate strategy:

1. Make a list of five or more champions or cheerleaders of you and your work.

2. Create a series of connections to maintain a top-of-mind presence with these advocates.

3. Connect with them regularly, i.e., monthly or quarterly.

4. You can call, text, email, or mail something to your list of advocates.

5. Keep your message simple, and do not ask for referrals.

6. Invest zero to $100 or one to three hours per month on this strategy.

7. Maintain a list of under 25 and ideally keep it to 12 advocates.

8. Update your list regularly, adding or deleting one or two along the way.

“Readers of the original chapter of this book loved the simplicity of the strategy and yet made it more complicated than it needed to be,” says LeBlanc. “The more complicated they made it, the sooner they abandoned the strategy.”

Other books by LeBlanc are Never Be The Same (which he wrote after the first 500-mile Camino), Build Your Consulting Practice (with Henry DeVries), Defining You (with Kathy McAfee and Henry DeVries), Persuade With A Case Acceptance Story! (with Penny Reed and Henry DeVries), Rainmaker Confidential (with Henry DeVries and Scott Love), and Bringing In The Business (with David Goldman and Henry DeVries).

He has been a member of the National Speakers Association since 1983 and was its national president from 2007 to 2008. In 2006, he was inducted into the Minnesota Speakers Association Hall of Fame, and in 2017, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2018, he earned his CSP (Certified Speaking Professional) designation. In 2023, he was inducted into the NSA Speakers Hall of Fame (CPAE designation).

In 1997, the Minnesota Speakers Association created the Mark LeBlanc Award for outstanding service and presents it annually to a deserving member.

What next step should you take to grow your business? How could you get started in a small way?

Please share the most appealing idea to you.