The inspirational story of my transformational journey from "poor social worker" to a successful private practitioner and marketing expert continues...

What? Me, Do My Own Marketing? You Must Be Joking!
I'm Just a Social Worker! Besides, I Despise Selling!

The first 15 years of my career, when I worked in non-profit grant-funded organizations, I used traditional social service marketing practices. When my parenting curriculum and book went nationwide, they took on a life of its own. I figured I'd better "get with the program" and learn how to market so I could give them the best chance of succeeding.

To my surprise, I learned that it doesn't matter if you self-publish or have a big company publish your book, the author is principally responsible for promoting the book! I had no choice but to get some training and assistance...and fast!

I attended a Book Marketing course taught by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, the authors of the Chicken Soup for the Soul book series, which is the undisputed publishing phenomenon of the century!

From the stage, Jack Canfield held up my 1997 home-printed version of The Parents Toolshop book and said to the audience, "Now this is a book that has the potential to be a best-selling series. Just imagine...The Divorced Parents Toolshop, The Single Parents Toolshop, The Grandparent's Toolshop, the possibilities are endless!"

Because of the size of my book (456 pages!), my desire to have control of the content and what I learned about publishers and their marketing expectations, I decided to self-publish my book and contracted with the best professionals represented at the conference that weekend to help me.

One company handled all the production and distribution issues and another was a public-relations firm for self-publishers who would guide the 2000 national launch of the professionally self-published The Parents Toolshop book.  This company, MarketAbility, not only represented me, but taught me how to do my own marketing. This was no easy undertaking! I had a hate-to-sell mentality so intense I had to be dragged kicking and screaming to complete even the tiniest task. But they gave me a lot of coaching, encouragement and training.

When our contract ended, I told Tami DePalma, MarketAbility's co-founder, that I still felt scared and insecure about marketing. She said, "Jody, you know how to market. You can do this! You just have to decide you want to."

About the same time, the economy faltered, and although my classes were the most popular and proven-effective parenting program in my community, with a waiting list of parents wanting to attend, my local parenting program's grant funding was cut.

Since parent education is my passion and purpose, I was determined to find a way to continue offering my programs, but now I had to do it as a private consultant and make them self-supporting.
 

I've Taken Extensive Marketing Training from the Experts,
and Already Weeded and Tweaked Cutting-edge Marketing Techniques
to Specifically Fit Helping Professionals' Needs.

Since 1992, I have attended dozens of marketing training programs presented by the leading marketing experts in the world and studied hundreds of marketing resources.

Every time, the focus was on commercial services to clients, who were quite different from the clients I served in a more "social service" practice.

Every chance I had, I explained the special needs of my clients and asked multi-millionaire marketing experts how to apply these skills in family-service professions where "selling" is a taboo turn-off. Almost every time, they shook their heads and said, "I think you need to change professions!"

Fortunately, I was so committed to helping as many families as I could that I became determined to figure it out myself. So with every concept and tool I learned, I tweaked and tested it until I found the best way to use it with family-service professionals' programs and resources.

I realized that almost all family professionals need to know how to do better the things they're already doing and they need to learn the marketing basics most helping professionals don't know. Most would also benefit from learning new strategies that could not only transform their clients' lives, but their own lives and careers in the process!
 

Can You Believe it?
Now Other Family Professionals Are Asking Me for Marketing Advice!

As I shared what I had learned with other parent educators, I was soon asked to present workshops on marketing at national parent educator conferences throughout the U.S.

Between 2002 and 2005, I presented 3-6 hour workshops on marketing at six parent educator conferences throughout the U.S. and a day-long staff training for a statewide non-profit agency.

At each workshop, I got standing-room-only attendance, rave reviews and requests for more training and information. So I started selling Marketing Magic, the 31-page handout from my full-day workshop.

In addition, I have been writing marketing-tips articles for the quarterly newsletter for Certified Family Life Educators, published by the National Council on Family Relations. (Read them soon in the upcoming "Integrity Marketing Article Series.")
 

Then...a Life-Changing Event...
Internationally-Known, Highly Respected Marketing Experts
Asked Me to Serve on Their Leadership Team!

By 2005, I was in the process of developing a more comprehensive marketing training program for family-service professionals (Integrity Marketing) when I discovered three training programs that totally transformed my professional practice and personal life.

90-Day Product Factory and Web Traffic School are co-taught by Michael Port, author of the proven-effective training program and best-selling book, Book Yourself Solid and Mitch Meyerson, psychologist, author of the Oprah-endorsed book "When Parents Love Too Much," and developer of the "Guerrilla Marketing" and "Create The Life You Desire" programs. Mitch was the first person I'd ever known who was both a successful parenting author and marketing expert and I wanted to get "booked solid," so I enrolled in their courses to learn Mitch and Michael's secrets.

Through these programs, I connected with and learned from professionals in diverse fields worldwide. They gave me a wealth of knowledge, wisdom, resources, support and personalized advice and brainstorming.

But out of almost 150 people in that first program, The Product Factory, there were only 3 parenting professionals, including myself. So we formed a mini-team and met weekly to discuss how to apply all we were learning to parenting professionals' and their clients' needs.

I won the Outstanding Leadership award in that first program and for the next two years was repeatedly invited to serve on the leadership/training teams for all three of Mitch & Michael's programs. This provided me with personalized coaching from Mitch & Michael.

I shared some of the special challenges family service professionals face and learned how to apply their principles and strategies in ways I could succeed and feel authentic and ethical in the way I marketed my programs and resources.

Mitch was the first marketing expert ever to passionately reassure me that parenting professionals absolutely can be successful and prosperous without charging prices and fees that would make the services out of reach for indigent parents! Then he and Michael told me how...and every time, their advice worked!

When Michael Port asked me to serve as the Team Leader's Team Leader for his Book Yourself Solid program, I realized he had already developed a proven-effective system that taught almost everything I had planned to teach in my not-yet-developed Integrity Marketing™ program.

Rather than "reinvent the wheel," Michael gave me permission to develop a special program for family-service professionals that is independent of, but based on Book Yourself Solid, adding bonus content that addresses the special challenges we face and the special needs of our clients.

Michael is supporting me in this new endeavor by allowing me to co-teach the April-August 2007 Book Yourself Solid program and lead a team primarily comprised of family service professionals. We all will follow the standard course, but through our team calls, we will discuss the special issues we face and devise possible solutions and strategies all family service professionals can use to market their programs.

CLICK HERE to Join my BYS team...