High-profit
Products:
Marilee Driscoll
LTC123
WWW.MARILEEDRISCOLL.COM
Basic business model profile: Speaking, consulting,
supplemented with subscription service products and
newsletter products.
Years using this model: Steadily evolving for 12 years
General range of annual income: $100,000-$500,000
Staff: “No full-time staff, but a couple of critical contractors, particularly my graphic designer—I’d be dead in the
water without her.”
Number of speaking dates per year: 40 to 50
Marketing efforts: “When I’m in front of an audience, I
get permission to email them. Once or twice a month, I
send a content-rich email that helps them and conveys
the benefits of using my subscription service.”
Why you chose/developed this model: “I listened to
other speakers and learned that ongoing subscriptions to
consumable products worked well. I also listened to what
my audiences were asking me for, and what they valued.”
Basic business philosophy: “Over the years, you realize what your particular talents are, what you enjoy and
what people value. Avoid the mistake I made early on:
having too many fingers in too many pies. Leverage what
they call ‘your highest and best use’ in the real estate
business.”
Pros and cons of the model: “If I’m talking to someone
in my target market, even if they don’t hire speakers, they
might need consulting or a way to keep in touch with
their contacts (my newsletter company). But if I stopped
speaking, my model would eventually fall apart—the
prospects would all dry up.”
How speaking fits into the model: Since 1999, speaking went from 100 percent of revenue to about a third.
“All spe
says Ma
for your
won’t b
make a
For Dri
reinventio
from 100
of speakin
ucts), and
to Long-Te
realize it’s
writing sk
term care-my writing
ucts back
me to pres
ucts at the3akers have ADD and a million ideas,”
rilee Driscoll. “The key is to answer
self ‘What can I use effectively that
ore me to tears, and that I can use to
living?’”
scoll, that also means being in a constant process of
n. In the past dozen years, her repertoire has evolved
percent speaking engagements to one third each
g, consulting (on marketing/public relations/prod-products. “I’d written The Complete Idiot’s Guide
rm Care Planning,” she says. “It took a long time to
great topic, but a lousy topic for speaking. But my
ills are highly valued by long-related businesses. I started
-based subscription prod-in 1999, which is what led
enting on high-profit prod-
NSA National Convention
in Atlanta a few years ago.”
But before you get the idea that you
can get rich from the comfort of your
living room couch, think again. “The
biggest misconception is that you can
sell products from your house without speaking,” Driscoll says. “Unless
you’re an Internet marketing guru, the fact that you’re out
there speaking is what gives you permission to be in touch
with audience members and to bring them products.”
Driscoll offers three product lines by subscription: The
first, a monthly ghostwritten press release program started in
1999, enables insurance agents to drive publicity with minimal
effort. The second, started in 2005, is sponsorship to “
Long-Term Care Planning Month,” which includes a Web site listing
and a variety of other benefits ( www.LTCmonth.com). Earlier
this year, Driscoll became an equity partner and creative director of a company that produces print and electronic newsletters for long-term care insurance agents to send to their clients. Her speaking, weekly newspaper column on long-term
care, and monthly press releases support all the ventures.
“It’s a cool business, even if it takes me a little further
from speaking,” she says. “One of the advantages of a newsletter is that it’s consumable. I love the idea of products that
involve long-term subscriptions—if you deliver a good product, your clients are never going to cancel.”
