Julia-Isabel Davenport comes from a long line of educators and entrepreneurs. As a child, she was either
playing teacher or store owner. She even made and sold necklaces.
Although the seeds for entrepreneurship were already there, after Julia-Isabel got her degree, like many Boomer women, she didn’t feel entrepreneurship was an option. “I was expected to get a job.” Which is exactly what she did.
And while her job as a “bean counter” wasn’t exactly a passion, it did allow Julia-Isabel time to work on her MBA. Her course work exposed her to marketing and entrepreneurship – tools that would lead her to her first business.
After she married, having a second income made it easier for Julia-Isabel to take a risk and start her first business – as a computer trainer. She partnered with different training firms for six years. But this still wasn’t quite her passion. “What I really enjoyed about this business was publicizing myself,” says Julia-Isabel.
Then she had the opportunity to take a Public Relations job for Census 2000. She took a chance and quit her computer training to accept the position. And discovered she loved it. She enjoyed all aspects of marketing and PR. And she was good at it.
After the 2000 census, it was time for Julia-Isabel to find another career so she began a job hunt. While she was looking for a job someone asked for help promoting their medical practice. Julia-Isabel took them on as a side project – something to keep her busy until she found another job. She never got another job. Word of mouth began to spread and soon she found herself starting a public relations company.
She focused on women and small business as the target audience for her newly launched PR firm. However, although Julia-Isabel enjoyed working with small businesses and they have a great need for publicity, many didn’t feel they could afford to pay for publicity. And they didn’t always understand how publicity works.
“I had the same discussion so many times I got tired of it,” Julia-Isabel says. “I’d explain how publicity works and then clients would be disappointed that one particular press release didn’t get published in the particular paper they wanted.”
In 2007 Julia-Isabel had a brain wave. Instead of doing PR for individual clients she would focus on teaching small business clients how to do their own PR. She started monthly networking meetings that are more like group coaching. Her Business Strategy LunchesTM usually has six to eight people in attendance. People come with their questions about publicity. It’s not a mastermind group because membership is fluid. Occasionally one or two people attend several months in a row, but usually people come only occasionally.
As part of her plan to teach people about publicity, Julia-Isabel has written How to Maximize Your Publicity and the Publicity Planner TM. She has joined the National speakers association as a professional speaker and holds seminars to help people tell their stories to the media.
For clients with more money than time she continues to offer publicity services, but at a higher rate than when she first started out. In fact, she doubled the price. “The same day I doubled the price and mailed my existing clients I got a call for PR,” said Julia-Isabel. “I told them about the increase and they said okay.”
How does Julia-Isabel handle her own publicity?
“I have a marketing plan,” she says. “The biggest part of my marketing is the PR. I look at my marketing plan twice a year. But I update my publicity plan monthly. I send out at least one press release per month and sometimes as many as three.”
Clearly Julia-Isabel practices what she preaches.
Andrea J. Stenberg
If you want to learn more about how to use publicity for promoting your small business, join me and Julia-Isabel on July 29th for another edition of Andrea’s More Effective Marketing Podcast recorded before a live teleseminar audience.
