Judith Sherven, PhD and Jim Sniechowski, PhD are a husband and wife psychology team and best selling authors of 6 books, including #1 bestseller The Heart of Marketing – Love Your Customers and They Will Love You Back (Morgan James Publishing, 2009).
They’ve been marketing online for only five years (starting when Judith was 61 and Jim was 63) and are best known as the leading voice for soft sell marketing, producing the only Internet marketing conference for service providers, which they call “Bridging Heart and Marketing.”
Their Soft Sell Marketers Association is an international hub for Soft Sell training and support. They also provide their popular course, Soft Topic Copywriting Secrets. And they developed the only course for the true beginner – First Step Internet Marketing.
In the realm of success-building, their program ”Overcoming the Fear of Being Fabulous” continually wins testimonials from around the world.
They’ve consulted to hundreds of corporations and organizations including: The Walt Disney Company, New York State Nurses Association, Catholic Charities, Society of American Florists, Pittsburgh State University, and the Graham & James Law Firm.
As guest experts they’ve been on over 2100 television and radio shows including Oprah, The View, 48 Hours, CNN, and Canada AM.
They’ve written for or been interviewed by hundreds of publications including the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, USA Today, the Boston Globe, Wall Street Journal, Reason, Cosmo, O, Essence, Bridal Guide, Men’s Health, Redbook, Ladies Home Journal, Playboy, Women’s Day, Black Men, Family Circle, Parents, Brides, Today’s Black Woman, and Best Life.
What are you working on right now?
“Service Providers — How To Fix Your Top 10 Website Mistakes!” (an eBook and Teleseminar Series), Expanding the Benefits and Services we provide at Soft Sell Marketers Association, and producing “Bridging Heart and Marketing IV for the Fall.”
3 Trends that excite you?
- Soft Sell, Heart-based Marketing.
- The large influx of Boomer Service Providers coming into Internet Marketing with their life changing gifts.
- The growth of spiritually-oriented perspectives on global commerce like Conscious Capitalism.
How do you bring ideas to life?
By listening to our deep knowing when it speaks to us through word images that answer questions we are continually asking about how business and marketing can be made more “buyer friendly” rather than “Buyer Beware.”
What is one mistake that you made, and what did you learn from it?
Spending volumes of money on IM “teachers” who weren’t the least bit skilled in training raw newcomers. We learned that we needed to become the teachers for raw newcomers to Internet Marketing (which we have both through Soft Sell Marketers Association and our course First Step Internet Marketing) – because we will never forget what it was like to struggle and rage, make a bit of headway only to discover we’d wasted more time and money on stuff we’d tried before – aarrrggghhh.
What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
Never underestimate the idea of simplicity and one step at a time. Most people coming into Internet marketing need to park at least 30 IQ points at the door of the room where they have their computer in order to take the basic actions needed at that time – instead of running with their most exciting new super-duper, wild, fortune-making idea. When you view the challenges of IM as a form of “spiritual therapy” – it’s all worth it!
Where will all of this take us 5 years from now, 10 years from now? Because we plan to make 80 the new 50!
In 5 years we will have established Soft Sell, Heart-based marketing as THE marketing voice of care and consciousness – and it will be the most buyer-friendly and widely trusted approach to customers worldwide. In 10 years – when we are respectively Judith (76) and Jim (78) we will be the leading voice for the Zoom-Zoom Boomers — who are more alive, more productive, and more planet-friendly than any Wise-Elder Group has ever been before — and at an older age!
What are all the duties to reasonably expect from an Operations Manager (which we need!)?
For our Operations Manager we need someone who is:
- Service-Oriented AND a Good Business Person
- Super Tech Savvy
- Has good People Skills and can become a gifted Affiliate/JV Manager
- Skilled with Keywords, SEO, and PayPerClick Advertising Campaigns
- And able and willing to Manage our Outsourcing Team
- Put that altogether in one person and we will have an excellent Operations Manager
Connect:
The Heart of Marketing: Love your customers and they will love you back
Soft Sell Internet Marketing Conference
Mario Schulzke is the Founder of ideamensch, which he started a decade ago to learn from entrepreneurs and give them a platform for their ideas.