The Time to Launch Your Life-Changing Membership is Now! – Interview with award-winning online marketer Dr. Mary Barbera

Melissa: Welcome to our special membership site interview series, where Paul and I interview successful online entrepreneurs about their membership sites, marketing and selling them and learn a little bit more about their own entrepreneurial journey. So today we're talking to Dr. Mary Barbera. 

Mary's membership focuses on helping families and children with autism and in today's interview she shares a little bit about her personal story and how she came about to build an amazing business that focuses on that and helps so many families all around the world. 

And what we love about this interview too, is Mary shares a little bit about her business and how she really has continued to ask for feedback from her audience to create better programs really strengthen her membership and really the families, what they need and what they're asking for and what they need help with. 

And I think that's an important lesson for all of us to always ask for feedback from our students and our members and our clients. So let's go ahead and dive into today's interview. 

Paul: So Mary we're so excited that you came on the show today.

And I know all of us are very busy and I know you're, you're definitely busy, especially the, the lives that you're impacting on an ongoing basis. I think that's what touches Melissa's and I heart all the time is that in this online marketing space, we talked a lot of people that are entrepreneurs and are outgoing and doing all the things.

But it's the ripple effect. It's like, you are actually impacting families lives. And if I recall, I believe this journey started with your own journey, your own personal journey. And I was just wondering if maybe you could share a little bit of that with everyone. 

Mary: Sure. So it was way back in the late 1990s.

And my husband, who's a physician first mentioned the possibility that my then 21 month old son, Lucas might have autism. And he was a really, just a quiet child. I didn't know really anything about autism. 

You know, the internet wasn't really even a thing in normal households. So. I looked at him in shock and I told him it wasn't autism.

I didn't know what it looked like it a baby, but it definitely wasn't autism. And then I never, ever wanted to hear the word autism again. And that was back in like 1998 and fast forward. I have a 25 year old with moderate, severe autism intellectual disability needs lifelong 24 7 care. And I mean, there's a whole lot more to that journey, you know?

he, Lucas is, is really a joy he's, you know, he can talk, he can request his needs. He's he can dress himself, he could shower, he's toilet trained, you know, it's not like, oh, from there to there. I mean, but so all along the whole journey I just became more and more out of necessity and expert in autism.

I was really pretty horrified at the level of expertise anybody had. Pediatricians were missing their early warning signs. Speech therapists were, you know, working on things that were way too hard, not working on the right things. I didn't know what to work on. I didn't know anything. 

But I quickly learned and became a board certified behavior analyst in 2003 wrote a best-selling book. My first book, the verbal behavior approach, how to teach children with autism and related disorders was published in 2007. It's available in 14 languages. I've traveled around the world. Earned a PhD in 2011.

And then just this past spring published through hay house "turn autism around", which is an action guide for parents of young children with early signs of autism, kind of going back down the mountain from helping all kids with autism, which I'm still doing to really target those parents who are either in denial, on waiting lists and, or, or they just have a child that it's going to be a speech delay.

It's going to be maybe ADHD. It might be autism, but getting them at that 21 month age where come full circle, you know, I, if I would've known all the things I could have done to help Lucas back then, I really believe that his life would be dramatically different. I really believe that he would be conversational.

He would be potentially able to live independently. I mean, who knows nobody has, I always say nobody has a crystal ball to look forward or backward. And you just do the best you can with the information you have. So all along. The journey really I, I just became more and more expert and in the process joined the online marketing world, which is where I met you, paul and Melissa. 

'cause I also, that's basically what I do now. I'm a full time online marketer and I am also an award-winning online marketer winning Jeff Walker's launch club spokesperson of the year back in 2017. So that's really my journey in a nutshell, I know that. I just blasted like a ton of . Information , but that's basically, my journey is like first it was autism that it was the book, it was PhD.

And then it was my online world. 

Paul: It's interesting. Cause you know, in the, in the online world, we, everybody talks a lot of times about, you know, being an expert in like sharing your knowledge and expertise. And I think all of us have a similar, like not exact journey, but similar journeys you that there's something that impacted us in our life.

We weren't the expert in that moment, we actually sought experts. And then there was a . Moment of discontent or awareness that is like, The information I need doesn't exist. So we're out hunting and, and, and in your time in space, there, there wasn't a Google immediately to go type into and have thousands of resources all over the place.

But I can only imagine that even to today, like you stepping into this role and really owning it and just the ripple effect, because now there is that parent that's in the moment that you were back in late 1990s, that is probably in Google or in YouTube, like typing in the exact words that you were thinking in that moment.

And I, and I caught it in the languaging like you even didn't want to hear the label of, of what the diagnosis was at the time, because there was like a stigma and that's probably where a lot of your parents are caught, you know, right in that moment. 

And they're seeking an expert. And it's interesting, a lot of us, when it comes to being an expert, that's what it sounds like in your journey is that it's really a sticking with the thing that, that we're trying to learn ourselves.

And we're just so immersed into it that one day you blank and you wake up because I'm pretty sure if I recall correctly, that, that wasn't the intentional thing to be an online marketer and to have, you know, information products and multi, you know, bestselling books and, and speaking on stages around the world.

You know, think you used there referenced . Somewhere along the line of like either not accidental entrepreneur or accidental membership site owner. If I recall. 

Mary: I, I learned a lot. I learned a lot in the online space. So when I got my PhD in 2011, it's in leadership and people are saying, okay, so what are you going to do now?

And I said, I have to figure out how to get this message out online, because back then in the 2003 to 2009, 10 11. I was going door to door, seeing kids in their homes. I was traveling around the world which was hard for me because I had, I had not only I've Lucas, but I have Spencer who's 18 months younger than Lucas.

And he's 24 now. And he's a med school in New Orleans. So You know, it was hard for me to travel with my kids at home, especially Lucas who needed a lot of care. And then I get somewhere, got to Germany where I was doing, translated talk was, so I was saying words and then that was translating, you know, cool stuff, but there's like 60 people in the audience.

And then I go home and I'd be working, you know, one-on-one with mom and the OT would come in. I'm like I have a step-by-step solution to help millions of people and I have to get it out. So that's really what prompted me to really seek the online space early and invest in it, invest in mentors like Jeff Walker and, and group coaching programs.

And there were people before him, there are people, you know, invest in online training to learn how to do a webinar, online training to how to set up a video studio in my house, 

Literally took a course how to create a video studio online. And then of course I get all this equipment and boxes and the course doesn't show me how to hook it up. And I am not a technical person at all.

So my, my good friend, you know, she came over and she helped me, you know, and so all along, I've been, you know, alright, I have, you know, $5,000 worth of equipment. I need somebody to help me set up. 

Paul: Yeah. So it's, it seems like your entire journey has been resiliency. It's just like you don't, you don't have all the answers when you made the commitment when you made the decision, but you knew it was the right way to go and you were going to figure it out.

Yeah. Each time you weren't necessarily completely prepared. I think a lot of us, whether it's marriage or a child or a career change or anything in life, or like, oh, we've got to wait till we're ready. And it's like, life doesn't play out that way. 

Melissa: I would love to hear, because you've been talking about that journey.

What was that first launch like for you when you just said, when you decided to make that leap and go into the online space. Tell us a little bit what that was like. Cause I think so many times we see all these successes of people and it's like, oh my gosh, they have it all figured out. But like Paul was saying that resiliency that you had to kind of figure it all out.

So can you walk us back and tell us what that first launch was like for you when you made that leap onto the online space? 

Mary: Yeah. So between 2011 and 2014, I was dabbling finding people here and there again. I mean, the internet was, was hopping at that point. Facebook was a thing at that point. 

But it was like, I bought a little course from Brendan Bouchard and I bought this, this little membership site where I could download things. I was, I was tinkering, I wasn't spending tons of money. And then I read Jeff Walker's book launch in the fall of 2014. I remember it because I was on my way to Germany to speak.

And on the way there on the way back, I've read the book and not only read the book, like devoured the book, took eight pages of typed notes and decided, okay, I am doing this. 

And in March of 2015, I did a seed launch, literally taking like page, whatever, write an email like this. I, because of my first book, I . Did have a list of a thousand or 2000 people. 

Over time it took me, like, I think I figured out one time it took me like eight years to get a list of 2000. And then, you know, I was up to, you know, 40,000, I'm up to over a hundred thousand now. I've been over a hundred thousand for years and I keep, you know, cleaning the list and you know, that sort of thing.

But anyway, so 2015, I did a seed launch which is really, I think the absolute best way to go, because it basically is. You know, you write an email to your list saying, Hey, I'm thinking about creating this thing what's your , you know, two top struggles and it, it serves as a, Hey, I'm going to do this.

And if you want to hear more, you know, participate and kind of on the alert. So I had no idea. I created it kind of as I went, but I didn't do it live. I, I recorded each module as I went. And you know, every week I created the new module and that course is still up and running and being sold every day.

But anyway, I didn't know if I was gonna get three people or if I was going to get a hundred, 300, I had no idea. And I got a about I think if it was 50 people and I made. Almost $20,000 in the first launch. 

And so I was off to the races created a Facebook group. And then yeah, from there, it was, that was cohort one.

And I end with my accidental membership, people from that cohort. I just interviewed somebody on my podcast. But I do have people paying me from way back in March of 2015, which is super exciting, 

Paul: you know, it's really exciting. Just little pieces of what you just shared is that, you know, you're talking a time span of over 10 years where the first eight years.

It took you that much time to build that email list up to that point, because I think a lot of people, these days, we want the easy button. We want the easy gratification and you see a lot in Facebook groups. People are like, okay, what one thing can I do where by the end of this month, I can have a thousand people on my email list.

And what's really interesting is that it took you like you, you built this is following . You know, you had people that are very low, you didn't make them an offer. You know, they might've saw you like speaking of banner, got your book or something along the way. 

in that first launch, you know, again, mentally, a lot of people are thinking, oh, if I have 2000 people, I'm going to get 2000 people that are going to buy my thing.

And it's like, even though you nurture these people for eight years, when you made that offer 50 people out of 2000 people that were very like very well nurtured, said yes to your initial offer. And if you didn't do that, You wouldn't have the ripple effect in the successes that you have today. Cause you referenced like now your email us over a hundred thousand, because for a lot of us we'd be like, oh my goodness.

A hundred that, oh wait. While you had to have the first 2000 that it took you that long to build in order to have the reality of the a hundred thousand now. Because I think a lot of us just think like, oh yeah. Oh yeah, they have a big email list. That's why their successful. And it's like, well, we all started with the first subscriber.

We all started with the first person that said yes. And it's really exciting to hear this journey. So, so you have the accidental membership now, so, 

Mary: right. So let me go back, just tell you how they accidental membership became a thing. So early on when I was doing this launch. You know, I'm following Brendan Bouchard, Amy Porterfield, all these big names who are using infusion soft.

So I bought infusion soft, like, you know, right in 2015, when I had no business in there, I'm still living. But they were all doing lifetime access and I was just like, I am not doing lifetime access. I don't even know if it's going to work. And one little thing, another thing I did. So in January before the March launch, another thing I did in January, which was kind of smart is I created an ebook and I sold it for $7 just to make sales online and to make sure it went through and, you know, somebody gets double billed for $7 and we had glitches like that. 

It was just kind of like to just test out the system and, and tweak things. But anyway so in March I got my first cohort of say 50 people. They were all, so I never gave them lifetime access.

I said it was going to be 60 days or 90 days something brief because really, I, I mean, I was a professional with a PhD. I was like, I don't even know if I'm gonna like this. Even if I get hundreds of people, I don't know that I'm going to want to play the long game on this or promise them any access to me or my materials long-term because I really was concerned that this was not going to be a long-term thing.

So at the end of the 60 days, they're all in the Facebook group got lots of engagement, you know, everybody's loving it. So then I said, okay, I'm going to enroll cohort two. 

Now cohort one, you can just stay and be nice and you can still have access. You just stay and be nice. Cohort two came in, then cohort three came in in the summer.

And by that time cohort one and cohort two, they were all still loving the material, but they were literally begging me to make another course, a course for intermediate learners, because my first book is all about programming for early learners, getting their first language, you know, potty training, hand-washing, you know, just very basic things.

And they knew, I knew how to do. Prepositions pronouns, how to teach reading math, writing, showering, how to teach shoe tying all these other things that were real issues. So I said to everybody, okay, I will create that, that it's going to take me a lot longer than the early learner course. So you pay me, you know, $150 to, to create that.

I think it was. And then also in order to stay around, I'm going to charge you $30 a month or 297 a year. I think I did the year right away. And that's the way the accidental membership was created in the fall. And I don't have numbers. I mean, I know people are still paying me. I mean, not a ton from 2015.

That's the way my accidental membership was, was formed is basically not offering lifetime access, which I still am a huge proponent on. That was one of the best business decisions I made because if people don't pay, they don't pay attention and have them have lifetime access to any of your materials.

My materials are really special too. In that I have videos of me working with kids with autism, kids without autism, like step-by-step. And so I also don't want to for copyright reasons don't want to give people free access for life because somebody may change their mind, not want their videos being shown.

And I won't have any control about that. 

Paul: what I picked up on also is again, we get into this expert status world and, you know, we, I think a lot of times we get tripped up on thinking that the only way we can sell a course or bring people into a membership is it has to be very advanced.

Oh, you don't. And really the bulk of the people that came into your world, one at that like stage zero information, that's stage one information. And then when you served and gave that to them, they, they loved you because you became their expert, like their person, you know, that, that guided the right way.

And there was this natural tension that was created by your program that then calls them to basically almost ask you to continue the journey with them. Cause they were like, we have all these fundamentals, like what's the next thing. It's like a starving audience sitting there waiting for you.

They're already like they're there. They love you. They don't want to go with any other resource at all. And then you just, you gave them the next step. You, you like open to relieve the tension that they had. You didn't even have to sell them. Like they were naturally, they were asking you, please keep going, please give us more.

And then this accidental membership came along and, and what's really beautiful. As a, as you were saying, Is that from 2015 until now, like there's not a ton, but there's some people that are still there. You probably have some people that are lifers, you know, that are just, so they just want to give back to you in like a reciprocal way, because you have impacted their lives.

They probably also are like ambassadors for you where they've been impacted by you. And now it's almost like having a free team member in there because like they want to help the next family out that went through the struggle that they went through. And then there's the lifetime value. Yeah, 

Mary: There are people that are, are actually Facebook advisers.

You know, some of them are free Facebook advisers. They, they don't get paid. They're just in there dabbling, but I do have community manager, who was my, you know, one of my best success stories ever. She's my community manager. She does a lot of work for us. I just brought on a second one who is being paid.

So yeah, the, the people that have had success are, you know, your ambassadors, they're, they're always posting or saying, Hey, look at this. Yeah. And then you can also hire people as contractors. 

Paul: Okay. Can I just quickly though, you had a mindset originally, because I think a lot of people are in this state, especially when they sell a course or an ebook or something that like.

Membership. I don't know, like you kind of referencing it earlier, like, oh, that's like a commitment. I don't know if I want to keep showing up and like serving. Was there anything that changed for you or did you just make a decision, a model, the membership, how you want it to serve to remember back then?

Mary: It, the membership really just was back then and kind of still is, is. You basically just stay, stay in the community. You stay with the resources, you stay with all the materials. And back then I did think like, oh God, I gotta do something every month to keep these people to engage. And I did create every month bonus video.

Cathy: So now I have a bank of 25 bonus videos, but then I stopped and I also did live and I still do live monthly coaching calls then after about a year of kind of being on that hamster wheel of creating new content every month at with, you know, PowerPoints and videos and embedded, and you know, it's a lot of work.

And so I kind of got off that hamster wheel of constantly creating new, new, new within the closed space and combined the Q and A calls with anything new. And then also, you know, at the same time I am starting in 2017, I started video blogs every week. Grew my YouTube channel to over a hundred thousand subscribers in the back.

So you know that, and then three years ago, in 2019 in January, I started my "turn autism around" podcast. So I mean, that's a lot of creation, right? Yeah. And so you can't, you can't just be on this hamster wheel of creation and that's one of the reasons why we're a membership where you're constantly, you know, you set it up so strict that you know, you, you have all these deliverables, it can then feel really heavy to, to continue.

So my advice for memberships is to keep it. Keep it a little light, especially a back-end membership. I think a back-end membership is a lot less a commitment especially. And the other thing I feel like I'm babbling a little bit, but I'm all on evergreen. And so the back-end membership also all on evergreen, it really fuels everything because there's not a cohort. 

Like everybody, there could be brand new or been there for five years and is serving as a mentor. They're still asking advanced questions here and there, which we can answer, but they're also serving as examples and as mentors to other people. 

 and also, I mean, it depends on the cost, you know, $30 a month or 297 a year.

Isn't that much to maintain your, membership to be supportive. And I think some of that, Paul, you said like reciprocity and just knowing like, Hey, I'm probably going to create some new stuff. And, you know, like I just interviewed a few people on my podcast that have been long-term members and stuff like that.

We serve both professionals and parents. And so I think the professional, see it as, Hey, I could stay in this group, you know, learn from . Mary, learn what new parents are asking, learn, you know, all those things. And stay for, for a really low price, but I haven't gone with anything, high price. I am just committing to my course.

I actually have two courses and I do want to talk about my, my third course. So I created that early learner course. 

Paul: Yeah. 

Mary: And then I created the intermediate learner course. So 2015, 2016 was my second course. It took me a whole year to create that course. 

And then I decided, you know, what my real passion is to help parents who have very little children who don't know if it's autism are scared or worried our dial on waiting lists. Because what I found over the years is the same exact four step process that I created works for kids with autism kids with speech delays, kids it's who could potentially get a diagnosis of ADHD kids.

You know, it doesn't matter. Even typically developing kids, this doesn't hurt anything. It increases talking, decreased tantrums improves eating, sleeping, potty training, going to the doctor's dentist, haircuts without a fuss. I mean, every child needs this kind of positive parenting. No bribes, punishment, threats.

It really is a whole system for parents of any child. So I, even though I had the raving fans of kids, you know, eight to 18 years of age, because that's how old my book is. Right. So it's like by raving parents at that point were mostly parents of older kids, but I was like, Nope, I'm going to I'm down the mountain.

I'm going to Raul, you know, gather up all the people with toddlers. 

Paul: Okay. 

Mary: And so that's when in 2017, I did another seed launch. I did see launch for all three of my courses. I did another seed launch. I created my toddler course. And that I did do live. I just said, okay, the toggle course is going to be, I don't know what I charged back then.

It was a lesser price than 497. And it was six weeks. Every week I do a live and then we have revised the toddler preschooler course about four or five times making it more step-by-step, you know, just really. Proud of that, of those revisions, hearing from people. I mean, we have, we have members that have joined my online community from 90 different countries, probably close to a hundred now.

But then that toddler preschooler course, I mean, literally, like you said, like changing lives, like literally every day, we're hearing You know, my child's said this or is talking now or, you know, whatever, and, people can't believe the transformation. And so it is really, it's just amazing.

Melissa: I love that you did it as a seed launch again, too, because you're really serving your audience and seeing what the problems they have. Cause too oftentimes where we see challenges that people have in the spaces. We have these great ideas, and then we just create content without really even asking our audience what they want.

But you went and you did the same format. Again, you, you surveyed them. You asked what they wanted and you created something just amazing. That's changing lives. 

Paul: Well, what I also love what you said and it's, so this is just an integrated part of you. It's interesting, like the mom and the moment that you were many years ago in the nineties and where you're at, and now you just, you know your person, you know the struggles, you know, the languaging now, and it's so easy for people to get caught up and be like, wow, you're like, you're so articulate about this.

You, you know, you're so smooth and it's like, because you lived it, you're, you're going through it. And, and also for you to be very open to say, you know what. I did a seed launch originally. So that means, you know, I've gotten feedback as I was building it. I didn't instantly come out with a second offer.

Like it was the pressure of your audience that was like, we want them to second thing. And that's when that was created a year later. So there was a year gap there that you allowed yourself to settle into that. And then it took more time after that for you now to come into this new opportunity because your, your audience did age, you know, and it's really interesting to think of that because some of us build an email list or build a following, and then we blink and it's a, it's like a little time later and our audience technically has matured during that period of time.

And it's like, you had to go back out and like create, and with this live launch pull a whole new group of people in that were at their day, zero or their day, you know, 100 or whatever, where they're living this reality of what they're going through because your natural audience grew up with you, you know, which is, which is a beautiful thing.

But then also sometimes we go to the well, and it's like, they, they already learned everything from us and they, they may not be part of our offer in the future. So in your willing. So also not only for that seed launch, but what you just said, because it's so easy for everybody to like, miss this as that.

You didn't have it perfect, you reiterated it several times since then. And I think a lot of us get caught up in perfectionism. Like, Nope, we have to have this thing done perfectly. Then we go into market and there's crickets because it's not based on what anybody actually wanted. And you're willing to take the market feedback through the seed launch, build it, knowing that it's not perfect.

You got more feedback as people went through it. You got a lot of aha's and it's just the iterations of where it is, you know, right now. That's, that's incredible. 

 

Now I was just curious if we were, you've done these seed launches and if we were able to go back to, I'm not, I'm not sure if it's the late nineties version of where you work.

Cause that was early in the journey. You didn't know you were going to monetize and do an online thing,

but is there, is there anything you would've done, you know, leaning into the online opportunities and where you're at now? Is there the wisdom and expertise that you have now in the, in the experience where you are now in this moment, if you're able to rewind back and go to when you are just starting either build your list or, or you know, create these offers and opportunities.

Is there anything you would tell your wiser self going back? 

Mary: I think that got a lot, right. By just doing it, simply getting it out there. That's the other thing is like, you just have to get stuff out there. Because like Melissa said, you know, people start like, oh, I'll do this six module thing and it created, and it doesn't sell.

Well, it's like I . Remember I was at an event and James Wedmore was speaking. He James Wedmore, we were on a break and he was, you know, talking to somebody and a few of us were huddle around. So he wasn't talking to me directly, but I was kind of listening and he said, you know, your avatar is out there drowning and they don't have time for you to create a yacht to build the yacht.

They want you to get in your rickety rowboat and go out there and get them. They're going to be so happy to see you. He's like just go out and get them. And that really stuck in my mind because like, literally I feel like people are drowning. They're drowning with like too much information, autism information and they're not doing the right things.

And, the other thing that really changed is back when Lucas was diagnosed, the rate of autism was one in 500 and now it's one in 44. 

And so the way, so it's not just denial, it's waiting lists for like two years and when your brain is the most plastic and most able to change. And so I literally do think it's an emergency that I get to these people.

And so the one thing I would change is I don't think when you have you and you're just starting out, you should go with a big You know, infusion soft type thing. Like I think there's other CRMs that are easier and more fluid and things like that. So that would be, you know, one thing that I tell entrepreneurs, cause I, I do, I do kind of serve as a mentor, you know, within launch club and, and that sort of thing to, to help newbies.

But really. Just get going. And if you, even if you have a hundred people 200 people who need your stuff just go out and help them. And sometimes it's helping them for free, you know initially, you know, when I started. Doing assessments on kids. And, and I would, I would let them come over my house at for an exchange for videos.

Like if I could take a video I still, you know, once in a blue moon do things for free because like one of the things in my book, so the new book really was a spinoff of that toddler course. Like I saw it working so well, so then it comes full circle around. Maybe I should write another book, getting a hay house deal, you know, like it all comes full circle, but like in chapter nine of my book, I talk about this little sibling of a child I used to work with who at, he just turned three parents panicked. Maybe he has autism. 

You know, only would trust me, they'll even eyeball the child. They lived locally, you know, I don't see kids one to one, but like I had a bond with his family. I go over there and it really looked to me like COVID like handing him an iPad for three months straight and stopping daycare, caused him to look like he might have autism.

But, you know, that whole interaction, assessing him, you know, which I didn't get paid for whatever it ended up in my book. So like sometimes these experiences are doing something for free or very low cost or, you know, getting into a room with a group joining a mastermind or a group coaching pro you know, sometimes things then trigger more opportunities. It's like the launch echo. We say, you know, like things really do come full circle in a lot of ways, but you know, I'm not done. I mean, I sell every day online on evergreen.

 I haven't done a live launch for over three years at all,

but I am going to do something I'm going to do a low end offer quarter one of 2022, because there are a lot of people that are caught between the free information and the $500 mark and they're not willing to, or willing or able to make that, that not just money, but also time.

Cause my toddler course, it would take about 10 hours and they want to do, you know, quicker things to show that things work. So, you know, I am toying with that, you know, creating a coaching or certification program. And that sounds a little heavy. It sounds a little scary. The long-term commitment. I'm not getting any younger either.

And so, you know, I'm thinking like legacy and trying to get my poor step method out being on podcasts, like I'm on this podcast, I recently was on the psychiatry and psychology podcast, you know, just getting out there. I'd be happy to be on parenting podcasts. These techniques work.

And a lot of times you don't know if a two year old is going to be on the spectrum or not. And so there's a lot you can do right at home with little effort to turn things around. 

Melissa: Wow. Wow. Well, before we wrap up, one of the things we wanted to ask you and pick your brain on is with marketing yourself and getting yourself out there.

If you were starting all over again, and you only had $500 to market yourself, what would you do to market yourself and, and get new clients, new people in your world. 

Mary: Well, I think knowing which social media channels your people are mostly on. So for us initially, the 40 year old moms, a 30 year old moms were on Facebook.

Melissa: So. Now that might be Instagram, you know, more so, so I would probably put some YouTube. I mean, I do think that having YouTube, like I started I think in 2017, again, I was kind of gimping along. Like I took a YouTube course how to grow your YouTube. And I had literally like three or four different accounts that I had set up because I didn't know what I was doing.

And I needed to like hire somebody to like merge these accounts and not lose these couple videos that had some thousands of views. But anyway, I think if you can get your YouTube going, it's a search engine. A lot of my, my people come through YouTube, you know, even influencers and celebrities have found me over on YouTube.

So that if I only have $500, I probably would, would put some money into just getting somebody that can help you get your YouTube channel set up and going. And then I would just sit down in front of your laptop. And this is what I did early on is I would, I would kind of script out or bullet out the YouTube.

I have a really good YouTube channel. I have a good video opener and lots of good videos. So you can go always find me on Mary barbera.com/youtube or Facebook or whatever. But anyway, I'd sit down with like five or 10 scripts or bullets. And then I would literally have like five or 10 shirts here. So I would do my one.

I run over there, change my shirt, come back here. Record number two. And then I have, you know, 10 weeks to post. I would also hire a VA very quickly. I don't think I would've gone half as far if I wouldn't have hired . People. The book who not, how is really good with Dan Sullivan just try to hire people even like, if you think I have $500, you'll find more money.

You know, I had, I had, I went into debt I couldn't afford things and I bought them a group coaching programs and those sorts of things, but it was like, you know what, first time I joined launch club I was just like, okay, you know I'm going to make this, I'm going to make this money back. But my big thing when I joined launch club was I was like, I'm going to be on the stage.

I'm going to be in top 10 next year. I'm going to go to Durango for a mastermind and all those things happened. Plus I won the competition and won a cruise for my whole family. So, so sometimes I think I would find more money and invest heavier. 

Yeah. It's, it's amazing. I think in, in life, when, when you make those decisions, you lean in, it's just the opportunity just reveals itself in a lot of cases.

So you, you mentioned a couple different places that people can find you these days and you never know. You know, with online marketing, we do have different experts, different other others that have podcasts and platforms and everything, and potentially it would be perfectly aligned with what you're doing.

Any other contact information and, or ways that our listeners can follow or find you, 

Mary: I think the easiest way, because Barbera is a little hard to spell and that sort of thing. So if you have somebody that you know, or love or, or once information about anything autism related child development related a toddler parenting.

You could just search Mary autism plus whatever topics. Denial, potty training, talking, tantrums, biting, you know, anything going to the dentist going get a haircut. I have probably a video blog or podcast or some kind of, a little bit of information that can get you in the right direction. So Mary autism plus your topic.

We'll get you there. My website is marybarbera.com. As I said, I have pretty links for marybarbera.com forward slash Facebook or Instagram, Twitter. I'm everywhere. I have a very small team and we are just chugging along, going to make the difference and turn things around for millions of kids around the world.

Paul: I love it. So thank you again for taking the time and for sharing your journey with us as well as everyone that's listening and also we'll make sure we have all your links and contacts in the show notes and description. And again, it's just, it's an incredible opportunity to overlap the same time and space.

So thank you and thank you for everything you're doing for the families that you're impacting, the ripple effect that you're having in the world. 

Mary: Well, thank you for inviting me. This has been, it's been fun. Always think of different stories and different angles. You guys are great. I love hanging out with you.

And so I hope your, your audience enjoys it. So take care . 

Thank you.