Infuse Infuse 2 December 2017 | Page 19

On becoming a “shopkeeper”…:
“I’d been intrigued by the idea of being a shopkeeper, so I set
up a mail-order bookshop for dietitians through the DAA. I
could be seen on my lounge room floor packaging up books
at night, after the kids had gone to bed.”
…and becoming one of the first dietitians to have a storefront:
“I was in five different locations around the Gold Coast
at the time, and wheeled a 30-kg suitcase around, so
it appealed to me to have one visible location. I also
had my mail-order book service, but I never had those
books with me to sell to clients. So, by setting up a single
location, I could have books available for the clients,
control what was available in the waiting room – and
oversee how much the receptionists knew about
what we did.”
On how the Portion Perfection pr
oducts came about:
“I started with the Portion Plate back in 2004. Because I already had
my mail-order bookshop, I had an outlet for it. That went well, and
I was trying to get it into retail shops [pharmacies], so I needed to
write an accompanying brochure.
I read a book called “Maverick Marketing”,
and it gave me some great ideas.
One was: instead of writing a brochure,
I should write a book. So, I developed one.”
On self-
publishing,
vs. using a
publisher:
“A publisher gives you the opportunity to have a bestseller
quite quickly because they have the outlet -- you’ve got to
have the audience already. A great direction to go is this:
develop a blog, develop followers in the area of interest,
and then write a book.
If you’re going to self-publish, make it look professional.
Have a good look at what a professionally published book
looks like and imitate that -- and get yourself a good editor.”
interview continues overleaf...
Background image courtesy of Freepik
© Dietitian Connection
19
Infuse | December 2017