My husband is in sales and brought back an interesting handout from a
seminar several years ago.  It's based on "the 2% Rule" -- on any given
day, only two percent of people are interested in what you have to sell.
        Now, I think with breastfeeding and lactation services we have to
hunker that down even more:  it's only 2% of people who are pregnant,
thinking about being pregnant, or postpartum (somehow -- I thought about
lactation when a couple of my kids were 5-1/2).
        So Kathleen A and the lovely rural LC in Alberta and I are all
dealing with a small number of people ( I have 650 births a year in my
"practice area" - within 40 miles or so!).
        After nearly nine years of every month or so press releases
(kindly printed by all the local papers), people still say, "I didn't
know there were Lamaze classes" -- or LC services....but more and more
people say, "I've heard your name before..."
        So when I get tired of the (weekly? monthly?) attention to PR, I
remember how much my business goes down when I'm too busy to put time and
attention to publicity and marketing.  And I look at my bank account and
I sit down at the computer again!
        By the way, after 12 years as a LLLeader, it really shocks me
when my nursing professor says, "And I say to those guys, pay me what I'm
worth!  I'm not doing this for love, y'know!"  Well, I AM doing it for
love.  But compensating me for my education and my certification and the
fact that you are getting a competent, up-to-date AND LOVING health
professional -- these are good things!
        I'd love to talk more about rural LCing but I've gotta go study
for a test.  Will I have more time next June when I graduate?? (I'm
afraid I know what the answer is!)
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Dawn M. Kersula, FACCE,IBCLC  Windham County Lamaze & Lactation Associates
  (currently I associate with just ME)...Bellows Falls, VT  [log in to unmask]