Liz: OK. Let me, we're going to get started here. For those of you who have just come in, Diane and I are going to be talking for the next 30-40 minutes. She's going to be answering the questions that I know a lot of you have about the program. After I ask her the questions, we're going to open up the room, and if you have questions, feel free to ask away. And if you want, you can always email Diane. Right, Diane?

Diane: That's right. I would more than welcome any questions they have. Email diane@kindersigns.com

Liz: All righ so let's get started. I'm going to be interviewing an expert tonight in the field of baby sign language. Her name is Diane Ryan. Diane received her undergraduate degree in speech and language pathology from Nazareth College of Rochester and worked with children with communication disorders in New York State schools for six years. In addition to the post-graduate study in language development, she studied marketing and public relations at the State University of New York at Buffalo . In the summer of 2001 Diane founded KinderSigns in Orlando , Florida , a private practice that focused on teaching parents and children, child care providers how to communicate with babies before they can speak. In addition to offering workshops and seminars, she was a frequent lecturer at area colleges, hospitals, community centers, and child development conferences. Diane and her husband Bob spent 2003 in Europe where she conducted baby sign language workshops throughout Ireland and England , and while there she was a frequent guest on the BBC, as well as on Irish National Radio and Television. And in addition to her work with KinderSigns, Diane also worked as a speech and language pathologist for a Florida school system. So, welcome, Diane.

Diane: Well, thank you very much. It's wonderful to be here.

Liz: It must have been nice to be in Europe .

Diane: Europe was an amazing experience. Something that we had always talked about doing and never actually were sure we could pull it off. But we went there for a year and were able to combine business with pleasure and investigated, researched our family tree while we were there. And so it was just one amazing experience after another except for a little bout of homesickness and a broken leg, but that's a whole other teleconference.

Liz: I know there are a lot of ladies here tonight who are very excited about the Kindersign program. So let's get started. Can you explain what exactly is baby sign language?

Diane: Well, baby sign language is a way to communicate with your baby before your baby is able to speak. And most babies can begin to understand speech around six months of age, receptively. They can start to understand what you're saying.

But they're not able to express themselves until they're about a year or later. So what baby sign language is is a way of bridging that gap between the ability of a baby to comprehend what you're saying and the baby's ability to actually communicate. And you're bridging it with just a few basic signs or gestures.

So you're not teaching your baby an entire sign language. You're teaching your baby just a few basic signs so your baby is able to communicate with you.

Liz: OK. And how young can you start teaching babies?

Diane: Well, it depends on the baby. Basically, I would say in general between six and seven months would be the earliest.

In the program there are certain things you should look for to make sure your baby is able to communicate. Your baby needs to have the ability, the physical ability to be able to produce the signs. They need to have enough memory to be able to remember what signs you have taught him.

So there are a number of variables. But in general, certainly no earlier than six months. I'd say around seven months, that would be the earliest you should start. But you could start eight months, nine months, up to a year or even older.

Liz: And when can you expect a baby to start signing back?

Diane: Well, again, there are so many variables. It depends on the age of the baby, how often you sign with the baby, how committed you are to the whole process. So in general I'd say if everything is the optimum conditions, if you start signing with your baby when your baby, let's say, is seven months, and you sign continually and you're really into this, maybe around nine months you might see some results . The older the baby the faster you're going to see results.

Liz: Now, what are the benefits of signing to your baby?

Diane: Well, the benefits are, there are just so many benefits it's just truly extraordinary. But I think the number one question I get is 'is this going to impede my baby's language development?' and turning that around and making that a benefit. Because when you do sign with a baby, your baby speaks earlier than if you didn't sign. So there's absolutely no danger of any language delay or - and it's kind of a logical question because most parents say, well, if I sign with my baby, if I give my baby an alternative way of communicating - will my baby need to speak? And what happens is you stimulate the baby, what you're doing is actually stimulating the baby's brain, and you are causing him to speak earlier. And that's just not my saying so. There has been an extensive body of research that does prove that. So your baby will speak earlier. Certainly less frustration. Your baby has a way of communicating. Your baby has a way of expressing what he wants or needs. There's no need for a baby to be frustrated. There's a closer bond with parents, and long-range studies have proven that signing babies have larger vocabularies, they speak in longer sentences, and, remarkably, they have IQs as much as 12 points higher than babies who don't sign.

Liz: Wow.

Diane: So, in one area after another signing babies out-perform their non-signing counterparts.

Liz: Wow.

Diane: Yeah. It's great. It's absolutely amazing.

Liz: Yeah. Now, can you walk me through the business opportunity and how it works exactly?

Diane: Yeah, I'll be happy to because it is a little complicated. I'm sure a lot of your listeners and visitors to our websites have looked at what's available, and there is so much information it does get a little bit overwhelming.

I also have a public relations and marketing background so what I've done is I have taken all the experiences that I have had in order to gain awareness of my business, and my expertise in developing this program on how to teach a baby to sign, and I've combined it in the business opportunity. So, if someone were to buy this business opportunity, first of all, they need to learn how to teach others to sign, so they would receive KinderSigns 101. And it's a very easy, simple, step-by-step process where they can learn to teach other parents how to teach their babies to sign. It's not difficult at all. Everything is accessed online. Everything you need to learn how to teach others to sign is there. And you can learn in about an hour to an hour and a half. Again, remember, we're not expecting anyone to learn an entire sign language.

And what we're talking about, is using American sign language which is the genuine article here. We're talking 100% genuine American sign language. It's the same sign language that's used in the deaf community in the United States . But babies don't need to know a lot of signs. They just need to know a few basic concepts. So all you need to know are a few basic signs in order for you to know them and then for you to teach those to other parents.

So you learn how to teach babies to sign. And that, as I said, will take about an hour to an hour and a half. If you have any problems, any questions, I'm here to help you.

And I'm welcoming any kind of questions, and I'm certainly here to help anyone that has any questions about that. So not only do you get the ability to know how to sign and how to teach others to sign, then everything that I have used in order to promote my business is also included. So you get a marketing plan, you get press releases, you have fliers that you can customize, PR advice, ways to generate free publicity, and all the materials that you need to distribute in your workshops. You just download them, you duplicate them, and then you distribute them to the people in your workshops. So you don't need to spend any more money. Everything is available right online. You download them, you print them, and you distribute them. If you have any questions, you send me an email and I'm right here to help you.

Liz: And I just want to also share that your email just really quick it's diane@kindersigns.com. If you have any questions about the program you can always email her and ask her a question. I think there's one question everyone has about any business. They want to know how much money can they make doing something like this.

Diane: Yeah. That's probably, after the first question is will my baby have a speech delay or a language delay, that's the first question I get. And the second question I get is how much money can I make, and, frankly, I wish I had a magic answer. I wish I had a formula, and there really isn't any. What I tell people is that this is an incredible business opportunity. And I can't tell you how much money you're going to make because, again, there are so many variables. It depends on how large your market is. It depends on how hard you want to work. It depends on hose types of things. I would tell you in all frankness not to quit your day job and think you're going to make $100,000 the first year because that's not going to happen.

But, if you're willing to work, if you're willing to put a little into all of the steps that I have in my program, you can make a nice little opportunity for yourself. But, again, it's not going to happen overnight. It takes a little bit of work, but as long as there are parents out there who want the best for their babies - and you know that there are many - there is a market for this.

It's an incredible, incredible opportunity, and it's so, so affordable. I don't know where else you can start your own business for the prices that we're charging here. It's a nice part-time opportunity. I started part-time, and I grew it from there. And that's what I would recommend others to do.

Liz: And I think that's where a lot of moms are at. You know, they've got little ones. They want to teach their babies sign language, and they also want to be able to teach other parents as well. Do you explain how much people should charge for their workshops?

Diane: I give them guidelines. And, you know, again, it depends on the market, and in general I based it on my own experience. And I suggest somewhere around the neighborhood of $29 a person because I think that's another benefit - that you can teach, you can set up a workshop and you can teach parents how to sign with their babies, and you can do that in one workshop.

You can learn this whole technique in an hour to an hour and a half. You can also teach it in that same amount of time. And when I first started putting this together. Then if you want to expand that, if you want to teach toddlers or if you want to break it into three or four sessions, you can certainly do that. But I found out that parents with babies don't have a lot of time. You know that's no big revelation. And I thought that a lot of parents would be more receptive to attending a workshop if they thought, well, wait a minute - if I can come to a workshop and learn everything I need to know in one session ... I thought that was a major selling opportunity.

So around $29. If you live in an affluent area, maybe $39. If you want to, there are ways of packaging it if you want a mom and a dad or bring a grandmother, you know, again, in the program I offer pricing guidelines, but I would say somewhere around $30-$35.

OK. You've got to get some really fun emails from parents who are so excited because their baby's signing back to them.

Yeah. I get tons and tons of emails, but to hear some of the parents tell you, "we tried this and we started signing and we were signing and we were signing. We thought this would never happen, and all of a sudden my baby signed 'more' or signed 'milk.'"

They put it in their baby books the same way they would say my baby's first word was 'mama' and his first sign was 'more.' That kind of thing. So, it truly is a wonderful experience.

Liz: How long would it take someone to get this business up and running? Once they have purchased it?

Diane: Well, you know, again, it depends on a lot of variables. As I said, you can learn how to sign with your baby in an hour and a half. Then, once you have that you move onto the business program. And I would say, give yourself - there's a lot of material in there. You know, this is everything that I learned myself through trial and error. It took me a year or more to do this. I would say give yourself at least a week to review all the business materials to make sure you really are comfortable with it. I give you tips on how to reach the media, how to conduct free seminars to help you generate interest prior to going out and actually charging for a paid seminar. So all this information - there's a lot of information, Give yourself a week after that. Maybe two weeks. Give yourself time to write to me. If you have a question like, "I'm not quite sure what you meant here, you weren't as clear on this subject or on this area." You know, give yourself time to write to me so I can clarify whatever question you might have. And then all it takes is marketing and it didn't cost me a nickel to go into business, and if you follow my program, you can do it the same way. All you need to do is send out the press releases. Obviously you customize it with your own name and you just wait for the media to contact you.

Liz: You know, once you have these parents that are totally excited, word of mouth will spread.

Diane: It does. That's remarkable. That's where you're going to make your major inroads.

Liz: Yeah. I mean, you just have all these little walking advertisements out there.

Diane: Yeah, you do. And that's why when I say you can really start in a couple of week we are talking optimum conditions. I started with my workshops right in my own living room. So you can do that. But I would say before you actually go out there and set up the business or hang out your shingle as it were, make sure you're totally comfortable with it because you want to make sure that you really do well on your first time out and you know what you're talking about and you feel very comfortable and knowledgeable because those parents at that first workshop are going to tell their friends, and they're going to tell their relatives, and from there on in, you know, your business is really growing. So, you know, it's better to start on the slow side. Give yourself a month if you need it or six weeks. Practice on your relatives, and then once you feel really comfortable, then go out because, as you said, Liz, you're going to generate a lot of business through word of mouth.

Liz: Now, with the KinderSign program there's two different types of packages. We have the basic and the premium. What's the difference between the two?

Diane: Well, the difference between the two - what I was explaining earlier was pretty much the basic program. You learn how to sign with the baby and then I give you all the business information and the marketing materials and the information you need to distribute in your workshops. Everything you really need is in the basic package.

Now, if you want to go beyond that, I would suggest you try the premium package because you're going to get a little bit, actually going to get quite a bit more. Because then you're going to have a website. And a lot of people are going to say to you, or you might get a phone call and they're going to say, well, can you explain what you mean or when are you offering your classes? If you have your own website, this is going to make it much easier. Obviously you can put it on your URL on your business card and people can actually go and visit your website for more information. So, with the premium package you will receive a website which we'll help you design. Plus, you're going to receive KinderSigns for Toddlers and Kids. Now, we're taking this to the next step because the basic package you're talking about babies from, let's say, six months to 18 months. And that's certainly your primary market. But there's a huge market beyond that. Parents, a lot of them say, you know, I don't want to stop. This is so much fun, I'd like to go beyond that.

So, KinderSigns for Toddlers and Kids takes the experience from 18 months to two and half to three years. So you've expanded your market. Plus, you've also expanded it not only to other parents, to parents of older babies; you're gone into this whole day care and childcare experience where certainly that's a growing market. So, for a little extra money from the basic to the premium, you have a website that you don't have in the basic kit, plus you have the expanded market of reaching the parents old older children, plus child care providers and day care providers.

Liz: Now, with the website, are they going to have to pay like a monthly fee after that?

Diane: No, this is all. That's one of the, there are so many, there are so many I guess the only word I can think of is scams on the market, but people sign up for a certain program and they think, OK, well, I can afford that, then all of a sudden they find that there's a hidden fee there and a hidden fee here -

Liz: Right.

Diane: and they have to pay royalties or if you sell a program you have to pay a percentage. This is not a franchise opportunity. This is an opportunity - it's an educational opportunity if you were.

But whatever program you buy, that's it. You know, you pay that money, and then whatever we say is included, that's all you're going to have to pay. There are no additional costs and no hidden fees. So, no, you don't have to pay anything else beyond that.

Liz: Well, that's a really good - and along with that you also get a merchant account through paypal.

Diane: Right.

Liz: Does someone need to become certified to teach these workshops?

Diane: There is no national certification for this. I'm a certified speech and language pathologist, and I have developed this program, and I have developed my own certification, the KinderSign certification. And, so, what we've done is if you have studied this program and you really feel that you know what you're talking about - we're sort of on the honor system - if you feel that you are ready to do this you just let us know and we'll send you your email certification. There's no special skills needed. You just need to study the information, feel comfortable with it and feel that you're ready to go out and teach other people. We know you're not going to want to embarrass yourself, so we know you're going to study this and be diligent about it. And so once you feel comfortable you let us know and we will send you your certification.

Liz: So, I want to reiterate - you don't need any special credentials or education to start this business. You've given them the tools that they need to get it started.

Diane: That's right. It helps if you're comfortable talking to other people. To groups. It's not essential. You don't have to be a public speaker however. Normally you're speaking to small groups. You're speaking to little groups, to other groups of parents. As long as you have a good grasp of the material and we certainly help you do that. But you don't need a high school education. You don't need a college diploma. You don't need a Ph.D. You just need to study this and feel comfortable with it - and really want to help other parents.

Liz: Right. And have a passion for it and be excited.

Diane: That's it.

Liz: Yeah. That'll get you far.

Diane: It definitely will.

Liz: Believing in it. I mean, that's one thing that when mom's will email me about what type of business should they start I always say to look at something you love, that you enjoy doing and you think is fun. I know there's a lot people who are interested in KinderSigns. I've been getting a lot of emails. And they think it's going to be fun, and rewarding.

Diane: It is fun. And not only is it fun that, you know, you are having an incredible experience teaching this, it's just enjoyable teaching it. It depends on how you want to set up your own workshop. I give recommendations, but I encourage to do it in small groups and for the moms and dad - and a lot of dads do come - to come and bring their babies. And so it's a joyous kind of experience. But when you think that what you're teaching is, it's not just a joyous experience for the moment. You are teaching such a valuable technique to the parents. You're teaching them how to sign with their babies, and they're going to be less frustrated, and they're going to have higher IQs, and they're gong to have all these other benefits, that it makes you feel good about what you're doing.

Liz: I'll say. How much time would someone look to invest each week on this business?

Diane: Again, it depends. Once you learn the technique. Once you review all the business material, you might want to do a workshop two times a week. You might want to do one on one evening and one on a Saturday morning. You might want to go and do a television interview on a Tuesday morning if someone from one the media calls you. It depends, again, on how hard you want to work and what the demand is. But you can work as much or as little as you want.

Liz: I would think that the local media would enjoy doing a story on a business like this.

Diane: Yeah. They really do. It's one of those warm, you know, fuzzy-type, feel-good stories, and I give you information on how to get the media's attention. How to handle yourself with the media. Certainly initially how to get their attention in the first place. And it's a very cost-effective way of calling attention to your business.

So my recommendation initially is go to your local library and give a free seminar. Talk for 30 minutes or 20 minutes or whatever for free.

Liz: Right. And it's not going to cost you anything.

Diane: It doesn't cost them anything, and they will certainly promote you. Certainly a free opportunity. And that generates people to come talk to you. And from those types of opportunities you're going to get people who actually want to come to a paid workshop. And that's how you go about making some money.

Liz: Oh. I think that's one mistake people make in starting a business is they feel they need to place an ad somewhere. And, you know, that's going to cost you money. There's just so many free ways to get the word out there. You're giving them a lot of great ideas that aren't costing them a anything but their time.

Diane: And public relations is your free way of getting noticed. Sure, you can go out and if you want you can place ads if you'd like to do that. But advertising is so expensive, and if you have a newspaper, you know, where do you put it? You know, where do you place your ad? I mean, you're competing with so many other ads. So whatever you can do to distinguish yourself and separate your message from everyone else. And when the media is talking about you, when they're putting in their actual newspaper in their non-advertising columns, when they're talking about that there's a seminar, a free seminar about how to sign with your baby, see, what you're doing is you're getting an implicit endorsement from them - or a non-implicit endorsement from the newspaper. And you can't get any better publicity than that.

Liz: Another thing I just thought of is there's a lot of local parenting publications that would run an article probably on you.

Diane: Absolutely. Moms' clubs too, and there are hospitals and mom-and-me clubs. When I started in Orlando , I was going all over the place just giving lectures and free seminars on just the basic concept. And from that I grew my business and people would come to paid workshops. And then I received invitations to child care conferences and La Leche conferences - and then I started going from there. It all begins with just talking for free. Just spreading the word about the whole concept of signing with babies.

Liz: Do you need to get any special business license to start this business?

Diane: It depends on your community. I suggest you go to your local government office.

Liz: OK. Are you offering exclusive territories?

Diane: No we're not a franchise. And if we were to offer exclusive territories, we would have to start charging in the thousands of dollars, we talked about this initially and decided, not to. What we're doing is we're offering an information package. And we're letting people try it in their own communities. And even if you're in a small community, there are so many parents, and there are so many babies, even small communities certainly could support two to three , maybe even four baby sign language experts. Certainly in large cities you could grow from there. But at this stage we're not offering exclusive territories.

Liz: OK. What about support?

Diane: I am all the support you're going to need. As I said, I have done this since 2001. I have taught it, I created the program. I have just written a book which is going to be published in April that'll be in all the Barnes & Noble bookstores etc, so without any humility, I'm the expert here.

There are not a lot of people who are experts in teaching babies to sign, but there aren't that many that are expert in not only teaching the baby to sign but setting up a business to make that expertise marketable. So if you have any questions, you have my ongoing support for six months, but, frankly, as long as you need it. I mean, I understand. I was a single mom at one time, and I know that there are a lot of people struggling. So if you have a questions, maybe you've been in the business for a year to two years, and you write to me, I'm not going to say, oh, you're six months of support is up and not answer your question.

I want this to work for people. So I will be more than happy to answer any questions on the technique of teaching babies to sign or how to make money doing, teaching it to other people.

Liz: Now, are they going to need to buy any books or products to re-sell to the class participants?

Diane: No. There are some programs out there that do that. I just thought that was so cumbersome, and that's why I made everything available online. Because I thought, OK, there are books out there, and if you have a workshop and you need to sell those people books, you have to up-front your money and you buy x-number of books perhaps at a discount so you can sell them at your workshop and then all of a sudden five more people show up and you don't have the books so you have to order five more books to re-sell and perhaps those books don't arrive in time to distribute to your class participants - it just gets so cumbersome. So my idea was make everything available online.

Everything you need is there. There's a baby sign language dictionary that probably one of the major pluses - that you can download. You print it and you distribute it to all the people that attend your classes, and they don't need anything else. Your only cost after downloading it is the cost of duplicating the materials, and you can do that on a copy machine for just a few cents. So, no, you don't need to re-sell anything at all.

Liz: I think we pretty much got all the questions Anything else you want to add, Diane?

Diane: No, other than just to reiterate that I know there are so many business opportunities out there and I know that everyone is vying saying we're the best and buy us. But this is something you can do on a part-time basis. Frankly, it's a minuscule amount of money for what you receive in the program. While there may be other programs, I think there are other programs that do offer baby sign language instruction, there are no others that actually teach you how to start a business.

And I know for a fact that there are no others that offer ongoing support. There's no other business opportunity in the baby sign language world where you can write to the founder and ask, you know, what am I doing wrong? And don't be embarrassed if you have a question. I've had people write to me from the questions like, you know, what should I wear to my first workshop? And, frankly, I was shocked by that. But, you know, some people are really not comfortable in the business world; they've never done anything like that. So, I wrote back and I said, you know, it really doesn't matter. Wear what you're comfortable wearing. Just don't wear gold lame and sling backs. You know, just wear something that you're comfortable with. So don't be embarrassed if you have a question, please write to me, and I don't think you're going to get that anywhere else.

And if you have any questions about the opportunity, you can email Diane and diane@kindersigns.com

Liz: You know, Bizymoms just started to d the business opportunities like this, and one thing that we've prided ourselves on is if we offer a business opportunity, you're going to be able to get help. And it's something that is really not available out there. Usually you start your business opportunity, you're by yourself and you don't have anybody to ask questions.

Diane: Right, well, as I said, I'm happy to help with this special promotion, lifetime support, as long as you need help I'm here to help you with any questions you might have.

Liz: OK. I think we're going to open up the lines if we have some questions out there?

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Hi, Diane. My name is Ginger.

Hi, Ginger.

Ginger: My questions is what would prompt someone to come to a seminar or come to my business, so to speak, instead of just looking up the signs that they could teach their child on the internet?

That's what I wanted to know.

Diane: Well, some people might just want to do that. They might want to go out and buy a book and then teach their baby to sign or they might want to go online and learn themselves. But there are an awful lot of people that want that one-on-one experience, that want to be able to ask questions that are not comfortable or not that secure just by reading a book or learning from a website. So I have found that by having a workshop not only do you have, are moms and dads able to ask the questions, but it's also the social experience that really helps. In fact one of the things that I found really worked, we had baby sign language, baby signing parties where it was almost similar to a Tupperware party in some respects. One mom would get ten of her friends together for maybe a mom-and-me club and I would go and talk tot their group and we would all sit on the living room floor. And then after I taught them how to sign, then they would go and have coffee and cake. It's the social camaraderie, it's the personal experience, it's the ability to ask a question that you wouldn't be normally able to do.

Liz: Kind of like going to a Lamaze class. You know, you can go and read about how to breathe and stuff, but, you know, you go to a class and -

Diane: Yeah. And it's just fun, you know. And, as I said, it's not a major commitment. You know, maybe you can teach it in one workshop.

Ginger: Right. And I believe that it's fun. You know, I have a three-year-old and I have a one-year-old. And the three-year old, I taught him. And my question was - and you answered it - do people, do they want that.

Diane: Yes.

Ginger: You know, I found it on the internet or in books at the library. But my question was, is there a market and apparently there is.

Diane: There's a definite market for it. Yeah.

This is Teresa in New York .

Teresa: I'm listening, and you're saying one workshop. 'Cause we've got something here in New York , and they're doing like six-week classes and a whole stay-and-play kind of thing. Is yours different than that?

Diane: Well, it's not different. What we're talking about is you are able to teach a parent to sign with their baby. You can teach them in one one-and-a-half-hour workshop. You're teaching them the basics. Now, if you buy the premium package, what we're doing is we're teaching you additional signs that you can teach toddlers and kids. So you can take all the signs and you can expand it into a three-week workshop, a four-week or a six-week workshop, however you want to do it. There is that possibility. You can design it however you would like to. But you don't need to. If you want to have a one-time workshop, a parent can learn that. You can learn all they need to know in one workshop. However, if you want to do a six-week workshop, you have enough material to expand and create your own longer-term workshop as are being offered in New York .

Teresa: So you could do continuation workshops? Like a baby one and then a toddler kid one? Like, say, OK, I'm doing two workshops broken up to intrigue parents and get them interested in coming back?

Diane: Yeah. You can do it however you want. I give you the basic ideas, and then from there you can - and we also give you ideas how you can break it up, but it's totally up to you. This is your business. We're giving you the basics. You can teach it, I've taught it, I've found that one hour-and-a-half workshop really worked well for me. But others have taken that same information, plus the toddlers and kids, and they've broken it up. You can do it in two workshops. You can do it in, you know, whatever works for you and whatever you think is marketable in your own community, that's what you should do. It's very flexible.

Teresa: And is the business then called KinderSigns or can you call it whatever you want?

Diane: You can't call it KinderSigns because that's our trademark name. You can say you're a KinderSigns affiliate. This is your business, as we said earlier, it's not a franchise. You're not really affiliated to us in any kind of a legal sense, but if you want to use our name that you are KinderSigns trained or that this is the KinderSigns method, you're certainly welcome to do that. But you need to come up with your own name.

Teresa: Gotcha. Thank you.

One question that I had. This is Jackie from Iowa .

Hi, Jackie.

Jackie: I'd like to say, I come from a different vantage point. I am the grandchild of deaf grandparents. And my grandmother lived with us so I was probably taught in a KinderSign fashion before it was ever popular. I, therefore, turned around and did the same thing with my own children just because it was second nature to me, and they're now 18 and 23, and they sign. It never dawned on me about their IQ and all that good stuff which I would say is probably true. And so we all sign. I also have been in the business world and so I see that your package is really all inclusive from a business standpoint. And there clearly is, I'm totally in favor of American sign language being the format because that is universal and easier to understand where any of those where people make up signs.

Diane: Yes, that's exactly my thought as well.

Jackie: So I, being around the deaf community in various times, I just wanted to say I'm a major fan of that. I did download the package because I wanted to see what it was and how much really was in there, and I can tell anybody that's listening that there is everything you need. I used to sell real estate. I live in a population 850 town and I sell three million a year. How did I do that? It was PR, basically. but I also educated people, and that's what I see in this. I was so glad to get the Bizymoms email because this was an answer to a prayer. I don't want to work 90-hour weeks. I love working with people. I love teaching. I love children. And I can see that this is a huge opportunity to give a gift to many families. My question is, I was trying to plug in about 18,000 different names, and it would say this website name taken. How do you know what kind of a name to come up with that will work on the website?

Diane: Well, as you said, first of all, let me say I thank you so much for what you said, and let me assure anyone who's listening that you're not my sister or my -

Jackie: Oh, no. This is not a paid endorsement.

Diane: And every time we have a teleconference, we hope you dial in, and we thank you for those wonderful words. A lot of times people write to me with that. What do I come up with for a name? It's just pretty much trial and error. Just remember, when you come up with a name, if you come up with a creative name sometimes if you add hyphens in between the words maybe that URL isn't taken.

No. You cannot have spaces or any creative characters.

But you can have hyphens. You can have. If you want to say sign with my baby, you can have sign-with-my-baby.com.

Jackie: OK. 'Cause I tried about 25 names. I made up a list. OK.

Diane: Yeah. But just remember, if you are marketing in your own community, you know - well, you're right, if you want to do a URL, you are in competition with the universe as far as coming up with a URL. But, you know, just try to get creative. Try to come up with different ways of spelling things. And, again, the hyphen sometimes does help.

Jackie: OK. I will point out that I went on the website to look and see how many people were in my state and that sort of thing, and I have tell you those that did not have a website, I was thinking, oh, bummer. I liked going to the various websites, and I think that it would be a real disadvantage and certainly for the price difference between the two packages that it's a no-brainer to have the website. In my opinion.

Diane: And I agree. Especially in this day and age. If you want to have that professional look, a website gives you that. I mean, you can go out and you can print brochures and you can distribute them wherever you want to distribute them, but obviously that's so cost prohibitive. If you have a business card and you put your URL of your website onto your business card, everything that people need to know, they just visit you online and they're able to find out all about you and what you have to offer. So, I agree, Jackie. It is a no-brainer to me. Especially for the price differential.

And I understand like the person that asked about why can't you just go look it up at the library or whatever? You sure can, but you will not get the same enthusiasm, passion, desire, fun, explain how you make eye contact, all those things that are necessary to make it work.

Jackie: Yes, absolutely right.

Diane, this is Liz from Texas, and I actually purchased your program last year and have been using it and I only have the basic I guess because when I first signed up for it I don't think there was an option to have the website.

And I paid a couple hundred dollars to have a professional website done, which has, you know, generated some more business, I think, for me, but how would I go about possibly upgrading, you know, what I have already to get your website and the toddler and kids.

Diane: What you should do, Liz, send me an email and we'll tell you how to upgrade from the basic package. I'm not exactly sure. I know you can do that. Do you know, Liz?

Liz: We'll make it happen.

Diane: Yeah. We'll figure out a way.

Liz From Texas: I've gotten some people emailing me saying, you know, I'm interested in having my toddler do it, and, you know, I will tell people who are interested in doing this that, you know, you can make your money back in just one or two workshops.

Diane: You really can. You absolutely can.

Liz From Texas: I wish I could dedicate more time because what you said, Diane, is true. I mean, it really is all depending on how much you're dedicated. And I didn't quite my day job to do this, which I wish I could because I love to do it. And you see the benefits from the parents who come to the workshops that they're so excited and they want to do it. And, you know, my son's 18 months old and I've been doing it with him since he's seven months old. And, you know, he signs over 15 signs.

Everyone: Does he? That's good. That's wonderful.

Liz From Texas: Yeah. And he speaks over 60 words.

Caller: Does anybody bring their children, their babies with them when they're doing the workshops with the other parents? Do they encourage people to bring or not bring their babies?

Diane: I've tried it both ways. When I first started, I thought it would be easy to teach other parents if they're babies weren't there. And, you know, that works OK, but then the parents, the moms and the dads, they have to get a babysitter or, you know, sometimes they would call and say, I signed up to come to the workshop but my sitter didn't show up. And it just didn't, it just seemed so much nicer, and actually it was so much nicer when you said to them, bring your non-mobile baby. So, I mean, if they have a six-month old and a four-year-old, forget, you don't want the four-year-olds running around because it's so distracting, and they're, you know, opening your kitchen cabinets and you're doing this in your home. It gets really out of control. But if you have, if you limit the number of people. Let's say you have five couples, or five or six, depending on what the size of your living room is, or you're going to have it at a church hall or wherever you're going to have it. And you sit on the floor and you have the babies on blankets. Make sure you bring a camera or have someone take pictures because you need, you want to use these for publicity shots. It's going to take a little longer. You might have to speak a little louder because one baby's going to start to cry. And another baby might pull another baby's hair or whatever. But it's just nicer. It's just a nicer, less formal experience. So I would say, yeah, encourage parents to bring their babies.

This is Sylvia from Baton Rouge . And you were talking about the media, and I actually work in the media. I'm a reporter. And I actually talked to a couple of ladies who do the programs here. And their publicity, their press releases are what caught my attention. And after I did the story, it generated quite a number of calls to my newsroom, and that's what got me interested in doing it. But I wondered from my standpoint in terms of credibility because the two ladies that do it have similar backgrounds to yours in that they're both speech pathologists, and I'm not. So I wonder in terms of credibility does that really matter.

Diane: I don't think it matters that much if you can say that you were trained by, you know, the KinderSigns method. You were trained by a certified speech and language pathologist. So, as long as you can say that you are certified, that, you know, you have been trained by someone who is a speech and language pathologist, I think that helps with your credibility. I think if you were to read a book, if you were to go to the library and pick up a book and try to teach it with no support system, then you might have a problem, but KinderSigns, we've been in business since 2001. I've taught this in Europe . There are people throughout the world that have been trained in this KinderSigns method, so I think that KinderSigns, by saying that you've been trained through KinderSigns, that's going to help with your credibility.

Sylvia: Then is there something that I need to do that's unique since there is another group of folks doing this in my town? In terms of, I guess, the word is competition with them.

Diane: Well, I mean, there's always going to be competition. And if you work for the media, you can leave the competition in your dust. It just depends on how creative you want to be. You can go to, what I recommend and what I did, you know, affiliate yourself with the local, let's say Baby's R Us or Gymboree. I don't know in your community if you have those types of things.

Sylvia: Yeah.

Diane: Try to affiliate yourself with other organizations that draw in your demographic. Affiliate yourself with our local hospital. So I would go, when I was in Orlando I would go to the hospital and talk on a regular basis to the mommy-and-me class.

Sylvia: OK.

Diane: So it almost appeared as if I were a part of the staff.

Sylvia: OK.

Diane: I piggy-backed on the credibility of the hospital. So there's competition in every business. You just need to stick with it and try to come up with creative ways to get your name mentioned above the fray.

This is Penny in Missouri , and I wanted to find out how do we find out how many people are doing this same thing in our market?

Diane: It's really tough, Penny, because while a lot of people, you know, to be perfectly honest, there are people who have purchased the program and then for one reason or another don't continue. Some people perhaps decide not to because they have other business commitments or other commitments in other areas. So even if you go on the KinderSigns website and look on the map in your area, that's not really a true indication of how many people have purchased the opportunity. There really is no way - if we were operating a legitimate franchise - not that we're illegitimate. But I mean legitimate franchise and we were selling exclusive territories, we were selling it for thousands of dollars, I think then certainly we would be more concerned about protecting your area, but, you know, we're talking here just about a hundred dollars, and we're giving you enough information that, you know, if you haven't heard about any competition in your area, if you don't know if there's anyone in your area doing this, then that's a good sign that you better start doing something now because if they're not doing it now, they're going to do it next week.

Penny: Sure. And how do you find on your website the list by region, or whatever? The map?

Diane: Well, on KinderSigns.com there's a map. Click on local classes. But, again, that is not a true indication.

Penny: OK.

Diane: A lot of people who have purchased the opportunity don't sign up for that service, and a lot of people who have signed up for the service just found out that they lost their motivation. And you do need motivation to do this. This is, as with any other business, this is work. You need to be committed. You need to be diligent. You need to go out and generate business. It's not going to come to you unless you go out there. So, you know, sometimes people say, oh, this is easy. I'm a mom, I can teach other moms. And I'm sure you can, but you still need a commitment to do this. And sometimes people sign up for this and don't follow through.

Penny: Now, on that website where I just went for the local classes, when we join and become the premium package, do we get listed here?

Diane: Yes, you do.

Hi, there. I'm Rita from Oregon.

Hi, Rita.

Rita: Hi, there. I had a few questions. One would be, how do you promote this when you're just getting started? You said, kind of have your friends and family over and practice on them?

Diane: Yeah.

Rita: My question is how do you begin to start selling it maybe even to people that are your friends if they're around you and you're doing this with your child, what if they just want to pick it all up and take it from there?

Diane: You mean if they want to pick it up and start their own business? Well, if they're your friends, they're not going to do that.

Rita: Right.

Diane: But, you know, it's like anything else. They haven't been certified as a KinderSign expert. They don't have a certificate. So, you know, you can certainly use that. But, you know, it could happen. You train other people and they can take it and they can start their own business. But hopefully you will start out with a bang and you'll generate enough impetus and enough excitement that it's not going to be worth their while because they're not going to have the KinderSign report. And if they have any problems, if they have any questions, certainly if they call me, I'm not going to answer their questions.

This is Delores from West Virginia.

Hi, Delores.

Delores: And as far as the website. Do they pretty much look the same and then you can adapt to them? Or how does that work?

Diane: Yeah, there are some ways you can customize it to make it look as if they're your own. You know, within reasonable limits. But, again, remember, you're just looking to target people in your own community. So it doesn't matter that someone else has a website that might be somewhat similar to yours. People that are in your community are going to be going directly to your website.

Delores: They'll be going to our website for information, not to purchase a product is what you're saying?

Diane: Yes, exactly right.

Delores: OK. Diane, can you have your own website and then have it linked to KinderSigns? Or do you have to use your website?

Diane: No, you can have your own website. I'm not sure about having your link, I'm sure you can because it's just a matter of putting a URL -

Delores: And re-directing it possibly.

Diane: Yeah. You can. You know, it certainly would add a bit more expense, but if you prefer a different design, yes, you can do that, for sure.

Diane, I just want to thank you - this is Jan from Colorado - and I just want to thank you I signed up and I got the premium package, and it has wonderful, you've done a good job. And the information that you've shared and the support that you've given has been incredible.

Diane: Well, thank you so much. I'm so glad to hear that.

Jan: I had no idea how to set up a business and the information that you have provided is just incredible. And so anybody listening I say it's well worth the money.

Diane: Thank you. We appreciate that. And it's wonderful to hear that because, you know, sometimes you sit, and as I write this information, you know, I'm writing this and I'm trying to validate it, you know, to myself, saying this makes sense and this makes sense. But to hear it from people that are actually using it and actually it's working for, that certainly, that validates it.

Liz: And if you guys have any questions, you can always email Diane, that's diane@kindersigns.com

Diane: Yes, please do. I'd love to hear from you if you have any questions about any aspect of it, I'd be more than happy to -

Thank you very much.

You're very welcome.

Thank you, Diane. I really do appreciate the fact that you could do this and answer our questions.

You're welcome.

Let's take one more question, and then -

Diane, this is Ann in New York . I had a question: is it possible to do it with a partner?

Diane: Sure.

Ann: How would we both go about getting certified?

Diane: Same thing. Just write to me, tell me that you want to, because sometimes there is two people doing it. One person might be a wonderful teacher. And another person might be wonderful from the business aspect and on the business side of it. So sometimes working with a partner is a great idea. If you want to share the expense of it. That's totally up to you. Just write to me and we'll make sure that both of you are certified. So, it's a great idea.

Ann: OK. Thank you so much.

Liz: You want to take a couple more questions?

Diane: Yeah, I'm here.

Liz: Anyone else have another one?

I do. This is Diane in California .

Hi, Diane.

Diane in California: Where are these workshops typically held? What are some ideas of where they actually hold these?

Diane: Well, in the program I give you some ideas about where to do it. As I said, I started on a shoestring and I just did them in my living room. When it got a little too big, I started doing them in a YMCA, and then, you know, then I went from there to renting places in a church, a church hall. And then, as I also said, I would have baby signing parties where moms would have them in their own homes and I would travel to people's homes. So it doesn't really matter where you have them. You know, you want to keep the cost down as low as you can. You can go out and you can rent a hall or a meeting room in a hotel, but then that's going to cut into your profit. So I would try to either have it in your own home or in a church hall or partner with someone like a Babies R Us or a Gymboree where they already have babies and moms coming to their facility. So what you can do is you can say to them, let's cross-promote this. I will promote in my literature that the workshops are being held at Gymboree. You, on the other hand, put up a flier in Gymboree - does Gymboree, is that a national organization? Do people know what I'm talking about?

Diane in California: Yeah. I do.

Diane: Gymboree is a baby exercise place. It might be called different things in different places. But any other facility or any facility that caters to moms and babies, try to get involved with them and you capitalize on their market and their traffic and they use you for credibility. And sometimes you might want to, you might have to cut them in 10% of the profits or sometimes they might just let you use their room for just the publicity or the visibility. You just have to feel it out. And, again, there are a lot of those ideas in the business plan.

Thanks again, Diane.

OK.

So much.

You're very welcome. I enjoyed it, and I'm hoping if anyone has any other questions they'll write to me at diane@kindersigns.com. and let's hope I hear from everyone at least who called and who has any questions. And I'm here whenever you need me. And I wish you all success. And if you don't go with this opportunity, I wish you success in another one. But, obviously, I'm prejudiced, and I think this one is the best you can go for.

Yeah. Thanks so much everyone for coming. I do appreciate that.

OK. Thank you so much. Thank you, Liz. You've been wonderful.

All right. We'll talk soon.

'Bye.

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