Relationship Toolshop® International Training Institute, LLC/6 Steps to Starting & Growing Your Family Life Education Practice (Preview & Options)

6 Steps to Starting & Growing Your Family Life Education Practice (Preview & Options)


Starting and Growing a Family Life Education & Coaching Practice may seem like an overwhelming idea, unless you understand what steps to take, the importance of each step, and have easy-to-follow directions for moving from one step to the next, in a logical order.

Whether you want to grow a non-profit or for-profit business you just started, fill in gaps, or take it to the next level, you'll find eye-opening aha’s, mind-shifting concepts, and practical applications of sound theory specific to family life practice.

The Best Curated Coaching & Training Tips for Parenting & Family Life Educators

What would it cost to train with and get coaching from the top experts in ALL these fields:
  • Abundance Mindset
  • Success as a Service Provider
  • Becoming a Coach
  • Social Entrepreneurship
  • Online training
  • Creating Products
  • Creating Programs
  • Being a Top-Rated Speaker
  • Internet Marketing with Heart
  • How to Write and Publish a Book
  • How to Market your Speaking Services
  • ... and MUCH more!

Jody has already invested 6 figures into getting this training and coaching so you don't have to. Then she pulled together the KEY SECRETS she learned from each expert about each subject. 

Now she's offering what she learned to you! 

Customized Content for Parenting and Family Life Educators

This unique training opportunity for family life professionals integrates research-informed business training, based on relationship-building, education-based business, and service-oriented marketing practices. It's perfectly designed to leverage family life educators' strengths and provide training, tools, and tips for areas we don't get in our traditional education and training. Optional private or group coaching is available, too. 

Multimedia Training: Read, See, Hear, Do!

With a balance of information, instruction, and examples, this multimedia learning experience features six modules, each with topic-focused lessons in audio, video and handouts. Bonus resources include how-to instructions, guides, templates, and checklists. 
All of it is designed to deliver a never-before-offered opportunity for family life professionals to receive research-informed business training, based on relationship-building, education-based business and marketing practices.

Whether you want want to start a non-profit or for-profit business, are just starting out or want to fill in gaps in your business plan, you’ll find eye-opening aha's, mind-shifting concepts, and practical applications of sound theory specific to family life practice.

Approved for Continuing Education Credits for the Certified Family Life Educator program through the National Council on Family Relations. This training offers 16 contact hours or 1.6 CFLE CEUs.

What Are the 6 Steps?

Here's a preview of the course content:

Step 1: Plant the Seed. WHY do you want to serve?

YOUR MINDSET is Your Inner Foundation. No matter WHAT you do or HOW you do it, WHY you do it (or don't do follow-through) is the biggest factor influencing your success. Your mindset is a reflection of your subconscious beliefs, but brain researchers say these are mostly negative and run about 97-99% of the time, overriding your conscious intentions. Your mindset can create resistance, fear, procrastination, and other blocks that can influence your decisions and sabotage your success. So this crucial first step supports you in identifying your vision, goals, strengths, and mindset blocks, and how to remove them. 

Step 2: Establish Roots. WHO do you want to serve?

PRE-PLANNING DECISIONS are critical to your success. People form trusting relationships with people they think understand them and can help them solve their unique problems. If you try to be everything to everyone, you will resonate with no one. If you agree to serve everyone, you will find that some people suck your energy while others elevate it. So you want to get crystal clear about WHO you want to serve and how you will structure your practice so those people will find and choose to work with you. The decisions you make during this step will drive everything you do at every other step, so it's important not to guess or make assumptions. Instead, you want to know which decisions to make and how to make them, based on solid research and proven-effective practices.

Step 3: Grow the Trunk. WHAT do you want to serve?

YOUR RESOURCE & PROGRAM OFFERINGS are the heart and soul of your business. Unfortunately. most people create what they want to offer or believe people need, assuming people know they need it! Then they offer it to the world, sometimes spending a ton of money on marketing, and wonder why people don't flock to their doors! Doing things organically may feel right, but being organized when creating the content for your programs & services --- including when, where, and how to offer them, and what to price them --- can prevent a lot of costly, time-consuming trial and error. 

Step 4: Branch Out. WHERE do you want to serve?

HAVING AN INTERNET PRESENCE is essential. Deciding where people can get what you offer may seem like a simple decision: Are you local, national or international? Do you offer your programs and resources on-line or live? Regardless of these answers you need a website, so people can find you quickly, start getting to know, like and trust you, and sample what you do. So you need to know what makes an engaging, effective website, even if you are going to hire someone else to design and write it.

Step 5: Grow & Mature HOW will they find you?

MARKETING MAKES YOU VISIBLE & CREDIBLE. Your Family Life practice may be a way for your dreams to come true, but just because you create and launch it, it doesn't mean people will come. If you or your website are invisible, you'll serve no one! So you want to use the Top Ten education-based relationship-building marketing strategies that are best suited for Family Life professionals. When you use a mix of these, ongoing, you increase your visibility and credibility, while educating and serving, not selling.  

Step 6: Expand & Repopulate. WHEN will you end?

START WITH THE END IN MIND. Are you afraid of growth? What will happen if you are so successful you have more clients than you can handle? Will you close your doors? Put your light under a bushel? Intead of fearing growth, plan for it, by starting with the end in mind. Whether your goal is early retirement or to create a legacy, plan now for future growth and expansion by making your business automated and scalable, so others can replicate what you do, reach more people, and carry on your legacy, even when you aren't there yourself.

Are You Ready do Start & Grow YOUR Professional Family Life Practice?

FREE Preview Webinar

Want a fast-track overview of the steps and why each is important? Watch this free preview webinar.

Access Modules Ala Carte

Although the lessons work best when used together as a system, you may register for individual stand-alone course modules. 

The Full Course (plus lifetime updates)

With the entire system, you also get:

  • 16 Continuing Education Hours for the Certified Family Life Educator program through the National Council on Family Relations,

  • The option to receive personalized coaching (private 1:1 or in a group),

  • Bonus resources, like proprietary systems and templates we are bound by our trainer/coach NDAs to only share with our coaching clients and business partners.
    (See the Table of Contents for each module and the bonuses received by participants who attend the full course and opt for support.)

Here's What Others Say about Jody's Workshops on FLE Practices & Leadership

"You have moved me at least one quantum leap in my knowledge, if not several. This is a program-changing experience. You have taken me forward significantly in my comfort and desire to do this. — Eve Sullivan, Parents Forum, MA (about the 2007 NEPI bonus call on “Writing Bonus Statements and Creating Digital Resources.” To hear the full 1-minute testimonial of her and Don Schilling, from NEPI, CLICK HERE.) 

The all-day
Marketing Magic workshop, presented at the 2002 NCFR conference, was an information-packed workshop filled with practical tips and advice for marketing family programs. Jody is an excellent speaker and shares her years of experience in an entertaining manner that includes ample audience participation. The handouts alone are worth the cost of the seminar! — Dawn Cassidy, M.Ed., CFLE, Certification Director, National Council on Family Relations.

Thank you for the marketing workshop you provided to our ... statewide staff.
We received particularly positive feedback from the staff on the portion of your presentation that related to our existing web site. Your review of our current web site content and discussion of strategies to improve this information was extremely useful. Staff appreciated the tailoring of this topic to our specific information. It put the theory into practical application. ... We look forward to implementing your ideas and may be contacting you again in the future for consultation as we develop additional materials. — Debra D. Andersen, Chief, Child Guidance Service, Family Health Services, Oklahoma State Dept. of Health (Click here to read the entire letter 2007)

Thank you so much for doing the webinar today!
On behalf of the Events & Planning committee, I wanted to make sure you knew how much we appreciated your willingness to do the webinar for us. You hit the ball outta the park today for us. That was such a professional, well-prepared, well-delivered webinar, we couldn’t have asked for more …… well, other than another hour or two – ha! I know many of the participants were very pleased with the information. I took 3 pages of notes – I loved it! You clearly have lots to offer and we’re grateful that FLCA was an avenue for you to get much needed information out to Family Life Coaching professionals. --- Debbie Farr, PhD, Co-founder of Family Life Coaching Association (2017)

Jody has been a Team Leader numerous times for all three of my training programs since 2005.
She won the Outstanding Leadership Award in Product Factory, was a Team Leader for the first Web Traffic School, and I chose her to be the Team Leader’s Team Leader for the first team-based Book Yourself Solid program. She’s motivating, encouraging, and builds rapport and comradery among her teammates. She also offers such valuable, practical business and marketing advice that I’ve even asked her to fill in for me on a Mastermind training call. Anyone who attends Jody’s marketing training programs or is on her team will benefit greatly from her knowledge, guidance and leadership. --- Michael Port, creator of the Book Yourself Solid training program and best-selling book and internationally-reknown marketing expert.

Here's What Jody's Team Members Have to Say About Jody's Mentoring and Coaching

Jody was chosen as the Outstanding Team Leader for  the 90-Day Product Factory (PF), Web Traffic School (TS) and Book Yourself Solid (BYS) Teams. Here's What her Team Members Have to Say About Jody's Mentoring and Coaching  

Jody Pawel is an Outstanding Leader and deserves "The Outstanding Leadership Award" in the 90-Day Product Factory program. Jody Pawel is highly talented, highly motivated and is the kind of person who in my opinion, if she wanted to, could succeed in almost any business. Indeed, if I weren’t retired, I would readily have recruited her for one of my own businesses. — John Williamson - The Wealth Coach TM, "The UK's Original and Most Distinguished Wealth Coach" (PF2)


Jody is a fountain of resources and support. She walks her talk to assist those in the helping professions to promote their services with integrity. Jody is uniquely qualified to bridge the gap between the non-profit and business world. As an award-winning parenting instructor as well as marketing consultant, she blends a commitment to service with marketing savvy. — Susie Leonard Weller, parenting instructor, life and spiritual coach and PF2 teammate. susieweller.com  


I want to encourage every team member to schedule a talk with Jody. I did and it was Fantastic! Jody was very helpful in helping me redefine my project and also gave me several important resources. Frankly, our conversation was worth the price of PF3 alone. So....call her. — Bob Houle, bobtheentertainer.com (PF3)  


Jody is a fantastic team leader who is about positive mutual support and facilitating win-win outcomes for everyone. She is very skilled at bringing members together as a team in helping each person succeed and sharing unique skills and knowledge with each other. Jody is excellent at helping team members get through their respective hurdles that seem to come up along the way. For people developing information products, especially helping professionals, Jody brings her many talents, background, and experience to the table. — Iris Bell, MD PhD, gettingwhole.com (PF3)  


Jody Pawel is an incredible business woman. Her honest and candid feedback will hit home and come when you most need it. Genuine, insightful, and incredibly caring, Jody was always available at a moments notice to help encourage, inspire, and guide our team. Continually going above and beyond, she still schedules and leads meetings for our PF3 team -four months later.-- Julie Hunt, currently Senior Manager, Digital Products at Chopra Center for Wellbeing (PF3)  


Wow! And many thanks, Jody. You helped me overcome my product-creating fears and managed to gently keep me on task so that my valuable time and financial investment were proven to be well spent. I repeat: Wow! -- Kathleen Rake, www.TheWriteWay.ca, Clear, clean, and clever writing, client-care, and marketing solutions for real-life people in real-world business. (PF3)  


I had the great fortune to be a part of Jody’s team during Product Factory which is an intense, content-rich, production course. Without Jody, I would have floundered in overwhelm and fallen out of the program. Her teleclass leadership skills are stellar. Nothing was too big of a problem in Jody’s world; she either had a personal example of a solution, knew of outside resources, found the ideas in other people, or knew the direction to go to search. Her optimism and positivity shone through every task. When around Jody, nothing seemed impossible. Jody has a way of balancing empathy with enthusiasm that is infectious. Jody leads by example; she is organized and goes the extra mile, inspiring everyone around her to stretch outside their own comfort zone and grow. She has the sweet ability to include everyone in discussion AND finish the task on time. — Linda Schaumleffel, Olympic Medalist(PF4)  


I decided to take BYS when I was challenged with marketing my book, "Acceptable Behavior Checkbook". I didn't know how to express how the book helped strong willed children. I knew the system worked, but to explain it was another story. When I joined Jody's team in BYS I was impressed with her attentive nature. She listened to all of us and has constructive feedback which helped us integrate the materials in a very hands-on fashion. I am pleased to say that I am able to express what I do and how the system works so much so that I am already booked for speaking engagements and have attracted greater interest in my book. — Monique Gallagher, , Helping parents of strong willed children turn defiance into joyful cooperation (BYS 9-2006).  


As our stellar Book Yourself Solid program team leader, Jody’s warmth, enthusiasm, and personal connection draws out the best in every member. She fosters an exchange of ideas and creates an environment of support and collaboration. Thanks to her generous sharing of her vast resources, our BYS team had the highest completion rate in the program. Jody knows what to do, how to do it, and where to find it—and she shares it all! What more can you ask? — Donna Mills, PrintsOnPurpose.com (BYS 9-2006)  


Jody’s leadership skills outshine them all. Her marketing expertise made our experience fun and practical. Her energy and motivational skills kept us going, even when we wanted to quit. Jody’s warmth and understanding always made me feel like a part of her family. She even coached me in a family situation, giving me the support I needed to move beyond this challenge and the courage I needed to continue with the program.— Cheryl Culbertson, C.P.C. C.F.C. N.L.P. C.D.C. 


As my team leader in The 90 Day Product Factory, Jody was always quick to acknowledge my work with endorsements and appreciation. I blossomed under her leadership. After coming from 18 years of being undervalued and underpaid, running my family’s real estate business, I felt starved for appreciation and support. Jody helped me to transition my ‘lone cowboy’ mentality of doing it all by myself, to one of inclusion and a belief that it was not only okay to ask for help, but preferred and expected in oder to achieve the greatest of success. 


But the best was yet to come. It’s always a lightbulb moment when someone recognizes something In you, that you never saw in yourself. Jody was that person for me. When she nominated me as a team leader, I saw myself as a leader for the first time. That was a defining moment for me. During my time as a team leader I flourished knowing that she believed in me and was there to support me. Whatever I needed, from tech help to a pat on the back, or a listening ear, she was there for me.  


Thanks to Jody, I am today the leader that she saw in me then. With Jody leading your team, not only can you be certain of winning, but under her leadership more people will be encouraged to be leaders.  


— Andrea Amador, author, “Lovin’ the Skin You’re In: Body Confidence Coaching for Women,” www.thejuicywoman.com (PF4) 

Presented by

Jody Johnston Pawel, LSW, CFLE, CTSS, CFLC-Expert

Recipient of the Margaret E. Arcus Award for Outstanding Family Life Educator for 2024-25

Jody Johnston Pawel is a Licensed Social Worker, Certified Family Life Educator, Certified Trauma Support Specialist, Certified World Class Speaker Coach, is one of the first Certified Family Life Coaches to qualify at the Expert Level, and received the 2024-25 Margaret E. Arcus Award for Outstanding Family Life Educator by the National Council on Family Relations. She is also the author of the award-winning book The Parent’s Toolshop® and over 100 research-based parenting curricula, programs, and resources. She’s a top-rated speaker who has trained over 100,000 parents and professionals and has certified over 100 Parent’s Toolshop® trainers and coaches worldwide. She serves as a parenting expert to the media, with 300+ media appearances, and was the Assistant Producer and On-air Parenting Expert of the Emmy-nominated Ident-a-Kid television series. Connect with her online on social media or use the “contact” pages at any of her websites or this e-library