Working in the schools convinced Successful Parenting's Barbara Lynn Taylor that something more had to be done about the way children are brought up—and she was going to be the one to do it.

by Virginia Murray

"Parents don't choose to be bad parents. I thought that if they knew better they would do better."

In 1991, after 11 years as a school guidance counselor (and 9 earlier years as a primary school teacher), Barbara Lynn Taylor knew that more needed to be done for students and their parents. But she wasn't sure exactly what.

At the time she was also host of the talk show "Make Time for Children" on radio station WSJS in her home town of Winston-Salem, NC. Another broadcaster at WSJS was Robin Richards, a former TV news anchor who was well known and respected in the community.

Taylor and Richards discovered that they shared a desire to help children and families. At the same time, both were interested in being their own bosses for a change. It wasn't long before Taylor—with a master's degree in counseling and 20 years' experience working with children and families—and Richards—with extensive experience in journalism and video production—realized that they could combine their skills for a good cause. In 1992, Successful Parenting was born.

The new company's goal was to provide inexpensive parenting-education programs that were culturally and socially diverse. Richards and Taylor kept three points in mind when writing the scripts and planning the videos:

• provide good, solid information based on fact and research
• present practical ideas in real, easy-to-understand language ("I wanted the wisdom of the ivory tower in the language of people," Taylor recalls)
• allow viewers to see themselves in the video by portraying different cultures, ages, and economic levels.

The new company's first product was the Heart of Parenting series, exploring issues important to families in only 17 minutes per topic—just the right amount of time for busy parents. (The videos have accompanying user's and facilitator's guides as well.)

While Richards tended to the business and sales sides of the operation, Taylor plunged into sales, training and video production. It turned out to be more work than they had realized. In keeping with the company's goals, they were determined to portray real people in real-life situations. The actors in the Successful Parenting videos are all ordinary parents and children in real homes. Recruiting such a large (up to 94 per video) and diverse group of people to work almost for free was her first challenge. The team called on family, friends, co-workers and anyone else they could find.

Some of the actors came to her by luck—the East Indian family appearing in "Communication Is Crucial," for example, were discovered in a local shopping mall and graciously agreed to help out. In general Taylor was thrilled by people's willingness to participate: "This was a for-profit corporation, but they were all willing to volunteer their time because they liked what we were trying to accomplish." Each actor was "paid" with a copy of the finished tape.

To keep the dialogue natural, Taylor gave the actors a general description of the scenario but allowed them to ad-lib their own script. The result is a video full of realistic—and sometimes amusing—scenes. The final production challenge came in the editing room, when Richards and Taylor were forced to cull less than 17 minutes of video out of 2.5 hours of tape.

The Successful Parenting team did its marketing mostly at conferences and through word of mouth. In 1996, for example, Richards and Taylor each spent more than 125 days at conferences. It was this hectic pace that caused Taylor to re-think her position.

"I found that it was getting difficult to balance my life," Taylor recalls. Between exhibiting, presenting and training at conferences and coordinating video shoots, "I wasn't being the mother I wanted to be—or the wife." Despite the unending support of her husband, David, as her two sons (Scott, 14, and Ryan, 11) grew older she felt the need to be with them more, especially because they have special needs: "One son has ADHD, both have LD, and they are also AG [academically gifted]—so they need lots of TLC," she quips.

Her initial plan was to have Richards buy her part of the company from her, but in the end the opposite occurred. Doubling her workload was not what she wanted to do, however, and that's where Active Parenting Publishers entered the picture.

Several years ago Taylor met Active Parenting founder Michael Popkin at a conference. He joked that if she ever wanted to sell the competing Successful Parenting company, she should let him know. At the time, she says, "I thought, 'Not on your life! This is my baby!'"

But by 1997 she had begun to think that perhaps a union of the two companies might work out well for both. In 1998 Successful Parenting, Inc., licensed Active Parenting Publishers to market and distribute the Successful Parenting line of products.

"I think we complement each other well," Taylor says. "Philosophically there are no major conflicts. Although the programs emphasize different points, they all use the same body of knowledge." After all, she points out, "if any of us can convince people of the value of parenting education, we will all benefit."


For more information on Successful Parenting products, call 800-825-0060 or see our catalog.

Reprinted from Leader magazine.
©Active Parenting Publishers, Inc.