Co-founder, The What to Expect Foundation
www.whattoexpect.org

Lisa Bernstein says she always wanted her professional life to be “about” something…

And now it is, since she joined forces with Heidi Murkoff and the late Arlene Eisenberg, authors of the bible for moms-to-be ‘What to Expect When You’re Expecting,’ and launched The What to Expect Foundation.

They created the non-profit What to Expect Foundation to help low-income expecting families receive comprehensive health and literacy support so they too can expect healthier pregnancies, safer deliveries and happy babies. The Foundation’s Baby Basics program has reached about 200,000 women nationwide through clinics and health departments.

Here Lisa talks about being a social entrepreneur, taking risks, when you should write a book to advance your business objectives, and what finally lit her fire to stop talking and start launching…

Starting Out in Publishing

“I went to Carnegie Mellon and worked my way through school. When I graduated, with huge student loans to pay off, I moved to New York. Even though I was making no money, I really wanted to work in book publishing.”

“I worked in publishing for 10 years… my claim to fame - in addition to promoting the What To Expect pregnancy and parenting series was that I was Thomas Pynchon’s publicist (Pynchon is a famous literary recluse who has refused to be photographed or interviewed). I joke that the title of my autobiography will be ‘I Was Thomas Pynchon’s Publicist and Other Oxymorons.’”

From Publishing to Waiting Tables

“At 25, I paid off my student loans finally, left a great job at Little Brown Publishing and bummed my way through Europe taking odd jobs - like waiting tables in a Greek bar. I had met the man who would become) my husband and had a feeling I would marry him. I had worked my whole life, since I was 13. I knew that if I didn’t just live on edge a bit before I got married, I would regret it.”

Getting Lots of Phone Calls

“When I came back, I still didn’t know what I wanted to do - book PR was not my passion. But I took a job at Workman Publishing and started doing publicity for the ‘What to Expect When You’re Expecting’ book and authors.

“So here’s how the Foundation came to be. We were getting calls from clinics that cared for low-income women, asking us to donate copies of ‘What to Expect When You’re Expecting’… which we were doing. Heidi and Arlene, the authors of the book, were and are extremely philanthropic and their mission was always to help all women have healthy pregnancies.

“In the evenings, I was a volunteer literacy tutor working with recovering teens who were just out of jail - many of them had one or two kids already. I could see that giving out ‘What To Expect’ to parents was nice, but many low-income families would be overwhelmed by the book. It didn’t address the needs of people living in poverty. Heidi had come to the same conclusion having done a class for pregnant women at Rikers Island Prison. We kind of fantasized that one day we would figure out a way to help pregnant women who couldn’t read… and left it at that for about six or so years.”

Advice from Career Coach

“By the time I was 31, I had two children - Zoe, who is now 11, and Teddy, who is 10. I was the associate publisher of Brain Quest - having worked my way up the publishing food chain. Work was something I was doing to make money - not something that made me get up in the morning. So I went to a job coach.

“She asked me what I was most passionate about. And out came this story about literacy tutoring (something I had given up once I had children) and Heidi and my discussions about working to change birth outcomes for low-income women.

“The career coach said she had rarely seen someone as passionate about something… she said, ‘Go home and write a list of all the reasons you can’t do this.’ I wrote the list and realized that all it was is that I was afraid. I went back to her with my list and said, ‘What do I do next?’ She said, ‘Next you go do it.’”

How They Raised Money

“Heidi, Arlene and I sat down and discussed the power of the What To Expect brand and how we could work with corporations that we all felt good about and take the money and put it to work to help low-income women have healthier pregnancies. Just as we started the Foundation, Heidi had been talking with Nissan about car seat safety. Together, we built an award winning social-marketing campaign that helped us launch the Foundation.

“Heidi wrote a 12-page brochure called Advice from Career Coach “The What to Expect Guide To Car Seat Safety” for an initial donation. And then we built the campaign, so that eventually, Nissan gave the Foundation $1.75 million. We had found a partner who cared about families - and didn’t expect us to endorse their product. The campaign won two social marketing awards for Nissan and we had the money to start building a program for mothers (and fathers) in-need.”

Creating ‘Baby Basics’

“With the help of professionals and mothers across the country, we created a very special pregnancy guide written to a third-grade reading level, (called ‘Baby Basics’). From there, we spent the next three to four years building a program around that. Pregnancy is an ideal time to teach mothers not only how to read health information but also why they need to read.

“With a team of literacy and health experts, we teach doctors how to better communicate with patients, and we empower women to ask questions at their healthcare appointments. The ‘Baby Basics’ books (available in English, Spanish and Chinese) are available to clinics around the country and our entire program has been found to change the habits and behaviors of both providers and patients.”

Two Incredible Things

“This year has brought two great things. One, just as we were ready to expand our program, Clorox came to us and said (they) would really like to do a program where we can stop the spread of cold and flu among families. Thus the birth of the “What To Expect Guide To A Healthy Home” funded by Clorox. Again we’ve helped moms learn about something important, and then we took the fees and donation from Clorox ($1 million) and can use it just in time to expand our program.

“Also, we’ve just partnered with Glaxo Smith Kline to do a What To Expect Immunization program. Again Heidi has donated her time, and we’ll receive $1 million - and will expand the program into baby’s first year of life.”

How You Can Help

“The infant mortality rate in the United States is higher than that of 27 other nations. That’s unbelievable. Over 50 percent of all Americans read below a fifth-grade reading level. Both statistics are unacceptable. I don’t think most women, most mothers, know these statistics.

“We are starting to work in every city, and are building What To Expect/Baby Basics initiatives across the country. I’m hoping that I can build networks of local mothers and companies that care… and we’ll build events and local support, so that women can reach out a hand so every mom knows what to expect. We need more leaders — people who want to serve on our local and national boards.”

Greatest Challenge

“Right this second, our greatest challenge is expansion… keeping up and expanding fast enough because we’ve been really successful and maintaining standards of excellence across the country. We have tried to keep the Baby Basics program focused on providing what we could provide. The demand for the program is explosive.”

Lesson Learned

“Well, this will sound either dumb or crazy, but here’s the big lesson I learned that changed my life: you die. Heidi and I had been talking about doing this Foundation for years and years. We kept thinking about it and thinking about it. After I had both kids, I was running back and forth from home to work. And then I got spinal meningitis from Lyme Disease… I was in the hospital for a week and on IV antibiotics for six months. I had two little kids. I thought I was a goner. The lesson that you die is the hardest to remember. You’re going to die, so you better go do what you want to do.”

Words of Advice - On Writing Your Book

“There is a time in a certain kind of company where it makes sense to publish a book that brings your special philosophy to a wider audience and it becomes your calling card. That said, you had better have something really special to say or a special perspective, because it is not easy to get published. Note who your audience is (perhaps it’s your customers) and be ready to prove to your publisher that you have that audience.

“I wish I kept a journal… that’s something worth doing. You start seeing patterns in what you’ve done… if you were to write a book you could use those notes. A book can be a really good business next step, but you should have a real business first.”

Favorite Quotes

“The only man who never makes mistakes is the man who never does anything.” - Teddy Roosevelt

“If the dream comes close to the dreamers, it happens because they have been organizing themselves according to their dreams; they have been acting with the dream on hand.” - Paulo Freire (Brazilian educator and activist)