Marketing Superstars: What This CMO Learned From Prison

Lisa Woodard, CMO of Transamerica Brokerage, volunteers for the Prison Entrepreneurship Program—an experience, she explained in this week’s podcast, that has helped make her a better marketer.

Lisa Woodard, CMO of Transamerica Brokerage, has been to prison many times—but not for crimes committed. Rather, she has been volunteering for the Prison Entrepreneurship Program (PEP) as a marketing expert.

Woodard told me she believes her teaching has helped make her a better marketer. “When you really sift through what [marketers] do on a daily basis, it just boils down to five key lessons,” she reaffirmed. They are:

1. Who is your customer?
2. How do you reach this person?
3. Why should they choose you?
4. How can you meet your customers’ needs?
5. Delight your customer to spread the word

Has her teachings made a difference? Yes, according to Woodard. “Not only are lives transformed, but we know at least 185 businesses that have been started. We’ve turned these men from taking taxpayers’ money into productive business owners,” she said.

That’s a breakout marketing success story if I’ve ever heard of one.

Here are some more highlights from this week’s show:

• The importance of a brand promise (5:00)
• True B2B2C (6:40)
• Leveraging cutting-edge technologies (8:52)
• Five marketing lessons learned in prison (14:05)

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