Mar De Carlo was nearly out of money when three women reached out with a question: could she teach them how to do what she was doing?
Those conversations changed the direction of her business. Instead of returning to management work or accepting a full-time role that would take her away from her young daughter, Mar created a training program for professionals in the parenting space.
That program became the foundation of the International Parenting and Health Institute, an organization that now serves professionals in more than 60 countries.
In her conversation with Jack Paxton on the Blitz Growth Podcast, Mar explained how pregnancy, professional experience, writing, community outreach, and a willingness to solve an overlooked problem shaped the business.
Watch the full interview with Mar De Carlo.
Key points from Mar's story:
Personal experience revealed an unmet need.
Professional standards made the training offer more useful.
A book helped people understand and share the idea.
Direct outreach brought the work to early readers and partners.
Three early students helped validate the certification program.
Pregnancy revealed a gap in the parenting industry
Mar entered the parenting field with years of experience in health and fitness. She had worked directly with clients and managed large fitness departments, giving her experience on both the service and operations sides of the industry.
Her perspective changed after she became pregnant in 2008. She had moved to a new area and didn't have family or close friends nearby. Although resources were available, the information felt confusing and often contradictory.
She began asking questions that went beyond products and preparation. Parents needed help thinking through emotional support, birth choices, postpartum care, self-care, work, and the practical pressures of raising a child.
At the time, baby planning was an emerging profession focused largely on helping expecting parents choose products and prepare for a baby. Mar saw room for a broader service that addressed the emotional and practical sides of the transition into parenthood.
Her health and fitness background gave her a starting point, while her own pregnancy showed her where parents needed more support.
She built the standards the profession was missing
Mar didn't only want to become another baby planner. She noticed that the profession lacked clear boundaries, ethical guidelines, and consistent training.
New professionals were entering the field, but many didn't have a clear understanding of what they should offer, where their responsibilities ended, or how to coach families safely.
That created risks for both sides. Parents could receive unclear or poorly defined support, while professionals could take on responsibilities they weren't trained to handle.
Mar responded by building a certification program around the needs of the profession. Her goal was to help practitioners understand their role, work within a defined scope, and support families with greater clarity.
She also drew on her management experience. After years of hiring, training, and evaluating people, she understood how much a person's preparation affects the quality of service they provide.
That led her to look beyond a short course or a quick credential. The training needed to prepare people for the actual work.
Problem Mar noticed | What she built |
|---|---|
Unclear professional boundaries | A defined scope of practice |
Inconsistent preparation | A structured certification program |
Confusion about responsible support | Ethical guidelines and clearer roles |
Limited reach through personal services | Training for professionals in multiple countries |
She chose the opportunity above the obvious business
Mar could have focused on building a traditional service business as a baby planner. Instead, she noticed that other professionals wanted to learn the process and start businesses of their own.
That shift allowed her to serve more families through the people she trained. It also turned her knowledge into a repeatable education product rather than a service limited by her personal time.
The first version of the organization began with three women. Their interest helped Mar see that the demand extended beyond her immediate client work.
Over time, the program grew into the International Parenting and Health Institute, which Mar described as operating in 61 countries after 14 years.
A book gave her ideas a permanent form
Before building a large social media audience, Mar wrote a book about the emerging baby planning profession.
Writing forced her to organize the ideas she wanted to contribute. It also gave potential partners and students something concrete to read, evaluate, and share.
Mar believes people need more than a conversation before they can fully understand someone's work. A book gives them time to absorb the material, reflect on it, and decide whether the ideas fit their needs.
She started with Lulu and later used Amazon. Self-publishing allowed her to release the material without waiting for a traditional publisher to approve the concept.
Speed mattered. The profession was still taking shape, and delaying the material would have delayed the standards and training she wanted to introduce.
The book served several practical purposes:
It explained a new professional category.
It organized Mar's method and standards.
It gave potential students material to review.
It gave partners something easy to share.
Outreach turned the book into a business asset
Publishing the book wasn't the end of the process. Mar contacted professionals in the parenting, health, and financial fields to introduce the idea and explain why the work mattered.
She used email, printed letters, brochures, and direct conversations. Her approach wasn't limited to asking people to promote the book. She looked for ways to create value on both sides of the relationship.
That distinction shaped her networking strategy. She was asking how she could support the people she wanted to work with while also explaining her own project.
Word spread without paid advertising. Mar heard from people in countries including France and England after professionals began sharing the work with others.
She also used a local press release. Starting with community newspapers helped her reach nearby people and gave other media outlets a reason to pay attention.
Mar's early promotion combined useful content with direct contact. Publishing created credibility; outreach gave the work a path to its first readers.
Her first $1,000 came from listening to demand
Mar's first major online sale happened during a difficult period. She was a first-time mother, had limited money available, and was deciding whether to accept work that would require her to leave her daughter with someone else.
She had opportunities to return to management and had been offered a full-time role with a high-end client. Those options could have produced income, but they didn't fit the kind of life she wanted at that point.
Instead of making a rushed decision, Mar slowed down. During walks with her daughter, she thought through the problem and asked what solution might already be present in her experience.
After several days, she saw a way to turn her coaching knowledge into a training program. She wrote to her community and explained that she needed help with the business. She was open to someone taking over temporarily, receiving a share, or buying the business.
Three women responded. They couldn't take over the business, but they wanted to learn how Mar worked and build businesses of their own.
Mar created a price, explained the offer, and enrolled them in the first certification program. She says she made more than $3,000 overnight.
The sale came from a need that already existed in her audience. She didn't begin by building a large funnel or spending heavily on advertising. She paid attention to the questions people were already asking.
The first program was built around a real delivery system
Mar had spent much of her career working with people in person, so online training required a new approach. Her first students couldn't travel, which meant the program needed to work remotely.
She began assembling the pieces of an online learning system, including video meetings, presentations, recorded lessons, and mentoring.
The program followed the same process she had used to write the book. She asked what the profession needed, where practitioners needed the most preparation, and how the training could help them serve families responsibly.
She also left space for student questions. That allowed the program to respond to the needs of the people taking it instead of forcing every learner through an inflexible script.
The early customers didn't only provide revenue. They helped test the offer, clarify the curriculum, and confirm that other professionals wanted structured training in the field.
Social media supported the community rather than replacing it
Mar built her business during the period when Instagram was beginning to grow and TikTok was still known as Musical.ly. Social platforms later helped her connect with a wider audience, but she doesn't credit them as the only reason the organization grew.
Her advice is direct: don't rely on social media alone.
She continued building relationships, collaborating with professionals, sharing her material, and reaching out to communities directly. Social media became one place where people could find her and continue the conversation.
That mix mattered because a follower is only the beginning of a relationship. Trust grew when people could read her work, understand her standards, see her consistency, and interact with her over time.
Her main platform for engagement has been Instagram, while other channels have helped extend the reach of her parenting education work.
What creators can learn from Mar's path
Look for the missing layer
Mar saw that baby planning covered products but left emotional support, preparation, and professional standards less clearly defined. A useful business often begins with the part of a customer's problem that existing services overlook.
Turn expertise into something people can study
Her book gave people a way to understand her thinking without needing a live conversation. A book, course, workshop, or practical guide can make experience easier to evaluate and share.
Contact people directly
Publishing alone doesn't guarantee attention. Mar sent letters, contacted professionals, used local media, and built relationships one conversation at a time.
Sell the next step people ask for
Her first certification customers told her they wanted to learn from her. Their request revealed a product opportunity that was already present in her audience.
Build boundaries into the offer
Professional training needs clear limits. Mar made scope, ethics, and responsible practice part of the certification instead of treating them as side topics.
Frequently asked questions
FAQ
What does the International Parenting and Health Institute do?
It trains and certifies professionals who support families during pregnancy, early parenthood, and related parenting transitions.
Why did Mar De Carlo create the certification program?
She saw that baby planning lacked clear boundaries, ethical guidelines, and consistent preparation, so she built a program around those needs.
How did Mar find her first certification students?
She told her community that she needed help with the business. Three women responded because they wanted to learn her process and build businesses of their own.
What marketing channels did Mar use?
She used a book, email, printed letters, brochures, direct conversations, local press, professional relationships, and social media.
What can creators learn from Mar's business?
Creators can study the problems their audience keeps raising, turn their experience into a teachable offer, contact potential partners directly, and add clear boundaries to the service.
Keep learning, even after the business works
Mar's work began with the belief that every professional and organization has room to improve. She carried that belief from health and fitness into parenting education, business coaching, and professional training.
Her path wasn't built from one perfect launch. It grew through a personal problem, a gap in a new profession, a book, direct outreach, three early students, and a training system that could serve people online.
The clearest lesson is practical: pay attention to the problems your audience keeps bringing to you. Then build the resource, education product, or service that helps them handle that problem with more confidence and clearer boundaries.
That is how Mar De Carlo turned her experience as a health and fitness professional, a mother, and a researcher into a global parenting education business.