From Alex Lippisch, Vice President Membership Chair for ASMP-Ohio North Coast

"Maria, It was a terrific pleasure to have you present to our group. Beginning with the plentiful articles, guidelines, email reminders, etc. it was clear you are a consummate professional presenter. Your pre-production worksheet was especially helpful in pulling all the details together. The information in your workshop was just as I had expected. We had students and seasoned professionals and there was something of value for everyone including very helpful marketing ideas that address the climate today. In addition, I especially enjoyed how you kept the tone engaging and humorous throughout all four hours. Thank you for a first class job! "

From Michael James Cox Dallas Photographer

"I had the pleasure of attending a seminar taught by Maria Piscopo. Her knowledge and experience in the business world is amazing! I learned a great deal about the art of communicating with the client and the negotiation of pricing in the today's business world. I would highly recommend her to anyone trying to market themselves in a creative business."

"The good news is that this has been a really good year, the best by far since the late 90's. I am still using all of your self-promotion and marketing ideas and principles and have had some really nice jobs this year: a lot of book jackets (which is where I have focused much of my marketing efforts), and I recently completed a large project for Sports Illustrated, whom I had not worked for in over ten years. I moved from Cleveland to Boston a year ago and though I only have a couple of clients locally it's easy to zip down to New York where I have gotten quite a bit of work from face-to-face portfolio presentations. Though they are difficult to engineer (nobody has time); they seem to pay off when they do happen. Thanks again for all your good advice!"

From Michael Tanimura

"Thanks very much for the invigorating program you gave last week for the Chicago Creative Coalition. The turnout was the largest we have had of late, due in no small part to your name recognition in the field and the timeliness of your discussion on sales. I also know I will learn even more from the video tapes I won in the door prize drawing. Thank you for those! And a big thank you for getting us a new board member and secretary! Thanks again,"

From Jeff Caven, ResortHotelPhotographer.com "As a former chapter president of ASMP/New Mexico I found lots of things to use in Maria Piscopo’s new program for ASMP/Seattle this year. I learned how to facilitate creating a marketing plan. I am about to release my web site version 2.0. I learned a lot of specific things from Maria’s program I plan on using in its design such as: use of text for SEO,  creating a more interesting website to get longer visits from potential clients and using forms in addition to email contact. Her program reaffirmed our commitment to simple, smart website navigation. I also got that kick- in- the pants to get my blog going. Maria’s workshop gave me the feedback that I needed to confirm I am on the right path by targeting a specific market. I unreservedly recommend you spend a day with Maria learning her strategies."

"Thank you for presenting Expanding Your Client Base as part of AIGA/La's Business Matters series. Your lively presentation was thoughtful, insightful and, in the words of one attendee: "...humanized the cold world of sales and client relationships."

In the words of another attendee, who actually drove all the way down from San Francisco specifically for the event: "The workshop itself gelled much of what we already knew as a micro-sized brand communications and design firm, but what Maria did was to bring immediate industry relevance to the tactics and shed light on pitfalls of traditional sales tactics as applied to the graphics design sales. Plus, Maria’s energy-driven, humorous presentation just made the workshop at the end of a long drive lively, engaging, and worthwhile." Couldn't have put it better ourselves. The sold-out audience left not only with a wealth of information about developing new business, but also with an entirely new way of looking at the process itself. We hope you will continue to be a part of AIGA/LA and Business Matters."