Even though times have changed, too many women still face more challenges in the workforce than men. Younger women face discrimination for the possibility that they’ll get pregnant and take family leave. Women face difficulties in being responsible for the majority of child care and having to juggle that with their careers. And older women are more apt to face age discrimination than men are.

Karla Marie

Karla Marie

Karla Marie, who had an 18-month-old son in daycare, came up with a solution for herself and all women who search for a way around these problems: take charge of your own future and your own career. No, this is not some scheme where someone claims you’ll make big bucks selling vitamin supplements or kitchenware door to door. This is an inclusive work environment that even the shyest woman can succeed in and enjoy. And men are welcome, too, although women make up 90 percent of the student body at Fiction Profits Academy.

“I don’t care about social media. I’m a total introvert and was able to do this,” Marie says. “I think what I noticed too there’s this idea, this message culturally that women kind of like, lose value as they get older. When you’re past the age where you’re gonna be having kids you don’t have much value anymore.”

Marie’s plan is creating and selling ebooks on Amazon. Before you click to another article, hear her out, and the way she does it, you don't need to be an author, a writer, or have any design skills at all, you simply need some confidence.

“There’s nothing in me like, quote-unquote, ‘special’ that allowed me to create my business. That publishing business that I created for myself. It stemmed from my belief in myself, and then me taking inspired action from that. So yeah, mindset 100 percent.  Like that is 150 percent.” 

Marie started out hiring ghostwriters to create the nonfiction books she thought of. But her sales were slow. She researched how online book publishing works. She found ideas about the practical side of publishing, but she also discovered that nonfiction is not the way to go. On Amazon Kindle, fiction is where the bulk of the money is. Primarily, romance fiction, a genre written for women by women

When her own ebook sales took off, Marie started small group coaching and everything blossomed from there. In 2015, Fiction Profits Academy was born.

“It’s been pretty amazing,” Marie says. “Because I’ve always felt like my purpose is to teach and serve that way. That’s where I’m most fulfilled, and where I can make the biggest impact. That’s why I was a yoga teacher before and then transitioned to teaching people how to transform their lives financially, which has been really great.”

Many students, particularly women who are often conditioned in society to downplay their own talents, still worry that this is not the business for them. Marie is quick to toss those self-criticisms aside. Anyone can do this business, she advises. 

“They say, ‘I’m too old.’ Those are a lot of the objections that come in. This kind of business doesn’t discriminate. You can be any age, you can be from any background. We have lots of students who are women, lots of students who have English as a second language. And so it’s an amazing opportunity.”

Another unique edge to Fiction Profits Academy is that the curriculum uses all the latest technology, including artificial intelligence programs, but not publicly available AI bots you may have heard of.

The Academy uses its own AI and teaches students, both young and old, how important and productive a tool this new tech can be.

“It’s amazing how AI is only improving the results for my students, and I’ve seen that across the board for using it for images for covers and images for advertising as well,” Marie says.

Another distinction is the way students in this online academy are treated.

“There’s a vibe that people are seen and heard and understood and taken care of. That goes a really long way to getting results and feeling good, feeling better, and feeling safe in the program,” Marie says. “We take care of our students at a level that no other program does. We've created a safe space for everyone because we genuinely care about the results people get.”

Marie says that because many of the coaches and other teaching professionals are women, there’s an atmosphere of caring and nurturing that’s lacking in many online courses and classes. The inclusive nature encourages everyone to learn the information they need to be successful and to live the lives they want.

 

 

 

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