Martha Blenkush, Marketing Coach and Project Manager

Martha’s diverse background in multiple sectors of the professional services industry shapes what she offers PSM clients.  She has more than 20 years of experience in legal marketing, financial services, non-profit, education, and small business ownership.

Martha is a talented communicator who understands the big picture and can articulate complex ideas clearly and succinctly to others, both in writing and in speaking.  She enjoys working with individuals and teams to define and achieve goals.  She has an outstanding reputation for organizing projects, managing multiple levels of details, and seeing them through to completion.

Martha has worked with PSM clients in all phases of PSM’s strategic approach to marketing:

• Writing and pitching proposals to prospective clients
• Managing the Assessment process, including analysis of relevant documents, interviewing key personnel at all levels of the organization, and writing and presenting the assessment report
• Writing and presenting the Strategic Marketing Plan
• Managing the Implementation/Measurement process, including creating timelines and budgets, preparing agendas and minutes for monthly marketing meetings, and managing other PSM resources to accomplish agreed-upon tactics and strategies on time and under budget

Martha’s favorite projects to date have included:

• Created a response document for a large RFP for a law firm and managed the content creation and editing process
• Worked with a bank to create a series of ads targeted to a specific industry for that industry’s premier publication
• Helped an association of attorneys rebrand themselves with a new name and logo
• Created a PPT for a bank open house to feature bank staff and available products, and configured the in-house audio-visual system to run the PPT on loop
• Converted content from an existing website to a new corporate website template for a healthcare client
• Prepared competitive analyses for multiple clients
• Analyzed a bank’s client satisfaction survey

Martha has played a significant role in the development and ongoing maintenance of MarketYourLawPractice.com since its inception in 2007, serving as project and content manager.  She helped develop the structure of the site in its initial phase, collected and organized all the content, and uploaded and linked it on the site.  She is responsible for adding and linking new content and managing the member profiles.  In 2008, in partnership with ActiFi, Inc., she led the charge to create MarketYourFinancialPractice.com for financial advisors.  And in 2009, she worked with James Dunning of Geotrupes, Ltd. to create MarketYourLawPractice.co.uk for solicitors in the United Kingdom.

Martha’s areas of expertise include:

Writing and Editing – Martha has done a great deal of writing and editing in a variety of settings, for presentations, marketing collateral, articles and websites.  She is an outstanding proofreader, mastering spelling and punctuation, and weeding out unnecessary language to let the true intent shine through.  She enjoys finding the right words to convey both information and tone.

Personal and Group Coaching – Martha has completed the core curriculum in the Co-Active Coaching Program through the Coaches Training Institute based in San Rafael, CA, and enjoys coaching people toward their goals.  She has successfully coached people through career and life transitions, and facilitated career planning classes.  She enjoys motivating people to make changes and achieve their targets.  She has worked with teams of many sizes in multiple settings to facilitate the achievement of team-driven objectives.  She has also developed and revised curriculums on self-assessment and career transition. 

Project Management – Martha has consistently demonstrated the ability to guide people and projects to the successful completion of tasks and accomplishment of goals.  She enjoys managing the details while keeping the project vision in mind.

Meeting and Conference Planning – Martha has coordinated all aspects of a wide variety of meetings and conferences for staff and executive management.  She has planned half-day to three-day events, both locally and out of state, for groups of 15 to 125.  She has managed such details as transportation, lodging, catering, transcription and agenda development.

Previously, Martha spent eight years in a bank holding company, where she created and supervised multiple financial analysis and budgeting formats, worked on mergers and acquisitions, prepared regulatory reports, and planned meetings and conferences.

Martha also owned her own small retail business for two years, successfully guiding the business through the entire life cycle, from start-up and growth, through liquidation of inventory and sale of the business name and customer list.

Community Involvement
Martha serves on the Board of Directors of Partners in Preaching, a national ministry of consultation, training and formation for the lay preaching ministry.  She preached bi-monthly in her home parish for five years, and has mentored a class of lay preaching candidates.  She also served as the project manager on the development of a book documenting the impact of lay preaching on the Catholic church.

Education
Martha graduated from Bethel University in St. Paul, MN, with a B.A. degree in Business with an emphasis in Accounting.