Marjie H.
Founder, PR For Life at PR For Life
Public Relations and Communications
Education: Boston University, BS, Broadcast Journalism - Boston University, MA, International Relations
Harrisburg, PA, USA
Biography
Marjie Hadad is the only speaker, panelist, workshop host and moderator who talks about how to use public relations strategies to solve parenting, career and daily life problems and challenges, the expected and the unexpected, especially when all else has failed. She is a global medical public relations expert, the founder of PR For Life and the PR Parenting Movement, the author of the award-winning, international bestseller, The Power of PR Parenting, and an award-winning TV producer. She has worked as a weekday reporter/weekend anchor, an agent at Ford Model Management and as the media liaison for the Consulate General of Israel to New England. She also served as a researcher and speech writer for the Policy Planning Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel. She has worked in commercial public relations since 1996, first for a boutique agency and later for an international firm. In 2000, she founded Must Have Communications and Consulting, which specializes in medical PR.
Marjie has been featured in Business Insider, the WSJ, MSN, Parents.com, Good Morning Arizona, Suncoast TV, Liftoff with Jeanniey Walden, Tiny Beans, Menspsyche.com, A Dime Saved, Confidence Daily, The Jerusalem Post and The Times of Israel as well as more than 50 podcasts including David Meltzer's Office Hours, Word of Mom Radio with Dori DeCarlo and Pockets of Knowledge with Desiree Stanley.
She lives in Israel and the United States.
Passion
Helping parents, mentors and entrepreneurs look through the public relations lens to answer the question: "How on earth do I handle this?", be it a parenting, work, or daily life challenge, expected or unexpected.
Featured Video
I am willing to travel
More than 100 miles
When it comes to payments
Everything is negotiable
Topics
Best Story
In public relations we do a lot of writing. In fact, this is central for many professions. I think we can all agree that there's no such thing as the perfect first draft. At the office, when we are finished our first draft, we always have at least a second pair of eyes to look at the document, sometimes an entire team shares their comments and this is ok because it make the end product that much better.
How do we bring the concept of the edit or to accepting feedback home to our kids?
In our family we started in first grade. We combined two natural rites of passage. In the first grade, the kids learn sentence construction in school. They also start losing their baby teeth. We combined the two at our house and asked our kids to write the Tooth Fairy a request letter, rather than just leaving the tooth under their pillow. In fact, we turned just about every activity into a writing assignment, even text messages.
Anyway, we explained to the kids that the tooth fairy is very busy and best to write a request letter to make sure she'd stop by and that they would get what they wanted. That made sense to them.
They'd write their letter, usually just a couple of lines. We'd stand by for help and guidance, but the control remained in the kids' hands. When they were finished, we'd explain that at work, we always had someone take a look at our work and asked if we could have a look at theirs. They agreed.
We asked them to pick a color pen, but NEVER angry, "you made a mistake" red, but rather a pastel color. When we found something we'd want to call their attention to we'd say, "this is one way to do it, may I show you another?" They usually exhaled understanding that we weren't going to criticize. That they didn't do anything wrong. We just want to show them 'another' way that might make it even better.
When we finished the edit, the paper was usually beautifully colored. Then we asked our children to rewrite the letter to make it clean for the tooth fairy and THAT is what went with the tooth, under the pillow in anticipation for the exchange of a gift.
In this exercise, the kids:
1) Practiced their handwriting
2) Practiced their sentence construction
3) Learned how to advocate for themselves - a skill they'll need throughout their lives, whatever they are applying or lobbying for.
4) Learned to identify mom and dad as a safe place to go for feedback rather than criticism. This was not only key for helping the kids with homework but also for cheering them on during sports activities, performances, whatever their extra curricular activities are.
Rather than tell them they made a mistake and what not to do, discuss how they might do things differently the next time.
This worked very well at our house. Until today, my grown children ask for feedback from my husband and I, including their writing.
It also works at the office when trying to inspire confidence and resilience in colleagues and clients. I always say, "Good first draft." or "Good first try." Then, tell them exactly what to do next, sometimes with demonstration, and then encourage them to go for it again."
I recently exercised this approach when coaching a client shooting a video for LinkedIn. Worked perfectly.
Origin Story
Marjie has been a global public relations executive for 30 years, 24 with a medical pr specialty. During this time, she raised three children – boy, girl, girl – all grown now. A few years ago, she had a feeling that there was still more to do, something different than what I was already doing, and that could help humankind.
During a random conversation in the living room with her older daughter, her daughter said, “Mom, you made mistakes, but overall, I think you got it right. I think you should write a book that will help the next generation of working moms with the work-family balance challenge based on your experience and expertise.”
When she got over the pleasant shock of her daughter’s endorsement, she thought to herself: “What exactly was IT that she had gotten right?” When she looked back, she understood that she had unknowingly used her professional skills as a pr executive to raise her kids and it had worked. And if it had worked exercising these strategies unknowingly, imagine how much better today’s moms and mentors would do with these same strategies if exercised intentionally.
Marjie is now on a mission to pay decades of hindsight forward to benefit the next generation of parents, mentors, and entrepreneurs and to create a kinder and more respectful world for our children and future generations.
Example talks
Testimonials
"Marjie is a master storyteller. She is a marvelous guest." Dori DeCarlo, Host, Word of Mom Media
"Marjie Hadad is a remarkable speaker who combines her expertise in global public relations with practical insights into parenting and business. Her presentations are not only informative but also engaging—full of actionable tips and lively interactions that keep the audience captivated from start to finish. Marjie's ability to weave PR techniques into everyday life and entrepreneurial ventures is both inspiring and practical. I highly recommend her and always look forward to her insightful and dynamic presentations." Jill Celeste, MA, founder of Virtual Networkers
"I recently had the pleasure of hearing Marjie Hadad speak to my virtual networking chapter. She was so engaging throughout her presentation and brought so much great energy, information and insight into what she shared with our group. She expertly wove relevant stories into her presentation and painted such an amazing visual of her wisdom through her use of key examples that directly related back to her topic. Her use of stories and examples made it so easy to really hone in on what she taught to our group, as well as being able to remember what we’d learned long after. I highly recommend inviting Marjie to speak at your next event as a featured speaker, panelist, workshop leader, moderator or MC, as well as to have her on your podcast, YouTube channel or whatever platform you use to share your wisdom with the world. Marjie is incredibly relatable, fascinating and so much fun to listen to!" Kristy Crippen, Speaker Committee Chair, Wednesday Chapter, Virtual Networkers
"If you're seeking a fresh take on parenting or practical advice from someone who expertly applies professional strategies to home life, the episode featuring Marjie Hadad is a must-listen. Her performance as a podcast guest was nothing short of brilliant, making complex topics engaging and relatable and redefining the very idea of integrating work insights into personal development and parenting in the most enriching way possible." Desiree Stanley, Host, Pockets of Knowledge.
"Marjie delivered an inspiring, entertaining, and highly informational guest lecture that captivated the audience." Yehuda Swizer, CEO Item Media and Strategic Communications Lecture Series Host, Haifa University.
"Marjie's expertise makes her perfect for anyone who wants to take their parenting skills to the next level. The approaches that she shares in The Power of PR Parenting are a game-changer and will help anyone to create a deeper connection with their kids." David Meltzer, Co-founder of Sports 1 Marketing, best-selling author, and top business coach.
"I had the pleasure of interviewing Marjie and was blown away with her approach to how she uses her background in PR and journalism to help parents reconnect with their teen children thus helping them become centered, happy, healthy humans. Marjie's successful history in PR has clearly paid off, as parents all over the world are benefiting with her unique approach to raising the next generation. After all: today's teenagers are built differently - therefore: we need to mentor, guide and coach them differently!" Emma G - (Emma Stephens) TEDx Speaker, Musician and Youth Empowerment coach and Host, Reconnect with your Teenager.
3 PR Pro Tips That Will Improve Your Life
If you communicate with anyone during the day, then you have public relations skills. The question: how do you leverage them to achieve a goal or to help make your life easier? In this presentation we'll explore various public relations strategies that can be used to help the busy entrepreneur to:
1) Make the effort and enjoy the journey on the bumpy road to success
2) Strike a more harmonious work-family balance
3) Keep cool when the distractions and the to do list seem never-ending, the pressure is rising and the deadline approaching.
Here's a link to an online version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzEiOIrfs3Q&t=371s
Here's a link to an edited clip of an in-person presentation about resilience and how to enjoy the journey, even when the road is bumpy: https://studio.youtube.com/video/T_-n8QpkDF8/edit
Either can be tailored accordingly to the interests of the hosting event.
This presentation can be delivered as a featured presentation, a panel or a workshop.
How to Inspire confidence and resilience in our children, colleagues and clients using natural rites of passage
How do we inspire those around us, at work and at home, to be their best selves, to learn from their experiences and have the inner strength to keep trying?
In this presentation, we'll explore how to combine public relations practices with natural rites of passage or standard business practices to:
1) Build Confidence
2) Inspire Resilience
3) Achieve Success
Here is a version of this presentation delivered on site: https://youtu.be/s4YB1PqKB2s
This can be tailored specifically to the composition of the audience, parents, mentors and/or entrepreneurs.
This presentation can be delivered as a featured presentation, a panel or a workshop.
3 Ways to use YOUR PR Superpowers to Thrive in Business & Life
We all face challenges. Where we differ is how we handle them. In this talk, we'll address three key public
relations strategies that will help you to thrive --- even more --- in business and life.
Take Aways
A new way to:
1) look at time
2) help increase the confidence and resilience of those around us
3) take better care of ourselves.
Here is a link to an online presentation version of this: https://youtu.be/951Wm2mYnrI
This presentation can be modified accordingly with the requests of the hosting event.
This presentation can be delivered as a featured presentation, a panel or a workshop.
Crisis Management - Preparing for the Expected and the Unexpected.
We all face crises, big and small. Some are expected and other are not. In all cases, we have a choice. Freak out, or deal with it.
In this presentation, we'll learn:
1) The PR Strategy to adopt no matter the type of crises
2) How to keep our cool during a crisis
3) How to manage a crisis
Here is an edited version of an in-person presentation about crisis management: https://youtu.be/wIiNLx2swLw
This presentation can be tailored accordingly with the requests of the hosting event.
This presentation can be delivered as a featured presentation, a panel or a workshop.
Embracing Diversity: Equipping and Empowering the Next Generation for Success
In international business, including public relations, professionals work with people from different countries, faiths and backgrounds. In order to achieve success, there must be mutual respect and an openness. Each contributes accordingly with their own skill sets and talents, and as a team, the end product is that much better and success is achieved.
This talk will address various public relations practices that can be adopted at home to inspire our children to be respectful of diversity and happily embrace differences, assuming peaceful, as something new to explore, experience and enjoy, peacefully and with love.
This is crucial to creating a kinder and more respectful world for our children and future generations.
In this presentation, we'll address various ways to:
1) Educate our kids about different cultures and traditions
2) Expose our children to different cultures and traditions
3) Role Modeling for our kids
This presentation can be delivered as a featured presentation, a panel or a workshop.