If you've ever driven through Iowa, the tall corn field avenues can make you feel so dizzy you might think you're falling off the edge of the Earth.
DeWitt, Iowa, a town of about 4,500 people, is one of these cornfield towns and was home to JoAnna Lund, the "cookbook lady" who in the second half of her life sold over 3 million cookbooks; she appeared on CNN, Home Shopping Club and even wrote a cookbook published by a major publisher.
Lund was a farmer's wife, and she knew how to spread a fine table whenever neighbors gathered to help with a big farming project. But following a divorce, she gained 60 pounds and soon became depressed.
When her son left home to become a soldier, the Iowan realized she wanted her health back and began creating healthy recipes for herself. She wanted to cook healthy food that looked, tasted, smelled and felt like what she had always eaten. But without the calories and fat.
When she started following her own cooking advice, JoAnna lost 130 pounds. Her recipes were not exotic. Not what you find in a gourmet cookbook, and they were not complicated. They simply represented good heartland cooking without the sugar and fat that take their toll.
Once JoAnna lost her weight, she wanted others to know they could eat common, good food and maintain a healthy lifestyle. So she set out to self-publish containing her low fat, low sugar, and good-tasting recipes.
Her bank loan of $1,000 was a three-month open note -- it was paid off in one month through JoAnna's perseverance. She got the word out by talking to people, speaking to clubs and organizations, taking her book to stores, and getting good publicity through hard work. Her first cookbook sold over 70,000 copies and her second cookbook did even better.
The last time I spoke with JoAnna, she was heading to New York to meet with three top publishers -- all vying to publish her next book. Random House won out! This was after accomplishing major sales on the Home Shopping Club.
Why did her business thrive? Here are 3 good reasons:
1. JoAnna Lund treated customers the way she would like to be treated. She invites readers and listeners to become part of the Healthy Exchanges Family. It is not a diet, she explained to me, it is a way of life. This philosophy came from her heart and was her way of business life -- this was her bottom line.
For example, when her new cookbook was printed, JoAnna offered her existing customers 17 new pages (for $2) that could be inserted into their old cookbooks. She gave instructions on how to insert the pages.
2. New products and business plans were based on listening to her customers, discovering their needs and then responding. JoAnna listened with her heart as well as with her ears. Projects were not planned in isolation; she knew her customers and worked to meet their desires. "As long as it is ethical, practical and enjoyable, I will do it," she said.
Once, speaking to a group of Jewish senior citizens, Lund was asked for healthy kosher recipes. A new book was soon on the way to the printer!
3. JoAnna stuck to doing what she did the best -- creating recipes, sharing hope, marketing, doing her radio program, public speak, writing, and appearing on television.
An impressed college business professor once told Lund she had a special marketing gene. Her business acumen impressed him.
Another smart move? She quickly turned bookkeeping and accounting over to professionals. "I've known of small businesses that have failed because the owners tried to do everything themselves," she said.
JoAnna Lund, who turned a 130-pound weight loss into a career, leaving a legacy of good cooking and smart business practices, died at her home from cancer on May 20 at the age of 61.
Susan Orr-Klopfer, journalist and author, writes on civil rights in Mississippi. Her newest books, "Where Rebels Roost: Mississippi Civil Rights Revisited" and "The Emmett Till Book" are now in print and are carried in most online bookstores including Amazon and Barnes & Noble. "Where Rebels Roost" focuses on the Delta, Emmett Till, Fannie Lou Hamer, Aaron Henry, Amzie Moore and many other civil rights foot soldiers. Both books emphasize unsolved murders of Delta blacks from mid 1950s on. Orr-Klopfer is an award-winning journalist and former acquisitions and development editor for Prentice-Hall. Her computer book, "Abort, Retry, Fail!" was an alternate selection by the Book of-the-Month Club.