We recently had the chance to connect with Paulette Ensign and have shared our conversation below.
Paulette, it’s always a pleasure to learn from you and your journey. Let’s start with a bit of a warmup: What do you think is misunderstood about your business?
Why Underestimating Tips is a Mistake for Both the Teacher and the Learner
One of the biggest misconceptions I’ve encountered over the decades is that how-to tips are lightweight, something to give away for free, tack onto the end of a newsletter, or use as filler on a website. Many see them as “starter content,” not worthy of being the main event. And that could not be further from the truth.
When tips are strategically crafted, they become a powerhouse. They teach. They market. They open revenue streams. But when they’re dismissed as fluff, both the teacher and the learner lose out.
For the teacher (speaker, author, coach, or expert), the loss is in missed visibility, credibility, and income. Those bite-sized nuggets of wisdom can be bundled, licensed, translated, customized, or sponsored. They can serve as lead magnets, bulk sales products, gifts-with-purchase, or the opening offer in a high-value product ladder.
For the learner, the loss is even deeper. Good tips are digestible, actionable, and designed to meet people where they are. They break down intimidating concepts into manageable steps. They honor how most people actually learn—by layering knowledge in practical increments. Skipping over that foundational phase means learners are more likely to feel overwhelmed or disengaged. They might miss the big transformation because they never had a solid starting point.
And for educators who skip tips and go straight into “the big stuff”? That sets an expectation of people to run before they know how to walk. Tips build confidence. They build competence. They build trust.
So let’s stop treating tips like scraps. They’re not leftovers. They’re launchpads.
Let’s continue with the fact that monetizing tips and using them for promotional purposes not only elevates their value: They are also a big differentiator for businesses and professions, especially ones that otherwise seem saturated with many people following people rather than owning their own uniqueness and perspective. Tips products have the flexibility to be created in many different online and offline formats, further differentiating one professional in a given industry from all the rest. And creating a 52-tip manuscript can provide the sender continuous top of mind awareness to the recipients as a weekly presence with short form education with a well-paced call-to-action to invest in a product or service being sold.
And here’s the kicker: tips products aren’t limited to booklets. That’s just one possible gateway.
* Audio recordings
* Video tips series
* Email drip campaigns
* Tip-a-day desk calendars
* Printable checklists
* Card decks
* Branded merchandise inserts
* Licensing-ready assets for other companies to distribute on your behalf
This flexibility isn’t just convenient—it’s strategically brilliant!
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Little did Paulette Ensign have any idea when she wrote her initial tips booklet in 1991 that she would go on to sell over TWO MILLION COPIES of that booklet’s content in multiple languages and formats without ever spending a penny on advertising. Nor did she anticipate thousands of people worldwide would want to know how to emulate Paulette’s success with their own expertise in many varied topics. And yet, Paulette successfully carved out and owns a niche that she has continued to shape throughout the past three decades. Her business, Tips Products Publishing Agency, is a subsidiary of Tips Products International.
Their clients are typically book authors, speakers, consultants, coaches, and subject matter experts on one side of the equation and companies and associations on the other side of the equation. Besides monetizing the often-overlooked intellectual property of how-to tips, the business model she adopted at the end of her first year in this business is teaching her clients to primarily sell their products in bulk wholesale transactions or content licensing. Single copies are only available as samples to well-vetted decision-makers at companies and associations. Paulette is a former East Coaster who, with her cat, made a cross-country move to Southern California several decades ago without missing a beat in her business. She moved to a place where snow is a choice, and one she doesn’t make!
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. What relationship most shaped how you see yourself?
My maternal grandfather, bar none, hands down, was my hero in so many ways. He was the one who taught me how unconditional love looked and felt. He came to the United States in the late 1800s, at the age of 13, alone, with minimal money, without the ability to speak or understand English, and the only possessions were the things he could carry. He first worked 7 days a week at delicatessens in NYC until he gathered knowledge and money to open a wholesale grocery business. He brought my two uncles into the business with him and built a thriving business from the bottom up. He showed me how to build something from nothing and how to sustain it. He sent me enough money to pay my rent in college, and cheered me on to work hard for whatever else I needed. He bought my violin for me before my college freshman year as a music major. He came from northern New Jersey to Hartford, CT to attend a performance of an opera that I was playing violin in the pit orchestra for!! He was the one person who was MY Person. We had a special bond which included and went beyond being the first grandchild.
If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
The one kind thing I would say to my younger self is that in spite of all that was missing from parents who had limited capacity to give more, I was always taken care of to have what I needed. I grew up to ultimately be a healthy, happy, grateful, grounded, caring, loving person in spite of and because of what my younger journey was.
Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. What’s a belief you used to hold tightly but now think was naive or wrong?
An earlier belief was born solely out of lack of confidence and fear that I was nothing special, that I was unlovable, that I wasn’t enough, and that I didn’t have enough money, experiences, intelligence, creativity, respect, and many other qualities. Every bit of that is incorrect about me. I have discovered and own that I am a caring, loving, generous, intelligent, unique, funny attractive woman.
Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: When do you feel most at peace?
I feel most at peace when I am with people who appreciate who I am and feel safe enough to share with me the depths of who they truly are, as I am to do that with them. This includes telling me things that I’m the only or first person they’ve ever told. It also includes deep, thoughtful conversation that is an exchange and challenge of various perspectives without judging. It’s mutual appreciation, mutual respect, mutual learning, non-competitiveness, and overall enjoyment of the process. I also feel very much at peace hearing the lush sensuousness of a Brahms symphony.
