Around 2010, Jennifer Crowley was heading to one of her kids' events with wired earbuds in her ears, listening to a business podcast.
The host said something simple: “Just write a book. Five steps to something. Seven steps to something. Whatever you're passionate about.”
Jennifer, then a hospital nurse watching families struggle to navigate complex care decisions, thought: “I should do that someday.”
She did. And that decision became the foundation for Life Care Management Institute—an education platform serving professionals and families in the life care field, running on WordPress and LearnDash.
If you're running a membership site, building an eLearning platform, or considering productizing your expertise, Jennifer's 20-year journey offers practical lessons about what actually works when you're building education products on WordPress.
The Book That Opened Doors
That first book—”Seven Steps to Long-Term Care Planning”—wasn't meant to make her rich.
“I was like, I'm gonna write this because if they're not gonna hire me, they'll have this resource and then I can use this resource even when I meet with them,” Jennifer explained.
But what started as a simple guidebook became something much bigger:
- Conference speaking invitations based on the “seven steps methodology”
- Credibility that led to a co-authored textbook (Life Care Management Handbook) with a colleague she met at a national conference
- A framework that eventually became the foundation for her online courses
- Professional positioning that opened doors to litigation consulting work
The lesson: Published books aren't get-rich-quick schemes. They're credibility multipliers.
As Jennifer put it: “If you are a published author, you know, it can raise your credibility and your vibration, right? Of just being able to reach more people.”
Even if you self-publish. Even if you're “just a nurse in business” (her words). The book precedes you everywhere you go.
Why Serving Two Audiences Doesn't Have to Be Complicated
Most business advice tells you to pick one avatar and serve them exclusively.
Jennifer ignored that advice—and built a business serving both professionals who want to enter the life care field AND families navigating aging challenges.
Her reasoning? “It's just kind of how it's worked for me being an aging and life care specialist and serving a multitude of people, again, responding my response to what I witnessed as needs along the way.”
In 2025, she launched a family-focused online course—a deliberate pivot after years of working primarily with professionals.
The key insight: Serving two audiences can work if it reflects your actual expertise and the real problems you're solving. You don't need to artificially constrain yourself if your knowledge naturally serves multiple groups.
The Tech Stack That Actually Works (And Why It Still Breaks)
Here's Jennifer's current setup:
- WordPress for website
- LearnDash for some courses (embedded in member site)
- Memberium (Infusionsoft/Keap) for client data management and email marketing
- ThriveCart for her shopping cart and family course hosting
She's honest about the challenges: “The biggest challenge with all of that, in my opinion, is that we don't know until the customer knows. And the customer is usually upset by the time they're coming to me.”
Automation breaks. Things don't click right. Workflows need tweaking.
But here's what matters: “We're going and apologizing and trying to fix and try to be quick about it so that we can be responsive.”
The reality: Customers expect digital products to work perfectly, instantly. They don't expect glitches.
“And they don't expect there to ever be a glitch in the mechanics of the digital world. And we expect there always is something to go wrong.”
If you're running WordPress with LearnDash, Memberium, or any complex membership stack, this tension is unavoidable. The solution isn't perfect technology—it's responsive support.
The Product Suite That Evolved Organically
Jennifer didn't launch with a grand product roadmap. Her offerings evolved based on what people actually asked for:
- Seven Steps to Long-Term Care Planning (2010) – Simple guidebook
- Life Care Management Handbook (2021) – Co-authored textbook for professionals
- Online courses – Intensive training (19 lessons) and business training
- Templates and forms – Pre-built, legally vetted documents (“For many, many years it was leading all of the sales”)
- Ultimate Care Plan Guide – 101 pre-filled care plan templates
- Family Aging Life Care Planning Course (2025) – B2C pivot
The templates became a bestseller because they solved a real pain point: “When someone's starting a business, they're like, how do I even do this? Yeah, you know, how do I even what what's a service agreement? And you know What forms do I need?”
The takeaway: Listen to what people keep asking you for. That's your product roadmap.
Marketing Reality: Conferences Work, Social Media Is Confusing
When asked about her primary customer acquisition channels, Jennifer was refreshingly honest about social media:
“Honestly is still confusing to me a lot. It's just you know, I don't get a lot of engagement. Although I have followers. I'm not a big Instagram leader or anything.”
What does work:
- Professional conferences – “I've always stepped outside of my zone of comfort and attended conferences with knowing no one, but coming back with just a hoard of information”
- Professional organizations – “That's been a huge source of referrals”
- Volunteering – “I'm trying to get to know people and do good, give back, and it tends to always come back to me in one way or another”
- Local partnerships – Partnership with county aging services funnels family caregivers directly to her
For reaching professionals specifically: “They're all at work or they're the future care managers at work today and taking care of families and their own families, you know. So they might be harder to get to focus.”
The solution? Being part of the professional ecosystem where they already gather.
The AI Question: Excited and Cautious
Jennifer uses AI for marketing copy, social media posts, and brainstorming (“just give me some ideas and then we can run with it”).
But she hasn't used AI for her core book writing or course content.
She recently partnered with a digital health record platform that has AI built in—allowing course participants to get instant answers about medication interactions, local resources, and health conditions specific to their situation.
Her concerns? Fraud and scams targeting elderly populations. “I don't like anything that might be a potential threat to be an impersonator or to be persuasive with someone.”
The balanced approach: Use AI where it adds genuine value, but remain vigilant about potential harms in your specific field.
What's Next: 2026 and Beyond
Jennifer's current focus:
- Building community around the new family course
- Planning group coaching sessions and webinars
- Learning how to connect with this new B2C audience
- Continuing to refine her “modern aging and life care era” approach
She's candid about the uncertainty: “We'll just be interested to see, you know what kind of response we get, whether we get early in or whether it's going to take a lot more time to teach about what it is that we're offering.”
Twenty years in, she's still figuring things out. Still learning. Still responding to needs as they emerge.
And that might be the most important lesson of all.
The Bottom Line
If you're building an education business on WordPress, here's what actually matters based on Jennifer's experience:
✓ Write the book you keep thinking about—credibility compounds over time
✓ Let your product suite evolve based on what customers actually ask for
✓ Your tech stack will break; responsive support matters more than perfection
✓ Serving two audiences can work if it reflects your genuine expertise
✓ Social media success is optional; deep relationships in your field are not
✓ Books and templates often outsell courses because they solve immediate pain points
Jennifer's business didn't scale overnight. It grew steadily over two decades through books, courses, templates, and consistent presence in her professional community.
No viral launches. No Instagram fame. Just sustained effort responding to real needs with useful products.
Sometimes that's exactly what it takes.
Get in touch with Jennifer at https://lcmexpert.com
Running a WordPress membership or eLearning site and tired of dealing with plugin updates, automation glitches, and mysterious technical issues? That's what we do at MemberFix. We handle the technical headaches so you can focus on serving your students. Get in touch →
