In September of 2003 Tidewater Women, a Virginia-based publication, featured Cynthia Joan Porter on their cover—and with good reason. Her unique business, Positive Changes Hypnosis Centers, had touched the lives of thousands of local women.

Those women lost weight, quit smoking, and conquered stress—and Cynthia Joan’s copywriting started their journey. They discovered the life-changing opportunity Positive Changes offered through her hundreds of advertisements, an inspiring and testimonial-packed website, and a two-hundred-thousand subscription newsletter called Positive Changes Today, which she designed and wrote.

Cynthia Joan and her husband Patrick founded Positive Changes Hypnosis Centers in 1987. The two shared all the duties of operating a small business—both greeted clients, performed hypnosis, and handled daily administrative tasks. In 1992, Cynthia Joan completed her doctorate degree in counseling through LaSalle University. At the same time, the two worked as a team to complete Patrick’s first published book, Awaken the Genius, Mind Technology for the 21st Century, which gained critical acclaim, was awarded “Best How-To Book of 1994,” and became a bestseller.

In 1995, the family relocated to Virginia Beach, Virginia, where they expanded their business to three local centers. In the spring of 1996, Cynthia Joan experienced a tragic setback; she had damaged her vocal chords and temporarily lost her voice. While on complete voice rest, and with her usual entrepreneurial spirit, she dedicated her time to learning everything she could about direct response copywriting and tested it at Positive Changes. In five short years the business grew from three small centers to an international franchise that continues to grow and prosper.

During that time, Cynthia Joan ghostwrote another book for her husband entitled Discover the Language of the Mind, The Hypnotist’s Guide to Psycho-Linguistics, and co-authored Six Secrets of G.E.N.I.U.S. She wrote dozens of articles for Positive Changes Today, created titles, packaging, brochures, slicks, and a catalog for 160 audio recordings and a nutritional supplement line, wrote and designed franchise sales materials, and wrote scripts for radio and television commercials and an infomercial. Additionally, she performed seminars for, and consulted with, her franchisees to make sure they understood direct response marketing and got the most for their advertising dollar.

Today, while the business she founded is “going corporate,” Cynthia Joan is busy writing and designing direct response marketing for other businesses and organizations. While in Virginia she also published AVA Magazine, which gave marketing advice to small to medium-sized businesses. She writes sales letters and packages, brochures, newspaper advertisements, web pages, feature articles, newsletters, press releases, catalogs and magalogs, email marketing campaigns, fundraising letters, and offers ghostwriting and editing services.

Cynthia Joan is a Founder’s Circle member of the American Writers and Artists Institute. She enjoys writing fiction, is working on a book about her entrepreneurial experiences, and was a columnist for Moondance.org. Her essay, An Angel for Two Sisters, earned her a nomination for a Pushcart Prize.

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