WORKSHOP TESTIMONIALS

“I have three words to say about this meeting: Excellent! Excellent! Excellent!”

- An CalSTRS employee

“HOME RUN! Judy hit a home run with our team-building all-employee meetings.
She designed and executed imaginative yet thought-provoking gatherings unlike any we’d ever had before. They caught and held everyone’s attention while conveying complex motivational concepts in multiple learning styles.”

- Jack Ehnes, Chief Executive Officer
California State Teachers’ Retirement System

“Thank you for all the incredible service you provided me, Judy. You are wonderful. Thanks is too small a word for what you pulled off at the workshops. You performed magic. Your hard work, creativity and organizational skills made possible a considerable milestone in our organizational culture shift. You made history. I appreciate how poised you were throughout, and how patient you were . . . always smiling! Looking forward to continuing our work together through future projects.”

- Sherry Reser, Chief of Communications
California State Teachers’ Retirement System

“Judy is bar-none, the best project manager, writer and creative professional I have ever had the pleasure of working with. She is a marketing expert and knows how to create projects that actually do what we want them to do - sometimes it is to educate, sometimes it is a call to action - whatever it is, she hits the mark every time!”

- Joe Zaniker, Graphic Focus

CONSULTING TESTIMONIALS

“Judy’s guidance and expertise were invaluable to me as I spent time refocusing on my music career. She asked tough questions, and walked me through a “reimagining process”, ultimately leading me to a place where I was more focused that I had been before on what I wanted to accomplish through my music. The benefits of working with Judy are too many to mention, and I look forward to working with her on a continual basis in the future.”

- Staci Frenes, Recording Artist

“Marketing your company can be an uncertain path, but working with Judy has certainly made the process significantly easier. Judy has a down-to-earth approach that stresses the basics, but is geared toward the specifics of my industry.”

- Kim Christoffersen
Traveldog.com

“During my 39 years as a graphic designer and art director, I have worked with dozens of accomplished creative professionals—at some of the best agencies in the industry, in fact. Among those professionals, Judy Mikalonis is special. She brings much more to a project. Judy possesses an uncanny talent at helping clients more clearly define their marketing objectives and to deliver and execute a comprehensive marketing program to achieve those objectives.”

- Duane Toutjian, Principal
Duane Toutjian Creative Services

“Judy Mikalonis is one of the most professional and talented individuals with whom I have ever worked. Her amazing creativity and marketing expertise have provided an extra dimension that brings added value to our clients. Verbulant Creative remains a pivotal part of our Strategic Alliance Network.”

- Debi Hammond, President
Merlot Marketing, Inc.

Direct Response & Website Info Architecture

“Judy was a pleasure to work with on the AMASV Web site. Her thoughtful analysis of the site’s audience and goals resulted in a user-oriented structure and architecture that meets the needs of our chapter’s members. Judy also supplied all content for the site. She wrote the copy to be consistent, concise and upbeat. The design is beautiful and functional, but content is king, and Judy’s ability to provide useful, useable copy is the key component to the success of the site.”

- Anne Marie Smith
President, InfoPros
President American Marketing Association, Sacramento

“The best part of having VERBULANT Creative on our team is that they quickly and expertly distill the key aspects and benefits of a company’s brand and identity. The end result speaks intelligently to each target audience. Powerful stuff!”

- John Paul, Creative Director
Spiral Studios

“In today’s world of information overload, the clear, concise, benefit-oriented writing that Judy Mikalonis delivers makes words jump off the page. Judy distills the mass of a company’s informational input and brand profile into a masterpiece of carefully chosen words with measured impact. Anytime I have a client in need of copywriting or integrated marketing service, I wholeheartedly recommend VERBULANT Creative.“

- Spencer Williams, Principal and Chief Broadcast Strategist
The Advertising Department

“Judy Mikalonis has many great qualities that she brings to the creative
team, including:

• Listening intently and intuitively understanding the client's
business, while grasping the initiative’s true value proposition,
• Assimilating client's words and interpreting background information,
• Articulately leading interviews that discover true insights for creative development.

Beyond those qualities, Judy always brings tremendous positive energy to the whole project. Whatever she does, she does with her whole heart!“

- Jean Wiley, Principal, Wiley Design

Website Writing

“I worked with Verbulant Creative on two significant projects: our corporate web site and our corporate brochure. In both cases, Judy served as my primary content author. I am absolutely delighted with the results we produced together, and the process that Judy brought to the table. Judy employed an extremely effective process . . . and made sure that powerful business communication overrode “technology-speak” in all our content.

Frankly, getting our corporate message articulated loomed as an insurmountable task for me; I didn’t really know where to begin. Furthermore, our company delivers high-tech services and solutions; achieving a balance between technology and the human touch was of utmost importance to me. Judy never lost sight of that.

I recommend Judy’s services to anyone with a writing/consulting task ahead. I am extremely pleased with our results, and I must admit I am an exacting client with high standards.”

- Gia McNutt, CEO
Special Order Systems

“As printers, we acutely understand the great value of professional copywriting. That’s because over the years we’ve noticed attempts by our customers to reduce costs by cutting the copywriter out of a project. As a result, beautifully designed projects simply lose their edge, and become sloppy without sharp content. Over the years Judy Mikalonis has contributed significantly to Dome’s marketing efforts with great copywriting and consulting . . . what a great value! What an incredible resource!”

- Tim Poole, President
Dome Printing

“Thank you so much for the right-on-target copy you have written for the Graphic Focus website, and the ongoing marketing consulting you’ve provided for us and our clients, as well. I have never heard my own voice in someone else’s writing before, and it was extraordinary to hear how you articulated things I can hear coming out of my own mouth—in powerful, written form. Brilliant! You are an amazing listener, and so effective. Thank you for hearing me! My whole team is thrilled and we feel you have had a major contribution in our next step as an organization.”

- Joe Zaniker, Owner
Graphic Focus

Copywriting

“A true advertising/marketing professional, Judy produces imaginative work that is strategically on-target. We have frequently relied on Judy to “take the ball and run with it” on a wide variety of writing assignments, and she never lets us down. I highly recommend Judy to anyone looking for a responsive, intuitive writer.”

- Greg Glass, President
Glass McClure, Inc.

“THANKS for the great work on the CMS project. The materials arrived on time and from what I hear, we were a big success at that trade show. Again,a huge thanks for all the help. The end product was better than what we would have done and we could not have finished without your assistance.”

- John Vaughan, Vice President, CIO
PRIDE Industries

“ Thanks for all your help!!! I really appreciate your responsiveness and your quality work!!!! Melissa and John really like the work you did on the datasheet project and the Defense Communities Magazine feature article ... and of course, I do too!!!!

- Lisa Townsend, Business Development Manager
PRIDE Industries

“One of the things I’ve found over the years in business is that it’s very difficult to find people who intuitively understand who we are and what we do. Judy just “gets it” right off the bat. Judy’s writing really captures who we are and articulates our vision and culture in a way I find amazing.”

- Bruce Parks, Owner
Tarts & Truffles Bakery
Boxlunchesatwork.com

“When I’m in need of creative services, I know I can count on Judy to get the job done. She is fast, conceptual, creative and reliable and does her homework. Those traits are absolutely essential to a job well done.”

- Jana Rhine-Patrick
MedicAlert© International

“Judy’s ideas are adventurous, clever and fresh. Yet what we want as a customer always comes first. A careful listener who asks the right questions, Judy is quick to intuit what we need to do to reach our customer effectively. As a result, we get exactly what we want and more than we expect—every time. I like that a lot!”

- David Nugent, President
Reflection Technology

“ You have a wonderful voice, Judy. As a singer, certainly, but more importantly as a person. An email can be as lovely as a song, and you are one of the few people I know that can turn an ordinary email into an art form. You should teach a course on that to businesses. It's a great way to humanize the workplace.”

- Ken Gire, Author and Speaker