Mary Lou Quinlan

What She's Not Telling You: Why Women Hide the Whole Truth and What Marketers Can Do About It

Mary Lou Quinlan reveals actionable ways and fresh insights to build business with women in a fun and irreverent style. Sharing candid consumer videos from her extensive research, she dissects the “halftruths” and “whole truths” of women's buying behavior and shares advice on building more effective brands, communications and relationships with the powerhouse female consumer.

The Inspiring Secret to Learning to Let Go

In a busy world where we are filled with so many burdens and worries, how do we find a way to release the anxiety and to find relief and resolution? Based on her moving new book, The God Box: Sharing My Mother’s Gift of Faith, Love and Letting Go, speaker and bestselling author Mary Lou Quinlan gives a captivating presentation of her remarkable discovery of her mother’s God Boxes, filled with two decades of handwritten notes of her worries and wishes. The simple box held the secrets of her ritual for finding resolution for her own cares, as well as those of her family, friends and even strangers who leaned on her.

Although she always knew that her mother kept her petitions in a God Box, Mary Lou never adopted the practice herself. Instead, Mary Lou, a highly accomplished marketing and advertising executive, relied on her own can-do nature and tried to carry the burdens of everyday life on her shoulders and in her heart. But as she pored over her mother’s loving notes, she unearthed lessons in compassion, perseverance, aspiration and letting go. Mary Lou incorporates video images and music in this one-woman tour de force of emotion and laughter that will empower audiences to find their own path to releasing their life’s burdens. Click Here to view God Box marketing presentation. Watch a video clip from this presentation. Click Here.

The “Oprah of Madison Avenue”

Mary Lou Quinlan is the CEO of Just Ask a Woman, a New York-based marketing consultancy that researches women's consumer behaviors in health and wellness, packaged goods, retail, finance, home, technology and media. Her 25-year marketing career led to her reputation as a brand turnaround expert, from Director of Sales Motivation and Advertising for Avon, to CEO of a major national advertising agency, for clients including Continental Airlines, General Motors and Procter & Gamble. Ms. Quinlan's entertaining, high energy, straight-shooting style has earned ovations as a keynote speaker and onstage event emcee at over 300 major corporations, conferences and universities across North America. She writes a career advice column for MORE magazine, and has also been published in O, the Oprah Magazine, Redbook, Good Housekeeping and Marie Claire. Mary Lou also appears regularly on The Early Show on CBS as a correspondent covering women's trends.

Bestselling Author

Featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, People, Fast Company and Advertising Age, Quinlan is the bestselling author of Just Ask A Woman: Cracking the Code of What Women Want and How They Buy; Time off for Good Behavior: How Hardworking Women Can Take a Break and Change Their Lives,  and What She's Not Telling You: Why Women Hide the Whole Truth and What Marketers Can Do About It. 

In her new book, The God Box: Sharing My Mother’s Gift of Faith, Love and Letting Go, Quinlan recounts the struggle of coming to terms with the absence of her mother — the most inspiring presence in her life — until she found an unexpected gift. In this deeply moving and inspiring book, Quinlan shares the remarkable story of discovering two decades worth of her mother’s handwritten notes stored away in her “God Box.” Quinlan always knew that her mother kept a God Box, a place where she kept hundreds of tiny petitions rather than carrying around the burden of her worries. It’s a story that will empower readers to find their own path to releasing sorrow and burdens and finding resolutions.