BIO
Neal Bertrand was born and reared in Opelousas, Louisiana, a small town in the heart of Cajun Country. He has had experience as a farmer, gardener, cattle rancher, carpet cleaner, flooring installer, vertical blind technician, Postal worker, mail clerk, then a printer for city government, and owner/operator of a home-based printing business. He is also a former husband, father and was a Mr. Mom to three beautiful children, now grown.
Business Training & Accomplishments
Neal was intrigued by the “mail order” business since the 1970s. He read as many books on the subject as possible. It was like fishing. Throw out some bait, see who bites, then have money in the mailbox.
His first major research and writing project was a Bible topic he was fascinated with. After two years he wrote and published About the Last Days: A Study Guide of End-Time Scriptures. He placed both display and classified ads to sell the book, and as the orders poured in, he got his feet wet with the wonderful world of mail order!
He later obtained the rights to a small report called How To Run Faster , by an Olympic-trainee. He produced a small one-inch display ad and sold it in sports magazines.
While working a full-time job, he researched the topic of how to get hired by the U.S. Postal Service with the intent of writing a book about it. After three years, in 1987, he was ready to get started, but didn’t have enough money. This was around the time President Reagan fired all of the Air Traffic Controllers. Seeing an opportunity, he found a Home Study Course on How to Become an Air Traffic Controller . Perfect timing! He used the profits from those sales to self-finance the printing of his Postal booklets.
He wrote a series of nine booklets showing how to succeed in getting hired. Inside each booklet was a catalog featuring several Post Office Exam Home-Study Courses which he also sold. He then bought out a Postal book-selling competitor, and merged all the material together and published a 170-page book. It was sold only through classified ads. 3000 books were sold.
He started a company in 1990 that utilized a postcard-mailing system to recruit MLM distributors into two programs at once. He also wrote, designed, printed and sold 120,000 sixteen-page informational booklets to help recruit and sponsor those nutritional product distributors. He then designed, created and printed a nutritional product catalog, selling 140,000 of them to product distributors to enable them to sell their products easier.
He has over a decade of experience as an employee of a small publishing company, helping his employer publish 16 books and 40 magazine issues. He was involved in every part of the publishing process, absorbing as much on-the-job training as possible. Not only mundane office duties such as order taking, packing orders, etc., but was also in charge of 100 newsstand route locations where their books and magazines were sold.
One day the manuscript and artwork for the bi-lingual (English & French) Cajun Country Fun Coloring and Activity Book arrived from the artist for possible acceptance , and he received permission from his boss to publish it himself, and has sold approximately 10,000 copies. That was the start of Cypress Cove Publishing. He then left his employment in June 2005, and published his first best-selling cookbook, Down-Home Cajun Cooking Favorites .
In 2007, he wrote and published his next best-selling cookbook, “Rice Cooker Meals: Fast Home Cooking for Busy People.” He is by no means a professional cook. He has had no culinary training. He had only cooked one meal, a jambalaya, in his rice cooker before starting this project. But by getting in the kitchen and experimenting for several months, cooking one meal at a time, this project has come to life.
He has also published a collection of authentic Cajun art prints – beautiful South Louisiana landscapes, all painted by his father, Curtis, now deceased. This was done to honor the memory of his father, who didn’t start painting until after his retirement, and never wanted any recognition or fame.
He personally distributes and wholesales his books and art prints to retailers regionally, and through his websites www.CypressCovePublishing.com and www.RiceCookerMeals.com .
Emotional Accomplishments
Due to a childhood of terrible verbal abuse by classmates, Neal withdrew within himself and became a self-conscious introvert at a very young age. As a child he was content playing alone, shooting a BB-gun at targets, burning holes in leaves with a magnifying glass, watching TV, or watching the paint dry. He never knew what it meant to be bored. Even as an adult he joked he “lived in a cave.” He always remarked, “Just leave me alone in my little office cubby-hole and I’ll be just fine.” One of his famous quotes at the time was “I excel at dull, boring, monotonous work.”
Because of the emotional pain and scars, he could not get on the phone and call his customers. It was an irrational fear he could not handle.
Then after falling on hard times financially, he was called by a local publisher to go to work for them. He jumped at the chance to have a steady income. The job? Being a telemarketer! Oops. And to make it worse, it was to sell a book nobody wanted to buy. They couldn’t even give it away! After experiencing two months of telemarketer hell, he graduated to selling cookbooks over the phone. His first day he sold $350 worth in two hours! This was a major emotional victory that healed that area of his wounded heart.
Another step in the direction of his emotional healing comes next. Being an introvert, and not wanting to stick out in a crowd, he preferred to fly under the radar and not be noticed. He would rather not stick out like a sore thumb.
He belonged to a church with a Praise and Worship group. A band, in other words. With a little experience as a drummer under his belt, he volunteered to be a drummer after the current drummer moved away. So where was the drum set? Not only on the stage, or platform, but on an even higher platform so that everybody in the building could see him! After several weeks of trying to hide behind the cymbals, he just got over being shy and let loose and enjoyed himself and had a great time for several years being the drummer.
He then worked on a joke book for several months with his boss, reading and editing jokes, watching videos and listening to cassette tapes by hilarious comedians. He often thought of what it would be like to be in their shoes. He pictured himself on stage. That was safe to do, he thought – it’s just in my mind, I’m pretending. Yeah, right.
Then his church put together a talent show. After weeks of gathering talent, the coordinator got before the congregation and pleaded for help. “We need more volunteers. Put down your fears and come up here and showcase your talent. I’m sure we have somebody here who can do a stand-up comedy routine.”
GULP!
That did it. He was on the hook. With only three days to prepare for the New Years Eve show, it was a mad rush to get the material ready and memorize a 10-minute routine. The result was over 300 people laughing their hearts out. This was the most victorious moment of his life! He had slain the giant.
Life is a series of stepping stones. One life experience leads to another. One experience builds upon another to mold you into the person you are intended to be by your Maker. This is very evident in my life. Read my Bio and you'll see how I got from Point A to Point B and so on.
Be faithful in the little things, be diligent. So what if you work for a mean, hateful boss. I've had a bunch of them! They are the sand that polishes the oyster; the grinding stone that sharpens the blade. You need to be sharpened and polished. Lay down any pride and arrogance and take up a humble attitude.
A certain scripture in the book of Provers says to be "diligent concerning the state of your flocks." You may not have flocks of sheep, but there is something you are responsible for. I have hundreds of book accounts I am responsible for. They are my flocks, my "oilwells," my streams of income. I must be diligent to see to it they are fully supplied and not run out of books.
Read my Bio to get a sense of what I have been through; it is my life resume, so to speak.
Look at my two websites, www.CypressCovePublishing.com and
www.RiceCookerMeals.com . On the last one, click on the "Videos" tab to see the videos I have made.