Dan Couvrette
Daniel G. Couvrette (born 1954, Ottawa, Canada) is a Canadian marketing expert, public speaker, magazine publisher, and artist. He is the CEO of Divorce Marketing Group, a Toronto-based company dedicated to helping divorce professionals (such as lawyers, financial advisors and mediators) across North America market their services.
Couvrette was a partner and Associate Publisher of Toronto wedding magazine Wedding BElls during the 1980s. He launched Divorce Magazine, a self-help quarterly and the only magazine in North America dedicated solely to the subject of divorce, in 1996. This magazine, now semiannual, has grown to include six regional editions (New York/New Jersey, Illinois, Southern California, Texas, Florida and southern Ontario), and the online version, DivorceMagazine.com, includes resources for all U.S. states and Canadian provinces.
Marketing/publishing career
Couvrette started out in the marketing business in 1979. He founded Ottawa CityLife Magazine (renamed Ottawa Magazine in 1984) with two partners and was its Associate Publisher; the magazine still exists today. Couvrette later launched a business magazine called Ottawa Business Life, serving as its Associate Publisher, and also worked as the publisher of Ottawa Newcomer.
Couvrette was a partner and Associate Publisher of Wedding Bells in Toronto from 1984 to 1989. During his stint there, he helped to expand the magazine across Canada, launching editions for Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary and Winnipeg. He also expanded his methods of promoting the magazine's advertisers: in addition to publishing the usual print ads, the magazine held bridal parties across Canada at which advertisers were given the opportunity to promote their products, offered all-expense-paid honeymoon trips with advertisers' sponsorship, and gave out clients' free samples at bridal shows.
He continued to find innovative ways to market advertisers' products and services after he launched Divorce Magazine and DivorceMagazine.com in March 1996. Besides print ads, the magazine and website feature detailed written profiles of many of their advertisers (mostly divorce professionals such as lawyers, accountants, Certified Divorce Financial Analysts and counselors), as well as answers to Frequently Asked Questions written by advertisers as divorce experts, web links and a "Dot Com Directory" of clients' websites, and a directory of divorce resources. The magazine also includes local and national "Advisory Boards", which feature professionals who often verify and correct legal information in the editorial content. The website was expanded to include all of North America in 2000.
Couvrette co-founded Divorce Magazine partly in reaction to his own recent divorce experience. "When I started looking for information, there really wasn't that much out there," he said at the time. "There are some books, but magazines are more accessible to people." Couvrette realized that there was an untapped market for practical guidance AbOUT going through the divorce experience -- and avoiding it in the first place. "Unfortunately," he has said, "when someone has made the decision to divorce, it's my experience that it's easier to replace the fridge than to fix the motor. That is the culture in which we live."
Celebrity contributors to Divorce Magazine have included Ivana Trump and John Gray. Since August 2008, the magazine has run a regular column by Divorce Court's Judge Lynn Toler, who also provides answers to an advice column on DivorceMagazine.com.
In 2005, Couvrette's publishing company, Segue Esprit, evolved into Divorce Marketing Group, a firm fully devoted to marketing divorce professionals across North America. This company provides both online and print marketing products that offer information and references for divorcing people while at the same time promoting divorce professionals, especially family lawyers. "We basically built our business by helping lawyers, accountants, financial planners, etc., market themselves to divorced people," Couvrette has explained.
Divorce Marketing Group now runs Divorce Magazine and DivorceMagazine.com; it also publishes a customized Divorce Guide and Collaborative Divorce Guide, which are available in many professionals' offices in addition to Divorce Magazine. The firm also owns the websites GuideToDivorce.com, BestDivorceHelp.com and Divorce.ca. Additionally, it produces online videos in which divorce professionals answer Frequently Asked Questions.
Public speaking
While still in Ottawa in the early 1980s, Couvrette was very ACTIVE with the Ottawa Advertising Association, an organization that he frequently promoted. He also performed volunteer work for the Association and put together several of its gala events, while giving seminars about advertising at the organization's events.
Today, many people in the American and Canadian family law communities regard Couvrette as an expert on marketing divorce professionals. Consequently, Couvrette has been asked to speak at numerous events on the subject.
Among the major organizations that have hosted marketing seminars by Couvrette are the American Bar Association, the New Jersey Bar Association, the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, the Illinois Bar Association, the Institute of Divorce Financial Analysts and the Association of Financial Divorce Specialists.
Work with The Hunger Project
Since 1980, Couvrette has been a volunteer, investor and activist with The Hunger Project. He has been responsible for fundraising for the organization in Canada and involved in many education events to heighten awareness of the issue of chronic persistent hunger. In July 2008, Dan visited numerous Hunger Project-sponsored villages in Malawi with his wife, Martha Chan, and son, Dylan Couvrette.
Artwork
Couvrette is also a painter. His numerous paintings include small and medium abstracts and 3D murals. He was a Featured Artist at the Toronto Art Expo in March 2006 (in a show titled As Life Unfolds); he has exhibited his work in other shows throughout Toronto since 2002 as well as at Los Angeles' Creative Gallery in October-December 2003. His paintings can be seen in businesses (including the Turning Stone Resort & Casino in Verona, New York), apartment buildings, offices and private homes.
Couvrette describes his art as "Intentional Accidents". He explains on his website: "It feels to me that most of my life is an accident and a lot of what I have tried to control is uncontrollable... I decided to let my art be an expression of that, to 'let it go' and literally 'let it flow'."
Toronto's CITY-TV has said of Couvrette's artwork: "Passion is an understatement; Dan's art bursts with passion."
Personal life
Couvrette's first marriage lasted ten years and ended in divorce in 1994. It was this breakup that inspired him to start Divorce Magazine.
Couvrette married his second wife, Martha Chan, in July 1997. Chan is the founder and CEO of SameDayWebsite, a company that custom-designs websites quickly for professionals and small businesses and is the official website developer for Divorce Marketing Group. In 2008, Chan joined Couvrette to head Divorce Marketing Group on a full-time basis as its Vice President of Marketing.
He has two sons from his first marriage, Mischa, 23, and Dylan, 18.