Create New Products: Use Leveraging

It still surprises me when a light bulb flash turns into an
aha moment. Yesterday I had the light bulb flash that grew
and grew until it gave me a big smack upside the back of my
head this morning.

Yesterday was like most of my days, yet while writing
yesterday’s article, I stopped mid sentence, and my thoughts
went back to an ezine article I read early that morning. It
was one of those times when your thoughts completely jump to
another circuit -- you know the kind.

Quickly I dashed down the hall and corner with lightening
speed. Not. Just walked. I had always wanted to write
that, I know cute, Catherine. What caught my attention was
the contest announcement in that ezine. I remembered that
Janice (name not changed to protect the innocent) would be
interested in the information since she wrote poetry. I
found it and e-mailed her the info. Cut and dry, huh? I
thought so to, but not quite.

Later that evening during our coaching session, Janice
mentioned how she appreciated the information but she didn't
write poetry for children. Oops, I didn't even see that
important detail. However, she appreciated the thought and
explained that it gave her a flash of another contest she
knew about that she had always wanted to enter. As she was
talking about this, I remembered my childhood try at poetry.
"Now where did I put those" came to mind.

Yes, you guess it; I went looking for my old poems after the
call. Including staying up past midnight reading them again
and chuckling on my mindset at the time. I even wrote quote
a few on President Kennedy’s death -- but that’s another
topic. I chose three, submitted them, and went to bed
pleased with myself about taking some action with them.

Did you know that the difference between a light bulb moment
and an aha moment is the depth of experience in whatever is
occurring. Light bulb is the flash, the aha is when you
make the connections between that and other experiences in
your life.

This morning the aha part of the light bulb moment hit me --
the marketing aspect to all this. In order to give you a
complete picture, let me including the "ad" I found in the
ezine. This is a quote.

*************** AD ********

Half Price Books' 10th Annual Bedtime Story Contest
DEADLINE: December 1, 2003
GENRE: Children's fiction and poetry
OPEN TO: All, except employees of Half Price Books and The
Texas Bookman, or any agents or affiliates thereof.
LENGTH: Stories: up to 300 words; Poems: up to 50 lines.
THEME: To promote literacy and encourage people to read,
Half Price Books will publish a book featuring the winning
stories. All proceeds from the sale of the book fund
literacy and education projects. All entries should be
appropriate to be read to and by children, ages 8 and under.
We do not require our authors to illustrate their own
stories. However, if you are an artist and would like to
submit your artwork along with your story or poem, we
encourage you to do so. All entries must be typed and
include your name, address, phone number and e-mail address.
Entries, whether mailed or e-mailed, that do not include
contact information will be disqualified. See our online
contest guidelines for more information.
PRIZES: Grand Prize: $200 gift card from Half Price Books;
2nd Prize: $100 gift card; 3rd Prize: $50 gift card;
Finalists: $20 gift card
ELECTRONIC ENTRY: Yes, must be in MS Word or rich text
formats.
ADDRESS: Half Price Books, ATTN: Bedtime Story Contest, 5803
E Northwest Hwy, Dallas, TX 75231
EMAIL: saygoodnight@halfpricebooks.com
URL: http://www.halfpricebooks.com (Click on "Enter our
Bedtime Story Contest")

*************************

Here is the marketing aha: They saw a need for children’s
books in the 8th grade and lower market. They connected
with a publisher, sold the idea to them, and then created
this advertisement and place it in many ezines (some
assumptions here). Then they leveraged to bring them the
results they desired with the least amount of effort on
their part.

Let me move this strategy in a way on how you can apply it
to your success:

1. Find a hungry niche/market (they found one – the 8th
grade and lower markets lacked poetry).

2. Made sure there was an excellent chance for a sale or
guaranteed revenue (I'm sure they wouldn't have done it had
it not).

3. Leverage other people resources to fill the product
(they are taking other people’s material, accumulating it,
finding the best, and putting it into a product).

4. Don't pay out anything until you have the advance, or
you can make enough money on presales to cover the expenses
(their prize awards aren't going to be paid out until they
get an advance from the publisher for the book or they
presell it through their own marketing program). [Special
note: their break even point is so low all they would need
to do is sell 100 books -- fairly easy since they already
own hundreds of retails stores already.]

5. Sell the product and pocket the profit. (Except, they
are probably going to make some money, their biggest
advantage is in their new market attraction to their
stores.)

Think about all the times this has been done in the past.
One of the best-case scenarios is the Chicken Soup of the
Soul books. They didn't write any of them, they leveraged
all the content by finding the writers that wanted to get
their name in print anyway possible (most professionals
looking to built visibility for their practice). And they
were happy to have that opportunity. Therefore, Chicken
Soup created a win/win. Dollars for their pocket and
"published author" recognition for the writers.

After a few issues it took on a whole new momentum, even
Chicken Soup didn't even see coming, people volunteered
their ideas for more topics/books and even leveraged to
produce more books for their series and they rode it all the
way to the bank -- becoming an overnight millionaire -- oh,
I think it’s billionaire now.

In summary, here is some of the wisdom from this light bulb
moment:

* Relationships are important in building a practice.
Taking the time to not only see things from our own
perspective, it is important to see them from the
possibilities for our clients/customers. It only takes a
moment and the experience can be so fabulous.

* How much easier it is to develop a product with
leveraging. How can you apply this to something in your
business?

* Synergy builds with action after a light bulb flash. So,
why not stop and take action when it occurs. The journey is
sooooo worth it.

* Where is the hungry market for your product/services?
Identify them and make your marketing so much easier. They
can be just an age group away.

* What is sitting on your desk right now that could help
one of your clients? Share it, it will come back. This is
how the universe works.

Take a moment right now and write down three action steps on
what you are taking away from this. Did you have different
flashes? Share them with me so I can spread the energy. Or
share them with whom you need to. Send them an e-mail, it
only takes a moment. Go ahead, do it. The ripple will be
felt for a long time. Leveraging is a mindset, let it start
here and now.