This is sage words from Seth Godin.  Mad props to the mentor and you can find his blog and other musings here:  http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/06/how-to-be-a-book-packager.html

K2 is a packager.  I package scuba equipment.  Dont confuse me with a scuba retailer or a dive shoppe.  If you have a product that we can drive to market, ping me at 818 982 2652.

Now, please enjoy the article!

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For fifteen years, I was a book packager. It has nothing to do with packaging and a bit more to do with books, but it’s a great gig and there are useful lessons, because there are dozens of industries just waiting for you to do something like this. Let me explain:

A book packager is like a movie producer, but for books. You invent an idea, find the content and the authors, find the publisher and manage the process. Book packagers make almanacs, illustrated books, series books for kids and the goofy one-off books you find at the cash register. I did everything from a line of almanacs to a book on spot and stain removal. It was terrific fun, and in a good year, a fine business. Along the way, I worked with just about every major publisher and created more than a hundred books. I packaged (with various levels of success) video games, college professors, Julia Robert’s astrologer, an award-winning children’s novelist, the Weekly World News, Kinko’s and (almost) Craftsmen Tools.

I think there are real advantages to this model (and not just for books). Star Wars toys, for example, were created by a packager, and so are most big budget movies. Duncan Hines licensed his name to Roy Park, perhaps the most successful food packager of all time. Roy died of old age with more than half a billion dollars to his name thanks to all that cake mix.

First, the world needs packagers. Packagers that can find isolated assets and connect them in a way that creates value, at the same time that they put in the effort to actually ship the product out of the door.  Kaplan might never have gotten into the test prep book business if we hadn’t done all the hard work of persuading them to enter the market (it took several years) and creating the books that launched their line. One series of books generated tens of thousands of new customers for them.

Second, in many industries there are ‘publishers’ who need more products to sell. Any website with a lot of traffic and a shopping cart can benefit from someone who can assemble products that they can profitably sell. Apple uses the iPhone store to publish apps. It’s not a perfect analogy, because they’re not taking any financial risk, but the web is now creating a new sort of middleman who can cheaply sell a product to the end user. We also see this with Bed, Bath and Beyond commissioning products for their stores, or Trader Joe’s doing it with food items.

Any time you can successfully bring together people who have a reputation or skill with people who sell things, you’re creating value. If you find an appropriate scale, it can become a sustainable, profitable business.

The skills you bring to the table are vision, taste and a knack for seeing what’s missing. You also have to be a project manager, a salesperson and the voice of reason, the person who brings the entire thing together and to market without it falling apart. Like so many of the businesses that are working now, it doesn’t take much cash, it merely takes persistence and drive.

Here are some basic rules of thumb that I learned the hard way:

1. It’s much easier to sell to an industry that’s used to buying. Books were a great place for me to start because book publishers are organized to buy projects from outsiders. It’s hard enough to make the sale, way too hard to persuade the person that they should even consider entering the market. (PS stay away from the toy business).
2. Earning the trust of the industry is critical. The tenth sale is a thousand times easier than the second one (the first one doesn’t count… beginner’s luck).
3. Developing expertise or assets that are not easily copied is essential, otherwise you’re just a middleman.
4. Patience in earning the confidence of your suppliers (writers, brands, factories, freelancers) pays off.
5. Don’t overlook obvious connections. It may be obvious to you that Eddie Bauer should license its name and look to a car company, but it might not be to them.
6. Get it in writing. Before you package up an idea for sale to a company that can bring it to market, make sure that all the parties you’re representing acknowledge your role on paper.
7. As the agent of change, you deserve the lion’s share of the revenue, because you’re doing most of the work and taking all of the risk. Agenting is a good gig, but that’s not what I’m talking about.
8. Stick with it. There’s a Dip and it’s huge. Lots of people start doing things like this, and most of them give up fairly quickly. It might take three or five years before the industry starts to rely on you.
9. Work your way up. Don’t start by trying to license the Transformers or Fergie. They won’t trust a newbie and you wouldn’t either.

seeded from David Bullock:  What are you Really doing. . . .

Sometime you need to sit back and analyze what you are doing with your business.  There is a whole area of activity that can suck up time and funds without the business owner truly being aware of the drain it can have on your bottom line.  I called this activity “Non-Revenue Generating Actions”

As a business owner, you can easily get caught up in doing things that don’t make any money for your business. Usually we classify things like:

• getting the mail
• paying bills
• paperwork
• building websites
• answering email or the phone

as things that need to be outsourced and not “important” for a business owner to handle. The craze right now is to outsource everything. That is fine, if you are outsourcing the

• right things
• to the right people
• for the right projects.

But there is a bigger hole in your business that is beyond outsourcing. It is the thinking that chooses the projects that you work on.

Thinking About Project Selection

Are you one of those people who works on projects based on potential income?

The whole “get rich quick” industry is built on the idea of potential. But let’s bring this closer to home.

• How many projects are you working on right now that are potential income projects, not “get-the-revenue-now-I-know-it-is-coming-in-fact-it-is-already-here” projects?
• How many projects are you working on that are a “favor” for a friend?
• How many projects are you working on that are long-shots?  Are you spending time and effort to make them work when it is clear that there is something amiss in the model?

The projects themselves are not the problem. The real problem is that you are spending precious time and effort working in areas that are not designed to give you the returns that you desire. Again, it is the time and the effort that is the real sticking point.

These are called “opportunity costs.”  While you are working on these projects, you are limiting the time you can spend on actual revenue-generating activity.  What you are doing is not bringing your closer to your goal.

Do this for me. Get a piece of paper and write down everything that you are working on (or thinking about working on).

Let me help you… Be sure to include all the:

• domain names that you have purchased with the idea of doing this cool project.
• projects for friends just to help them out.
• those joint venture projects that you are working on that are half-done and half-baked.
• all those long-shot unproven projects that you just want to do.

Go ahead. Take a moment and write them down. And write down the time you have already spent thinking and working on “half-dones,” “kinda-dones” and “maybe I’ll get to it” projects.

Guess what? All of these things are stealing your energy, time and brain space. No wonder you are not getting anything done. You are all over the place and getting no where. Seeing the list is pretty alarming.

We are all familiar with Product Margin, Low Cost, and High Margin.

But what about Time Margin.  Never heard about that one?

Usually it is called opportunity costs. But today I am calling it time margin. Because time is the only thing that we really have and your time has to yield a result. Outsourcing can multiply your efforts, yes, but if you are working on the wrong projects then you are multiplying your waste.

Take a few minutes to think about your time margin. I am telling you now, you are going to wrestle with the idea.  Everything you work on is going to seem important. And I can hear the folks saying, “You can’t do everything for money.”  I agree – you can’t, and I don’t.

But…

If I am working on a project that is supposed to yield a profit, then I need to see the profit. If I am working on a project that is not profit driven or profitable, it is in my best interest to recognize what is not working and make a decision not to be carried away by the idea of potential profit.

Very easy to say. Very hard to do.

Enjoy, folks. This thinking changed me and I hope it will change you.

Side note: This time margin thinking transfers to all areas of life. Think about the best way to spend your time with family and friends. Be deliberate on getting the most happiness, joy and smiles from the people you care about. It is not about business all the time. It is about life and getting the most out of it.

A cutting edge report by my mentors David Bullock and Brent Leary.  This is a must watch, enjoy and visit their site at  www.barack20.com

Barack Obama Social Media Business Strategies Update

Good Morning All:

A blessed and happy Sunday to EVERYBODY!

If you’re a blogger like me, you’ll know that one of the biggest challenges we face is getting repeat traffic.

A great way to do that of course is by building a mailing list of opt-in subscribers.

The problem is how to capture your visitor’s details without alienating them with a huge great hover popin or such like.

Well now I think I’ve found a solution…

I’ve recently come across a cool little script called Ultimate Footer Ad that slides a small strip up from the bottom of your browser.

http://www.ultimatefooterad.com/v/?e=TevisVerrett

You can use it to capture email subscribers, as well as convert visitors to rss subscribers or twitter followers.

It does it all…

What it doesn’t do is annoy your visitors by stopping them from reading your valuable content.

The feedback on this software has been amazing:

John Chow describes it as…

  – One of the best promotional tools I have ever used.

And Legendary marketer Terry Dean had this to say…

- I’ve added 126 extra new subscribers to my list just in the past week.

Not only that, it’s dead simple to use. You can literally have this thing installed and running on your website in 10 minutes.

So if you’re looking for a way to increase traffic and revenues with your blog, hit the link below now to grab your copy before this really catches on…

http://www.ultimatefooterad.com/v/?e=TevisVerrett

OK want to hip you to something that I have been successfully using on my websites:

www.k2scuba.com

and here on. . .

www.tevisverrett.com

It is called Ultimate Footer Ad and it has consistently been growing my subscriber list on the average of 4-6 per day. I’m sold and I am tickled to hip you to this software. 

Here of course is my affiliate link:  http://ultimatefooterad.com/v/?e=TevisVerrett

. . .so consider this a shameless plug. On a serious note, that adage that a certain size list equals one million dollars. . .and we just need to water and grow our lists!

It is a $47 investment. . . and I can say worth it!  So pony up!

Ping me back and tell me what you think, I will also help you to configure. . . or direct you to Kris!

Best wishes,

P.S. Top UK marketer Frank Haywood used this tool to increase his average daily blog subscription by 249.84%. So the longer you wait, the more subscribers you’re missing out on.  Check out it out now at:- 

http://www.ultimatefooterad.com/v/?e=TevisVerrett

. . . . what would you DEFINITELY buy from us, if (only) we were smart enough to offer it to you?

Blessings,

Tevis Verrett, Keeper of all things Good and Pure!

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If you don’t know who Seth Godin is. . .

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