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 EXAMPLE ********

(Exception:  not all one paragraph)

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")

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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.