Celebrity fitness trainer Valerie Waters said she went into her recent QVC shopping network debut with eyes wide open, fingers crossed and more than double her usual inventory of ValSlides.
The West L.A. entrepreneur developed her ValSlide device – 2-foot shaped pieces of slick, padded plastic – as an alternative to bulky slide boards for performing lunges, abdominal planks and other gym exercises. A package including the device, workout video and accessories that normally would sell for roughly $50 on her web site was offered for a promotional price at the June 7 airing.
“It’s kind of like a casino, in that you have to play by their rules and all the odds are stacked in their favor – but the payout is potentially huge,” said Waters of the shopping network. “You do it because you can get 10 million eyeballs on your product and introduce the ValSlide to a much wider audience. I had to take that chance.”
Waters leveraged her success in preparing actresses such as Jennifer Garner, Rachel Nichols and Poppy Montgomery for big roles to get her QVC shot. But it also took a year and contracting with a broker who specializes in getting inventors on the channel.
After getting an OK from the network and waiting to be scheduled, Waters more than doubled her usual equipment order to her contract manufacturer and, at the network’s insistence, reshot the DVD workout included in the package. She also had to make multiple trips to the network’s studios in Philadelphia, including mandatory attendance at a boot camp, dubbed “QVC School,” which helps first-time presenters become more at ease doing TV demos.
Waters not only sold most of the product she had shipped to QVC’s fulfillment warehouse months earlier, but also obtained detailed metrics and feedback on which portions of her presentation generated the most sales. She also was able to add hundreds of prospects to her mailing list in advance of Tuesday’s launch of her latest Bikini Body Express workout routine product.
“I waited for months, but as it turned out the timing was just about perfect,” Waters said. “I’ve actually had a lot of experience demonstrating the ValSlide on TV, but I got a lot of coaching that’s going to help in the future to build my business.”
Waters, who continues to have a presence on QVC’s online shopping site, declined to release specific sales figures.
Surgeon Self-Publishes
After his frustrating experience at getting his first book promoted several years ago, Beverly Hills cosmetic surgeon Dr. Robin Yuan decided the second time around he’d take advantage of the latest technology in self-publishing.
Yuan’s new book, “Behind the Mask, Beneath the Glitter: The Deeper Truths About Safe, Smart Cosmetic Surgery,” isn’t a paean to the benefits of going under the knife. In fact, Yuan is notorious among his colleagues for chasing potential patients away if they are contemplating surgery for what he considers the wrong reasons.
“People often don’t know what will make them happy, and get talked into spending thousands of dollars on procedures they really may not need,” said Yuan, who was the original go-to cosmetic surgeon on the ABC show “Extreme Makeover.” “I wanted to write a book more about philosophy and decision-making, and less something that would market my practice, which the rep on my first book wanted.”
Yuan took advantage of Seattle e-commence giant Amazon.com’s vanity publishing unit, CreateSpace. The division offers editing and consulting services, Amazon site marketing and the ability to keep inventory costs low by printing a book practically on demand. Yuan said the freedom and control was worth the additional work and costs. (CreateSpace sometimes gets criticized for taking too large a cut from an author’s profits.)
“I realized after the stock market crash and recession that the traditional book publishing business was crumbling, and you’d do just as well using social networking and other means to build an audience,” he said. “Unless you’re already a known author, a traditional book publisher isn’t going to spend a lot of time and money marketing your book anyway. I might as well do it myself.”
Yuan also hired Beverly Hills’ Asbury PR Agency to help him promote “Behind the Mask,” which last week ranked No. 856,575 on Amazon’s best-seller list. His first book, “Cheer Up … You’re Only Half Dead: Reflections at Mid-Life,” stands at No. 4,353,772 on Amazon.
Staff reporter Deborah Crowe can be reached [email protected] or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 232.
