How Did POP! Originate?

Find something only you can say.  - James Dickey 

The importance of being able to capture people’s attention in sixty seconds or less became crystal clear to me the first year I emceed the Maui Writers Conference in 1993.  We were proud to give budding authors and screenwriters from around the world a chance to meet face-to-face with decision-makers from New York publishers and Hollywood agencies. This was an unprecedented opportunity to pitch your book or screenplay to respected agents and editors who had the power to give projects a green light.

I’ll always remember one woman who emerged from her meeting with tears in her eyes.  I asked, “What happened?”

“I walked in and gave the editor my manuscript,” she said.  “He took one look at it and told me, ‘I don’t have time to read all that. Just tell me in a couple sentences what your book is about and why people will want to read it’.”

“My mind went blank,” she said.  “I thought it was his job to figure out how to sell it.  I just tried to write the best novel I could.”

During the rest of that conference, I discovered she wasn’t the only who thought the quality of her work would speak for itself.  Other people also seemed to believe that if they had succeeded in producing a quality project, it would elicit interest.  Wrong.

There are hundreds of thousands of well-written books and scripts.  The point was, how was hers different?  Why would it break out from everything else that was already published or produced?  And perhaps most importantly, what was a succinct sales sound-bite that would motivate busy people to try it and buy it or go see it?

My heart went out to those discouraged individuals whose dreams had been shattered, not because their work wasn’t worthy, but because they hadn’t known they needed to (or hadn’t known how to) succinctly prove why it was worthy.

I started helping people prepare sixty second “Tell ‘n Sell” pitches that articulated the commercial viability of their projects in a way decision makers “got” it and “wanted” it.  News spread about my clients’ success, and other individuals and organizations started hiring me to strategize how they and their projects could break out instead of blend in. 

I developed my own intellectual capital called POP! outlining how to make yourself, your creation, company, cause, and campaign  POP! out of the pack.  Since then, I’ve had an opportunity to work with hundreds of clients to help them develop innovative titles, taglines, intros, and approaches that have helped them and their offerings become one-of-a-kind instead of one-of-many.

What are the Benefits of POP?

Let’s give ‘em something to talk about.  - from Bonnie Raitt’s song “Something To Talk About”

Whether you are introducing yourself at a networking function, talking to prospective clients at a trade show, pitching your novel or screenplay, writing articles or Web copy, creating an ad or commercial, naming a business or product, producing a sound-bite slogan for your business, interviewing for a job, or competing for a contract, your success depends on whether you quickly capture your target audience’s interest.  Are they sufficiently intrigued in the first sixty seconds to want to know more? Did you succeed in getting your project’s foot in their mental door?

People today are so busy, so bombarded with information, that’s all the time we have. If we don’t convince them in our “One Minute Window of Opportunity” that we’re worth their valuable time, money, and attention, they’ll switch their focus to something else.

The premise of POP! is that the best way to attract instant interest is to make our communication Purposeful, Original, and Pithy. This is so rarely done, it makes what we’re saying and selling incredibly appealing.

My goal was to remove the mystery from this “art and science of intrigue.” I wanted to develop a step-by-step system anyone could use to win buy-in for themselves, their ideas, inventions, projects and products, business, and brand. 

POP! is accomplishing its mission.  Thousands of people around the world have used these techniques to come up with innovative approaches that helped them and their offerings get noticed, heard, and bought.  I've had the opportunity to share POP! principles with audiences from St. Moritz to San Francisco, Toronto to Tennessee --  and with clients who have identified the prefect brand, landed lucrative book deals, launched rewarding careers, developed trademarked terms that built a a profitable business empire, and attracted national media attention as a result of our work together.

It's been enormously gratifying to hear from people from all walks of life who have catapulted their success as a result of using The POP! Process!  That was my intention. As four-time Pulitzer Prize nominee Fawn Germer says, “You don’t have to be a creative genius to use these techniques; however, using these techniques can make you a creative genius.”

 

Sam Horn, Author/Speaker/Consultant ~ California Office
P.O. Box 6810 Los Osos, CA 93412-6810
Phone (805) 528-4351  Fax (805) 528-2581
Office E-mail   info@samhorn.com
E-mail Sam Horn at  sam@samhorn.com