Kiana Tom to be host for "Body Jac" show

Barbara and I recently traveled to New York to meet with Kiana Tom who will be our show host for the "Body Jac" show...she's a great fit for the product and we're glad to have her on board!!

More updates to come on this product...

Shark Tank deal update

'Cactus Jack' Barringer trims 30 pounds, picks up $180G for 'Shark Tank'

BY Christina Boyle
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER



He has peddled everything from dissolving cleaning tablets to "catch a lot" fish hooks.

Yet infomercial star Jack (Cactus Jack) Barringer needed more than a gift of gab to get his latest invention on air - he had to shed some serious pounds, too.

Investors told the Iowa TV salesman they would bankroll his pushup exercise machine - if he won his battle of the bulge.

He stepped on the scales in New York Thursday 30 pounds lighter than he was in August, and walked away with a $180,000 check.

"My doctor wanted me to get rid of some weight. He said the No. 1 thing to do is pushups," said Barringer, 66, describing how he came up with his latest quirky invention. "I couldn't do one, and there wasn't a machine out there to help me, so I created one."

Barringer appeared on ABC's "Shark Tank," where he pitched his business plan for the "Body Jac" to a panel of would-be investors, including New York real estate guru Barbara Corcoran and infomercial king Kevin Harrington.

The two said they would give Barringer $180,000 - but only if he dropped from 273 pounds to 243 pounds.

"I thought, 'Nobody's going to buy that product when they see that big gut,'" Corcoran said.

"I believed he was going to make a success of it because he's great with promotion and there's a huge market for it."

Barringer's Body Jac is made up of bars and rubber resistance bands that support the body during pushups.

It can support 25% to 75% of a person's weight, so the resistance can be increased as he or she tones up.

"I wanted a way to do a pushup, but in the process realized there are millions of baby boomers just coming into retirement age and the bulk are like me: overweight [and] out of shape."

His infomercial will air in January. The Body Jac will cost about $129, before hitting retail stores for $89.95.

Barringer says he improved his diet, started walking more and used his Body Jac to shift the pounds.

"Not only am I going to keep it off, but I'm going to lose another 30 pounds," he said.

"When I do that infomercial, I'm going to be in my cowboy boots and hat and Speedos," he joked.


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2009/10/23/2009-10-23_cactus_jack_trims_30_pounds_picks_up_180g_to_push_new_gadget_no_gut__some_glory.html#ixzz0UyXkBLNN

Kevin Harrington - Infomercial King; article featured in MSNBC Business

Chris O'Meara / AP file

King of infomercials testing the mainstream
Harrington ‘moves faster and thinks bigger than the average entrepreneur'

(Associate Press, updated 12:21 p.m. ET, Tues., Oct . 13, 2009)

CLEARWATER, Fla. - In a sprawling studio, Kevin Harrington is watching a TV pitchman put a shapely model through her paces on a new exercise contraption soon to be featured in a half-hour infomercial.

The machine is all foldable bars and straps and handles, which can be used for 88 different exercises. Harrington is excited. He thinks the $99 item is going to be a huge seller.

“It’s hard to look at that and say, ‘This is going to be the next billion-dollar project,’” Harrington says to a visitor. “If it only does $250 million, we’ll be happy.”

Harrington, who has produced some of TV’s best-known infomercials, has a knack for knowing what will sell and how to sell it. He’s made a vast fortune convincing impulse-buying insomniacs that they just can’t do without the latest kitchen gadget, cleaning device or exercise video. The latest spot is for “Tony Little’s Private Trainer,” named for the long-haired “You can do it!” guy.

Harrington, who can be seen on ABC’s new show “Shark Tank,” claims to have invented the infomercial back in the mid-1980s. Today, he reigns over a marketing empire that includes a truckload of “as seen on TV” goods and ownership in the Tampa-area studio that cranks out the long-form commercials.

“I call him an infomercial visionary,” says Little, whose boisterous TV pitches for exercise gear and DVDs have made him a celebrity. “He’s very good at selecting the right products, selecting the right talent.”

For sketchy industry, a sense of legitimacy
Usually behind the curtain, Harrington is stepping in front of the cameras this year on “Shark Tank,” a reality show that has inventors and entrepreneurs pitching products to a snide panel of marketing moguls. That led to his showing off his St. Petersburg mansion for Joan Rivers on a new reality show called “How’d You Get So Rich?"

His memoir — “Act Now!: How I Turn Ideas Into Million Dollar Products” — has just been published. And he can’t stop talking about a deal that places one of his products — the Air Cutter, a hair-cutting device that vacuums up the locks as they are shorn — in a movie that has Kevin Spacey playing an inventor who peddles stuff on infomercials.

A likable, fast-talking wheeler-dealer who formed his first company as a teenager, Harrington sees his mainstream exposure as an opportunity not only to discover new products he can market on TV but to earn a degree of respect for his work.

The industry has already gotten a boost from Billy Mays and Anthony Sullivan, infomercial pitchmen who starred in a reality TV show on the Discovery Channel. Mays died of a heart attack in June but is still being seen in ads.

“In the last couple of years, I think the industry has gotten a little more credit for being critical,” says Harrington, whose wiry build and blonde-tipped crew cut make him look much younger than his 52 years. “It’s not as schlocky as it used to be, for sure.”

An expert on consumer behavior echoed Harrington’s assessment.

“He brought that sense of legitimacy and the idea that infomercials are not necessarily hucksterism, [that] they are meeting the legitimate needs of legitimate consumers,” says Thomas C. O’Guinn, a marketing professor at the University of Wisconsin. “He made it OK to buy stuff from infomercials. He kind of added a little class to it.”

Pitching himself out of bankruptcy
Harrington, who is married with two sons, is doing OK for a guy whose staggering business losses once forced him into bankruptcy and who still falls flat with 2 out of every 3 products he launches.

He started working young, first in his father’s taverns and restaurants in his native Cincinnati. Before long, he was peddling high chairs to pregnant ladies, car rustproofing, air conditioners and weight-loss products.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33196084/ns/business-consumer_news/

An interview with the "Sharks"

A Shark Tank interview by Jason Cochran with Kevin Harrington, Barbara Corcoran & Robert Herjavec.

Kevin is Mr. Wonderful and Robert jokes about lending Barbara money next year!!

Kevin Harrington Talks Spending

CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Ann Meyer Minding Your Business
September 28, 2009



ENERGY BAR MAKER CARVES HIS OWN PATH TO GROWTH CAPITAL THROUGH TV APPEARANCE

Thinking creatively has taken Jonathan Miller a long way in launching a business and funding it.

His Chicago startup, Element Bars, offers a new twist on the energy bar concept by letting consumers choose ingredients on the company's Web site to build custom bars that are shipped to their doorstep.

Finding growth capital for the year-old business during a severe recession also took a new twist, when Miller appeared on ABC's reality show "Shark Tank." The new series pits entrepreneurs against five aggressively skeptical investors in hopes of winning capital for their businesses.

Part of the entertainment is watching the "sharks" rip into their business plans. One shark told Miller: "You know my job is to squeeze your head like a teenage pimple."

Still, enduring the abuse proved to be worth it for Miller; he negotiated a deal for $150,000. Ironically, before the show's airing Sept. 13, Miller had tried for a $10,000 to $20,000 bank loan but was turned down.

"It's an interesting commentary. You can get great national publicity and a great equity deal, but you can't get the line of credit" from a bank, Miller said.

Miller's creative approach to securing capital was well-timed, given the current credit crunch that has many entrepreneurs scrambling for funds, said Mike Adhikari, president of Illinois Corporate Investments. Entrepreneurs have few options outside of investments by family, friends and individuals who have a shared interest.

When trying for private funds from investors or venture capitalists, entrepreneurs must know how to negotiate, Adhikari said. "They really need to know how venture capitalists think," he said. "Most don't have a way to get beyond the, 'I want $200,000 for 10 percent of the business.' "

But Miller did. A 2008 graduate of Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, Miller had taken a class in negotiating. He also spent a summer working in venture capital, reviewing business plans and observing entrepreneurs' pitches.

Before his "Shark Tank" appearance, he did his homework. He knew that he wanted to come away with $150,000 and wasn't willing to give up more than 35 percent of the company's equity for the capital.

Miller shrewdly kept the upper hand on the show, observers said. He started by asking for $150,000 for a 15 percent stake. While some investors laughed, Miller never budged on the amount of money he wanted.

"One mistake negotiators commonly make is they wait for the other party to make the first offer," said Jeanne Brett, professor of dispute resolution and organizations at Kellogg. "The first offer in a negotiation tends to anchor the other party's thinking."

Miller added another dimension by communicating his passion for the business, Brett said.

In the end, Miller gave a 30 percent stake in his company to investor Kevin Harrington, chief executive of TVGoods.com. In return, Miller got the capital he wanted plus a commitment for a 4 percent royalty tied to a licensing agreement.

Harrington, a regular shark on the show, said he looks for potential "As Seen on TV" products and had previously sold protein bars. When he tasted the custom Element Bar Miller made for him, "I loved mine. My initial reaction was, 'Wow,' " he said. "I thought I could take it to the masses."

Harrington hopes to use his relationships with shopping channels, Web developers and TV production studios to help Element Bars reach new markets.

Harrington is exactly the type of investor entrepreneurs should be seeking, Adhikari said. "When you are partnering with someone, they should be providing not only the capital but also additional value," he said. You also need compatible personalities.

Meanwhile, Miller said the "Shark Tank" exposure has fueled a tenfold spike in demand to 10,000 bars a week purchased on ElementBars.com. Consumers build their own bars on the Web site in five steps. First, they choose a "chewy, oaty, crispy or datey core," then add in fruits, nuts and sweets like honey or chocolate chips, Miller said. The final step is to choose from several nutritional boosts, like protein, omega-3 or fiber.

Customers also get to name their bars, which cost $36, plus $6 shipping, for a box of 12.

Miller started making his own bars for personal consumption in 2004, but didn't consider it could be a business until December 2007, when a friend of his wife's asked if he could make bars for diabetic children.

Four months later, Miller and two partners, Maria Sutanto and Jonathan Kelley, were testing a prototype Web site. Together, they put up $100,000 of their own money to launch the business.

"I'm a firm believer in proofing out a business before trying to raise money," Miller said. "We've done that. We have sales growing and repeat customers."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/columnists/chi-mon-minding-capital-0928sep28,0,2636676.column