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Collette’s Key Move: Collecting People

Collette’s Story:

Some of the biggest successes start out accidentally. Collette Liantonio had a master’s degree in theater education and once had won a poetry contest, but she became a stay-at-home mother of two kids with no plans to apply those skills.

Then, in 1979, a neighbor asked her to write a direct mail brochure for his insurance agency. It got rave reviews. “A business was born, but I didn’t know what to do with it right away,” Collette remembers.

But after a divorce, her fledgling vocation came in very handy. Collette began writing for a client that produced TV infomercials, and she saw a chance to apply her latent skills in acting and directing. Then she figured she could do this stuff on her own, and in 1983 she founded Concepts TV.

Over the years, her company has produced some of the biggest “direct-response” ads in history. Remember the cutting-edge spot for Bonzai knives? That was Concepts TV. How about the irrepressible Tomima Edmark, a Texas-based pitchwoman, and her Topsy Tail ponytail-weaving device? Again, exposed by Collette’s creative genius.

And thanks to Collette’s expertise, everyone has heard of the countertop grills produced by former heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman and sold in many different versions at many different price points in innumerable outlets, including TV.

Collette remains preoccupied by a creative fascination with her craft and would just as soon leave running the business – and even thinking strategically – to someone else. “I only expand out of necessity, when I really can’t stand the clutter anymore,” she concedes.

Still, Collette has gradually built up her revenues to an average of $2.5 million to $3 million a year and employs a staff of 10. Not bad for an accidental entrepreneur.

Collette’s Key Move: Collecting People

Collette admits she’s weak in some of the business aspects of her company, but she is very strong not only as a creative force but also as Concepts TV’s number one people person. Without that talent, she probably wouldn’t have survived.

But for her, it goes beyond just being a good boss and being fun to work with. Collette actually “collects” relationships with people she meets along the way, naturally taking stock of them as a potential employee or business contact – and especially as a possible actor in one of her infomercials.

Being genuinely interested in people is the first trick to making this work. “I’m fascinated with what everybody does and how they do it,” Collette explains. “I meet an awful lot of interesting people in my travels, and when I collect a business card, I write on the back what a person does. And if somebody jokes with me that they want to be in a commercial, I take them quite seriously.

“Maybe it’s because I’m a teacher and a former director, and I’m always casting. But if I meet you on a plane or in a garden club or a book club, I may give you a shot.”

About one of every three or four people Collette brings in will end up in an infomercial, because she likes to feature real people, using and reacting to her clients’ real products and services. “These aren’t slick Pepsi-Cola ads we’re talking about here, but down-home, 800-number commercials,” she says.

Also important is that Collette keeps people in her Rolodex for a long, long time: former theater students from decades ago, for example, are her clients and contractors. One way she maintains these ties is to spend part of Sundays ripping out newspaper articles that bring people to mind and then sending the stories to them.

“I also send out lots of greeting cards,” Collette says. “I’m that one aunt that you actually get the card from. I just stay in touch. I’m genuinely interested in the people who’ve come into my life and my business. And if I didn’t harness that inclination, I know I wouldn’t be successful – and my life wouldn’t be nearly as rich.”

Collette’s Bonus Insight:

You can teach an old dog new tricks, as far as she’s concerned. Despite satisfying success in her 22 years in business, Collette has decided recently that she wants to be more proactive about Concepts TV and less reactive. She’s always sort of just taken what business has come her way, because there’s been plenty of it.

But now, Collette says, she believes there’s a timely opportunity if she grabs for business in the non-direct-response video business – in other words, training tapes and other projects mainly for internal corporate use instead of TV.

“I know how to write and we know how to produce,” she says, “and my editors are fantastic. And at this point in my life, I can deal with corporate structure. So now I’ve decided to actually create a whole new sideline that I hope will become a very big part of my business.”