So I am wandering around the endless threads in facebook and I come across this snapshot and post. JT Rball posted this photo of racquetball courses offered by Udemy courses. I had to comment that this was part of two dumb financial deals that I made back 24 years ago. The video deal and book that I wrote came about in 1999. I think maybe the Sports Illustrated “faces in the news” thing about me retiring as USA coach caught some peoples’ eyes.
Dumb-I cannot speak for the others; I’m betting they were smarter than I was. I signed away my rights to both. It took me two years to write my book and I had to sneak in tips that worked because I had an editor who wanted a kindegarten book and I wanted it to work for top racquetball players. For all the work I did I got a few thousand dollars and lost all the money I could have made if I had even gotten one penny. What is worse is they took my book out of print and I could not get my manuscript or the rights back. At the same time I shot the videos in two days in downtown Phoenix, Arizona. At the time I lived in Syracuse and at the time I never dreamed I’d live here.The racquetball players in the videos include current facebook super-star Damian Zamorano, USA team member Michelle Key, and Senior player Tom Fuhrman. Both deals only made me a few dollars.
Smart-At the same time my book went on sale in Borders and other stores. The video was sold as VHS. Suddenly I picked up students from all over the USA. People began contacting me in the early days of the internet and wanted lessons. My camps began to fill. Strange things like the guy yelling at me in Mexico with the heavy accent at a tournament when I was coaching Kane–“ Senor Weentertune–Wavy Gravy” (Wavy Gravy is a term I use for excess racquet motion during a forehand or backhand-Wavy Gravy was also the guy introducing Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock in 1969!) A pilot came back to thank me on a flight out of Chicago because he won his A league thanks to a few of my tips. So although I missed out on royalties (I tell folks I am the Bo Diddley of racquetball-look it up-poor guy lost his rights to some of his music re-recorded) my coaching became more reknown. I went from Jim Winterton to Coach Winterton in marketing terms from the sales others made money from!
So if you ever get a chance to write your book or do your video series for money, retain your rights. If you ever see any of my ex-students selling a video series, it is everything I taught them probably but not everything I know!
Go get’em Gurus!!