by Bob Carson

Editor’s Note: The USTA website is pleased to present freelance writer Bob Carson and his popular “Outside the Box” features. This monthly series is a menu of outlandish proposals presented with a wink — but the purpose behind them is serious. The views contained in this column are that of the author alone, and do not necessarily represent the opinions or views of the United States Trotting Association.

“Take risks. If you win, you will be happy. If you lose, you will be wise.” — Anonymous

Bob Carson

My dad toiled as a prospector in the Catalina Mountain Range in Arizona. He hiked into new territory with a dream, a plan and a pickaxe. Did he strike it rich? No. Did people ridicule him? Probably, but when Dad broke new ground, he was not deterred by what others viewed as normal. He was a striver, an adventurer, and a wonderful soul who winked at failure.

Jimmy Carter once said, “Go out on a limb, that’s where the fruit is.”

Let us suppose that your ability to remain in the sport of harness horse racing depends on your ability to recruit people willing to invest in racehorses. You have cycled through family and friends and you are not chummy with any wealthy benefactors.

At this point, do you say recruiting is impossible? Do you loiter by the barn door waiting for new owners to fall from the sky with checkbook in hand? Do you close the barn door?

My romp through the harness world has led me to wonderful people. With rare exception, they are good, honest, and hardworking people who do not loudly opine or rock boats. However, horse people are not excessively innovative. The trainers of my acquaintance are reluctant salespeople. A reluctance to push and try unorthodox approaches in a job that depends upon customers is troubling. Sitting around hoping the phone will ring is not a strategy for success.

Creativity takes courage. Looking like a fool is the price for new ventures and adventures. If you want to finance a screenplay, you will have a hundred doors slammed in your face and a thousand people snickering behind your back as you try to turn a dream into a reality.

Yet in worlds like filmmaking, publishing and sports franchises, the pitches are aggressive, unorthodox and persistent. Creative people in other fields tilt at windmills, people in horse racing — not so much. Wild, inventive, longshot business plans in the clubhouse, the racetrack front offices and the backstretch are depressingly infrequent.

This is sad. It is a big world, people have computers, and there are fresh fish in big oceans.

This is where pessimists lean back and grumble, “Yeah, sure. Find random people to invest in a horse, good luck with that.”

It is not luck. It is work. It is a challenge. It is an opportunity. It is a necessity. You need to be motivated, creative and sell yourself and your product.

The pessimist whines “Hooow?”

Of course, finding new owners to take a fling in an expensive and exotic sport is difficult. If it were easy, the backstretch and grandstands would be overflowing, but we know they can be lonely outposts. To find new customers takes innovation, creativity, salesmanship, courage and hard work, but if you are determined, you can be successful.

If you cannot imagine how, think harder. In five minutes, anyone with enthusiasm and effort could brainstorm a list of ten radical ideas to recruit new blood to the barn and the yearling sale. These ideas could range from mundane to strange to incredibly loopy. Here is a loopy one.

This will be an online effort.

Let us fish in a new pool — people addicted to smoking. Everyone knows that smoking cigarettes is bad, but stopping is difficult. This attempt at new business would begin by spending a few dollars to cast clickbait in websites that try to help people stop smoking. The bait would be a one-line teaser.

“Get the monkey off your back and a horse on your front burner.”

The hope is that we get a few bites. When we do, we try to reel them in.

“You have done the math. The average smoker will spend about $2,500 a year on cigarettes. Nobody needs to nag at you about the other costs. You have tried to stop smoking countless times and countless ways. Stopping is hard. You might think it is impossible. Maybe it is.

“If you want to keep trying, this might be the approach that breaks the Camel or Marlboro back. You think you have tried everything. Think again.

“Some smokers have had success in swapping cigarettes for other, less damaging, uses for the money that goes up in smoke. They set specific goals and rewards for the money saved, perhaps a cruise or that high-end computer. No doubt, you have read and researched this “exchange concept.” Perhaps you have tried lollipops instead of cigarettes, or jumping on the treadmill or meeting a friend for fries and a coke each time the craving hits. This approach to break the habit is along those lines, but you try with a small group of your peers and the “exchange” weighs just about a ton.

“For the money that goes up in smoke, you could join a club of ten like-minded smokers. A herd of ten for a trial program where you transfer your smoke money to a one year horse ownership ride.”

This is a trial program called – Ten (people) x Twelve (months) x Two Hundred (per month) for a four-legged adventure involving — part ownership of a horse.

The cost would be the same as your cigarette habit.

• Comradery with ten like-minded people
• An adventure
• Perhaps travel
• Education and introduction to a new pastime
• A monthly email newsletter
• Videos
• Support from fellow travelers trying to kick the habit
• An opportunity to kick the monkey and grab a horse

Should you have any interest, email us at lastpuffroundup@gmail.com for additional information.

Place yourself in the seat of a potential customer who wants to kick the smoking habit, has disposable income and has a sense of adventure. This does not seem to be an overly difficult sell. Even if I knew nothing about harness racing, if I were a smoker struggling to stop, I would take a ride.

Would this advertising plan work? I have no idea. It is very possible the idea would not work and we would not get a single inquiry from an interested smoker. This is no big deal. For the truly creative person this is a blip, not a soul-scarring blemish. You gave this one a shot and you have nine more crazy plans in your closet.