KidsEQ Leadership - Emotional Literacy Entertainment for Children and Families

Contact Ayman Sawaf: namya18@mac.com

KidsEQ is a Delaware corporation established in 2005 as a publishing, media and merchandising ‘content label’ focused within the domains of emotional literacy/intelligence ‘EQ’ for children and families. In September of 2006, it acquired most of the publishing and media rights and assets, know how, relationships, and databases of Enchanté Entertainment with plans to build upon them and further its monetization. Founded in 1989 by Ayman Sawaf, Enchanté Entertainment was a defining pioneer in children’s EQ, which sold over 100,000 books and associated activity books and parent/teacher guides, produced two award-winning feature films, and managed the production of three mainstream television series with producers Shelly Duvall, Jim George and Norman Lear in association with Warner Brothers, Sony and HBO.

The Opportunity: A Un-Tapped Global Marketplace

Emotional literacy is the ‘language of relationships’ and is the ability to recognize, understand and appropriately express our emotions in a positive way.

The lack of it contributes to the majority of society’s greatest – and most expensive – challenges: violence, poverty, teen pregnancies, dysfunctional relationships, depression, drug addiction, gang participation, divorce and alienation, to mention a few. No doubt it is a major contributor to all of the world’s major conflicts. Certainly, it contributes to the ever mounting – and eventually untenable - cost and strain upon our economy, health care system, and quality of life.

The Solution: KidsEQ

We believe that EQ is the ‘missing piece’ to the health and success of our modern workplace, schools, and most importantly, our homes. In a world where emphasis on academic, scientific and computer literacy are the norm, emotional literacy remains all but ignored in our society. We believe that a carefully targeted and well-promoted EQ content company can take a leadership role in defining and addressing these issues to the mass market, while being extremely lucrative in the process.

Current Assets

All publishing, media and merchandising rights to Enchanté Entertainment’s 21 book set emotional literacy series, with future development opportunities
$A large inventory of Enchanté Entertainment’s emotional literacy series (at cost)
Full rights to Magic Boat and Palookai, the award-winning children’s EQ feature films to be released by Access Media for the 2006 holiday season on over a hundred domestic TV stations
Significant industry relationships, databases and mailing lists
KidsEQ website
Co-Sponsor of the Feel.org campaign for emotional literacy
Ayman Sawaf’s history as one of the pioneers of emotional literacy, and his availability to support the company on an advisory basis

Business Plan

Past and Present Sales and Marketing

Working originally with a network of commercial sales rep firms, KidsEQ’s predecessor, Enchanté Entertainment, established a niche market for its EQ-based book products with thousands of individual consumers, and with sales to catalogs, retailers, public and private schools and libraries across the country. After a 5-year hiatus, KidsEQ is now selling its books directly from its offices and fulfilling through Global Graphix in Santa Rosa, California.

Future Opportunities

KidsEQcan rapidly expand its existing library, lower cash flow needs and increase product choices by:

Selecting picture books by other publishers and bundling them with the existing KidsEQ workbooks and parent/teacher guides
Developing new workbooks and teacher guides for other emotions (love, shame, intimacy etc.) and bundling them with existing picture books published by others
Merchandising. There is a huge opportunity to merchandise the Emotional Literacy IP and rapidly increase sales, by acquiring or developing new EQ products (stickers, clothing, games, toys, calendars etc) and services in association with other committed experts, vendors, celebrities, publishers and media producers

Competition

Peripheral competition to KidsEQ comes in the form of a small number of non-profits and academics. More direct competition comes from children’s publishers and producers developing titles with EQ-centric values – though nearly none have promoted these properties in a comprehensive and integrated way– suggesting that, to date, KidsEQ has little or no direct competition.

Conclusion

KidsEQ believes that investing in EQ is one of the best investments we can make for our children, our future and ourselves. Many of the parents that are our targeted customers appear ready for such an investment.

KidsEQ

Children’s Book Series on Character Education

Overview:

A series of 7 children’s picture books (with more to come), focusing on overcoming a particular emotional issue. The intention of the books is to teach children to become literate about their emotions. Two workbooks accompany each hardbound book - one for student and one for parent/teacher. Created by art and play therapist Liz Farrington who worked with children for over 25 years, the stories are taken from real-life accounts. Emphasis is on how to develop core character.

Vitals: 32 pages each, trim size is 11 X 9. Hard cover with dust jacket. Copyright range 1993 - 1995

Age Target: Grades 3 – 5, Ages 8 – 11

Characters: Boys, Girls, Families, Varied ethnic/racial backgrounds

Outlook: Buy content; update; serialize

Sells into: Library Market, Supplemental Classroom, School Counselors; has not been sold into the education market previously.

1. William’s Gift – (Hurt Feelings) 1994 ©

Little boy accidentally breaks an Xmas ornament; runs away from home; meets a fairy god mother-type. Plays a computer game to work through his hurt feelings.

2. Tanya and the Green Eyed Monster – (Jealousy) 1993 ©

11 yr. old girl is jealous of the attention her little sister receives from her parents. She learns to make friends with the “Jealousy Monster” through painting until it has shrunk from giant to size of a doll. Also looses jealousy of sister through friendship with her.

3. Nightmares in the Midst – (Fear) 1993 ©

A little girl overcomes her fear of riding on the train through painting about her feelings. Her mom was supposed to take her on her first train ride but she is in the hospital. She paints the monster from her dreams and also her mom taking her on the train. Realizes she has equated the train with the monster.

Peter is very sad when his grandfather dies and more so when he’s not invited to attend the funeral. He resolves his feelings by imagining himself at the funeral. He gets his grandfather’s hat both in his imagination and in real life!

9 – 11 yr. old boy is wrongly blamed and lashes out by hitting. Resolves issue through painting with teacher and classmate; realizes hitting is never the answer and that he must speak up for himself.

Little girl moves to a new town where she has no friends plus they had to leave her dog behind at the vet because he was very sick. She visualizes a birthday party where everyone is there, including the dog. She sees it’s OK to be alone. Dog gets to come home.

Boy has BAD attitude in school and gets D’s and F’s. Through painting he realizes he feels guilty that, 2 years ago, his dog found a wounded bird, and “fetched” it, and in so doing, killed it. He takes his ‘younger self’ into the wood and visualizes doing it differently - taking the bird to the vet. All ends well.

Student Workbook: 8 ½ X 11. Paperback. 11 activities relating to each emotion, such as connect the dots, paste in pictures from magazines, give the creature a name, choosing an image that evokes the feeling etc. Designed to identify, explore and express the emotion through a fun activity.

Teacher Workbook: 5 ¾ X 8 ¾. Paperback. Excellent overview of the emotion itself and what it’s really trying to tell us, how to recognize behaviors which signal the emotion being held and how to move through it. 10 exercises to work through all these steps. Written by Clinical Social Worker.

Award Winning Emotional Literacy Videos

1. The Magic Boat – A Hero’s Journey! (1 Hour)

Two young and courageous heroes explore their fears with a mysterious sea captain on the spellbinding journey of their lives.

2. Palooka – A Dream Come True (1 Hour)

Having dealt with the loss and grief of relocating to another city and school, Amelia is rewarded with a magical horse