Over 20 years ago, John W. Scherer founded Video Professor, Inc. and began producing his easy-to-use tutorials that have taught over eight million people across the United States and Canada how to use their computers. Since that time, John W. Scherer has promoted Video Professor products through the Internet, billboards, newspapers, magazines, television, radio, and more. Video Professor has become a household name! But who is John W. Scherer, and how did he become the successful entrepreneur he’s known as today?
John W. Scherer was born in St. Charles, Illinois, and raised in Geneva, Illinois. He’s proud to be a descendant of both John and Joseph Naper, founders of Naperville in the 1800s. Naperville is a classic midwestern city—the kind of hometown where a good work ethic is valued and a hard day’s work brings an honest dollar. Both of John’s parents were born and raised in Naperville. Money Magazine just rated Naperville #3 in its list of best small cities to live. After graduating from high school in Geneva, Illinois, John went on to attend and graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
In 1985, before Video Professor existed, home computers were first beginning to have an impact on the lives of Americans and John W. Scherer was the primary owner of a successful PC sales company called Data Link Research Service, Inc., which later merged into Creative Characters, Inc. PCs were so new to the market that many of John W. Scherer’s customers were coming back to him and asking for help with running and using their new computers.
Being an entrepreneur focused on providing the highest level of service to his customers, John W. Scherer knew he needed to find a solution for them. As he began to search for a product to recommend, he found that the only option for learning how to use a computer was by means of tedious, dense manuals. Though John recognized that computers were going to be an integral part of the future and felt he had a responsibility to educate his customers, he didn’t want to recommend or sell a product that people would find difficult to use. Therefore, manuals were not an option.
John W. Scherer became a man on a mission. He needed to produce a set of comprehensive computer tutorials that could teach his customers quickly and easily about their PCs. Furthermore, he wanted these tutorials to be affordable and give people the freedom to learn at home. So in April 1987, John W. Scherer produced his first computer tutorials on videotape and introduced them to computer owners across America. Thus his new company, Video Professor, Inc., was born.
At first, John W. Scherer’s Video Professor tutorials were sold only at trade shows and in retail stores, but the videotapes were getting noticed and the demand for John’s revolutionary Video Professor learning tool was building. So in 1991, John decided to produce an infomercial—a decision that resulted in a consumer frenzy for his already popular Video Professor product.
To get his Video Professor infomercial noticed, John W. Scherer knew he needed a recognizable face to appear with him, so he contacted actor Jeff Conaway of Grease and Taxi. When Jeff heard about the product, he was excited about John’s vision and agreed to help.
The Video Professor infomercial was a great success, and computer users were excited over the opportunity to order John W. Scherer’s product directly from Video Professor over the phone and from the comfort of their living room chairs. There was finally a suitable alternative to bulky computer manuals and inconvenient classes, and people were thanking John W. Scherer by the thousands. Video Professor was a success.
A few years after the launch of his first infomercial, John W. Scherer decided to expand his Video Professor product line. Once again, Jeff Conaway starred with John in a new infomercial, and the word that there were now Video Professor tutorials available for popular software titles spread like wildfire. Video Professor call centers all across America were taking calls from thousands of people who wanted to learn more.
By 1996, John W. Scherer expanded his Video Professor advertising efforts to include television commercials, newspaper and magazine ads, and more. In addition, John charged forward with a new format for his tutorials: they were now available on CD-ROM as well as videotape.
With the launch of Windows® 98, computers began to impact households and businesses more than ever, and John W. Scherer began receiving a multitude of calls from business people, housewives, retirees, and even teenagers. They all wanted—and needed—to learn computer skills fast. John began to see that the more people became dependent on computers, the more they would need to learn about them in order to survive the technology age.
Again, John W. Scherer doubled his efforts and set forth to aggressively expand Video Professor. He became so confident in the effectiveness of his computer tutorials that he started offering consumers free tutorials, knowing full well that once people tried them they’d come back to Video Professor time and time again for all their computer-learning needs. John removed the “risk” from trying his product, and by doing so, his sales skyrocketed. This free offer, backed by a credible product, made Video Professor a household name.
Today, John W. Scherer’s Video Professor library helps people learn the most popular computer operating systems and software programs available on the market. Though his videotape tutorials are now part of his company’s history, CD-ROM tutorials remain very popular. In step with John’s innovative ways, he now offers Video Professor tutorials online, making them available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to anyone with a high-speed Internet connection.
Through careful planning, John W. Scherer was able to become part of a rare group of CEOs who made themselves as much a part of their company’s brand image as the product itself. An estimated 90 million people see John W. Scherer in Video Professor commercials or infomercials each month, on network news programs such as FOX & Friends and ABC’s World News Now, or on various local television news appearances. John W. Scherer has even been recognized by popular entertainment shows like The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
John W. Scherer firmly believes that part of being a successful businessman is sharing his good fortune with the community. Although Colorado is now home for John W. Scherer and Video Professor, he currently funds eight fully endowed college scholarships—in honor of his parents—for graduates of their former high school in Naperville. Each year, one academic and one sports scholarship is awarded to a deserving student. John also funds a scholarship for his alma mater, the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
In addition to the numerous scholarships he funds, John W. Scherer regularly donates Video Professor tutorials to groups and organizations that support computer literacy as part of their outreach programs. The Chickasaw Nation Computer Literacy Project, the United States Peace Corps, a Salvation Army Adult Rehabilitation Center, and others have benefited from these donations.
John W. Scherer’s philanthropic outreach does not end there, however. John W. Scherer and Video Professor also actively support various foundations including Alive at 25 and Celebrity Fight Night. Alive at 25 is a program that helps promote safe driving skills to teenagers and arms them with information needed to make good decisions behind the wheel. Celebrity Fight Night is an annual dinner benefiting the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center at Barrow Neurological Institute.
John W. Scherer also encourages Video Professor employees to become active volunteers in the community, and he supports several local charities including the Jeffco Action Center, Denver Mission Homeless Shelter, the Soldiers’ Angels Project, and the Salvation Army Giving Tree.
Corporate success and good citizenship have brought John W. Scherer numerous awards and honors. Video Professor is part of the Small Business Administration Wall of Fame, is recognized by Jefferson County in Colorado for the company’s contributions to economic growth and development, and is a member of the Denver/Boulder Better Business Bureau. Video Professor products have earned coveted Aurora Awards for video production for three consecutive years, including this year as the Video Professor production team won Platinum Best in Show honors for the Learn eBay® tutorial.
Thanks to John W. Scherer’s focus on continuous growth and new markets, Video Professor was also recently awarded a central contractor registration by the General Services Administration (GSA) and may now use its computer tutorials to help train national and state government employees.
Today, John W. Scherer leads a company of over 300 employees based at Video Professor’s headquarters in Lakewood, Colorado. Many key members of his leadership team have been with Video Professor since the beginning.
The business model hasn’t changed much either; John W. Scherer and his Video Professor team simply show up each day, work hard, listen to their customers, and produce helpful and innovative computer tutorials that make a difference in people’s lives.
All great companies are the realization of vision, hard work, leadership, and determination. Video Professor is no exception; it’s the physical manifestation of the American dream.
And in the time it took you to read this, hundreds more have answered John W. Scherer’s call to “Try My Product®.”
“Start small and build on your success. That’s the way a good company becomes a great company.”
– John W. Scherer
Video Professor and Try My Product are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Video Professor, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All trademarks and registered trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.
Copyright © 2008 Video Professor Inc. All rights reserved.
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