Episode 134: Leveraging Your Brand with Celebrities with Sarah Shaw

Talking about Sabrina Starling, huh? Since I talk so much about, you know, she is the business psychologist for moi. She's my personal business psychologist and she's the author of how to write the best, how to Write the Best, how to Hire the Best. Obviously not the author of how to Read the Best.

Clearly.

I know.

Gosh, she should do that.

She is my personal business psychologist and she helps businesses grow. And she's putting on a special event for listeners of this podcast. So you can register now. Send a text the word employees to 44222. That's employees through 44222. And what you get is her masterclass for free on how to quickly double your profit with top performing employees. Okay, that was a little bit better. All right, Chris, nice.

Barry the maintenance guy is here with us. Barry, I think you've worked with Sabrina as well. What do you think about Sabrina's prowess in her field?

Oh, forget it.

Yeah, that's what I thought.

Yeah. Oh, no, dude, you know what that means.

It's time to go. It's time to start.

Okay.

The Profit first podcast, episode 134. That's right. Oh, my God.

Come on, Sarah.

I didn't hear anything. There you go.

Yes, we're getting down to the groove. You stumbled upon the Profit first podcast. You probably butt dialed us, but you're here, so we're going to have some fun. My name is Chris Curran. I'm the founder of Fractal recording and pause your life.

And I'm Mike Malitz, author of Profit first, which is newly released at least February 21st. So maybe this came out right before. So maybe it's not newly released yet, but on the verge in like two weeks. In two weeks. Okay. Two weeks from this episode. So pick it up. Profit first, revise and expanded. And I'm joined in the studio by part time drummer. I saw you and my personal colleague and friend, Christina Bulba. Hello. And you, listener. You are listening to the Profit first podcast where we explore every element of profitability. Today we're gonna talk about how celebrities can help make you more profitable. You, you. Something like that.

There you go. Well, listen, you can find us anywhere. You hear podcasts, any podcatcher, IT stitcher, TuneIn radio, Google Play, little shout out for Google Play.

Yeah.

And you can also rate and review our show. And of course our website is profitfirstpodcast.com. i don't know if you've been there lately. There's some new stuff there, I hope. Mike, is there some new stuff there?

Oh, yeah.

Okay, good. All new stuff there and all of our previous episodes there. So if you're one of the. Our maniac listeners who loves to binge listen, you can do it. You can just put on your headphones on a Saturday and go out in the yard and. Or shovel snow, I don't know, cook. You can cook in the kitchen too. Listen to podcasts. Profit first, podcast dot com. And this is the show about profit because revenue is lovely, but profit is.

Oh my God. What ends with an E. I stumped you two weeks in a row. Embarrassing. What were you gonna say? Money, Money, Lovely money. No, it's gotta be a Lee at the end, freely.

Oh, oh.

Oh my gosh. You totally.

Sarah, any help?

Surely.

What's your help, Sarah? Help me out. I'm gonna phone a friend. It's Sarah Shaw.

Yeah, give me the sentence again.

Revenue is lovely, but profit is betterly.

I like that. I'll take it. You win than Sarah. Sean, nicely done.

Go.

Thank you.

Yeah, you won. You won.

It helps when you invent words, right?

Exactly.

Better.

That's why I should have done. Just invented a word, right? So. All right, Sarah, get back in your hole for a second. Chris, what do you been up to? What have you been up to, bro?

Oh, man, it's. It's just winter in Colorado. It's been a little windy. I don't know, something about this year, it's been a little windy. And even my friend who lives in Montana, he texted me, he's like, oh man, he's like, I lived in Montana for many years, but. But this year is a little windy. I think it's something with the jet stream.

Huh.

I don't know. How's that out in New Jersey, Mike?

Oh, it's raining right now.

It's kind of gross.

It's like sheets of rain. But not a pouring rain. It's kind of like a fog rain.

It's like a mist.

A mist.

Premium frizz weather.

Yeah, right. So, Mike, what else you been up to? The life of a best selling business author. What have you been doing?

Yeah, yeah. Here's the life of the best selling business owner. It just happened a few seconds ago before walking into the studio for Christmas, I got one of those remote fart machines. So I came in literally Christmas Day because obviously no one will be here. I implanted it in Ron's desk and there's no way he can see it. But his desk is in the center of the office for the first time. It's gone now. He was having a quick meeting and he ran back to his desk. As he's sitting down, I push it and went. And everyone just looked down and started writing. It was perfect. Dude, I will get two or three weeks out of this puppy.

Yes.

Yeah, I can't wait. During our next break, I think I'll do it again.

I didn't know Jedi's farted, but okay.

I didn't either, but nor did anyone else. They were.

Does their. Does their farts kind of sound like a lightsaber?

It does kill people. Hey, Christina, we got any community shout outs or anything?

Yes, this is a shout out to Ed Chalanor. He said, hey, Mike, I finished your book Profit first. It's really great. We set up our accounts and this month I ran out of money for my marketing. I have a marketing account now. That's my responsibility. Only he's literally running low. And then running out. And forced him to consider new options. He had worked to find a cheaper way optimizing their website to get more conversions. But now he said he does his own UX testing and he has analytics guy to help interpret the data about all their web shizzle. So now he says, I've saved $2,000 a month and it's gone straight to the bottom line. And they took their profit out of their business this month. And because of that, they actually were able to go to Thailand for Christmas to celebrate. So shout out to you, Ed.

Ed. Ed. You nailed it. That's what's supposed to happen. You don't have the money, doesn't mean that you have to borrow the money. You have to find an alternative way. Awesome.

Lovely.

God, lovely.

Better.

Chris, you know who I want to thank?

Our corporate sponsors. You know, we like, if they. If they were. If the companies were actual people, we would just bow down before them and prostrate.

Prostrate.

The right word.

Prostrate. Sarah, is that the right word?

I don't think so.

It is.

You prostrate before the master.

No, I don't. I can't deny it. I can't. I'm right this morning. Yeah, why don't you Google that real quick?

I got it. Lying stretched out on the ground with one's face downward. Prostrate.

I discovered a new word this past week. It was called liminal. Like subliminal, but just liminal. Which means like to be stuck between two states of being. Which I thought actually for pause your life, you could help people through liminality.

You know what? He is correct. To lay oneself flat on the ground face downward, especially in reverence. Or submission.

What does the audience have to say about that? That's awesome, Chris.

Oops.

So let's. I want to thank our corporate partners who make the show a reality. Yes, they are in no particular order except for alphabetical Fundera.

Oh, love them.

Fund box. Oh, nextiva receipt bank. Sorry, I'll try that one again. My receipt bank. There you go. Thank you Barry for stepping up. Zero.

What is happening?

Barry's the best. Now see Barry stepping up and then Barry, your all time favorite pause your life. I think I dozed off or something.

There we go. Corporate.

So listen, at the end of the show we will give you some insights into our corporate partners, the folks that make the show a reality, a possibility and all that stuff. But now it's time to bring on our guest. Her name is Sarah Shaw. Oh, do we have a member shout out to or no.

No.

Okay. I see in my show notes and I don't know. So back in sometime in the late, late late 90s, she, which is 1998 by the way, she developed a very successful line of handbags that were embraced by celebrities. And I think Reese Witherspoon was caught holding her handbag. Well, no surprise. She sold over, sold in over 1200 boutiques. But she also found the formula to making your product, your brand go big through celebrities and become extremely profitable by leveraging celebrities as your marketing arm. We're gonna learn how to do it right now. Sarah, welcome to the show.

Thanks, Mike. So glad to be here with you finally.

Yeah, I mean last time I saw you was in Durango at your house actually.

I know, that was so fun. Come back soon. Soon.

You make killer coffee.

Thank you.

I just want that to be known by.

That's important.

And I met her family, met her brother John. He was awesome. I didn't meet your other other brother that day. No, but it was awesome. Hey, so here's the deal, Leo. Sarah, you've told me that anyone can access celebrities, anyone can get there. I mean, I'm not saying it's easy, but any business can do it. Really? That's my question, by the way.

Yep. Okay, so how, how in a word? Yes. Well, so there's a few different ways. Well, there's kind of one way to actually do it, but you kind of want to think about how the celebrity could help your business. Right. Like if you have a product based company, it's easier to get celebrities involved. And because you know, you see them in People magazine or in Touch or you know, ok. Or whatever celebrity magazine you're looking at In Style. And they're usually carrying a product or wearing clothing or doing something to their kid or something like that. The easiest way to kind of figure it out is you think about the kinds of celebrities that you need on board essentially, to help promote your brand. And then we use a website called contactanyselebrity.com and we look up all of their contact information. We send them a little special letter that we put together and asking their gatekeepers, essentially, the people you got to get through, if we can send the gift to them. Usually they say yes, sometimes they say no. But that's kind of how we get it to them. And then it's really a question of how you promote it and use it to your benefit. That can really help you make the money by getting.

Now, what defines. What defines a celebrity? Just a movie star or how do you define that?

Well, I mean, I think it just depends, you know, on what your field is. I mean, I think most people look at either TV or movie stars or pop singers. Right. You could also look at, you know, like, for me in my consulting business now. Right. For me, people like, who are the Shark tank, are celebrities for me to get, you know, to talk to. So it just depends on what your business is. You know, if you're, you know, if you're in the baby business, you make baby blankets or something. Obviously celebrities for you would be new moms. You know, you don't really care about the rest of the people who don't have kids, you know, or don't have little kids, right. Who can't use your product. So it kind of comes down to distilling who. Who's. What celebrity means to you. It could be politicians, you know, it could be anything. Could be, you know, different kinds of entrepreneurs. Athletes. Yeah, anything.

Okay, so. Okay, so they can be in any category. They have a degree of fame and public recognition. But how do I know the celebrity that I want to work with? You gave a little hint with the mom, but can you give me some more ideas around that?

Well, I think it just depends on your product. Like, let's say you make some kind of sporting clothing, right. You know, so it's going to be a question of is it, you know, or is Venus Williams and her sister, you know, Serena, do you make tennis clothing? Do you make casual, like apres. Apres. Athletic clothing? Right. Do you make ski stuff? You know, are you going to go after Olympic skiers? So it's really a question of kind of distilling down who's going to use your Product. Right. What kind of person? And then really kind of doing some Google searches and seeing, you know, if those people, you know, get photographed. Cause you really, you know, anybody who's super private, you don't really want to bother with, because the chances of them getting photographed wearing or using your product is pretty slim to none. And you. So you want to make sure that these people are out there, you know, whether they're like, you know, walking down the street getting coffee or going to a Christmas tree lot with their kids, or, you know, the paparazzi's out there all the time. So, you know, and obviously at the Olympics or, you know, for an example, if it's a sporting product, sporty product that you have, you know, they're taking pictures of, you know, the Olympians having dinner or walking down the street or just talking, you know, doing interviews with them that are. That are not exactly related to their, you know, the time that they're on camera, you know, competing. So it just. You kind of want to look at the life of the person and see kind of how you can fit into that and. Because the more personal you're letter to them is, you know, I saw you do this. I see you do this in your life. You know, you take your kid to school every day or you're, you know, I see you sitting in the lodge every day at the. At the end of your ski day, you know, doing X, Y or Z. And I think you'd like my product. So finding that connection to them and is, I think, the key to bringing somebody on board.

Now it sounds like this would be oriented toward a physical product, like something I could take a picture of. Yeah, Ugg boots. I remember Brooke Shields.

Oh, the eye cream. Am I thinking someone else? I have no idea what I'm talking about.

The hell are you. What are you talking about?

Is that when they put the hemorrhoid cream under their eyes, someone else.

Never mind. Carry on.

No, Brooke Shields was with Ugg boots, and Ugg exploded when everyone saw Brooke Shields wearing boots.

Right.

But, Sarah, what if you have a service? I mean, can you still leverage a celebrity?

Yeah, totally. I mean, it just depends on what it is, you know, I mean, I've seen, you know, people go to, like, who have a photography business, for example, you know, and you can offer to take free pictures of their family or their kids or, you know, their house or something like that. So, yes, you know, you. I mean, I think it's harder, you know, if it's become something more personal, like, you know, you're a therapist or something and you know, you want to therapy. I'm not really sure that that's going to work, but you know, but you know, other kind of service, probably more arty service based companies, I would, I would guess, you know, to venture just because it's something physical that you can offer them, you know, you're not trying to, you know, get into their head or shrink them or something, which, you know, which I think is going to be quite difficult.

Sarah, I was thinking for pause youe life doing a retreat because we do retreats. Doing a celebrity retreat and invite certain celebrities to come on a retreat.

Totally. Exactly. Something like that. I mean, you know, if the topic was of interest to a certain group of celebrities that you were pitching, then yes, definitely. Or even having a celebrity come and attend, like one celebrity come and talk at your retreat if they have an expertise in whatever the retreat's about.

But isn't that what they do for money?

I mean, well, something like that, yes. You might, you'd probably have to pay them for. Unless you were doing some kind of an exchange where you were teaching them something to further their study of that topic. But like when you're just gifting something, a product, right, Whether it's a photograph or a handbag or a piece of clothing or whatever, then they just take those for free. You don't have to pay them to take it. You can't ask them to, you know, tweet about it and be like, hey, I'll give you this if you put a picture of yourself holding it on Facebook. You know, but you can ask and you can be, you know, polite in your request. You know, hey, if you love this, I'd love, you know, if you like our product, we'd love to send you more. You know, if you feel inclined to tweet or Facebook about it, here's our links, you know, and maybe sticking in some kind of, you know, postcard with a return address stamp, you know, so that if they wanted to send you a note, they could, you know, I kind of, I kind of push things to the edge myself, you know, and not everybody's willing to do that, but I kind of go all out when I want to get somebody. You know, I'm either hounding them by email or phone or, you know, or just sending as much stuff in the package and sending follow up letters and did you like it? Did you get it? Do you want more? You know, even though you say that in the initial package that you send, I like to send follow ups and just Be as aggressive as possible. Just because that's, that's kind of, I find that's how you get it done. And if it's really important and you can see the value, you know, of what that can bring to your business, right. If you're showing your online, you know, your online customers, right? Hey, so and so celebrity has tried our product or is using it or has it, you know, whatever you can say as far as the truth goes, you know, or sending it. If you're, if you have a hard goods product and you're selling wholesale to stores, you know, it's really gives you really speaks to your credibility to be able to say to stores, you know, hey, these four celebrities have our product, you know, and we'll send you a little tear sheet that shows you, you know, has a picture of them with our product on it, you know, and that it sells.

After that initial contact though, like if you're the business or let's say you're offering a service like accounting or bookkeeping and you want to talk to someone like Dave Ramsey or someone who's huge in your specific niche, but you don't, how do you get yourself to stand out? You can reach out to the person, you can tell them, you know, everything that you want and a potential relationship, but how do you make yourself, you know, more appealing than other people who may be contacting them?

I think it's in finding that connection that I was mentioning. You know, like I, I find that when you can make that connection, you know, I, I love this about you, or I, you know, for somebody like Dave Ramsey, it'd probably have to be talking about things that you've seen in his business, you know, that have inspired you or made you want to reach out to him, something that you personally related to in the context of what you've seen. I find that for my own podcast, when I'm looking for celebrities for me to interview, I do the same thing. I find a reason to connect with them. And if I can really drill down that connection, then usually their people say yes.

So why don't we share a little case study maybe? I know you had Venus Williams or. So was it Serena or Venus?

It was Venus.

Yeah, Venus. Maybe she's a good example. But you've got another celebrity. You've done work with so many celebrities. Give me one study that or example that you've done to get a celebrity step by step.

Okay, well, like Barbara Corcoran, for example. I decided I wanted to interview her, of course, just for my particular business. I Have to watch Shark Tank all the time. And, you know, I enjoy it, but I kind of have to. It's homework for me. Right. Because if people in my field are talking about it, I need to know what they're talking about. So I was like, oh, I want to interview her. I love her. And so I actually just went on Facebook and found her page and sent her a Facebook message, because I just thought, well, I'll just start there rather, because I couldn't find a contact on her website. And she literally wrote me back and like five minutes and said. And said, oh, sounds like it could be interesting. But everything goes through my assistant, Gail. You have to email her. Gave me her email address. It took six months for me to book this. I mean, they kept saying no, she was too busy. And I was like, finally I just wrote back. I mean, I literally wrote to her every three weeks. How about now? Do you think she has some time? I don't really care if she's in the car on the way to the airport. I just need to have 20 to 30 minutes with her to do this interview. And, you know, then I kept going on about, you know, how her, you know, she would impact my listeners, how much they could learn from her, you know, how they all watched her on Shark Tank and how, you know, how much I would promote it and all that. Every email had something different. You know, this is how I'm going to promote it now. Oh, I just, you know, interviewed so and so, and now I've got a bigger following and I'm going to promote it this way. And, you know, and finally, you know, I mean, I literally begged. I mean, that's just the way it went. And, you know, and she didn't tell me to stop emailing her. You know, she just kept saying, well, try me next month. Try me next month. And she would never commit to anything, the assistant. And finally, you know, she was like, all right, she can do it Tuesday at 3 or whatever, you know, And I was like, canceled my entire day and just like, got ready for this interview.

Your children's play wasn't that important anyway.

Exactly. Yeah.

They don't need to eat every day.

Right? Exactly. And. And so, yeah, so it's just kind of, you know, it's kind of distilling down the reasons. And I think that because I was a. So persistent, I mean, I just think in general, most people, like the majority of the world, gets one or two no's, and they're like, all right, well, this isn't going to happen for Me, But I just, you know, I kind of grew up working in the film business and got into film right after college, and that was like my first work experience.

And.

And there is no no in the movie business. Everything's a yes. I'll figure out how to do it. And so I had this real on the ground training, you know, in never taking no for an answer and not accepting that and knowing there's always a workaround. And, you know, it's like, until the wall comes down or the person is like, do not ever email me again. I'm going to report you to the. I'm going to have you arrested. You know, I will just keep calling or emailing and just trying to get.

What they do tell you to stop. What if they just do say, hey, stop emailing me. I assume you just respect that and.

Say, of course, totally. Yeah. But until they do, I mean, I just keep going. And I'm not saying email every day. I'm just saying, like, you know, the first few days, I'm like, hey, did you get the email? Just wanted to make sure you got it. You know, and as soon as they say yes, I got it. You know, then I tend to, you know, kind of back off and I'll start going like once a week or twice a week. Gotcha. You know, and if you start calling, you can always call and you don't have to leave a message. Right. So if you have. If you do have the phone connection, you know, don't. Obviously you're not going to. You don't want to stalk anybody. And you know, a. Who has time for that? But. But it's more that continuous contact, you know, Like, I tend to. I keep like a open, you know, Mike, you know, this about me. I'm extremely organized with my Google Mail folders. So I have a folder that's just like open emails that all need to be followed up on. And every Monday I look at it and I see who. Who do I need to follow?

And then I just make a little personal story. So I was visiting Sarah for a speaking engagement out in Durango, and I stayed at her house. I don't know, Sarah, if you realize I snuck onto your laptop, look through those mail folders. One of the folders is labeled Mike's bullshit. Now there's all my stuff in there. Hey, let's go through a little example. Say Christina brought up Dave Ramsey. Say I want Dave Ramsey. What would be amazing if Dave Ramsey endorsed profit first game changer for me. How would you coach me through reaching out to Dave Ramsey.

Well, I'd probably have you list, like, 10 things that you feel like you relate to him about. You know, whether it's, you know, things he's written, talked about, you know, taught, or, you know, something you had, things you admire about him, and then put together a little pitch, you know, just saying, you know, hey, I. I like, maybe we'd pick three or four things, you know, and I just feel that, you know, feel my listeners would really benefit because of X, Y, or Z. Here's our stats, you know, here's other people in your same, you know, celebrity status level. Right. That we've interviewed.

And now let me stop you right there. You said pitch three or four things, meaning pitch a podcast, but maybe pitch also. Would you endorse my book? Or what are the.

I mean, well, it depends what you want him to do if you want him to endorse your book or be on the podcast. Right. So if you want him to, either way, I would pick from this list of 10 things that you write down about why you think he's a good match for you.

Yes.

We'd use maybe three or four of those in the email I see.

To do the pitch. And the pitch is a singular thing. I want him to come on the Grow My accounting practice podcast. Okay.

Exactly. And, you know, and then it's. And then I probably wouldn't ask for two things. You know, I'd probably get him on the podcast or get him to endorse the book, one or the other. And then when you've got him locked down for one of those, then when you're talking to him, just say, you know, hey, I'd love to send you a copy of my book. Or, you know, when you book him, say, I'd love to send you a copy of the book. You know, what's your address? And, you know, and then after, you know, he's read it, hopefully he'll email you and say, hey, I read your book, blah, blah, blah. And then you can, you know, then at that point, you could ask for some kind of endorsement.

Gotcha.

Because you. Because you're building that. You're slowly building that relationship. I just find, like, you know, when I was interviewing, when I wanted to interview Venus Williams, I wanted to interview her because she has a clothing line called 11. And, you know, and I thought, you know, my. My people wouldn't have been interested in just me talking to her about tennis, and I wouldn't have been interested in that, but I wanted to know kind of how she went from being A tennis superstar to, you know, starting a clothing line and a home decor line. And so, you know, I. That's what was interesting to me. I didn't even, you know, so I just went straight to her company, right? I didn't go through her publicists or people who handle her sports part of her life. I went directly to the clothing company and just asked them, you know, how do I get in touch with her? And, you know, this is. And, you know, they're like, well, just send the email here and we'll get it to the right person. You know, so I had a gatekeeper for a gatekeeper, you know, and so sometimes you have to go through multiple levels to find people. And it was like, as they're asking, they don't always read your whole email. So you have to be prepared that you're just like, wait a minute, you're asking me a question that I already answered. You're thinking that to yourself, obviously. And then you're like, okay. And then you're reiterating, maybe in a different way, because the way you said it clearly didn't ring a bell for them. So you kind of change the wording around, and then you add something else. Like, I said, oh, hey, if I do this, I'd be happy to offer a coupon discount to my readers if you're into something like that. And they were like, oh, yeah, that's awesome. We totally want to do that.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

So it's. So you kind of have to think for them. And I really find, like, especially anyone listening who sells their products into stores or anything, People always think, oh, well, store buyers, they've got a big store, the successful store. They must know everything, right? But they don't. They don't know how to sell your product, right? So you have to find ways to show people how to use your product. I don't care if you're pitching a store, pitching a celebrity, pitching, you know, somebody from Elle magazine, right? These editors don't. They're not trained in how to use your product or talk about your service or anything. So you have to show them what the benefits are. And even if you think yourself, God, you know, any dumb dumb should just be able to realize this. It's kind of the same. Like, you go to a website and you're like, oh, my God, I heard this was so cool.

And.

But then you get there and the website's so lame. You're trying to figure out, like, how your friend even figured out it was cool, right? And you're digging and digging, and you spend 10 minutes, and you're just like, forget it. I can't even deal with this. You know what I mean? So you don't. You want to avoid that when you contact people? You want to be kind of extra. You want to explain a little bit more than you would if you were sitting face to face with somebody.

Now, you mentioned the site, contact any celebrity. What are the resources that you suggest to identify or find celebrities out there and how to contact them? Is that the only source?

Yeah, that's. Well, it's the only one we use. They have the largest database in the country. And what's really cool about them, it's Jordan McCauley, owns it, and he's just a really sweet guy. And they guarantee all their contacts. So if you should contact, send an email and it bounces back. Or, you know, you get the email saying, they don't work there anymore. You can just forward that to him and say, I need the updated contact, and he'll get that for you and let you know that it's been updated in the system. And also, equally, if you send something, you know, if you don't, you know, some people don't do the initial contacting. They just, like, get on there and are like, I'm just going to send this to, you know, Joe Schmo, and it comes back to you as, you know, undeliverable or whatever. He'll reimburse you for the postage.

Okay, so it's a paid service, this contact, but you also said Barbara Corcoran, you found her on Facebook. I mean, it sounds like there's alternative means, too.

Yeah, I mean, you can go to people's websites, right? When I interviewed Marcus Lemonis, I just went straight to his website and hit the contact us button, and he came.

On one, two, three. Huh?

Yeah. That wasn't too hard. That took maybe four or five weeks to schedule.

Wow, that's amazing.

And, you know, so. And it's also, you know, kind of doing that you kind of put your detective hat on, essentially, you know, and you really have to kind of be willing to sort of go down the rabbit hole, you know, and sometimes if you just Google so and so's contact information, you can get that. You know, it'll come up maybe from an old listing, but contact any celebrity is pretty inexpensive. I think it's $30 a month, so. And, you know, not. Not a big deal.

Before we wrap up, tell us, like, kind of the things to avoid when trying to get a celebrity to endorse you.

Well, you never want to use that word.

Let me see.

Number one, endorse me.

Yeah.

Because endorse insinuates that you're going to pay them.

Okay, I didn't.

Yeah. So you want to make sure that when you, if you have any, if you're soliciting essentially a celebrity to either take your product as a gift or your service as a gift, then you want to just make sure you say, I want to gift you this. And if anybody goes to my homepage on my site, we actually have our pop up offers. A free letter example. So you can get our template and an example of a letter that we use to get products to Sandra Bullock. And you can get those for free. So you can check it out and see how we draft our letters to celebrities.

So we will not include that in the show notes and we won't let Sarah mention it. We'll just let people. How the hell do I get that? So, yeah, at the end we want to know where to get that and then let's make sure we put that in the show notes.

Of course.

Okay. What else to avoid?

So, you know, kind of over, you know, overstocking people. You want, you want to, you know, you want to do the reach out and then kind of think about, you know, put yourself in their shoes and know that they probably get a thousand or two thousand emails a day, you know, and, and I kind of keep it simple, like make sure that the subject line, like if you're sending a gift, you know, always says, you know, a gift for celebrity name. And that way you're telling them exactly what it is because they might not want to read that email till 5 o' clock. You know, they might reserve time during the day to look at that kind of stuff. So I think we find that we get better responses when we kind of stick to those guidelines. And the other thing is just the main thing is to really make sure that you have a solid connection that you're not just like, oh, I love Brad Pitt and I want to get him something. I'm your biggest fan. Yeah. And that a, you want to see if your customer cares about the person. Right. Because if some celebrity having your product isn't going to be a draw for your customer, then heave ho to that celebrity. You can be a fan in your personal life, but not in your business. And then also making sure that the connection that you're finding is real for both, you know, for you. So that you're, you know, because I think your letter is going to be more genuine if you're speaking from, you know, a place of truth, love it.

All right, Sarah. Yeah, Chris, you have something?

Actually, Mike, I have a question about profit. Sarah, I have been podcasting and producing podcasts for many years, and a lot of times a podcaster will land a big interview with a. I won't say a list celebrity, but a bigger person with a much bigger audience. Right. And. And as a podcaster, you think, oh, I'm going to have like. Like, for me, on my mystic show, I interviewed Bruce Lipton. He's a author, you know, very popular founder of Ice T. He, you know, big following online, everything. And. And so people think, oh, when I have this guy on my show, my. My listenership is going to go way up. And the reality is it really doesn't because the celebrity doesn't share your show. So my question to you is getting. Talking to celebrities and getting them to wear your product or use it. That sounds good, but in the end, how often is it really profitable for that?

Okay, well, I'll go back to the products first, just because those can easily show up in magazines. You know, I mean, when I've had products in magazines, I've made $150,000 from one picture in a magazine before. So, you know, in one of my companies, Jennifer Aniston, I was making pajamas for a while, and we got her pajamas, and they just did a little blurb about it. Obviously, there wasn't even a picture of her wearing the pajamas, but it was right before Christmas, like November issue, and we made $150,000 in sales the next Christmas.

In a short period, too. That was just a couple weeks.

Six weeks.

Six weeks, yeah.

And, you know, and I've had clients, you know, who got stuff to Angelina Jolie's kids and never heard a word. And then nine months later, it showed up in People in touch. Okay, and InStyle magazine or something, and she made about 50,000 in one weekend off of one T shirt. And so it can really expand your business. And I totally understand what you're saying about how if you have somebody famous on a podcast, that they don't necessarily help you promote it. And I think that maybe it's a document that you have, like when you send out. Here's how you get on our podcast. Like the thing you guys sent me. Right. You could even put in there. And obviously, we'd love for you to help promote it. We'll be sure to let you know when it posts, and then when it posts, sending them, because I'm just starting to do this myself. So sending them a link to the recording, because obviously you do that. But then also like pre written tweets and Facebook posts that they can put on there really easily or their team can do that. Nobody has to think about it. And maybe some images or things that would go along with it and really just kind of staying in touch with those people and making sure that they actually do say something and then posting it on, obviously sharing it and posting it on their social media pages. And then I find often when I post it on their page that they'll comment on it. You know, like Venus. They reposted it, actually when I tagged them on their page and drove a lot of traffic. You know, people listening to my interview with her.

Boom, boom.

Yeah, that's good. I mean, I guess the reason I'm asking is because, Mike, you're always saying that, you know, don't, in your business, don't go do speculative things or crazy things. And I'm not saying this is crazy, because it's definitely not. But, you know, the major successes you've had are certainly to some degree an anomaly. And most people, I think like the average listener, the plumber who's listening to this show, who is now going to maybe dedicate a few hours a week to trying to get a celebrity, most likely is not going to have any results from it. Mike. So would you, would you recommend a business try and do this? Mike?

Yeah. So what I believe is whatever's working, amplify it, do more of it. But I think we always need to dabble in new opportunity. So if there's a slight, like, like can you imagine Michael Rowe, you know, about talking about plumbing? That's the kind of person you do want representing you. So I think it is worth an effort. But I think the mistake people make is they go all in on something that's not proven and then it fails and then they're in real trouble. I would try it out for sure, but I wouldn't devote time to it until you have a proven track record. Sarah did this over. If you read her whole bio, which we don't have enough hours to do that whole bio. It's like success after success, you know, being an Oprah people, all these different celebrities. She just mentioned a few of them. Katie Holmes, all these different celebrities, because she knows this process works for her and it's brought tremendous results. So I would, I would test it. I would test it. But think it through. Don't just say, oh, I want, you know, whoever the big name is, and Barack Obama. Barack Obama. Yeah.

And the other thing too that is. Can be really cool is if you get certain celebrities sometimes. Like if you want bloggers to write about you or you want to be included in, you know, like the blog roundup for your field for that year. Right. Like, you know, everybody does, like, you know, the best of, you know, having some celebrities on board can sometimes tip those people in your direction and they'll want to include you in those roundups and those can be. That can end up being profitable. You know, even if it's six or nine months down the road, you're still doing. It's like a slow build.

Yeah, yeah. Long term play. All right, we gotta wrap things up here. Sarah, where can people get that awesome templated letter you have and all that stuff about you?

Yeah, just go to my website@sarashawconsulting.com and it will pop up for you. And you can just subscribe to that and we'll send it. It'll get sent right out.

So there you have it. Sarashawconsulting.com we'll include that in the show notes too. And next time you're in Durango, look for the house surrounded by celebrities trying to get in Sarah's house. Sarah, thanks for coming on.

Thanks for having me.

I will see you.

That's right. Bill Murray was spotted in Durango in camouflage.

Yeah, I know.

We don't know why.

That isn't right. He's more of a drunk. Voices are more like. Yeah, it's about 150 yards or show. That's a little bit better. All right. Hey, Chris. In a second, man. We are going to recap what we learned from Sarah, all three of us. So be ready. First, I want to thank our corporate partners who make the show a reality.

Yes.

Okay, so we're going to say their names again and then we'll dig into one of them a little bit deeper. So Fundera 1, stop shopping for loans. Fund box, cash flow accelerator, Nextiva, which is a voiceover IP phone system receipt bank, which is a organizer for your receipts. You can scan them into your phone. And then Xero, that's the one I want to dig into a little bit. Xero is cloud accounting software and it's what we've used here for the last couple years. You do our invoicing through it and, you know, it has an automatic collections feature, meaning when we send out an invoice, it sends out reminders and so forth. Some checks came in, they said, oh, thanks for the reminder. I forgot they emailed me. I Said, oh, our pleasure. I was gonna go. Thank you for sending a reminder. And they saw the system did automatically.

I'll take it. Thank you.

Yeah, you'll take.

And then last but certainly not least is pause your life Chris.

Yes, that's. My wife and I have an organization called pause your life. It's a non profit. We do retreats and meetups, websites. Pause your life dot org. Just go check it out. There's a lot there. It's really cool stuff. Yeah, cool way to.

Yeah.

Oh, and like I said, mentioned to you last episode, I think, Mike, I want to talk to you offline about a. An entrepreneurs retreat.

Now you're.

I have. I have sick ideas. It's gonna be awesome.

Anyway, dude, now you're cooking with gas, because if anyone needs it, it's entrepreneurs. Oh, dude, gas. During the break, I'm gonna zap around again.

Chris, you know what we need? I just thought, Mike, we need to get you like a wireless handheld mic so you can go roving around your office.

We have one now live on a podcast now.

Yeah, yeah, we got a lavalier. I wonder if I can kind of walk around, just be tremendous. Chris, what'd you learn from Sarah today?

Well, I learned a lot, actually. I really appreciated everything she had to say because she's clearly doing it at a very high level and it. The whole concept of contacting celebrities is not something the average person thinks about. Right. Joe the plumber is like, oh, what am I gonna do? Come on. But it is possible if you, if you get a little creative. I like the whole idea of making a real connection with the people. You have to bond with them and, and, and have some commonality there and a real reason for contacting them, not just, hey, I want to hawk my crap right? Kind of thing. So.

Yeah, I like that. What'd you learn, Christina?

I mean, I think it applies to a lot of things in life, but to, to really be persistent and don't always take no for an answer unless they flat out, you know, tell you I'm not. But, you know, if they show interest and, and you know, people are busy or sometimes they miss things, you really just have to be persistent. And each time you contact them, you keep it short and sweet and you offer new information. So you're not just a broken record. I think that's huge.

Right? You're not sending the same email over and over. Yeah, you know, I get these scripted emails where someone will write to me, write something, and then two days later, it's like, did you miss my Email. No, I don't want to read your email. And then they leave. It's persistence, but it's. It's. It's truly specific to that person. What I learned was there's many access points to celebrities. It's not just through their agent, you know, through Facebook, through this contacting celebrity site, and these other things. And then the one I got zapped on was, don't use the word endorse. That's so funny. That was a big learning lesson for me. So I will never ask for that again because now I know what that constitutes. That's what I got, Chris.

There you go. So good learning. And by the way, you're listening to this right now. You. Yes, you. You're listening, and we know you're listening. We want to know what you learn. Go to profitfirstpodcast.com find this episode. What is it? 134. Yes, 134. Profitfirstpodcast.com comment on this post and tell us what you learned. And you can even ask a question to Sarah or Mike and they'll answer you. I promise. I promise I'll stand by it as well. Good.

There you go.

So that's it for today. Thank you for listening. We're gonna exit, and Mike's gonna tell you about Profit First Professionals. Because, you know, being profitable. I love the equation, Mike, that you often say profitability equals sustainability. And, like, how many. How many businesses go out of business? Like 83% or something stupid.

Yeah. Within five years.

It's.

It's ridiculous.

So let me tell you something about that statistic, and then I'll. I'll go into my little commercial. Let me tell you about that statistic. 83% of businesses, whatever, go out of business within five years. They are the lucky ones, Chris. At least they're done. The survivors. The survivors are barely getting by. And there's some businesses that survive 10, 20 years and never make a profit. They're.

They're scary.

They say you make more money working minimum wage than you do if you own a retail store. On average average. The average retail store owner makes less than minimum wage. Works Ridiculous. Yes, I know, Barry. I know.

God.

We can turn this around. We can turn around for you right here, right now. And it. What's that? Is that. What's that? Oh, that's from GMAT.

Today. Maybe I threw you off right here.

The toy through me. Oh, I didn't know that was Dark Vader.

Yeah.

Oh, that's awesome. So Profit First Professionals. We're gonna turn around your business right now. Go to profit first professionals dot com. Click on the find button, and we will hook you up with a profit first professional. An expert just like Sarah, someone who knows your industry inside now knows how to drive profitability in your business. They will help you through the profit first method. They'll drive profit first in your business. And you won't be a statistic. You'll be wealthy and healthy, baby. So do it now. Profitfirstprofessionals.com Click on find, fill out the form, and we'll take care of the rest.

That's it. And you need an accountant or a bookkeeper anyway. Why not have one that's got your back in terms of profit? Think about that. What if. What if there's a accountant or. And. Or bookkeeper who makes your company more profitable, much more profitable. Then you guys go out to dinner and have some nice dinner together and be like, dude, profit. Thank you. All right, well, thanks for listening, everybody. Profitfirstpodcast.com thanks again to our guest, Sarah Shaw, and thanks to you, Mike and Christina and everyone over there in the background, including the Hawaiian lumberjack Obi Ron Kenobi and your new Lavalier microphone. All right, we'll see you all next week.

Let's do a fireball. I keep hitting broad. Until you laugh.

Until I laugh.

Yeah.

Yeah. I was, like, looking.

Let's get out of here.

Yeah, let's get fireball in here. Unexpected.

Awesome. Great job, Sarah.

It.