Stardust: How to Make the Fame Economy Work for You (with Forbes Senior Editor Zack O’Malley Greenburg)

Audio Transcription

Speaker 1:
Imagine just for a second, what would it be like to be the man responsible for interviewing some of the world’s most influential artists, entertainers and personalities. People like Kanye West. In fact, picture this reality. The guy inside the studio today, Zack O’Malley, Greenburg has actually interviewed Kanye West for Forbes.

Speaker 2:
Tell me a little bit about the creative process where you designed one of these to start with a sketch. Start with a vintage reference. It gets start with a previous shoe that we created that we’re making a newer version on. You know, feelings of films and experiences that I grew up with a Kira, the movie Akira. My mom took me to see a cure when I was really young and the shapes and the color palettes and the general mood of the film had always been a big inspiration for easy and going to auto shows. And my dad, you know, the first time I saw a white Lamborghini Coon Tosh in real life, and I remember the guy said, I couldn’t even touch the car and I was obsessed with this car as a trailer. You know, is there any shoe that that gun Tash is a, you know, kind of representative. There’s a little bit of Lamborghini and everything. I do. All right, so he is the Lamborghini of shoes.

Speaker 1:
Well on today’s show, the senior editor for Forbes magazine and the man who has personally interviewed Justin Bieber.

Speaker 3:
I want to be a billionaire, so, so bad by all the things I knew I had. I want to be on the cover of Forbes magazine. There you go.

Speaker 1:
The guest on today’s show has interviewed Katie Perry and Ashton Kutcher and countless celebrity names that you would know join us to share about Stardust. How to make the fame economy work for you and your business. That’s right. You know it and I know it. We live in a world that is celebrity crazy where famous people somehow have an impact on what kind of beverages we drink, not trail. I just love Michael Jordan and I love Gander right? Independently. We’re famous. People somehow have an impact over what kind of underwear we wear. As an AFA. I’m a devil. I dislike Haynes and Michael Jordan. I can both at the same time where famous people somehow have an influence over what kind of shoes we wear. A K a Kanye West. And on today’s interview, Zack O’Malley, Greenburg drops knowledge bombs that you need to know to make your small business grow. Using a principle he calls Stardust how to make the fame economy work for you. So get out a pen and a pad and get ready to enter into the dojo of mojo photo. It’s our interview with Zack O’Malley green.

Speaker 4:
Get ready to thrive time show

Speaker 5:
from the bottom. Now we’re on the top, top knew the systems to get what we got. Come Dixon’s on the hooks, opportune the books for T’s Brigitte’s of wisdom and the caloric book as the father of five that’s what I’m a dive. So if you see my woman kids, please tell them how it’s a seat and seat upon your great D O and now three, two, one. Here we go.

Speaker 4:
Yes, yes, yes, yes, dr Z. We are going to have some eggs

Speaker 1:
to see it today. I can tell you what, it’s going to be an incredible show, dude. It’s, it’s kind of the next level is what we’re going to talk about today is, is about this, this, this idea of star dust, how you can make the fame economy work for you and to talk about something so incredible. Something so a mindblowing. Why don’t we have the author of a list? Angel’s the, the senior editor at Forbes. Inside the man. We can’t do this kind of topic without having the senior editor from Forbes inside the man-cave here. Yeah. Let’s just wharfie him in here. Can we do that and do we have the, we have the technical, let me hit the wart button. Hit the button. There’s a, I think he’s in New York somewhere. Oh, Zack O’Malley. Welcome into the man cow. How did I get here? This is, you’re a first time in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I believe. Run is indeed. And you told me you’d been to Oklahoma one other time to interview Toby Keith for a Forbes cover story to interview Toby Keith for the Forbes cover story. And how did, did you, did you fly commercial? Did you fly private and tell us about this, uh, w how did you get to Oklahoma? Yeah, I flew,

Zack O’Malley Greenburg:
uh, you know, commercial down to Houston and I interviewed Toby Keith after his Houston livestock and rodeo performance, uh, on his jet

Speaker 1:
back to Oklahoma. Really? Yeah. So what kind of questions you asked Toby Keith in that interview. I mean, like you’re down there. What, what, what was the move, what was the angle? Um, I mean, cause you’re representing Forbes kind of a business magazine. So was it just the business of being a country singer or was it something else he had cooking? Yeah, no,

Zack O’Malley Greenburg:
and it was all about the business. Uh, particularly Toby Keith at that time. I think people didn’t really realize the businessman, you know, under the cowboy hat. And um, you know, in many ways, very similar to, to what JC was doing, uh, in terms of extensions of his brand. Right. So it wasn’t just the music, it wasn’t just the merge, it was the mezcal line. It was the restaurants, it was, you know, the record label, all this other stuff. He even owned a piece of the record label that Taylor Swift was on. Um, because I think it was some transaction involving, um, you know, he let them use a, a building that he owned and so he got a piece of the company. So, you know, kind of digging into Toby, Keith, the businessman, and um, you know, what, uh, you know, kind of a little different than you might think. Yeah.

Speaker 1:
Touch on his thoroughbred horse racing empire dream walking farms or

Speaker 7:
did you even touch on that? I think there might’ve been just a little throw in about that because that’s, we overlap with that. We’re a small fraternity of guys that raise and raise thoroughbreds. And so since we’re both in Oklahoma, we kind of overlap a little bit on that and compete, compete with one another every now and then. But uh, yeah, he’s a great guy, nice guy. So I didn’t know if I didn’t, if that business had come up, it’s probably not a very profitable one for grapes.

Speaker 1:
I’d like to tie him in. I’m on this. We have a little bit of a thoroughbred. Have a guest on the, on the line here too. Matt Klein, Matt Klein. How are you sir?

Speaker 8:
I am doing awesome. How are you?

Speaker 1:
Well, I’m not doing as well as you look beautiful. You know what I mean? You’re just always looking at males. Good.

Speaker 8:
That is a federal bread, but I’m taking

Speaker 1:
right now. So, but Matt, you are the all time a, you did set the record for the score and the most points, uh, per game in your high school basketball career, right? During your senior season. Am I correct?

Speaker 8:
They’re neck and neck with another gentleman named Nick the deacon.

Speaker 1:
How many points per game? How many points per game did you get? 29. How tall are you? Yeah, that’s great. Okay, so we’re going to talk about today is this idea of how celebrity and the fame economy can work for your business. Okay, so we’re going to go around, we’re going to go around the horn here. We all got fun stories. I’m going to start with you guys at Oxy fresh. Um, Oxy fresh has been featured on Fox business before as being the world’s greenest carpet cleaner. You guys have appeared in entrepreneur magazine and countless other publications. How does that help sell more carpet cleaning to the average consumer man? How could that possibly help?

Speaker 8:
Yeah, so you know, having brand notoriety is important. When someone looks at a company and they’re trying to figure out what the best company they could possibly use for them in their home and their family. Um, they want to know that this company didn’t just start yesterday and there’s nothing wrong with starting from scratch, but as you get older, as a company, you start to develop relationships. You start to get some brand notoriety, you start to do things outside the norm in your industry that deserves some attention. You, you need to be able to give that to your customer so they feel comfortable. It’s just like a Google review, right? You’re going to feel a lot better if a customer, like a company has a hundred Google reviews compared to zero, right? It’s validated by the public and validated by friends and family. This is validation by outside sources that have nothing to do with you’re making profits. They’re saying this company’s good and this company has done the things that are set apart and we want to write about that because they’re changing things. And you can do that for your company. When you go through those problems and trying to figure out how to get to that point, we’re not problems, but you go through the process of getting there. You should absolutely get that to your customers. And PR is a great way to do that.

Speaker 1:
You know, uh, John Barnett appeared on the Fox news as I mentioned earlier. Is he, could I play? Is he, are you okay if I, if I play the audio clip of JB John Barnett on a Fox, we’ll queue it up here. Go into the camera here.

Speaker 9:
You studied this in school, but you also used to work for a carpet cleaning service and you realized that you could do it more environmentally. Yeah,

Speaker 1:
I mean, I grew up watching my grandpa being entrepreneur and he always inspired me. I remember him starting businesses and always, um, starting, sorry. And stuff. I want to be like that. I cleaned carpet growing up and in grad school to study Z. Why is that

Speaker 9:
the CEO one business war. This, this work link, one back going green. Can your small business profit by turning ecofriendly we’re going to talk with the CEO of one business who says it is working for him. That is add on Fox business giving you the power.

Speaker 1:
See, why does this work? Why does it work? When you take a brand and you sprinkle a little celebrity Stardust on it, why does it increase sales? Why does it [inaudible]

Speaker 7:
work? Well it works because people for whatever reason, they buy magazines, they they ride, they read stories. They, they, they go to their concerts. They, people that have started and we just hold above and beyond the normal people. I mean they have just this swag about them that people want to buy the magazines when they’re checking out to read about their lives. I mean, who, I mean really, I mean where are they vacation last time or worth what kids, I mean does it really matter? But it matters to a lot of people. And so the idea that you could take some of that and they can share a little bit swag with you. That’s what they’re doing. And giving you a little, little bit sweat that swag and you know, you don’t take it to keep it for very long. It’s like

Speaker 1:
no with you where you’re displaying your calf muscle.

Speaker 7:
Very similar, very believable, very, very, very similar. Um, but I think that’s what happens. It’s that it’s that, uh, it’s that factor that you want. And I know I’ve been into a lot of restaurants and lot of things where the owner will get pictures with famous people that have been in there and, and you can’t help but look at the wall and you can’t help it walking down the wall and look at it and go, Oh, I know that. I know that. That’s, Oh my gosh, that’s Ronald Schwartz hanger. That’s who, that’s this, that’s that. And it just, it elevates his status in your mind just a little bit.

Speaker 1:
Well, this right here, I have it in my hands here. A Kindle, a copied early edition of a list. Angels. How a band of actors, artists and athletes hacked silicone Valley here by Zack O’Malley, Greenburg here. And in this book you talk about a Zack, a lot of things, but one of them is how 50 cent was able to make a nine figure windfall from the vitamin water. Uh, tell, tell us this story. Tell us how this happened because I think people don’t realize the story behind the story and that’s why I love your writing. You get into the details. Tell us about the vitamin water story.

Zack O’Malley Greenburg:
Yeah, that was the deal that kind of touched off, you know, all these celebrity ownership endorsement kind of deals that have been happening over the past decade or so. Um, and this was a, in the mid [inaudible] 50 cent, it was approached by, um, vitamin water, little company out of Queens, and they wanted him to create this, you know, formula 50, you know, great flavored beverage. And, um, and they said, well, you know, we don’t really have a lot of money because we’re, you know, we’re a start up beverage company, blah, blah, blah. And he said, that’s fine. I’m going to bet on myself. He said, so, so you pay me predominantly in equity and I’m going to work extra hard for you. Uh, you know, bringing my brand to it. Sure enough, he did a few years later, his parents, uh, it was vitamin water got sold, its parent company got bought by Coke-Cola for over $4 billion.

Zack O’Malley Greenburg:
50 cent, walked away with $100 million or so. Uh, and Ashton Kutcher, when I interviewed him for the Forbes cover story in 2016 he said, he said, wait a minute. You know, I’ve been doing everything wrong. I just did a cash deal for, you know, an endorsement. I gotta be getting that equity. And so kind kinda touched off this process of him going around Silicon Valley and you know, and saying, Hey, let me, let me work with you. Like, let me get in on that. You know, we’ll create a situation where either you give me the equity or you know, I invest a little bit and you allow me to get in early before these other investors, but with a much smaller check size, then, you know, a big firm coming in might be doing. And that was really the blueprint for what a lot of these entertainers had been doing over the past decade or so. Taking equity instead of cash and for their endorsements. And then getting, you know, this kind of longterm generational wealth, uh, you know, years down the line.

Speaker 1:
So in your book, you talk about so many celebrities that have really leveraged their celebrity to get in on some of these deals. And you also talk about how a lot of these celebrities are getting smarter, as you mentioned, where they’re actually saying, no, no, I don’t want just an endorsement deal. I want equity. Could you tell us a little bit about the Shaquille O’Neal deal? Could you tell us about the Shaquille O’Neal and Google deals? Is that something we can share?

Zack O’Malley Greenburg:
Uh, yeah. Well this is kind of, you know, this is a little nugget from my book. Yeah. You know, Shaq was actually somebody who was doing the 50 cent model before 50 cent. So, um, in the, in the 90s, I think it was mid, mid to late nineties, before the Google IPO, he encountered this kid at a restaurant. And, um, I think the kid asked him for his autograph or something like that and, and uh, one thing led to another and the kid’s dad came over and he happened to be one of the early backers of Google. And, um, you know, this resulted in shack investing in Google before it went public shack was like, I know what Google is. This seems like a good business. I’ve got an opportunity to invest here, I’m going to do it. Uh, and Shaq has replicated that model. He also got an early on vitamin water.

Zack O’Malley Greenburg:
He got an early on lift. He’s gotten in early on on a whole bunch of different startups. And you know, if you watch TV, you see him doing other kinds of endorsement deals as well. Um, but, but Shaq figured out that, Hey, you know, I can use this equity that I built in my brand, uh, in my playing days, transfer it into equity in, you know, some of these long lasting companies. Um, and, and find a way to, you know, to, to give myself, I’m a very like, is a very big cushion, uh, post basketball and that’s exactly what it’s been doing.

Speaker 1:
You know, uh, I’ve got a little audio clip here. I wanna I want to play here. Uh, this is, um, Josh a Z Josh with living water irrigation here. Um, this man bought eight billboards or we declare his love for his beautiful wife and ended up getting on the, uh, Kelly Clarkson show. Uh, you were on the today show. How has that impacted you when you, when you put the eight billboards up, how has it impacted you? Have you, have you ever, uh, I had somebody that, uh, has chosen to do business with you or a set of kind word to you as a result of that. Have you had positive impact or are people outrage? What kind of feedback you had since you had a little, a little star dust to your busy.

Speaker 10:
Yes, we had a, uh, 15 seconds or 15 minutes of fame there, however you want to term it. And uh, yeah, Kelly Clarkson, good morning America today show all kinds of print and all kinds of stuff. Um, so the response has been amazing. We were getting zero return off the billboards and when we did that a message to my life, it turned out great for me at home. And then also I just, as soon as yesterday I had a

Speaker 7:
Oh wow. Well at home say hiking my billboard. Oh wow.

Speaker 10:
Well, I don’t know. I don’t know. That’s how I termed at Z. I think it was something about, well nevermind, we’ll talk about that off air. Back to you sir. So, uh, yeah, just as soon as I, yesterday as a matter of fact, we went, did an install for a customer yesterday and I went over to do the demo and talking and walking them through it and getting payment and he said, Hey man, I read a story that was like, Oh yeah. I was like, what’s that? He said a nice move on the billboards buddy. [inaudible] and I said, Oh fantastic. And that was, you know, and the story’s been quite a few months ago and it’s still getting traction. We still get comments on it from time to time and, and it, uh, it worked out very well.

Speaker 1:
Play this real quick. It kinda, let me share this audio. This is the today show. This is a Joshua Wilson out here. The today show.

Speaker 9:
Yes. So far stories normal. Well, I guess it wasn’t bringing in any revenue, so we changed the messaging on the boards to write love messages to his wife running through your head, ran through all of ours. What did you do dude? So we were a little skeptical, but when you actually hear him, I think he sounds legit. Take a look.

Speaker 10:
I decided I wanted to tell the world and tell my wife how much I loved her. Everybody, she tolerates me and lets me build this little company and lets us have fun and, and so, uh, it’s the least I can do is to tell her I love her.

Speaker 1:
So it has earned you some Goodwill? Oh, absolutely. See, back in the day with your optometry clinic, you had a lot of FM radio DJs. I know when I came to college at oral Roberts university in 1999, it seemed like a lot of the FMD DJs, um, that occasionally they would allow me to fill in for them when the late night gigs, these guys were rocking dr Robert zoner glasses.

Speaker 7:
Oh yeah. I mean that was kind of the move. I get the endorsement. I mean, the way I figured people let them into their cars in their lives, you know, 24, seven. I feel like they know them. They, you know, Walter Cronkite had the, I mean, he was probably the last one that everybody, what he said was like the Bible, you know, it was like the word, you know, I mean, everybody listened around the TV, set, the radio set, listen to him. I think studies show that he was like, you know, he was the height of, of journalism and that believability and the news now, now it’s gone from there to who knows, who knows what, who knows what’s truth and what’s not. And I mean, at some point it’s just almost like a, like those magazines, you get the end of the counter, right? It’s like, well, I really, you know, are, are Martians really landing on the earth, you know. Um, but, uh, I think, I think what happens is, is that one of the moves in advertising is to, is to find someone some credibility. Find someone already has an audience, find the parade and just get in front of it. And that’s what I always did. And that’s the moves that I, and that’s

Speaker 1:
the movie that we talk about to, you know, in our business building, um, network of thrive step is that one of the moves you do is you find someone who has some believability already has some of that fame and you get a little bit there started as, as you’re saying today. I like, I like that term by the way. I love to start. I didn’t coin it. This is a all Zack love. I love to start it. You do a talk on this, right? So people out there who are listening that are looking to hire a speaker, you come in and talk about the star dust. What is your talk typically cover there? There’s Zack.

Zack O’Malley Greenburg:
Sure. Yeah. It’s called Stardust. How to make the fame economy work for you. And um, and it does exactly that. It kinda goes through my experience, uh, you know, over the past decade, um, interviewing a lot of these people and, you know, trying to figure out what are the tricks that somebody like DD uses, um, to, you know, to, to build his businesses, to, to bring in customers. And you might think like, well, I’m not a, you know, sent a million Nair rapper, you know, how can I possibly, you know, what am I going to get out of this? But, but in fact, you know, going from the very early days of his career, uh, when he had his paper route as a kid, you know, he, he wouldn’t throw the paper Willy nilly into the yard. He would go up and put it in between the storm door and the front door and then his customers would know, okay, well he, you know, he gave me this extra amount of effort and paid that attention to detail.

Zack O’Malley Greenburg:
Um, and, and that kind of attitude, that kind of business practice has followed him all the way up to where he is today. So, you know, one of his big ventures is Ciroc vodka. So he’ll go in, he’ll go into bars and clubs and he sees that Ciroc vodka and it’s anywhere other than the top shelf. He’ll be like, Hey bartender, why is that not on the top shelf? And of course they put it on the top shelf. And so, you know, even down to that little detail, even today, you know, he does stuff like that. So, you know, I think that’s just one of those little nuggets that, um, that, that people might not realize they can pull out of the life of the career journey. Somebody like Diddy, um, you know, even for the average entrepreneur.

Speaker 1:
So if you’re out there today and you say, what am I supposed to do with this information? Now I’ve got three action steps here for you. One is look for a celebrity endorsement. If you can’t, I mean, think about this. Um, XE, the fajita express, a lot of people don’t talk about the fajita express, but the George Foreman lean mean grill machine. We all know that name, right? And the inventor of that fajita express wandered in the wilderness for years until he hooked up with George Foreman. It can we get Matt Klein to do like, I mean, he’s a celebrity, right? I mean, yeah. How much does that cost man, go and rate Matt? Because I mean, you know, you’re kind of, you’re kind of a big deal. People don’t like low, your star does eat a burrito. Okay, so I buy you Chipolte lay man. I can get like a 15 second living water irrigation endorsement

Zack O’Malley Greenburg:
like for a Chipotle. A burrito. Hmm.

Speaker 1:
Oh there we go. Airs the magic touch. So action step number one, I would encourage you, if you’re out there today, try to secure a celebrity endorsement if you can. Now, if you can’t or if you choose not to move number two is try to get featured in media. Matt, you guys at Oxy fresh have invested in PR over the years and if somebody buys them an Oxy fresh franchise, they get that PR, they get that Goodwill, they get that branding. Again, why is, why is PR so helpful for the local franchisees who are competing against unbranded local carpet cleaning companies?

Speaker 8:
Yeah, I mean again, local PR is great because as marketing continues to kind of shift away from huge national, at least in the service industry, national huge companies, they really want to know who’s the best company in their backyard and looking at local publications. All those are really great because if you look at all the media platforms out there and social media or whether it’s magazines, I would strive to be in front of every customer that I possibly can. And if you’re just talking about PR, um, and you’re talking about ability to get in front of customers that could potentially use your service, the more exposure you can get, the more abilities and the more potential. And customers are gonna use you, especially if they can see you in a variety of different platforms. If someone sees you online and they search and they also see you in a publication and they also go online and look at carpet cleaners, green carpet means they show up, right? You’re just validating your business more and more and more by being in a variety of different publications that are talking good about your company. That’s only going to help you grow.

Speaker 1:
Uh, Zach, we have time of re to share. I think one, one quick story before we interview our next guest. I want to get your take on this, the champagne that is now, what, 300 bucks a bottle. Uh, what’s that champagne called? The you wrote about in your biography about Jay Z? Armando brainiac, ASIS page champagne. And, uh, how much does that sound for per bottle? Roughly? It’s $300 a bottle. And that’s if you’re getting out at the store, it probably at the club, it’ll be a couple, a couple of times more than that. And how much was that selling for before JZ rebranded? That how much, how much was that? So, and for before G Jay Z started rapping about it, very similar. Champagne was selling for $60 a bottle. Uh, but

Zack O’Malley Greenburg:
Jay Z came in, um, bought the company that was making that one and then, you know, miraculously a couple of months later, uh, outcomes, Armando brainiac, ACE of spades, also a gold bottle of selling for five times more. Uh, but it’s in the songs. It’s in the whole thing. Uh, but you know, I think that goes to, to your point about hiring a celebrity endorser, right? Um, is it authentic? And for Jay Z, it was authentic, right? It was something that he really, he liked it, he cultivated it and he, you know, whether or not he actually drinks it at home with Beyonce, you could really believe that they would be doing that, right. The way that he presents it in his lifestyle. Um, so, you know, uh, and the reason why I think from, from, uh, the perspective of Jay-Z watcher, why it feels believable that he would be pushing it is because Jay Z is somebody who is interested in pushing his own businesses and things that he can profit from.

Zack O’Malley Greenburg:
So, you know, you, you wouldn’t really believe it if Jay Z had gone to, to some major champagne company and gotten paid a couple million bucks just in cash to endorse it, but you would believe it that, that he had found a way to buy into this obscure French champagne and create his own thing and, you know, and start to build a beverage empire around that. And, you know, I think for people who, who sort of idolize JZ or look up to him, it’s a lot more, um, uh, you know, it’s authentic to them to see that, to see the way that he consumes it, to then go and consume it themselves. So, you know, I, I think, um, if you try to think about that similar approach when you’re looking around, you know, for your businesses, like is there somebody who has natural tie in to that, a local celebrity even, um, you know, is it somebody who, uh, you know, who would resonate with the audience on a local level too.

Speaker 1:
And I, and I don’t think people realize how, how approachable a lot of these celebrities are. You as for a living round these people up and yes, you have to do some work and some research and yes, having worked at Forbes for 10 years and risen to the top of that, of that organization as a senior editor, yes, that helps when your emails, you know, when they can Google you and find that out. But these people are accessible. You can reach these people. I mean, all of these celebrities try to, they’re there looking for deals like this. Am I not

Zack O’Malley Greenburg:
correct? No, you’re right. I mean, you know, Ashton Kutcher isn’t, but you know, um, there, there are a lot of, a lot of, uh, you know, my book is about the list angels, right? There are a lot of B list angels out there who would really like to have the business to invest in or, or to do an endorsement deal with who look at that Ashton Kutcher that JZ and they say, well, you know, I could do that too, but just on a maybe smaller scale, um, you know, they’re out there. I mean, it’s amazing how many acts, uh, how many entertainers and athletes and so forth. If you look at them on Twitter or on their website, they will have a contact info, you know, for, for bookings called blah, blah, blah. Um, it is pretty easy to get a lot of these folks, uh, on the phone and, um, you know, for, for whatever your brother, you’re trying to write a story or a, you know, do a business deal with them.

Speaker 7:
You know, Zach, I know we get a lot of questions on there. They have a lot of our entrepreneurs listen to this podcast and they call us up or the email and go, what’s the deal? What if I go after somebody? What’s the deal? What’s my hook? How much should I give up? What, what should I do it, I know what to all across the board with these companies. I mean, some are startups and obviously they probably give up more, somewhere a little bit more, we’ll call them medium size and they’re growing and they’re trying to get that next leg up. Um, I’m kinda surprised. I mean with, with vitamin water selling for 4 billion, and I know we made 100 million, but that’s still very pretty small for Sanders that he had, he was into the company. If you look at it like that. So what’s, what are some rule of thumbs? I mean, if an entrepreneur listen out there and they go, listen, I’ve got a, I’ve got a business. It’s, um, you know, it’s, I’m, I’m, I’m making a, let’s say gross gross sales of $10 million a year and I’m, you know, it’s a small, I say small, medium business forward, you know, it’s all relative and they’re trying to find a B list or a list or trying to find what would they think that they’re going to have to give up to get that endorsement?

Zack O’Malley Greenburg:
Well, you know, one thing to remember is that although JCS and the Ashton Kutcher’s and the beyoncé’s of the world could, could get free equity or advisory shares as they’re called lot of time, um, you know, even for them, for the tip top startups, they’ll say, Hey, no, you know, we raised money at a $10 million, a hundred million dollar valuation, whatever it is. So we will let you buy into it. Um, you know, for, for X amount. Um, but you know, you’re going to pay what everybody else paid, but you’re just going to be able to cut the line, right? You’re going to be able to get in pre IPO, that kind of thing. So, so I actually, a lot of these characters are, you know, kind of conditioned to be paying for it. It’s just a matter of carving out a piece. You know, if you’re raising around, if you’re doing a fundraising round, carving out a piece for them, um, maybe you’re bootstrapping, right?

Zack O’Malley Greenburg:
And then you have to think about, well, do I really want to sell part of my business? Um, you know, a couple of percent. What’s the valuation? How am I going to do that? Um, you know, you could also look at it like a per unit royalty or you know, um, something that’s tied to a, like a, like a definable metric that, you know, once you do this thing with them, um, you know, how, how can you see if it’s, if it’s impacted your, your company positively. And if it has, then they get rewarded, you know, whether it’s hitting certain sales goals or something like that, that can have a similar effect. And I think, you know, it kinda ties into this ownership economy but you really want, if you’re, if you’re doing a deal with somebody, if with a celebrity, you know, you do want to make sure that, that there are kind of goalposts that there, there are things that you know contractually or, or that you agree upon one way or the other that they’re going to do a, even if they have a stake in your company, they might want to just sit back and let it grow.

Zack O’Malley Greenburg:
Not to do anything.

Speaker 1:
I have um, uh, five action steps. I want to give the listeners out there to kind of distill what we’ve broken down on today’s show. One, try to hire a celebrity endorser if possible. And again, don’t lose hope. I mean the fajita express was not selling at all and George Foreman got no money up front. They would work to deal with goalposts like you mentioned, where it says, Hey listen, every time we sell a machine you’re going to get a certain percentage that’s a move. You could do another move. Action. Item number two is invest in a PR firm, which is what um, uh, Oxi fresh has done. And essentially what they do is they just celebrate verifiable wins. They try to, I’ll allow Oxi fresh, which is the world’s greenest carpet cleaner to appear on media outlets to share that story. That’s a move three obsess with wowing your customers and gaining the most reviews. Josh, that’s another way, just obsessed with wowing your customers and having the most and highest reviews. How many deals do you get per month that are more than three to $5,000 deals just from people reading your reviews

Zack O’Malley Greenburg:
to today? Okay.

Speaker 10:
Who today? So I mean for, for sheer metrics, I would say that I’d say over half of our deals now because of where we’re at on our funnel and, and where we’re at reputation wise, I’d say over half of our deals, I’m just showing up and presenting benefits and just closing the deal. You know, we talked about it earlier, clay about, yeah, it’s a salesman that doesn’t sell anymore. So I think we, we’ve gained a reputation and gained a, a position just simply by being the highest and most reviewed and by making sure that we’re exceeding expectations

Speaker 1:
at every job. Fun, snowball. Then that’s how I got my speaking career going there for a while where it’s just like people are just reading reviews, people are referring each other. It works. Um, step number four. Excellent. Number four to say, you got to go out there and buy a list. Angels, how a band of actors, artists and athletes, if you care for your family, if you’re American, if you’re American, yeah, if you’re not any of these things apply. I mean if you’re a dirty, dirty, dirty, anti-American, an alien, if you’re an alien, don’t buy this book. Go buy it now. Excellent. Number five is go to Oxy fresh.com and learn a little bit more about buying an Oxy fresh franchise and a, a mat for, is it still the [inaudible] for a $10 you’ll, you’ll do like a third wheel date with any of the listeners out there. I mean, you, they could take the, a woman could fill out the form. She could, her and her husband could take her out to dinner.

Speaker 8:
My rustle up the Hill, go home. Homestead’s going on $10 a day.

Speaker 4:
So book $10 you could go to Apple music, get that a, you know, two for 20 deal. I mean, that’s very reasonable. Klein book a $10. It’s a third wheel date. It’s not, it’s more about, you’re like an odd date. Probably just wouldn’t bring their husbands, you know, so I don’t know.

Speaker 8:
I just get to go on somebody else’s date.

Speaker 1:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You’re, you’re a third wheel. You’re an auditor. You’re job is to point out if, if proper etiquette is being shown at all times.

Speaker 4:
Yeah, I’m into that. I’m into that.

Speaker 1:
Matt, we appreciate you so much my friend. I hope you have a great day and don’t start using shampoo. Your hair looks great. Without it.

Speaker 8:
I will never [inaudible]

Speaker 4:
take care.

Speaker 8:
Have a uh, everyone be productive.

Speaker 4:
Alright, MK, take care of dude later.

Speaker 1:
Yep. And now without any further ed too.

Speaker 11:
My name is Elizabeth Walker. I’m the owner of nook and cranny, home keeping. I first heard about clay on the radio on 1170 K FAQ. I was just switching through the radio stations and I heard them talking and they were kind of funny. So I hung around a little bit. Clay’s team has impacted my amount of internet leads through Google. We have skyrocketed our reviews and we just have people calling us almost every single day saying they found us on Google. So it’s definitely broadened our horizons and our client clientele. But we also have people that find us in other avenues and I always direct them to our Google reviews. The typical interaction during our weekly meetings is fun. It is accountability. It’s uh, an hour of hard discussions and a lot of learning. It’s, we try to laugh. Um, I always share concerns I had during the week.

Speaker 11:
The team always asks me what I need help with and then they help me, they help put me back on track where I need to be. Every business owner needs clay Clark and his team because they put a path out in front of you, a proven system of success and then they coach you along the way. They don’t do it for you. They don’t your hand, they just stand right beside you. They cheer you on the share with you what you need to hear, whether it’s good or it’s bad or it’s what you want to hear. It’s what you don’t want to hear. Every business owner needs that accountability next to them, that proven person next to them that can keep them going. Most people think that they don’t need a business or marketing consultant because human nature tends to say we can do it all and sometimes we believe that or maybe people are prideful and they don’t want to ask for help or I’m not really sure.

Speaker 11:
I believe that one of the smartest things I’ve ever done in my whole life definitely in my business is hiring clay Clark and his team. Somebody is missing out on years and years and years of experience if they don’t hire them. You can either make mistakes in your business because you don’t have the experience. So you just go out there and you make mistakes, or you can have somebody next to you that has been there. They’ve done that, and they can give you a heads up. You’re going in the wrong direction, or they can give you just that wise advice that says, maybe you should go in this direction. That’s what they’re missing out on. They’re missing out on years of experience that they have not gleamed themselves.