How To Get Your Business in Front of 7 Million People for under $200

When opportunity knocks, do you answer or act like you don’t hear it?

Opportunity came pounding on my door last week and I answered and went for it.

I’m a hockey mom and love Wayne Gretzky. My family lives by his motto, You Miss 100% of the Shots You Don’t Take.

Last week I took my biggest shot…

My product line is fashion accessories for medical boots (www.HealinStyle.com).

Savannah Guthrie, host of TODAY, sprained her ankle and all I heard all week on the show was how miserable she was and how ugly the boot is (Trust me Savannah, I know. I’ve been there.)

I tried conventional pitching with TODAY but then realized they are in sweeps and it was a slippery slope to put a product on the air during that time. So instead, I took matters into my own hands.

I risked less than 24 hours of my time and less than $200 and I got my business seen by millions!

Some people think I’m crazy. I just want to grow my business exponentially, as fast as I can. So here is what I did. I found a picture of Savannah posing in her medical boot and superimposed my product on top of it. I created this design and had a 4’ x 2’ poster printed for $23 (note to self – New York City can be windy and a 4’ paper poster is very hard to hold down – more on that later).

I googled, “cheap hotels in New York City” and found a 4.5 star hotel 3 blocks from Rockefeller Center for $99. Yes, that is not a typo, $99 for a 4.5 star hotel. I got a $40 bus ticket and off I went. Good thing I love pizza and bagels, so my entire trip was under $200.

The next morning I woke up early to be there by 6:45 a.m. It was cold and windy and the Plaza had already started to fill up. I worked my around to get a corner spot and there she was, behind the glass, with her back to me, Savannah Guthrie being mic’d for the show. Divine intervention? Opportunity knocking? Opportunity Pounding? Then there was Wayne in my head, …. “you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take…”

So…. I went for it.

I walked up to the glass and held my poster so the person mic’ing her saw and gave me a thumbs up. Then I mouthed to him to please show Savannah. She turned around and said “Oh my Gosh, I love it!!!” and I replied, “I’m here on the plaza. I have a bag for you.”

Did that just really happen? Seriously!!! No one else was there? Not one person on the Plaza was at the glass. It was just me and Savannah having a conversation behind the glass… It was surreal.

I made my way to my little corner on the Plaza behind the barricade holding my decorated medical boot and trying to hold down my 4’ flapping paper sign, all the while letting it sink in that I actually spoke (well mouthed) with Savannah Guthrie and she loved my product.

Then I got the bad news…. “We’re sorry, we won’t be able to show your poster or your product. It’s really cute but we just aren’t allowed to do that.”

“WAIT!!! No, no, no… I came all this way. I’ve already “talked” to Savannah” This can’t be happening. It’s supposed to go perfectly.

The show starts and they pan the crowd and they stop right before me… every time for what seemed like an eternity. The camera people are panning the Plaza crowd going right to left but not to the end of left where I was… just stopping at the 50th birthday celebrants next to me.

I didn’t give up. I was there … ready … and I had not given my bag to Savannah yet. Every time they came near, I put on a smile, ramped the energy in case the camera man kept going and finally got to me.

And then… something amazing happened….

All the camera people came to me and said, “We’re going to pan in on you every time we come back from commercial so be excited and smile.” Somehow the wind stopped so every time the camera was on the poster, it was perfect, just staying in place so TODAY’s 7 million viewers could see my poster, my company name/website, and my product.

Every time they panned on me, Savannah, Willie, Carson and Natalie had an opportunity to talk about me… and they did. In fact, I got a full 49 seconds on the Today Show, https://bit.ly/TodayShowPlaza. Then, they came and interviewed me for Today Show on Sirius Radio, https://bit.ly/TodayShowSirius that ran repeatedly all day.

And then Savannah came over to say “hi,” get her goodie bag and take this picture.

It was a pinch me kind of day.

People say that I’m crazy or I’m lucky, but I just listen for opportunity, prepare, and don’t give up.

Luck is when preparation meets opportunity. I was prepared when opportunity came pounding last week.

Are you ready to do what it takes to get your business to the next level?

Allow me to help you:

1. hear opportunity when it knocks,
2. answer the door, and
3. take advantage of it!

Want to chat and learn more? Email me at [email protected] or schedule a call at www.ChatwithChristina.com