Mompreneur, social media guru, and my v. good friend from Walmarts Eleven Moms group Katja Presnal made PR magic happen when the pair of Monkeytoes Ladybug shoes she gifted to Suri Cruise from her Skimbaco online store landed on Oprah.
Catch the first 10 minutes of Oprah tomorrow, as the Tom Cruise Telluride interview from last May will air again and you can see this fantastic PR win for Mompreneurs and bloggers alike. It was fascinating to watch Oprah’s “golden” touch impact Moms in the blogosphere when she grabbed these ultra cute Ladybug shoes in Tom’s mudroom – and sales for Mompreneurs and traffic for bloggers who mentioned the Ladybug shoes went through the roof!
And besides Suri Cruise’s stamp of approval on the Ladybug pair of Monkey-Toes shoes, I’ve got to tell you that Classy Mommy reviewed the Piggy Toes pair when Kenzie was 18 months old and we even have a video review of Kenzie cruising around in them. They are a hit!
Katja shared a quick Q&A with us for those of you hoping to learn more about her brilliant PR touch. Let me tell you – this Mama inspires me. Cause at the end of the day, Katja says she is “a mompreneur, counting pennies that I can get food on the table for my three kids. And I made this all happen – the store, the promotion, the Suri Cruise’s shoes on Oprah. I am not special, I am not PR genius, I am a mom who works helluva long days and helps others as she goes. If I could do this – so can you and other mompreneurs and bloggers.”
So how did you get to send Tom, Katie, and Suri the gift basket?
They say we have a six degree separation to everyone, but I am luckyenough to have a two degree separation to Tom Cruise, we have a mutualfriend. My friend wanted to gift Tom Cruise and his family during theHolidays and I helped him to put together a gift basket of beautifulproducts from my store. DeAnna Cochran made some custom jewelry for TomCruise’s entire family and I also included some fun stuff likepersonalized underwear for Tom and Katie from Blume Girl. One of the products in the basket was the cutest little pair of ladybug shoes, which are the Little Ladies Mary Janes by Monkey-Toes.
What’s it like having one of your products being shown on Oprah?
I don’t know if it even has really even hit me how big thing it is. Itstill feels a little surreal. I think I was more psyched about thegift basket opportunity itself, it was very exciting to choose the gift basket for Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, pack it up nicely, and make it a special Holiday gift for their family. It took me hours to pack the gift, I wanted it to be perfect! Also it was exciting that we lived close to Telluride so I was able to deliver the gift instead of just mailing it. I just sold the shoes in my store, so in that sense it wasn’t my own product, the shoes are from a company called Monkey-Toes.
If you could have another item featured on the Oprah show what would it be and why?
I would say it’s one of my exclusive necklaces by DeAnna Cochran, becausepart of the proceeds go for charities and I am passionate abouthelping people. Oprah actually inspired me to ask DeAnna to design aLadybug necklace after the Tom Cruise interview. I felt really blessedabout the feature and since the product was ladybug shoes, andladybugs are believed to bring luck in many cultures, I wanted to paymy ladybug luck forward. I suddenly was receiving a lot of press andpeople were noticing me and I asked myself what would Oprah do – andshe would pay it forward. So that’s what I wanted to do too. I startedLadybug Landings – offering PR help for other mompreneurs andbloggers, and it has kept me busy ever since. The proceeds of myLadybug Necklace and ladybug gear make it possible that I’m able to help others also for free. I offer PR and socialmedia consulting and the first hour is always free.
What has being on the Oprah Show done for your site Traffic?
After the show aired, the traffic tripled, and so did the sales for awhile. But at the same time while this was a huge success to my store,I realized that my real passion was not being a retailer, but doingthe consulting and helping other mompreneurs, indie designers andbloggers. I haven’t actually even officially launched my site LadybugLandings yet, I have been so busy helping people and doing consultingand blogging. I am actually planning on closing my store soon, due thefact that I want to focus on helping others to reach their goals. Iguess you could truly call that as the Oprah’s touch – she inspired meto pay it forward even more than I had before.
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