067 | Brian Smith Shares How Pamela Anderson Gave UGGs Their BIG Start!

067 | Brian Smith Shares How Pamela Anderson Gave UGGs Their BIG Start!

Brian Smith, is the founder of the world famous UGG Australia Brand, a furry warm boot, that I’m sure many of you are familiar.  While studying at the UCLA Graduate School of Management he observed that there was no sheepskin footwear in the US. With only $500 in capital, he imported boot samples and over the next seventeen years built the UGG Australia brand into a multi-million dollar international enterprise. He sold in 1995 and the brand has continued to grow to exceed a BILLION dollars in annual sales for the past three years. Brian has authored the book “The Birth of a Brand – Launching Your Entrepreneurial Passion and Soul.”

Have you ever spent hours, maybe even days, working on the perfect presentation? Only, to find out that you won’t have the opportunity to actually share everything that you’ve spent time creating?

This week’s guest, Brian Smith, has experienced this exact situation and it actually changed the trajectory of his business for the positive!

The UGG brand wasn’t successful from the start. In fact, Brian faced a ton of adversity and ended up having to get crafty when it came to selling the boots he had acquired.

Brian shares how a photo of Pamela Anderson, on the set of Baywatch, wearing UGGs, changed his whole business.

In this episode, Brian shares how planning the perfect presentation doesn’t always end up like it’s supposed to, BUT how it often ends up even better.

If you want to know why, as an entrepreneur, you should always plan for the best, but expect the worst, then this episode of Success Unfiltered is a MUST LISTEN!

Enjoy, and thank you for listening and tuning into Success Unfiltered!

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Special thanks goes out to Brian Smith for taking the time to chat with Michelle. Be sure to join us next week for our next new episode!

P.S. Celebrate Your Rejections In Business! Why? Because the more you get told NO, the closer you are to a YES. True story. Rejection doesn’t mean failure. It means that you’re taking the steps that will ensure your success! Don’t let NO stop you. Let me show you how to keep going! Grab your copy of my FREE Checklist “5 Ways To Come Back From Sales Rejection” and turn that NO into a WIN!

Here are a few key secrets we talked about in this episode:

• Michelle introduces Brian Smith.
• Brian shares who he is and what he’s most famous (UGG Australia Brand) for, plus what he’s been up to lately.
• Every business is conceived by someone, it’s important to remember that it starts as an infant, just laying there - don’t give up at this point. Some wisdom from Brian!
• Brian’s first major NO came his very first year in business. He purchased 500 sheepskin boots and only sold 28 TOTAL. He shares the full story in this episode!
• Every surf shop shut Brian and his boots down, so he started taking them to street fairs and swap meets. The enthusiasm of the people purchasing the boots is what kept him motivated to sell.
• The Pitch Queen shares her idea to keep an acknowledgement folder of the kind things people say, so that you can look through it when you feel down.
• When Brian first started advertising his boots, he used models to model the boots and all of the surfers who he was selling to thought UGGs were so fake. Brian realized he had been marketing to the wrong people, in the wrong way using the wrong models.
• When Brian shifted his advertising to attract his ideal client, his revenue went from $20K to $200K.
• Brian tried to get into all of the big box stores, Montgomery Ward, Nordstroms, etc. - but, no one wanted to bring him in. He explains why they wouldn’t take him and what he did to eventually get there, in this episode.
• “Most people in the world really want to help out a young entrepreneur getting started.” ~ Brian Smith
• Brian was trying to get onto the cover of USA Today and was able to set-up a meeting with their fashion editor. However, his 45 minute presentation was cut down to 5 minutes. Wonder why? Listen to this episode for the FULL story!
• The 5 minutes with the fashion editor helped change the entire trajectory of the UGG Australia Brand.
• Brian advises that if you hit a wall in your business, you must find another way around it.
• “Once you start out on a path, the evidence of what you want will hit you.” ~ Brian Smith
• Brian shares what he would tell his younger self.
• Brian believes that passion for what you’re doing only comes after working hard on it for a long period of time - he shares what he means by this, in this episode!

Connect with Brian Smith:

• Brian’s Website
• Brian’s Book
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram

P.S. Celebrate Your Rejections In Business! Why? Because the more you get told NO, the closer you are to a YES. True story. Rejection doesn’t mean failure. It means that you’re taking the steps that will ensure your success! Don’t let NO stop you. Let me show you how to keep going! Grab your copy of my FREE Checklist “5 Ways To Come Back From Sales Rejection” and turn that NO into a WIN!

Music produced by Deejay-O  www.iamdeejayo.com