700: (Solo) The Ambassador Strategy - How to get Famous People to Sell Your Brand for Free

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1:12This is going to be a fun one. So let me tell you something about Hexclad. So I interviewed the founder of Hexclad about a year ago. They're a cookware brand, pots and pans. not exactly the sexiest product category in the world, but do you know how their ambassador is? Gordon Ramsay. Now, Gordon Ramsay, he's one of the most famous chefs on the planet. He publicly endorses their cookware, and when he holds up your pan, you don't need to explain anything else, right? If you've got a cookware brand, the product sells itself through association, and this is a nine-figure brand. Now, here's the question that nobody asks.

1:48how does a cookware brand get Gordon Ramsay they didn't have a massive ad budget or like a celebrity endorsement agency on retainer from day one they have a really great product and a strategy and it's the same strategy that I've been using at founder for over a decade it's how I build brands any brands that I'm advising any brands that I'm involved with and today I want to really break down how that works step by step so you can do the exact same thing even if you're starting with zero connections and zero audience.

2:20Nathan Chan:Hear the stories, learn the proven methods, and accelerate your growth and future through entrepreneurship. Welcome to the Founder Podcast with Nathan Chan. So let's talk about ambassadors and specifically how to get respected, well-known people in your market to endorse your brand without writing them a check. So before I get into the ambassador playbook, I need to give you the bigger framework because ambassadors, they don't just work in isolation. There's really, I believe, three pillars to building a brand that actually breaks through. The first one, pillar one, it's a non-negotiable. You have to have a product that is genuinely good.

3:02No ambassador in the world can save you. People will try it. And if they're disappointed, the association actually hurts you. So you want to start there, right? So let's assume you're listening to this. You've got a great product. It solves a real problem. It's solid. It's truly differentiated in the market. It's truly revolutionary. You have a unique mechanism, a unique formula, something that makes it special. And there's nothing else out there like it. Then pillar number two is great design. And I mean this broadly. I mean your copy, your look, your feel, your website, your packaging, your entire customer experience.

3:38Think about liquid death. It's water. That's all it is. But the design is so wildly different from anything else on the shelf. And they've created a billion dollar brand. So Silicon Valley companies, the fastest growing ones, they all invest in next level design. And I doubled down on design early with Foundry. It made a massive difference in how people perceived the brand, especially when we were small. And then pillar three is what we're going to talk about. How do we unlock ambassadors? how do you have respected people in your market who are really willing to endorse associate with or actively promote your brand and this pillar is the one that most founders completely ignore and it's because they think it's reserved for big brands with big budgets and it's just not so let's go through the who's who in the zoo framework so here's how i think about ambassadors I call it the who's who in the zoo.

4:30You want to sit down and identify who are the top 10, 20 or 30 thought leaders, experts, creators, influencers, respected voices in your specific market. Not in business generally, in your market. So if you're selling cookware, who are the top chefs? Who are the food bloggers? Who are the cooking YouTubers? If you're selling fitness gear, who are the trainers? Who are the athletes? Who are the wellness influencers? that your customer, that your ICP actually trusts. And you want to write them down, all of them. Work out, you know, for each one, how you could collaborate, align, get an endorsement, create a partnership, send a product for review.

5:14Most founders, they don't even do this exercise. They think about marketing as ads and funnels and email sequences and all these technical things. But one of the fastest shortcuts to building trust in any market is having someone your customer already trusts vouch for you. So your product doesn't need to be better than everyone else's. It needs to be associated with people that your customer already respects. And that's the shortcut that most e-com brands never take. So let me tell you how this played out for me with Founder. When I started the magazine, I was in IT support, crawling on the desk, fixing computers, changing passwords.

5:48Nobody knew who I was. I had zero audience, zero connection, zero... Real quick, before we jump in, I want to shout out one of our sponsors, Xero. I've used Xero from day one of Founder, 13 years now, and it's still how we run the business today. It's cloud accounting software built for founders exactly like us, and it automates all the admin that I used to do when I first started Founder, invoicing, chasing payments, expenses, all the accounting. It really helps me get paid faster and keep an eye on cash flow. So Founder listeners, get a crazy 95 % off for the first six months. Just sign up through our form at founder.com forward slash zero.

6:29Terms and conditions apply. Remember, when you support our sponsors, you are supporting the show. All right, now let's jump back in.

6:38Credibility, but I started this magazine and it was a digital publication that nobody was reading yet, but I had front covers. And here's what I discovered. Every single person wants a front cover story. So when I would reach out to someone and say, I want to interview you for my magazine on our front cover and tell your story, that had so much more weight than I want to interview you for my podcast. And the visual element and the prestige of a cover, it changed the entire dynamic. So I got Richard Branson on the cover early. And once you have Branson on the cover, you can go to the next person to say, we just featured Richard Branson.

7:12We'd love to feature you. And then suddenly the answer is much more likely to be yes. And then you get that person. you go to the next person and two names on your covers and the snowball kind of builds and the social proof is compounding and that social proof of one big name really creates the credibility to get the next person and those people being on your covers being associated with your brand using your product they share it with their audience they reference it they become the proof that your brand is legitimate and i've been writing that social proof card for a very very very long time with founder and it works and that's how we're continually able to get you guys incredible guests for this show and amazing amazing stories that we tell so how do you get your first ambassador that's that's the question right so let me give you some actual steps especially if you're starting small first you want to find the gatekeeper most people you want to reach they have someone between you and them an assistant a head of pr a pr agency a manager a business partner your job is to find that person and that's who you need to build a relationship and here's the thing that most people get wrong.

8:15They treat the assistant like an obstacle. No, these are the people that are gonna get you through the door. They control the filter, treat them like the CEO. Step number two, use DMs before email. Use phone calls before email. DMs, phone calls, they get way more cut through because gatekeepers, they get hundreds of emails. LinkedIn, Instagram, it can be less crowded and then if you especially go to the actual gatekeeper, it's the way to go. Phone calls, as I said, have even higher impact if you can get their number. And then step number three is you want to follow up four, maybe five times minimum.

8:55Like as an example, when I interviewed Barbara Corcoran from Shark Tank, she's a shark on Shark Tank, I found her assistance, pitched, got rejected, spoke to the gatekeeper. Here's what I asked, when should I check back in? And that question reframes no into not right now. So six months later, I followed up, got rejected again, asked the same question. When should I check in? 12 months later, I followed up. And each time I followed up, I included proof of growing credibility. I'd now interviewed Mark Cuban. I've now interviewed Robert Herjavec. I was stacking social proof with every touch. It took about two years, but then she finally said yes.

9:29So most people give up after the first no. So if you follow up five times, you've already outlasted 95 % of everyone who's ever reached out to that person. Now, step number four is align with what they need, not what they want. And this is where most founders just blow it. They reach out and say, I'd love to have you endorse my brand. And that's a you-centered ask. Nobody cares about what you want. So here's a hack that I've used for years. I go to the Amazon coming soon list. You can find in any category and it shows all the books that publishers have submitted before release. So famous people like thought leaders, experts, founders, they do press tours around book launches.

10:05They time chunk their media. They're doing like 20, 30 back-to-back interviews because they want to promote their book. And that's when they need you. So you're not asking for a favor anymore. You're offering distribution. You're saying you have a book launch. I have an audience of captivated potential readers of founders. How do I help you get the book in more hands? And that's exactly how I got Tim Ferriss. You know, his team offered the interview because he was launching a TV series. And he blocked out the entire week of 30-minute podcast slots. Probably 30 to 40 shows. He banged them out back-to-back.

10:33I was offering him reach. He was offering us credibility. Both sides win. step number five is build relationships with PR companies like penguin random house Harper Collins these are big firms this is super powerful so a guy that I used to do a lot of work with Ryan holiday he had a marketing agency doesn't have it anymore brass check marketing he kept feeding me famous guests for years that's how I got Tony Robbins for the first time Tony Robbins was launching a book Ryan's team was doing the PR and they offered the interview because founder had the right audience. How did Hexclad get Gordon Ramsay?

11:06He was a customer. They saw that he purchased the product. They saw that he was following the brand. Look through your Instagram. Who was already following you? Look at your customer base. Who is buying from you? It's always something to pay attention to. And this is the mistake that I see a lot of e-commerce founders getting wrong. They think ambassadors are a later thing. Like once we're big enough, we'll get someone famous. you don't need to have a big audience to get your first ambassador you need a compelling product and a genuine story so when i got richard brands on the front cover of founder we were four months old we had no audience but the picture is right the product was real and the frame was about serving his story to our community that social proof of that one big name is really how i got my big big big break guys it's how i built founder and you know if you're listening right now you know like The brand is respected.

12:01And I don't say this from a place of ego, right? It's just because we've aligned ourselves with so many incredible founders. So one last thing I want to share with you is once you start getting ambassadors, something incredible happens. Each one makes the next one easier. You look at IM8 and what Danny's been able to do. He started with David Beckham co-founding the company. Now he has so many famous people involved with that brand. It's insane. Because here's the thing. when Gordon Ramsay picks up a hex clad pan nobody's thinking is this a paid ad they're thinking if it's good enough for Gordon Ramsay it's good enough for me and that's the ambassador effect and that's what you're building toward so here's what I want you to do this week sit down and write your who's the who in the zoo list 10 20 30 names the most respected most trusted people in your specific market not celebrities always the people your customer already follows and trust and pick one, just one, find their gatekeeper, send a DM, then move the next one, write to 10, 20 of those people, see what happens, follow up, do it for the next 6, 12 months.

13:07Let me know how it goes. And that's how you get famous people to sell your brand for free. All right. I hope you enjoyed this episode, guys. As always, please do take the time to leave us a review wherever you're listening to this. And then also, I just want you to share it with one friend. one friend that you know would find this podcast incredibly helpful make sure you subscribe the more you subscribe the more it helps us to get better guests and produce better content for this show and that's it from me guys i'll see you in another one