Get A Street Smart MBA with Sarah Shaw

When I saw Banana Loca on Shark Tank I knew they were a winning team. What peeked my interest was how they LOVED to visit inventor shows together and look at new creative ideas. I mean who does that right? Well luckily they did as it helped them realize their awesome invention of he the Banana Loca. A fun way to eat a a banana and add some flavor to it. They have been growing rapidly since being on Shark Tank so tune in to hear all about it.More about Banana Loca: For years, best friends Bechara and Renee frequented invention trade shows and shared cool gadget finds. One fruitful day when Bechara was talking about eating Nutella and bananas as a child in Lebanon, Renee commented about how her 15 nieces and nephews love banana slices with peanut butter. And the idea of Banana Loca was born! Besides wanting to do it because there's nothing like it on the market, bananas are just inherently funny right?! Just saying the word seems to make people smile, so they decided to make Banana Loca a reality. The thought of Banana Loca helping families have fun in the kitchen while giving tummies something yummy is everything to them!https://bananaloca.com/

Join me and Ashley as we chat about how she launched Pink Picasso, went on Shark Tank and wait for it........ check out the surprise. Ashely shares a lot about her start up story, being a stay at home mom with a business, dealing with Covid, shipping delays, product development issues and more.More about Ashley:Ashley Silfies is the CEO, Co-Owner, and Designer of Pink Picasso and Wear Your Sole.  Ashley’s background in photography and manufacturing allowed her to create a fresh start for her and her family, including her wife and business partner Brittany Silfies. Over the last three years, this wife team has worked from home while raising three kids and creating multiple consumer brands that their fans love.  Right now, they are ripe for growth and see a bright future of expanding their existing brands. Ashley and Brittany have won the attention of Oprah’s Favorite Things not once, but twice, and were offered four separate deals by the Sharks on ABC’s Shark Tank in November 2021.  What comes next is yet to be discovered, but they hope to continue creating what the world needs in order to feel creative and be their own kind of artist. When they are not taking the entrepreneurship world by storm, Ashley and Brittany enjoy spending time with their family (the kids, the dog, the cats, and the horses) and inventing new and exciting ways to work together doing what they love.https://pinkpicassokits.com/

Do you have a dog? Wonder how long it takes for that poop bag to biodegrade? Eons.Well I did until I met Tracey who created Pooch Paper, the first biodegradable paper pooch paper. Tracey is slowly changing the world of poop. Yep I said it again.Dive into our conversation about how she created Pooch Paper, where it's being sold ( like everywhere) and how she is expanding into dog parks and city parks with her Pooch Paper dispensers, all to help our landfills degrade faster.Tracey is passionate about Pooch Paper and I just love her attitude.Made in the USA, Pooch Paper is a recycled, non-chlorine bleached paper alternative to single-use plastic dog waste bags. Our sheets are 100% biodegradable, 100% compostable and are manufactured using renewable energy. Our fluorochemical-free, oil and grease resistant coating is made naturally during the pulp drying process in order to ensure your doggie’s doodie remains inside the paper and not on your hand! Most manufactured products contain PFAS chemicals that are nearly impossible to break down; Pooch Paper is PFAS-free. There are an estimated 22 billion pounds of doggie doodie dropped each year in the U.S. alone.While not all dog parents pick up after their dogs, roughly ten million tons of dog waste and over 500 million plastic doggie bags end up in landfills each year.Most doggie parents have become sensitive to the growing awareness around single-use plastics, and have begun to consider how dog waste bags play into this environmental concern. Some pet parents have chosen to “up cycle,” or reuse plastic bags that come from the grocery market, for example. Others use oxo-biodegradable plastic bags, which purport to be eco-friendly. The latest initiative to hit the dog waste bag market includes bioplastics. While all of these efforts are one step closer to being eco-friendly, there still remains one common denominator across all of these categories: plastic. Research suggests dog owners use more than 500 million single-use plastic bags for dog waste annually. Plastic is generally not biodegradable - it can take over 500 years to degrade, if it ever does. Some bags are manufactured as oxo-biodegradables, meaning that a formula called EPI is added during the manufacturing process to enable the plastic to break down quicker. However, oxo-biodegradables often do not fully disappear. Instead, they break down into millions of micro-plastic particles that enter the air we breathe, the water we drink and ultimately the food supply we consume. Such micro-plastic particles may, among other things, carry toxic or carcinogenic chemicals used in making the plastic, or they can act as a carrier for pathogens and heavy metals. Our planet and our pups are made to be loved!https://www.poochpaper.com/

I had the pleasure of speaking with Mae Karwowski, the founder and CEO of Obvious.ly, a leading global influencer-marketing agency and technology platform. Mae shares some amazing tips on working with influencers and how you can forge relationships to build your brand.  She shares how to vet the instagram influencers and how to gage their engagement rate. Also suggests looking at how many sponsored posts they are doing, and how much engagement they actually get. Mae suggests looking at influencers you want to build a brand with. She suggests checking out a couple of influencers sites called Hype Auditor, Grin, and Klear (Now Izea), that might be able to help connect you with influencers.Under her leadership since she launched the agency in 2014, Obvious.ly has become the global standard of influencer marketing by providing the best full service client experience, managing complexity and scale of influencer work, and using data analysis to inform all strategies.With thousands of campaigns under her belt, Mae is a recognized expert on the influencer industry and has been widely quoted in the press, appearing in publications such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, NPR, CNBC, and the Washington Post.Obviously’s clients include iconic brands such as Amazon, Ulta, Lyft, Google, Coca-Cola, and Hasbro, and in 2019, Mae won both the Campaign Female Frontier Award and the Adweek Fastest Growing Agency award.Before founding Obviously, Mae directed social media for Gilt City, part of Gilt Groupe, and oversaw social execution for clients such as Bravo, UGG, and Coca-Cola with the agency 360i.

Derren knows his stuff when it comes to Instagram!  He openly shares new strategies, insights and methods to make your Instagram work for you like never before. We talked about making sure the "Shop" is set up correctly to using the app Ecwid to make your links are shopable - who knew?We also chatted about using the new feature "Reels" as a way to gain more followers, and how to attract and work with influencers.Follow Social Sensi on Instagram or check out his social media offerings.More about Social Sensi 

I've always been a huge fan of the Scary Mommy blog. It started right around when my twins were born, and helped me realize that I was doing things pretty well and that I probably wasn't going to totally screw up my children. Whew.It was a place I could go to read about other moms nightmares, forgotten children, terrible meals, dirty diapers and billions of things we all mess up on.... as well as the joy, laughter, and amazing moments.Jill is a genius in creating content. When she created the Mommy Confessionals, it took off like wild fire and took the blog into a totally new space with millions of subscribers and ad money pouring in. It's a safe and anonymous place to leave your "confession", get it off your chest and feel free of the burden.... while enjoying a good laugh or cry for sure.Jill shares her story, what it was like to talk about her own family and how the business grew, sold and what she's up to now.Quotes from Jill's Book Scary MommyI shall remember that no mother is perfect and my children will thrive because, and sometimes even in spite of me.I shall not preach to a fellow mother who has not asked my opinion. It’s none of my damn business.I shall maintain a sense of humor about all things motherhood.More about JillJill Smokler is a noted entrepreneur, social influencer, New York Times bestselling author, and community builder.As the founder of Scary Mommy, Jill has spent the last ten years creating and curating online content for parents, having grown her one-time “mommy blog” into one of the most influential digital parenting properties in the world.During her tenure at Scary Mommy — most recently as Chief Content Officer — Jill used candor, humor, and humility to redefine the role and influence of parents online. Her commitment to publishing honest, compelling, and sometimes controversial content, combined with her uncanny sense of how parents are willing to interact with brands online, created a new kind of digital parenting ecosystem that has given moms a voice and brands a roadmap for engaging the sought after mom audience.  In 2017, Forbes magazine named Jill a top ten parenting influencer.Connect with Jillhttps://jillsmokler.comhttps://www.scarymommy.com/

When you think of protective footwear you don't often think of a woman. At least I don't. I think differently now. Mary Steinbrunner is a woman leader in a man's world. She shares her story of working her way up the ladder from Marketing Assistant to General Manager of one of the worlds largest protective boot manufacturers in the world. While it might not seem sexy, Mary manages a large team and works hard to keep up with the latest technology in protective footwear to keep feet safe.Nicknamed "Wellies", I often think of the English when I hear this word as it is derived from the name of the boots worn by the British Aristocracy back in the early 19th century. Dunlop has certainly developed the "Wellie" beyond any 19th century boot makers wildest dreams.Dunlop has generously offered a 15% discount on boots to you listeners! Use code SarahShaw15 at checkout.More about MaryMary Steinbrunner, General Manager of Dunlop Protective Footwear -USA Division, has a strong background in Marketing and Business Development with a track record of solid leadership and successful business planning. Mary became the General Manager when the company was acquired in May 2016. She has been part of the organization since April 2000, where she began as a Marketing Assistant and grew alongside her team into the current role as General Manager, while navigating three ownership changes in the past five years.   She is committed to building strong teams and enhancing independent leadership within company and community. In addition to the pledge to her Dunlop family, Mary has worked with local Women’s initiatives to support domestic abuse victims, helping to rebuild their confidence, and their lives. Mary holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Baltimore and Marketing Strategy Certificate from Cornell University. Mary has a strong belief in workplace diversity and supports training, education, and empowerment initiatives as key criteria to greater personal and business achievement.

Catching up with John Fieldly, CEO of Celsius Fitness Drinks was a treat. John is a money guy who knows how to sell products.  Using influencer strategies, social media, and satisfied customers, they have built a loyal following of consumers who have become natural ambassadors of Celsius. Besides selling in gyms across the nation and on Amazon and their own e-comm site, Celsius is now available in Dicks Sporting Goods, Target and CVS.CELSIUS® is a Fitness Drink which is clinically proven to function. How? As a thermogenic, CELSIUS’ proprietary MetaPlus blend accelerates metabolism, increasing your body’s ability to burn fat and calories. There are only two ways a body burns fat: through increased heart rate and/or thermogenesis. Drinking CELSIUS and then going into motion is double dipping, you’re accelerating the burn and the results are even faster

Lisa Ascoles, The Inventress, and I talk about the differences between a Website based business versus an App only business. Which is better and why, how social media plays into that and how to run a successful product based company in todays world.