IAM098 – Entrepreneur & Inventor Focuses on Movie Deal for her Screenplay

Ginny is an entrepreneur with multiple patents/trademarks. Ginny's product widely sold in World Class spa resorts and on QVC, made appearances on NBC, CBS, FOX News and written about in many national magazines. Ginny’s first novel. “What Is Normal?” made the top 40 most inspirational list in Gladys Magazine. She has been on radio and TV, talking about her book, most recently on ABC’s morning show, “Believe in Yourself.” Currently, Ginny’s focus is on landing a movie deal for the screenplay, “WIN”, based on her novel, “What Is Normal?” an edgy, feature-length drama, based on her life.

• CEO Hack: Google Search
• CEO Nugget: Plant a seed in the garden of your dream every day
• CEO Defined: An independent that has the freedom of not following the man-made rules. Have the freedom of doing things your own way.

Website: http://www.ginnyscalesmedeiros.com/

Other Site: www.whatisnormal.tv
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GinnyMedeiros/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ginnysflawless
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginny_Scales-Medeiros
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ginny-scales-medeiros-11821b20/

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Transcription:

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:27

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Ginny Scales Medeiros of whatisnormal.tv. Ginny, it is awesome to have you on the show.

Ginny Scales Medeiros 0:38

Thank you, Gresham. I'm excited.

Gresham Harkless 0:40

No problem, excited too, and what I wanted to do was just read a little bit more about Ginny, so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. And Ginny is an entrepreneur with multiple patents and trademarks. Ginny's product is widely sold and World Class spa resorts and on QVC, made, appearances on NBC, CBS, and Fox News, and written about in many national magazines. Ginny’s first novel. “What Is Normal?” made the top 40 most inspirational lists in Gladys Magazine. She has been on radio and TV talking about her book most recently on ABC Morning News “Believe in Yourself.” Currently, Ginny focuses on landing a movie deal for the screenplay, “WIN” based on her novel, “What Is Normal?” an edgy feature-length drama, based on her life. Ginny, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

Ginny Scales Medeiros 1:30

I am

Gresham Harkless 1:31

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, the first question I had Ginny is if you can introduce yourself a little bit more. And tell us about your CEO story. And what led you to start your business?

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Ginny Scales Medeiros 1:39

I was on my own at 15. And I already knew that my God-given talent and we all have one but I knew that mine was selling because I had a knack for taking the abandoned kittens that were left in the field next to where I lived way out in the middle of nowhere and finding homes for them. And then I also was knocking on doors and selling greeting cards. I actually had more spending money than my parents.

And when I was 19. I was out on my own when I was 19. I got into the auto industry and I sold the car my first day sold the car every day for a month, I was the salesperson of the year, six years in a row and I purchased my first house when I was 23. My second house was when I was 27 on my own in California. And this is without finishing school. This is all based on my selling ability good old-fashioned selling.

So, I remember one day being out on the car lot and thinking to myself, wow, if I could think of and create my own product to sell that would be the ultimate. And this is where the idea of perfecting sunless tanning applications came into my mind blacklight sunless tanning and then I did the research. I got a couple of patents and I trademark the name Flawless Sunless Tanning, I started knocking on doors and got it on the shelves of world-class spa resorts like the Canyon Ranch, the MGM Grand, and also all the noble houses, hotels, and spa resorts offered my product. And now what I've done is written a book about it. Because I think I have my life story as a good message. Being 15 on my own no education, but believing in myself, I have succeeded.

Gresham Harkless 3:31

I wanted to drill down a little bit deeper and hear a little bit more about what you're doing with What Is Normal TV. Hear a little bit more about your book and also if you want to touch on your product and anything else additional.

Ginny Scales Medeiros 3:41

So, what I'm doing is I decided to write a book based on my story because my story has motivated people along the line as people have said to me, you didn't finish high school, you don't have a college degree. How did you get QVC to put your product on their people have to fill out applications and their product and I said I don't follow any of the rules. I made cold calls. I love cold calls. I mean I love cold calls. If I can make a sale from a cold call that's like the ultimate to me.

And so I just got on the phone QVC started making phone calls, got a warm body on the phone gave my elevator pitch which I actually created an elevator pitch for a contest at startupnation.com And one and got a bot on a radio show and I didn't realize at that time how important that elevator pitch was going to be. But when you are in a position where you run into somebody and they're a contact for you to have your pitch down to one minute, that's what I had perfected.

So, when I got on the phone with QVC when I got a warm body on the phone, I pitched my product and just me by myself making a cold call. They Set up a face-to-face meeting for me to present my product to them I did it by myself, and I got my product on QVC. And I was able to sell it on QVC, myself.

Gresham Harkless 5:11

I love that story. And I love how you've been able to definitely get your name out there and build that and do the cold calls. And I wanted to ask you, and you might have already touched on this for what I call your secret sauce. Which kind of your differentiator sets you apart? So, do you have an example of a secret sauce you can give for us?

Ginny Scales Medeiros 5:26

Well, my secret sauce is I truly to the core of my being believe there's always, always a way. And that's the beauty of my novel “What Is Normal” you can see, my story starts out as a little girl that lives in a trailer out in the middle of nowhere in upstate New York that's later turned into a chicken coop with her teenage high school dropout parents. On my own at 15. I started proving over and over to myself that there's always a way. My secret sauce is not to be afraid to break the rules. When I got my literary agent, my publishing contract, I did not follow those rules that said, you need to send a query letter and it needs to be double spaced, and all that stuff, because then I would have been just one person in a line that looked like every other person in that line. I did not follow any of the rules.

And see my philosophy is this Gresham. I don't care if somebody speaks to me because they want to get rid of me or because they want to take care of whatever it is I'm asking for either way I make that contact and then it's up to me to sell them. So, if I'm annoying, not annoying, but if I'm not in line, and I'm like not following the rules, and I stand out, and they need to talk to me to tell me this isn't how you do it, you got to do it this way. I've got somebody to speak to. And now I can sell them.

Gresham Harkless 7:11

There you go. Yeah, a lot of times, I always remind myself that the squeaky wheel gets the oil.

Ginny Scales Medeiros 7:15

Exactly.

Gresham Harkless 7:16

Sometimes you have to be that. And when you are being unique to yourself and you're being quote-unquote, I'm using air quotes, normal so to speak, then you have an opportunity, when you're not doing that, I should say you have the opportunity to kind of break through the noise.

Ginny Scales Medeiros 7:28

Yes, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. So, it doesn't matter why they decide they need to speak to me if they need to speak to me to tell me, Hey, you have to follow the rules. That's okay, I got a chance to speak to them. And pretty much that's what it was with the book. And I ended up with a literary agent and a publishing contract before I was done with that book.

Gresham Harkless 7:47

Nice.

Ginny Scales Medeiros 7:48

I'm on my second edition now. And as my focus is getting the funding for the film, I pitched it which I love at the Napa Valley Film Festival, and made the finals. And I was told that this is a story that audiences love. So, we are we've got a whole business plan, just like if you're going to start a business, we have a director, producer, cinematographer, we have all the staff, you can't ethically dark going to talent to get them attached until you have funding because you can imagine if you're going to Shirley MacLaine or Sally Fields with a script, and you want them to read it, and then the funding never comes through, they would just be reading scripts every day, because there are a million filmmakers out there that want to make a movie.

So, you got to have the funding in place. And that's what we're doing right now. And that's kind of like if I was going to start a company, here are the principles, this is their experience and why it's gonna be successful. Our producer has done 13 or 14 movies and has never lost money ever on any of them. They've all been a little bit smaller than what we're doing. They've all been a million-dollar movie or less. This film is going to be $2 million. But we have in our directors an award-winning director, he's had a script picked up by Warner Brothers. We have some real talent in our crew that is ready to go.

And we also have the business plan and the script in front of investors. Because the script has it starts back in the middle of nowhere in upstate New York, but it ends up with the electric car industry because I'm also a pioneer in the electric auto industry. I gave up gas, my gas automobile in 2007 and I'm in a documentary called What is the Electric Car. I'm also a co-author of “What is the Electric Car.” So, this script is really timely, and the right person is gonna see it's an inspirational message. It's edgy. But it's also something that is important for everyday people to see how practical really driving electric cars are.

Gresham Harkless 10:16

Awesome. No, that makes perfect sense. And I think everybody's definitely probably looking forward to it. Because everything else you've done has been like a homerun. So, definitely looking forward to kind of seeing when that comes out. And I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And this might be an app or book or habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient as a business owner.

Ginny Scales Medeiros 10:36

So, and I got to tell you, I thought a lot about this because I read these questions before the interview. And really honestly, the most important resource to me is Google search. I can ask absolutely anything. That is there's nothing that has become more of a tool in my world than that. I use it every day.

Gresham Harkless 11:01

Likewise, yeah, I use it just as much. So, I definitely think that's a great CEO hack. And now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And this might be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. Or if you can go into the time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Ginny Scales Medeiros 11:13

I would tell myself, plant a seed in the garden of your dream every day, meaning even if you're working at 9 to 5, which Gresham, I've never worked a 9 to 5 in my entire life ever. But if you are working from 9 to 5 and you have a dream, plan to seed in the garden of your dream every single day, and that means making the phone call and reaching out to somebody that can get you to the next level.

Like if it's somebody trying to write a book, and they reach out to me, which I have them so often, or how do you get a patent? How do you do a trademark? All kinds of stuff like that, I will give somebody the time that has given me some of their time, I just don't have the time to answer everybody. So, if somebody's taken some time to look at what I've got and who I am, I will definitely give them the same back. But plant a seed in the garden of your dream every day. That's my nugget. And pretty soon flowers start growing.

Gresham Harkless 12:15

Yeah, before you even know it. That's very, very true. And now I wanted to ask you my favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different, quote-unquote, CEOs on this show. So, one to ask you what does being a CEO means to you.

Ginny Scales Medeiros 12:29

Well, and again, and I had talked to you about this, originally, I'm not technically I'm not a CEO, but I'm an ND independent. So, I have the freedom of not following the manmade rules that have been set up around me because, in my world, I wouldn't be successful if I followed someone else's rules. And there's that old saying, if you're not working on your own dreams, somebody will hire you to be working on theirs.

And that's everybody. If you go to work for somebody, you're working on their dream so my definition of being my own CEO I guess, or my entrepreneur or the freedom of I get to say yes, I can meet you at this time or decide that I'm not going to do anything for two weeks or I don't work in 9 to 5 Monday through Friday my life is projected to project. I have the freedom of doing things my way. And we've seen a lot of leaders do that. A lot of leaders do it their way. And they're successful doing it people on the outside, look at him and go wow he goes to work in jeans and a T-shirt, or he brings his dog to work or he got a contract by doing XYZ which is totally not what they think they needed to do. Because a lot of us are programmed by our education.

Gresham Harkless 13:57

Ginny, I truly appreciate you for taking some time out of your schedule. What I want to do is pass you the mic so to speak to see if there's anything additional that you want to let our readers and our listeners know and also how best people can get a hold of you to find out about your novel and your movie deal and everything that you're doing.

Ginny Scales Medeiros 14:11

Great. Well, my name is Ginny Scales like the music scales, not the fish scales. I was called in school and Medeiros, ginnyscalesmedeiros.com is my main website. But also whatisnormal.tv like television is the book's website. And if you just Google Ginny, What Is Normal, Ginny Scales Medeiros you can see my Wikipedia, and you can easily contact me if you're interested in looking at our script.

Looking at our business plan, which is very unique and cutting edge, we have a very unique way for our investors to be pretty darn sure that this is going to be a win-win. And actually, the name of the script is “Win” which is the acronym for “What Is Normal” and is very fitting for the film. So, ginnyscalesmedeiros.com or whatisnormal.tv. And I wish everyone the best of luck out there.

Gresham Harkless 15:17

Thank you, and I appreciate you telling your story and all the awesome things that you're doing and going at the beat of your own drum so to speak, and we will make sure to have those links in the show notes just so that anybody can follow up with you. But again, I appreciate you and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Ginny Scales Medeiros 15:32

Thank you, Gresham.

Outro 15:34

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co

I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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