IAM1416 – CEO Creates a Concierge to Help People Achieve Their Greatness

Linda Hollander has been featured by Inc. and Entrepreneur Magazines as the leading expert on corporate sponsorship. She is the author of the book, Corporate Sponsorship in 3 Easy Steps. She is also the CEO of Sponsor Concierge and the founder of the Sponsor Secrets Seminar.

Her sponsors include Microsoft, Citibank, Fed Ex, American Airlines, Wells Fargo, Staples, Health Net, Marriott, Southwest Airlines, Dun & Bradstreet, Epson, Wal-Mart, Bank of America, and IBM.

She has over 20 years of experience as a small business owner. She has also been featured on NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX Television, Bloomberg, Forbes, Los Angeles Times, Woman’s Day, and Remarkable Women.

She lives in Los Angeles, California with her husband, Leslie Greenfield, and their various rescue cats.

• CEO Story: Linda’s big dream was to conduct a Women’s Small Business Expo to show how to empower women. She started selling her sponsorship concept to the big brands at her event. For over ten years, women from all over then started to attend the event and meet their business partners. But Linda would not have achieved her dream hadn’t she let go of her past toxic relationship and a harsh work environment – meeting dead ends on her bills and stress.
• Business Service: Help people especially business owners get sponsors.
• Secret Sauce: Mission statement. Help people achieve their greatness. Live well and have fun.
• CEO Hack: App mentions: Goggle calendar – a great online resource for appointments. Lastpass – password vault.
• CEO Nugget: Adventure – meeting other people, spending time with clients. Leveling up, brainstorming, and having breakthroughs.
• CEO Defined: Being the master of your own life. The most rewarding thing that you can do because you have total independence.

Website: sponsorconcierge.com

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Transcription

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00:23 – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups,s, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkness 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.

00:50 – Gresham Harkless

Hello, Hello, Hello, this is Gretch from the I Am CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today, Evelynda Hollander, a sponsored concierge. Linda, super excited to have you on the show.

01:00 – Linda Hollander

Great to be here.

01:01 – Gresham Harkless

Yes. Excited to have you on and talk about all the awesome things that you're doing. But before we jump in, I want to read a little bit more about Linda so you can hear about some of those awesome things. Linda has been featured by Inc. And Entrepreneur magazine as the leading expert on corporate sponsorship. She is the author of the book Corporate Sponsorship in Three Easy Steps. She is also the CEO, a sponsored concierge, and the founder of the sponsor Secret Seminar. Her sponsors include Microsoft, Citibank, FedEx, American Airlines, Wells Fargo, Staples, Health Net, Marriott, Southwest Airlines, Dun & Bradstreet, Epson, Walmart, Bank of America, and IBM.

She has over 20 years of experience as a small business owner and she has been featured on NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox Television, Bloomberg, Forbes, Los Angeles Times, Women's Today, and Remarkable Woman. She lives in Los Angeles, California with her husband Leslie Greenfield, and their various rescue cats. Linda, I appreciate all the awesome things that you're doing and of course, being on the show, you're ready to speak to the IMCO community.

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01:59 – Linda Hollander

I am so ready. Thank you so much for the opportunity.

02:02 – Gresham Harkless

Yes, I definitely appreciate it. Maybe we'll get an appearance from a rescue cat or something during this. I would love that.

02:08 – Linda Hollander

You know, you know, cats there, she's sleeping in the other room. So.

02:11 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, that's right. She said you don't want to be bothered by this. Tell me, tell me when it's time to eat. Right? Exactly. So to kind of kick everything off, I wanted to rewind the clock and hear a little bit more about how you got started, what I call your CEO story.

02:23 – Linda Hollander

Okay. All Right. I started started a business with my best friend. Her name is Cheryl. And I want your audience to know that you can meet your power collaborations anywhere. Because Cheryl and I met when we were 13 years old at recess. And we were standing there with our bobby socks and our lunch pails and you know, we just became really bonded closer than sisters. And we said, oh my God, one day if we do anything together, it will be phenomenal. So we started a business and the business was shopping bags. Not lady's purses, but the bags that you see at trade shows, the bags that you see at the shopping malls. And we knew nothing about business. She was a cinema major, I was an art major.

I never took a single business class in college because I thought business was just completely boring. But we did start this business together and even, you know, with our lack of experience and knowledge, we grew it into a multimillion-dollar enterprise. And you know, I got to work with my best friend and it was wonderful. But before I started that business, I was not in a good place. I was working at a dead-end job. I had to fight traffic to get to the office in the morning. When I got there, I had a very abrasive relationship with my boss. I had to work with people I didn't like, and didn't respect. And even though I was working, when I would go to my mailbox in the morning, my hand would literally shake.

Why do you think I was afraid of my mailbox? Stress or the stress and bills? Oh yes, bills in that mailbox I could not ever afford to pay because I wasn't making enough at my job. So I borrowed on credit cards and I just couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel. And in my personal life, I was in an abusive relationship with a man. And you know, the work situation was toxic. Sometimes I would go down to my car at lunch hour and I would cry instead of eating lunch. But one day, fortunately, I did have an epiphany and I said, I don't want to be a victim anymore. So I fired my boss, I dumped the abusive boyfriend, and then you know what, all the good things in my life happened when I made that decision to strike out on my own and start a business.

I was able to move out of my little rent-controlled apartment. And you mentioned cats. They didn't allow cats in the apartment, so I had to hide the cat, you know, and that was really important to me when I bought my first home because I could have as many pets as I wanted. I was able to travel the world but what I loved mostly was coaching and mentoring because people would come, they wouldn't just buy the bags, they would say, Linda, how do I do sales? How do I do marketing? So my big dream was the Women's Small Business Expo because I wanted to show other women how to get empowered financially by starting and succeeding in their own small business.

So I look at it and I say, oh, how am I going to pay for this? Because at that time, I wasn't in the bag business anymore. I was in the kitchen with the cat. And I said, I want to do this event, but I don't know how to pay. And that is what really we are taught to have these big dreams. But, you know, nobody teaches us how to pay for the big dreams. Because when you look at your big dream, you say, oh, this is going to take capital and money. And so I said, what are these things called sponsors? And I found out that sponsors will underwrite your event, your business if you want to do what you do a show if you're an influencer if you want to write books, if you want to speak, and if you have a nonprofit.

So my very first sponsors, now I got these before I did my first event, I sold them on the concept were Bank of America, Walmart, and IBM. And then after that, I got the ones that you read in the introduction. Microsoft, FedEx, Staples, American Airlines, Marriott Hotels, etc. And I did that event for 10 years. Oh, my God. Women came from all over the world to come to the event. Women met their business partners, they were able to buy better homes, you know, build their own multimillion-dollar businesses, and it was all because of sponsors.

07:00 – Gresham Harkless

Nice. Well, I appreciate you sharing your story and your journey so much. And, you know, I really appreciate it so much because we don't always hear the behind-the-scenes, the things that maybe didn't go according to plan. So I wanted to drill down a little bit more, hear a little bit more about how you're working with your clients, and hear a little bit more about your book as well. Could you take us through a little bit more about that and how you're making that impact for the clients you work with?

07:21 – Linda Hollander

Sure. Okay. My book is Corporate Sponsorship in Three Easy Steps. And at the end of this, hopefully, just remind me, that I want to give a free gift to the listeners. So corporate Sponsorship in Three Easy Steps. It's available on Amazon or my website. Sponsor concierge. The way I work with clients is clients will call me and they'll say the same thing. They'll Say, hey, this is my big dream. But, you know, what's getting between my big dream and. And making it happen is finances. And, you know, I just need the money to do this. So we look at what they're doing.

We look at what they can offer their sponsors, we offer services, and how to package them for success with their sponsors, including the proposals and all the documentation that you need. And sponsorship. Remember, it's money you don't have to pay back, and they don't check your credit. And when I found out they weren't going to check my credit, I said, oh, my God, hallelujah. Because mine was so bad. And you know what? Most business owners that I work with don't have great credit because we're risk-takers. And unfortunately, that shows up on our FICO score. So that's all I do now is help people get sponsors.

08:35 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome, Awesome, Awesome. So what would you consider to be what I like to call your secret sauce? And this could be for yourself, the business, or a combination of both. But what do you feel kind of?

08:44 – Linda Hollander

Sets you apart and makes unique my secret sauce? And I would recommend this to all the CEOs. Listening is a mission statement. Write that down. Mission statement. Because you include your mission statement in your business planning, and in your sponsor proposals. My mission is to help other people achieve their greatness. I want to live well, and I want to have fun. That is it. And that has really defined the trajectory of my success, because in the early days of my business.

You know, I was struggling, and I took any client that would pay me, you know, that had a credit card, and some of them were just really obnoxious. And now I could be really picky and really choosy and only work with the clients that I want to work with. Because if I'm not going to have fun, I am not going to do it. So I really think you need to write a mission statement. And mine used to be a page long, and now it is just that one sentence.

09:41 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome, Awesome, Awesome. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and you might have already touched on this, but I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what is something that makes you more effective and efficient?

09:54 – Linda Hollander

Okay, well, one of my favorite hacks is Google Calendar. It's a free resource calendar.google.com oh, my God. It has allowed me to work all over the world. So even if I'm not here in my home office in Los Angeles, California, I could Work all over the world. And it's a great online resource, and it also reminds people of when you have, you know, appointments with them. Another one is LastPass. LastPass is a password vault.

And LastPass, you know how you have all these different passwords and sometimes you have to have a special character or a capital letter and, you know, LastPass, you remember one password and it unlocks the vault and, you know, wherever you are. Like, because when I was just traveling on a speaking tour and I tried to sign in for a site, and then it says, oh, we don't recognize you. What's your password? And I didn't have to remember it. I just had to go look it up. And it was easily accessible and it is secure.

10:57 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome, Awesome, Awesome. So I want to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So this is a little bit more of a word of wisdom or piece of advice. I like to say it might be something you would tell your favorite client, might be something you mentioned in your book, or if you were to hop into a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

11:13 – Linda Hollander

I like to have a theme for the year, and my theme for the year this year is adventure. And, you know, that's what it's all about for me. I've been to over 20 countries for a time. Before the pandemic, I was traveling once a year. I would travel internationally, and I've got the travel bug like you wouldn't believe. But adventure is not only, you know, ziplining in the rainforest in Costa Rica or going to the great pyramids in Egypt, which I've done. But adventure to me is also meeting people like you. You know, spending time with clients, spending time with people up, leveling, leveling up brainstorming, and having breakthroughs. So that's also an event. My business is the biggest adventure I've created in my life.

12:02 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, that makes so much sense. And it's so funny that you said that, because when I heard the word adventure, I was like, that sounds like that aligns so much with the mission that you talked about before and how you can have that adventure. And it manifests itself in so many different ways, so many times. We don't get that opportunity to kind of experience, like, where we are completely. We go for the event, and we check off that box, so to speak. But there's so much there that we would never know if we didn't kind of venture out and try those different things.

12:27 – Linda Hollander

Exactly.

12:28 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome, Awesome, Awesome. So I wanted to ask you now for my absolute favorite question. Which is the definition, of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different, quote, unquote, CEOs on the show. So, Linda, what does being a CEO mean to you?

12:39 – Linda Hollander

Being a CEO is being the master of your own life. It is being the ultimate designer, ringmaster, a juggler. But ultimately, being a CEO is the most rewarding thing that you can do because you have total independence. And independence and liberty are so important to us as Americans. It's printed on all of our coins. So that's what being a CEO is to me. And you know what? Being a CEO, you're going to have challenges. Because, you know, when I was in my business and I had, you know, we had facilities, we had printing facilities, we had officers space, we had a showroom, and there was a mouse that got in.

And when I was first getting started, we couldn't afford to hire somebody. So I'm on the floor plugging up the hole where the mouse was coming in. And I said, hey, this is the glamorous life of being an entrepreneur, you know, and sometimes you gotta do that, you know. But I said, hey, what's the alternative, you know, having a boss have control over my life, Having maybe some relatives come into town and I can't even spend time with them because I can't get the time off from my job? No, it is worth fighting for freedom and liberty is worth the fight.

14:00 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. Well, Linda, truly appreciate your time even more. So what I wanted to do now was pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know. Would love to hear about that free offer and of course, how best people can get ahold of you, and find out about all the awesome things you and the team are working on.

14:16 – Linda Hollander

Okay, well, my free offer is the number one secret for getting sponsors. So if you go to my website, successwithsponsors.com, you can get that number one free secret to getting sponsors@successwithsponsors.com and it is my pleasure and my honor to offer that to you. The last piece of advice that I want to give you is to just really hold your head up high. Know that you can do this. As I said, I sold my sponsors when I had an idea in my little brain and I had a lot of fear around it because I looked at a billboard and saw Bank of America while I was driving and I was basically in a traffic jam and I self-sabotage for two weeks. I said, you know what? Bank of America is going to reject me I'm going to make a fool out of myself.

I don't want any part of it. But I got enough courage after two weeks. My mission, remember the mission to help people was so strong that I picked up the phone, called them, and got the guy who could greenlight the sponsorship. They became my very first sponsor for my very first event. And this was even before I did an event. So you don't need experience, you don't need a following. And it was a five-figure deal. It was over $10,000 for my very first sponsorship. And so that's what I want to tell people. You know, even if you're working in your kid's bedroom in a little postage size office, you know, know that you can do this. I believe in you and you know, just go forth and create your greatness.

15:54 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome, Awesome, Awesome. I truly appreciate that. We're of course going to have the links and information in the show notes and they can also get a copy of your book on your website as well.

16:01 – Linda Hollander

Absolutely.

16:02 – Gresham Harkless

Okay. So you can also get a copy of the book. So I absolutely appreciate, you know, you and all the awesome things that you're doing. Not only does Linda believe in you, I also believe in you as well too. So make sure that you go forth and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

16:15 – Linda Hollander

Thank you so much.

16:16 – Outro

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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