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Member Spotlight: Mike Esterman Celebrity Booker

Mike Esterman of Esterman Entertainment is a celebrity personal appearance agent who has booked everyone from Cindy Margolis and Mario Lopez to Fergie and Kevin Federline for private parties and events. He's been featured on E! Entertainment Television, CNN's Showbiz Tonight, and The Today Show as a guest expert.

I sat down with Mike Esterman to talk about how small businesses can hire celebrities to help with their marketing and publicity efforts:

Jordan McAuley: What does a celebrity personal appearance agent do exactly?

Mike Esterman: While celebrities may have more than one agent (theatrical, speaking, voice over, etc.), I'm a non-exclusive conduit who gets them booked at private parties, special events, club appearances, store and restaurant openings, etc. The only events I myself do not book celebrities for are fundraisers or charity events.

Jordan: Why should a small business owner go through a personal appearance agent like yourself as opposed to the celebrity's theatrical agent?

Esterman: One reason is because I actually answer the phone and will give you a quick answer. Sometimes you can't get the celebrity's theatrical agent on the phone. And if you do get them on the phone, in order to book the celebrity for an event they want to know all about your personal business: what your books look like, how your business operates, your background, etc. You can actually speak to me with one phone call and I don't ask as many questions.

Read the rest of Mike Esterman's Insider Interview here >>

To learn more, visit How To Hire A Celebrity For Your Event.

Or watch him on The Today Show with Matt Laurer here:

Contact Any Celebrity In "The 4-Hour Workweek"

There's nothing better than reading a book and suddenly discovering that you're mentioned in it!

That's exactly what happened to me this week...

I was reading Timothy Ferriss' new book The 4-Hour Workweek (reviewed in the Money section of today's
USA Today) when I came upon not one... but TWO mentions of Contact Any Celebrity!

Here's a mention from page 203:

"Want a celebrity to endorse your product or be a spokesperson? It can cost a lot less than you think, if you do it right. I know of one clothing endorsement deal with the best pitcher in Major League Baseball that cost just $20,000 per year...

It is possible to do it yourself, as I have done many times. Contact Any Celebrity's online directory and its helpful staff will help you find any celebrity in the world."

Cool, right? It's also nice to know the author is a Contact Any Celebrity Member.

If you want to escape 9-5, live anywhere, and join the new rich (this is the book's subtitle), I highly suggest reading it.

More Tim Ferriss & "The 4-Hour Workweek":

• Tim Ferriss "4-Hour Workweek" Live Teleseminar

Teri Horton's "Who the #$&% Is Jackson Pollock?"

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT:

Did you happen to watch "Anderson Cooper 360" last night on CNN?

If so, you saw Anderson Cooper interview Contact Any Celebrity Member Teri Horton about a painting she bought for $5 at a thrift store that she's now selling for $50 million!

Why? Because she (and many other art experts) believe that her painting is an original Jackson Pollock -- one of the most influential American painters of the 20th century!

I actually interviewed Teri Horton a few months ago, long before Anderson Cooper got his hands on her :)

She's really a great lady and tells a very compelling story about alleged corruption in the high society world of art collectors and art museums.

Teri is a former truck driver with barely a high school education and not much money. She told me she knew absolutely nothing about art or Jackson Pollock (hence the movie's name) until she decided to buy the painting on a whim for $5 at a local thrift store.

Kudos to Teri for not being afraid to go up against the New York art world and for not selling out until she gets a fair price for her painting (recent Jackson Pollock's have sold for more than $100 million!).

In fact, Teri told me she originally bought the painting as a gag gift for a friend. As soon as she got it home, she called her friends to come over and destroy it just for fun because she thought it was so ugly!

Thankfully, one of her friends was an art teacher and had a hunch that the painting might be worth more than $5... more like $50 million!

A new documentary has just come out on DVD about Teri's Jackson Pollock discovery titled "Who the #$&% Is Jackson Pollock?"

So if you're interested at all in art, forensic science, or just a great story, I highly suggest you get yourself a copy.

For more info on the story, check out Anderson Cooper's blog.

P.S. Did I mention Teri Horton is a long-time Member of Contact Any Celebrity? We have only the best!