Reflections on our Oscars Experience, a year later.
Nearly a year to the day of our whirlwind, celebrity filled weekend Los Angeles celebrating the Oscars, CEO Alli writes on our experiences, what we learned, and where we're headed next. Check it out.
----
Disclaimer: I said I was going to write this a year ago. Shannon Cogan, my apologies for not sending my follow up after attending the Gifting Suite. As you can imagine, life as an entrepreneur has been a bit crazy and oh, so very exciting since we spent the weekend out in Hollywood. With this weekend being our year anniversary since the big event, I wanted to share a few takeaways:
Celebrities are human too. In fact, they sweat.
Listen, I run a bedding company for people who suffer from night sweats, so I’m quite comfortable with the bodily fluid talk. What I was so thrilled to know is that when celebrities rounded the corner and saw our bedroom they all had the same reaction: Shock. Awe. Guilty smile. Ask for a “feel” and a sample.
Unions are a very, very real thing.
I’m sure that you guys were all picturing that our experience was all sunshine and rainbows, right? Wrong. Not many people know that as soon as we walked off the plane at LAX we were informed that our mattress had been denied at the Gifting Suite because no one there was “allowed” to lift it off the truck.
Instantly my dreams of building this bedroom in the middle of Hollywood are in danger of being crushed, so what’s an entrepreneur do in this situation? React. I looked up a U-Haul location, rented a box truck, drove it 2 hours down the coast to the shipyard, and loaded that puppy up by hand with my two trusty sidekicks. Have I mentioned that I love you Berry and Ryan? Two hours and one stop at the hardware store later, we were on hands and knees building the bedroom of my dreams.
Selfies happen.
No explanation necessary – see for yourself.
Everyone loves Louisville. Not just the U-haul store owners who made a fortune on my misfortune. We made these cute little cards that every celebrity was handed when they walked in. One side said “Come visit us…”, and then the other said, “For a night cap!” or “For a quickie!”. The quickie was meant to be a quick photo opt in bed with our gregarious model, Karen Lee from Perfect Fit Models. So of course, this was a popular option. The night cap, however, drew quite a crowd of bourbon lovers.
Not being certain that I’d be able to ascertain the bottles of bourbon that I wanted to impress our guests with, I carefully packed and checked the three following bottles to share: Woodford Reserve, Maker’s Mark, and Angel’s Envy. Once they arrived at our bedroom we quickly poured a shot and if we were lucky, then they got into our wickedly-cool bed. The bourbon was undoubtedly a hit, but it was the stories of their visits to Churchill Downs or their meetings with JLaw that made them reminisce about our great city and ensured a positive encounter with the Wicked crew.
My butt sat where Jennifer Lawrence’s butt has sat.
This is what makes our entire trip worthwhile. If you remember, Jennifer Lawrence (our Louisville screen Queen) was nominated for her lead role in “Joy,” the courageous story of a female entrepreneur battling the odds to get her product manufactured in the U.S. and sold on HSN, the Home Shopping Network. Could it have been a better fit for us to be out there celebrating such an amazing actress who stole the screen to tell the story of my role model?! It was fate.
Luckily, I’ve got some very supportive and loving friends here in town and they made the call to introduce me to Jennifer’s mom, Karen, and we met up out in L.A. for a quick glass (or 3 of wine). For confidentiality's sake, I’ll leave the details out about my experience. But, let’s just say I am a forever grateful to the Lawrence family and my life has been changed. We have many new and exciting things ahead as Wicked Sheets progresses into 2017. Stay tuned!
