Spotlight On The Celebrity-Preneur.
In light of Notelog.com co-founder Mike Fingado creating another great concept dubbed Athletepreneur (connecting athletes who excel outside the sport to become entrepreneurs), I thought I’d take a moment to spotlight on some celebs who have stepped off the stage, runway, or even just outside the club and tried their hand at becoming entrepreneurs.
Let’s get the first one out of the way. Of course I’m going to name the Kardashian clan. In 2010 the family as a whole earned a whopping $65 million. How, you might ask (with your head shaking in disgust)? The Kardashians have their fingers dipped into almost every market right now. Acting, clothing, skincare, body health, modeling, and producing are only a few of the markets in which this family dominates.
Next, a much more acceptable celebrity entrepreneur is Gwen Stefani. As an entrepreneur, she balances motherhood with a clothing line, shoe line, fragrance set, and music career.
Ashton Kutcher is one of the most renowned celebrity entrepreneurs as he and his wife, Demi Moore, are thoroughly involved in many charities and functions that promote better causes throughout the world. He endorses a number of products (his biggest promotion being Nikon cameras) and started his own media production company, called Katalyst Media.
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, or ‘The famous Olsen twins’. Since these girls were 9 months old they have been dominating the small and silver screen with their crafted movies. They started their own production firmed called Dual Star, and most girls that grew up with the Olsen Twins remember their clothing and hair care line. Most recently, the girls have stepped into the big leagues; they created a coffee-table book full of fashion, essays, and pictures chronicling different timelines of fashion icon developments.
Robert DeNiro holds a special place in this list because he is one of the most respected celebrities alive and offers an immense amount of intelligence along with his vast talent. DeNiro has an investation in Manhattan, NY where he has co-founded the Tribeca Film Festival. He also writes for the Daily Mail and co-founded the popular Japanese restaurant, Nobu. While he has made countless amazing movies, he has tried and succeeded in his hand as an entrepreneur.
Who doesn’t know Tyra Banks? She used to be one of the most popular Victoria’s Secret Angels, is historical for being the first African American woman to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated and simultaneously hosts and produces a number of shows. One of her most famous productions comes in the cycles of America’s Next Top Model, where she encourages young girls aspiring to be models to follow their dreams and teaches them the techniques they must use to succeed. This, combined with her talk show Tyra, has led to a successful bank account within her own production company, known as Bankable Productions (original, huh?).
The lists of celebrities who have chosen to endorse products are endless. We see celebrities only wearing certain jewelry names to award events, hoping to be photographed and increase sales for that brand. We see stars endorse political figures in an effort to help sway the vote; Carrie Underwood spoke out against this because she said the star power was an advantage over people’s decisions.
While becoming a celebrity entrepreneur (or athletepreneur) is great for a celebrity’s career, it also comes with extreme responsibility to always be a role model because you are representing a brand, not just oneself. The public has seen what happens when someone endorsing a product acts in a negative way in the public eye (i.e. Tiger Woods, Jesse James; both stripped of some of their endorsements). However, while not all of these entrepreneur acts are in the best interest of the public (more for the monetary gain), achievement points must be given for their accomplishments.
Lindsay Marder
Social Learning Guru
