BRIAN RATNER AND JAMIE RATNER (CERTIFIKID)
© 2018 American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

It has been one week since I found out we would be on Shark Tank. I have never experienced anything like this week. My phone is buzzing every second from the time I wake up until I pass out at night. People keep telling me this is only the beginning of the Shark Tank ride, but I can’t imagine getting any higher than I feel at this moment. My adrenaline is pumping 24/7 and I can barely sleep both from the excitement and my endless checklist which is taking a huge toll on me physically as I am already so drained!

The topper of the week was seeing the preview for our April 7th episode at the end of last night’s show. Brian and I rewound it about ten times and laughed our heads off, especially the part at the end where he says, “My family’s gonna come in here and tackle you . . . do the deal….. just do it!” as I am hysterically laughing by his side.  How are you supposed to sleep after seeing that?!

Then, there is my daily routine of getting the kids up, making breakfast and lunches, clearing the dishwasher, doing the laundry, getting the kids to/from school and any doctor appointments, getting in my daily run, driving carpool for kids to soccer practices, making dinner, helping the kids with their homework, and refereeing their (loving) bickering. On the business side, I am managing and leading my sales team, doing extensive outreach to existing and potential partner businesses, planning for our 300+ person Shark Tank Watch Party, doing press interviews, and responding to all of the amazing well wishes that have been coming in from near and far for which I am so grateful!

My sales team is doing all they can to take full advantage of this incredible opportunity for our partner businesses to get them in front of 5 million+ Shark Tank viewers. They are working harder than ever (which means they are asking me questions and for approvals literally every 5 minutes!). This probably has been my favorite thing to see out of this entire experience. It has really shown me that my team shares my enthusiasm about our business and this amazing opportunity. If you have ever run a sales team, you know how challenging it is to maintain consistency, as once people do well, they naturally take their foot off the gas, so you are constantly dealing with highs and lows. To see everyone with their foot on the gas all at once and so motivated is an incredible feeling.

The number of businesses beating down our door to get on the site for the Shark Tank airing has been off the charts and mind blowing. Everyone understands the power of the ‘Shark Tank effect’ and wants to get that exposure on our site. By the time our episode airs, we are going to have the most insanely amazing selection of offers you can imagine (I am dying to give some hints, but I can’t!). However, with all of this activity on the sales side, comes incredible demands on our back-end to get full deal write-ups and contracts in place, requiring our terrific operations and administrative team to also work their butts off like never before to make all of this happen. It feels like we are getting ready for our own Super Bowl!

I have absolutely loved hearing from businesses we work with about the Shark Tank news. Here are some that made me chuckle:

“Congrats! This is so fun. I had NO idea you were the head honcho over there!!!”
– The Paintbrush Art Studio

“I’m confused, though, you’ve already made it. You’re big time.”
– The Great Zucchini

I have also truly enjoyed getting messages from personal and professional friends, contacts and colleagues from over the years – from high school friends to former employees to alumni associations. Everyone is asking me “How can I help?” The answer is by SHARING the news with your own personal and professional networks about our Shark Tank airing so they can learn about CertifiKID. Our goal is to grow this business nationwide and we know that the power of sharing and exposure is how this will happen!

I can’t even believe we have two more weeks until the episode airs . . . ok, back to work . . .