I’m Andreea Matei,
I help you drive traffic and product SALES to your ecommerce store. My passion is teaching entrepreneurs like YOU how to market your awesome products. Many of my methods are unconventional, which is why they WORK.
AS FEATURED IN:
The way back
Maybe you don’t know this, but I was born in communist Romania. Capitalism wasn’t anything I really knew about until my family immigrated to the U.S., settling in New York City. I was young enough, 12-years-old, to assimilate and embrace the American Dream with its values of democracy and yes, capitalism.
Invention is the mother of necessity
Like many of you, I started my entrepreneurial journey out of necessity. I was pregnant wanted to be home with my newborn baby and it quickly became clear that holding down a 9 to 5 corporate job was not even an option.
So many of you know this story… you’re making the choice to step out of the corporate world to parent your kiddos, demanding more flexibility than a 9 to 5 is willing to offer, wanting to avoid the excessive costs of childcare—but still needing income to support your family.
“You miss 100% of the shots that you don’t take.”
– Wayne Gretzky
I launched a t-shirt company
I was personally invested in making a difference in the world. I wanted to provide a product which would inspire people. In a yoga class, I was suddenly inspired to start a t-shirt company. I knew nothing about the apparel or t-shirt industry, how to manufacture a t-shirt, how to print one, how to sell to stores or even how to set up an online store to sell a product. But I knew how to research so I learned as much as I could and in 2007 launched Tees for Change with 96 shirts that sold out in a month. I made money!
In only 18 months I was running a six-figure business. In four years I had sold over 20,000 shirts in over 300 stores.
I stumbled
Like all entrepreneurs, I stumbled and made some very expensive mistakes. There was the time that I paid $6,000 to a PR company, resulting in nothing; and the one where I ran a $1,000 ad in a magazine that didn’t result in a single sale; oh and when I rented a booth at a tradeshow, selling a whopping three shirts; oh yes, and that time I ordered 5,000 shirts without asking for a sample and the shirts came back all wrong. Sound familiar?
Still, I was determined to suck the marrow out of my mistakes and learn. I adjusted course over and over, a mistake there, a success here. Repeat.
Media & Celebrities
My biggest success came from publicity. After the PR fiasco I changed course and began approaching media outlets—and yes, movie stars—directly, asking them to feature my shirts. I compiled publication deadlines and took notice of their editorial calendars for gift guides. I reached out to celebrities asking them to wear my shirts in public and share them on social media.
It worked! My t-shirts appeared in more than 200 magazines, newspapers and TV shows, including ABC, NBC, Fox, The Bonnie Hunt Show, Redbook, The Chicago Tribune, USA Today Magazine, Ladies’ Home Journal, Self, Shape, The Nest and many more. And I even got Tori Spelling, Ed Begley, Denise Richards, Sarah Jessica Parker and Sarah Michelle Gellar to wear my tees!
This kind of publicity didn’t cost a dime and it was extremely profitable.
“Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.”
– John Wesley
“Help me!”
Seeing my success, I was approached by all kinds of entrepreneurs who wanted to know how I had done it. What was my secret? What kind of formula did I use? How did I get all of those publications to feature my shirts? How on earth did I approach celebrities and get them to say yes?
I helped, obviously
Remembering all of the mentors who helped me along the way I wanted to be generous and help others. I started with an ebook, T-Shirt Profits: The Complete Guide to Starting Your Own Successful T-shirt Business, soon I was offering private and group coaching for other entrepreneurs.
This! This! This! My soul said.
I was getting so much pleasure out of helping other entrepreneurs become successful that it soon became my “calling,” my soul’s purpose.
In the meantime, I sold Tees for Change for a significant profit in 2011. In 2013 I launched Soaps to Live By and in nine short months my soaps were featured in more than 50 media outlets and I sold more than 6,000 bars of soap! I call that a success! I also started and sold an organic coupons website and a yoga product reviews website.
Still, my heart remains true to its calling of helping other entrepreneurs obtain success.
Help as many people as possible
I soon realized that I could help more people for a lower cost with online programs. I focus on two.
Media Leads is a matchmaking service, which connects YOUR BRAND to the MEDIA. Media outlets are desperately seeking your products, but I know how much legwork it takes to research editorial calendars and find the right contacts. I know the exact formula for pitching a product to editors, so I openly share the pitch templates, which have brought me so much success, with you. More than 1,200 Media Leads subscribers have been featured in hundreds of prestigious magazines and influential blogs including Oprah Magazine, Shape, Kiwi, Organic Spa, Pregnancy & Newborn, All You and so many more.
Your Ultimate Online Store is an online course where you’ll learn everything you need to know about setting up a super successful e-commerce website. As you know, growing your online sales can be done in two ways – drive more traffic to your online store AND/OR convert more of your existing traffic into sales (also known as “increasing conversions”). This self-paced online course focuses on increasing your conversions through growing your email list, writing product descriptions that do the selling for you, and some minor tweaks that you can implement that will result in a major increase in sales.
When I say your success is my success, I really mean it. It is the principle that I base my entire business model on. I want you to succeed. I will give you as much support and as many of the tools you need to make your own brand a success— if you will let me.
Are you really serious about your business? Are you determined? Are you excited?
Then you’re ready!
