What a day we had at Pixologie! A Shark Tank kind of day complete with our 60 second pitch, plenty of photos ops and lots of fun at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Thanks to US Cellular, Shark Tank had the open casting call in Milwaukee today. We’ve had so many people tell us we should submit our business to be on the show – that it seemed like a no-brainer to get in line at 5:30 am this morning to join the line of other would be “bait” for the sharks!

The sunrise at the Milwaukee Art Museum!

At 5:30 am, there was a nice line going around the railing on the South side of the building. We figured we had around 60 people in front of us . . . and the line stretched out down the steps of the museum and just south to Michigan Street. The first people in line had arrived at 2:30 pm the day before and slept overnight! We thought about that – but we are NOT that fanatical about the front row! :  )

At 6:00, when we were fresh and ready!

We enjoyed visiting with the other people waiting in line and we definitely made some new friends. In a way, this casting call was like a big networking event. We also had fun watching all the media, Shark Tank staff and US Cellular staff with video cameras interviewing people. We saw fun clothing, a cabinet maker, an awesome type of thermostat, an annual birthday book journal, kitty litter picker-upper, makeup and much, much more.

He created a make-up line!

Finally, Scott Salyers came up to announce the handing out of bracelets. While we waited for ours – he was gracious enough to have his photo taken with us!

With Scott Salyers – funny, funny guy! Made us laugh a lot during our time at the casting call!

And then . . . our Shark Tank bracelet arrived and looks so good below along with our Rustic Cuff bracelet which states “Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail!” We are blessed every day knowing that our work will help others learn how photo organization and management can bring memories out of chaos and back into life to be celebrated and shared!

Woohoo! #53 in line!

Around 9:15 we were invited inside and loved, loved the air conditioning! Everyone was encouraged to find a seat where Scott then gave tips, instructions and funny smart aleck remarks. Put everyone at ease! (Like they wouldn’t be timing us with timers; that we didn’t have to be perfect – but be ourselves and do be sure to ask for a specific amount of money. )

The pitches went very fast. Around 10:12 they called the first numbers and by 11:05, I think they were calling us up! In the room where we gave our pitch, they had five tables set up for a quick turnaround. We got set up quickly!

Our pitch went exactly as we planned and practiced. . .

• Gave a great, relevant statistic (Yahoo! reports that 1 trillion photos will be taken this year and that is in addition to the 3.5 trillion already taken since the 1800s)
• Had a fun visual (ours was a clear container of lots of photos, slides, old albums, VHS tapes all mixed together) – the casting gal said it looked like her mother’s house!
• Introduced ourselves and our company
• A couple of lines about what we do (Photos out of chaos and into life to be celebrated & shared, etc. etc)
• A line about why we are unique (hands-on help, studio location & trademark licensing)
• Our ask – you’ll find out what ours was if we are ever on the show! : )

The gal said we did great – and she smiled at us! We don’t think we could have done it any better!

We’ll find out how we did in the next week. If we get a phone call, we’ll get a second interview. No phone call? Well, we had a WONDERFUL time!

Back out into the gathering area, we were so happy that we hadn’t been devoured and spit back out by the casting crew! Then we met Barclay Pollak, from US Cellular’s sister company, TDS to mingle and interview some of us entrants.  We had fun telling him about Pixologie – and he asked us how we knew he had lots of VHS tapes at home. (Because everyone over 20 either has VHS tapes or they have their parents!)

Barclay, Ann and another really nice guy – they owe us a video in a month or two! : )

After that we headed over to the US Cellular Semi-Truck Trailer/Entertainment Center and thanked the staff there for helping bring Shark Tank to Milwaukee!

We came, we pitched, we survived!

POSTSCRIPT – To write this blog, I used the photos from two cell phones, a camera card, the camera’s memory, Twitter & Facebook. It was hard! No wonder we need photo organizers! :  )

Website: pixologieinc.com

Business Development: pixologiebusinessdevelopment.com