December 11, 2022 by Ewell Smith
Rich Shea - President Major League Eating Shares How to Crush PR
Rich Shea and his brother George are the founders of Major League Eating and Shea Communications. Based in New York City, MLE is the world body that governs all professional eating contests including a variety of food disciplines. The World Famous Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest is their crown jewel - it's the Super Bowl for Professional Eaters.
We sit down with Rich Shea to get his tips for entrepreneurs needing media exposure. We also get the back story...how did Rich and his brother George get an agency going in possibly the most cut-throat media market in the world - New York City. All from a one bedroom apartment with no kitchen in Chelsea...
Not just any agency...one that plays in two worlds. One world is classic PR and marketing including major crisis communications - small start up clients to multi-national companies. The other world, the one you may have seen on TV, produces sponsored stomach centric sporting events with a massive global reach.
Every 4th of July, Rich and George produce the World Famous Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest which has grown to cult level status. This single event generates over 300 million consumer impression in TV coverage alone. You can also add hundreds of millions of impressions as this event feeds rich content for social media.
Connect with Rich
Rich Shea on Linked In
https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-p-shea-7a789614/
Joey "Jaws" Chestnut holds the world record for Nathan's hotdogs; 75 hotdogs in 10 minutes at the World Famous Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest. He also maintains the longest win streak - 14 years dominating MLE. This one event lands over a half billion media impressions globally each year.
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About the Author
Ewell Smith is the publisher of CloseTheDeal.com and host of the Close The Deal Podcast, where he speaks with founders, sales leaders, and operators about building effective sales systems and scaling revenue. His work focuses on practical sales strategy, marketing execution, and the mindset behind consistent growth.
