Jordan McAuley, Founder of Contact Any Celebrity (with Ivanka Trump)

When you can’t find a head shot of yourself without a celebrity in it, you must be Jordan McAuley.  The 31 year-old  “King of Celebrity Contacts” and Founder of Contact Any Celebrity started his Hollywood-inspired career as a teenager and hasn’t looked back since (just ask Ivanka).

I have to say, I’m pretty impressed with the middle school version of Jordan, for turning his hobby of collecting celebrity contact information into a profitable business.  Had I known about guys like this back then, I probably would have spent less time thinking about Ricky Schroeder.  With far less than a business degree, or even a high school diploma, Jordan began selling mail-order celebrity contact lists he printed off an old dot-matrix printer for $30 apiece.  Jordan went on to college and paid his dues, earning a film degree from the University of Miami and working for a large media outlet as well as talent agencies in Hollywood.

But that’s not the fun part.  The fun part is imagining some teenage kid opening stacks of mail with checks inside.  Checks written by star-struck adults in search of autographs from their favorite Hollywood stars.  Not even Ricky Schroeder can say he’s done that.

1. Tell us about the services you offer through Contact Any Celebrity, and what separates you from your competition.

Contact Any Celebrity is an online Rolodex that offers the best  contact information for over 58,000 celebrities and public figures worldwide. It is updated daily, with every entry cross-referenced including phone, fax, and email addresses for the celebrity’s representatives (agent, manager, publicist, attorney, etc.). We also offer a postage refund guarantee, free research requests, weekly celebrity gift bag opportunities, and monthly insider interviews with guest experts.

2. You recently began posting celebrity twitter names as part of your directory.  How else have you kept up with the changing needs of your customers?

Originally, Contact Any Celebrity only provided mailing addresses for fans who wanted to request autographs by mail. Over time, many professionals began using the service, including nonprofits, businesses, authors, and the media. They wanted phone, fax, and email addresses, not for the celebrity’s themselves, but for their representatives (agent, manager, publicist, etc.). Now with Twitter and Facebook, people are able to contact celebrities directly, but it’s still difficult to know which profiles are real and which ones are fake. We save you time by listing the celebrity’s real profile in our Rolodex, so you can contact them directly from our site.

3. What five celebrity contacts are most requested from your database, and do you notice any trends?

This year the top 5 have been 1) Robert Pattinson 2) Oprah 3) Barack Obama 4) Miley Cyrus 5) Kate Gosselin.  The trends are when a personality suddenly becomes a fan favorite, like Robert Pattinson from Twilight. Or sadly when tragedy strikes.  Everyone wanted to contact Patrick Swayze when he was diagnosed with cancer, and now everyone wants to reach out to Michael Jackson’s relatives.

4. Your business taps into a relatively recent phenomenon.  Why do you think we as a culture are now so obsessed with celebrities?

Celebrities have always been popular, but in the past they were put higher up on a pedestal. People seemed more in awe of them. Today, we’re constantly seeing their flaws. Whether it’s in celebrity magazines, on TV reality shows, or online blogs. We don’t see celebrities as perfect anymore. One of Us Weekly’s most popular sections is called “Stars, They’re Just Like Us!” We feel like we know them. The economy and the war in Iraq is also part of the “fame junkie” equation, because people want to escape.

5. Aside from the website, you’ve also written a couple of books.  What are they, and how can they help a business owner like myself get products in the hands of celebrities?

The Celebrity Black Book is our annual directory of celebrity contact information. It comes out every year, listing the best mailing addresses for over 55,000 celebrities and public figures worldwide. For insider tips and tricks on how to contact celebrities in person, by mail, and online I recommend my other book, ‘Secrets to Contacting Celebrities: 101 Ways to Reach the Rich and Famous.” Both are available on Amazon. My new book, ‘Celebrity Leverage: How to Get Celebrity Endorsements, Instant Credibility and Star-Powered Publicity’ comes out in September for business owners and entrepreneurs.

6. What do you enjoy most about owning your own business?

Being able to make my own schedule — to some extent — and to make my own decisions. I get to do the parts I enjoy like marketing and publicity and outsource the things I don’t enjoy or don’t know how to do like database programming. I also don’t like anyone telling me what to do, so I love being my own boss!

7. Describe the ideal person who would complement both your life and your business.

Someone who has their own business or career and understands my schedule. I work — a lot. There are so many things I want to do. My business has become really successful but this is just the tip of the iceberg. I’m not ready to settle down, lie on a couch and eat bon bons all day. I’d love to find someone who wants to contribute something to the world and is working to achieve that. We’d both be really busy but could plan a nice vacation together every once in a while.

8. Has being a single entrepreneur helped you or hurt you in business and why?

It’s helped in the fact that I’m not distracted and I have a lot of time to get things done. I’m not ready to settle down. For me work is fun. If I could find someone else who works a lot but enjoys it as much as I do, that would be amazing!

Jordan’s Bio:

Jordan McAuley’s record spans more than a decade in publicity, marketing, publishing, events and entrepreneurship.  Known as the “King of Celebrity Contacts,” his Contact Any Celebrity service is one of the most respected publicity resources in the world, with a blue-chip roster of over 5,000 marketers, publicists, nonprofits, journalists, and media clients who rely on it daily.

McAuley has been quoted in USA Today, Entertainment Weekly, Investor’s Business Daily, Publisher’s Weekly, Out Magazine, Inside Direct Mail, E! Online and other local and national media. He and his clients have been featured by the Associated Press, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Star Magazine, Village Voice, Entrepreneur Magazine, Instinct Magazine, and more. He has also appeared on CNN, National Public Radio (NPR), Q Television, Better TV, and Sirius/XM Satellite Radio.  He is a member of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), the GLAAD Media Circle, and the Information Marketing Association (IMA).

Jordan McAuley was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Communication (Motion Picture Business and English Literature) from the University of Miami in 2000.

Want to connect with Jordan?  Follow him on Twitter and Facebook!