Discover the Magic Behind Sushi the Influencer Dog

What happens when a person who’s indifferent to dogs ends up adopting a pooch that becomes an internet sensation? Join us as we chat with Teresa and her adorable, blue-eared dog Sushi, the social media star who's captured hearts worldwide. Teresa takes us through her transformative journey from being apathetic about pets to becoming a dedicated dog mom. You'll hear the touching adoption story and the creative spark behind Sushi's Instagram, which began as a way to fill the gap of baby pictures and has since evolved into a vibrant online community. Teresa also unveils the careful process behind Sushi’s signature blue ears, and how this unique look has played a role in making Sushi a sought-after dog model and influencer.

In the second half of our conversation, Teresa shares her insights into the dynamic world of influencer marketing. Discover how she navigates brand partnerships, from reaching out to companies like Zinus and iRobot Roomba to collaborating on significant campaigns with Petco. Teresa also offers a behind-the-scenes look at the rise of TikTok and Instagram Reels, and provides invaluable advice for new influencers on how to stay ahead of trends while adding a personal flair. Get ready to be inspired by her stories of public recognition, viral moments, and the delicate balance of fun and consistency in content creation. This episode is a treasure trove of tips and tales for anyone interested in the influencer world or simply a fan of charming canine stars.

Transcript

Celebrity Pets

Speaker 1 0:00

While their names may not draw Kardashian-level attention , many special pets find work in film , stage , television , web , print and fashion . Sure Lassie had looks and Morris the Cat had charm , but have you ever wondered if your pet could be a professional actor , model or influencer ? How many times have you seen an animal on TV or in print and thought my pet could do that ? The Positively Famous Podcast introduces you to celebrity pets and their trainers , tiktok , youtube and Insta-famous pets , pet fashion designers and the fashionistas themselves .

Speaker 2 0:32

Let's dive into this episode with your host , Dawn Wolf . Welcome to the show .

Speaker 3 0:38

Teresa . Hi thanks Dawn . Thanks for having me . I'm Teresa and this is Sushi .

Speaker 2 0:45

And this person . How did you get this cute little dog ?

Speaker 3 0:50

Actually , it's a really funny story . When I first got Sushi , that was about nine years ago , someone was trying to rehome her in the area and I got her for my boyfriend Really , and at the time I didn't like dogs yet and then I took her home and the rest is history . I'm obsessed with her and I am with her almost 24-7 . We do everything together .

Speaker 2 1:21

Aw , you fell in love , yeah , and now I'm obsessed with dogs as well so you got this cute little dog , and then what was your first social media ?

Speaker 3 1:34

account . I started her on Instagram about five years ago , yeah , and that was because I was looking at my phone and my photos and I noticed that I didn't have any baby pictures of her . So it made me really sad and I just thought , okay , starting today , I'm going to document her life , I'm going to make up for all the lost time that I don't have baby pictures of her as my way of honoring her and loving her . And , yeah , and that's how we started and that's how we slowly got our following on Instagram . And then TikTok is something that came later , maybe about a year and a half ago . We were actually on the platform when it was still musically .

Speaker 2 2:22

So let's talk about . When you created these social media accounts , I'm sure you had no idea that it would blow up like it really has on TikTok , to 2.8 million people . For the people who are going to be listening to this as a podcast , go ahead and describe what so . Sushi is most well known for her blue ears .

Speaker 3 2:46

So she looks very different from other dogs because she has blue ears . No , she wasn't born this way . Once upon a time she had white ears . Actually , a lot of children ask me that cause they're not sure . Cause they actually think that it might be natural . Her groomer applies it for her , which is a all name thing . Asking that because they're not sure , because they actually think that it might be natural . Her groomer applies it for her , which is a all natural vegan doggy dye . So it's not harmful to her at all . Her ears are not going to fall off . It's not a human dye .

Speaker 3 3:18

People have this assumption that I'm dyeing her in my kitchen with my own hair dye or something like that . So yeah , but that is not what's happening . So when I first started her social media , she had white ears and she was already growing at a pretty good pace with just white ears . And the blue ears was just something I wanted to try for fun , because I had always wanted to have blue hair , but I couldn't because of the work that I was doing at the time in hospitality and hotels , wanting to live vicariously through her . But it was such a hit and it became her signature and her look as a doggie model , as an influencer , as a brand . So we just kept it and everyone loved it .

Speaker 2 4:08

I think it's absolutely adorable and I have always been a big fan of Dying Dogs . I go to the groomer shows where they have that extreme grooming and creative grooming and I just I love all of that . And , in fact , my newest addition to my household , little Pinky I always wanted a little white dog that I could dye pink , and now I have one , so it's fun right .

Speaker 3 4:38

Yeah , it is so much fun . I love creative grooming so the color lasts for a really long time . Just with natural , like sun and wind , it will like fade a little bit . Like right now it's just like a light ombre . It starts out a little bit brighter and I like it bright and I also like it like this , like more of a natural faded blue . But I can go as long as four or five months so I , yeah , so dye , dying her maybe two times a year , but by then her ear has just grown out a little bit . So it's just up to you . So if you did like a faded ombre , you could really do it once a year . It's pretty cute .

Speaker 2 5:16

We're talking faded ombres with dogs . Did you make videos before TikTok ? Did you get on YouTube or anything at any point ?

Speaker 3 5:26

No , yeah , I did . The format was different and coming up with ideas was a lot harder and I found that YouTube videos were more like two , three minutes . So we did start on YouTube and it was a little bit more challenging coming up with ideas . So we really got into video when we started doing YouTube . Basically .

Speaker 2 5:51

So we really got into video when we started doing YouTube basically . So are you ever just walking around town ?

Speaker 3 5:59

and people recognize your little dog . Does that happen to you ? Yeah , that happens almost every day . When we're somewhere touristy people are traveling from different parts of the country , like in Santa Monica or downtown or in Hollywood , places where a lot of people come around they'll notice Tushy , yeah , and so I guess , to answer your question from earlier you asked is it because of her blue ears that made her more recognized ? I would say it didn't necessarily bring a ton more followers . It's not like all of a sudden there's this blue-eared dog and now everyone's following her . It's not quite like that , but it made her a lot easier to recognize when she's on the street .

Speaker 2 6:44

Absolutely so when you were out at , say , these dog events do you have ?

Speaker 3 6:50

business cards . I do have business cards , but I don't necessarily give those out . What I do is I give out a sticker , so it's a sticker of sushi and I will have her handle on it , which , for the most part , is all I need . Yeah , so I'll give that as a more casual business card and , at the same time , kids love it . So I give it to the kids , to adults , to everyone .

Speaker 2 7:12

Okay , that's very creative , because I'm always interested in how people are actually promoting their animals out at events .

Speaker 3 7:20

Yeah , and they're super cute .

Speaker 2 7:21

It's like a vinyl sticker and they can stick it anywhere on their laptop or their mug or whatever . How long before you ?

Speaker 3 7:33

start getting invited to some of those Los Angeles events . I first , the first time I was invited to a doggy birthday party , just a casual birthday party I was just like , wow , this is so exciting . I was like , oh , what should I get the dog ? What should we do ? What should we wear ? Like it was such an event , we wear like it was such an event . But so , aside from birthday parties like brand events or parties , influencer parties , that is something I guess happened after maybe about a year , when we were at about 10,000 followers on Instagram . You just start getting invited to different events to promote different events , different products . Sure , but I did notice . Yeah , Go ahead . No , I want to know . I did notice one thing is that when her ears became blue , she was invited to a lot more parties . I guess at that point it was not as important how many followers she had , it was just that her look was , you know , adorable . People just wanted a blue-eared dog at the party .

Speaker 2 8:43

I would totally want a blue-eared dog at my party , so I can get that

Influencer Brand Partnerships and TikTok

Speaker 2 8:47

. I'm sure that it didn't take that long before brands were wanting to work with you , and did you have any brands that you actually reached out to yourself , or has it all just been like incoming messages ?

Speaker 3 9:04

Yeah , for the most part it's incoming messages because they have an immediate need that they need to meet at that moment . But I reach out sometimes too , and that's when I have an immediate need that they need to meet at that moment . But I reach out sometimes too , and that's when I have an immediate need , Like , for example , I needed a bed , I needed a mattress and I wanted a really comfortable one . So I did my research and I looked on the internet and I was looking at Zinus . It was a good brand with memory foam and all that and yeah . So I just reached out to them and they happened to be working with influencers and they sent us a bed which was fantastic and one of my favorite beds that I've ever had . And a similar situation was when I needed something called a Roomba the iRobot Roomba and I had always wanted one . So I reached out to them and they told me that when a campaign is available , they'll consider us . And then there was a campaign available and another campaign available .

Speaker 2 10:02

Yeah , it's great Nice . Yeah , we've worked with them . And so what is one of the bigger companies that's reached out ?

Speaker 3 10:07

Petco is one of them . I think one time it was a product promoting raw dog food , and I always only promote things that I like or care about . I'm not one to just post everything and every dog treat on the planet . And another one that I did with Petco was they're taking pictures with Santa for a cause that they usually do in December and the money goes to pet adopters and things like that , yeah , and so I brought sushi to Petco to take a photo with Santa .

Speaker 2 10:42

Fun . I really want to talk about TikTok and Reels . They just rolled out from Instagram . What are your thoughts , Teresa , on the newest addition to Instagram ?

Speaker 3 10:58

I like it . So far , I've posted maybe about eight videos and they seem to be doing well , because right now it's new , so it seems like Instagram is pushing the Reels out . They are yeah , so I'm getting a lot of views from it . I think anyone out there right now , if you are an influencer on Instagram , start using Reels , especially right now , while they're promoting it , which I don't know how long they're going to be doing it , and it may be explosive and it's a huge hit , or it may just be okay . It doesn't matter , but the point is the opportunity is right now , yeah .

Speaker 2 11:43

What would be some of the advice that you might have for people ?

Speaker 3 11:47

The first thing I would ask them to do is to watch the For you page . That's just to see what everyone else is posting . All the most viral videos go to your For you page . That's super important to see the kind of content what people are into and and , at the same time , it gives you a lot of inspiration for the videos that you can do , the different trends that you can do , so you don't have to just sit around and twiddle your thumb and wonder , oh , what should I make today ? I'm not that creative . You can participate in a trend . You can do your own twist to someone else's idea . You can collaborate with others . You can duet with them . A duet is when you collaborate with another user side by side on the screen , so there's just unlimited opportunity .

Speaker 2 12:39

Yeah , and I think that's really great advice , because I know that there's a lot of people getting to get on there and they're like they don't even know where to start . So I think sometimes just by learning how to use the tools and copy what someone else does , then you can add your own something special .

Speaker 3 12:56

Some people have this thing because social media is different now than it was like before , so people sometimes don't want to copy each other . But a trend , by definition , is like copying , and I don't recommend like straight copying . I usually recommend like a twist , and every person is special . So no matter what trend you're doing , you're going to have your own take on it and it's going to be really awesome .

Speaker 2 13:23

How much time in general , are you taking an hour to do this ? You take a half hour .

Speaker 3 13:30

Yeah , so it all depends , depends , and it depends how frequently you're posting videos . There are some influencers out there who , some tiktokers , who do five videos a day . That's . That's not really for me . I'm more of a three times a week kind of person where I feel like there's a nice balance , I'm having fun , I don't feel so pressured by the next video , and so I would say , on average , an hour is how long we would take on a video or how much time I want to spend on a video . But sometimes the video could go really well in just one take and it just took 15 minutes and then I edit a little bit and then I post it , you know , so it's awesome I actually want to show some videos so that people can see , like , what we're talking about .

Speaker 2 14:20

I think I'm going to bring up the one that was one of your biggest hits , hey .

Speaker 3 14:33

Hey , oh , oh , and I and I and I and I and I and I and I and I and I and I and I and I and I , and I and I and I and I and I and I and I and I and I and I .

Speaker 2 14:51

It looks to me like that has six million views so actually so that video has six million people liked that video . Yeah , that is so crazy . It's super , super cute . How long did that take ?

Speaker 3 15:24

That one , yeah , so we did it a couple of times and in the end we picked the one that we liked the most . So , after everything was said and done , maybe about an hour , yeah , but the actual filming was maybe like 10-15 minutes and then deciding which one we liked . That dance is actually a very popular dance on TikTok . Usually humans are doing it , and a couple of dogs have also done it as well , and so it was just our first time doing it , and then we found that she did it really effortlessly . So that was the first time we discovered that she danced . But when she was doing the pawing with the synchronized paw with the foot on my husband , that was something that we didn't know that she could do like consistently , because we knew she knew how to paw . But it was just the vision to kind of put it all together to look like a choreographed dance .

Speaker 2 16:17

That was something that we discovered , yeah so it was actually teaching her more stuff , because you just see that she's so brilliant yeah , I actually knew that she was pretty brilliant when she was a baby .

Speaker 3 16:29

I noticed as soon as I took her , as soon as I took her home , I noticed that a lot of tricks only took her like maybe seven tries and then she got it , and then we did the next one , again same thing , and the next one , and the next one . So right now she knows about 30 commands , and that's where she's kind of leveled off , and the only reason is because I am not a trainer . What I know is from watching YouTube videos and then teaching it to her . So if I had a trainer , she would really be doing all kinds of crazy . What are your goals now ? The next step is that I really just want to work on Sushi being a brand , really solidifying her brand , her look , her audience and building a business around that brand , more than just influencing .

Speaker 2 17:23

I think that the world is just going to reward you greatly for all of your efforts and making people smile , because , I'm telling you , every time I watch one of your videos , I'm like , oh my God , that was just so cute . I've enjoyed talking with you and I hope that when you do hit 10 million followers , you'll come back and let us celebrate that milestone with you . Yes , I would love to do that . I think that'd be so much fun .

Speaker 3 17:50

Okay , thanks Dawn , it was think that'd be so much fun . Thanks , dawn , it was so great to be on the show . Can't wait to see you again soon . Bye .

Speaker 1 17:59

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