BARBARA CORCORAN: Very,
very nice to be here.
I probably met maybe 60 of
you in that hallway, there.
[LAUGHS] So I already feel
like family, or at least you
made me feel very comfortable.
That and the free
food out there.
Because I had those
chips with vinegar.
I love the whole place.
I might apply for a
job here, in fact.
And I bet it would be a lot
less work than the stupid thing
I'm doing now.
You know?
So I've been asked
to speak to you,
and we discussed what
would be a good topic.
I always like a topic
that people relate to.
And I'm assuming that we have
a crowd of "Shark Tank" fans,
based on what I heard.
[CHEERING]
Well, I want to
thank you for my job,
because if we didn't have
good seasons by this point,
we were going to be axed
in season one and two.
And so, particularly for the
people who were watching early,
you saved our ass.
Or I'd be out thinking,
OK, now what do I do?
[LAUGHS] So it all worked
out very nicely, as you know.
I'm going to talk
to you about three
things, three sections to it.
Only a little bit of everything.
You're going to like
one of them, right?
I'm going to tell you
my rags to riches story,
because the people organizing
the event wanted me to spend 5,
10 minutes on that.
Then I'm going to talk about the
entrepreneurs I'm working with.
And I've even met a couple
of people already today
who know some of
my entrepreneurs,
are friends with them.
So that was kind of nice.
And so I won't say
anything bad about them,
even though I was going to
dish them like crazy. [LAUGHS]
And then I'm going to follow
it up with a little dessert.
Behind the scenes
photos I dragged up
from behind the scenes
of "Shark Tank," so you
know what really goes on.
And I call that section of
it, what are the sharks really
like? [LAUGHS] Versus the
personas we try to put forth
there, or what
we're being coached
to be on the show, versus
what we actually are.
OK?
All right.
So I'll start with
the rags to riches
story, as it pertains
to what I wound up
doing for my life work,
which was being a real estate
broker here in New York City.
And I really had very,
very good luck as a child.
Two enormously lucky breaks.
I had two good parents.
And anybody who's got one
good parent, as you get older,
they get better and better.
In fact, I don't even know
if my mother and father were
as good as I'm going
to tell you they were.
But as I get older,
as we all do,
you start to appreciate any
advantage you had as a child.
So I had a mom.
And I'll show you the picture
of our family minus one child.
We had 10 kids.
We had six girls, four boys.
We lived in a little town
which I'm sure you've heard of,
Edgewater, New Jersey.
Right across the river.
When we were there, every
man in town except my father
was employed by one of
three factories there.
I actually thought our
family was like the Kennedys,
because my father put
a suit on every day
to go to work in
Trenton, New Jersey.
And somehow, because
every other man
was in a factory
uniform except my dad,
I really-- I was like a snob.
And my dad actually was a
printing press foreman--
when printing was a big deal,
before that disappeared--
for many various factories
all through our childhood
in Trenton, New
Jersey, typically.
Anyway, my mother
was the powerhouse
in my family, not my dad.
My mom was a
phenomenal motivator.
She is probably the
most organized person
I've ever met in
my life, and I've
met so many organized people.
My mom would decide on
the birth of each child
exactly what she thought
that child's gift was.
So she'd announce it the
day she brought the baby
home from Holy Name Hospital.
We were devout
Catholics in our family,
and that's why I haven't
been to church since.
She overdid that one.
OK?
But I remember distinctly when
she brought my brother Tommy
home, and Tommy
is the middle row.
Would it be to your left?
OK.
With the longish hair.
And she had Tommy as
an infant in her arms,
and I can remember it
like it was yesterday.
And she said, look at
your brother Thomas.
He's going to be a
magnificent dancer.
And we were like, oh.
I remember me thinking,
oh, a dancer in the family.
Cool.
We don't have one of those yet.
And what did my mom
base that prediction on?
She saw that Tommy had fat,
juicy legs kicking like hell,
and that was her prediction.
So what happened to my brother
Thomas, who now we call T?
T grew up to be a ballet dancer
for Alvin Ailey Dance Theater.
And he used to say when
he came into the house,
after he was long out of the
house and doing the ballet,
he used to say, the truth is,
I can't really dance, but mom
somehow convinced me I could.
For me, she said I had
a wonderful imagination.
And that was my function
in the household,
just like Tommy's
function was to dance.
So my function was to
entertain the other kids.
So if it was a rainy
day, I was the person
assigned to bring the
kids down in the basement
and putting on a Broadway show.
If it was a sunny day,
my mother would make up
some kind of shit, throw
it at me as an idea.
Like, why don't you
go in the backyard
to open a rock
store, Barbara Ann?
And I'd go, a rock store?
What's a rock store?
She'd go, oh, with
your imagination,
you'll figure it out.
And you know what?
I found I could sell rocks,
as long as you staple them
in white paper and
staple the corners,
so nobody could see which
rock they were getting.
People pay for that.
The kids in the neighborhood.
And so our family went.
It was like growing
up in a small town.
We had six girls in the girls'
room, four boys in the boys'
room, and my mother and
father produced all those kids
from the living room couch.
My mother's other great gift was
she was a phenomenal organizer.
We had the messiest
house, as you can imagine,
with that many kids.
We had the biggest family.
But we also the cleanest
house when my mother cracked
her mental whip on us.
All right?
And the key to her
organizational skill,
which I later learned in
building a big brokerage
business, was she
created a system.
That's a list.
A system for anything she
had to do more than twice.
So for example, we had two
sock drawers in the kitchen,
in our little kitchen.
And she converted
them to-- pardon me.
Bread drawers built in.
That was common then.
And she converted them
to two sock drawers.
All the boys' socks were in the
upper drawer, all navy blue,
all one size.
All the girls' were
white, all one size.
So when you get 10 kids out
to school in the morning,
all you have to do is
grab any socks you wanted
and go out the door, as long
as you remember which drawer.
And the only kid in my
family that got mixed up
was, of course,
my brother Tommy.
He went out with
the white socks.
No, Tommy!
Come back!
So that's how our family went.
Hugely organized.
My mother totally
ironclad control
of every one of her kids,
and you didn't dare not
walk the straight and narrow.
My father's job was to be
my mother's eleventh child.
And he was totally
in charge of, other
than working during the day
as a printing press foreman
and washing trucks
for UPS at night,
on weekends he did not work.
And on weekends, his job was
to play with his children.
And we couldn't have
gotten a better playmate.
My dad had probably the
mental maturity level,
when he was out in the yard,
of maybe an eight-year-old.
And he did dangerous things
with us all the time.
And what do you like more
as a kid than something
you shouldn't be doing?
And even we knew we shouldn't
be doing it, but he didn't.
So for example, if
it was a snowy day,
and we got to stay
home from school,
and he couldn't get up that
Oxen Hill out of Edgewater.
What would he do?
He would take all of
his kids and as many
as he could fit in the
whole neighborhood, put them
on the long wooden ladder
that ran down our side yard,
and he'd shove us down the hill.
He'd hop on the
last row, and we'd
go over that retaining wall
and into oncoming traffic.
When every other kid in town
got to go to the "automatic car
wash" in the town above our
house, all the kids raving.
It's automatic.
It washes.
It's automatic.
They had nothing on my dad.
We went up and the
little subtle difference
that made all the difference
was right before we went in,
we were wondering, why do
we have to wear pajamas?
He made us wear our pajamas.
Right as we went through the
car wash, he said, quick!
Roll down the windows!
So he had this
bizarre sense of fun.
And ironically, when
we all get together
for weddings, christenings,
funerals, whatever,
today, what do we talk about?
The 12 loads of wash my
mother hung on the line
every other day?
The three meals she put
on the table every day
so we could all eat?
The clean house?
No, we don't even
mention my mother.
All we do is sit
around and say, hey,
remember the time
dad was at the lake,
and they had the hailstorm,
and they told us to keep
under the water and stay dry.
Ah, yeah, yeah.
Wasn't that fun?
My mother gets no credit.
And you know what I've learned?
I've learned that
kids don't remember
the extravagant vacations.
That all becomes
a blur later on.
What children really treasure
most is something silly.
And so I had that
wonderful role model
in my dad of being ridiculous.
And I used that too
to build my business.
So between my mother's
ability to pick out
the talent in someone
and create motivation
to make them be their
best-- what a gift that is,
to breathe in and out
with a woman who did that
as a matter of course-- and her
ability to organize any mess,
and my dad's ability to let
it all go, who gives a damn,
and have a good time, I had
a lot of different models
to choose from.
And so I was really
perfectly poised
to be an entrepreneur,
if you think about it.
I have nine siblings,
as I mentioned.
Out of all my siblings, only
one is not self-employed.
Everybody went into
business for themselves.
I credit my father entirely with
that decision, because he hated
every boss he ever worked for.
If he came home from work
at 5 or 4 o'clock instead
of 6 o'clock, the usual time
when we had to be in our seat
at the table-- my mother's
order-- when he came home
early, we left
everything we were doing.
And you drop everything.
The hockey sticks, everything.
You ran in and sat
in your spot early,
because you knew my father
had an adventure to tell.
And he'd saunter in,
like John Wayne himself.
Sit down, and say to
us, guess what, kids?
And we'd all scream,
you were fired!
And then he'd go
on and say, yeah,
I told Mr. Stein to go
shove it up his butt.
But he used worse
language than that.
And he said, I quit.
I'm not listening to his son.
And of course, my
mother didn't know
how she was going
to feed the kids,
but my father must
have interviewed well,
because within two weeks,
he always had another job.
So there were gaps, OK?
Onward to being older.
The lucky break
as a young woman.
I was 21 years old, being a
waitress at the Fort Lee Diner,
right above my house.
We thought it was a rich town.
Basically, it wasn't.
It was middle class.
But it looked rich from
where we were sitting.
And I was at a counter when
Ramone Simone looked in.
And of course, this isn't him.
And I don't have
a picture of him.
But he was as drop dead
gorgeous as Johnny-- is it Depp?
Or Dett?
Depp?
OK.
Anyway, he had these aviator
navy blue sunglasses on.
You couldn't see his eyes.
He had jet black, slick hair.
He had dark olive skin,
and he had a real suit on.
Other than my father, I had
never seen a man in a suit.
But this was an expensive suit.
I could smell it.
I could feel it.
Not that I touched it.
But you just know.
You know?
One look at him, I
knew I'd be losing
my virginity within the week.
[LAUGHS] And it was-- and
ironically, it wasn't like
I was saving it for anybody.
It's just nobody
ever asked for it.
I was competing with a blonde
bombshell at the next counter.
Her name was Gloria,
and she had a gimmick
that was my first real
live marketing gimmick.
And her gimmick was she
would balance two coffee
cups on each hand, and she
had bosoms like a shoe box
before I think they even
had that surgery, actually.
And she would balance
two more on each breast,
and she would hip her way
through the double doors.
And I'm telling you, the
men at the Fort Lee Diner
waited in line on the
concrete steps for an hour
to sit at her counter,
while I'm washing
mine for the third time.
Unfair competition.
But lucky for me, only the
night before-- how timing makes
a difference in life-- the night
before, I was with my mother,
and she was hanging the wash.
And as she's trying to dish out
that wash as fast as she could,
I'm standing there
whining and complaining.
Mom, it's not fair.
Nick really should make people.
You know, one for
me, one for her.
She's getting so many
tips, and na-na-na-na.
And my mother didn't
like complainers.
And she said, why don't you
just maybe braid your hair,
put nice red ribbons to match
your little turtleneck that you
wear, because we
had red turtlenecks
and black pinafores,
that was the costume.
And she said, just stay
as sweet as you are.
And I told her that was a
stupid idea, because I was 21.
Mothers are stupid.
But of course, when
I got to the diner,
I did that with the rubber
bands, the red ribbons.
And I'm telling you,
I found that men
like two kinds of women.
The hot tamale like
this lady, or they
like the great white virgin.
Either are very, very innocent.
OK?
And that-- I should have one
with braids and everything.
Ramone Simone said a smart
girl like me should really
be living in the big city.
I'd grown up in Edgewater.
I'd never set foot
in New York city.
It was a different universe.
It was a mental universe.
We called it "the city."
No one ever went there.
And so Ray moved me into
the Barbazon Hotel for Women
on Lexington
Avenue, which is now
a-- I think it's an
exercise place of some kind.
But anyway, it only allowed
women to stay there.
Most of them spinsters.
No men were allowed.
And he paid for a week.
Well, now my mother definitely
had me pegged as a prostitute.
She forbid me to
go, but I was 21.
I told her, I'm going anyway.
And off I huffed and was
banned from the house
till I dropped that terrible
guy named Ramone Simone.
After a week, Ramon Simone gave
me $1,000-- pardon me, $100.
$1,000?
$100 to buy myself
a "New York" outfit.
Sounds like prostitution,
but I was so naive, you know?
And I bought myself
a lavender one.
Stretch top, stretch pants
with buttons and a square.
Really cool.
Lavender boots.
The whole-- no, I didn't
have enough for a purse.
And I walked down
Lexington Avenue,
and I knew I would never
ever leave New York.
It was that moment, a
week after I was there.
And I was like, this is for me.
I'm Georgy Girl.
I'm cool.
You know, that kind of thing.
And I never left New York.
I got a receptionist job
for the Giffuni Brothers
and answered the phone
50 million times a day.
Good morning, the
Giffuni Brothers.
Good morning, Giffuni Brothers.
Good morning.
[LAUGHS] All right?
I did that for a year, and
then Ramone Simone said,
you'd be great as a
real estate broker.
He said, you've got
such a good personality.
I'm going to give you $1,000.
Let's start a real
estate business.
I wish I could take
credit for the idea.
Said, oh, that was my dream.
It wasn't.
My attitude on that one was,
hey, I've had 22 jobs so far.
Why not try another one?
That was it.
Bang.
Give it a whirl.
And so we started the
Corcoran Simone Company.
With an accent on the Simone,
because that was his last name,
and it was very fancy.
And after all, he
explained to me,
his name was Ramone Simone,
pronounced it perfectly.
And he was from
the Basque country,
which I had to look up, before
the advent of the internet.
You had to actually go to a
book and look at Basque country.
And I found out they were
warriors of some kind in Spain.
Boy, was that a turn-on.
That finished up my
virginity right away.
Just that one little thing.
You know?
OK.
So where was I?
All right.
We started the Corcoran
Simone Company, which
was a rental company, in
subleased space on 61st
Street off Madison Avenue,
owned by an accountant.
Cheap bastard.
He raised our rent every month.
But who cares?
He gave us a break, initially.
OK.
Anyway, that was the
beginning of the company.
We had 14 lovely rental
agents within seven years.
I felt on top of the world.
I was actually
taking a salary check
for the first time
on the sixth year.
Whatever it was, it seemed
like a lot at the time.
And I was thinking, life doesn't
get any better than this.
I moved in with Ramone Simone.
After I moved in with him, he
told me he had three daughters.
They moved in with us.
No problem.
I'm good with kids.
Right?
Well, surprise!
I also found out
from his mother Vicky
that his name was not Ramone
Simone, it was Ray Simon.
He added the E's.
And he was from 155th Street.
So I'm like, well,
there's marketing, also.
OK.
We built that little sales team.
There's a picture
of the original team
with their old fashioned
haircuts and stuff.
On our first little
retreat to brainstorm.
And then almost seven
years to the itch,
Ramone mentioned one night,
when I was dumping the pasta
into the sink, he
said, you know,
we have something
serious to discuss.
Oh yes, Ray?
I looked up through
the fog, thinking
how pretty I must look.
I was 29.
And he said, I'm going
to marry your secretary.
Tina, that bitch?
[LAUGHTER]
I didn't really say that,
but in my head I said it.
You know what I mean?
I thought I was in
somebody else's bad dream,
like slow motion, when you're in
a car crash, from what I hear.
I'm like, what?
Huh?
Tina?
No.
He goes, yeah.
Don't get upset.
We're madly in love.
We're going to get married.
He said, and really take
your time moving out.
I was out of there in about
a minute with my toothbrush.
Moved on to my best
friend, really,
my only friend, because I worked
so hard, I didn't have friends.
Kathy Gilson, on
East 79th Street.
Had a studio.
I just went right to her
house, and she let me in
and I started
living off her couch
until I got my feet under me.
Now, what happened
after that I'm
ashamed of, because I was a
pretty happy go lucky person,
thinking relatively secure.
But somehow, when
that happened, I
had-- I felt like my whole
insides were pulled out.
What a waste of energy.
After all, Ray had
found me in Edgewater.
After all, he believed in me.
He was my mentor.
He was my boyfriend.
He gave me a family.
I was very, very-- I'm very
fond of his three daughters.
We worked together.
I mean, it was my whole world,
really, if you think about it.
But I made the
mistaken conclusion
that I was strong because
of him and nothing good
would have ever
happened without him.
All right?
Because that's where I was
at that juncture in my life.
I also had the ridiculous idea
that at 29 I was old. [LAUGHS]
I'm like, holy shit,
nobody's going to marry me.
I'm 29 already. [LAUGHS]
When most women, especially
in Edgewater, all
my sisters were
married at their 18th birthday
or within months of it.
Every girl in Edgewater was
married on their 18th birthday.
So already my parents were
sweating it out on me.
I was the haggard old babe.
You know?
And I fell for it myself.
OK?
But of course it
took me about a year
going in and seeing
Ray and Tina.
I couldn't fire her,
he said, because he
was a 51% shareholder,
which was true.
And I didn't want to go
in and see them happy--
and they were married
in three months.
So it was really true love, and
they have three kids together.
It was really meant to be.
And things will
happen like that.
But for me, I was too naive
or too stupid to see it
for what it was.
Just meant to be.
That's the way life is, right?
OK.
So it took me a year to
get my feet under me.
I pretended for a year.
But when I finally, one
day, somehow got brittle,
I don't know what
clicked, I can't even
tell you what it was.
But I marched in on
a Friday morning.
And I said, you know, Ramone,
this is what we're going to do.
We're going to
divide this business.
That's-- oh that-- wait,
I'm not that bad looking.
Can I go back?
29.
My face was still full.
I had no facial hair then.
Here we go.
So I went in and I said, we're
going to chop up this business
just like a football draw.
This is my daughter Kate.
But that's when she was six.
She's already nine.
Anyway, but it's
such a cute picture,
and I want to show off.
OK.
I said, we're going to chop
up this business, Ray, today,
like a football draw.
We're going to take
the accounts that we
have between receivables
and what we actually
had on the account.
We had a little bit
short of $70,000.
I said, we're going
to chop it up.
35 for you, 35 for me,
of the cash portion
and the receivables.
You get to pick
the first person.
We had 14 people.
Did we have 14?
Yeah.
14 people.
We have 14 people.
You get to pick
the first person.
I'll pick the second.
You go first, and
then you can decide
if you want to stay here or go
and whether you want the phone
number.
We had a great phone number.
I didn't want to lose
the phone number.
But you decide.
OK?
You decide.
But we're ending it today.
He couldn't believe it.
But within a minute, he picked
Norma Hersch, the top producer.
60% of my income.
I picked Esther Kaplan.
Like a camel produces.
Steady as she goes.
All right.
And chop, chop,
chop, chop, chop,
I collected my seven
people together.
I put them in the
corner of the office.
I said, guess what?
Good news.
Monday we're moving.
I'll call you over the weekend
and give you the new address.
What?
Yeah.
We're moving on Monday.
I didn't tell them the others
weren't moving with us.
And I said, come back for
work on Monday morning,
but I'll give you the
address over the weekend.
I went to my existing landlord
on Third Avenue and 58th
Street, and I got
the exact same office
two floors higher than Ray.
Eight, nine, three
floors higher.
He was on eight, I got 11.
And I got it for 20% cheaper.
Now, that to me sounded
like God's will,
that I was getting
a lucky break.
But guess what?
It really wasn't.
What it meant was the
real estate market
was about to crash, because the
commercial sector of the market
always goes before
the residential.
But I didn't know that then.
And I should have had,
be careful, be careful,
be careful.
But I didn't hear that.
In those days, you could take
a cab down to 42nd Street,
you could buy all your
desks right on the street,
and the guys would physically
run them up to your office
and put them together.
You could order the telephone.
Ma Bell was the
big deal in town.
You could order a
telephone on a Friday,
have it installed
on Saturday morning.
That's what I did.
And Monday morning came.
We had desks,
chairs, and a phone.
And what do you need in
the real estate business?
Just people.
And they moved into
that, and they sat down,
and we were in business.
Bang.
I decided to call the
company the Corcoran Group,
because I figured if I
was going to make it,
I was going to need
the help of a group.
And that was the beginning
of the Corcoran Group.
When I left the door that day,
when we ended that business,
because Ray rightfully, I think
now, in hindsight, was angry.
It was like he had
gotten hit broadside.
OK?
But Ray gave me the
gift of a lifetime.
He said to me, you know
Barbara, you will never
succeed without me.
And you know what?
If he had said, you know,
Barbara, you're amazing.
I'm sure you'll do fine.
I don't believe I would stayed
in business in the tough times.
It was my sheer ego
of that insult that
burned so deep in my soul that
when all the chips were down,
I thought I had tried everything
in the world, everything
I could possibly think to stay
in business highly leveraged,
because real estate was up
and down and up and down.
I was always leveraged,
because I was always
greedy about where
I wanted to go.
But I would think
of those words.
And son of a gun, I
would think, bing!
One new thing.
And that one new
thing was always
the thing that got me through.
So he really gave me a gift.
Thank you.
And of course, he was wrong.
Ha, ha!
Because I sold my business,
maybe 22 years later,
for $66 million.
Now for the next part.
OK.
All right.
Thank you very much.
Well, this one
isn't on my slide,
so we'll see where we're going.
OK.
Now I'm a Shark.
I can read the damn thing.
There we go.
Now I'm a Shark. [CHUCKLES] And
that's the "Shark Tank" set.
I got the Shark Tank gig as a
result of handling rejection
as I do so well, very well.
Yet again.
Everything good
in my life always
happened on the
heels of rejection.
And so when I was hired
to do "Shark Tank,"
I signed the contract
without even reading it,
sent it back to Mark Burnett.
Mark Burnett, a famous producer.
I'm going to Hollywood.
I'm going to see the
Hollywood on the hill sign.
I'm like-- I bought three new
outfits to sign autographs.
I'm going to be famous.
Oh my God.
Oh my God.
I was so excited.
And then only four days before
I was supposed to fly out to LA,
I got the dreaded phone call.
I'm sorry, we hired
somebody else.
We changed our mind.
And that's when I
wrote the email,
thank God, standing
up for myself,
with the help of everyone in
my office, who's actually here
and let me not forget to
introduce them somewhere
in the dark in a minute.
I wrote the email to
Mark Burnett, telling him
I consider his
rejection a lucky charm.
Cited all the negative
things I had in my life
and how they turned around to
be the best possible things,
and ended the email
as saying, I suggest
you invite both
girls out to compete
for the lone female seat, and
I'll pay for my own plane fare,
and I'll be on that plane.
And when he read
that, his comment
to his secretary of the
secretary of the secretary that
was standing there, she
told it-- Sharice, I think,
was her name.
She said, all he said
was, God, she's a shark.
And invited me out, thank God.
If not for that email, I
would not have gotten that.
I would not have met any of
the entrepreneurs that I adore
like my own children, when
they're making money. [LAUGHS]
And even the bad ones, when
they're not making money,
I kind of like them too.
But I thought it might
be very interesting
for you to hear
what I believe makes
for a successful entrepreneur.
There's my original group
from season one and two.
Maybe you recognize
some of those people.
My favorites, of
course, are the two guys
at the top, especially
the one on your left.
Sabin, he's so goddamn
sexy, I can't even talk
to him without breathing heavy.
OK.
All right. [LAUGHS]
Number one trait, probably
in descending order,
or at least the first
few are the key.
Persistence.
The inability to quit.
Every one of my entrepreneurs
that are hugely successful
have that in spades.
I don't know where you get it.
Are you born with it?
Do you develop it?
Do you do it from the
school of hard knocks?
I don't know how you get it.
But I know one thing
for sure as an investor.
If you don't have it,
you're not going to succeed.
You could have everything else.
But if you don't have that low
IQ, that when someone slams you
on the head, you go down and
then you bounce up and go,
I'm an ass.
I'm dumb.
I'm back up.
Hit me again.
It's like a weird thing.
That kind of a
thing that goes on,
the ability to handle
a hard hit, is key.
And I have been
able to separate,
early on now, my
investments very quickly
on one little
thing that happens.
And the minute I see
it happen, I'm like,
oh God, I'm going
to lose my money.
And it's called feeling
sorry for yourself.
When I'm talking to one
of my entrepreneurs,
let's say we did
the due diligence,
we signed up the deal,
I'm working with them now
for two to three months, and
something really bad happens,
a disappointment.
If they start doing an oh,
poor me, oh God, oh my God,
that wasn't fair.
You know, she blah, blah, blah.
The minute I hear
that talk, I know
I'm going to lose my money.
Because the difference between
the really great entrepreneurs
and everyone else
is how long they
take to feel sorry
for themselves.
I really believe that.
And so if you're the type that
just boom, and like, oh shit.
That shouldn't have happened.
Ah, whatever.
And keep working, you're going
to do well as an entrepreneur.
Persistence.
To tell you her story,
by way of illustration,
Daisy was selling
200 cakes, I believe.
I might be off in my numbers,
because I always mix them up.
So round them out
in your own head.
200 cakes on "Shark
Tank," before she
appeared on "Shark Tank."
Boom!
Every guy in America
fell in love with her.
She was the girl next door.
Every guy ordered a cake.
But her website crashed.
She was out of business.
She was out of business.
But what did Daisy do?
She was smart enough to
pick up the phone and said,
(SOUTHERN ACCENT)
Here's what I'm doing.
I got one phone-- she
doesn't mind me imitating.
(SOUTHERN ACCENT)
Here's what I'm doing.
I've got one phone line here.
Now, I'm going to forward
that phone line-- and this was
a message when she knew
I wouldn't pick her.
(SOUTHERN ACCENT) I'm
going to forward that phone
line to your phone
line in New York,
and you get a bunch of
girls that sound like me
and start taking cake orders.
And that's exactly what we did.
Three good actresses
that sounded-- hello,
is this Daisy Cakes?
(SOUTHERN ACCENT) It sure is.
What did she do?
OK.
She's amazing.
She's done over a million
dollars in sales in cakes.
OK?
If I had to say one trait
that I've seen in this lady
over and over again, is she
knows how to get hit hard,
make a lot of bad
business judgments.
But I don't really
care about them,
because I know she's
going to come back up.
Persistence, OK?
Cousins Maine Lobster,
I already cited for you.
My handsome hunk on the right.
When I come back, I'm
going to pray to God,
let me be born as Sabin's wife.
And if he's not
available, I'll take Jim.
[LAUGHS] OK.
Cousins Maine Lobster.
When they were on
"Shark Tank," they
were in business three months.
They are great traders.
They are street smart.
Again, common to all
my great entrepreneurs.
But I'll give you a
story to illustrate it.
They were selling lobsters
out of a food truck.
Bang!
They were in the food truck.
They had three months of sales.
They were so well
prepared, that they
had listened to four
seasons of "Shark Tank,"
had written down every question
any entrepreneur had ever
been asked, and they
came up with two answers
if they got asked it.
They were practiced.
They were so smooth
on the set, I
thought they were in
business for 10 years.
Not a single shark said-- they
said, our monthly sales are.
They never said, how long
have you been in business?
They never said it.
No one asked.
They were that
savvy on their feet.
I was the lucky shark that won
that competition to get them.
They grew their one food
truck to 10 food trucks.
They just opened a restaurant.
They're making money
hand over fist already.
They also opened an online
Cousins Maine Lobster Direct.
Lobsters right to your door.
That kind of thing.
Anywhere.
A very important
part of "Shark Tank"
to illustrate them in action
is something we call updates.
When you have a
successful entrepreneur,
the show likes to come back
and do an update on them.
Hey, what's happening?
And the viewers at home really
like that part of the show.
When I pitched "Shark
Tank," oh, listen.
They're getting an award from
the governor's office in Maine
for creating 50 new
jobs in the state.
It's the worst economy
of all the states.
It's the worst job market.
They are?
They are.
You want to shoot it?
Yeah.
We love it.
And then I call the
governor's office.
Hey, "Shark Tank"
wants to shoot.
They want you to give them
an award for the 50 new jobs.
[LAUGHS]
OK.
But here's what went awry.
OK?
A day before, they
said, we're not only
going to shoot them
on the top, we're
going to come and shoot
their-- with the governor.
We're going to do a two-part.
The first two-part
update they ever did.
Who ever heard of two parts?
Where did the two
parts come from?
The second part is we're
going to go to the factory
and shoot the 50 people.
Hi Cousins, how many friends
do you have in Maine? [LAUGHS]
And how quickly can you
get chef hats with Cousins
in bright red, printed, so
your brand is branded on TV?
I don't know.
We'll do our best.
They had 50 custom made
chef hats within 24 hours.
50 employees of sorts in
their factory, smiling.
But when the executive-- when
the field producer walked
in-- little titan of
a guy-- walked in,
he saw all these happy
workers with big hats
on, which I [BLOWS] blew
garbage bags individually
to puff them up.
They're all standing.
Here's the workers.
And when he walked
in, he goes, great.
But the chef hats have to go.
They're just too much.
And Sabin, my lover boy here,
coolly turns around and says,
you know, he said,
unfortunately, we never
let our chefs work without them.
It's company policy.
And the guys rolled right over.
Oh, OK.
What was most important in this
update is every shot of them
had the brand in it.
And what do you think happened
to their brand new website that
had no sales?
It exploded with business.
Fast on your feet.
Smart on your feet.
Not the kind of stuff you get
when you pay all that money
for Harvard MBA.
Street smarts.
Street smarts.
How do you get out of
the-- how do you finagle,
and how do you do it fast?
Key quality in an entrepreneur.
Next, Tom + Chee.
When I met Tom +
Chee, they had just
come out of selling their
grilled cheese on doughnuts
out of a tent in Cincinnati.
What was so interesting
about them, however,
they weren't talking
about a tent.
They were talking
about a franchise
with hundreds of franchises
selling cheese on doughnuts.
OK.
All right.
What do you think happened?
They told me about they're
going to have an amusement
park one day.
A Tom + Chee amusement park.
I'm like, OK.
They're definitely on
dope, these people.
But I don't think so anymore.
I can't wait to go to
the amusement park.
They have 171 franchises
across America.
Exactly what they
envisioned, they got.
Exactly the picture
in great detail.
Where they were going to do it.
How they were going to
go to the other side
of the river in Cincinnati,
which is another state.
I forget which one it is.
How they were going
to come across back.
Buh-buh-buh-buh.
I'm like, OK.
Well, guess what?
I should have believed them.
OK?
They have big pictures
in their heads.
And every entrepreneur might
not have a business plan
with everything.
In fact, none of them really do.
I think they're
grossly overrated.
But they sure have a movie
in their head of who they're
going to be when they grow up.
And when they can't express
that movie on "Shark Tank,"
I'm always out.
If they don't see it, how am I
going to see it and believe it?
And they're not
going to get there.
Visual, big picture.
I don't know if
Fleetwood deserves
to be here, because he's
still not making me any money.
But he is a big
visionary thinker,
and he's always pissing away
my money on these ideas.
But I have to say, I've
got to stay with him here.
Because I'm in a contract
with him, mostly.
And I also love him in his
own bad child kind of way.
But whatever.
Let me move on.
OK.
Next. [LAUGHS] I'm so--
I have so hard a time
being a phony baloney.
OK.
What does this say?
Sales ability.
Yes, definitely.
Tom + Chee, Harlem, New York.
They were originally
in Brooklyn,
moved to Harlem, New York.
Under the train tracks.
Interesting view
of their business.
You go there, you can't hear
each other. [TRAIN NOISES]
But they have the happiest
bakery doing pipcorn.
What's pipcorn?
Small kernels of popcorn.
It doesn't upset
your stomach if you
have any kind of food allergies,
lactose, blah, blah, blah.
All that stuff.
And it doesn't get caught in
your teeth, and it's delicious.
They discovered pipcorn because
Jim had a stomach problem.
Brother and sister team.
Jen is probably the
most charismatic person
I've ever met in my life.
She walks into Whole Foods, and
everybody's crawling up to her,
dying to touch her.
She's got charisma.
She sells that popcorn
to anybody and everybody,
and they keep coming
back for more.
What does her great brother do?
He's a finance guy.
Ne-ne-ne, ne-ne-ne.
Anal, anal, anal, anal, anal.
Couldn't be better partners.
And what does he do?
He even goes out marries a
financial investment banker,
another whiz, bringing
her into the business.
What does Jen do?
She hires her best friend
to run the factory.
What does that lady do?
She knows how to make those
popcorn poppers so happy.
Amazing.
But she's selling every
minute of the day, no matter
who she-- it's natural to her.
Phenomenal sales ability.
Charisma.
Another one.
Hold Your Haunches.
Same thing.
These girls tell you you should
buy their pants for fat girls'
asses, and I'm telling you,
you're going to buy two pairs.
Because they just-- (SOUTHERN
ACCENT) Hold Your Haunches!
You've got to have
Hold Your Haunches!
OK?
You've got to buy in.
No wonder they have a
million dollars of sales
by year two in "Shark Tank."
One of the best success stories.
Next.
Risk Tolerant.
Great trait.
OK?
This guy, I bought into
him because he looks just
like a pig.
Do you know how--
no, in a good way.
All right?
Pork barrel barbecue sauce.
Think about it.
Anybody old enough in
this room to remember
that guy who used
to sell chickens
that looked like a chicken?
Frank Purdue looked
exactly like a chicken.
I saw this guy, I'm like,
he's the new Frank Purdue,
but he's a pig.
OK.
What's great about-- no.
And he doesn't even mind it.
He thinks he knows what it is.
OK?
And he's married.
He's more secure
now, with two kids.
All right.
But when he was single,
even then, he accepted it.
What's great about them
is they are risk tolerant.
When I say risk tolerant,
I'll tell you this.
They, when their
business was young,
and they had to buy shelves,
and shelves in the stores,
there's no way to
get those shelves
unless you're paying for them.
They had a vision
of a giant business.
They went out and they
raised like $800,000, maybe
I did less.
Maybe it was one-- two.
They made like $800,000,
and they could barely
stay in business.
And they blew it all
on more shelf space.
They go for broke.
They are not the
least bit bothered.
And they're attorneys.
They were Washington,
DC attorneys,
when they decided to
go into this business.
Quite an unusual thing.
Competitive.
If I tell Jim from
Cousins Maine Lobster,
I don't have his
picture here, but you
know I talked about him before.
If I tell him one little
thing about the guy
he used to compete
with on the hockey
team-- Jim was a
semi-professional hockey player
and had some injury or
something in the minor leagues,
if I'm telling that right.
But anyway, his arch
enemy on the other team
was a guy named Luke.
What do you think happened?
Luke's from Maine,
Jim's from Maine.
Luke went into the
lobster business.
All I have to do to
double sales is say, hey,
did you hear Luke opened
another restaurant?
Talk about competitive spirit.
He's ready to kill.
He doesn't stop working.
He hates the idea that somebody
might beat him at a game.
It's his DNA, and his partner,
Sabin, is the same way.
All I have to do is
tell Grace and Lace,
who makes beautiful lacy
socks and shawls, and my most
successful business by far,
in terms of making money.
And what do I have to
do to get them going?
Hardly anything.
All I have to do is say, God,
got a big check from Cousins
today.
Do you know, I'll get a check
from her within the week?
A bigger check.
They're winning.
We're more successful.
Why?
I didn't say compete was my--
that's the way they're wired.
Competitive.
You get an entrepreneur
who doesn't
feel the heat of
competition, he's not
going to be good on his feet.
She's not going to come to the
fore when she really needs it.
That competitive
spirit drives you
through all the
things that don't
make any commonsense in life.
That's what it does.
OK?
There are my entrepreneurs
in my house in Utah,
that we just did an update.
I don't know if you saw.
Let me tell you, the
great thing that I
find about working
with these people
is it's a repeat of what I
did at the Corcoran Group.
I hired people.
I developed talent.
I love my people to death.
I spoil them rotten.
I try to make them
the best they can be,
and I enjoy every
single second of it.
My greatest satisfaction working
with these entrepreneurs,
the good ones.
[LAUGHS] Not the bad ones that
take your money in the night.
OK?
The good ones, is they're my
sales people all over again.
They are phenomenally
successful.
Now, what are the
sharks really like,
with three minutes
and 44 seconds left?
I could tell I'm
talking too much.
I'll give you the low down.
OK?
What's Kevin O'Leary like?
OK.
Everybody thinks
he's a mean guy.
He's the pushover of the show.
In real life, he's a pushover.
When his wife
walks onto the set,
you could visibly see
him shaking on his knees.
I'm not making that up.
OK?
He fancies himself a
very big connoisseur,
and doesn't have
the common sense
to know the label O'Leary Wines
is not a good fit for wine.
All right.
Whatever.
OK?
Kevin's game for
anything on the show.
He'll pose.
He'll do anything.
We have more weird
pictures of Kevin.
But he's an absolute sweetheart.
I'm only going to tell you
the first half of the story.
You can use your
imagination on the second.
Kevin is never ready to leave
the set at the end of a long 10
hour day.
And it's a long day, trust me.
It's like being in a army pit
all day with a bunch of people.
So to get him to change and
come, I ripped his pants down.
I saw what was behind and
used imagination on the front.
It wasn't much.
What's Robert
Herjavec really like?
He definitely is gay
and should come out.
[LAUGHS]
I constantly tell him.
But what's great
about Robert is he's
a show and a half
within the show.
We all go out there.
Bring two dresses.
You have to wear
the same clothes.
Bring two identical dresses.
I fell for that the
first three years,
until I realized I
was paying for them.
No, I'm bringing one dress,
and let's hope it lasts.
OK?
Robert brings racks of 50
suits, 50 shirts, 50 cuff links,
different colored ties.
And then you've got to
do the Robert ritual
on the first day of filming.
Do you like this tie?
The shirt?
What do you think
about this shirt?
This-- just put on the
fucking shirt, Robert!
[LAUGHS] Robert,
please come out.
You'd be such a happy man.
He's always kissing men.
I've never seen him kiss women.
I put that in simply
because I look young.
I put that in because I thought
I looked better than Lori.
Oh, yeah.
What's Lori like?
Lori is all about hair.
It's unfair.
I get one minute on my hair,
and Lori gets two hours.
Lori is about her hair.
All the time, her hair.
Her hair.
Let it go, Lori.
But to Lori's
great credit, she's
the best merchandiser
on the whole set.
She gets a product
that she likes,
she's going to slam it home.
She's a gorilla.
I can't compete
with her in that.
None of the men can
compete with her.
She's phenomenal.
And she has our single
best success to date,
in terms of quick money.
I'll win on the long-term
money, but she's
winning on the quick money.
Scrub daddy.
Damon.
Damon's hysterical.
It's a shame they edit all
of Damon's comments out,
because it would be
a much better show.
He's filthy.
But he comes across rather
staid on the show, I think.
And I'm like, that's not Damon.
They edit all the
good stuff out.
He is a chick magnet.
You walk into any
place with Damon,
500 women are surrounding him.
I almost get stampeded.
There's something about him.
I think it's the way
he uses his hands.
Because I get turned
on by that a lot.
He's such a smoochy.
I airbrushed my face, there.
What's Mark Cuban like?
He's filthy rich.
That's what's wrong with him.
I've learned that
there's a huge difference
between a millionaire
and a billionaire.
OK?
He basically does it for sport.
Mark, I'll be in
the makeup chair.
The next morning, Mark,
I can't believe you
plunked down a million
dollars on that guy
and gave him a $400,000 salary.
He says, you know, I've got
to keep the guys busy, Barb.
He gets grumpy.
You've got to
loosen this guy up.
OK?
But he's the smartest shark, in
my opinion, across many levels.
I think he's got such a
wide range of smartness
in so many areas.
And when he's wrong, he's
smart enough never to admit it.
I've lost my most money
with Mark. [LAUGHS]
OK.
Behind the scenes
at "Shark Tank."
I'll just click through them.
We get famous people on the set.
It's a blast.
They make us wear
all kinds of crap.
OK.
Oh, this is automatic.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
OK.
You go stir crazy on the set.
One pitch looks like another.
OK?
All right.
They got props galore.
OK.
On and on.
They married Kevin
and I twice now.
It's ridiculous.
Kevin loves stuff on his face.
Anything, he'll wear it.
There's Damon.
I think that's a repeat.
Right?
OK.
Dusting his head.
How many times a day does his
hair get dusted with powder?
Mr. Wonderful?
500.
OK.
People love to imitate him.
Damon, that was an outfit,
they said to David,
you can't wear that.
Oh, no.
You can't wear that.
He goes, too what?
Too way out on his clothes.
OK?
All right.
Side benefits.
You get preferential treatment.
Now I get the best tables.
My assistant Gail calls.
We always get a table,
even if they're full.
Guys I, gave my doll
to this rock star.
I still don't know his name.
And he took her home.
He's been sleeping with her.
That gives me a thrill.
That's the executive producer.
That's his child that
was born in year one.
He's now a six-year-old.
That guy with the fur is
the most important guy,
because he's in
charge of lighting.
I'm either going to look
good or bad, based on him.
These are updates.
They are thrilling,
to do updates.
They are even more exciting to
do the opening shots, the power
shots, with The Jets.
It's like, wow, I'm
somebody cool, man.
I'm cool.
Red carpets, people
flashing at you.
Oh yeah, I'm cool.
I'm cool.
And all that kind of stuff.
Shooting the updates with the
entrepreneurs is fabulous.
That's at my beach house.
We did an update there
before we did the ski one.
Shooting and running around.
There is my youngest
entrepreneur.
He was only eight, now he's 12.
I send my doll around--
you saw that doll--
when I can't show up.
That's my pig guy.
Now he's married.
That's a big pig.
Pig, pig, pig, pig.
OK, it gets even-- those guys!
A double kiss!
Daisy Cakes.
Grace and Lace, Grace
and Lace, Grace and Lace.
Opening orphanages in India,
two of them in their first year,
they were making
that much money.
And there's my team.
And in answer to
the final question,
do we like each other?
Yes.
When you have to spend that
much time with somebody,
you're going to wind up
either hating or liking them,
and we really like each
other and respect each other.
And that's it.
And I went over 40 seconds.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Good.
Thank you very much.
The good news is we only
have to take 40 seconds
off the question and answer.
So what questions do you have?
Anything?
And the bravest person always
raises their hand first.
This guy?
Oh, you're popping up.
Is that how you dress
for work, by the way?
AUDIENCE: Huh?
BARBARA CORCORAN: No,
I'm-- no, I don't mind.
I'm just curious, really.
Is that the work thing?
AUDIENCE: I think this is
even below Google standards,
but uh-- [LAUGHS]
BARBARA CORCORAN: I
would agree with that,
and I don't even know Google.
AUDIENCE: [LAUGHS] I just
want to say-- so first of all,
that was phenomenal.
That was an amazing
presentation, especially
the entrance.
I think that was like the best
entrance that anyone's made.
BARBARA CORCORAN:
Are you a schmoozer?
AUDIENCE: No, it was good.
I intended it like it is.
BARBARA CORCORAN:
Oh, yes you are.
AUDIENCE: I'm telling you.
If it sucked, if it
sucked, I would tell you.
BARBARA CORCORAN: Yeah?
You know what?
I predict you're going to be
the head of this organization
by kissing ass.
AUDIENCE: Maybe
if I dress better.
But I was wondering,
I see the show.
I've seen it.
My parents love it.
I notice a lot of
stuff gets edited out.
BARBARA CORCORAN:
Your parents love it?
Did I hear that?
AUDIENCE: They're--
BARBARA CORCORAN: Thank you.
AUDIENCE: They're so
excited that I'm here.
It's kind of funny.
[LAUGHS]
I noticed that a lot of
stuff gets edited out,
or like there are
a lot of jumps.
And I'm wondering,
what gets edited out?
Do they actually tell you more?
I mean, they must tell
you more than what
they show the viewers.
You don't just
make a decision off
of, oh, hey, three minutes of--
BARBARA CORCORAN: Yes and no.
All right?
The reality is is
a typical pitch
is 45 minutes to
an hour and a half.
When you're seeing it at
home, it's six minutes.
A good editor tries to
eliminate those jumps.
Very, very hard to do.
We know nothing about
the entrepreneur
when they walk through that fake
tunnel with the fake sharks.
We know nothing.
All right?
And we are expected
to make a deal
on the set with very
little knowledge
other than what they represent.
But what the
entrepreneur is also
made to do prior to
appearing on "Shark Tank"
is to sign extensive
documents saying
that they know it's not a real
deal if we choose not to close.
Roughly, I'd say 65%
of the deals close.
I really don't know that as
a fact, but my sense of it
is close, I'm sure.
And I know that's true of me.
I close about 60% of what
you'll see me-- I'm in.
You know?
Because things go awry when
you do the due diligence.
Some of the people lie,
but they're under pressure.
It's TV.
It's not like-- these
aren't professional actors
and actresses.
And the patent that they
definitely have really
is owned by the brother-in-law.
Things go a little
loosey goosey.
OK?
And so they edit a lot out.
But also, and on to that,
it's owned by Disney World.
Disney is the parent company,
and they want it clean.
And what's your
name, because you
should be ashamed of yourself.
AUDIENCE: [LAUGHS] I don't
know if I should say.
I'm Nader.
BARBARA CORCORAN:
What's your name?
AUDIENCE: N-A-D-E-R.
BARBARA CORCORAN: And
what's your last name?
I want to remember.
AUDIENCE: [LAUGHS] It's
Al-Naji, hyphenated.
BARBARA CORCORAN: Ah.
OK Al.
Watch yourself.
OK.
Who else?
It's hard to see with
the lights, so wave
if you've got-- oh.
Oh, you're doing a line thing.
Organized.
OK.
AUDIENCE: Hi, my name
is Kate Kurvitsky.
It's nice to meet you.
Thank you so much
for being here.
So my question is less
about "Shark Tank,"
while I do love the show.
But my boyfriend is trying
to break into the real estate
industry in New York, and
he's finding it a little bit
challenging.
So I just wanted
to know what advice
you would have for somebody
who's trying to start off.
BARBARA CORCORAN: Yeah.
Well, the first
thing you should do
is go and work for
a top salesperson.
Best way to go in it.
The easiest job
to get in New York
if you want to go
into real estate
is to go to a rental company.
It's like the bottom
feeders, right there.
It's terrible.
But you know what's
great about it?
And I ran a rental company
for seven years before I--
eight years, before I went
into sales, thank God.
And you know what's
great about it?
You get a hundred times at bat.
In other words, you
answer 50 calls.
Is that apartment available?
Is that apartment available?
Different when you're selling.
It's a slow motion.
So you get a lot of practice in.
If you could work
as a free slave,
even, for a licensed
top sales person,
just sitting next to them and
being their slave or servant,
you're going to
learn everything.
You can't learn in a
real estate school.
You've got to be on the
street and learn it.
And so that's the
most important thing.
And if you need an introduction,
just give me the card.
I'll pretend I know
your boyfriend.
Is he anything like you?
AUDIENCE: Yeah.
I'm a little--
BARBARA CORCORAN: You sure?
Because obviously--
wait, what did you say?
AUDIENCE: I said, I'm a little
better, but he's pretty great.
He's got charisma. [LAUGHS]
BARBARA CORCORAN:
Well, I'll definitely
introduce some of my
recommendation to you.
If you're feeling that way right
now, do not marry this man.
AUDIENCE: We won't
tell him that.
Thank you.
BARBARA CORCORAN: OK.
All right. [LAUGHING] Yes.
Hello.
I'm sorry.
I didn't see that mike.
AUDIENCE: Hi, how are you?
Thank you so much--
BARBARA CORCORAN: The
lady in the pretty dress.
I met you earlier.
AUDIENCE: Thank you.
Thank you.
You inspire me.
So my question is
when you-- also
having to do with your career--
when you started real estate,
I mean, the sales
aspect was always
sexy and fun and interesting,
but it was really
dominated by men who were
power brokers in suits.
And if I understand
correctly, and it
wasn't an industry that was
for sparkling, bubbly women who
have big personalities.
So I'm an attorney,
which is not known
for having big
personalities or engaging--
BARBARA CORCORAN:
Only the ones who
made the wrong career decision.
AUDIENCE: Right.
Well, no.
I mean, there are
some good-- there--
I'm not vouching for attorneys.
I hate them, honestly.
But how do you balance being
taken-- in the beginning,
we're balancing being able to be
in front of titans of industry
and being taken seriously
in front of them,
but also being
true to who you are
and letting people
see your personality.
BARBARA CORCORAN: You
know, the one great thing
about getting older,
other than you fall apart,
which is really
sickening and horrific.
It really is.
You find something new every
day you don't like, physically,
about yourself, especially if
you tend to be self-critical,
and 99% of women out
there are, and 99% of men
don't even have that
gene from what I see.
OK?
But here we go.
I think it is essential
to almost be ignorant.
You know what I mean?
I never felt like a
woman in a man's field.
And by the way, when I
started, all the companies
were owned by men.
They weren't owned by women,
but they were worked by women.
The bosses were men,
the women showed
the apartments, and the
general cut of a woman who
showed the "apartments for
sale" on Park and Fifth,
remember it was a
limited high end market.
That was it.
You didn't have Third,
Second, Tribeca, The Village.
You didn't have that.
That was a vibrant sale market.
You had narrow corridors
on the east and west side,
and they were society women.
If you knew the right
people, you could sell them.
That wasn't me, and it was
a huge disadvantage to me.
That was the disadvantage,
my upbringing
and my lack of
connections, more than
I was a female, they
were men, da-da-da.
But it was a huge advantage
to me to start hiring women.
I had, probably, in
my firm, my guess
is 75 women, before any man
ever wanted to work for me.
I interviewed men, but they'd
walk in, see a pool of women,
and they were in and
out, until Ralph Kruger
showed up and said,
I have a pushy wife
and two pushy daughters.
I love it here.
And so I sat him
right in the front,
so a man could walk
in and see a man.
That kind of thing.
But I think it's very important
to almost be dumb and to-- oh,
I forgot where I was going.
The upside, when you're
getting much older,
and I've gotten stronger and
stronger in this way as I--
by the year, by the minute.
And I wish I knew it earlier.
Is to be yourself.
Because people--
even if you're weird.
A weirdo is often the most
loved person in a team.
I think if you could
be yourself in all
that it is, what typically
happens is people like you,
because they can sense
[SNIFFS] it's the real deal.
It's the airs, the phoniness,
the trying to impress,
the insecurity, all
the stuff that we all
strive so hard for when we're
young that gets in the way.
There was actually
a two year period
where I had my hair
poofed up and didn't
wash all week to try to fit
in with the society ladies.
But my scalp itched like crazy.
I had to get rid
of that haircut.
You know, a poof
thing once a week.
Hello.
AUDIENCE: The bouffant.
BARBARA CORCORAN: All right?
Yeah.
And the only time my
business ever fell behind
was when I was so busy
watching my competition.
I analyzed everything.
I had the listings on
a chart by category,
by size, who had what,
who was my [INAUDIBLE]?
Da-da-da.
I was a genius at my field.
It was the only year
in my whole career
I never pushed the
business ahead.
I was so busy watching the
next guy, I wasn't watching me.
So being yourself,
I would say, would
be the most important thing.
And forget about the
female/male thing.
I'm not saying
it's not important
in certain industries.
Certainly if you're an
attorney, investment banker.
It's such a man's world.
There's a lot of man's
worlds out there.
But entrepreneurship is
a level playing field.
There's no rules.
And you know what I find?
And sorry men, to say this,
but I find women can work
in a real-- we're-- never mind.
They work harder.
They work harder.
They just work harder.
You know?
And maybe that's driven a
little bit by insecurity.
But for whatever it's
worth, that's my two cents.
Your question.
Sorry I was so long-winded.
AUDIENCE: Thank you.
BARBARA CORCORAN:
Good question, though.
Yeah.
AUDIENCE: Hi, Barbara.
My name is Francine, and I
finally had a big family.
We have five kids,
and you have 10.
Which is--
BARBARA CORCORAN: Yeah.
I didn't have them.
My mother had them.
AUDIENCE: Yeah, your
mother had them.
BARBARA CORCORAN: OK.
I have two.
Yeah.
AUDIENCE: Two.
Thank you for being
your authentic self.
I think your story was really
motivating and inspiring
for all of us.
So my question for you is you
speak to so many businesses.
Once you do you
bring them on, what
are the top questions
these businesses ask
to be fast growth,
high profit business,
and how do you address them?
BARBARA CORCORAN:
What are the questions
the small businesses ask me?
You mean my entrepreneurs
that I am in partnership with?
AUDIENCE: Yes.
BARBARA CORCORAN:
You know, it's funny.
Everybody has different
questions, OK?
I never really
thought about that.
It's a good one.
Are there categories?
Because I think of them as
all individual businesses.
You know what?
I don't think I'm aware
of what questions,
because I have my own agenda.
My agenda, when I'm
getting together
on Skype calls,
emails, whatever,
is how do I push
this business ahead?
How do I grow it?
Because the one thing
I know how to do--
I'm not sure I'm good at
anything other than it--
I know how to take something
small and make it big.
All right?
So I'm thinking angles.
How do we multiply that?
How do we multiply?
Like my mother did the socks.
Same kind of thing.
I'm not de-de-de-de-de.
My brain's going like that.
So the advice that I'm
almost always doing
is the pushing them.
Pushing them.
Pushing them.
Here.
Try it.
Try it.
And you know what
I've also learned?
I've learned with all
the good entrepreneurs,
the really successful ones,
when they ask me for advice,
oh, we have this
situation, Barbara.
I'd like you ba-ba-ba-ba.
And I go and give them my
best advice, all valid.
You know what they do?
They do as they please.
My best entrepreneurs listen to
my advice and then don't do it.
And that's an entrepreneur.
It's an independent streak, for
the same reason my dad should
have been an entrepreneur.
They don't want anybody
telling them what to do,
even though they ask.
All right?
So it's not exactly your answer,
because I'm not sure I have it,
but that's the best I could do.
AUDIENCE: Great.
BARBARA CORCORAN: OK.
Pleasure.
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]
is Michael.
BARBARA CORCORAN: You're
a cool guy with the hands
in your pocket, Michael.
AUDIENCE: I have a client
meeting after this.
BARBARA CORCORAN: Yeah.
You ought to lend your jacket
to the guy in the shorts.
AUDIENCE: Just the
jacket, not the pants.
BARBARA CORCORAN: OK.
You should give me
your pants, Michael.
AUDIENCE: If you'd like.
BARBARA CORCORAN:
Don't tease me.
AUDIENCE: I'm game.
Long time--
BARBARA CORCORAN: [LAUGHS] Don't
disappoint me if we go there.
[LAUGHS] We could
do this all day.
Go ahead, what's--
AUDIENCE: We could
do this all day.
Longtime viewer,
first time caller.
Big fan of the show.
BARBARA CORCORAN:
Well, slow down for me.
Say that again?
AUDIENCE: Longtime viewer.
First time caller.
BARBARA CORCORAN: Uh-huh.
AUDIENCE: Right?
And in the vein of
being a longtime viewer,
I'm curious why you think
the show is such a success?
BARBARA CORCORAN:
It had to catch on.
AUDIENCE: What's that?
BARBARA CORCORAN:
It had to catch on.
The first couple of
seasons, they constantly
moved our time slot and
our day of the week.
Murder for a show.
People just find you, oh,
that was a fun show, honey.
You want to watch it again?
They don't promote it.
They were doing no
promotions of the show.
The next week, it landed on a
different day, different time
slot.
Then they moved it again.
Just as we started getting
traction, they kept moving it,
because we weren't
a successful show.
And what happens is you've got
to have a trial by fire when
you're not a successful show.
Very few of them survive.
Very few.
I think it's like
1% of all shows that
open ever stay on air.
OK?
And so we were
tenuous those years,
and that was the
biggest problem.
And then we got loyal followers.
You know when I knew the show
was going to be successful?
I remember the day.
Some babe, this
lady, weird lady,
followed me into a restroom
at the shuttle building
near Kennedy airport,
wherever that thing is.
By LaGuardia.
You know that shuttle,
Delta shuttle.
Couldn't remember the name.
Followed me and hustled me in.
In the john.
I mean, one thing to
walk me to the sink,
but walking me in the
john is weird, you know?
And she's like, I
love "Shark Tank!"
I love "Shark Tank!"
I love "Shark Tank!"
Now, you're more my type.
You're a hunk. [LAUGHS]
AUDIENCE: Well, you're not
going to like me after this.
BARBARA CORCORAN: OK.
AUDIENCE: I just want to
preface this by saying,
you did say you would
answer any question.
So--
BARBARA CORCORAN: Oh.
AUDIENCE: One of--
BARBARA CORCORAN: Your
eyes are twittering.
You're nervous.
AUDIENCE: Oh, yeah.
I'm nervous.
BARBARA CORCORAN: Go ahead.
AUDIENCE: You scare
me a little bit.
So one of my favorite
anecdotes of yours
is your letter to Mark Burnett.
And I am amazed at
how you handled it.
I loved reading the text of it.
What I'd like to know
is who is the younger
blonde you were competing with
for that spot on "Shark Tank"?
BARBARA CORCORAN: Oh,
I can't tell you that.
AUDIENCE: You said
you'd answer anything.
BARBARA CORCORAN:
I would answer it.
But you know why I
couldn't-- and now I lied.
And I didn't mean to.
Because I will answer anything.
But you know why I
can't answer that?
Because she was
the scorned lover.
And it would feel-- if
it came back to her,
it wouldn't be right.
AUDIENCE: So my working theory
that it was Lori, not correct?
BARBARA CORCORAN: No.
Not [INAUDIBLE].
But kind of a Lori lookalike.
Kind of a Lori lookalike, yeah.
AUDIENCE: All right.
Thank you.
BARBARA CORCORAN: I'm sorry
I wasn't good for my word,
but it would be
too mean -spirited.
AUDIENCE: No, I'm
just joshing you.
But thank you very much.
BARBARA CORCORAN:
But she not only
had long blond hair, just
like Tina, my old secretary,
who stole my boyfriend.
Ironic.
OK?
She also had huge
you know whats.
And all I had to do is
do one click online,
and I got why I was rejected.
Well, I-- that's
not really fair.
But I assumed I knew.
You know what I mean?
And I knew I had tremendous
liabilities to overcome there.
AUDIENCE: So what if any sharks
do you prefer working with?
BARBARA CORCORAN: I like
working with Mark Cuban.
You know why?
He's got a great
team around him.
He's quick to decide.
Bam, bam, thank you ma'am.
He doesn't take a lot of
time on a due diligence.
And he gets down to business.
And also, he's extremely bright.
Extremely bright.
In many, many ways he's bright.
OK?
And something about having
a billionaire, whether it's
right or wrong, put their
money in the business you're
putting your
millionaire money in
makes you feel like
you are smarter.
OK?
Yeah.
So--
AUDIENCE: Is there anybody that
you don't like working with?
BARBARA CORCORAN: Yeah.
Who is this woman?
OK.
You know what?
I've done deals with all
of the entrepreneurs.
And I actually like
doing deals myself.
Think about it.
When you do a deal
with another shark,
you've got to agree on
terms of the contract.
You've got to compare
due diligence.
You've got emails
going back and forth.
It's hugely inefficient.
I like to decide, get
it done, and move on.
Because the only thing we
really have in life is our time.
So anything that's
inefficient, I'm
more of a chip off
of my mother's block.
Anything that's inefficient,
I don't want to mess with.
I mean, it's just
na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na.
Just move on.
So really, by myself.
And I've done deals
with everybody,
but I never mind doing
a deal with Mark.
Yeah.
OK?
Although Mark did tell me not to
invest in this phenomenal deal,
because he knew all
about franchising.
He really did.
I didn't invest in it,
who will remain nameless.
And they were one of the biggest
hits on "Shark Tank," [LAUGHS]
proving that just because
somebody has more money,
they're not smarter than you.
[LAUGHS] Yeah.
Yes.
Wow, you're like a--
kind of a cowboy type.
AUDIENCE: Oh. [LAUGHS]
So I have two questions.
BARBARA CORCORAN: Yes.
AUDIENCE: I'll start
with one, and maybe I'll
go to the other one.
So the--
BARBARA CORCORAN:
Oh, what the hell.
Go for two.
AUDIENCE: All right. [LAUGHS]
So the first question I had
has to do with
"Shark Tank" itself.
So when you're
paying entrepreneurs,
how much does the
actual idea matter?
Do you care more about
the actual person?
BARBARA CORCORAN: It
depends what you're after.
For me, it's all
about the people.
I mean, the idea's got
to have a couple of legs.
Important to me.
It's got to make common
sense, and I've got to picture
a lot of people buying it.
If I can't picture a lot
of people buying a nuance.
A lot of that stuff for
TV is nuance products,
because it's curious.
Oh, I would have
never thought of that.
It's good for TV, but it's
not good for my pocketbook.
So if I see something
that makes common sense,
it doesn't have to be unique.
I mean, pork barrel
barbecue sauce,
how many sauces are out there?
I've never even checked it.
I wouldn't want to, because
I'd feel like a fool putting
money in it.
OK?
But I had something unique.
I had the guy that
looked the part.
OK?
And they were great hustlers.
They're great hustlers.
Smart guys.
Great hustlers.
So for me, I always pick
out the entrepreneurs.
And the times I
haven't, the times I've
been swayed to
pick the business,
because it seems amazing,
I've lost money every time.
It's always when I just-- and
you know what I do in my head,
when I'm sitting there,
when I'm equivocating,
which isn't that much like me.
I'm usually in or out within--
before they open their mouth,
based on what they look like
and how they act under pressure
with the camera zooming in.
How they hold eye con--
I'm already deciding.
At least I know when I'm out.
OK?
But I have to say that I
don't know what I was saying.
What's your second question?
I lost my train of thought.
AUDIENCE: My second
question had more
to do with you were
talking about what
makes a great entrepreneur.
So I'm wondering--
BARBARA CORCORAN: Oh,
always pick-- my conclusion
there is I always pick the
person over the business.
But your second
question is that?
AUDIENCE: Well, my
question is, what do you
do when you are your
own worst enemy?
Like when you doubt?
BARBARA CORCORAN: I have
good advice on that.
OK?
Because that is the real
enemy in building any business
or building any
success for yourself.
I really believe
you are the enemy.
And you could look and blame
this and this and this,
but how does a guy like
Branson do what he did?
I mean, how does he do
it and nobody else built
this giant airline?
How do people do it?
You know what I think?
I think the battle is
won inside your own head.
Won or lost inside
your own head.
For me, I had a huge
advantage, because I came
into the adult world pissed.
OK?
Not over my parents.
I spoke in glowing terms.
I was happy with them.
But I was such a horrific
student in school
that the kids made fun of me.
I couldn't read.
My idea of hell
on earth was being
made to read out
loud and have to go,
[BABBLING NOISES] and
everybody laughing.
So when I got out of that
goddamn schoolhouse--
it was like a
jailhouse for me-- I
came out with vengeance and a
need to prove I wasn't stupid.
Do you know how that's gotten
me through the thick and thin?
The insecurity of thinking,
maybe I am stupid.
I still feel that
way on a bad day.
But as a result of that,
I share this with you,
if it's helpful to anybody here.
I learned to develop
a tape of my own,
because my old tape was this.
I would go into a situation,
not raise my hand.
I mean, me speaking up, even
on "Shark Tank," very hard
for me to do.
To be heard.
You notice I don't talk
as much, because I'm
like-- if they showed all the
tapes for an hour and a half,
you'd see me saying, ah!
Mm.
Ah!
[LAUGHS] All right?
But what I learned
to do for myself
is to-- when I start
doing the oh my God,
I shouldn't have come here.
Gosh, they don't like me.
Oh my God.
What do I-- all this self talk.
We all do it, whatever
your thing is.
And it's usually from childhood.
Some bullshit that went on
there that formed you, right?
When I start doing that,
now I have a new tape.
And it's not that new, I've
been doing it now for 30 years.
And it goes like this.
I sit there and I go, hey.
Wait a minute.
I have just as much right
to be here as that asshole.
And then I psych myself up.
I get really loud inside.
So I say, you know what?
This don't-- nobody who
says you can't get your hand
on the money like
everybody else.
If I have anything in life
that you really want or desire,
go as far as you want.
I get myself really
steamed up, and then
I always land in the same
place, which is, well, fuck you.
And then I raise my hand.
Hey!
[LAUGHS] OK?
But that self battle within it
is so important within myself,
because when I feel like
that Alice in Wonderland
going down the rabbit hole.
Oh no, whatever
that famous line is.
Is that I'm shrinking, or
was that "Wizard of Oz,"
or melting, or whatever
the hell it is.
But you know, that
feeling of going down.
Ooh, shrinking.
You know, the
minute that starts,
I'm very good at bringing
that other person
right to the front.
And I'm going to
prove that I'm smart.
All the time I've
got to prove it.
It doesn't mean I don't
feel that I'm not sometimes,
but I've really kicked in.
I'm pretty fast
forward on that now.
That's it.
AUDIENCE: Thank you.
BARBARA CORCORAN: And you
know the one little thing
for the women in the room?
Sometimes when I'm
in a situation,
I just say to myself,
what would a man do?
And you know what?
Men are much more apt to
speak up, demand more, ask
for the bigger raise, blah,
blah, blah, than a woman would.
They really are.
I know, because I've
hired thousands of people,
fired thousands of people.
I've worked with
thousands of people.
I'm old.
I know this stuff.
OK?
And I will often say to
myself, what would a man do?
And I'll say,
wait, I'm not going
to understand the other side
better than I understand
my side, which is like me.
Empathy.
I understand.
I understand.
No.
I got to take care
of me here, too.
Hey.
Let me tell you what I want.
That's what a man says.
Hey, let me tell
you what I want.
With a woman, it's
like, you know what?
I was thinking that.
Like, yeah, yeah.
A little different.
Yeah.
Different style.
As long as you get there.
Yes sir, with the
plaid shirt on.
That is madras, and that was
all the rage when I was 17.
AUDIENCE: Oh, yeah.
I did not take a time
machine to come here.
Hello.
BARBARA CORCORAN: Does
that bleed, by the way?
That madras?
AUDIENCE: You mean-- I
don't sleep with this, but--
BARBARA CORCORAN: No, no.
We used to wash our madras.
It would bleed,
and that was cool.
Got it.
AUDIENCE: This doesn't bleed.
I don't think so.
Anyway--
BARBARA CORCORAN: You
would know it by now.
AUDIENCE: I guess I would.
[LAUGHS] My question is more
along the lines of persistence.
So what's your take on if you're
fighting a battle right now
and it kind of looks like
you're going to lose,
but you still have the
impetus to persist.
What advice do you
have on [INAUDIBLE].
BARBARA CORCORAN: Well, that's a
hard one, because it depends so
much on your own good judgment.
OK?
Most often, it's far better
to play your hand out,
because you don't want to leave
without the end to the story,
in my book.
In other words, you want to
play it out and see if you could
bring it to the finish line.
That being said,
sometimes you're
hitting your head
against the wall.
Against a wall that
doesn't believe you,
is never going to believe
you, and is never going
to buy in in the first place.
And then I change the wall,
and I use the same persistence
to hit against a different wall.
Very often, a situation
where you're an employee.
I could have been amazing
as a sales clerk at my job
at Schweitzers department store,
selling those granny gowns.
Oh, you're amazing, Barb.
You can sell those granny gowns.
But I was never going to run
Schweitzers department store,
no matter how good I was.
You know what I mean?
It was all about
the Schweitzers.
[LAUGHS] So I think you
have to push and push
until your dignity is
whole and you think,
well, nobody could have
done it any harder.
But I think you also have to
know when you don't have a shot
and move on and spend your God
given talents on somebody where
it fits or something
where it fits.
Because you can get
stuck without moving on
if you're too much that way.
Let me ask you.
Thank you.
Let's have a show of
hands on how many people
love this guy's hair?
Well, it is nice.
OK.
Give us shampoo.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
