Will You Be Successful? Barbara Corcoran Reveals ‘The Tell’

He said to me, going out the door, you'll never succeed without me. I call it F.U. Fuel and I'm like, Bush is the best fertilizer you sold for 66 million. I was able to make over $1 million in one hour flat. And if you don't buy into this lesson, you're never going to be a great boss. And that is.

Barbara, thank you so much for making time to be here. I adore you, I respect you, I admire your book. Shark tales. This is awesome. Like, I had so much fun reading it. We're both from Jersey, I know. Yes, there's a lot of Jersey grit happening and so much belated state in the nation, by the way. But I think also really cool people like we've got some bulls, some not so much pain in the ass relatives.

Yeah, that's true, that's true. Me too. Okay, let's go back to the early days. For anybody who doesn't know, can you tell us a little bit about how you got your start and how this $1,000 loan slash gift launched this billion dollar business? It was my first truly lucky break in life. I recognize it for what it was, just plain out luck.

I was working my 22nd job as a waitress, and I was 23, and a man walked into the waitress and asked to sit at my counter and he gave me a ride home, became my boyfriend, and this was Ramone Simon. And a year later he said, why don't you start a real estate business? You have a great personality.

I think you do really well in it. And he gave me $1,000. He took 51% of the shares, gave me 49% of the shares. He was the financier and I was the worker. And that's what started my first real estate company until he left me for a secretary seven years later. I was so heartbroken. It took me a year, but then I ended the business and fortunately I had the second lucky break of my life, which was, he said to me, going out the door, you'll never succeed without me.

And I am telling you, I use those words for the next 20 years to build a giant business. I just couldn't stand the thought of him seeing me not succeed and succeed. And that drove me on every day of my work. When he said that to you, you're never going to make it without me. Was there any part of you that was like, oh, wait, is he right?

Or was it an instant like, like for me, my jersey version, I call it F.U. Fuel and I'm like, bullshit is the best fertilizer like anyone tells me that I can't do. So I'm like, that is really my cue. Like, watch me like that whole thing comes out. But you do need a cue. Yes. Yeah. Yes. I think I spent the year leading up to the end of that business worried and doubting myself.

After all, he had found me in my small town. He had given me the thousand dollars. He took me out of new Jersey, showed me the big city. He showed me the way to make money in real estate. And then suddenly he's gone. I thought I'd be nothing without him until he said that. And then I was like a steel rod.

There was no way I was going to succeed, I love that. So one of the things I loved learning about in the book was how unbelievably smart, creative and clever you are about creating interest and desire. A lot of times where there is not. And for anyone you know, we have such a big audience of entrepreneurs, aspiring entrepreneurs, established ones, people going on to their next chapter and you did so many cool things.

So I'm going to say three of my favorites. And then we can kind of see our favorites. Oh wait, do it was the one empty desk story when you were trying. Oh, I loved that. I loved the one bedroom plus den because we were just talking. I'm obsessed with Streeteasy and apartments, and it's just like my addiction.

And then the one day, one price promo that was inspired by the puppy. So whichever one that you want to pile into, because I think they're also delicious, I'll, I'll do the very first one to begin with because it's short. I never advertised for salespeople with an S on the end, and I was desperate for salespeople. I usually had 12 desks empty.

I'm dying to get commission salespeople to sit in them, and no one was coming in until I stopped advertising immediately. For salespeople, come and be with us, and people just felt like I had an unlimited supply. And then I decided to write one empty desk, and I got five times. The response to my ad was, everybody always wants what there's a limited supply of.

And that became my way of recruiting salespeople very fast. The second one was what the one bedroom plus den store. Most importantly, much more important than the, than the previous story. The one bedroom and den really gave me such a heads up of how to advertise in real estate, or any game would apply to anything. I had one listing because my old boss allowed me to have a listing in his building to rent, and I looked at it and I compared to all the listings in the New York Times that listed everything that, that and that day, it was like Streeteasy and everybody advertised the same thing.

One bedroom, 341 bedroom, 330 sunny, one bedroom, 341 and on and on and on. When the. So I went back to my old boss, I said, if you build a wall between the living room and the L and put a double frame door in there, we'll call it a one bedroom and den and I'll get you $20 more a month.

And I advertised $20 more a month, and the phone never stopped ringing. I ran that ad every single week for probably five years. I just kept getting another one bedroom and den to advertise. And he built those walls so fast because he got his $20 more a month. And that's called making more of something than you actually have, or positioning it smartly.

And from that lesson, I learned to position everything smartly and to really examine any circumstance I was in and think, how could I do it differently? How could I do it was a gimmick, how could I do it smartly? And that always gives you ten times more bang for your buck, which you need when you're starting a business because you're so poor, you don't have enough money to go around.

Totally. Well, I think it's so important though, for any size business. Yes, because especially when you're starving. Yes. Especially when you're starving. But I think also some businesses and I'm curious your perspective on this. When they start to get success, they might get a little lazy. Yes. Very much. You know, and they buy the help. Yes. Versus create their own solutions.

That's right. And they get lazy on that marketing and lazy on that creative positioning of saying like, what do we have and how can we differentiate it? And these are like simple but magical and profitable. I guess you're right. You know, the one day, one price promo. So, you can set the context for this story. But I was thinking about it in the sense of like, oh my God, there's all of these apartments that nobody wants, and they're sitting on the market and they're just days and weeks and months going by.

And I can't even imagine what the developers that you know, what everybody's thinking. And then you come up with this one day, one price sale, tell us what this is. And it worked like a dream, because I was able to make over $1 million in one hour flat. Come on. Yeah. And this is back. And give us the year for context, I don't really even remember early 80s.

Okay. But all I do remember very clearly it was the worst real estate market I had ever seen. It was a time when interest rates were 18%. And if you were brokerage Manhattan, you were starving and going out of business because nobody would buy anything. It was there was no market. Then a developer, an insurance company, comes to me and asked me a solution to selling 88 dogs of apartments.

They were the worst in the business and there was no way to sell them. I told them that, and fortunately the developer said, you're a smart girl. You'll figure it out. I felt like I couldn't disappoint him, and I came up with a theory that I imitated a puppy sale that my mother brought us to our kids, where the farmer who's a smart woman, had eight puppies and she had 20 people waiting in line to buy them from the city in fancy cars.

Her mother said, watch that farmer woman. She's smart. She invited everyone at the same time, and all the people from the city were fighting for the puppies. Why? Because there weren't enough to go around. And that gave me the idea how to sell units. I price up all I equalized them, whether in the back, in the front, whether they were bigger or smaller where they have kitchens or not.

And I said, first come, first serve. Keep it a secret. Only bring your best customer to my salespeople. I whispered it out because I had no money for advertising, and they brought their customers the best customers. And I woke up to like 150 people waiting in line for 88 puppies or apartments, and they flew off the shelf because there weren't enough to go around and they're all equal.

So somebody was going to get a better deal than the next guy. It's not amazing. Everybody wants you have this in the book. Everybody wants what everybody wants. Yes. Always the case in sales. I feel like I've seen that in our business. And you know, we do a lot of digital courses and experiences. And I've had people tell me so many times, and I've been doing this now for about 22 years.

They're like, Marie, why aren't you selling your stuff all the time? Why do you have these open and closed periods? I'm like, because scarce is this thing is human psychology and it creates interest and desire. And there's other reasons too. It's not just that, but I'm like, y'all, these are real things. They're timeless ideas that can work in any business.

I was even surprised I fell for it last night trying to choose a restaurant with three restaurants. I didn't really care what I want to eat, I just want to eat and then I noticed the one was the most crowded with people waiting in line. I got in the line. Yeah. Did I know anything about the restaurants? No, but I figured the crowd meant it was the best restaurant.

Yeah, everybody falls for it every time. Let's talk about gut instinct, because I know that has played a big role in your success and something. But my gosh, I rely on it for everything. Smart lady. Thank you. is there a specific example that comes to mind, whether it's recent or from your early days where the gut instinct was like, so there.

And maybe other people were like, no, Barbara, you're crazy. You know what I mean? Trying to get you to go where they wanted you to go, but your inner compass was like, probably the first thing that comes to mind is me hiring my first clunker, my first salesperson who great at sales, but a chronic complainer. And when I sat down and interviewed her, I was really surprised because I was going to get a salespeople salesperson who had a great track record making lots of money.

I'm like, wow, wow, wow. But something about her as she's talking and smiling, it was bothering me, bothering me. I heard her and I soon found out what was bothering me. She was a chronic pain in the ass. She complained about everything, drove me almost to sell my business to get rid of her. No way. And I realized you didn't pay attention to your gut because she could define what your gut was saying.

And that's not important. If you got is hesitating, that translates to no, don't do it. Yes. Every time in my business career, when I ignored my gut, it was the wrong move. And most importantly, when I listened to my gut was when there wasn't the logic to back something up. Yes, like to justify a move or spend or something like that.

But just to my God, I felt like I had to do it. There were always the best decisions. And, you know, let's talk about finding and keeping the right people. Actually cued this up perfectly. I love this story of when you were first starting to hire all of your salespeople. I felt like that system was ingenious, where you had folks come in and they were either dress for success or not, and they either got a pencil or a pen.

Can you walk us through why you did that? I feel like it was like such a call back to your amazing mother and her organizational skill was an organizational skill. Yeah, right. Yeah. One of the issues in hiring salespeople is, no one grows up saying I want to be a real estate salesman. They fall into it. And so you have to think of a way to cast a big net to catch a lot of people who might think about becoming a real estate salesperson.

Otherwise, you don't have enough applicants. You can't sharpshooting. So you're almost, just trying to get as many bodies as you can on the door. So I had a gimmick where I would advertise, learn everything you want to know about real estate. It might be for you, noncommittal. And then people would come in by droves for my career nights.

But the problem with it is, if you get 50 people in, you have to do something with them. After they leave. So I decided that if someone came in the door and they looked attractive, sounded attractive and like seemed to have a happy disposition, I had in them a pen to sign in on my pen, and if someone came in, I was, I handed them a pencil to sign in.

So after the career night was done the following day, of course everybody would call you who interested in joining a firm which the majority of the people, because I ran a great show for them, of course, and turned on the dog. Yeah, but everyone who would call, I would just look at the listing. If it was in pencil, I'd say, I'm sorry that that's been filled.

If it was pen. Sure. What can you come in? So it just it just spun through a lot of people. So I was able to have a lot of career nights without spending a lot of time at it. Yeah. And going with the, you know, it's like, why waste time on the clunkers when you don't have the time and you don't have the energy and your instincts are like, no, if they can't even show up.

Yeah. Like they, you know, give a damn. It's like, oh, they can't represent the working group. Yeah. let's talk about being the best boss. I feel like you've been praised a lot for being a great boss. I am a great boss. You are a great boss. I even like myself. Yeah. I mean, this is amazing for most of us.

Like to be able to get to really like ourselves and not bullshit. It's awesome. Do you have any advice for business owners who are trying to build a team and trying to become a great boss themselves? I think there's one, capital lesson that everyone who wants to be a good boss has to buy into. And if you don't buy into this lesson, you're never going to be a great boss.

And that is, you have to see yourself working for the employees, not the employees working for you. The minute you think you're the boss of the employees, you tell them what to do. You're more important or more skilled or more anything. You limit your horizons. My attitude is I have someone working with me. I will do anything in my power to get them ahead.

Anything in my power to keep them, anything in my power to introduce new things to them, whatever is going to make them happy. And then I have to worry about being bosses, going to love me in return. Just about love it. I know it sounds hokey, but it has a good deal to do with love and loyalty. You send out first and they give it right back to you.

I never give you an exception. Yeah, I don't think it sounds hokey at all. I mean, it's humanity, right? It's human nature. It's human nature, and it's the most important thing. And we're going to talk about money in a little bit, but it's like outside of quote unquote success in business and building and creating and making deals. It's, you know, our health and our relationship.

There's nothing more important. Will you get your greatest satisfaction? A dollar will never give you the satisfaction you hoped it would when you earn it. Yeah, but when people love you and you have a happy family life at work, you're getting satisfaction all the way to the bank. Whether you make the money or not, it's guaranteed satisfaction.

Let's talk about, when there are folks who are not so great. Like, I loved the part in the book that was talking about shooting the dogs early in culling the Deadwood and that you guys had as a policy once a year, you'd cut the bottom 25% of your sales force. How important have you seen it, both from your experience in the Corcoran Group, but also at Shark Tank, to let go of underperformers and complainers fast?

It's as important as hiring the right people. You could try, all the tricks in the book to make sure you hire the right people and be right 80% of the time, but 20% will sink your team if they're in the team and complaining and pulling the team down. So you have to let go of people quickly. I think it's equally important when you hire someone to be extremely clear on what your expectation is.

My expectation was very simple make a deal within three months or you're not meant for the real estate sales business. So they knew they had three months to make a deal or it was over. Most people I hired who couldn't make a deal fired themselves before I even had a fire them. But for those few that didn't, we meaning my managers myself would meet with them and say, I'm so sorry.

You know what the rule was? You have it made three times, so we have to move on. Now. There are exceptions. Every rule sometimes is someone has so much capability and you feel it in your gut, but they had a rough or slow start. Then you make an exception. Say take another three months. What the heck? Yeah, and you don't fire the person.

But for the great majority of people in business, if you know how to hire expertly, but you're not keen on firing quickly, you'll never have a really big business. Because what happens is, I used to think if someone isn't producing that money that I'm spending on the overhead, it's taken out of the pockets of the productive salespeople I can't promote as well.

I can't buy them as many gifts. I can push them ahead. I can't get them more assistance because it's being driven by the people who aren't able. So I used to do to protect my good people. I felt like the mother I had to get my good kids to get ahead. Yeah, no. So I had no issue with firing people.

Yeah, I any tips around that? Because I think firing people, obviously it's difficult. And you want to do it with respect and with compassion and with a sense of humanity. Is there anything that you would share for someone listening right now or watching thinking like, got any advice? I would never fire anyone without giving some careful thought to what they'd really be good at, and I usually had some good ideas as to what they'd really be good at.

Sales is an unusually difficult business. Very few people can really sell on a commission basis, but I would watch the person before I fire them, talk to the manager, hear them on the conversation on the phone and think what would I picture them succeeding with? And so on. I sat down with them to tell them it wasn't working out.

They weren't meant for sales. I was honest, you have to be brutally honest. Let me tell you why it's not working out. Not like you're no good. But let me tell you what skills are involved that are difficult for you to retain. However, those skills would really apply to this business, this business and this business because it's a key skill that you do have.

And why would you why you're happy to act as your endorser. Just use me in all your references, put me first and I would always endorse them. And so they would leave my office. My partner S used to say, when you fire people, Barbara, they leave your office looking like they got promoted. But in a way they did get promoted out of the business onto something they could do.

Well, yeah, they get like excited, ready to try the new thing that they were into. I think that's so that's worth a good Chilean dollars right there. I know that's kind of an overstatement, but it's it is because people it's so important for relationships. I was talking about this on my team. There's people that I'm doing business with.

And I was like, oh my God, I've known them for 20 something years. It's like my accountant when I was a bartender waiting tables trying to start this business. He's still doing my taxes. Yeah, you know, loyalty and you never know how your universes are going to collide again in the future. So thank you for that. You know, I can tell you that many times during the real estate business, it's a up down business.

You're always going out of business on the down cycles. Always out of business can only get so close. You owe out money and you know all your suppliers will stay with you. All the people you do business with. If you're loyal, they net. They always worked along with you. They got me through the recession so not me, but they got me through the recessions, willing to wait for their money because of my loyalty to them and their loyalty back.

It's so important if you're going to build a business. Let's talk about when you sold. You sold for 66 million. My lucky number, your lucky number. And I love that. I feel like someone right there was a suitor who wanted to offer you 22, and you're like, nope, 66 is my number and I'm not. Six is better than 22.

Oh, it's a hell of a lot better all into it. So you were writing about in the book when you saw that money in your account, you shared that you would be absolutely crazy not to feel on top of the world, but you felt sad. So I'm going to share your words here. I was running around with a deep sadness and I didn't know how to fix it.

What was that experience like? Because anyone listening to us right now going like, OMG, 66 million, you just sold your company, you're seeing all that in your bank account. And why would you be saying, yeah, I'll tell you why. I would be sad because money was never my God. It was great having 66 million and I would never give it back.

So I love having 66 million and everything it brings to you. But I wasn't aware. I didn't pause to think what I would lose. And I thought, I'm selling the business, the business. But I should define what the business was. What I had done is I sold my family. I had sold the thousand people I had trained, hired, loved me, did special events with me, did were always with me all along the way for those 1517 years I was building the business, I sold my notoriety.

Every press person in town was calling me because I was so good a publisher. They leaned on me for numbers that they wanted, for comments they wanted. I sold the notoriety in my family, and without the notoriety, I felt unimportant. As ashamed as I am to admit that I love people adoring me and asking me for my opinion.

And without my family, what was I going to do? Talk to the wall? Yeah, it was just terrible. So I really regretted selling the business almost immediately. It was a very, very hard vacuum to fill. How long was that period after? Because I can only imagine the soul searching. Like I love my work so much and sometimes when I've felt either exhausted or burnt out, or run myself ragged, or just lost some spark of what makes me so excited about what I do, I'm like, well, I don't quote unquote have to work anymore.

And then I go, I go, and that's when I'm like, oh shit, no. I was like, that's a freaking me. Not yeah, because I love the act of creation. So I'm just curious what that kind of next period was like for you. Was it like a few years before you're like, okay, here's how Barbara's back. Like, this is your next chapter.

I was in back so fast and people's minds, but I was getting back in my own mind. Yeah. what I had decided to do is, is reinvent myself. What else could I do other than run a real estate brokerage firm? And I knew one topic only real estate. That was a starting point. I was going to be an expert on vacuum cleaners or anything like that.

Yeah. And so I held my expertise in real estate, and I thought, what I really like most about my business was the notoriety with the publicity. And what I really liked, well, about my business was having an audience. I love having people adore me. So I decided to go into the TV business because they have large audiences, and I made my subject real estate, everything about real estate.

And as luck would have it, almost immediately after I sold the Corcoran Group or within a year the market folded. And if there's one thing that really does well in media is bad news. Yeah. So I was on every week. Bad news, bad news, bad news, the morning talk shows. And I was paid and got to be a correspondent.

And that reinvented my field. And so I went from there up the ladder to build more notoriety as an expert on TV. And then I switched into the entrepreneur space when I was able to do it. You know, I got very good advice from Barbara Walters on The View one morning. It was right after I sold my business.

I was sitting there talking about real estate, which they hired me to do, and after the show she said to you, what are you going to do now that you sold your business? I'd be curious. I said, I've had it with real estate. I've done it my whole life. I'm going to be an expert in entrepreneurship shit. So no more real estate, she said.

And I said, no, no more real estate. She said, wait on someone claims up your real estate tree and takes it. You'll see how much you like real estate. Well, I got right back on real estate. Good advice. Right? Yes. And I became a real estate expert. And that's what got me to climb the tree. Whereas I was going to give it up and redefine myself perfectly in a different field.

What a waste of time that would have been. Isn't that cool? That kind of comes back to that conversation. Like, for me, it's the F.U. Fuel, right? But somebody like I remember had an early bottom. Oh yes. And it's like a fire inside. There was a period of time where I was questions like, well, that's not really the healthiest of motivations.

And I'm like, yeah, it's not, it's but it works. It works. And I'm like, you know what? If it works for this one, I'm like, I don't need to understand it. I'm going to use it, I got it. Let's talk about money a little bit more because I think you shared in here that you've been good at making money, but not so great at keeping it, and that when need money, who knows?

Yeah. When you sold the company that you actually missed worrying about money and all the creative things you had to do and dream up in order to get it. Yeah. So, you've made a lot, you've invested a lot. You've spent a lot, lost a lot. What are your thoughts? And attitudes and beliefs towards money, and have they changed over your career?

They really haven't changed. They're mostly my mother's attitude toward money. You know, she raised ten kids with no money. And somehow it all worked out. She never worried about money a day in her life, and there were periods of time when my dad didn't work for months because he was always fired, because he was insubordinate in his job, even though he was a capable man and great at his work, he was always fired.

And my mother had more reasons to worry about money feeding ten kids than anybody else in more probably the whole state of new Jersey. But she never worried. Her attitude was money is meant to be spent. So we waited our turn every ten years. Believe it or not, one of us got to go to the dentist every Christmas.

We all got new pajamas every three years. One of the girls got a new doll, so she had a system, but she never worried or gave a moment's thought to what she was short on. When I was going on a business one year and I had written my goodbye speech to my salespeople. I had tried everything, and I had a huge overhead with six offices.

I had no way of digging my way out of the hole. My mother happened to call me on a Sunday night and I'll never forget it. And she said, you sound distracted. I said, I am distracted, I'm having a sales meeting a week in a week, and I'm announcing that we're closing the business like, oh, I owed like $800,000 to the ad agency.

I owed this, I owed that, and she said, you're not worrying about money, are you? I said, of course I'm worried about money. And she said, what a waste of time. Oh, and just saying, what a waste of time, took it off my shoulders. And I said, it is what am I accomplishing? Worrying. And I don't know what the idea was.

I thought of at that juncture, but I did think of some idea that kept us in business for another couple of months. And then we saw the light shine in the real estate business, and we made it around the turn. I love how you said, and none of these times that I was going out of business because of that.

Like that's the reality. We're like, I don't know. I don't know if we're going to make it work. Yeah. let's talk about goals. I loved when you talked about when there were suitors circling your business in the early days. You said no one asked you what your dreams or your aspirations were before they started their pitch. And if they did, they would have discovered that your goals had nothing to do with money, status or power.

So, I want to know. I'm curious what your goals do have to do with and what are some dreams and aspirations you have now? the dreams and aspirations probably have changed because I have less time in this world. So you have to, of course, alter your aspirations to the timetable. But I think what it's always turned me on and that hasn't changed at all, is the joy of working with teams, seeing how far you could go, seeing really how far you could go, how much of a change you can make in people's lives, because that gives you the satisfaction.

I find if you do a good job on that, the money takes care of itself. I've had bad times of course, but I've also had times years where I've been a shitload of money. Yeah, and it's kind of by happenstance. I wasn't planning it. It's nice to have. You should try to spend it before it hit the office.

But in the end, the whole thing that turns me on is really the joy of this, and the satisfaction of working with people toward a common God. And the God was never money. It was always how far can we go? Let's see where we go around this corner. Whoa whoa whoa, yeah. And I like change. And then always kept me looking at the next page instead.

Said the page I was standing on, you know. So I shared with you when we were getting dolled up right before we turned on the cameras. Oh, we. I think we look fabulous. 22 at most. not even. Right. So, I want to talk about your friggin penthouse, because when you were working as a messenger, I love this story.

We tell this story and how you saw it. And the lady said, when you're like, I'll buy it. And one day. And she laughed at you. You walk us through that? Yeah. Of course. A short story. I was working as a messenger while I own the Corcoran Group, because we were in yet another bad time. And what was great about being a messenger, you can work at night.

you can work any allowance. I worked around my day job, and I delivered a message, a envelope to a lady who lived on 97th and fifth. And she opened the door, and I saw behind her green, beautiful park views through a big window. I'm like, I. And now I had seen apartments my whole life, but I had never been so awestruck by the suddenness of the green in the park right there, framing her.

Yes. And I said, did you ever sell this place? Would you give me a call? She didn't see me as Barbara Corcoran, the broker, because I didn't have a lot of notoriety. Then, she saw me as a messenger girl, and she said, I'll be very sure I'll be buried in this place. I'm never selling it. And that was that.

I delivered the messenger I had a sign for. I left, trying to get another peek before I left. And then, of course, she called me. It was, I don't know how many years later, maybe 12 years, 12, 13 years later, she call me and she said, my apartment's for sale. Remember me? I said, it's never left my mind.

And I went, I bought the apartment. She charged, overcharged me, of course, $3 million more than she wanted. It was listed for it, but I had to have it. Yeah, and I haven't regretted a single day. It is by far, in my opinion, honestly, the most beautiful apartment in New York. Oh. Extreme apartment. I mean, I saw I saw the video of it, and I was drooling.

I was telling you, I am obsessed, and, I have to be. I'm obsessed with with space and with feeling and energy and vibe. It makes a difference. It makes a difference. And I'm also obsessed with trees. And so I live in the West Village, and, we we need a little bit more space and all of, like, my best friend and my partner, Josh, he's like, nothing is good enough for you.

I said, it's a feeling. Nothing will be ever good. It's not. It's only when I know when I have this certain I'm like, I impatient af like I ain't going anywhere. Do you know? I mean I'm like, it will come up and I'll look for it. So when I heard this story, I was like, yes, Barbra, you put the revenge of the nerd.

Yes, yes. let's talk about Shark Tank for a little bit. And the power of picking good people. You say there are three traits that you look for in people when you're choosing to do business with them. What are those traits? I actually have more than three. I don't know which three you attract. Oh, I'll tell you. I'll tell you my three, and then you tell me the add ons, because we both came out a little earlier.

Good character. not as important anymore. Oh, good. Oh, well, this is an updated list. I like this enthusiasm. Very important sense of thankfulness. Very important. Okay, they would not be my top three. What are the top? What I have learned by investing in businesses and Shark Tank in looking at the ones that succeed very well and the ones that don't succeed, the majority don't succeed after you fund them.

It comes down to the entrepreneur. So what I look for, I really shop for a people that hasn't changed, but the traits I'm always looking for is number one by far ambition. If someone's not dreaming about being somebody, if somebody doesn't want more for themselves in life, there's nothing that's going to happen that gives them more in life than their own dream.

So I really want a dreamer with ambition, like the, desire the teeth to want to get in there and get it, you know? And that ambition is funny. Not only important, you don't ever get to the top of the heap without it. The second thing, which is related, it's like a kissing cousin, is the ability to handle rejection or put downs or failure or knock downs.

I almost think of, great entrepreneurs. Exactly, exactly. I think of this all the time. Like a jack in the box set. You push the head down, he pops back up. When you twist. You should have lay down because you're going to smack him again. He pops back up. So I'm always looking for that in an entrepreneur. My entrepreneurs that are wildly successful, I have to tell you know how to get back up.

I know how to get back up. I got the job on Shark Time because they hired me. They rejected me three days before I was going out there, after I told all my friends I was going to Hollywood and bought my new outfits and new luggage and everything, then they told me they weren't having me out there. They never signed the contract.

I was like, wow. But then I wrote an email immediately to Mark Burnett. I took about a second to feel sorry for myself, and I did feel sorry for myself that I wrote an email to him why he should invite me out and why I considered his rejection a lucky charm. And I sent him that brief email and I was invited out to compete for the seat with another female, which is he told me he had another woman who replaced spring.

I said, let me compete with her. I competed or won the seat. I've been on Shark Tank for 15 years. I just believe that ability to come back up is so important. That combined with the ambition, you can throw the rest aside. They're all important, you know, thankfulness. My partners, if they're not thankful when there's a lot of money on the table, the different people I don't have that because I really pick them for people.

But I could do without the thankfulness if I made a ton of money on a sale. Yeah, yeah. And I love the people. And they had the ambition and they had the ability to get back up. Those are the two important traits, really. Are there any favorites? I mean, you've invested in so many businesses. Are there any that just stand out for you, whether it was from the return on the investment, the business itself or the actual entrepreneur?

Well, the return on the investment is the sweetener that helps you love somebody if you're making a lot of money. Like, for example, I think Mark Cuban is more handsome than the other sharks, but I think it's because he has more billions. I'm not quite sure. So the LA so the money does affect my view of things. However, what we have favorites.

Mothers have favorite. Ask any mother. She has a favorite. She'll say no, get her drunk. She'll tell you who her favorite is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We all have favorites. My favorites are people that, like I love the cousins. Bailouts better give you examples. I love the Cousins Maine Lobster because the two guys are flirts. They always tell me I look beautiful.

Yes, they tell me dirty jokes. They he ha. We have a drink together. We have a ball. So I'm delighted they're so successful. But I love them because they made me feel good. Yes. Yeah. And they're fun to be with. Yeah, yeah. And I respect them because they are hustlers. And it is from the get go. And they have those two important traits.

You slam Saban and Jim the two principles on the head as often as you want. You make them stronger. They just that kind of a guy the great businessman. So they're my favorites. Then I fall for a lot of favorites a single women struggling, usually single moms with nothing in their hands to build a business with. I stay with them in the long because they become my parents simply because it trying so hard.

Yeah, they have the least going for them. Yeah. So yes, you do play favorites for sure. All I do is Shark Tank, no doubt about it. Staying in the know like you've invested in so many businesses over time, what do you do to stay ahead of the curve? and how do you know what might be the next big thing?

Is it really about the person and less about the industry or the business? I have no idea what the next big thing is. I stick with my knitting. Yeah, I like to stick with a business that's describe that, I understand, describe a pizzeria to me. I know how it works to get a yeah, give money and get a slice of pizza, you know.

Yeah. If there is something very sophisticated on a field I know nothing about, I will buy it. If I understand the entrepreneur, if I don't really get the entrepreneur, I steer clear of it. If there's a technology business that, like Mark Cuban's really excited about, that would be an exception, you should jump in the deal with him because he knows that space better than I do.

And if he's excited, I'm excited. But with that rare exception, I just choose the entrepreneurs. And that's really the way I think to choose businesses, to build businesses, to choose people. I think there's nothing more important. You have the right people. You can go as far as you want. If you have the wrong people, you'll be held back forever.

You know, in business and life, especially in business all the time, the shortcut hits the fan. Things go upside down. Great ones. Turkey. Turkey hits the fan. I haven't had any Japanese rebellion over that. No, I I'm so spicy and salty and saucy. You can write in. You can be, dear Maria. Terrible. but I'm curious because you've navigated so much.

I mean, I don't know if we'll have time, but I loved, I loved in the book you were talking about, like, you need to bully back a bully. And when a certain someone, Mr. Trump tried to weasel his way out of a $4 million commission owed to y'all, you were like, yeah, we get in our commission, we're getting our money.

What do you do to stay levelheaded when just things go sideways or things go upside down? Is there any are there any lessons you can share? I'm able to go to a quiet place, and very often the quiet place involves reach, which probably isn't a healthy way to be. For example, when, The Donald didn't want to pay me that large commission that he owed me, I went to a quiet place right away.

I didn't get angry. I just in my stomach got rage. It's unfair. The unfairness of it. Unfortunate. Unfortunately for me, I didn't have that many great real estate years because I always spent the money before it came in. But I happened to have made $1 million that year, which never happened to me before. So I spent 500,000 on a top notch attorney to sue and win the case.

And there were so many people that were in the same position as I, who didn't have the money to hire a top notch attorney. And boy, did I. It was I thankful that happened that year and I was able to defeat him. I wouldn't have with the best attorney. Interesting thing, it's the only attorney I've ever hired. Very honest to God.

I've done transactional attorneys looking over contracts, something like that. But never in a lawsuit have I hired an attorney. And you know what? I found a tutor. I interviewed every top attorney in New York, every law firm partner in New York to get my hands on litigators. And I said, how would you win the case? And most of the litigators had 3 or 4 ways they would win the case.

And I hired the guy had one way. He said, simple, I'll do this. And it sounded right to me, and that's who I hired. And that's what won the case. Clarity. So I even learned a great lesson. I think if I had to hire another attorney, I'd be great at hiring the right one, because clarity is what I learned about hiring attorney, because it's hard, hard to size up an individual has an expertise not your own right, but not difficult to size up an individual with your common sense and clarity is a big one.

So that feeling. So when things go sideways for you, letting yourself feel and I think, you know, rage is a human emotion, right? We have so we have such a wide we don't want to necessarily hang out there all the time. We got to deal with it. You want to feel it and then, you know, use it for fuel.

I you shot my husband last night. Only last night. Yeah, I love it. I shouted at him for five minutes straight, and then you got it out, and then you're like, okay, I'm done. Yeah. No, I get fiery too. Josh is like, where's this coming from? I'm like, give me three minutes, it'll be over. perseverance. You wrote every big success happens after I think I've exhausted 100% of my options.

For me, success only happens after I gave another 10%. If there is a struggling entrepreneur watching right now and considering giving up. And I know this is kind of a big, broad thing, and we would need to know the details would be impossible to answer. But but what would you tell someone about perseverance? I would ask them how many times they've tried, whether they can possibly still live another month, to have enough space to try one more thing, and then I would have them meet with everybody who's working with them, or associates or anybody, even people off the street, and sit down and brainstorm.

What else can I try? There's always something else. And, you know, in business, it's not really like a science. With the science, you pick the option that's more likely to give you the results you want. I don't find that's the case in real estate. I think the world belongs to the hustler who tries everything. And if you could just try any old thing, just smash it up against the board, something is going to give.

I think the people who persevere and win always in the end, are those people had tried that extra 10%, I really do. I don't think, you should ever reach a point where you say, I should probably give up what? There's nothing else because there's always something else. There's always some giving, some angle, some way of looking at it.

But very often you're too close to see it. And I like to back out and brainstorm to get ideas. And very often I won't use that idea, but that idea will give me another idea that I'll move on and it's always a winner. After the after you think the battle's over, it's a shame. It's like God doesn't have a sense of humor.

Like he's you didn't try hard enough. I'm going to make you really cruel, you know? But I think, there's nothing to be gained by giving up unless they shoot you dead. And then you have an excuse to be giving up, I guess. Yeah. You're just going to go to sleep. You taking a dirt nap, as my friend calls it.

So you're amazing. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us today. I hear you have something awesome and new, a way for people to get more of this spice and wisdom and smarts. You're talking about Barbara in your pocket. Yes I am. You could sign up to be one of my followers, my disciples, or my friend, or just a colleague or a teammate, however you want to do it.

But what I do is I give great advice to entrepreneurs. I know I do because they always give me feedback on how I change it. Like so. I've come up with a system where I help as many people as I can. Through Barbara in your pocket. I do seminars with the questions and answers, answer their individual questions, give them motivational advice.

I deal with all the crap that entrepreneurs do when they're building a business. Half the people I get out of the gate, the money room business, and they're afraid I get rid of the fear right away, and I push them out the gate to get them started. But what I love about Barbara in your pocket is these are like minded souls that I love.

It's replaced by hook and group people. In a way. I love them and they love me back and I help them. And how smart have I gotten listening to their very sophisticated questions and things they're going through. It's kept me up to date with everything going on in business, so it's just a loving relationship that seems to take care of itself, and it just works like a dream.

And I enjoy it. Most importantly, anything else you want to leave us with today? You look very pretty. I bet you're only about 25. and I lie 35. Thank you so much for being mom. Thank you.